Power in early modern times. Culture of the New Age: characteristic features. Periodization of the New Age

Late Middle Ages- a term used by historians to describe a period European history in the 14th - 16th centuries.
The Late Middle Ages was preceded by the Mature Middle Ages, and the subsequent period is called the New Age. Historians differ sharply in defining the upper limit of the Late Middle Ages. If in Russian historical science While it is customary to define its end by the English Civil War, in Western European scholarship the end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the beginning of the Church Reformation or the Age of Discovery. The Late Middle Ages is also called the Renaissance.
Around 1300, Europe's period of growth and prosperity ended with a series of disasters, such as the Great Famine of 1315-1317, which was caused by unusually cold and rainy years that ruined crops. Famine and disease followed Black Death, a plague epidemic that wiped out more than a quarter of the European population. The destruction of the social order led to mass unrest, and it was at this time that the famous peasant wars raged in England and France, such as the Jacquerie. The depopulation of the European population was completed by the devastation caused by the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the Hundred Years' War. Despite the crisis, already in the 14th century. In Western Europe, a period of progress in the sciences and arts began, prepared by the emergence of universities and the spread of scholarship. The revival of interest in ancient literature led to the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Antiquities, including books, accumulated in Western Europe during the crusades, especially after the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders and the subsequent cultural decline in the Balkans, due to which Byzantine scholars began to move to the West, especially to Italy. The spread of knowledge was greatly facilitated by the invention in the 15th century. book printing. Previously expensive and rare books, including the Bible, gradually became publicly available, and this, in turn, prepared the way for the European Reformation.
Rising hostility to Christian Europe Ottoman Empire on the site of the former Byzantine, caused difficulties in trade with the East, which prompted Europeans to search for new trade routes around Africa and to the west, through Atlantic Ocean and around the world. The voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama marked the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries, which strengthened economic and political power Western Europe.
The genesis of capitalism has its own chronology, appearing at two levels: pan-European (i.e., tending to become world-historical) and local-historical (more precisely, national). Although the dating of its beginning at these levels may diverge significantly (lag at the last level), nevertheless, none of the national economic organisms remained aloof from one form or another of interaction with this process. In the same way, the dispersion of individual regions is significant in terms of the forms and rhythms of the process that logically and to a large extent historically preceded the genesis of capitalism - the so-called primitive accumulation.
The main prerequisite for the emergence of capitalist forms of production was the development of productive forces and the improvement of tools of labor. By the beginning of the 16th century. Shifts have occurred in a number of handicraft industries. The water wheel was increasingly used in industry. Significant progress was observed in textile crafts and cloth making. They began to produce thin woolen taki, dyed in different colors. In the 13th century The spinning wheel was invented, and in the 15th century. a self-spinning wheel that performed 2 operations - twisting and winding the thread. This made it possible to increase the productivity of spinners. There were also changes in weaving - the vertical loom was replaced by a horizontal one. Great success were achieved in mining and metallurgy. In the 15th century they began to make deep mines with drifts - branches diverging in different directions and adits - horizontal and inclined exits for mining ore in the mountains. They began to build blast furnaces. Lathes, drilling, rolling, drawing and other machines were used in cold processing of metals. In Western European languages, the term “engineer” is found in the 13th-14th centuries. (from Latin - ingenium - “innate abilities, intelligence, wit, ingenuity.” Through French and German languages the word “engineer” penetrated into Russia in the 17th century. With the invention of printing, a new branch of production began to develop - printing. In the XIII-XIV centuries. a clock with a spring and a pendulum was known. In the 15th century pocket watches appeared. Charcoal has been used as fuel since the 15th century. Coal began to be used. Great successes were achieved in the XIV-XV centuries. in shipbuilding and navigation. The size of ships and technical equipment have increased, which has led to the expansion of world trade and maritime transport. But still, the 16th century, despite numerous technical discoveries and innovations, was not yet marked by a true technical and technological revolution. Apart from the spread of pumps for pumping water out of mines, which made it possible to deepen them, bellows in metallurgy, which made it possible to move on to the smelting of iron ore, and mechanical machines (drawing, nailing, hosiery), productive labor in industry remained largely manual.
The development of industry and the increase in demand for agricultural products contributed to the growth of agricultural production. But sudden change there were no agricultural tools, they were the same - a plow, a harrow, a scythe, a sickle, but they were also affected by improvements - they became lighter, made from the best metal. In the second half of the 15th century. A light plow appeared, harnessed to 1-2 horses, and controlled by 1 person. The area of ​​cultivated land has increased due to the reclamation of dry and wetlands. Agricultural technology improved. It was practiced to fertilize the soil with manure, peat, ash, marl, etc. Along with three-fields, multi-fields and grass sowing appeared. The expansion of commodity economy in the city and in the countryside created the preconditions for the replacement of small-scale individual production with large-scale capitalist production.
Finally, the nature of the genesis of the capitalist structure also depended on geographical location of this country in relation to the new direction of international trade routes - to the Atlantic. After the discovery of the New World and the sea route to India, the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea into the distant periphery of the new, northwestern hub of international maritime communications played an important role in the backward movement - the withering and gradual disappearance of the sprouts of early capitalism in the economy of Italy and South-West Germany.
To engage in capitalist production, money and labor are needed. These preconditions were created in the process of initial accumulation of capital. Of course, the presence of a “free” market work force- a necessary condition for the emergence of capitalist forms of social production. However, the forms of forced separation of the worker from the means of production that actually or legally belonged to him vary from one country to another to the same extent as the forms and pace of formation of the capitalist structure itself. The intensity of the process of primary accumulation in itself is not yet an indicator of intensity
The emergence of capitalism gave rise to new classes - the bourgeoisie and wage workers, which were formed on the basis of decomposition social structure feudal society.
Along with the formation of new classes, new forms of ideology developed, reflecting their needs, in the form of religious movements. The 16th century was marked by the greatest crisis of the Roman catholic church, which manifested itself in the state of its teaching, cult, institutions, its role in the life of society, in the nature of education and the morals of the clergy. Various attempts to eliminate the “damage” through internal church reforms were unsuccessful.
Under the influence of the innovative theological ideas of Martin Luther, which gave a powerful impetus to various oppositional actions against the Catholic Church, the Reformation movement began in Germany, from the Latin “reformation” - transformation), which rejected the power of the papacy. Reformation processes, leading to a split in the Roman Church to the creation of new creeds, emerged with varying degrees of intensity in almost all countries of the Catholic world, affected the position of the Church as largest landowner and an organic component of the feudal system, touched upon the role of Catholicism as an ideological force that defended the medieval system for centuries.
The Reformation took on the character of broad religious and socio-political movements in Europe in the 16th century, putting forward demands for reform of the Catholic Church and transformation of the orders sanctioned by its teaching.
Throughout the 16th century. The political map of Europe has changed significantly. At the turn of the XV and XVI centuries. The process of unification of English and French lands was basically completed, a single Spanish state was formed, which also included Portugal in 1580 (until 1640). The concept of the Empire, called from the end of the 15th century. The "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" was increasingly associated with purely German lands. IN Eastern Europe A new state appeared - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, uniting the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At the same time, the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed under the blows of the Ottoman Empire. Other Central European monarchies, united under the rule, lost their political independence Austrian Habsburgs. Most of the territories of South-Eastern Europe were under foreign domination.
Common to the development of most European countries During the period under review, there was a sharp increase in centralizing tendencies, manifested in the acceleration of the processes of unification of state territories around a single center, in the formation of bodies different from the Middle Ages government controlled, in changing the role and functions of the supreme power.
In Europe in the 16th century. states of various types coexisted and were in complex relationships - from monarchies experiencing different stages of development to feudal, and at the end of the century, early bourgeois republics. At the same time, the predominant form government structure becomes an absolute monarchy. In Soviet historiography, a point of view has been established according to which the transition from estate-representative monarchies to monarchies of the absolutist type is associated with the entry into the historical arena of new social forces in the person of the emerging bourgeoisie, creating a certain counterbalance to the feudal nobility; according to F. Engels, a situation arises when “state power temporarily acquires a certain independence in relation to both classes, as an apparent mediator between them).
The lower chronological limit of absolutism can be conditionally attributed to the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. A common idea is about the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. as a period of “early absolutism,” although English absolutism (the presence of which, however, is denied by certain schools and trends in foreign historiography) passed during the 16th century. stage of maturity and entered a period of protracted crisis, which was resolved bourgeois revolution mid-17th century.
Absolutism continues the earlier annexation of outlying territories, sharply restrains the centrifugal, separatist aspirations of the feudal nobility, limits urban liberties, destroys or changes the functions of old local government bodies, and forms a powerful central government, putting under its control all spheres of economic and social life, secularizes church and monastic land ownership, and subordinates the church organization to its influence.
The bodies of class representation (the Estates General in France, the Cortes in Spain, etc.) are losing the importance that they had in the previous period, although in a number of cases they continue to exist, forming a bizarre symbiosis with the new bureaucratic apparatus of absolutism.

