James I's "True Law of Free Monarchies..."

Thesis: While King James agrees that a good king will normally follow the law, James also asserts that a king has no obligation to any of the law.

I. Parliament

a. Laws are only made under king’s proposal and advice

b. Any law imposed by parliament is only with the permission of King

c. King is over-lord of the whole land, master over every person, with power over life and death of everyone

d. King may interpret or mitigate any law he sees doubtsome or rigorous

II. King is only bound by his good will

a. A good king may frame his actions to be according to the law, but he has no obligation to the law

Palmer #20, Question 4

Palmer #20, Question 4

Will Stewart

“What were the consequences of the restoration for Scotland? For Ireland?”

Thesis: Though the Restoration served to create a more unified Britain, it resulted in great repression of the Irish.

1. Restoration background

a. With invitation from prominent Englishman, William III invaded England and became king along with his wife Mary.

b. Parliament passed Bill of Rights restricting power of king and rights of Catholics

c. William wanted to check French power, had to nullify threat posed by Ireland and Scotland as potential bases of French Catholic activity.

2. Scotland

a. Possible restoration point for James II

b. England and Scotland had to be joined for overall safety of new government

c. Scots didn’t want to join, but England tempted them with economic advantages

i. Scots got rights in English East India Company, English colonies, English system of mercantilism, and Navigation Acts

d. 1707- United Kingdom of Great Britain created

3. Ireland

a. Predominantly Catholic, but majority of land and power held by Anglicans

b. Remained relatively backwards- towns small, agriculturally based economy, very scarce development of middle class

c. New penal code enforced in Ireland

i. Catholic clergy banished, Catholics couldn’t vote or sit in Parliament, Catholics couldn’t teach or be educated in overseas Catholic schools, Catholic’s couldn’t receive education, Catholics couldn’t purchase land, lease it for more than 31 years, inherit it from a Protestant, or own a horse worth more than 5 pounds.

ii. Essentially only power left to the Irish was the export of agricultural produce.

d. Effects of penal code:

i. Weakened Ireland as potential threat to England

ii. Favored English manufacturers by removing competition

iii. Reinforced position of Anglicans in Ireland

The English Declaration of Rights

Parliament defends their rights to govern and gains sovereignty by lessening the power of the king and heightening that of parliament, and defends the rights of the people by reforming the abuses in the Stuart dynasty.

• Laws cannot be executed or abolished without consent of parliament
• Commissioning of other courts and commissions (star chamber) is illegal
• Royal prerogatives outlawed
• Subjects must be allowed to petition the king
• Standing armies are illegal
• Protestants must be allowed to carry arms
• Parliamentary elections must be free
• Parliamentary decisions cannot be questioned
• Excessive bail and cruel or unusual punishment cannot be allowed
• Jurors must be screened, and jurors in important cases must own land
• Fines and forfeitures before conviction
• Parliaments must be held frequently

Palmer #19, Question 4

Palmer #19, Question 4

Will Stewart

“Describe the government of England under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. What was the regime of the major generals? Why was this regime considered necessary?

Thesis: Though Cromwell favored constitutional and parliamentary government, the Protectorate essentially became a dictatorship by the end of his rule.

· Cromwell took over England, executed King Charles I, and declared all of the British Isles a republic named the Commonwealth.

· Cromwell was good in English foreign policy

o Lessened Dutch maritime supremacy

o Navigation Acts

o Subjugation of Ireland

o Won Jamaica in war with Spain

· Never gained much domestic support

o Not Puritan enough to win over radicals, but too Puritan to win over moderate Protestants

· Major Generals

o Cromwell put England under military rule

o Considered necessary because he abolished all other methods of representative, local government

o Major generals each ruled a certain district

o Put down all bad behavior- repressed vagabonds, closed ale houses, prohibited cockfighting

Perry v. 2, James I, “The English Declaration of Rights”

“The Declaration of Rights,” which declared illegal James II’s arbitrary acts, compelled William and Mary and future monarchs to recognize the right of the people’s representatives, to dispose of the royal office, and to set limits on its powers.

