Chapter 17: THe Diversity of American Colonial Societies

Columbian exchange:

Definition: The 2- way exchange between the Americas and the Old World.

From Europe to America:

• Pastoral animals: Before the Europeans came, the only domestic animal was the llama and they were only used for light transportation, milk, and wool. However, when the cows and horses are introduced, it practically became a revolution. Cows provide large food surpluses, milk, and farming labor. Sheep provide wool. Horses change hunting and transportation forever. However, these animals damage the environment significantly.
• Crops: Supported new animals from Europe. New staples to Amerindian diet. Contributed to environmental damage when crops steal nutrients from native plants.
• Diseases: The Americas had absolutely no exposure to the outside world, so when the Spanish came with their diseases, they weren’t immune to them. They died really quickly and in large numbers.
• Technology: Ever heard of iron? Gunpowder? Mines? The Amerindians didn’t, but now they do.

From America to Europe

• Silver: When the Spanish arrived, the first thing they noticed was the enormous amount of gold and silver. Especially silver. It added wealth to Europe’s economy.
• Tomatoes, squash, corn…ect: This is what supported the peasants when they were too poor to eat what they farm. These added supplements to Europe’s diet.
• Cool Stuff: Got countries in Asia to want it, after all, they’re all the way by the east, so they have no way to reach America, so they’ve got to buy it from the Europeans.

Spanish and Portuguese Control

These two empires planned on establishing identical systems in the New World. In 1542, the Council of Indies was established to control all activity in colonies residing in the Americas. However, they had limit power because of geography. So the colonies gained relative freedom and became New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.

The colonies are split into viceroyalties. Each of then had judicial and administrative districts. Portugal got the viceroyalty of what is today Brazil. Spain got southwest U.S., Mexico, Peru, Chiles, northern South America, and La Plata.

Then came the Catholic Conversions... jerks. The Catholic Church sent missionaries to convert the native population. Rather than fully absorbing the religion, it mixed with their own that appeared to Europeans as still inferior (think voodooism). Those who didn’t convert were abused heavily. However, a few people like Bartolome de las Casas, a priest, recognized how severely the indigenous population has been treated and was, at the time, the most influential defender. Soon, the Catholic Church gave up and turns to the towns and becomes the richest institution.

Economy

As mentioned above, there was a lot of silver and gold with Potosi being the largest silver deposit. Spain and Portugal spent a lot of efforts trying to dig them out. Mining eventually took a heavy toll in its surrounding land, for to obtain silver, it has to go through smelting which needs a lot of coal burning too. Method #2 was mixing mercury to get the silver.

I want to point out that mercury played a significant role in history by killing Qin Shi Emperor when he snuff one too many snorts of it. It is so poisonous, China can’t open tomb today cannot be opened for fear of killing villages around it.

Now imagine a lot more. Yeah. Sickness befalls the environment and villages.

Portugal also found the high profits sugar plantations brought them, which brings to our next topic…

Labor (Why so cruel?)

With sugar and tobacco plantations, a lot of unskilled labor is needed. So the Spanish and Portuguese took no time to put the indigenous people to work. The concept of encomienda is introduced – the distribution of goods for Amerindians for Europeans. They also used a twisted version of mita, a tax paid in crops. Still, Africans are preferred over Amerindians. Why? Because Amerindians are sick and weak. Course you choose the strong, immune guys from Africa!

Ethnic Division

The population is mostly divided into whites, Africans, and Amerindians, the majority are slaves. Sometimes, Europeans take in African/Amerindian wives which lead to mixed offspring. Soon, nicknames are given to each of them.

Creoles: Whiteys

Mestizos: White + Amerindians

Mulattos: White + Africans

Castas: mixed ethnicity

To utterly no offence to all races: It’s just that after a while, this makes me think of painting palette where you see green between yellow and blue.