The Late Middle Ages in Western Europe is the period of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries. Now this period is called the early modern period and is distinguished as a separate period of study. In pre-revolutionary domestic and foreign historiography, this period was designated as new time. This period is a transitional era from the Middle Ages proper to capitalism and is characterized by the decomposition of feudal relations and the emergence of capitalist ones. These processes developed most intensively in countries such as England and the Netherlands.

Genesis of capitalism has its own chronology, acting at two levels: pan-European (i.e., tending to become world-historical) and local-historical (more precisely, national). Although the dating of its beginning at these levels may diverge significantly (lag at the last level), nevertheless, none of the national economic organisms remained aloof from one form or another of interaction with this process. In the same way, the dispersion of individual regions is significant in terms of the forms and rhythms of the process that logically and to a large extent historically preceded the genesis of capitalism - the so-called primitive accumulation.

The main prerequisite for the emergence of capitalist forms of production was the development of productive forces and the improvement of tools of labor. By the beginning of the 16th century. Shifts have occurred in a number of handicraft industries. The water wheel was increasingly used in industry. Significant progress was observed in textile crafts and cloth making. They began to produce thin woolen taki, dyed in different colors. In the 13th century The spinning wheel was invented, and in the 15th century. a self-spinning wheel that performed 2 operations - twisting and winding the thread. This made it possible to increase the productivity of spinners. There were also changes in weaving - the vertical loom was replaced by a horizontal one. Great strides have been made in mining and metallurgy. In the 15th century they began to make deep mines with drifts - branches diverging in different directions and adits - horizontal and inclined exits for mining ore in the mountains. They began to build blast furnaces. Lathes, drilling, rolling, drawing and other machines were used in cold processing of metals. In Western European languages, the term “engineer” is found in the 13th-14th centuries. (from Latin - ingenium - “innate abilities, intelligence, wit, ingenuity.” Through the French and German languages, the word “engineer” penetrated into Russia in the 17th century. With the invention of printing, a new branch of production began to develop - printing. In the 13th-14th centuries . Clocks with a spring and a pendulum were known. In the 15th century, charcoal was used as fuel; from the 15th century, great advances were made in shipbuilding and navigation. ships, technical equipment, which led to the expansion of world trade and maritime transport. But still, the 16th century, despite numerous technical discoveries and innovations, was not yet marked by a true technical and technological revolution, in addition to the spread of pumps for pumping water from mines, which made it possible. deepen, blowing bellows in metallurgy, which made it possible to move on to the smelting of iron ore, and mechanical machines (drawing, nailing, hosiery), productive labor in industry remained largely manual.

The development of industry and the increase in demand for agricultural products contributed to the growth of agricultural production. But there was no drastic change in agricultural implements, they were the same - a plow, a harrow, a scythe, a sickle, but they were also affected by improvements - they became lighter, made from the best metal. In the second half of the 15th century. A light plow appeared, harnessed to 1-2 horses, and controlled by 1 person. The area of ​​cultivated land has increased due to the reclamation of dry and wetlands. Agricultural technology improved. It was practiced to fertilize the soil with manure, peat, ash, marl, etc. Along with three-fields, multi-fields and grass sowing appeared. The expansion of commodity economy in the city and in the countryside created the preconditions for the replacement of small-scale individual production with large-scale capitalist production.

Finally, the nature of the genesis of the capitalist structure also depended on the geographical position of a given country in relation to the new direction of international trade routes - to the Atlantic. After the discovery of the New World and the sea route to India, the transformation of the Mediterranean Sea into the distant periphery of the new, northwestern hub of international maritime communications played an important role in the backward movement - the withering and gradual disappearance of the sprouts of early capitalism in the economy of Italy and South-West Germany.

To engage in capitalist production, money and labor are needed. These preconditions were created in process of initial capital accumulation. Of course, the presence of a market for “free” labor is a necessary condition for the emergence of capitalist forms of social production. However, the forms of forced separation of the worker from the means of production that actually or legally belonged to him vary from one country to another to the same extent as the forms and pace of formation of the capitalist structure itself. The intensity of the process of primitive accumulation in itself is not an indicator of the intensity of capitalist development of a given country.

Large fortunes accumulated earlier as trade and TAR developed. In the XVI-XVII centuries. The money savings of merchants, moneylenders, and “financiers” increased significantly. This was facilitated by the development of the practice of tax farming, the provision of loans to crowned heads at high interest rates, and profits from loans to nobles, peasants, and artisans. To a greater extent, the growth of savings was facilitated by the policy of mercantilism pursued by the feudal state (the era of mercantilism - accumulate as much as possible more money in the country (the theoretical justification for mercantilism was obtained in England) Thomas Maine - “he who has goods has money, and he who has money can acquire a lot” and protectionism (encouraging the development of national industry and the establishment of protective duties on the import of goods) abroad);

Colonial plunder was a significant source of monetary accumulation. Spanish conquistadors captured treasures in the New World. Following the Spaniards and Portuguese, Dutch and English conquerors and merchants embarked on the path of colonial robbery. Merchants, speculators, and entrepreneurs benefited greatly from the so-called "price revolution".

Based on a combination of traditional and new (capitalist) socio-economic structures in countries involved in intensive trade exchanges, the international division of labor makes it possible to isolate in Europe the 16th century. three areas, each of which, precisely due to the specific regional conditions, becomes a component of a single economic system. In the last third of the 16th century. this system included:

A). the northwestern region (England, the Netherlands), in which the capitalist structure was already leading in terms of economic dynamics;

b). central region (including, on the one hand, the Christian Mediterranean, and above all The Iberian Peninsula, and on the other - Scandinavia), which delivered to the pan-European market some types of industrial raw materials and precious metals flowing from the New World;

V). the eastern region (including the Balkan countries and Hungary in the southeast, Poland and the Baltic states in the east), which delivered grain, livestock, timber, etc. to the same market.

As for the pan-European situation in its leading trends, the problem of the so-called price revolutions. Period 1480-1620 characterized in Europe high level food prices. But if this starting fact of the economic history of the 16th century. is not in doubt, then the answers to the question about the reasons for the “price revolution” in the 16th century. caused a long-term scientific debate that continues to this day. From the Middle Ages, Europe inherited a large discrepancy in synchronous prices between different economic regions. Thus, in 1500 the gap between prices in the markets of northern Italian cities and Eastern Europe was 6:1, in 1600 - 4:1; only by the middle of the 18th century. prices gradually leveled off. This meant that the formation of a pan-European market was completed. The explanation for this phenomenon, which marked the beginning of such a long discussion, belongs to the American historian E. Hamilton, who saw a direct connection between the intensity of price increases and the volume of precious metals delivered to Europe from the New World. A different point of view was held by the Swedish researcher I. Hammarström, who believed that the increase in business activity led to an increase in prices, which in turn led to an increase in the supply of precious metals to the European market.

Further discussion led, on the one hand, to the limitation chronological framework growth factor of the money supply in the 20s of the 16th century. (when the influx of precious metals from overseas has reached a sufficient level to affect price movements); on the other hand, the influence of this factor was made dependent on the increase in employment, that is, on whether the influx of precious metals led to an expansion in the volume of product production. The “price revolution” was not determined by the influx of precious metals itself, but by the context of socio-economic and political conditions in which this factor manifested itself - this is the objective way of analyzing the thesis put forward by Hamilton.

The entire problem of the consequences of the influx of precious metals into Europe from overseas should be considered not globally, but purely regionally, that is, in connection with the specific political, economic and social conditions characteristic of a given area.

For example, in Spain, the influx of overseas treasures affected primarily in the military-political sphere - treasures turned into an instrument of war, diverting the energy and resources of the nation from their productive use, and led to neglect of the interests of national industry. The result was the economic impoverishment of the country among the wealth that floated to other countries, supplying the Spanish market and thereby the Spanish possessions overseas with goods that could have been successfully produced within the country.

At the same time, countries such as Holland and England, with a growing urban population (against the background of general population growth) and a redistribution of labor resources in favor of industry, transport, and crafts, have reached the limit - for that level of agriculture - in grain production. Hence the increase in grain imports from Poland and the Baltic states. For these countries, rising prices had a beneficial effect on business activity in both the city and the countryside.

