Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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General news, articles and discussions regarding the early modern period, which followed the Middle Ages and preceded the modern era.

During this period, improvements in mapping and ship design brought faster travel and increased colonialism, opening up the New World and other regions. Feudalism declined in Europe, as the Age of Enlightenment saw adoption of the scientific method and the advance of ideals such as liberty and progress. Mercantilism paved the way to capitalism and industrialisation.


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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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(spoiler)

Ending scene from Apocalypto (2006). From Wikipedia:
"According to the DVD commentary track by Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, the ending of the film was meant to depict the first contact between the Spaniards and Mayas that took place in 1511 when Pedro de Alvarado arrived on the coast of the Yucatán and Guatemala, and also during the fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1502."

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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Gin Craze

The Gin Craze was a period in the first half of the 18th century when the consumption of gin increased rapidly in Great Britain, especially in London. Daniel Defoe commented: "the Distillers have found out a way to hit the palate of the Poor, by their new fashion'd compound Waters called Geneva, so that the common People seem not to value the French-brandy as usual, and even not to desire it".

Parliament passed five major Acts, in 1729, 1736, 1743, 1747 and 1751, designed to control the consumption of gin. Though many similar drinks were available and alcohol consumption was considerable at all levels of society, gin caused the greatest public concern. Although it is commonly thought gin or Jenever was the singular drink, "gin" was a blanket statement for all grain-based alcohols at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Craze


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Gin Lane by William Hogarth, 1751
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Old St Paul's Cathedral

The original St Paul's Cathedral ("Old St Paul's"), which lasted from 1314 until its destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

With a spire of 149 metres (489 ft), it would almost meet the technical definition of a skyscraper if built today.

For comparison, the current St Paul's is 111m (365 ft).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St_Paul%27s_Cathedral



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St Paul's Cathedral on the same site today:


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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Life Outside the Christiansborg Castle
by Marley Brown

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/448- ... org-castle

Introduction:
(Archaelogy.org) Along a stretch of the West African coast known to European explorers and traders as “White Man’s Grave” due to its association with death from malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and heat exhaustion, Danish soldiers and merchants built a fortified structure called Christiansborg Castle in 1661. The building survives to this day in what is now the city of Accra, Ghana, where it is known as Osu Castle, after the district in which it stands. Since 2014, archaeologists led by Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project director Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann have been working at the castle. They have uncovered evidence of a Euro-African community made up of European men who worked at the castle, African women they married, and the children of their unions. The primary business in which this community was engaged was the transatlantic slave trade. With only a few brief interludes, from the construction of the fort until 1803, when Denmark began to enforce its abolition of that trade, an estimated tens of thousands of enslaved people were held in Christiansborg Castle’s dungeons before being taken to the Danish West Indies, which included the Caribbean islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas. At least 100,000 captives were transported during the Danish transatlantic slave trade.

Europeans began formally trading with West African peoples in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, nearly 200 years prior to the construction of Christiansborg Castle. The Portuguese built Elmina Castle, the first permanent European trading post in West Africa, on the same stretch of coast as Christiansborg Castle, some 85 miles west, in 1482. Over the next 300 years, European nations, including Portugal, the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark, constructed around 80 castles, forts, and trading lodges within the borders of modern Ghana alone. This territory represents a fraction of the entire region of West Africa where Europeans traded with African groups and acquired captives, a massive area Europeans called Guinea, which stretched from roughly modern Senegal to modern Gabon.
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How do you Spot a Witch? Notorious 15th-century Book Gave Instructions – and Helped Execute Thousands of Women
October 21, 2021

Introduction:
(The Conversation) Books have always had the power to cast a spell over their readers – figuratively.

But one book that was quite popular from the 15th to 17th centuries, and infamously so, is literally about spells: what witches do, how...(to) identify them, how to get them to confess, and how to bring them to swift punishment.

As fear of witches reached a fever pitch in Europe, witch hunters turned to the “Malleus Maleficarum,” or “Hammer of Witches,” for guidance. The book’s instructions helped convict some of the tens of thousands of people – almost all women – who were executed during the period. Its bloody legacy stretched to North America, with 25 supposed “witches” killed in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 1600s.
Further Extract:
The first (part) argues that witches do in fact exist, sorcery is heresy, and not fearing witches’ power is itself an act of heresy. Part Two goes into graphic detail about witches’ sexual deviancy, with one chapter devoted to “the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi.” An incubus was a male demon believed to have sex with sleeping women.

It also describes witches’ ability to turn their victims into animals, and their violence against children. The third and final part gives guidelines on how to interrogate a witch, including through torture; get her to confess; and ultimately sentence her.
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Wreck of Historic Royal Ship Discovered off the English Coast
June 9, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) The wreck of one of the most famous ships of the 17th century - which sank 340 years ago while carrying the future King of England James Stuart - has been discovered off the coast of Norfolk in the UK, it can be revealed today.

Since running aground on a sandbank on May 6, 1682, the wreck of the warship the Gloucester has lain half-buried on the seabed, its exact whereabouts unknown until brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, with their friend James Little, found it after a four-year search.

Due to the age and prestige of the ship, the condition of the wreck, the finds already rescued, and the accident’s political context, the discovery is described by maritime history expert Prof Claire Jowitt, of the University of East Anglia (UEA), as the most important maritime discovery since the Mary Rose.

The Gloucester represents an important ‘almost’ moment in British political history: a royal shipwreck causing the very near-death of the Catholic heir to the Protestant throne at a time of great political and religious tension.

Now a major exhibition is planned for Spring 2023, the result of a partnership between the Barnwell brothers, Norfolk Museums Service, and academic partner UEA. Running from February to July at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, the exhibition will display finds from the wreck - including the bell that confirmed the ship’s identity - and share ongoing historical, scientific and archaeological research.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/955462


The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: The Politics of a Royal Shipwreck
by Claire Jowitt
June 10, 2022
(The English Historical Review) The significance of the wreck of the Gloucester on 6 May 1682 en route to Scotland, with James Stuart, duke of York, later James II and VII, on board, is poorly understood. Based on new archival research, this article places the event in its political, cultural and naval contexts in order to re-evaluate its importance to British history and to correct a number of inaccuracies in recent historiography. The wreck occurred at a sensitive political moment when, within the maelstrom of the Exclusion Crisis (1679–81), the Duke was hopeful of securing his place in the succession.

However, thanks in part to the cultural vigour of the ‘ship of state’ trope, the disaster risked James being regarded as a pilot and commander unable to steer the nation. Because his political enemies could use the shipwreck as propaganda to undermine his position as heir to the throne, the event in general, and especially the Duke’s behaviour, became popular topics which were debated and contested from Whig and Tory viewpoints. Since the tragedy occurred at sea, one arm of early modern state apparatus that was especially responsive to these debates was the English navy, which was itself in the midst of a power struggle between Crown and admiralty for control over its future direction. The article sheds new light on the far-reaching implications for James’s reign of the sinking of the Gloucester, and argues afresh for the centrality of maritime history to Restoration political history.
Read more here: https://academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-a ... 7/6604921
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