Page 390 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

natural and as yet untouched by European corruption. But even the latter group still believed that the Indi- ans should be converted—if not forcefully, at least peacefully—to Christianity. Overall, Europeans’ rela- tively easy success in dominating native peoples (whether Africans or Indians) reinforced Christian Europe’s belief in the inherent superiority of Euro- pean civilization and religion. The Scientific Revolu- tion of the seventeenth century (see Chapter 16), the Enlightenment of the eighteenth (see Chapter 17), and the imperialism of the nineteenth (see Chapter 24) would all bolster this Eurocentric perspective, which has pervaded Western civilization’s relations with the rest of the world.
Toward a World Economy
Q FOCUS QUESTION: What was mercantilism, and what was its relationship to colonial empires?
During the High Middle Ages, Europeans had experi- enced a commercial revolution that created new opportu- nities for townspeople in a basically agrarian economy. Although this commercial growth was slowed by the cri- ses of the fourteenth century, Europe’s discovery of the world outside in the fifteenth century led to an even greater burst of commercial activity and the inception of a world market.
A Seventeenth-Century World Map. This beautiful map was prepared in 1630 by Henricus Hondius. The portraits in the corners are of Caesar, the Roman statesman; Ptolemy, the second-century astronomer; Mercator, the Flemish cartographer whose map projection Hondius followed; and Hondius himself. By comparing this map with the map created by Ptolemy on p. 330, one can see how much Europeans had learned about the shape of the world by the seventeenth century.
Economic Conditions in the Sixteenth
Century
Inflation was a major economic problem in the six- teenth and early seventeenth centuries. This so-called price revolution was a Europe-wide phenomenon, although different areas were affected at different times. Foodstuffs were most subject to price increases. But wages failed to keep up with the rising prices. Wage earners, especially agricultural laborers and sala- ried workers in urban areas, saw their standard of liv- ing drop. At the same time, landed aristocrats, who could raise rents, managed to prosper. Commercial and industrial entrepreneurs also benefited from the price revolution because of rising prices, expanding markets, and relatively cheaper labor costs. Some historians regard this profit inflation as a valuable stimulus to investment and the growth of capitalism, helping to explain the economic expansion and prosperity of the sixteenth century. Governments were likewise affected by inflation. They borrowed heavily from bankers and imposed new tax burdens on their subjects, often arousing additional discontent.
The Growth of Commercial Capitalism
The flourishing European trade of the sixteenth cen- tury revolved around three major areas: the Mediterra- nean in the south, the Low Countries and the Baltic
352 Chapter 14 Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500–1800
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