The inclusion of overseas sources of raw materials and precious metals, as well as markets for European goods, into the sphere of the European economic system radically changed the passive trade balance so characteristic of medieval European trade with the countries of the East. And from this point of view decisive factor socio-economic history of Europe in the 16th century, which allows us to date the beginning of a new world-historical era, was, of course, not a “price revolution”, but the emergence of the capitalist system and the associated world market, which has since become a key factor in the evolution of the European, and not only European society.

Considering the “price revolution” in connection with this key factor, it is easy to notice that in some countries the inflationary environment contributed to the process of primitive accumulation, elevating the bearers of the capitalist mode of production (primarily in the countryside) at the expense of recipients of feudal rent, the feudal-dependent peasantry and early capitalist elements in cities. As for the layer of hired workers, then, generally speaking, wages in the 16th century. clearly lagged behind the rise in grain prices, i.e. real wages decreased compared to the previous period.

This is what the dynamics of the real wages of an English carpenter looks like in a region with an intense process of primitive accumulation, a harbinger of the genesis of capitalism of the corresponding intensity (in kilograms of wheat): 1501-1550. - 122.0; 1551-1600 - 83.0; 1601-1650 - 48.3. But here are examples of a different, if not opposite, dynamic. In northern Italian cities, as well as in Flanders, in the same 16th century. The level of wages for hired workers was almost strictly adjusted to the dynamics of wheat prices. The reasons and essence of this dynamic are completely clear: we're talking about about traditional centers, where medieval structures turned out to be strong enough to resist the trends of primitive accumulation, which in itself served as evidence of the decline of these centers, which yielded their former leadership to new ones.

Forms and methods of expropriation could be different depending on the situation in each individual country, and only in England did they take the form of direct forced removal of holders by feudal lords with the subsequent organization of large sheep-breeding and then agricultural farms. In other countries, the fiscal system became the main lever for the gradual expropriation of peasants. State taxes increased greatly with the growth of military expenditures associated with the transition from feudal militias to a professional army with the constant improvement of weapons. The capital accumulated in the sphere of trade and usury allowed the treasury to quickly mobilize financial resources, but it was possible to pay off creditors only by tightening the tax pressure.

In the 16th century historians identify 7 types of categories of the main direct producer of Europe - the peasant, who made up 90-95% of its population. 1. Personally free holders of land for cash (rent in kind); 2. Free holders (tenants) of land for use - “sharecroppers”; 3. Personally dependent land holders with an insignificant share of corvée in the rent; 4. serfs with a predominance of corvée in the composition of rent; 5. Unemployed (personally free and serfs) hired workers or those in the position of domestic servants; 6. Personally, free peasants are the owners of their plots; 7. Peasant tenants.

The distribution of these types of peasants across the regions of Europe generally reflected the three regions known to us: the irreversible genesis of capitalism; reversible genesis of capitalism (Southwestern and Rhine Germany); second edition of serfdom. Naturally, types 1, b, 7 absolutely predominated in the first of the listed regions, type 2 in the subregion of South-Western Europe, type 3 in the second region, type -4 in the third region. As for peasants of type 5, in the position of personally free they are typical for the countries of North-Western Europe - here their role was especially great as workers in handicrafts and manufacturing; in the position of dependent - for the third of the listed regions. In general, in regions where it was impossible to create - with the help of enclosures - estates of a new type, as well as estates based on the corvee labor of serfs, i.e. in the south of France and in the north of Italy, the ladle system was a kind of middle way of reaction of the seigneurial class for commercialization Agriculture. An important circumstance for the spread of this practice was the existence of developed trading centers and economically influential merchants: in these conditions, many land holdings found themselves in the hands of urban money people: considering them as a commercial and secured investment of money, they resorted to a system of sublease on ladle terms, as the most “reasonable” system of doing business. As for Northern France, the very blurring of the system of large estates by the 16th century. in a number of provinces forced lords to achieve an increase in their income along the path of seigneurial reaction, that is, the worsening of feudal forms of power over the farmer. The picture of changes in the social structure of the population in Western Europe would be incomplete if we did not pay attention to the growth in the size of the class of people displaced from the countryside, who made up the pre-proletariat layer. Since their labor could not yet find application in centralized manufactories, they filled the cities, in search of odd jobs, they crewed merchant ships, fed vagrancy, and mercenary armies. The cheapness of labor was an important prerequisite for the formation of the capitalist structure, both in industry and in agriculture.

The result of p.n.c. there was the emergence of owners of large capital and paupers, who turned into hired workers of capitalist enterprises.

Such enterprises arose only as a result of the combination of capital and wage labor, which created surplus value in the production process.

Manufacture, based on the use of hired labor, originates in the XIII-XIV centuries. in the city-states of Italy (Florence, Siena, Venice, Genoa), on the Iberian Peninsula, Flanders and other places in Western Europe. As the characteristic shape of the cap. Manufacture production has dominated since the middle of the 16th century. to the second third of the 18th century. Manufacture is a cooperation based on the division of labor, although at the early stage of the development of manufacturing production there are also vestiges of simple cooperation. There were 2 (3) forms of manufacture - centralized, dispersed (mixed). Scattered manufacture arose from the house. crafts, for example, cloth making in Flanders and England; but in some branches of production - shipbuilding, mining, metallurgy - manufacturing enterprises were immediately centralized. All operations were carried out in one room, under the supervision of the owner or his managers. Each operation becomes the exclusive function of a special worker. Since the various operations of manufacturing could be simpler and more complex, workers form a whole hierarchy of specialties that require different qualifications and have different pay. The lowest level is occupied by untrained workers - there were no such people in the craft at all. Never and nowhere have manufactories arisen as voluntary artels of artisans. The poor were driven to the first caps using the most cruel methods. manufactory.

The rural bourgeoisie is primarily capital farmers and wealthy peasants. As a rule, their large farms were found only in the most favorable economic areas. There were medium-sized farms more often. However, even on large farms, along with hired labor, there was family labor. The middle peasants evolved into the petty bourgeoisie. This layer was characterized by a combination of agriculture and handicraft work for the city merchant-buyer. Formally, the rural poor can also be included in the category of small owners, because, having lost their arable land, they continued to own some kind of farm - a house, a vegetable garden, an orchard, livestock, poultry.

In the XVI-XVIII centuries. not only peasant, but also noble lands acquired mobility. The lower nobility could not retain their lands by mortgaging and then selling them to the townspeople. The estates created by the new nobles often became the organizational basis for running a large capital. farms, this is how farms appeared that were rented out to the rural elite or urban “money people.” For a rich peasant, the opportunity to expand his farm, i.e. to conduct it over significant areas using hired labor and selling almost all products to the market was associated not so much with the purchase of land as with rent, which did not require immediate and large expenses for the purchase of land, while the initial movable capital was invested in living and dead inventory and in hiring workers. The tenant started his business on such enlarged areas that he was not able to buy either because of the high price or because of formal prohibitions (the church did not have the right to sell its land). Large leases were almost entirely commodity-based. The number of large farmers was small. It is characteristic that a large farmer's own land - if it existed - was often very small and did not play a role in his farm. He rented it out to fellow villagers. In some areas of England, Northern France and other countries, capital lease acquired the features of an agricultural enterprise in which the work of the tenant (or his manager) was expressed only in the organization of work and in the control of hired workers. The marketability of a medium-sized farm was lower. These tenancies were of a consumer nature and dominated by family labor. Day laborers were hired for cleaning or for some specialized work. Small rent was different - winemakers and gardeners sold their entire produce, and the tenant of an arable plot worked to get bread for himself and his family, and sold piglets, lambs, poultry, etc., the cash rent he paid was obtained on his own, and not rented land. Den. the form of rent coexisted with sharecropping (sharecropping), which can be considered as transitional to capitalist rent. Sharecropping is based on co-ownership of movable capital between the land owner and the tenant. The owner gives the land, the tenant gives his labor and the labor of his family. The resulting products are divided in half, or in any proportion. In the overwhelming majority of cases, sharecropping was a stagnant form of rent, which left almost no opportunity for the tenant to become a real entrepreneur. Wide-scale cap. Perestroika in agriculture was associated with the violent breaking up of sharecropping. The consequence of the lease was the stratification of the village. Rent was a kind of anti-holding. At the same time, all forms of rent existed in a feudal environment. It turned out that the peasant tenant was also a capital payer. (or half-cap.) and feudal rent.

The emergence of capitalism brought to life new classes- the bourgeoisie and hired workers, who were formed on the basis of the decomposition of the social structure of feudal society.

Along with the formation of new classes, the new forms of ideology, reflecting their needs, in the form of religious movements. The 16th century was marked by the greatest crisis of the Roman Catholic Church, which manifested itself in the state of its teaching, cult, institutions, its role in the life of society, in the nature of education and the morals of the clergy. Various attempts to eliminate the “damage” through internal church reforms were unsuccessful.

