Quaderno Di Storia 4cl

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QUADERNO DISPENSA DI STORIA Elena Radaelli 4°Cl Anno Scolastico 2015/2016 !1 !2 LA NUOVA CONCEZIONE DEL TEMPO E DELLO SPAZIO Noi oggi siamo completamente immersi in un particolare modo di vivere il tempo e lo spazio e siamo istintivamente convinti che questo sia l'unico modo possibile di concepire queste entità, anzi che sia l'unico modo giusto per farlo. 
 dominio tempo e spazio La concezione del tempo e dello spazio nell'antichità per esempio era molto diversa da quella che nacque, si diffuse gradualmente e infine si impose in Occidente nella seconda metà del Medioevo. Certamente non è un fatto casuale che proprio mentre nelle città italiane e d'oltralpe si veniva gradualmente elaborando una nuova tavola di valori, in cui l'azione e il successo assumevano una posizione sempre più importante, cominciava a essere elaborata anche una nuova visione dello spazio e del tempo, il cui carattere comune consiste proprio nel «dominio» che essa permette su queste entità. 
 LA NUOVA CONCEZIONE DEL TEMPO La meridiana e la clessidra 
 Sin dall'antichità esistevano due strumenti per misurare lo scorrere del tempo: la meridiana e la clessidra. 
 
 “sfruttare” la natura La meridiana è assai semplice: consiste infatti di un bastone piantato al suolo, detto gnomone, il cui scopo è quello di rendere immediatamente percepibile il movimento del segnatempo per eccellenza, il sole, su cui si regola tutta la vita biologica della terra.
 La meridiana in altre parole si limita a «sfruttare» la natura: seguendo con attenzione lo spostarsi dell'ombra sul terreno o, nelle meridiane più evolute, sul muro, e tenendo una meridiana a Champoluc (Aosta) conto della stagione, si può conoscere con una buona approssimazione l'ora. In più, la meridiana permette di sapere con certezza quando scocca il mezzogiorno, che corrisponde per definizione al momento in cui l'ombra proiettata da uno gnomone verticale è più corta. Naturalmente questo tipo di «orologio» dipende totalmente dalle condizioni atmosferiche e astronomiche: non può essere usato di notte né quando il cielo è coperto. uso limitato 
 emancipazione dalla natura L'altro strumento per la misurazione del tempo era la clessidra: nella sua forma più semplice si tratta di un recipiente da cui un fluido, inizialmente acqua, poi sabbia, fuoriesce tramite un piccolo foro e secondo un ritmo costante. Il grande vantaggio della clessidra è quello di emancipare l'uomo dalla natura, dal momento che può funzionare anche di notte e col brutto tempo. Il flusso dell'acqua o della sabbia però non è mai assolutamente regolare, e perciò non può essere utilizzato per misurazione realmente precise su lunghi intervalli tempo. Questo segnatempo in ogni caso conobbe nell'antichità una grande diffusione e un notevole sviluppo tecnico. !3 clessidra con flusso d’acqua influenza della natura estate e inverno Per esempio lo scienziato e ingegnere greco Ctesibio di Alessandria (135 a.C. circa) costruì una clessidra molto complessa in cui il flusso d'acqua, riempiendo un cilindro nel corso di un'intera giornata, sollevava una statua la cui lancia indicava l'ora su una colonna. Un sifone provvedeva a svuotare automaticamente il cilindro al termine della giornata, facendo così abbassare la statua nella posizione di partenza. Gli antichi erano così condizionati dalla natura che non riuscivano a immaginare un sistema di misurazione del tempo sganciato dall'alternarsi del periodo di luce e di oscurità. Di conseguenza le ore «diurne» erano molto più lunghe in estate che in inverno, e quelle «notturne» duravano di meno in estate che in inverno. 