Pretext for the Assembly

James II abdicated the government at left his thrown

In 1989, The prince of Orange took it upon himself to write letters to the spiritual and temporal lords of the kingdom who were protestant and other letters to several districts and organizations asking them to choose representatives to be sent to parliament to meet at Westminster

These representatives were to be chosen and sent to the council so that the religions, laws, and liberties of the people in the districts they represent would be fairly represented

This assembly’s purpose was to write a declaration of rights with the interest of their electors at the forefront of their minds

The Assembly’s Declarations

The king has no power to make or abolish laws without parliament’s consent

The king has no power to create new courts or act as a judge

The king no longer has the power to tax or appropriate funds without parliaments consent

Petitioning of the king by citizens made illegal

Keeping a standing army in England during peace time without Parliament’s consent made illegal but made the possession of firearms by protestants for protection legal

Election of members of Parliament made free

The proceedings in parliament not allowed to be questioned or challenged in any other

court

Excessive bail, fines, and punishment made illegal

Jurors made to be circulated and jurors which pass on men in trial for treason ought to be freeholders

All promises to pay fines before conviction are void

Parliament should meet frequently in order to keep up with all the grievances, amendments and laws

Nicholas Malebranche, On Witchcraft

Nicholas Malebranche, An Excerpt from Search After Truth

Perry Sourcebook, Vol. 1 [pp. 355-357]

The Cartesian rationalist Nicholas Malebranche believed widespread fears of witchcraft to be a misguided, but understandable outlet of frustration for those exploited by society. Nevertheless, he, too, believed that witches were a real problem for society

A rationalist perspective
Malebranche was a student of Descartes, and he carried the same belief in a rational world
Thus, he looks at the social factors of France in a distinctly objective manner, quite literally projecting them onto his idea of a Cartesian coordinate system

Malebranche's analysis: the causes of witch paranoia
1. Local beliefs: many local cultures still retained a "pagan" understanding of the world, which often included witchcraft.
2. A negative view of life: Malebranche describes witchcraft as an "invisible power which thinks only about harming [those affected]." For the rural poor who so often accused people of witchcraft, life (and its cruel outcomes) was often determined by these outside forces. Thus, witches became an easy scapegoat.
3. Oral tradition: "Superstitions are not easily destroyed," Malebranche writes. Because these beliefs were passed down from generation to generation, they were deeply entrenched in the consciences of

Implications
Malebranche explores a more objective branch of social science, but still himself believes that witches exist.
In this sense, this phase of early Modern Europe has not fully embraced a rationalist perspective--it still lies somewhere in-between

Palmer #16, Question 4

Palmer #16, Question 4

Will Stewart

“Summarize and evaluate the Peace of Westphalia with respect to a) the religious settlement, b) territorial changes, c) constitutional issues within the Holy Roman Empire. Of what significance was the Peace of Westphalia for modern international relations?”

I. Background

a. Peace talks of Thirty Years War

b. Talks began in 1644, towns of Munster and Osnabruck

c. Attended by each individual German state

d. Hundreds of diplomats attended- from the HRE, Spain, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Venice, other Italian cities, the Pope

e. HRE reached settlement in 1648

II. Religious settlement

a. Put an official end to Counter Reformation in Germany

b. Renewed terms of Peace of Augsburg

i. Allowed each German state to determine religion

ii. Added Calvinism as option along with Lutheranism and Catholicism

c. Church territories secularized after 1552 were given entirely to Protestants

III. Territorial changes

a. Dutch and Swiss no longer belong to HRE

b. United Provinces and Swiss cantons (Helvetic Body)

c. French took control of small territories- Lorraine bishoprics

d. Sweden received new territories in Northern Germany

IV. Constitutional issues

a. Over 300 German states became virtually sovereign

i. Each had international relations and made treaties independently

b. HRE could not make new laws, could not raise taxes, could not recruit soldiers, could not declare war or ratify peace terms without consent of Imperial estates

i. Virtually impossible, never could happen

c. HRE ceases to be a real political entity

V. Significance in modern international relations

a. Made it clear that Europe was divided into independent sovereign states

b. People stopped pretending that Europe was significantly unified, religiously or politically

A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants

The French Huguenots had a defense of their revolts against their Catholic lords: their true sovereign was God, and his vassal was the lord, so if the orders of the two conflicted, the Huguenots would have the right to disobey their lord.

Principles on which these Huguenots Lived:

· Lords must adhere to the doctrine of the Gospel

· Kings should be the vassals to God

· If God should hold the place of sovereign Lord, and the king as vassal, then a proud man should be obedient to God before his Lord if their orders contradict

· They believe they have the right to defend themselves in the same manner they are attacked

o i.e. sword for sword, words for words

· Seeing as the people choose and establish kings, it follows that the whole body of the people is above the king

· In the case that the Tyrant Kings should be intrusive upon civilian rights (as they were to the Huguenots and their religion), the laws of nature, of nations, and the Civil commands us to take arms against such tyrants

o Therefore, the meanest private man may resist and lawfully oppose such an intruding tyrant

Palmer #15, Question 3

Palmer #15, Question 3

Will Stewart

“Of what long-range significance was the position taken by the politiques in the civil wars of France?”

