Assignment Code: BHIC-108/AST/TMA/2022-2023

Course Code: BHIC-108

Assignment Name: Rise of the Modern West II

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

There are three Assignments given below. You have to answer all questions.

Assignment-I

Answer the following questions in about 500 words each. 20x2

Q1) Write a note on the intellectual currents in seventeenth-century Europe.

Ans) The Renaissance, Reformation, and the beginnings of modern science provided the intellectual framework for the growth of a strong and pervasive intellectual culture in seventeenth-century Europe. In contrast to earlier intellectual movements, which were mostly restricted to the intellectual elites or religious organisations, the seventeenth century witnessed a substantially larger segment of the European population engage in secular intellectual activity. Another significant development throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the emergence of modern science, which had a significantly wider impact.

The birth of modern science saw a quiet reformulation of cosmology. In 1543, Copernicus published his work on the motion of the stars. His idea that the earth revolves the sun completely upended the traditional wisdom regarding the relationship between the earth and the rest of the solar system. Kepler, Galileo, and Newton were some of the most important figures in the movement sometimes known as the scientific revolution. Their universe-related theories completely contradicted accepted wisdom for a very long time in the West. With the advancement of contemporary science, the idea that the sun, not the earth, was at the centre of our solar system increasingly gained popularity.

Scepticism

Beginning with a strong sense of scepticism regarding conventional wisdom, the seventeenth century. Questions were raised not only about the heavily religious nature of the Middle Ages, but also about the Renaissance's veneration of antiquity. The second topic became more poignant in the late sixteenth century as a result of many academics casting doubt on the lessons learned from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Two significant philosophers who radically contested the dominance of the ancients were Jean Bodin and Michel de Montaigne.

Scepticism is seen historically as having its roots in Greek philosophy. Academic scepticism and Pyrhonism, two distinct schools of scepticism, have been credited to Socrates and later Pyrrho of Ellis. Socrates only questioned and challenged preexisting ideas and beliefs. He never offered his own way of thinking. What has been referred to as "intellectual scepticism" was later confirmed by Arcesilaus and Carneades. As the complete truth could never be known, it did not completely reject information but preferred to rely on knowledge that was likely to be true.

Scepticism was a good tool during this time to proclaim a range of political ideologies, from conservatism to radicalism. Scepticism was a tool used by both Hobbes and Montaigne to counter opposing arguments.

Rationalism

Rationalism is typically seen as a way of thinking that promotes the idea that our knowledge can come from pure reason without being constrained by our actual experiences. According to rationalist theory, the human cognitive powers can be divided into three categories: pure intellect, senses, and imagination. The ability for humans to acquire knowledge was the pure intellect. The idea that fundamental facts about the nature of reality may be obtained through the pure intellect alone, acting independently of the imagination and the senses, is known as rationalism. Rationalism held, either directly or implicitly, that a priori reasoning could be used to understand the nature of truth and reality. The sense-experiences have no bearing on this thinking.

Empiricism

Descartes' and his successors' speculative rationalist philosophies were severely contested by the empiricist and experimental school of thought, which was mostly prevalent in seventeenth-century England. Empiricism and rationalism had historically been kept apart in Europe. Empiricism gained ground mostly in Britain whereas rationalism prospered primarily in France.

In its purest form, empiricism holds that all knowledge of the outside world comes through sense perceptions. In other words, the basis for all types of knowledge is our five senses' perceptions of the world around us. Experiences define the limits of what knowledge can comprehend. All knowledge in the world derives from and is justified by experience alone. The foundation of authentic knowledge cannot be obtained from habit, tradition, revelation, or metaphysical conjectures. The information that is not drawn from human sense-experiences and is not verifiable is rejected by empiricists.

Q2) Discuss the conflict between different social and political groups during the English Revolution.

Ans) The social dynamics had reached a sort of balance under the Tudor dynasty, which was reflected in the political structure as well. A new class of landed gentry that had an interest in both land ownership and the market for agricultural production grew and expanded as a result of the decline of the feudal nobility on the social and economic fronts. These two developments were related processes that occurred between the collapse of the feudal economy and the rise of capitalism. A new class of landed gentry that had an interest in both land ownership and the market for agricultural production grew and expanded as a result of the decline of the feudal nobility on the social and economic fronts. These two developments were related processes that occurred between the collapse of the feudal economy and the rise of capitalism.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, this had altered as these new social and economic forces had grown more powerful, wealthy, and independent and desired more control over and input into political decisions. Laws that established the right to private property, which could not be infringed upon by feudal privilege or by the Crown, were necessary in order to acquire private property by sale. The monarchy now appeared to be a hindrance rather than a booster of their further growth; they demanded more changes in their favour than the succeeding kings were willing to grant. Although it may not have been quite clear to them as they opposed the power of the monarch on numerous issues that seemed to face them, this conflict was inherent in the fundamental logic of growth of social and economic forces in the seventeenth century.

