8 Europe: the transition to a new time

• Implications of the Great Geographical Discoveries

• Netherlands

• England

• France

• Germany

Consider the main events and processes of world history, occurring in Europe at the end of the XV-XVII centuries. For European history, this era is of exceptional importance. Many historians call it “the time of the great breakthrough,” and there are good reasons for this. It was during this period that the foundations of the capitalist mode of production were laid, the level of productive forces increased significantly, the forms of organization of production changed, and thanks to the introduction of technical innovations, labor productivity increased and the pace of economic development accelerated. This period was also a turning point in Europe’s relations with other civilizations. If before the West was a relatively closed region, then occurred in the XV-XVII centuries. The great geographical discoveries (for details see Chapter 5) pushed the boundaries of the Western world, expanded the European horizons. The development of trade relations has deepened the process of forming national markets, European and global. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Europe became the birthplace of the first early bourgeois revolutions.

XVI-XVII centuries. marked by the first scientific revolution, which laid the foundations of modern knowledge in the field of natural and exact sciences, in the field of humanitarian and political thought, philosophical views. During the Reformation of the XVI century. Not only did the religious views clash in a deadly battle, but a system of civil rights and freedoms was born and fundamental concepts were developed in this scale of values ​​- freedom of conscience .

The formation of capitalist relations at this time in Holland, England and other European countries led to the transformation of European history into a world history. The entrapment of various countries and continents into the world market contributed to the destruction of the feudal forms of production, advanced to the feudal states new tasks and problems, which led to a change in the forms of government — the era of absolute monarchies began in this period.

8.1. Implications of the Great Geographical Discoveries

Throughout the history of human society, the level and pace of socio-economic development of individual peoples and countries have been uneven, and leadership has shifted from one to another. So it was in the ancient world, and in the era of the Middle Ages. At the stage of decomposition of feudalism in the middle of the XV-XVII centuries. capitalist relations were born and established. Their formation in different countries also occurred unevenly and was distinguished by great originality. First of all at the end of the XIV century. elements of the new capitalist system were formed in major Italian cities, such as Florence and Genoa. In the XV-XVI centuries. they were developed in the Netherlands and England. At that time feudalism still prevailed in other European countries, although the capitalist way had already spread in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal.

The centers for the development of bourgeois relations were the cities where a stratum of people was formed, consisting of merchants, usurers and shop masters. Commodity-money relations developed between town and country, which undermined the natural foundations of feudal production. As a result of the deepening of the social and territorial division of labor, shifts took place in the distribution of productive forces and their structure, which led to an increase in exchange. A new form of organization of production appeared - manufactory (see Ch. 5).

To create manufactories were necessary two conditions: free capital and the availability of free labor. These two conditions were created in the process of the initial accumulation of capital, the sources of which in the era of the genesis of capitalism were income from foreign trade, plunder of colonies, the emergence of public debt, tax oppression and the development of the buy-out system, protectionism, trade wars between European countries, etc.

Great geographical discoveries, which had very important economic and socio-economic consequences, and are not the same for different countries, played a huge role in this process.

Moving trade routes. First of all, the development of the world productive forces advanced; the territory known by that time increased in the 16th century. six times, it had fewer white spots. Trade routes from the Northern, Baltic and Mediterranean seas moved to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Thanks to this trade routes interconnected the continents. Navigation allowed to establish stable economic relations between certain parts of the world and led to the formation of world trade. The relocation of trade relations determined the rapid pace of economic development of European countries located on the Atlantic coast, and slowed down the development of Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Southern Germany and especially Italy, which remained feudal.

The colonial system of nascent capitalism. The first to create the colonial empires were Portugal and Spain, dividing the world along the meridian passing through the Atlantic Ocean.

Portugal, which was a small country with a population of no more than one million people and did not have the troops necessary to subjugate large territories, organized its system of oppressing them according to the method of “point-like” colonization. From the trading posts created there, the Portuguese sent the loot to Europe. Lisbon became a monopoly supplier of colonial goods for Western Europe. However, Portugal itself in 1580 was conquered by the Spanish king Philip II (1527-1598). Therefore, she lost her colonies. After 60 years, Portugal was freed from Spanish domination, but it did not succeed in regaining its Asian possessions.

