Below you will find the discussion guides for today.

Today, we begin the telling of two parallel stories that began over a 350-year period, beginning in Europe in the 1500s and culminating with the Civil War and its aftermath in what became the United States of America:

• The first story is how colonial North America was colonized by Europeans and how those colonial North Americans united to establish the United States of America, wrote a Constitution, spent over 60 years arguing about the meaning of the Constitution, and after destroying our political union, spent 12 years trying to put it back together again.
• The second story is how the United States of America expanded westward and to the Pacific Ocean in the name of Manifest Destiny, and how such expansion was achieved at the expense of those people already living in North America and in the Pacific Islands.

• For a good understanding of life in medieval England, see an exerpt from The Holy Grail at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA

The Europeans - Why They Left
Discussion Goals

1. To review the geopolitical realities of Europe in the Middle Ages.
2. To understand the political, social, and economic systems of feudalism and emerging mercantilism in 15th, 16th, and 17th century Europe.
3. To examine the realities of everyday life in 15th, 16th, and 17th century Europe.
4. To discuss why some Europeans were willing to leave their homelands in exchange for the uncertainties of life in North America.

Goal #1: To review the geopolitical realities of Europe in the Middle Ages.

• Map Europe 1300 http://www.euratlas.com/history_europe/europe_map_1300.html
• Map Europe 1500 http://www.euratlas.com/history_europe/europe_map_1500.html
• Map Europe 1600 http://www.euratlas.com/history_europe/europe_map_1600.html
• Map Europe 1800 http://www.euratlas.com/history_europe/europe_map_1800.html
• Map of Europe after the Protestant Reformation at http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/brummettconcise/chapter14/medialib/thumbs/ch15_291.html

• At the top of the Feudalism Pyramid was the King who claimed ownership of the land.
• Next were the nobles to whom the King granted land. These nobles pledged their loyalty to the King by swearing to serve and protect him.
• Third on the pyramid were the knights or vassals who were less powerful miliary men and to whom the King also granted land. The vassals also agreed to fight for the king in exchange for their land.
• At the bottom were the peasants or serfs. They belonged to the land, were directly responsible to the noble and knights who owned the land, and could not leave the land without permission from their land owners.

• It involved a strict hierarchy of rank, where every person knew his place – to whom he owed service and from whom it was that he received his land or orders to work the land. 
• Its goal was to preserve these relationships forever – thus ensuring that those at the bottom of the social network had little to no upward mobility.

• Merchants believed that the world's wealth was finite and that one nation could only grow rich at the expanse of another.   Therefore, the nation's economic health was dependent upon extracting and importing wealth from foreign lands and exporting very little wealth from home.
• To meet their needs, merchants sought assistance from the king who, in turn, benefited from the expansion of foreign trade.
• Some merchants joined forces and formed chartered companies - or corporations. Each corporation acquired a charter from the King. The charter gave the corporation a monopoly on trading in a particular region.

• Social, political, and economic inequality due to feudalism.
• Fragile food supply and famine.
• Poor health and the spread of infectious diseases.
• Uncertain economy.
• Overpopulation.
• Dangerous standards of living in urban and rural areas.
• Child victimization.
• Intolerance.
• Religious strife.
• Warfare.
• An idealistic image of the "New World."

• Map, Black Death and Trade Routes, 1333-1369http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/images/maps/decworld/plaguetraderoutes.jpg

Map of Europe 1500 at http://www.euratlas.com/history_europe/europe_map_1500.html

• Maps of War: History of Religion at http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html]

Indulgences

In the 13th Century, the Church began to sell indulgences - a donation to the church that Catholics paid after confessing their sins to a priest and doing an assigned act of devotion.  The payment was made in place of  punishment for sins and secured forgiveness and a swift entry into heaven upon death.  Over time, it even became possible to purchase an indulgence for the dead.

The Dominican Friar John Tetzel, who was in charge of selling indulgences in Germany, used this popular advertizing slogan to sell indulgences:

In January 1521, Pope Leo threatened to excommunicate Luther, but because he had become a hero to so many Germans, he instead agreed to summon him to an Imperial Diet - an occasional assembly of German nobles headed by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.  At the Diet, all his books and pamphlets were piled before Luther.  After he admitted to writing them, he was asked to recant and subsequently refused.  Charles declared Luther  a heretic and an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire.  Luther then went into hiding for a year when he wrote and published more pamphlets criticizing the church and began translating the New Testament into German so all literate persons could read the word of God for themselves.  He returned to Wittenberg in 1522 and continued to preach the first Protestant religion known as Lutheranism.  He died at the age of 63 in 1546. During the 1520s, disputes arose between Luther and other Protestants over many religious issues.  For instance, the issue of whether or not infants should be baptized caused a formal split, with those disagreeing with Luther becoming known as the Anabaptists - those against infant baptism.  One of the biggest splits was between Luther and John Calvin.

