Unit 1: American Beginnings

Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries

The English permanent settlements in North America began in the 17th century when Western Europe was undergoing great changes. During the Middle Ages (between A.D. 500 and A.D.1500), Europe was under the single spiritual authority of the Roman Catholic Church. The feudal system of serfdom prevailed. The peasants, or the serfs, were tied to the soil and worked in the fields for their lords. Merchants and craftsmen were handicapped by the social disorders. Art and learning were controlled by the Church. By the 16th century, some new and powerful social forces began to emerge which led to the awakening of Europe and the discovery of America. The first new force was the development of capitalism. The growth of capitalism produced two new classes—the bourgeois class and the working class. With the fast development of commerce and trade, the bourgeoisie became increasingly powerful in politics as well as in economy. They wanted to share power with feudal lords and in some countries such as England they wanted to have more power from the king so that they could have free development. The English Revolution was the result of this growth of capitalism.

The second major force that brought about the modern development of Europe was the Renaissance, which was marked by a changing outlook on life. The God-centered world was challenged by the great progress in natural and social science. People began to be more confident in themselves and show more interest in the world about them. Many challenged the authority of the Bible and were willing to observe, experiment and test truths for themselves. This attitude pushed the development of technology.

Martin Luther

The third influential force was the Religious Reformation, a religious reform movement that started from Germany. In 1517, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, put up "95 Theses" on the church door in protest against abuses and corruption in the church. He argued that the Pope had no right to sell "indulgences" for the remission of sins. He believed that sinful men could win salvation neither by good works nor through the church or the Pope, but only by faith in Jesus Christ and through a direct relationship to God. And the only true guide to the will of God was the Bible. Because Martin Luther protested against the Catholic Church, the Reformation came to be called the Protestant Reformation. Soon after Martin Luther began his revolt, John Calvin, a Frenchman, who had fled to Switzerland, started his reform movement. Calvinism which had many followers in

John Calvin

King Henry VIII

England will be dealt with later. In England, King Henry VIII, because of the political disputes with the Roman Catholic Church and because of his personal marital problems, broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and set up the Church of England, and he became the head of the Church of England himself. These religious reforms had much in common. They all challenged the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church which controlled people's religious beliefs and interfered in political affairs of the nation states. The individual Christian believers who supported the Reformation believed that human beings could be saved only by faith, by establishing a direct contact with God, not through the church or its priests. These reforms reflected the rise of nationalism in Europe, represented the

A Protestant Church

demand of the bourgeois class for free development and expressed the desire of ordinary working people, especially the serfs, for the liberation from the feudal control. Therefore, the Protestant Reformation was welcomed by leaders, middle class and working people in Europe, especially in Western European countries. As a result, the Protestants and their denominations spread far and wide.

Against the background of those emerging new forces, the English colonies that would become the United States of America were planted in North America.

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