Spain as a single state was formed in 1479, when the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon united on the basis of a dynastic union. In the XVI century. Spain has established itself as an absolutist state, it has achieved a significant economic recovery and political exaltation. By the middle of the XVI century. on the territory of Central and South America there was a huge Spanish colonial empire. The Spanish conquistadors ^1, with the help of firearms and deception, easily captured the richest and most populated parts of the New World - the Aztec states in Mexico and the Incas in Peru.

At first, the main method of exploitation of the colonies was undisguised robbery. But the main source of income from the colonies was then trade, which was inequivalent and brought fabulous profits of 300-400% and even 800%.

Other European countries also participated in the colonial robbery. In addition to Portugal and Spain, the overseas colonies had Holland, England, France, Germany, Sweden, etc. The size of the loot was huge: for example, Spain for 1521-1660. exported 18 thousand tons of silver and 200 tons of gold from America.

Colonialists, and above all Spain, began to use forced labor of the local population, ideets, in the estates being created. This led to the mass extinction of the natives. In the conditions of a shortage of labor in the newly discovered continent, the colonialists found a way out of the situation by bringing in Negro slaves from Africa, which became the main productive force in the Spanish colonies. The slave trade provided extremely high profits and became one of the sources of the initial accumulation of capital. Greater profit was given by piracy. However, neither Spain nor Portugal found a proper economic mechanism for increasing the loot wealth: as a result of their unproductive use by the feudal nobility, these colonial powers did not rise long. The economic policy of the Spanish kings did not go beyond the feudal mode of production. From the middle of the XVI century. began the economic decline of Spain. In the wars with England XVI-XVII centuries. Spain has lost maritime dominance.

The "price revolution" and the birth of the bourgeoisie. Differently reflected in the development of countries and the material situation of individual segments of the population, the “price revolution” (see Chapter 5), which contributed to the enrichment of the nascent bourgeoisie and the impoverishment of the proletariat. Real incomes of the population fell due to rising prices and lagging wage growth. The “price revolution” created favorable conditions for speculative transactions. But the feudal lords, who received a fixed rent in money during this period, lost. Thus, the "price revolution" led to the acceleration of the formation of a capitalist economy and the disintegration of feudalism.

Development of science. The “great breakthrough” of Europe was also caused by the unprecedented rise of scientific thought, which rejected many traditional ideas and destroyed the usual picture of the world. A huge breakthrough occurred in engineering and the natural sciences, which was determined by the needs of practice - the Great geographical discoveries, the development of military affairs, entrepreneurship and trade required the use of new machines. For the effective use of natural resources - the introduction of new chemical processes, for the development of military affairs were required knowledge of the exact laws of mechanics, for the purpose of navigation - precision instruments. It was during this period that was experimentally proved that the Earth was in the shape of a ball. Began to study the phenomena of magnetism, the laws of refraction of light. In the XVI-XVII centuries. a hydrometer, a mercury barometer, a telescope, a microscope appeared. They expanded the sphere of knowable reality: it became possible to study phenomena that were previously invisible to the naked eye. There were machines that replaced manual labor, the printing press was invented.

A qualitative leap in science that occurred in the XVI-XVII centuries is called the first scientific revolution (see Ch. 5). The successes of science confirmed the limitless possibilities of man and aiming him not at passive contemplation, but at transforming activity. F. Bacon (1561-1626) also called for this, who argued that the world, nature should be studied, trusting only scientific experiment and experience. He believed that science would give man power over the world, change life and even social relations. Therefore, F. Bacon is rightfully considered the forefather of the Enlightenment, who determined the social development of Europe in the XVIII century.

The rise of science, the needs of practice have led to significant changes and improvements in the means of production, and consequently, the development of industry. The laws of economic development led to the need to move from small-scale production to large-scale, to the wide distribution of manufactories.