 Ctesibio cercò di tenerne conto, incidendo sulla colonna della sua clessidra una scala di misurazione del tempo variabile, in cui le ore erano rappresentate da intervalli maggiori d'estate e minori d'inverno; la colonna stessa veniva fatta ruotare automaticamente dalla clessidra con un complesso gioco di pesi e ingranaggi, in modo da utilizzare sempre la scala adatta alla stagione in corso. clessidra di Ctesibio d’Alessandria La Cina orologio di Su Sung minimo margine di errore 
 tempo: imperatore In Cina si sviluppò una lunga tradizione di orologi ad acqua che culminò con la realizzazione, alla fine dell'XI secolo della nostra era, del miglior segnatempo costruito nel mondo fino a quel momento e attribuito all'astronomo di corte Su Sung. 
 Si trattava in realtà di un orologio astronomico, che serviva a muovere una sfera armillare, ossia una riproduzione in bronzo del cielo e dei movimenti degli astri principali. 
 Un certa quantità d'acqua riempiva uno dopo l'altro una serie di piccoli «cucchiai» fissati su una ruota di grande diametro: ogni 24 secondi circa il cucchiaio si riempiva e con il suo peso faceva scattare una serie di meccanismi che tramite pesi e contrappesi facevano girare la ruota di un piccolo angolo. Il cucchiaio rovesciandosi si vuotava, un nuovo cucchiaio veniva messo in posizione e il ciclo riprendeva. Il moto intermittente ma regolare della ruota veniva infine trasmesso alla sfera armillare e a una serie di statue che spostandosi indicavano l'ora. Alcune ricostr uzioni moder ne hanno dimostrato che probabilmente lo strumento riusciva a segnare il tempo entro un margine di errore inferiore al minuto al giorno, almeno per brevi periodi. 
 L’orologio tuttavia nacque in Europa: la cultura cinese non era affatto importante conoscere l'ora esatta. Il tempo apparteneva all'imperatore, non ai sudditi. Perciò gradualmente le conoscenze e le tecniche necessarie per costruirlo si persero. 1 meccanismo orologio di Su Sung 1 http://pammack.sites.clemson.edu/lec3220/susungclock.jpg !4 L’orologio nasce in Europa 
 orari della preghiera Un segnatempo veramente efficace fu invece trovato in Europa. Uno degli impulsi più forti in questa direzione era il fatto che i monaci cristiani dovevano pregare a intervalli molto rigidi e spesso di notte, e avevano perciò bisogno di misurare il tempo con grande precisione. Costruirono perciò e perfezionarono intorno al 1000 delle «campane automatiche», basate anch'esse sul principio della clessidra, che pur senza essere dei veri orologi meccanici rappresentarono un decisivo passo in questa direzione. 
 Lo svegliarino possiede due meccanismi ben distinti: il segnatempo e la campanella. Quest’ultima viene messa in azione, provocando il suono che avrebbe svegliato i monaci, da un tamburo posto alla base dell’horologium.
 Il tamburo accoglie un primo cordino collegato a un peso: è quest'ultimo, cadendo verso il basso, che fornisce l'energia cinetica per far suonare la campanella. Ciò che fa muovere la lancetta grande è un secondo peso, non visibile, la cui cordina è avvolta su un secondo tamburo. Il movimento viene “parcellizzato” dal meccanismo in alto, il cosiddetto "foliot", che si sposta alternativamente in una direzione e nell’altra. svegliarino monastico il foliot svegliarino monastico L'orologio meccanico vero e proprio comparve probabilmente solo alla metà del Duecento, portando con sé una serie di importanti novità. Prima di tutto veniva mosso da pesi, e questo lo rendeva immune dei problemi legati al tempo e alla temperatura.
 l’orologio meccanico battito intermittente Ma la novità decisiva era il segnatempo vero e proprio, che misurava il tempo grazie a una sorta di battito intermittente e non più attraverso un flusso continuo. L'orologio meccanico non cercava più di «sfruttare» la natura per misurare il tempo, e neppure di «copiarla» creando un f lusso controllabile e misurabile, ma al contrario introduceva il principio per cui il tempo viene misurato contando degli eventi che si ripetono a intervalli regolari e ravvicinati. meccanismo orologio meccanico 
 Il vantaggio di questo sistema è che la misura del tempo diventa tanto più precisa quanto più rapidi e ravvicinati sono gli eventi ciclici che vanno contati, ed è svincolata dalle incertezze legate al flusso di un fluido. Il «battito» veniva inizialmente fornito da un particolare meccanismo detto scappamento a verga. 