Under the influence of the innovative theological ideas of Martin Luther, which gave a powerful impetus to various opposition movements against the Catholic Church, a movement began in Germany Reformation from the Latin “reformation” - transformation), which rejected the power of the papacy. Reformation processes, leading to a split in the Roman Church to the creation of new creeds, manifested themselves with varying degrees of intensity in almost all countries of the Catholic world, affecting the position of the church as the largest landowner and an organic component of the feudal systems, affected the role of Catholicism as an ideological force that defended the medieval system for centuries.

The Reformation took on the character of broad religious and socio-political movements in Europe in the 16th century, putting forward demands for reform of the Catholic Church and transformation of the orders sanctioned by its teachings.

Reflecting the sentiments of a socially heterogeneous opposition, the Reformation played an important role in the formation of the early bourgeois social thought and led to the emergence of new forms of ideology in the form of religious teachings of Protestantism.

By opposing the wide-ranging system of institutions and the diversified teachings of the Catholic Church, the Reformation brought together the diverse forms of criticism of Catholicism that arose throughout the history of the Middle Ages. The ideologists of the Reformation made extensive use of the rich heritage of their predecessors in the fight against the Catholic Church - John Wycliffe, Jan Hus and other thinkers, as well as the experience of mass heretical movements and the traditions of unorthodox mysticism.

In the ideological preparation of the Reformation, the humanistic movement of the Renaissance played an important role - with its struggle against scholasticism as the theoretical support of Catholicism, criticism of church ritual, pompous cult, and ignorance of the clergy. Humanism prepared the Reformation by developing rationalistic methods of study Holy Scripture, the desire to give a new solution to fundamental socio-ethical and political issues, ridiculing class prejudices, and propaganda of patriotic ideas. Humanism, however, cannot be considered only as a prelude to the Reformation. Both of these major phenomena were caused common reasons, associated with the decomposition of feudal orders and the emergence of elements of early capitalism. Both were associated with the growing self-awareness of the individual, liberated from the dominance of corporate institutions and ideas. But if humanism, as a movement for a new secular culture, addressed the most educated part of society, then the Reformation, which aimed to renew the life of every Christian on the basis of the Gospel, addressed the general public. to the masses. The largest theoreticians of the Reformation created systems of religious views that responded to new trends social development XVI-XVII centuries The Reformation rejected the dogma of the Catholic Church about the obligatory mediation of the clergy between man and God. For the “salvation” of the believer, the church recognized the need, through the sacraments, to impart the grace lacking to believers, through the clergy, separated from the laity by receiving a special sacrament - the priesthood. The central principle of the new religious doctrines of the Reformation was the doctrine of the direct connection of man with God, of “justification by faith,” i.e., the “salvation” of a person not through strict performance of rituals, not “through good deeds,” but on the basis of God’s inner gift - faith. The meaning of the doctrine of “justification by faith” was the denial of the privileged position of the clergy, the rejection of the church hierarchy and the supremacy of the papacy. This teaching made it possible to implement the demand for a “cheap church”, which had long been put forward by the burghers and taken up and developed by the ideologists of the Reformation. In addition, since it was recognized that internal communication with God is carried out in the course of worldly life itself, with the help of a properly structured secular order, then this order, primarily the state system, henceforth received religious sanction for autonomous development. Reformation teachings thus strengthened the position of secular power and the emerging nation states in the struggle against the claims of the papacy.

The ideologists of the Reformation closely linked the thesis of “justification by faith” with their second main position, which was fundamentally different from Catholic dogma - the recognition of Holy Scripture as the sole authority in the field of religious truth: this entailed the rejection of the authority of “sacred tradition” (decisions of the popes and church councils) and opened up the possibility for a freer and more rationalistic interpretation of religious issues.

The Reformation contrasted the autocratic structure of the Catholic church organization with a model that existed in the past and was “obscured” by subsequent institutions - the early Christian community of believers. Consecutive Application new principles served to justify a more democratic structure of church communities, their right to choose their own spiritual shepherds.

The degree of criticism of the Catholic Church, as well as the program of reforms in the ecclesiastical and secular fields, while the basic starting points were common, differed significantly among different layers of public opposition. Each of them put content into the reform formulas that corresponded to his social interests. The specific historical conditions of its development in different countries Europe.

The most radical sentiments of the peasantry and plebeian masses of the city were expressed by the theorists of the popular direction of the Reformation, Thomas Münzer, Michael Geismayr and others. They interpreted it as the beginning of a radical revolution not only in church affairs, but also in social relations. Referring to the Gospel, they proclaimed the need to eliminate class privileges, demanded the transfer of power to the entire Christian community, the people, i.e. essentially advocated a social revolution. This understanding of the Reformation played an important role in the transition of the popular movement from local and sectarian forms of struggle to broad programs of action that were supplemented by local movement participants with specific demands. As a result of this process, popular reformation, giving rationale various forms anti-feudal struggle, helped to overcome its fragmentation and thereby acquired important political significance.

The most common demands of the burgher opposition, which, as a rule, found support among a significant part of the nobility, were the secularization of church land ownership, the abolition of the Catholic hierarchy and monasticism, the rejection of magnificent rituals, the veneration of saints, icons, relics, and the observance of numerous religious holidays. The demands of a “cheap church” and adherence to the principle of frugality met the interests of not only the burghers, but also the emerging entrepreneurs of a new type. The national-political aspects of this direction of reformation thought were expressed in the desire for independence of church organizations from Rome and for worship in national languages.

The degree of maturity of the burgher opposition in different countries determined different interpretations of fundamental problems public life, based on the ethical and religious teachings of the Reformation. Lutheranism was characterized by the idea of ​​combining the “spiritual freedom” of a Christian with his obligatory loyalty to the powers that be - princely and urban, and the existing law and order. The teachings of Zwingli and especially Calvin allowed for the right of the community to resist the authorities if they act unjustly and tyrannically. The similarities of these Protestant movements, which were at enmity with each other and equally fighting against Catholicism and against the popular reformation, were manifested in their characteristic common fate: they retained the ritual side of religion, over time, dogmatic elements in these teachings intensified, and intolerance towards dissenters increased.

In a number of European states (England, part of the principalities of Germany, Scandinavian countries), feudal authorities were able to take advantage of the reformation movement in their interests and confiscated monastic or even all church lands in favor of secular rulers. The church here turned into an instrument of state power, strengthening its position. Such is the “royal reformation” in England, where the king subjugated a little changed church organization on a national scale. Separatist-minded nobility of others European countries(some principalities of Germany, France, Hungary, Scotland) in turn tried to adapt the organization and tyrant-fighting ideas of Calvinism to fight absolutist claims.

The European reform movement went through several stages in its development. Its beginning is considered to be 1517, when Luther’s speech with 95 theses against the sale of indulgences was a signal for the open manifestation of popular discontent with the Catholic Church in Germany. With the growth of the opposition movement in the country, various directions Reformations expressing socio-political interests different classes. The final split of the Reformation was revealed during the anti-feudal struggle of the masses during the Peasants' War of 1525. Having sharply condemned the peasants, Luther narrowed the social support of the movement that followed him and, reflecting the political mood of the German burghers, moved to a position of compromise with the princely petty power. Lutheranism was used as a weapon of princely separatism and the secularization of church lands in favor of the princes.

Having begun in Germany, the Reformation quickly spread beyond its borders and became widespread and developed in other European countries, primarily in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Along with the reformation teachings of Zwingli, which enjoyed great influence in the economically developed cantons of Switzerland and the cities of South-West Germany, the teachings of the Anabaptists became popular in the anti-feudal peasant-plebeian movement, whose rebellious actions culminated in the creation of the Munster Commune in 1535. Later, Zwinglianism degenerated into a narrowly provincial a kind of burgher reformation, and sectarian tendencies intensified in Anabaptism.

The Reformation achieved its greatest success at the next stage of development of the pan-European opposition movement, when after Lutheranism, Zwinglianism and Anabaptism, which enjoyed the greatest influence in the 20-30s of the 16th century, Calvinism came in the 40-50s; later it became the ideological shell of the demands of the early bourgeois revolutions in the Netherlands and England.

From the second half of the 16th century. The banner of the Reformation was used by movements heterogeneous in socio-political content - from the liberation anti-Habsburg and anti-feudal struggle of the masses in Hungary and the Czech Republic (from the 60s of the 16th century) to the reactionary separatist actions of the feudal aristocracy against the centralizing or absolutist policies of the state (“ political Huguenots" during civil wars in France, speeches of large feudal lords in the Central European possessions of the Habsburgs, etc.). The so-called “noble reformation” took on its most vivid expression in Poland, where magnates and gentry took advantage of the Reformation to seize church lands and fight for a “noble republic.”