Mixed descendants were often, and all were treated the same as Amerindians and Africans. This led to many rebellions and uprisings. This group of society left a large impact on social status in society.

The French and English Settlements

In the Beginning:

Seeing the success of the Spanish and Portuguese, the English and French move in after a century. Their motivation is money, thus slavery was a necessity. However, these colonies weren’t as organized and sophisticated as the Spanish because there wasn’t a lot of money supporting it, thanks to wars raging in Europe. But there was more of a variety of social structure, culture, and politics.

The English Colonies failed mostly. Sir Humphrey Gilbert is considered to be the first to colonize. Attempts to settle Newfoundland and Roanoke failed. Then, England renewed its efforts to colonize America in the 17^th century. Hoping to make a profit, they used Irish and Scottish immigrants as settlers from newly colonized Ireland.

The South:

The Virginia Company decided to start a colony. Jamestown was settled in hopes of making a quick profit, but dissolved due to poor management, the loss of 80% of its settlers, Indian attacks, disease (it’s a swamp… with mosquitoes… and malaria…) and they were dependent on the help of the local indigenous people. They made no profit. S-s-s-s-sucka…

But despite, that the settlers decided to spread out in Virginia. They established plantations and farms and grew tobacco, trading furs, and lumber. These plantations grew wealthy, as sugar and tobacco are cash crops. But because they were so spread out, no large cities were traded with or formed.

To run these plantations, the farmers used slave labor and indentured servants. Indentured servants are people who are in debt for their voyage to the New World, and pay it off by giving service to an individual for a certain number of years. Slaves top servants.

As the colonies expanded, the House of Burgesses is formed. Fur trade becomes a bigger deal, and the environment gets more ripped up. The indigenous population became reliant on European products like guns, textiles, and metals. And seeing that the rise of trade, plantation owners increases their quota thus needed more slaves. Slavery, however, and mistreatment comes as a package deal. Seeing the abuse they’re getting, slaves revolts rise, and seeing the revolts, plantation owners suppress their slaves even more. Frankly, just be nice.

North:

The New England area is colonized by pilgrims and puritans. Pilgrims are people who want to break from the Church of England. The Puritans, people who don’t want to separate from the church but gives effort to change its policies to those of Calvinists. After, seeing no prevail and massive discrimination, they move the Americas and establish the colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts. They create a rise in population in the colonies, but because they’re the same group of people, it was less diverse.

Massachusetts wasn’t suitable for farming and depended on lumber trade. This caused the area to be more industrialized, thus the lack of need for slaves.

Transformers... er i mean Transformations in Europe

The Social Structure

Nobility – composed of the monarchs, nobles, and church members. They are very wealthy and make up a small percent of the population. They can impose taxes, skip out on taxes, make decisions, and live the life of an intelligent snob, not to mention they have legal advantages too.

Bourgeoisie – created the gentry class. They are the middle classmen/merchants that hit jackpot and now have money. They have influences on the nobility and trade but it’s not their job to meddle in politics. They have to pay taxes. They can amp up status by marrying their daughters to nobility, which was actually quite easy because of their large dowries.

Middle Class – composed of merchants, shop owners, and people that occupy the lower positions of the church and government. They have to pay taxes, but there’s a lot of social mobility in this class. So Merchant B can easily make it big in horseshoe making and become Lord Merchant B the First. These people can usually get a fair education.

Peasants and Laborers – They had to pay the most taxes and exploited by everyone. They are the farmers and miners and lumberjacks. I think they made up the majority of the population. And due to how miserable their lives were, there were lots of rebellions toward the bourgeoisie and nobility. Blood gets spilled and everyone yells, “yahoo!”

Women – their status depended on their class, aka their family status rather than their gender. So to give an example, a wealthy woman is higher than a poor man. But their status within the family also grew a bit, especially in the middle class. People are now marrying later in life due to the fact that they have to save up for dowries and money. A couple must already be successful and have a place to move into.

