HIS101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: John Cabot, The Foundations, Cape Horn
35 views3 pages
Religion and Absolutism
oReligious Violence
French Religious Wars
oIn an effort to raise revenue to pay for the Habsburg-Valois Wars, Francis I sold
public offices and concluded the Concordat of Bologna with the papacy.
oLuther’s tracts first appeared in France in 1518. Calvin’s Institutes was published in
1536.
oFrench Calvinists were called Huguenots.
oMonarchial weakness combined with religious division to create civil war.
oPopular Calvinism was manifested in iconoclasm.
oThousands of Protestants were killed in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre
(August 24, 1572), an event that sparked a fifteen year civil war.
oThe politiques believed that only the restoration of a strong monarchy could save
France from collapse.
oThe accession of Henry IV (r. 1589 – 1610), himself a politique, brought new
stability to France.
oFor the sake of peace, Henry converted to Catholicism and issued the Edict of
Nantes.
The European Voyages of Discovery
Causes of European Expansion
oA revival of population and economic activity increased demand for Eastern luxury
goods.
oReligious fervor was another important catalyst for expansion.
oCuriosity and a desire for glory also played a role in European expansion.
oPolitical centralization in Spain, France, and England helps explain their expansion.
oDevelopments in shipbuilding, weaponry, and navigation provided another spur to
expansion.
The Problem of Christopher Columbus
oColumbus was an extremely religious man.
oColumbus was very knowledgeable about the sea.
oColumbus aimed to find a direct sea route to Asia.
oColumbus described the Caribbean as a Garden of Eden.
oWhen he settled the Caribbean islands and enslaved their inhabitants, he was acting
as “a man of his times.”
Later Explorers
oNews of Columbus’s voyage quickly spread throughout Europe.
oThe search for profits determined the direction of Spanish exploration and
expansion.
oIn 1519 Ferdinand Magellan, working for Spain, rounded Cape Horn and entered the
Pacific Ocean, eventually circumnavigating the globe.
oThe Dutch East India Company expelled the Portuguese from many of their East
Indian holdings in the first half of the seventeenth century. The Dutch West India
Company established outposts in Africa, Spanish colonial areas, and North America.