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Enclosure Movement
Advocates of new farming methods began to rebel against the traditional agricultural framework of common lands. Innovators began to enclose the common pasture lands of villages and convert them into individual shares. For peasants and rural farmers, these new private shares were too expensive, causing them to shift into rural industry, through cottage industries and the putting-out system, This was a marked change as the typical peasant was no longer a farmer, but an industrial worker. -
Period: to
18th Century Europe-Economy and Society
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War of Spanish Succession
The War of Spanish Succession began when Louis XIV accepted the Spanish crown that had been willed to his grandson. This war hugely upset the European balance of power. France and Spain allied and threatened to destroy British colonial holdings in North America. There is a continuity in that it was a war over succession, a very common occurrence in Europe. However, now colonial holdings became involved with wars, not just continental Europe. -
Dutch East India Company Founded
The Dutch East India Company took control of the spice trade in the Indian Ocean, headquartered in Jakarta. Portuguese traders were expelled. The Dutch then transformed the spice trade by reducing the East Indian states and people to dependents and establishing outright control. This was a significant change from the previous Portuguese presence who treated the East Indians as autonomous business partners. -
Navigation Acts
These pieces of legislation were first enacted by Oliver Cromwell, out of a desire to increase both military power and private wealth. The acts required that most goods imported from Europe had to be carried on British ships with British crews. It also gave British merchants and shipowners a monopoly on trade with the British colonies. This was a change from previous economic systems in which more open trade was allowed and there was less governmental regulation. -
Guild System
The growth or rural industry during this time undermined the traditional guild system. This was an association of artisans within cities that worked together to protect their craft and wages. They had to compete with new rural producers as the rural industry grew. This was a change as guilds had usually been unchallenged in their spheres and enjoyed a certain amount of prominence. -
Peace of Utrecht
This was the treaty that ended the War of Spanish Succession. Louis XIV was forced to sign away his North American territories of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Hudson Bay, and give them to Britain. Spain had to give Britain control of its West African Slave trade. This was a change as it was one of the first wars in which colonial territories were disputed over and were part of the peace deal. -
Seven Years War
The War of the Austrian Succession's inconclusive end "set the stage" for the Seven years War. France and Austria were allied against Prussia and Britain in a dispute over the territory of Silesia. French and British colonists with Native American allies fought skirmishes and an eventual war in the colonies. This was one of the first wars to be fought simultaneous on two continents and also one of the first wars on which the colonists fought for their mother country. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris was the treaty the ended the Seven Years War with a victory for Britain and Prussia. The large and formidable British Navy was integral to victory. Its prowess was due to the success of the Navigation Acts. Britain had achieved its goal of monopolizing a huge trading and colonial empire. The emergence of a new major power after a war was not new in Europe, as a shift in the balance of power was common after wars with numerous combatants. -
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Adam Smith was one of the most well-known economists and a crucial leader of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was an outspoken opponent of government regulation of trade and industry. His work, The Wealth of Nations, argued for free enterprise and became the basis of modern economics. A change was his opposition of guilds, a system that had been used in Europe since the 13th century. -
Parliament Abolishes the British Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade was hugely lucrative for the European countries who participated in it. Britain was one of these countries, using slaves in their plantation colonies for free labor. Eventually, people began to realize the horrific nature of the slave trade, and they were no longer as needed as indentured servitude took over, so Parliament voted to abolish. This was a positive change from the widespread acceptance of the slave trade that permeated Western Europe.