Slaves – there was a brief decline on slavery thanks to the Atlantic slave trade.

Economy

During this time, the Netherlands really kicked off. The process is this; the rest of Europe produces raw materials like wood and cloth. They sell it to the Netherlands for a cheap price. Now consider this, the Netherlands don’t really have a lot of natural resources, so to survive, they must rely on textiles and manufacturing. So the Netherlands finish the product there and sell it back to Europe for a higher price because it’s finished. Clever? I think so.

They controlled half the world’s trade at the time, 80% of the north. Banks and real estate was all over the place. They also invented the flyboat, a large and expensive cargo ship. The Dutch put their joint-stock-companies, stock exchanges, and insurance companies to good use.

Meddling with Religion…

King Charles V inherits the throne of Spain and Austria. Seeing the vast resources before him, he decides to unite Europe and push the Ottoman Turks (who were Muslim) back. They did push them back but didn’t defeat them. Another disappointment was that his efforts to unify Europe as under the Catholic Church failed so miserably, Hollywood should make a movie out of it.

This led to the Peace of Augsburg, a treaty that recognized the princes’ right to choose the religion their state would be converted to.

… and Politics

Another thing Charles made a fuss about was the Parliament. For eleven years of tax meddling, he did not summon the Parliament once. After a rebellion on Scotland, he was forced to summon the Parliament on new taxes. Before they did so, the Parliament wanted Charles to guarantee he won’t ignore the Parliament again. Charles refused and thus triggered the English Civil War.

I was just feeling some sympathy for this guy, and he pulls off something like this. Sometimes, I just lose faith in humanity. Sigh.

Charles lost the war and was given a second chance to agree to the Parliament’s terms. He refused and was execute. Good for you Charlie.

When the following two kings, Cromwell and James II, also refused to agree to the Parliament’s terms, they snapped. The Parliament exiled James II. Then they took a sheet of parchment out and wrote their regulations, which the king MUST call them to chance any law, taxes, and war. It also reaffirmed the status of the Church of England but extended religious tolerance to Puritans as well. That sheet of paper became what we now know as the Bill of Rights of 1688. Well done, Parliament, well done.

In France, a similar battle was happening. To solve this, King Louis XIV built an enormous, beautiful palace at Versailles. He hosted parties and housed nobles to distract them from plotting whatever rebellion they were thinking of. To my dismay surprise, it worked quite well.

The Revolutions of Europe 1500 – 1750

Religion

During this time period, the power of the papacy, aka the Roman Catholic Church, was growing. They came up with Indulgence, which is a method of getting sacraments back by money. The scenario is that a rich sinner would pay the pope, who by the way is more than happy to use to pay for all the decoration being used on cathedrals, and the pope gives the sinner a certificate that certifies that he/she/heshe can go to heaven.

Martin Luther: Unfortunately, the religion is starting to piss people off like Luther (I’m sorry to distract you guys from studying but every time I see this name, I think of Martin Luther King and Lex Luthor who by the way in the 52 comics created his own church too). Back on topic. Luther writes a complaint and posts it on the door of the local church, aka the bulletin board of the Medieval Ages. Turns out, people thought he had a point and with the printing press, they spread his ideas around and it eventually gets to the Pope. Pope Leo X of the Medici family tells him to take back these words, but instead, Luther headbutts him full on by debating with him and gets kicked out of the church. So he starts printing a complete and polished version of his ideas, and starts his own church, the Lutheran Church.

Lutheran Church:

· Salvation is achieved by faith.

· People go to heaven because of the belief in God.

· People should rely on the Bible

Catholic Church:

· Salvation is achieved by works of art.

· People go to heaven because they paid the Pope.

· People should rely on the Pope.

This is the first time in a really long time Europe is divided in religion, and if you look on a map, you see most of Germany and northern places converting to Lutheranism. This is because of publishing the Bible in German rather than Latin so that people had more access to it, and can read it for themselves.

