unit 1: political, economic and social change Flashcards
peter burke
‘the three centuries between 1500 and 1800 witnessed a politicisation of popular culture and the spread of political consciousness
examples:
> meetings the discuss the cause
jokes - jovial songs/folkore ballads
rejecting the idea e.g absence
rioting/refusal/defiance
striking/boycotting - a mass of people
executions
more pamphlets about political issues printed and read
more challenges to government /royal authority e.g 1520s germany experienced a peasant revolt against clerical and landowners
most people across europe appear to have accepted the political order. governments allied with the church
his speech of scaffold
king charles l decapitation 1649
the parliament of women
what parliament should look like. a womens voice
the womens petition against create
a voice for women
the vindication of christmas
positivity
economic factors
> most europeans were better off by the 18th century than they had been 100 years earlier. better diets and more in the way of material possessions
there was a communication revolution: more ships were built, more canals were dug and roads were improved
between 1500 and 1800 europe’s population grew from around 80 million to 190 million, as a result there was increasing urbanisation
agriculture was transformed, at least in the vicinity of large towns: there was a shift from subsistence farming to farming for the growing urban market
in 1500, only 3 cities in christian europe had populations of more than 100,000. in 1800 there were 23 such cities
more economic factors
> economic changes should not be exaggerated though because at the end of the 18th century less than 3% of europe’s population lived in towns of 100,000 or more most europeans lived in settlements of fewer than 5000 people
a great expansion of trade within europe and between europe and the rest of the world. certain towns and regions increasingly specialised in particular products
the main form of industrial enterprise remained the small workshop, not the factory and production was only beginning to be mechanised
enterprises adapted to different economic conditions. if the decline of fairs was a blow to wandering entertainers, the growth of large towns provided them with compensating opportunities. in britain there was arguable a ‘commercialisation of leisure’
