Wars of Spanish Succession Thesis

After the Wars of Spanish Succession, Austria made out with the best deal in the Treaty of Utrecht because of the land all over Europe that it gained, from Italy to the Netherlands.

Dutch Republic Free Response

The Dutch Republic of the 17th century was divided into seven provinces, each one with the ability to select its own ruler, as opposed to countries such as England, France, and Russia with their absolute monarchs.  At the end of the Thirty Years War this independent republic was formally recognized by the rest of Europe.  In the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic in the early 17th century, it was able to rise above much of Europe in exploration and trade by establishing the Dutch East India Company and Dutch West India Company.  The main reason that the Dutch Republic of the 17th century was able to establish worldwide trade, house the largest bank in Europe, and have the highest condition of living at that time was because of the fact that they put less of an emphasis on absolute ruling and exhausted less effort controlling every aspect of the people than their absolutist neighbors.

In the Dutch Republic, an important part of what they stood for was their religious toleration.  Though it was primarily Calvinist, many other religions resided and were accepted in the Dutch Republic.  Christian minorities fled there from their home countries and lived in peace with Catholics, Jews, and Protestants.  In Russia, Peter the Great attempted to secularize the country and the Russian Orthodox Church, but this was only met with rebellions by fundamentalist Christians.  Peter had to use his army and his resources in order to bring them down, an effort which could have been used elsewhere and more successfully.  In the Ottoman Empire, Muslim leaders were the ones ruling the country.  They persecuted Christians and attempted to convert them to the Muslim faith.  Eventually, this theocracy fell apart because of corrupt actions.  If religion had been kept out of the equation and leaders could have been selected by the people, the Ottoman Empire would have had a better chance of succeeding in government workings like the Dutch Republic.

Because the Dutch Republic did not have an absolute monarchy, there was not one person who could take all the power or all the money.  Even when William of Orange was appointed leader of six out of the seven provinces, he still could not be the supreme ruler.  This was the earliest of a system of checks and balances, which none of the other countries followed.  King Louis XIV of France had free reign when he came of age, and taxed the French peasantry enormously.  With this money, he built the extravagant palace of Versailles, for use of him and his nobility -- the likes of which hardly paid any taxes.  Not only did the Dutch Republic acquire their surplus of money more fairly, but they also put it to good use, distributing it fairly amongst its growing middle class.

Because of the relative peace and lack of angry rebellions in the Dutch Republic, much effort was given to building up a strong navy and expanding trade routes and territories.  In 1600, their navy had roughly 10,000 ships, and the Dutch Republic was known to be home to excellent fishermen and canal builders.  The Dutch East India Company traded with such places as Indonesia and India.  The Dutch West India Company traded with Africa and the Americas.  Because the Dutch Republic did not have to establish friendly relationships within its own country, it could make connections with other countries.  While other countries were struggling interiorly, the Dutch Republic was doing just fine.  It was doing so fine that, when there was conflict in England, William of Orange of the Dutch Republic was able to come in and take over, along with his wife Mary.

The Dutch Republic was the most successful of all European countries in the 17th century.  It was peaceful, had a bustling economy, and had a very content, growing middle class.  This was due to the fact that there was no absolute ruler, therefore no religious prejudices, no one person have all the power, and no one person to monopolize all of the money and resources.  The leaders sharing the power in the Dutch Republic were able to keep all of their citizens happy because their distribution of power and money was equal.  Because their people were happy, the leaders of the Dutch Republic and the wealthy merchants were able to establish very successful trade relationships with other countries, boosting the economy even more.  The Dutch Republic had no problems with monarchs and corruptness because of their republic, and this is what made them so successful.

Galileo Free Response Practice 2.0

During the Scientific Revolution in Europe in the 16th and 17th century, Galileo was a great scientist who made many astronomic, mathematic, and physical discoveries.  He has been referred to as the "father of science," and Pope Pius XII referred to Galileo as one of the "most audacious heroes of research."  However, at that time, since many of his findings disagreed with beliefs that had always been held by the Church, Galileo made himself an enemy of the Vatican and its priests and bishops.  Galileo's being persecuted by the Church because of his differing astronomical ideas was the biggest setback in expanding his studies because of the power and control the Church had over Europe at that time, and people of that time would have known much more about science sooner had it not been for this roadblock, and people today also may have even known more.

Throughout his life, Galileo contradicted the findings of multiple Jesuit priests.  Galileo published The Assayer in 1623, discussing, among other things, the nature of comets.  The previous year, Father Orazio Grassi had written pamphlet on comets, and because Galileo's views contradicted those written in Grassi's pamphlet, a controversy between Galileo's and Grassi's ideas arose.  In another work, Galileo also contradicted Father Christoph Scheinder's ideas on sunspots.  Galileo proved to be a constant struggle against the Church, contradicting its priests and forcing them to turn their people against Galileo.  With these priests discouraging their followers and students from Galileo's works, people were less likely to read them, fearing the wrath of God.