John Calvin: was another person pissed off at the church. His ideas were mostly borrowed from Luther but he did add some of his own ideas in. The big difference between Calvinism and Lutheranism is that Calvinism says that:

• Salvation is a gift from God and that faith is not enough to go to heaven.
• Lavish decorations and clothing are a no-no. One must sort of “humble” oneself before God.

King Henry VIII: started the Anglican Church because the priest did allow him to divorce his wife, later wives. The whole of England is then converted.

Puritans: People of Calvinism beliefs who refuse to separate from the Catholic Church and try to “purify” it with Calvin teachings.

Ok, so with all these changes going on, the Catholic Church is obviously not happy. So they decide to reform some of their ways like you have to go to school to be a priest a so on. They started the Society of Jesus or also known as Jesuits that went out and won back some Protestants. Soon, some religious wars break out and although Europe is still mostly Catholic, Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Anglican churches divide Europe religious-wise.

Witch Hunts

With the ideas of Christian Religion mixed in with those of folklore, you get witch hunts. People believed that supernatural causes for bad events. Due to times of stress, such as rising taxes, rising social tension, and wars, people decided that the horrible things must be coming from something. The process of elimination follows:

• God: it can’t be God! He’s good and just and they haven’t done anything horrible to deserve this. Besides, he’s their buddy. So with him crossed out, let’s move on to
• Satan: Here’s an evil guy! Yeah this guy can totally be causing our misfortunes. But we can’t really beat this guy up and if we can’t beat him up, then we’ve got no hope left. So to find someone we can actually beat up are…
• Followers of Satan aka Witches: We’ve hit the mark guys. They are evil, work for Satan and thus give us bad luck by rituals of who knows what. And we can get rid of them! So people, Mary Johnson over there? She gave me the evil eye yesterday and today, I found a HUGE hole in my dress. WITCH! Let’s start the fire already man!

And the worst thing is that to stop the torture the witch hunters (majority of whom were Protestants) were inflicting on them, they sometimes confessed, leading them to believe in witches even more.

Scientific Revolution

Before, religion took up most of people’s lives and explained everything for them. But as scientists find more and more discoveries that contradict the Bible, the church gets upset because they uproot a lot of old beliefs.

Copernicus: Found that the Sun was in the center with Earth orbiting around it. The Bible contradicts that, stating that the Earth was in the center. His student, Kepler, furthered his ideas into what we now called heliocentricism.

Galileo: invented the telescope and looked at planets and found that they were not as perfectly round as they believed.

Newton/Boyle: Discovered gravity.

The ones that were the most against this are the Protestants and religious leaders. Galileo tried to make tensions nicer by helping them understand but ended up making fun of them (“Well, the people who wrote the Bible were probably dumb and they saw it one way when it was actually this way…” Others go, “Really? Then the whole thing about Jesus could’ve been wrong! The whole religion could’ve been a dream…” Church looks indignantly at Galileo. Galileo laughs nervously and asks for his execution time.) His works and books get banned. But word still spread out and Newton, being religions, bonded the two concepts a bit more.

Enlightenment

Their motto is that social and human laws can be discovered like science. In a way, it was an early form of psychology and sociology. They try to get politics to act according to these laws, resulting in opposition similar to those of science. Their books are burned/banned.

They try and turn the train of thought around from the obviously to a more “Really? Are you sure” topic such as the Amerindians who were “obviously” barbarians but the Enlightened people see them as more noble than European societies. They try and see everyone as equal.

