Unit III Gender Changes and New World Colonial Models

CHANGES IN SOCIAL AND GENDER STRUCTURES

With the growth of trade, European towns grew, and by 1700 Europe had large cities. Paris and London both had over 500,000 people, Amsterdam had about 200,000, and twenty other cities had populations over 60,000. Life in these cities was vastly different than before, and their existence affected people who lived elsewhere, in villages and towns. Some of the changes are:

• The rise of the bourgeoisie - Whereas the social structure in medieval Europe was split into two classes (nobility and serfs), increasing trade and business created a new class that the French called the bourgeoisie, meaning "town dwellers." Over time the bourgeoisie came to have more wealth than the nobles, since they often formed mutually beneficial alliances with monarchs anxious to increase state revenues.
• Growth in the gap between the rich and the poor - By the late 16th century, the rising wealth of the bourgeoisie created a growing gap between the rich and the poor. The poor were not only the rural peasants, but they also lived in cities as craftsmen, peddlers, and beggars.
• Changes in marriage arrangements - Most marriages in the rest of the world were still arranged by families, but the custom of young men and women choosing their own spouses started in early modern Europe. This change was partly due to separations between generations that occurred when younger people moved to towns, but also to the growing trend toward later marriages. Craftworkers and the poor had to delay marriages while they served as apprentices or built their dowries, and bourgeois men delayed marriage in order to finish their educations. The need for education was growing because of the demands for business success. For example, participation in long-distance trade often meant learning new languages and/or acquiring legal expertise. Since people were older when they married, they tended to be more independent from their parents.

COLONIAL MODELS

The governments that European nations set up in their colonies in the New World reflected their own governments back home. Both Spain and Portugal, who followed the absolutist model, set up expensive, controlling bureaucracies which tried to rule directly. Both also had as major goals the conversion of natives to the Catholic Church. In contrast, the English principle of the limited monarchy allowed some independence for colonial governments. The English also had less interest in converting natives to Christianity than they did in building prosperous, money-generating colonies. The French were unable to establish few colonial governments with wide control, partly because they found wealth in trading furs. Animal trapping required that men move up and down rivers, and they were unable to set up cities, except in New Orleans in the south, and Quebec in the north.

COLONIAL POLITICAL AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES

	Political Structures	Social Structures
Spain	Both the Spanish and the Portuguese kings appointed viceroys, or personal representatives, to rule in the king's name. Spain set up a Council of the Indies, whose members remained in Spain, as a supervisory office to pass laws. Advisory councils were then set up within each viceroyalty, which divided according to region. Difficulty in communication caused viceroys and councils to have a great deal of independence Large bureaucracies developed in urban areas, such as Mexico City	Almost complete subjugation of Amerindians, placed at bottom of social structure A hierarchical class system emerged. Peninsulares (Europeans born in Spain) had the highest status, and creoles (Europeans born in the Americas) were second. In the middle were mestizos (blend of European and Amerindian) and mulattoes (blend of European and African), and at the bottom were full blood natives and Africans. Slavery common, also used encomienda and mita labor systems.
England	No elaborate bureaucracy like Spanish/Portuguese. Individual colonies allowed to set up their own structures, with most of them setting up representative bodies like the British Parliament British government formed partnerships with trading companies, and was most interested in profits. Practice of "salutary neglect" until mid-18th century allowed colonies to run many of their own affairs.	Less successful at subjugating Amerindians, who were generally more friendly to the French Colonies were more diverse than the Spanish, with South Carolina's social structure the most hierarchical and Massachusetts the least Mixing of races more rare than in Latin America. Indigenous people kept out of society, pushed westward. Slavery common, especially in the agricultural southern colonies

These differences were important for the independence movements that would occur during the next unit of study, 1750-1914. In Latin America the mestizos would lead the path to revolution. However, their lack of experience with representative governments, constitutions, and capitalism would hinder their path to self-government and economic independence. The opposite would be true of North America where self-government and representation had become an established aspect of English political culture.