As an absolutist monarchy presided over trade and commerce, the rise of middle classes, the first land enclosures, and the emergence of capitalistic features, it continued to hold power and defend the interests of the feudal landed aristocracy in France until the French Revolution in the eighteenth century.

Some contemporaneous observers and later historians have referred to the Revolution as a civil war as well because of how violent the conflict was and how it seemed to pull the preexisting social structure apart. It was the nation-first state's significant upheaval that put the pre-existing political and social order at jeopardy. Because England, unlike Europe, never again underwent a revolution, such as those of 1789, 1830, or 1848, later historians have emphasised the continuity, the ability to absorb dissent, the willingness of accommodation within its institutions, and the initiative for reforms that made it distinctive and somewhat immune to the revolutionary tendencies of 19th- and 20th-century Europe. In fact, several historians have questioned whether the English Revolution was indeed a revolution at all.

However, the Glorious Revolution, also known as the Restoration, which came after the English revolution has made the issue of this nomenclature complex for England. This is especially true given that both the King and Parliament continued to play a significant role in British history well into the twentieth century and that the struggle/conflict between the Monarchy and the Parliament continued in various forms, representing changes within the ruling classes and in the political system.

Assignment-II

Answer the following questions in about 250 words each. 10x3

Q1) What do you understand by mercantilism? Discuss the development of mercantilist ideas in Europe.

Ans) Mercantilism is an economic practice by which governments used their economies to augment state power at the expense of other countries. Governments sought to ensure that exports exceeded imports and to accumulate wealth in the form of bullion (mostly gold and silver). There was a connection between mercantilism and the growth of Europe. It is possible to identify the connections between historical economic theories and political decisions by studying the history of economic thought. Around the middle of the eighteenth century, criticism and theoretical critique of these principles began to develop. This movement is now known as laissez faire thought and practises. The difference in the two countries' trade policies can be broadly categorised as that between free trade and monopoly and control of trade.

Mercantilist Ideas

This became a well-known phenomenon as a result of the significant influx of gold and silver from the "New World" and the trade in luxury goods from the East that gradually turned into "unequal exchange" and started to alter the fortunes of the European Nation States and to some extent their populations. This was accurately attributed by the intellectuals and observers of the period to the expanding and pervasive activities of the manufacturers and merchants. The merchants were now also making investments in the manufacturing process. These economists then started to counsel the ruling monarchs and governments of the time and exert political influence over laws that, in their opinion, may advance the interests of their country.

These were the fundamental concepts, but there were variations among authors and between national emphasises. There were also differences between the early mercantilist theories that shaped policies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the mercantilism of the seventeenth century, which gave rise to more sophisticated theories in the early eighteenth century when these theories started to be questioned and criticised in favour of the promotion of free trade and alternative wealth indices.

Q2) Analyse the nature of colonization in America.

Ans) The first persistent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown in 1607 by an English commercial firm called The Virginia Company of London. Apart from the severe environment and untamed territory, these early settlers also had to deal with diseases, famine, and the enmity of the native inhabitants. In such trying circumstances, the colony's effective establishment was a significant accomplishment. King James I awarded the Virginia Company a royal charter, assuring the founding settlers that they would have all rights, privileges, and immunities as if they had been "abiding and born inside England."

Jamestown became a royal colony in 1623 as a result of the Virginia Company's failure. However, the functioning and establishment of colonies in America from the very beginning demonstrates how colonialism's character was extremely dissimilar from our own experience with it. The Virginia Company established the House of Burgesses, a body of elected representatives who made decisions and passed laws for the colony. Naturally, the colonists objected when the king abolished the House of Burgesses because the Virginia Company had allowed colonists to own their own land (property ownership). By the year 1760, Scotland and England had combined to become the Kingdom of Great Britain, which had thirteen prosperous colonies with close ties to the mother country on the continent. Each colony had a fair degree of autonomy. There were several connections between Great Britain and her American colonies.

Q3) Explain the process of enclosure movement in England.

Ans) The enclosure movement played a significant role in the agricultural upheaval that sparked England's "agrarian revolution." The farming system varied from location to place up until the eighteenth century. The continuation of open fields or their transformation into enclosed ones depended on a number of variables, including the quality of the soil, the type of crop, and their proximity to the market. Nearly half of England's agricultural land was still kept in an intermixed open-field system by the eighteenth century.

Big estate farmers were interested in combining their landholdings so they could adopt new techniques for farming and benefit from it. Since the Middle Ages, the open field system had dominated rural England. Even the largest landlords had a dispersed holding with neighbouring farm strips separating them. Owners of such dispersed estates were required to cultivate their land according to customary methods. As the entire village community determined the type of crop to be grown, the number of cattle each resident may take for grazing, and the amount of wood that could be harvested from the forest, the open-field system significantly hampered the adoption of new techniques and technologies.