The Maritime Revolution: Pre 1450

• Pacific Ocean – the Polynesian trade and migrations. Note about the migrations, some of this stuff is happening way pre-1450, ok? Migration and trade is old to the Polynesians, they might’ve even reached the Americas first.
• Indian Ocean – Islamic trade across the Indian Ocean helped spread Islam peacefully. China’s explorer Zheng He sailed around with a huge fleet (and perhaps turned towards the Americas possibly) and got a bunch of tributary states for China, along with a bunch of other opportunities to trade. Africa was also using these trade routes because of the high demand for gold.
• Marco Polo – Traveled to the east and wrote stories of their wealth. He even becomes a member of the Chinese court when the Mongols dominated the area. It was his stories that opened Europe’s eyes of what was available to them in the east.
• Ibu Battuta – The Marco Polo of Islam. The difference is that this guy traveled to the Muslims lands in Africa and India and Marco traveled to the east. As Marco did, Battuta provided the Muslims a detailed description of what other Muslims civilizations are like.
• Atlantic Ocean – In the early Medieval Ages, the Vikings were the master of the Atlantic because of their longboats. They even reach North America hundreds of years before Columbus gets there. There’s also trade being initiated by countries along the Mediterranean Coast. They work their way down south around Africa. Of course, the natives of the Americas are trading too.
• The Europeans – The Europeans chose to use the sea rather than land routes to trade because of the Muslim Middlemen. 1.) To reach China and all the good places in the east, they have to pass the Muslims. It wasn’t bad and dangerous until the Crusades, but when it wasn’t that bad, they had to pay a fee to pass. So by sea, it was cheaper. Second of all, groups like the Hanseatic League already proved everyone that it was safe and can become wealthy easily. Third, the Crusades brought back eastern treasures and goods that opened the Europeans’ eyes. So the demands go up.
• Portuguese – Their geographic location gives them easy access to the Mediterranean. A merchant leaving a port will take him directly to the Americas, Africa with a left turn, and Northern Europe with a right turn. Everything is there, thus making them the pioneers. Vasco da Gama is the first to land in India.
• Prince Henry the Navigator – Portuguese man who created lots of technological advancements even though all he did was sail around Africa.
• Caravel – A new type of ship. It was better than the average ship in many ways. First, it had a lateen, triangular rig. Previously, ships had bulky square masts and the wind blew you in one direction, leaving you at the mercy of the wind. However, with the lateen rig, sailors can use the wind and angle the rig so that it catches the wind in a specific way and blows them anywhere they want. It’s slimmer, lighter, and faster too.
• Spanish – Provided some important navigators such as Columbus (who sailed the ocean blue in 1492), Amerigo, and Magellan. The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the newly discovered lands in America between Spain and Portugal.
• Americas – Moctezuma welcomes Cortes the Conquistador into the Aztec Empire. Cortes, seeing all the gold they have, conquers the Aztecs, goes to Peru, and lay waste to the Incas. Another disadvantage the Aztecs had against Cortes is Moctezuma thought he was Quetzalcoatl, the god of destruction, thus treating him with respect as he kills them. The Spanish are also fighting them with guns against obsidian. Winner: Spanish. They’ve got iron armor; Aztecs have thickly padded shirts, and gold armor and headdresses. Umm, the gold is pretty but like the softest metals of all time.

Hundred Years War

1337 – Philip IV of France dies with no direct heir. Edward III of England, however, is Philip’s grandson. But the people refuse to have the king of England and France at the same time. So they tell him that inheritance cannot be passed through a female, as Edward is the son of Philip’s daughter. So the new king is going to be elected. P.S. France and England is already not happy over Normandy and Aquitaine. So denying Edward the throne hits a nerve.

1340 – Edward invades France with the first major battle in Sluys. It’s a battle fought between the English and French navy. It was a huge victory for England, so huge that the location where they won is now called the English Channel.

England: 1 France: 0

1346 – The English land in France and have a major land battle at the Battle of Crecy. The English wins, and the French are really upset now.

England: 2 France: 0

To take it a step further, the English lay siege to the French city of Calais, a huge port city. So by taking it, it gives the English a port to launch invasions, ship men, and send food and materials.