The powerful scope of the Reformation and the social movements that took place in its wake and against its background, which together were an expression of the process of revolutionary change, caused resistance and a general offensive of the forces of feudal-Catholic reaction in Europe in the middle of the 16th century, called the Counter-Reformation. Based on the decisions of the Council of Trent, which in its own way partially used practical experience The Reformation, the Catholic Church was rebuilt and strengthened with the help of the Inquisition and the new Jesuit order. International associations of reactionary forces were created against the anti-feudal and national liberation movements of the masses, to suppress progressive ideas. The Counter-Reformation won in Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and parts of Germany. Later, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 legally consolidated the peace proclaimed in the 16th century. the principle: “Whose power, his faith,” and confessional boundaries were fixed as of 1624.

The main results of the Reformation, which in general played an important progressive role, were expressed in the fact that the spiritual dictatorship of the Catholic Church was broken, the economic basis of its power was undermined by the secularization of its possessions, new Christian denominations, religious communities and churches emerged, independent from Rome, which were in in a number of cases by national churches. Conditions were created that contributed to the strengthening of secular power and the development of national states. The Reformation contributed to the development of new approaches to problems of politics and law, which over time became a school of bourgeois-democratic freedoms. Church and religion were adapted to the conditions of the emerging bourgeois society and influenced its economic and work ethics. The Reformation also contributed to a certain modernization of the Catholic Church. In conditions of religious polycentrism, secular science and culture received greater opportunity for their free development, rationalistic teachings spread, including those that substantiated the principles of religious tolerance and prepared the subsequent spread of deism. The ideological disputes of the Reformation era grew into the 17th century. in the debate between rationalists and sensualists, who cleared the way for educational thought in the 18th century.

In the countries of Western and part of Central Europe, development waterical structures in the XVI - early XVII V. occurred in the conditions of the emergence and growth within the framework of feudalism of a new capitalist structure, which constituted the main content of the socio-economic processes taking place in this region, and in the east of the continent - in the conditions of the restoration and legal consolidation of the most severe forms of feudal dependence of the peasantry (“second edition of serfdom "). In contrast to the socio-economic sphere, the trends in the development of European statehood were of a more general nature, which is explained, on the one hand, by the fact that forms of state power develop relatively independently, without absolutely “rigid” conditionality by the state of socio-economic relations, and on the other hand, because that they are more susceptible to external influence than socio-economic structures and have a greater ability to assimilate the experience and practices of neighboring, more developed states.

In the evolution of forms of government, the dialectic of the general and the particular in the European historical process- a growing awareness of Europe as a kind of geographical, cultural and historical community and the further growth of independence of individual national and multinational state entities, accompanied by a rise in national self-awareness and the breaking of universalist ties of the medieval type, embodied in the west of the continent in the spiritual and political power of the papacy. The elimination of the ideological motivation for its existence external to the state through belonging to a single Catholic world, characteristic of the 16th century, led to the formulation of the idea of ​​“self-sufficiency” of the state as a subject of history, to the search for new ideological justifications for the state, to the emergence of various kinds of doctrines about the essence and appointment of the state and the sovereign.

Throughout the 16th century. The political map of Europe has changed significantly. At the turn of the XV and XVI centuries. The process of unification of English and French lands was basically completed, a single Spanish state was formed, which also included Portugal in 1580 (until 1640). The concept of the Empire, called from the end of the 15th century. The "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" was increasingly associated with purely German lands. A new state appeared in Eastern Europe - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, uniting the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed under the blows of the Ottoman Empire. Other Central European monarchies, united under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs, lost their political independence. Most of the territories of South-Eastern Europe were under foreign domination.

What was common to the development of most European states during the period under review was a sharp strengthening of centralizing tendencies, manifested in the acceleration of the processes of unification of state territories around a single center, in the formation of government bodies different from the Middle Ages, in the change in the role and functions of the supreme power.

In Europe in the 16th century. states of various types coexisted and were in complex relationships - from monarchies experiencing different stages of development to feudal, and at the end of the century, early bourgeois republics. At the same time, the predominant form of government becomes absolute monarchy. In Soviet historiography, a point of view has been established according to which the transition from class-representative monarchies to monarchies of the absolutist type is associated with the entry into the historical arena of new social forces in the person of the emerging bourgeoisie, creating a certain counterbalance to the feudal nobility; according to F. Engels, a situation arises when “state power temporarily acquires a certain independence in relation to both classes, as an apparent mediator between them) .

The degree of development of the bourgeois strata, as well as the characteristics of the previous development of political structures, to a certain extent determine the specific nature of absolutist power and the degree of its maturity in a particular country. At the same time, absolutism, as a historically transitory form of feudal monarchy, may also have features of external similarity with other forms of “autocratic” rule, based on a different social base and going back to fundamentally different political traditions. In other words, absolutism is considered as a form of state corresponding to the final stage of the development of feudalism and characterized by a sharply increasing power of the monarch and the highest degree of centralization. IN transition period The form of political domination of feudal lords is absolute monarchy, i.e. when the bourgeoisie strengthens its position, but cannot yet come to power. The support of absolutism is the middle and small strata of the nobility, the core of the army. The power of the monarch is unlimited and independent (in a certain sense) in relation to both classes as a whole. An absolute monarch relies on a standing army, a bureaucracy (an apparatus personally subordinate to him), a system of permanent taxes and the church. Absolutism was a very effective form of state, using bourgeois development in the interests and preservation of the positions of the ruling class of feudal lords. In the interests of the latter, he ensured the receipt of feudal rent, suppressing the anti-feudal struggle of the masses, spent a significant part of tax revenues on the court nobility, and waged wars. At the same time, absolutism also supported the bourgeoisie - pursuing a policy of mercantilism and ( trade wars, tax farming, loans from the king) and protectionism. The royal bureaucracy was created at the expense of the bourgeoisie. There are features of absolutism in different countries.

The lower chronological limit of absolutism can be conventionally attributed to the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. A common idea is about the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. as a period of “early absolutism,” although English absolutism (the presence of which, however, is denied by certain schools and trends in foreign historiography) passed during the 16th century. stage of maturity and entered a period of protracted crisis, which was resolved by the bourgeois revolution of the mid-17th century.

Absolutism continues the earlier annexation of outlying territories, sharply restrains the centrifugal, separatist aspirations of the feudal nobility, limits urban liberties, destroys or changes the functions of old local government bodies, forms a powerful central government that puts all spheres of economic and social life under its control, and secularizes the church. and monastic land ownership, subordinates the church organization to its influence.

The bodies of class representation (the Estates General in France, the Cortes in Spain, etc.) are losing the importance that they had in the previous period, although in a number of cases they continue to exist, forming a bizarre symbiosis with the new bureaucratic apparatus of absolutism.

In England, the parliament, created back in the 13th century. as a body of class representation, it becomes an integral part of the absolutist system, and the king, according to widespread ideas in English political literature, acquires full power only in cooperation with parliament. Specifics English absolutetism, and subsequently the nature of its crisis, were largely determined by the peculiarities of the social structure of English society, the proximity of the economic positions and class interests of the emerging bourgeoisie and a significant part of the middle and petty nobility.

Relatively slow development French absolutism was largely due to the continuing social predominance of the nobility and the underdevelopment of capitalist elements, as well as a number of other factors of a socio-economic, political, geographical nature that feed centrifugal tendencies to the detriment of centripetal ones. The powerful bureaucratic machine created by French absolutism, the presence of which is often considered as the most characteristic feature of an absolutist state in general, in the 16th and early 17th centuries. still retained many archaic elements. The reforms of the 20-30s of the 17th century, which limited the positions of the feudal aristocracy and bureaucracy, became a kind of prelude to the entry of French absolutism into the “classical” stage of development, which began in the second half of the 17th century.

Peculiarities Spanish absolutism can to a certain extent be explained by the extreme narrowness of its social base, limited exclusively to the nobility, which occupied a dominant position in the class structure of the Spanish monarchy, pushing the middle entrepreneurial strata into the background. The weak interest of the Spanish nobility, whose important source of income was precious metals from the colonies, in the development national economy combined with the predominant orientation of the policy of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty ruling in the country toward goals external to Spain (achieving Habsburg hegemony in Western and Central Europe, fighting reform movements, expanding the colonial empire in America). Aggressive foreign policy Spanish absolutism found strong support among all layers of the nobility, which constituted in the 16th century. the basis of the Spanish army and saw in the implementation of this policy an additional source of income.