Private enclosures have been practised since the end of the fourteenth century, but the process of consolidating landholdings was made official by parliamentary legislation in the eighteenth century. The sixteenth-century Tudor kings discouraged enclosures out of concern for social and political turmoil. It had a vested interest in keeping the peasants bound to their land because enclosures would have led to widespread evictions. Thus, the enclosure push remained restrained until the late seventeenth century, when the new landed class and bourgeoisie took control of politics.

Assignment-III

Answer the following questions in about 100 words each. 6x5

Q1) The ‘Industrious’ Revolution

Ans) According to Jan de Vries, there was an "industrious revolution" prior to the start of the industrial revolution. This viewpoint has emerged as one of the most important for revisiting the early modern economic history of Europe. De Vries' 1975 theory was based on the eating habits of early modern peasants in Holland's Friesland region. He stated that because these peasants had the ability to demand more products and resources and because they had greater purchasing power, they were able to consume an increasing amount of household goods.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Jan de Vries discovered the evidence for it. He saw the gradual use of mantle cloths and window curtains in rural homes. They began utilising various table and chair designs, new glassware, tin, and ceramics. They utilised table and kitchenware more regularly, and books, mirrors, and clocks started to become fixtures in peasant homes. Although from the perspective of a single peasant, there was nothing revolutionary about these developments, when viewed collectively, they show a slow and steady adoption of urban consumers' purchase behaviours or replication of their cultural practises.

Q2 European Trade and the Americas

Ans) Silver, gold, new crops, and other goods were imported into Europe by the Spanish Empire. A thriving slave trade resulted from the need for inexpensive labour in the West Indies, the southern colonies of America, Cuba, and Brazil. After 1700, African slaves made up roughly two-fifths of the population in the southern regions of America. The Spanish, French, and British depended on the West Indies' slave-based sugar industry for more than a century. Britain's naval and maritime power increased as a result of mercantilist policies.

According to Adam Smith, the British placed a higher emphasis on defence than on material benefits. Cuba continued to be one of the most significant producers of sugar, but the Spanish and the Portuguese lost their initial edge. Despite being commercially successful in the Americas and having a weak military, the Dutch managed to establish their dominance in Indonesia. The French, who were the British's main adversaries, were finally surpassed by the start of the nineteenth century.

Q3) Main Ideas of Enlightenment

Ans) The ideals of the Enlightenment turned out to be so strong and adaptable to the newly developing modern world that it became one of the most important intellectual turning points in human history. In terms of intellectual discourse, the modern world is also referred to as the post-Enlightenment world since it has come to be so intimately associated with the Enlightenment.

These concepts covered a wide range of perspectives on the natural world, the human world, society, the economy, the state, international relations, and human freedom. The Western world's Enlightenment philosophers challenged the established ways of thinking that had been influenced and rooted for millennia by Christianity and other traditional ideologies. As a result, the philosophes questioned the Churches' long-established dominance of politics and society and campaigned for secularisation at all levels. They placed a strong emphasis on rational, individual thought and questioned the conventional beliefs and behaviours that were unquestioningly passed down from one generation to the next. On another level, they criticised the institution of slavery, which the Europeans had widely established in the Americas and elsewhere.

Q4) Protestant Reformation

Ans) The challenge of the Protestant Reformation to the political and religious structures started to expand to many non-German regions. Many areas of Europe saw a major increase in the adoption of these concepts, and some princes also underwent Protestant conversion. The first Protestant leagues were established amongst various states in 1524. Convents and monasteries were dismantled and converted into schools and hospitals as part of these states' efforts to combat Catholicism. Calvinism, which first appeared in the 1540s, is the third most significant school of thought associated with the Protestant Reformation. In France, Jean Calvin started to lead the Reformation. Later, to escape persecution at home, he relocated to Geneva. Like Luther, Calvin harshly criticised the sacrament of penance, but unlike Luther, Calvin placed more emphasis on obedience to God's will than faith as a means of salvation. Calvin advanced his well-known predestination theology in his book Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Q5) Origins of the Seventeenth-Century Crisis

Ans) Eric J. Hobsbawm came up with the concept of a "General Crisis" or simply a "Crisis" in the seventeenth century. He tried to use it as an explanation for the decline in trade and contraction of the productive capacity in the industrial and agricultural sectors of the European economy from the 1620s to the 1640s. There were undoubtedly issues with revolts erupting in France, England, the Spanish Empire, and other places, as well as many regions experiencing severe economic hardships that stood in stark contrast to the steady economic growth of the sixteenth century. Disagreement has evolved around a 1950s thesis that claimed the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, and absolutism superseded the feudal order in the 17th century, which was characterised as a time of crisis in terms of politics, economics, and culture. Although the 1640s and 1650s typically figure as the most intense "moment," is enough, in some accounts, to invalidate the word "moment," supporters of the idea speak of a significant period that continues for several decades as long as 1630 to 1680 or even 1620 to 1690.