1. Background

a. Fought between Huguenots (Calvinists) and Catholics

b. Largely in an absence of government

c. English sided with Protestants, Spain sided with Catholics

d. Neither side could win

2. Influence of politiques on civil wars

a. Moderates from both sides began to feel that too much emphasis was being placed on religion

b. “No doctrine was important enough to justify everlasting war”

c. Secular rather than religious viewpoint

d. Willing to overlook religion if people would simply obey the king

e. Put hopes in monarchy

3. Long-term significance

a. France emerged from religious wars as modern state

b. Emphasis on royal absolutism and the sovereign state completely outside the realm of religion

du Plessis-Mornay, "A Defense of Liberty against Tyrants"

Du Plessis-Mornay defends the right of the people to resist a ruler who violates God’s Law, particularly to defend the position of the Hugenots.

• Rulers have a social contract with their people, and if the ruler does not respect his end of the contract (by ruling justly), the people have the right to disrespect the ruler
• Rulers have risen up from the common masses and were elected or approved by the people, so the people have the power to deem the ruler incompetent if necessary
• Rulers must, by their nature, conform to the laws that they stand for
• Rulers have a covenant with God, as stated in the old testament, that the ruler must obey God and respect his people; if he does not do this, he must be punished by both God and the people
• The people have just as much responsibility to respect the ruler as the ruler does to respect the people, otherwise the social contract fails

Perry #12, "17th c. Slave traders"

Slave traders during the 17th century casually describe the cruel treatment of slave purchase and transportation in Africa.

Slaves captured from inland Africa are brought to the coast and held in prisons until they are purchased by a slave trader. When the slave traders come the slaves are stripped and inspected for any diseases or other maladies.

The slaves that are purchased are branded to mark them for a specific country and so that they may not be exchanged for a worse slave.

After they are purchased and branded they wait until the weather is good enough for sailing. They are given small pieces of canvas to wraps around their waists during the cold months.

The captured slaves are usually prisoners of war, taken as spoils of war, some are sold by their own countrymen, and others are criminals being punished. Very rarely do parents sell their children, or husbands sell their wives.

Many of the slaves try to either escape or kill themselves, Their view of slavery, though probably better than their conditions at home, is similar to our view of hell. Some drown themselves or throw themselves into an ocean full of sharks. To prevent this, some traders cut off the arms and legs of the most willful slaves to terrify the rest.

While on the boats the slaves are shackled one person to another. They are fed twice a day at 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, when they are most likely to try to escape. The traders keep many guns and overseers with whips on the ship to deter and prevent mutiny.

Dutch Trade and Commerce

Even though the Dutch lacked natural resources that could sustain trade, the Dutch created very successful trade connections and modeled a modern day economy by lowering duties, saving expenses on ships, and creating a monopolized trading company.

Background on the Dutch Trading:

· Dutch rebelled against their sovereign, the Spanish king Philip II, in that they sought trade in the Americas and East Indies

· Philip II, having been the king of Portugal in 1580, banned the rebellious Dutch from trading in his ports

· Dutch merchants decided to break the Portuguese monopoly over trade with the East Indies

· Created East India Company, which built the foundation for their colonial empire; Inspired other European states to establish monopolized trading corps

· Dutch became extremely successful, attracted attention of other countries

John Keymer’s analysis of the Dutch trading system

****Englishman John Keymer published a series of tracts urging major reforms in English economic policies with these following points

· Liberty of free-trafficking for strangers to buy and sell in Holland

· Small duties levied upon merchants, draws all nations to trade with them

· Fashioned ships continually freighted before others, by reason of their few mariners and great bulk, serving the merchant cheap

· Their employment of herring boats for fishing, and the great returns they make

· Their giving free customs inwards and outwards

Perry v1: Equiano

Rob Edwards

Equiano “Memoirs of a Former Slave”

• An 18^th century African from present day Nigeria

• His life was unlike most slaves, he educated himself, started trading, and eventually purchased his freedom

• Upon his capture in africa, Equiano thinks that he is being taken to a terrible place full of demons to be killed and eaten

• Fear of the unknown makes him still wish to be a slave in his native country

• He is whipped for not eating, and all the slaves on the ships are kept in terrible conditions with awful smells and quality of sanitation

• As the slaves are kept under the hot deck of the ship, many of them die from the sheer lack of clean breathable air

• Describes how the white man is the cruelest beast he has ever seen

  • They will beat the blacks almost to death, and the ones that do die on the voyage are simply tossed over the side like brutes

• The full length of the journey is over 2 months to cross the Africa to the West Indies, and many slaves died along the way

• All the slaves are astonished at the technology that the white man has once they arrive in the new world

• After having their predicament explained to them by veteran slaves, all of the new crop was sold off or put to work

• Many families were separated, and the selling of the slaves was extremely emotional for those blacks that lost family members to distant masters

  • Equiano claims that this “adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.”