 
 !5 Si trattava di un sistema semplice e geniale, che permetteva alternativamente di trattenere e di rilasciare, secondo un ritmo stabile e regolabile in modo pratico, un corona dentata solidale. 
 
 energia gravitazionale Il cuore del meccanismo consisteva in un'asta, perpendicolare all'asse del tamburo, su cui erano sistemate due alette, a loro volta perpendicolari l'una rispetto all'altra, in modo che quando una di esse «si impegnava» (cioè si incastrava) nella corona dentata l'altra ne veniva sganciata. Il movimento, ripetendosi all'infinito, permetteva in pratica di sfruttare in modo progressivo e controllato l'energia gravitazionale dei pesi, e di renderla disponibile per «quanta» (unità discrete) che potevano venir contate facilmente. All'estremità del foliot c'erano dei pesi ausiliari che non servivano in alcun modo per fornire energia al sistema, ma solo a regolarne la velocità. L’evoluzione dell’orologio 
 costosi miniaturizzazione pendolo oscillante I primi orologi erano di grandi dimensioni (venivano montati in cima alle torri cittadine) e costosi, così che solo i sovrani o le città più ricche potevano permetterseli. Il passo successivo fu quindi in direzione della miniaturizzazione, resa possibile dall'introduzione, agli inizi del Quattrocento, della molla a spirale come fonte di energia. Questi strumenti, però non erano affatto precisi: gli orologi di grandi dimensioni sgarravano di un quarto d'ora al giorno, mentre quelli portatili avevano un margine d'errore di una mezz'ora al giorno; entrambi dovevano essere regolati una o più volte al giorno, basandosi sulla meridiana.
 Il problema della precisione comunque venne risolto alla metà del Seicento dallo scienziato olandese Christian Huygens che utilizzò come segnatempo un pendolo oscillante. Adesso il problema era di nuovo quello di ridurre le dimensioni. La soluzione venne trovata nel 1675 sostituendo al pendolo una molla (detta bilanciere). A questo punto anche gli orologi portatili raggiunsero una precisione dell'ordine dei cinque minuti al giorno, paragonabile ormai a quella dei nostri orologi. Con questa invenzione la disciplina del tempo diventava possibile per tutti. !6 LA NUOVA CONCEZIONE DELLO SPAZIO Quasi contemporaneamente allo sviluppo dell'orologio, che permette di controllare e quindi di dominare il tempo, si assiste allo sviluppo della carta nautica, che permette di controllare e quindi di dominare lo spazio.
 carte dal valore simbolico Esattamente come avviene con il tempo, noi siamo oggi abituati a pensare che esista un solo modo di concepire lo spazio, quello «oggettivo» e «scientifico» che si traduce nelle carte geografiche dei nostri atlanti. Le cose però non stanno così. Si pensi a un elemento apparentemente così neutro e "oggettivo" come l'orientamento della carta.. Culture diverse dalla nostra costruivano le loro carte in modo diverso, partendo dai loro interessi prevalenti, e rispettando la legge psicologica generale per la quale «ciò che sta in alto» ha più valore di «ciò che sta in basso», e «ciò che sta al centro» è più importante di «ciò che sta in periferia». Il «centro» della carta possiede sempre un forte valore simbolico ed è riservato, in qualsiasi cultura, all'elemento che si intende privilegiare. Le carte OT
 mappa mundi strumenti meditazione Nella cultura dell'alto Medioevo profondamente impregnata di sensibilità religiosa cristiana, le carte geografiche si ispirano al cosiddetto modello O.T. Queste due lettere sono le iniziali delle parole latine Orbis terrarum, che significano semplicemente «la Terra». Gli intellettuali medievali però amavano interpretarle simbolicamente: la «O» veniva vista come una circonferenza, segno della perfezione della creazione e della totalità del mondo, mentre la «T» era intesa come la Croce di Cristo. Inscrivendo la «T» nella «O» si ottiene un simbolo complesso, usato nelle carte dell'alto Medioevo per descrivere la terra abitata. Una