England:3 France: 0

600 years earlier, the French drew the Muslims back in the Battle of Tours. That city is now the Poitiers where another major battle takes place. And under the Black Prince of England, the English wins yet again. The Black Prince, heir to the throne by the way, is now a national hero for conducting more victories.

England: 4 France: 0

Finally, the French surrenders. They give up Normandy and Aquitaine to Edward in exchange for him to stop claiming inheritance to the throne. They sign the Treaty of Bretigny and all is well.

1377 – The Black Prince dies, followed by the death of Edward III himself. No heirs are visible. France schemes and takes back Normandy and large chunk of Aquitaine thanks to the poorly conducted reign of Richard II.

England: 4 France: 1

1413 – Turns out that the king of France, Charles VI is mentally sick. If you want more information on that, well Charles got his friends and himself to sew linen into their skin so they look like green furry monsters, danced around naked, ran into a few torches, and a few people burned to death... in public. Also, he thought he was made of glass and thought he might shatter if he was not padded enough.The English king, Henry V, was a young great general. He invades France through Calais. They win victory after victory.

England: 5 France: 1

1415 – Battle of Agincourt. Henry’s army is sick, weak, and small. Directly across them is the large, well rested, and healthy French Army. Between them is a swamp.

P.S. In the past hundred years, the English did everything to increase middle class power and stop feudalism. The French is the opposite; they’ve got powerful knights everywhere. So the English army consists of commoners wielding the longbow while the French army consists of high trained knights.

Back to the story. So the French charge up and as they do, the English shoot arrows. Their horses are stuck in the muddy swamp with nowhere to go. The knights jump off or fall down due to the arrows and get stuck in the mud as well. Most slip and if they do, their heavy armor makes them clumsy and prevents them from getting back up. The English finish the rest up with arrows and after no one is left standing, people with swords venture out to the swamp and stab the remaining knights who got stuck in the mud to death. All the French nobility is killed. Chaos ensues. The French surrenders and gives the English half of their land.

England: 6 France: 1

1422 – Henry V dies with an heir that is only 18 months old, thus too young to rule. The French takes control of the confusion and launches a counter defensive to kick all the English out.

England: 6 France: 2

1429 – Joan of Arc comes into the picture. She’s a peasant girl who gets instructions from God to take the land of France back. She dressed up as a knight, which the French has no problem with because they have no nobility now, and gets France a bunch of victories. Unfortunately, she gets captured by the English and burned at the stake.

England: 6 France: 6

1453 – The nobility that lives in the land owned by England in France switch sides as the war looks more optimistic for the French. The English sees the light at the end of the tunnel and surrenders. They lose Aquitaine and Normandy but keep Calais… until the next war between the English and French that is.

England: 6 France: 7

French Wins until they fight again

English Kings and Their Impact

Alfred the Great: Fights back against the Vikings who have previously conquered England and is considered to be the first English king.

Edward the Confessor: He has a hard time controlling his citizens and has an interesting power play between his wife and him. Eventually he dies with no heir, resulting in struggle for the throne.

Harold Godwinson: Edward’s brother in law, one of the people who struggled for the throne.

Harold Hydrada: Viking who tried to take the throne by force,

William the Bastard: Because he was from Normandy, the part of northern France that was given to the Vikings, William is a Viking. But he’s also related to Edward, so he launches an invasion. The Bayeux Tapestry is a record of the Battle of Hastings. In the battle, William, Harold, and the Hydrada invade England at the same time. Harold is torn apart by Hydrada in the north, and Hydrada travels south and gets slaughtered (through the eye…?) by William. And William becomes William the Conquerer since he has conquered all of England, and Normandy.

Unfortunately, since William is a Viking, then he is technically a vassal of the French king. So French King says, “Hey dude, thanks for conquering all this land for me.” But William goes, “Wha… no, I’m the King of England and some of your land!” And a grudge develops that causes the Hundred Years War. Way to go, man.

