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CHAPTER 6. THE NEW WORLD – AND SCIENCE



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CHAPTER 6. THE NEW WORLD – AND SCIENCE

6.1. The discovery of the New World


The year 1500 was a major turning point in human history. In the year 1500 CE China was technologically more advanced than Europe, in most areas, including paper and printing, not to mention gunpowder and the compass. Chinese society was as hierarchical and bureaucratic, but far more introverted, than Western society. It was probably triggered by the rise of the Ottoman Turks, who managed to capture Constantinople and defeat the Byzantine Empire in a few years. Soon after that they started to tax and otherwise interfere with the caravans on the traditional “silk road” to China. The western demand for spices, dyes and raw silk did not abate. New trade routes were highly desirable.

After the fall of Constantinople (1456) the “age of exploration” began to get serious in the West, led by Portuguese sailing ships, under Prince Henry “the Navigator”. In 1477 the Duchy of Burgundy was split after the death of Duke Charles “the Bold”, with the southern part merging with France under King Louis XI and the northern parts passing to Austrian (Hapsburg) control. In 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella had merged their kingdoms (Aragon and Castille) to create Spain. They began a campaign to expel the Moors. In 1487 the Portugese explorer Bartolomeo Dias reached the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) in. In 1492 the Kingdom of Granada surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella and the three ships of Christopher Columbus had reached America (for Spain). In 1498 Vasco de Gama reached India and later expeditions established Portuguese trade in the region. In 1496 Pope Alexander VI divided the “new world” into Spanish and Portuguese parts, leaving the Dutch and the English out in the proverbial cold.

By 1500 CE the Ottoman Turks had cut the “silk road” completely. It was the year of the birth of Charles V, later emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (from 1519 to 1556). Charles V and his son, Philip II fought the Ottoman Turks along their eastern frontiers more or less continuously. By mid-century Spain under Charles V had found great sources of gold and silver in Mexico, Bolivia and Peru. This gold enabled Spain (with the Hapsburg territories) to become the dominant power in Europe, at least for the next century until the end of the 30 Years’ War (1648). The Spanish monarchy paid for its wars with Aztec gold, Inca silver and silver “thalers” from a mine in Bohemia. The Turks conquered much of the Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania) but were stopped in Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. That line of demarcation, which also roughly follows the line between Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholicism, has been a sore spot in European history until the 20th century.

Ever since 1450, the printing press had greatly increased the spread of news and new ideas, while sharply decreasing the centralized authority and prestige of the Church of Rome and its prelates. But the Popes, back in Rome, needed (wanted) more money than the church tithes brought in. Having nothing tangible to sell, the Popes started to sell lucrative Church offices (including Bishoprics and Cardinal’s hats) and certificates promising blanket forgiveness of all sins, known as “indulgences”.

In 1517 the Pope Leo X authorized a new round of sale of indulgences in Germany, to finance the building of the basilica of St Peter’s in Rome. Martin Luther, a priest and a monk who was also Professor of Theology in Wittenberg, Saxony objected strongly to this money-raising stunt (along with many others). He nailed a paper listing “95 theses” to the door of the Castle Church. Specifically it was a challenge to debate (in Latin): Dusputatio pro declaratione vertutis indulgentiarum. This was a custom at the university, comparable to publication of a journal article nowadays. He also sent handwritten copies to some clerics, including the Archbishop of Mainz who was in charge of the sale of indulgences locally.

Luther’s challenge “went viral” in modern terms. The handwritten paper was translated into German and printed, by a Luther supporter, Christoph von Scheurl. It had spread throughout Germany within two months and throughout Europe in two years. In 1520 the Pope issued a rebuttal Exsurge domina (Arise O Lord). Luther was told, on pain of excommunication, to retract his theses. He refused. The Pope then called him to account at the Diet of Worms (1621). Again, Luther refused to retract any of his theses unless he could be shown refutations in scripture. There were none. He finished by saying “Here I stand. I can do no other”. Martin Luther was duly excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and declared “Outlaw” by the Emperor (Charles V). Yet he was physically protected by admirers in Germany. Within five years he had translated the Bible into German, where it became a best-seller. In five years Lutheranism was already an important alternative religion.

A similar scenario was shortly enacted in France, where Jean Cauvin (John Calvin) founded another branch of Protestantism (soon moved to Geneva) and others followed in several countries, including Switzerland and Scotland. King Henry VIII’s successful “nationalization” of the English Church in order to divorce his Spanish Queen and marry Anne Boleyn (accompanied by privatization of much of the Church’s wealth in gold and silver) could not have happened without the German precedent and the accompanying turmoil. The confiscated gold and silver was mostly converted to coinage (a lot of it to used pay mercenary soldiers, on both sides).

Seaborne trade was expanding rapidly, not only to the Far East. In 1519-22 another Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe from east to west, via the stormy straits of Magellan. Francis Drake, from England, followed Magellan’s route about 50 years later. The continuous wars between Christian nations and the Ottoman Turks, before and after the Protestant reformation, stimulated technological development. This was particularly notable in metallurgy, ship design and weaponry. (Curiously, China had discovered gunpowder much earlier than the West, but never found a way to use it safely in guns as a propellant for bullets.)

The sixteenth century was also more or less the beginning of capitalism as a social phenomenon, albeit not yet explicitly recognized as a social philosophy. The phenomenon was essentially a form of organized long-distance trade, which required modes of organization and finance that had no obvious precursors in the village marketplace. One was a unique cross-national alliance. The Hanseatic League among trading cities of northern Europe, mainly the North Sea and Baltic ports, from Novgorod (Russia) and Riga at the eastern end to Bruges, London and Cologne at the western end with Lübeck and Hamburg in the middle. The league traded in timber, resins, wax, furs, amber and other local products. It also had its own navy and legal system and engaged in ship-building, The Hanseatic League was effectively a cartel, which negotiated for special privileges including local compounds for its resident traders. At its peak in the fifteenth century it protected free trade among its members and raised prices for others. That cartel was broken, eventually, by traders backed by nation-states, starting with the Dutch.

The first recognizable example of shareholder capitalism was the foundation of the Company of Merchant Adventurers by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Hugh Willoughby in 1551. It was chartered in 1553 for the purpose of finding a northwest passage to India (China) and capitalized by the sale of 240 shares at £ 25 each. Three ships started but they were separated and sailed (by mistake?) around the North Cape and into Russian waters. Two of the ships were lost but Chancellor’s ship anchored at the mouth of the Dvina River and met some Russians. In the end, Chancellor traveled overland to Moscow, met with Tsar Ivan (“the terrible”) and returned to his ship and back to London with a letter from the Tsar approving trade relations.

The company of Merchant Adventurers was subsequently rechartered by Queen Mary as the Muscovy Company (1555). It was followed by the Levant Company (1580), the East India Company (1600), the Virginia Company (1609) and the Hudson Bay Company 1620. Some of these companies were profitable, some were not, but with their charter privileges they were able to negotiate deals with local rulers (in India, especially). This created the pattern that led directly to colonialism.

There is a continuing dispute among scholars as to the relationship between rise of capitalism and the transformation of religion. One view, espoused by Max Weber, was that the Protestant “work-ethic” (a term he coined) was crucial to the success of industrial capitalism {Weber, 1904-05 #5516}. Historian R. H. Tawney took the contrary view, that capitalism, with its emphasis on material wealth, was responsible for the decline of Christian values {Tawney, 1926 #4946}. There is some evidence for both views.



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