carta costruita in questo modo veniva chiamata "mappa mundi”, ovvero carta del mondo. La terra vi appare come una specie di torta divisa in tre spicchi: al centro si trova Gerusalemme, punto di origine della salvezza cristiana per l'umanità; nella metà superiore del disco viene raffigurata l’Asia, in basso a sinistra l'Europa e in basso a destra l'Africa. Il braccio verticale della «T» viene fatto coincidere con il mare Mediterraneo, quello di destra con il Nilo, quello di sinistra con il fiume russo Don, che sfocia nel mar Nero. È chiaro che queste carte non danno nessuna indicazione attendibile per spostarsi sulle superficie terrestre, ma è altrettanto chiaro che non erano realizzate per questo scopo: erano piuttosto degli strumenti di meditazione che ricordavano a chi le contemplava la centralità del sacrificio del Cristo nella vita dell'uomo. Carta OT di Beato di Liebana !7 mappa di Erbsdorf Nella grande «mappa mundi» di Erbsdorf, risalente alla seconda metà del Duecento, questo uso «teologico» della geografia è visibile con grande chiarezza: dal di sotto del disco del mondo, in corrispondenza dei bracci della croce, compaiono le mani, i piedi e il volto di Cristo che «abbraccia» il mondo. Mappa mundi di Erbsdorf Mappa mundi di Hereford La Carta Pisana carte “utili” In quegli stessi decenni si stavano diffondendo una nuova sensibilità e una nuova mentalità nei confronti della natura, collegate allo sviluppo delle città mercantili. La necessità di avere delle rappresentazioni dello spazio che fossero prima di tutto «utili» per progettare e registrare gli spostamenti era particolarmente viva sul mare, dove l'esigenza di sapere dove si è e dove si va è molto più vitale che sulla terraferma. Per questo nasce, nella seconda metà del Duecento, un tipo di carta completamente diversa: la carta nautica. Il primo esempio a noi noto è la cosiddetta «carta Pisana», disegnata su una pergamena lunga circa un metro e larga 50 cm circa, realizzata probabilmente intorno al 1275 in una città marinara italiana (forse Genova), che descrive con grande precisione le coste del Mediterraneo e del Mar Nero. La sua accuratezza è impressionante: con qualche piccolo accorgimento, potrebbe venire utilizzata ancor oggi. Sicuramente non è sorta dal nulla, ma è stata preceduta da una serie di carte locali che raffiguravano solo i singoli bacini, come l'Adriatico o il Mar Egeo. Tuttavia nulla ci è rimasto di q u e s t i documenti e perciò la carta Pisana appare come un cambiamento improvvis nella storia della cartografia. carta pisana !8 nuova percezione della realtà A un livello più profondo, con questa carta irrompe nella civiltà occidentale una nuova percezione della realtà, indissolubilmente connessa alla tecnologia disponibile al tempo. • sparisce ogni allusione mistica: la nuova carta ha uno scopo pratico, e cioè guidare il navigante in sicurezza da un porto all'altro fornendogli il maggior numero possibile di informazioni utili. • deve descrivere la realtà, non fornirne una lettura ideale: i dati contenuti nella carta possono provenire solo dall'esperienza, non dai libri, e già questo rappresenta una frattura epistemologica con il passato, dal momento che le carte nautiche esprimono un sapere che non proviene dalla tradizione classica • lo spazio è interpretato in modo geometrico, attraverso un complesso reticolato di linee attraversa tutta la carta. • non ci sono illustrazioni o disegni, ma vengono invece riportati tutti i nomi dei porti utilizzabili per la navigazione • una serie di segni indicano i pericoli principali: puntini rossi ravvicinati per le secche, crocette per scogli isolati. L’impiego della tecnologia: la bussola
 una ciotola una scatola con un ago un disco di legno atlanti carta piana Questo nuovo tipo di carta è strettamente legata alla storia della tecnica, perché non potrebbe esistere senza l'invenzione della bussola, diffusasi nel Mediterraneo intorno al 1100. 