The establishment of absolutist forms of government in Germany, which during the period under review represented a conglomerate of states and political entities within the Empire. The emperors, elected by the college of electors, continued to maintain unrealistic claims to the political leadership of “Christendom,” although in the Empire itself their power was sharply limited by the old imperial aristocracy and the new territorial seigneurial nobility, the “imperial ranks,” represented from the end of the 15th century. in all-imperial assemblies (Reichstags). The national imperial tradition, embodied in the specific policies of the Habsburgs, contributed to the development of regional-particularist tendencies, the strengthening of territorial statehood and ultimately led to the formation of individual lands small-power absolutism, which flourished in the second half of the 17th century. In contrast to the absolutism of large Western European states, regional, small-power absolutism in Germany not only did not play a centralizing role, but, on the contrary, contributed to the strengthening of the political isolation of individual German lands. The Reformation, the Peasants' War of 1524-1526, and subsequent intra-imperial conflicts also contributed to the consolidation of the territorial and political fragmentation of the German lands, which received additional confessional overtones. The reliance of each of the confessional-political German camps - Catholic and Protestant - on external forces gradually turned Germany into a sphere of clashes of interests of other European states, which led to the pan-European Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. The Peace of Westphalia formalized the fragmentation of Germany, which persisted over the next two centuries.

The regional type of absolutism developed during the 16th century and in the territory Italy, where it replaced regional class monarchies and city-republics. At the same time, the structures of the Duchy of Savoy were close to the French type of absolute monarchy, and the structures of the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal State were close to the Spanish type. The Italian version of absolutism itself was embodied in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and other state-political entities that developed on the basis of the signories. Unchanged until the 18th century. The state system of the Venetian Republic remained, the class base of which was predominantly the patriciate, as well as partly the urban aristocracy and nobility of the subordinate territory, which allowed it to carry out the same class functions as monarchies of the absolutist type.

A kind of smaller copy of the political structures of the Empire was Switzerland, which even by the end of the period under review, resulting in Thirty Years' War the rights of a sovereign state, remained essentially a rather amorphous association of political entities of the medieval type, although its constituent cantons pursued a very active economic policy, characteristic of the early stage of the development of capitalism.

IN Central European region during the 16th century. Basically, the political structures characteristic of medieval estate-representative monarchies were preserved, with the only difference that in Poland, for example, against the background of the weakening of the central royal power, which unsuccessfully tried to use some elements and methods of absolutist politics, a regime of magnate oligarchy took shape, and in the Czech Republic and Austria, the evolution of forms of state power towards Spanish-type absolutism was planned.

Elements of absolutist rule (creation of central government agencies, attempts to maneuver between rival social strata) arose from the beginning of the 16th century. and in countries Scandinavia, however, they did not acquire stable forms here. Brief periods of strengthening of royal power were followed by periods of political dominance of individual feudal groups.

It was fundamentally new for Europe political development Neitherderlands. The absolutist-bureaucratic system implanted by the Habsburgs, aimed at including the country in the structure of the Empire, the forced coexistence of absolutist institutions with local representative bodies and institutions harbored the germ of an inevitable conflict, which ultimately resulted in an anti-feudal national liberation movement, which had the character of an early bourgeois revolution and culminated in the formation of the Republic of the United Provinces, in which the Estates General took the place of the sovereign king.

New time

New time(or new story) - a period in human history located between the Middle Ages and Modern times.

The concept of “new history” appeared in European historical and philosophical thought during the Renaissance as an element of the three-part division of history proposed by humanists into ancient, middle and modern. The criterion for determining the “new time”, its “novelty” in comparison with the previous era, was, from the point of view of humanists, the flourishing of secular science and culture during the Renaissance, that is, not a socio-economic, but a spiritual and cultural factor. However, this period is quite contradictory in its content: the High Renaissance, Reformation and humanism coexisted with a massive surge of irrationalism, the development of demonology, a phenomenon called “witch hunt” in literature.

The concept of “new time” was accepted by historians and established in scientific use, but its meaning largely remains conditional - not all nations entered this period at the same time. One thing is certain: in this period of time a new civilization is emerging, new system relations, the Eurocentric world, the “European miracle” and the expansion of European civilization to other areas of the world.

Periodization

As a rule, in Soviet historiography, within the framework of formation theory, its beginning was associated with the English revolution of the mid-17th century, which began in 1640. Other events that are accepted as the starting point of modern times include those associated with the Reformation (), the discovery of the New World by the Spaniards in 1492, the fall of Constantinople () or even the beginning of the French Revolution ().

The situation is even more complicated with determining the end time of this period. In Soviet historiography, the point of view reigned supreme, according to which the period new history ended in 1917, when the socialist revolution took place in Russia. According to the most common modern point of view, consideration of events associated with the New Age should end with the First World War (-).

The discussion on the periodization of modern history continues today.

At the same time, two sub-stages are usually distinguished within the modern era; their border is the Napoleonic Wars - from the Great French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna.

Changes

Political changes

The end of the Middle Ages was marked by the growing importance of centralized government. Vivid examples of this growth are the end of feudal civil strife - such as the War of the Roses in England, the unification of the regions - Aragon and Castile in Spain.

Cultural changes

Great geographical discoveries

One of the most important changes was the expansion of the territory of the cultural ecumene known to Europeans. In a very short period (the end of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century), European navigators circumnavigated Africa, paved the sea route to India, discovered a new continent - America and made circumnavigation. It is noteworthy that Columbus’s discovery of America (1492) is considered to be the symbolic end of the Middle Ages.

These journeys would have become impossible without prerequisites, the main of which are: the invention of the compass and the creation of a ship capable of covering vast distances on the open sea. It is interesting that the first of these inventions was made long before the advent of modern times.

The ship on which the discoverers set off on long voyages was the caravel. These small ships by modern standards (for example, the Santa Maria, Columbus’s flagship on his first voyage, had a displacement of 130 tons) literally changed the map of the world. The entire era of great geographical discoveries is firmly connected with caravels. The name that the caravel received in Dutch is quite characteristic - oceaanvaarder, literally - “vessel for the ocean”.

However, prerequisites alone are not enough, so there must be a motive that forced them to go on long and dangerous journeys. The following fact became such a motive. In the second half of the 15th century, the Turks, who conquered the weakened Byzantine Empire, blocked the caravan routes to the east along which spices were delivered to Europe. Thus, the trade that brought super profits was interrupted. It was the desire to find alternative access to the riches of the east that became the incentive for seafarers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Consequently, the point of view that considers the end of the Middle Ages to be 1453, the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, seems reasonable.

It is interesting to note that in this way it was the expansion of Muslim civilization that served as the catalyst that caused the accelerated development of European civilization.

The science

Not only did Europeans' ideas about the Earth undergo significant changes, but also the place of the Earth itself in the Universe underwent a revision - even more radical. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus’ book “On Conversions” came out of the printing press. celestial spheres”, which proclaimed the rejection of the Ptolemaic geocentric system that had dominated for almost one and a half thousand years. It is interesting that, when starting his astronomical work, Copernicus did not at all intend to create something fundamentally new. Like his medieval predecessors, he considered it his task to clarify data from the Almagest, the main work of Ptolemy, without affecting the fundamentals. Although the discrepancies between the data from the Almagest and the results of observations were known before him, only Copernicus had the courage to abandon the inertia of thinking and not engage in “adjustment” of work ancient astronomer, but to offer something fundamentally new.

The first page of Copernicus's book "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres"

Technology and production

Even greater impact on daily life people were influenced by the development of technology at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. One of the most important innovations of that time was printing. The invention and implementation of a seemingly simple technology had a revolutionary impact on the speed of replication and dissemination of information, as well as on its accessibility ( printed books were much cheaper than handwritten ones). Johannes Gutenberg is considered the inventor of printing. Around 1440 he built his printing press. As often happens with inventions, individual elements printing technology was known before Gutenberg. So, illustrations and figurative capital letters copyists began to reproduce books using stamps two hundred years before Gutenberg. However, then it was possible to develop a technology for making stamps (letters) not from wood, but from metal. And it was he who introduced the most important idea- typing text from individual letters instead of making a board - a stamp for the entire page. Even in those areas of production where technical progress was not very noticeable compared to the Middle Ages (or there was none at all), dramatic changes took place, this time due to a new type of labor organization. With the advent of the New Age, the handicraft production of the Middle Ages was replaced by the manufacturing type of production. In manufactories, labor remained manual, but unlike medieval workshops, division of labor was introduced, due to which labor productivity increased significantly. In manufactories, craftsmen worked not for themselves, but for the owner of the manufactory.