Doomsday Book: So the first thing Will does is kick all the people who fought against him out and redistributed the land to his friends who did fight for him. He then sends people to conduct a census of people, pigs, corn, everything. And they put it all into the Doomsday Book. With this book, Will now knows who owns what, who to tax, and to tax how many. The book is significant because it’s a base line. Now all the kings who follow Will has to do is keep tabs on their people. “Hey what’s new? You had kids? Your chicken had kids? Your corn reproduced? Got more cash?” And the power of the king RISES…

Henry II: Tries to put his people into the church, but once he does, he is betrayed by that friend. Then Friend gets murdered by other friends of Henry, and Henry gets humiliated because he has to apologize to the pope to avoid excommunication.

Eleanor was married to the king of France but it was a bad marriage and was divorced. So when Henry II marries, her, she brought the south of France, Aquitaine, with her. So that pisses France off.

His sons John and Richard fight him and soon, he’s at war. In the meantime, France is at war with England because they want Aquitaine back. And wars are expensive and what pay them are taxes. Richard eventually replaces him when he dies.

Common Law: Written by Henry II. With this, there are no longer any questions and it’s nice and clear. These laws don’t change much over the years and is also the bases for our own Constitution. Henry creates courts that travel from town to town. So if you break a law, they hold you until the court show up to convict and punish you. The juries and judges are selected by the king himself.

Richard: The son of Henry II and Eleanor. He becomes the king of England and feels compelled to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims, thus sparking the 3^rd crusade. He comes back; ending John’s spending of money, but dies two years later of disease.

John: The son of Henry II and Eleanor. As King Richard is crusading, John decides to step in and build castles and have extra jewels. Now the people are being taxed for the two wars, a crusade, and now they have to pay for his jewelry. After Richard’s death, he becomes king.

And his Reign: But the people already hate him, so John gets into a fight with his nobility for the taxes and Pope Innocent III on who will become Archbishop of Canterbury. Finally, the Pope tells England, “If you guys aren’t restraining John, I’m gonna kick him and ALL y’all out of the church!” So the people, not wanting to be excommunicated, starts refusing to fight in King John’s wars, and France takes back Normandy. Finally, the Pope says, “I’m so sick of arguing with you, begone with you.” Now the nobility gets upset so they go, “Listen, John, we are going to have a revolt and execute you tomorrow unless you sign this sheet of paper”. And that sheet of paper is…

Magna Carta: An alliance between John and his nobility. It allows him back into church and most of his powers. But he must consult his nobles before he makes a decision that will raise taxes. “No taxation without representation.”

Robin Hood: Fun fact, John was Evil Prince John and Richard was Good King Richard in the books. In actuality, neither was that great.

Edward I: This king finds the constraints the Magna Carta puts very bothersome. He wants to go to war a lot, so he needs to consult his nobles frequently. But it soon becomes a pain getting the nobles from across the country together for each thing he wants to consult them with. So he comes up with the Model Parliament, an assembly of nobles. So when he wants something from them, all he has to do is walk across the street and holler, “Yo, I need to tax!”

Model Parliament: It gradually evolved in its own way and the nobility starts to craft their own ways to manipulate the king. After Edward’s reign, the Parliament gradually grew more powerful and the kings’ power declined. Eventually, the commoners gained a right to have a representation, the Commons. The Commons consist of two elected knights from each county. The Parliament still exists in England today.

And to sum it up:

William the Conqueror – Doomsday Book – Power goes up

Henry II – Common Law – Power goes up

King John I - Magna Carta – Power goes down

King Edward I – Model Parliament – Good for him but power goes down for everyone that follows.