 Le primissime testimonianze parlano di una ciotola in cui galleggia un ago fissato a uno stelo di paglia. Nella sua forma appena più evoluta questo primitivo strumento si era trasformato in una scatola di legno rotonda (detta «bussolo»: da qui il nome italiano dello strumento), che conteneva un ago magnetizzato in equilibrio su una punta sottile. Sul bordo o sul fondo della scatola era disegnata la cosiddetta «rosa dei venti». In seguito, tra la fine del Duecento e gli inizi del Trecento, ci fu un'importante miglioramento che trasformò la bussola in uno strumento veramente efficiente: l'ago o gli aghi calamitati furono fissati sotto un disco di carta o di legno molto leggero, di dimensioni leggermente inferiore al diametro della scatola della bussola e sul quale veniva riportata la rosa dei venti. Nel corso del Trecento e del Quattrocento venne realizzato un gran numero di carte nautiche, presto raccolte insieme a formare degli atlanti. Alcuni di essi sono giunti fino a noi e rappresentano una fonte inestimabile per valutare le conoscenze a disposizione degli uomini di quel tempo. Tuttavia le carte costruite usando solo la bussola presentavano alcuni gravi inconvenienti. La carta medievale e rinascimentale rimase quella che tecnicamente si chiama una «carta piana», cioè una carta che riproduce un frammento della superficie terrestre senza preoccuparsi delle distorsioni che questa subisce in questa operazione. Nel Medioevo infatti non si teneva in considerazione il fatto che la terra è sferica, e perciò non può essere rappresentata su una superficie piana senza essere deformata. Gli esploratori e i navigatori del Quattrocento e del Cinquecento non potevano perciò disegnare carte veramente precise delle terre che avevano visitato, e chi li seguiva si trovava esposto a gravi pericoli. !9 LA GUERRA DEI CENT’ANNI radice politica ed economica All’inizio del Trecento i sovrani francesi giunsero a controllare due terzi del territorio nazionale e resero la Francia uno dei regni più forti dell’Occidente. La questione dei feudi del re d’Inghilterra sul territorio francese era però un ostacolo nel processo di affermazione della monarchia e unificazione territoriale. Per risolvere questo problema nel 1337 il re d’Inghilterra Edoardo III reagì rivendicando per sé la corona francese: la nuova dinastia dei Valois, infatti era subentrata al trono per mancanza di eredi diretti del ramo capetingio, ma anche il sovrano inglese era imparentato con Carlo IV, l’ultimo sovrano capetingio morto nel 1328, poteva perciò accampare diritti sulla corona francese. Oltre al punto di vista politico, la pregiata lana inglese lavorata nelle Fiandre fu una determinate causa scatenante dal punto di vista economico. Così ebbe inizio la Guerra dei Cent’anni, il conflitto tra Francia e Inghilterra che ebbe luogo tra il 1337 e 1453. sconfitta francese Nella prima fase della guerra gli inglesi riuscirono ad imporsi, sconfiggendo i francesi nella battaglia di Crecy nel 1346 e nella battaglia di Poitiers nel 1356.
 La battaglia che diede inizio alla guerra nel 1340 fu la battaglia navale di Sluis. LA BATTAGLIA DI SLUIS La battaglia di Sluis, o conosciuta con il nome francese di l’Écluse, fu la prima grande battaglia della guerra dei Cent’anni. Verso mezzogiorno Edoardo arrivò nei pressi di Sluis, una attuale località chiamata Oostburg, dove tre cavalieri sbarcarono in esplorazione, riuscendo a discernere l'entità della flotta nemica e la sua disposizione. 