The development of mining and metallurgy was important. However, the most important improvement in the iron smelting process - the replacement of the cheese furnace with the so-called stukofen (the ancestor of the modern blast furnace) occurred during the heyday of the Middle Ages, approximately in the 13th century. By the beginning of the 15th century, such stoves had been significantly improved. Water wheels were used to drive the bellows. By the 16th century, such wheels, which sometimes reached enormous sizes (up to ten meters in diameter), began to be used for lifting ore from mines and for other operations. The book “ De re metallica libri xii"("Book of Metals"). This twelve-volume treatise was published in 1550. Its author was Professor Georg Agricola (Bauer) (-).

Main events of modern times

Peace of Westphalia

English Revolution

American Revolutionary War

French revolution

Russo-Turkish War 1787-1792

Russo-Swedish War 1788-1790

Napoleonic Wars

Greek Revolution

Decembrist revolt

Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829

July Revolution 1830

First Opium War

Revolutions of 1848-1849

Crimean War

American Civil War

American Civil War (War of the North and South; English American Civil War) 1861-1865 - a war between the abolitionist states of the North and 11 slave states of the South.

The fighting began with the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 and ended with the surrender of the remnants of the Confederate army under the command of General C. Smith on May 26, 1865. During the war, about 2 thousand battles took place. More US citizens died in this war than in any other war in which the United States of America participated.

Mexican-American War

Revolution of 1907 in Russia

World War I

• On July 28, Austria-Hungary, in response to the assassination of the Archduke by a Serbian terrorist, declared war on Serbia.
• On July 30, Russia began mobilizing its army in response, to which Germany issued an ultimatum to Russia demanding that the mobilization cease within 12 hours.
• On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia.
• On August 2, Germany occupied Luxembourg and presented an ultimatum to Belgium to allow troops to pass through its territory to France.
• On August 3, Germany declared war on France.
• On August 4, Germany invaded Belgium. On the same day, Great Britain, fulfilling allied obligations to Russia and France, declared war on Germany.

Notes

Links

• Kareev, General course on the history of the 19th and 20th centuries before the start of World War on the Runiverse website
• Panchenko D. V. When did the New Age end? . Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
• Hobsbawm E. Age of Revolution. Europe 1789-1848 = The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 / Trans. from English L. D. Yakunina. - Rostov n/d: Phoenix, 1999. - 480 p. - 5000 copies.

- ISBN 5-222-00614-Х
World History Review
Historical periods
Economic organization

History of the regions

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Section III . EARLY MODERN TIME Western Europe in

XVI

century

In the 16th century, major changes occurred in Europe. Chief among them is the formation of large and strong monarchies, claiming the role of a consolidating force and contributing to the formation of nations; the decline of the political and spiritual authority of the Catholic Church. The uniqueness of the era lay in the fact that the social forces that fought against feudalism and the churches that illuminated it had not yet broken with the religious worldview. Therefore, the general slogan of the mass anti-feudal movements was a call for church reform, for the revival of the true, apostolic church. 1. Niccolo Machiavelli Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), a philosopher, diplomat and politician, entered the history of political and legal thought as the author of “The Prince,” which brought him world fame. The writings of Machiavelli laid the foundation for the political and legal ideology of the New Age. Analyzing the work of N. Machiavelli, it is fundamentally important to understand that he reveals methods and patterns in the human qualities and behavior of the sovereign

political activity personified in the ruler of the state itself. In this focus on identifying the nature of the state, and not in drawing up a portrait of the ruler the country needs and giving him recommendations, lies the deep conceptual meaning of “The Sovereign.” His

political doctrine free from theology, it is based on the experience of contemporary city-states, the rulers of the Ancient World, on knowledge of the interests and passions of man, participants in political life. Machiavelli believed that studying the past and taking into account the psychology of people makes it possible to foresee the future and determine means and methods of action. In politics you should always count on the worst, not the good and the ideal. State- there is a certain relationship between the government and its subjects, based on the fear or love of the latter. At the same time, fear should not develop into hatred. Main - real ability and the basis of its strength is the security of the individual and the inviolability of property; “a person who is deprived of any benefit never forgets it.” “The most dangerous thing for a ruler is to encroach on the property of his subjects.”

The blessing of freedom (inviolability private property and personal security) is the goal and basis of the strength of the state, best ensured in republic. Reproducing, following Polybius, ideas about the emergence and cycle of forms of government, he, like ancient thinkers, gives preference to a mixed form (monarchy, aristocracy and democracy). The peculiarity of his teaching is that he considered a mixed republic to be the result of struggling social groups.

Machiavelli expresses his own, different from what is generally accepted among politicians, opinion about the people: the masses of the people are more constant, more honest, wiser and more judicious than the sovereign. People often make mistakes in general matters, but very rarely in particular ones. Even a rebellious people is less terrible than a tyrant: the people can be persuaded with a word, but a tyrant can be “got rid of only with iron.” The cruelty of the people is directed against those who encroach on the common good, the harshness of the sovereign - who “can encroach on his own personal good.” He distinguishes himself from the people know. There is no society where there is no confrontation between the nobility and the people. The ambition of the former is a source of unrest in the state; their claims are limitless. But knowledge is inevitable and necessary for the state. It is from its midst that statesmen, officials, and military leaders emerge. A free state must be based on the compromises of the people and the nobility; The essence of the “mixed republic” is that government bodies include aristocratic and democratic institutions that play the role of a restraining factor.

Concerning nobility(“those who live idly on the income from their huge estates, not caring in the least about cultivating the land or about earning their living through the necessary labor”), then Machiavelli spoke of him with hatred and called for his destruction. The nobles are “a decisive enemy of all citizenship” and everyone “who wants to create a republic ... will not be able to carry out his plan without destroying every single one of them.”

For creation of a free Italian republic Machiavelli proposes a number of measures. Among them is liberation from foreign troops and mercenaries, from petty tyrants and nobles, from the pope and the intrigues of the Catholic Church. In addition, we need a sole ruler with absolute and extraordinary power, establishing wise laws and orders. He associated the inviolability of laws with ensuring public safety, and thereby with the very peace of the people. For Machiavelli right- an instrument of power, an expression of strength. Everywhere the basis of power “is interdependence, good laws and a good army.” Therefore, the main thought, concern and business of the ruler should be war, military organization and military science - “for war is the only duty that the ruler cannot assign to another.”

Machiavelli denies the Italian city-states democracy as a real prospect and the only political form capable of slowing down the process of degradation is autocracy. “Where (material) is corrupt, even well-ordered laws will not help, unless they are prescribed by a person who enforces them with such great energy that the corrupt material becomes good.” However, he considered tyranny a temporary measure, a bitter but necessary medicine, the need for which would disappear as soon as the development of the disease was stopped.

Machiavelli had a special relationship with religion. This is an important means of politics, a powerful factor influencing the minds and morals of people. She “helps to command troops, inspire people, restrain virtuous people and shame the vicious.” The state must use religion to guide its subjects. But Machiavelli is critical of Christianity, which preaches obedience and humility, and highly values ​​the religion of antiquity, which honors “the highest good in greatness of spirit, in strength of body and in everything that makes people extremely strong.” He also had a negative attitude towards the clergy, with bad examples that deprived the country of “all piety.” In this regard, Machiavelli allowed the transformation of religion, but unlike the leaders of the Reformation, he considered the basis of the reform not the ideas of early Christianity, but ancient religion, entirely subordinated to policy goals. His conclusion that it is not politics in the service of religion, but religion in the service of politics, sharply diverged from medieval ideas about the relationship between church and state.

Machiavelli decisively separated politics from morality. Policy(establishment, organization and activities of the state) is a special sphere of activity that has its own laws that need to be studied and comprehended, and not derived from St. Scriptures and construct speculatively.

The Middle Ages affected the views of the thinker about methods ways and techniques political activity. They are completely separated from morality. If morality operates with such categories as “good” - “evil”, then politics operates with “benefit” - “harm”. Therefore, the actions of political figures should be assessed not from a moral point of view, but by their results, by their relation to the good of the state.

The methods of exercising power are not only military force, but also cunning, deceit, and deception. And therefore, political rules and moral norms are incompatible; a statesman should not be faithful to contracts if this harms the interests of society. He must be able to decide on “great, masterly atrocities, meanness and betrayal.” “Let him be blamed for his actions, as long as the results justify him.” The ideal statesman for Machiavelli was the Duke of Romagna Caesar Borgia, a genius of cunning in politics.