Perry: Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Rob Edwards

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, “The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico”

• Castillo (1492-1581)

  • accompanied Hernando Cortes on his conquest and wrote a first hand account of Montezuma and his courtiers

• Montezuma is a powerful, happy looking man that had many women as mistresses

• He commands power and respect from everyone

• All people that entered into his presence had to put on very cheap clothes to humble themselves in his presence

  • Even foreign leaders were forced to show respect

• Rumored that he would eat the flesh of young boys, although his feasts were always so extravagant that it was hard to distinguish one thing from the next

• Cortes was forced to make it clear that he did not want to be served any human flesh

• The dinners also include smoking a mixture of sweet gum and herbs called “tabaco” by the Aztecs

• Another house holds many Idols that are the fierce gods of the Aztecs, as well as a ton of carnivorous animals

• Often make a human sacrifice to these idols, which consists of tearing out the heart and then eating much of the rest of the body

• The aztecs also keep many snakes to also feed on the human sacrifices

• Every man who is employed is incredibly skilled, whether it be gem cutting, painters and sculptors, or the women who did the weaving

• There is a humongous market called Tlaltelolco

• Large slave trade in the empire

• Very advanced water system

• Cortes tries to erect a cross and is scolded by Montezuma for denying the authority of the Idols

• Cortes and others find the humongous storage of wealth in Montezuma's palace, and say that it is most likely the most valuable collection in the world

Palmer 13 Question 2

On pg 119, a monk is teaching to a class at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Although the vast majority of the students are male (there are over 30), there are 5 female students.
-After the protestant reformations, society was not as patriarchical as before.
-Under Queen Elizabeth of Castille in Spain and Queen Elizabeth II in England, noble women were encouraged to get a formal education.
-Vast majority still male students
-Education opened to a wider range of students, because the need for educated men was increasing, especially in the field of law
-from nobels (esquires) to peasants (plebians)
-biggest group was "hidalgos", or lesser nobels aspiring to church or government positions.
-hundreds of english "grammar schools" and french "colleges" were started by the philanthropy of the upper class
-Oxford
-Cambridge
-Eton
-Ursiline sisters
-Salamanca
-Harrow
-beginning of the concept of universal education
-education by no means was universal, but the importance of a good education in life was beginning to be recognized more than before

Palmer #13 Question 3

Palmer #13, Question 3

Will Stewart

“How did the economic changes of the 16^th and 17^th century affect the rural classes of Eastern and Western Europe differently?”

Thesis: In Western Europe, the commercial revolution proved advantageous to the middle class and peasants, while it benefited the lords in Eastern Europe.

I. Western Europe

a. Towns strongeràmanors weaker

b. Lightened burdens of manorial system, increased independence of peasantry

c. Peasants were technically free under law

d. Owed virtually no forced labor to their lord

e. Could migrate, marry, and learn trades

II. Eastern Europe- Germany, Poland, Russia, Bohemia, Hungary

a. Lords benefited from commercial revolution

b. Increased prices and expansion of shipping gave lords incentives to increase output

c. Peasants became serfs, closer to slaves than lower classes

d. Owed certain amount of days (called robot in Bohemia) to work lord’s land, used rest of time for their own land

e. Couldn’t leave manor, marry, or learn trades without lord’s express permission

f. Lords became entrenched in their domains

g. Social structure set in stone, little dynamism or innovation

Palmer #11, Question 3

Palmer #11, Question 3

Will Stewart

“How would you assess the nature of the Spanish empire in America? What negative and positive aspects would you mention?"

Thesis: The true nature of the Spanish empire in America is murky, as it had both positive and negative impacts on America and the world as a whole.