The Renaissance

The Medici family’s the first ones to spark the Renaissance. They are so wealthy that they decide to hire people to create pretty things for others to ooh and aah and recognize their wealth. They are not the only ones to come up with this idea, there are merely the first. Thousands of individuals became wealthy by Mediterranean trade. So these wealthy people have nothing else better to do with the wealth so they decided to flaunt it to display their wealth and make people jealous,

Eventually, the church became jealous and wanted some of the art too. At the same time, when we tie it into humanism, one of the overwhelming subjects of Renaissance art is religion, partly because Church becomes the #1 patron of art. But all art goes back to the main themes of Rome and Greece. To compare and contrast, art is entirely different,

Castiglione: The first one to present, in the form of a book called The Book of the Courtier, what it is to be a Renaissance man. He describes that the person must be well rounded, so rather than being skillful in one or two areas, the person must be educated in science, math, literature, participate in physical activities such as fencing.

Petrarch: A poet who perfected the art of the sonnet.

Boccaccio: Wrote the Decameron, a series of ten stories about a group of people who has isolated themselves to escape the Black Death. His stories give a great snapshot of what medieval life was like. Extreme likeliness to The Canterbury Tales.

Machiavelli: His most famous work is a story called The Prince, about a young prince who ponders on how to rule his kingdom in the future and Machiavelli is his tutor. Machiavelli teaches the prince to rule with an iron fist.

Erasmus: Wrote In Praise of Folly in honor of his friend Thomas More. More in Dutch means Folly, FYI.

Thomas More: Write the book Utopia, meaning perfect society or “no place” because he feels a Utopia doesn’t exist. He becomes a chancellor in England and gets executed by Henry 8. By this, he becomes martyred.

Gutenberg: Invented the printing press. By increasing the speed of printing, books become cheaper and people become more literate. The first book to be printed this way is the Bible, thus converting lots also. Within 50 years, every city has one, it becomes that popular.

Art begins to look more realistic as paintings and sculptures depict more realistic humans and postures. A proportion scale to the human body is discovered to prevent the body looking weird and defected. Natural poses replaced the stiff ones of previous statues and painting subjects. FYI, despite the artists being humanists, all paintings have heavy religious overtones.

Botticelli: Known for great composition in his paintings. Painter of the Birth of Venus.

Masaccio: Master of Linear Perspective. He was the first to apply the technique of linear prospective to his paintings, thus making his paintings look 3-D. Used the technique of the vanishing point. He's also famous for created the illusion of depth.

Giotto: Arranged things in a painting using lines and such to direct the viewer’s eye to the subject.

Ghiberti: Won the competition and carved biblical stories on the first set of bronze doors of the Baptistery by entering the best scene for the sacrifice of Isaac. He slipped his own bust into the doors. Good friends with Donatello.
Brunelleschi: Was the runner up to the same competition above. But because he was so good, they led him do the dome of the Baptistery.
Leonardo: Perhaps the greatest painter and inventor ever, he has only one known portrait of himself. Although it isn’t proven, Leonardo might’ve been in the bodysnatching business because his sketches could not have been done without the aid of a visual model, thus a skeleton, muscles, skulls, things you find after you cut people up. If he was caught participating, he could be executed. In his whole career, he used only two women for modeling. His notebooks contained many anatomy sketches and applied them to his art and practice sketches. He illustrates his scientific ideas and inventions in his notebooks that involve geometry with art, and diagrams that involve complicated physics. Lastly, as a well rounded Renaissance man, he does music too.
Raphael: He’s actually a student of Michelangelo. His art is so similar to Michelangelo that it’s hard to tell them apart and it’s implied that Raphael was trying to copy his art and techniques. His most famous painting is the The School of Athens where he replaces the faces of Greeks with the faces of Renaissance men.
Donatello: sculpted the first ever free standing David. David becomes really popular to sculpt, but Donatello was the first to sculpt him but Michelangelo’s version was the most popular.
Michelangelo: Claimed that stone talked to him, that he can see the things inside and chip away the excess rock to free them. Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, however some parts are repainted for “cover ups” and also got into trouble for painting a butt above the altar to eternally moon the pope as he preach.
Holbein: Famous for his detailed portraits.