Niccolo Machiavelli

(1469-1527)

"Sovereign"

Uniting people to protect life and property, achieve the welfare of the people

His teaching is free from theology, based on the experience of communes and policies, knowledge of human interests and passions

State

Conditions for stability - good laws and a strong army

The origin of power is “all means are good”

Forms of government

Correct:

Monarchy

Aristocracy

People's rule

Incorrect:

Oligarchy

The power of the crowd

Ideal – mixed republic

Right- an instrument of power, an expression of strength

Religion- an important means of politics, but Christianity weakens the state by preaching obedience

Policy- a special sphere of activity that has its own laws that need to be studied and comprehended, and not derived from St.

scriptures and not construct speculatively

Politics and morality are incompatible

Criteria for political activity – “benefit” – “harm”,

a politician should not be faithful to his word and contract Machiavellianism

At the same time, Machiavelli believed that treachery and cruelty should be committed in such a way as not to undermine the authority of the authorities. From here he derived his favorite rule of politics: “People should either be caressed or destroyed, because a person can take revenge for a small evil, but cannot take revenge for a large one.” “It is better to kill than to threaten - by threatening, you create and warn an enemy; by killing, you get rid of the enemy completely.” The ruler should pay special attention to creating his own image. “The most important thing for a sovereign is to try with all his actions to create for himself the glory of a great man, endowed with an outstanding mind... everyone knows what you look like, a few know what you really are, and these latter will not dare to challenge the opinion of the majority behind their backs which the state stands."

The political rules given here and others have received the name “Machiavellianism” in science as a symbol of political deceit. Thus, Machiavelli formulated and justified the main program demands of the bourgeoisie: the inviolability of private property, the security of person and property, the republic as the best form of ensuring the “benefits of freedom”, the condemnation of the nobility, the subordination of religion to politics. His ideas, with the exception of "Machiavellianism", were adopted by Spinoza, Rousseau and other theorists.

2. Political and legal ideas of the Reformation

The Reformation (lat. reformatio - perestroika) is an anti-feudal movement in socio-economic and political essence, anti-Catholic (religious) in ideological form in the 16th century. in Western and Central Europe. Its main focus is Germany.

The beginning of the Reformation was laid by a theologian professor at the University of Wittenberg Martin Luther (1483-1546), when on October 31, 1517, he nailed the “95 Theses” against indulgences to the church door. The starting point of Luther's teaching is the thesis that salvation is achieved solely by faith, based on Holy Scripture, he argued that every believer is justified by it personally before God, becoming here, as it were, a priest to himself and, as a result, does not need the church (the idea of ​​omnipriesthood) . What relates to religion is a matter of conscience for a Christian; the source of faith is the “pure word of God” (holy scripture). And thus, everything that was confirmed in the texts of the Bible was considered indisputable and sacred, and the entire hierarchy of the Catholic Church, monasticism, most rituals and services were considered as a human institution, subject to rational assessment and criticism, and were actually denied.

Yours attitude towards secular power Luther based it on the idea that man lives in two spheres: in the sphere of the “Gospel” (religious sphere) and in the sphere of “law” (earthly kingdom). If the world consisted of genuine Christians (true believers), then there would be no need for laws and rulers. And since “there are always more evil ones,” God established two governments - spiritual (for believers) and secular (to restrain the evil). A true Christian must care about other people; therefore, he pays taxes, honors his superiors, serves, and does everything that benefits the secular government. The main thing is that a Christian should not use the sword for selfish interests, and then “guards, executioners, lawyers and other rabble” can be Christians. As for the arbitrariness of power, Luther, referring to the apostles Peter and Paul about its divine establishment, justified it by the fact that since the creation of the world “a wise prince is a rare bird,” “if a prince manages to be smart..., then this is the greatest miracle. .." However, God commanded to obey any authority. But the prince's laws do not extend to matters of faith.

The concept of New Time appeared during the Renaissance as a synonym for the Renaissance. The term new time takes on independent meaning in Tue. floor. 16th century In the works of French writers and humanists. The next step in realizing the uniqueness of the new time was made in the art of the 17th century. Now we call it Baroque art. It inherited a lot from the art of the Renaissance, but had one fundamental difference - the “new style” of tradition began to be perceived critically, and everything new – positively. For most people, the Modern Age came only in the 19th century, associated with the rapid development of technology, the industrial revolution, urbanization, a series of political revolutions. Periodization: 17-18th century. – early modern time. For a long time it was considered as a transitional era between the feudal Middle Ages and the capitalist New Age. World trade developed rapidly, new manufactories appeared. In the spiritual sphere - the formation of a new bourgeois-democratic ideology. In the 18th century There is a flourishing of secular philosophy, called the Enlightenment (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu). Art developed under the sign of two styles: Baroque and Classicism. K ser. 18th century The movements of Rococo (painting, interior design and fashion) and sentimentalism (literature and painting) appeared. 19th century – Classical New Time. The beginning of the Classical Modern Age was laid by the Great French Revolution of 1798. At the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries. in England - the industrial revolution. They marked the beginning of the modernization process - the transition from traditional society to a modern society. By the middle of the 19th century. – urbanization; natural sciences developed. At the beginning of the 19th century. development romanticism, at the end of the 19th century. Art Nouveau style. The end of the Classical modern era was the first World War (1914 – 1918)20th century - Late Modern era Can be seen as modern culture. This period of the New Age is associated with crisis phenomena and with the search for ways to overcome them (world economic crisis, World War II, environmental problems) Development. information technology, the formation of a post-industrial society. In the spiritual sphere, there is a departure from classical principles: rationality, objectivity, technicalism. Art is characterized by frequent changes in various modernist trends: cubism, futurism, abstract art, surrealism, expressionism, etc. A huge achievement is the emergence of cinema. elite and mass culture.

32. Belarusian culture in the European context

Architecture. Belarus is located on the spiritual border of Eastern and Western Europe, on the divide of their cultures and religions, which naturally affected the specifics of Belarusian architecture. The first cities on the territory of Belarus arose in the early Middle Ages. The oldest of them are Polotsk and Vitebsk. In the 10th century, the first cross-domed Orthodox St. Sophia Cathedral was erected in Polotsk, which marked the beginning of Belarusian monumental art. The first known chronicle of the East Slavic architect was the monk John, who in the 12th century erected a small cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery in Polotsk. XIII century the period of total defense architecture. The main type of monumental construction is the castles of princes and magnates with powerful walls and towers built from huge boulders and large bricks, surrounded by ramparts and ditches. Orthodox churches are turning into small fortresses, flanked at the corners by battle towers. Ideas of the European era Renaissance had a positive impact on the development of architecture and art of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was especially clearly seen in the example of its capital, Vilnius. In the XV - XVI centuries. a palace and castle complex was built - Mir Castle, Mir Trinity Church, Trinity Church in Ishkoldi, Representative Renaissance culture in Belarus was the pioneer printer, humanist and educator Francis Skaryna (about 1490 - about 1551). The traditions of F. Skaryna were developed by the humanist poet Nikolai Gusovsky (about 1470 - 1533). A major contribution to the culture of Belarus was the activity of Symon Budny (about 1530 - 1593). An example of Belarusian gothic are churches of defensive type in Synkovichi, Malo-Mozheikovo, Suprasly, Zaslavl. The most actively developed icon painting It was created under the influence of ancient Russian and Byzantine art. Typical icons are “Mother of God of Mercy”, “Mother of God of Jerusalem”, “Mother of God of Smolensk” and others. Since the 15th century. Works of secular painting in the portrait genre appeared. This type of painting was also widespread: book miniature- drawing on the pages of manuscripts of small size and fine technique. Sculptural works decorated churches, churches, and palaces of feudal lords. Baroque. Such remarkable architectural objects as the palaces of the Sapiehas in Ruzhany, the Khreptovichs in Shchorsy, and the Radivills in Nesvizh were built in this style. A person invited for this purpose at the end of the 16th century participated in the construction of the Jesuit church and collegium in Nesvizh, as well as the palace and castle complex. Radivil Sirotkom is a famous Italian architect Gevanni Bernardoni. From the second half of the 18th century. Baroque has replaced classicism, finally established at the end of the 18th century. In the buildings, simplified lines, volumes, and details are noted; simple and calm forms appear, not devoid of sophistication characteristic of Baroque architecture. XX century two world wars and the proletarian revolution caused catastrophic damage cultural heritage Belarus. Art. On the territory of Belarus, samples of primitive art of the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras have been preserved (bone plates and ceramics with ornaments, jewelry, sculptural figurines of people and animals). X-XII centuries, under the influence of Byzantine art with the advent of Christianity, fresco painting, book miniatures, and small plastic arts developed XVIII-XIX centuries Painting developed in the traditions of romanticism and classicism. XX century in art there are various styles and directions. One of them is avant-garde, the leaders of which are K. Malevich and M. Chagall.