John Calvin and Calvinism.  Calvin, a Frenchman,  believed that because man was helpless before an all-powerful God, there was no such thing as free will. Thus, man was predestined for either Heaven or Hell and could do nothing to alter his fate. He argued that while good works were not required to go to Heaven - as the Catholic Church decreed - good works did serve a purpose by acting as a divine sign that the individual was making the best of their life on earth. He further argued that some people had been "called" by God to do a certain thing on earth. Some men and women who seemed ill-fitted for life on earth were greedy, lazy and immoral. Others, however, were called - they seemed to work happily in their lifetime and accomplished a great deal. These people woke up early, worked hard at their calling, were thrifty, sober, and did not engage in frivolity - and in so doing, they acquired wealth. Certain men who were called were also imbued with the correct spirit of acquisition and therefore were destined to become wealthy. Such spirit eventually became known as the Protestant Work Ethic.

The Reformation in England and Puritanism.  In the early 16th century, England was a second-rate power torn apart of internal disunity.  Religion in England was reformed not by determined spiritual idealists like Luther and Calvin, but by a determined monarch.  King Henry VIII had been unable to produce a male heir to his throne by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.  When Pope Clement VII refused Henry's request for an annulment, he divorced her without papal consent in 1527 and married his mistress, Anne Boleyn. Henry then established a new protestant church - the Church of England or Anglican Church - dissolved England's monasteries, seized all church lands and sold them to powerful members of the English gentry at bargain prices, and declared himself head of the new Church of England.

Thereafter, English Protestants were divided between the followers of the new Church of England and the Puritans, the "pure" Calvinists whose "divine plan" called for reforming the evils of society and limiting Church membership to the "elite." Decades of religious strife followed, beginning with Henry's son, Edward VI (1547-1553), who became king at the age of 10 and whose Protestant regents persecuted Catholics; continuing with the reign of his stepsister, Mary (1553-1558), a staunch Catholic who executed many Protestants; and ending with the rule of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) who restored Protestantism and executed over 100 Catholic priests. Her heir, James I (1603-1625) was committed to ridding England of the Puritan threat to the Church.

Results of the Protestant Reformation.

1. Religious reform shattered the unity of European Christianity which had previously been Catholic:  Spain, Italy, and Ireland remained firmly Catholic; France, England, Scotland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands gained a substantial following for Calvinism; while Germany and Scandinavia became largely Lutheran.
2. The competing religious loyalties that emerged resulted in brutal wars and internal uprising that wracked 16th Century Europe as Protestant and Catholic antagonists slaughtered each other in the name of Christianity.
3. The legacy of religious strife intensified European interest in colonization.

• Monarchs hoped to expand their domestic and international power base by acquiring new overseas possessions. Spanish most successful in these endeavors, followed by French and English.
• Merchants hoped to attain a great degree of commercial success. The French (fur) and Spanish (gold) merchants were especially successful in this endeavor.
• Missionaries hoped to save souls. The Spanish and French Catholic missionaries were especially successful in gaining converts through exploration.
• Explorers hoped to conquer and exploit new lands and, in the process, gain fame and wealth. Spanish and French most successful; English to a lesser degree.
  • Spanish explorers sought to open their own trade routes, discover vast quantities of gold, and conquer new lands for the Spanish crown and for their own personal wealth and glory. Only if a land worthy of economic exploitation was found would it be colonized. By 1609, they had gained the first European colonies in the Americas - Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba; entered Central America and conquered the Aztecs; explored Florida and Arizona; built the first continuously-occupied European fort in what became the U.S.; and established a special missionary colony in New Mexico.
  • French explorers sought to expand their commercial trade industry and create a monopoly of the northern fur trade through the acquisition of overseas colonies. By the early 17th Century, they had gained control over their newly-discovered St. Lawrence River and its valleys: established the first French colony in North America - Nova Scotia; founded the town of Quebec for the inception of fur traffic; and developed a strong trading system among both the Indians and the European settlers.
  • English explorers sought to colonize new lands and bring new wealth to England; they gained fishing grounds in Newfoundland.
• Colonists sought to escape the hard realities of life in Europe and to create new spiritual, social, economic, and political lives and lifestyles.
  

1. Life in 14th, 15th, and 16th Century Europe was characterized by a social, political, and economic inequality; a fragile good supply and famine; poor health and living conditions; an uncertain economy; overpopulation; dangerous standards of living; child victimization; intolerance of those who were different; religious strife; and warfare.
2. Some Europeans were beginning to discuss and debate ideas about freedom and its achievement in the "New World."
3. The Protestant Reformation originated from the resistance and protest of ordinary people.
4. The monarchs, merchants, missionaries, and explorers of 15th and 16th Century Europe were primarily interested in conquering and exploiting new lands.   The colonists sought to escape the harsh realities of life in Europe and to create new economic, spiritual, and social lives and lifestyles.  Initial colonization, then, was directly related to economics, and more often than not, to exploitation - both economic and human.
5. The actions of early European explorers greatly affected Europe and No. America in at least two major ways:  the explorations broadened the European vision of the world, allowing them to learn about the vast continents of North and South America that were separated from Asia by another ocean; and the explorations paved the way for permanent European colonization in North America.
6. Given what we know about the Europeans, America was never destined to become a "melting pot" where many people blended together to form a common American denominator.   Those who had begun to think about leaving England and starting life in the "New World" had  similar objectives - to escape hardships, achieve economic betterment, find some sort of political, economic, and religious freedom -  but they had very different ideas of how to achieve them.
    

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