I. Background

a. Spanish empire based in South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean

b. Turned national energy of reconquista outwards, used it in America

i. Set up Inquisition in America

c. Spain regarded empire as means of production for mother country

II. Negative Aspects

a. Civilizations and cultures destroyed

i. Inca, Aztec, etc.

b. Indians put into servitude, essentially slaves for Spanish

c. Spread diseases that destroyed entire Indian populations

d. Exploited the vast natural resources of the land

III. Positive Aspects

a. Indians were actually better off than they were under tribal leaders

i. They weren’t free then either, they were now spared from tribal war, and the Inquisition was practically humane compared to the practices of the Aztecs and Incas.

b. 5 European style universities were set up in America by 1636

c. Spanish set up trade routes for the silver they mined

i. Manila Route- silver went from Mexico to Manila, silver was traded for Chinese goods, these transported back to Mexico, across to the Atlantic, then back to Spain

ii. First global network for commercial exchange

iii. Sustained Asian-American-European trading system

Keymer: On the Dutch Trading System

Keymer describes the Dutch economy and notes the reasons that it was so successful.

· Have little internal production, so they were forced to develop trade

· Government is not as regulatory and permits for beneficial trade practices, such as free entrance into the country and selling of goods within by strangers

· Superior ships and smaller fleets mean cheaper and faster shipping

· Duties encourage trade with Dutch

· Eagerness and innovativeness

· Using naval infrastructure to increase fishing

“They drain, and still covet to exhaust, the wealth and coin of this kingdom, and so with our own commodities to weaken us, and finally beat us quite out of trading in other countries"

Palmer #12 Question 3

-system developed to compete with guilds
-entrepreneurs "put out" the work to rural families, giving the supplies they needed (like looms)
-people would give the entrepreneurs back finished products and would be paid for their services.
-became a gendered division of labor
-women spun wool into thread
-men wove thread into cloth
-Clothers dealers in Rouen developed a cheaper way to spin cloth, the guild banished it to protects its own members, and the entreprenuers put the work on the peasants, bypassing the guild's regulations

Palmer #11 Question 2

-in 15th century, people had no way of judging longitude based on the stars
-learned geographer greatly misjudged the distance to Asia going westward
-when Columbus landed, he thought he was in the Indies
-named the people "Indians" and the island the "West Indies"
-although he had found land, it did not match descriptions of the incredible Far East.
-Until Columbus's death in 1506, he continued to search for the elusive passage to the East
-Church and government officials readily accepted the new landmass for what it was: a new horizon for conversion and wealth
-Conquest began immediatly

Olaudah Equiano, - Memoirs of a Former Slave

Olaudah Equiano – Memoirs of a Former Slave

Thesis: Equiano describes his experience into bondage and questions slavery and its controversy with Christian values.

Describes his capture from Nigeria and experience on a slave ship

· “When I was carried on board, I was immediately handled, and tossed up, to see if I were sound, by some of the crew” – treated like “goods”

· He describes his astonishment to their different looks

o “Their complexions too differing somuch from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke….Indeed, such were the horrors of my views”

· Explains the fear and hopelessness he had felt

o “if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country”

· He fainted from the sight of all the other slaves and realization of his fate

· Loss of hope – “I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning ot my native country, or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining she shore”

· Equiano describes the conditions under ther decks where he was kept

o Foul stench, crowded, many people got sick

o “with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat…I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me”

· He got flogged because he refused to eat due to his illness

o Even contemplated jumping overboard to escape the slave holders

· Under the deck

o “the looseness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself”

o this produced an environment breeding illnesses

· Equiano expresses his sorrow and hope

· He meets some people from his own country

o “which in a small degree gave ease to my mind”

o told Equiano that they were going to work in another country

§ “if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate”

o still thought he was going to be killed

· At the slave merchant – separated into sex and age

· Saw people on horseback and other technologies they did not have

o “I did not know what this could mean; and indeed I thought these people were full of nothing but magical arts”

· “O ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God? Who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you.”

o Questions their commitment to Christianity and morality of slavery

Slave Trade

The 17^th Century Slave Traders

BUYING AND TRANSPORTION AFRICANS

Perry v.1

Thesis: Dealing in slaves was a profitable business that attracted numerous entrepreneurs.

- The slaves are brought down to the shore and placed in a prison.

- They are separated into groups of health or unhealthy (Mackrons)

- The healthy slaves are then branded with the English, Dutch, or French brand.

- They then await the slave ships and upon boarding are granted a piece of canvas to cover themselves.

- Most slaves are prisoners of war, or are sold by their villages during times of extreme hardship.

- Some slaves would starve or drown themselves rather than be herded onto a ship and taken from home.

- The slaves are shackled and guarded by guns, and fed twice daily.

Paul Brazil