During the Roman Inquisition, the Vatican itself dealt with the people opposing their teachings and loyal priests.  In 1616, they banned Copernicus's Orbium Coelestium, putting it on the Index of Forbidden Books.  This alone was enough to discourage people from listening to Galileo, whose work was largely based on Copernican theories of heliocentricism, instead of the Church's ideas of geocentricism.  This was also the year that Galileo was chastised for his findings and asked to repent by Cardinal Bellarmine.  The Vatican made an example out of him to show the people what would happen to them if they went against the Church, which no one was eager to do now.  This time, Galileo refused and continued on with his work.  Galileo went on trial in 1633, in which the verdict was that Galileo had committed great acts of heresy, and was forced to sign a form, formally announcing that he was wrong.  Further printing of his works were banned, making it very difficult for Europeans to get a hold of his now-heretic discoveries.  It was not until 1718, almost one hundred years later, that the current Pope lifted the ban on his works and they were able to be printed yet again.  That is one hundred years in which people could have learned the truth about the tides, the truth about the position of the earth, and the truth of many more various astronomical phenomena.  If not for the Church, people of 16th and 17th century Europe would have been much more educated about the sky above them.

If not for the discouraging Church, Galileo may have even discovered more than all that he had in his time.  All the time he spent fighting the Church could have been used to even further improve his compass or telescope design, for example.  He could have taken more time to stargaze and report even more on what he saw.  Instead, he was exhausting his efforts trying to spread his truths to the whole of Europe.  In the last years of his life, when he was under house arrest for heresy, he could have been discovering even more about physics, mathematics, or astronomy.  If Galileo had not been persecuted by the Church, he would have had more time to devote to his studies, and therefore would have had more to share with the world.

The Catholic Church and all of its priests and bishops were a hindrance to Galileo, even those such as Pope Urban VIII who Galileo had considered a friend.  Living in Italy where the influence of the Church was greatest did not help; Galileo's whole life was spent fighting against the Church to spread his beliefs.  Because the Church was so powerful, it is not a surprise that it took almost a whole century after Galileo's death for this to happen.  If not for the Church in general and its representatives such as Grassi, Scheinder, and Bellarmine, the whole of Europe would have learned much more about science sooner, and people today may even know more than they currently do because of what Galileo would have been able to learn.

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Free Response Practice #1

Why are the trials and tribulations of Galileo often considered both predicative of the future of Western Civilization as well as a perfect encapsulation of the context of his own time?

Galileo was a man who was born and worked during the Scientific Revolution is Europe in the 16th century.  He made many advancements in astronomy, mathematics, and physics, but was also held back by the Catholic Church.  Galileo's trials and tribulations throughout his life demonstrate the condition of Europe at that time because it showed how big a role the Church had -- in not only religion but also science and society in general -- and showed how close-minded Europeans could be to new things, but he looked towards the future of Europe and the world because, despite the Church and the naysayers, his findings influenced many other scientists of the Revolution and much of his discoveries are still used today.

Throughout Galileo's life and his research, his findings were not widely accepted by the European community, Jesuit priests in particular.  Father Grassi had published a treatise of comets and their origins.  Galileo had later published The Assayer, which contradicted Grassi's views on comets.  Grassi, instead of considering the possibility that he was wrong, instead turned people against Galileo and his ideas.  Father Christoph Schiender's views on astronomy also differed from Galileo's; they both had different ideas about sunspots and where they came from.  Scheinder had also accused Galileo of plagiarizing from the former's book of mathematics.  Like Grassi, Scheinder was not willing to accept Galileo's different ideas, and even went so far as to accuse him of stealing ideas, which may or may not have been true.  These people represented the mindset of many people in Europe at that time, showing how hard it must have been for Galileo to teach others what he had learned.

In his time, Galileo also showed how powerful the Catholic Church was, and how much control it had over many things other than religion.  One of the most religiously controversial things that Galileo believed in was the Copernican idea of heliocentricism.  The Church had biblical reason to believe that the Earth was the center of the universe, whereas Galileo had scientific reason to believe it was not.  Even when Cardinal Bellarmino gave Galileo an order to stop preaching such blasphemy, he still continued with his current works and findings.  Galileo was one of the earliest people that the Vatican punished in the Roman Inquisition.  An order was given to stop printing Galileo's findings, and he was put under house arrest for the last years of his life.  This part of Galileo's life shows that it is not a particularly good idea to get on the Church's bad side.  Though now, in 2010, the Pope seems to be exclusively the head of the Church, Galileo shows that, at that present time in Europe, the Pope and his bishops were in charge of much more than religion.

Despite the Church's bad feelings towards Galileo, he was still able to be a spearhead in the Scientific Revolution.  He worked with Johannes Kepler to help develop his laws of planetary motion.  Galileo had done some work on the laws of motion that had previously been established, and this work helped Sir Isaac Newton develop his laws of motion that are still accepted today.  By improving the design of a compass and  a Dutch telescope, Galileo was able to give others the resources to further astronomical discoveries and the study of the stars.  Though he was persecuted by the Church which highly discouraged his work, he was still able to pass it on to later generations of scientists who got much use out of it.  Galileo, living and working at the beginning of the Scientific Revolution, was able to be one of the men who really began the whole thing, and his work was a foreshadowing of the entire era that was about to occur in Europe.  Even today, the four moons of Jupiter that he had discovered with his telescope are still widely accepted, and the Gal is a unit of measurement of acceleration named after him.  Galileo's findings pointed toward much of what would be found during the future of the Scientific Revolution, and even many discoveries today.

Galileo was limited by the mindset of both the Church and the general public at the time of the Scientific Revolution, but he was still able to pass his findings on to the future of European scientists.  He was persecuted up until his very last days, but he still lives on in his research.  Galileo sacrificed much for his science, and showed how hard it can be to go against the Church and even Europe, but he succeeded.  He succeeded in changing the world of science forever, and though there were troubles, Galileo was able to overcome them proudly, always looking to the future.