 Le navi inglesi erano disposte su due linee ed è presumibile che la prima abbia attaccato frontalmente, la seconda abbia invece intrapreso una manovra di aggiramento ai fianchi. I francesi avevano schierato le loro forze su tre o quattro linee, con le navi legate l'un l'altra tramite corde e catene, imitando lo schieramento della fanteria. Gli inglesi si portarono al largo, con una manovra che destò nello schieramento avversario la parvenza di una ritirata, ma poco dopo invertirono la rotta per prendere poi le navi francesi alle spalle. La battaglia fu una lunga successione di corpo a corpo e le navi francesi vennero attaccate linea per linea da quelle inglesi: lo scontro si concluse con la quasi totale distruzione della flotta francese. cronache di Jean Froissart le navi Grazie alle cronache di Jean Froissart, le quali presentano delle dettagliate miniature, è stato possibile ricavare delle importanti testimonianze riguardanti entrambi gli schieramenti. Le navi impegnate erano delle cocche: delle navi tonde, prive di remi, con un solo albero e vele quadrate, le quali venivano trasformate in navi da guerra solamente perché venivano riempite di soldati. le due flotte, Jean Froissart !10 Le bandiere ci permettono di individuare i due schieramenti: il simbolo dei francesi era il giglio bianco di Francia su sfondo blu, mentre sulle bandiere inglesi erano divise in quarti che raffiguravano i tre leoni rampanti, simbolo di Riccardo cuor di leone, affiancate dal giglio a simboleggiare i feudi in territorio francese. 
 le bandiere 
 LA BATTAGLIA DI CRECY long bow tramonto epoca cavalleria La battaglia di Crecy fu uno degli eventi militari più importanti della guerra dei cent’anni.
 Un numero esiguo di soldati inglesi, circa 12 000, schiacciò l’esercito francese costituito da circa 30 000/40 000 uomini. Gli inglesi utilizzarono un nuovo tipo di arco, l’arco lungo, il “long bow”, il quale era a lunga gittata e rapido nel lancio delle frecce. Gli arcieri inglesi non potevano penetrare le armature dei cavalieri, però potevano colpire i fianchi dei cavalli riuscendo così a disarcionare i soldati e costringendoli a dover combattere a terra.
 L’utilizzo di queste nuove tecniche militari determinò la fine dell’epoca della cavalleria. il “long bow”, Jean Froissart trattato di Troyes Giovanna d’Arco Con Carlo V la Francia si riorganizzò e riconquistò buona parte dei territori che aveva ceduto all’Inghilterra. Tuttavia, dopo un lungo periodo in cui la guerra si interruppe, la Francia subì una rovinosa disfatta nella battaglia di Azincourt nel 1415.
 Gli inglesi si impadronirono di tutta la Francia centro-settentrionale, compresa Parigi, e riuscirono a imporre a Carlo VI di riconoscere come suo erede il re d’Inghilterra Enrico V, dandogli in sposa sua figlia, con il Trattato di Troyes nel 1420. Nonostante il trattato di Troyes, alla morte di Carlo VI, suo figlio Carlo VII rivendicò l’eredità del regno, dimostrando grande determinazione, riordinò l’esercito e le finanze per prepararsi alla riscossa contro gli Inglesi. Un ruolo speciale fu scoperto da una giovane contadina, Giovanna d’Arco, che tra il 1429 e 1431 guidò l’esercito francese e liberò la città di Orléans dall’assedio inglese: subito dopo Carlo VII fu incoronato re di Francia. !11 GIOVANNA D’ARCO le “voci” Giovanna d’Arco nacque intorno al 1412 nel villaggio di Domrémy. Era una dei cinque figli di una coppia di contadini, non sapeva né leggere né scrivere e accudiva alle faccende domestiche. Era un’adolescente tredicenne quando cominciò a sentire delle “voci” da lei attribuite all’arcangelo Michele e alle sante Margherita e Caterina. Per la mentalità laica non vi erano dubbi: si trattava di tempeste ormonali che nel fisico degli adolescenti portano turbamenti, oppure potevano essere collegate ad un tumore al cervello, alla schizofrenia, all’isteria provocata da scene di violenza. Queste ipotesi vengono ovviamente respinte dai credenti, per i quali Giovanna era sana di mente: in ogni tempo ci sono persone che dichiarano di essere in comunicazione con il mondo celeste e non sono affatto pazze. liberare la Francia Le “voci” chiedevano a Giovanna di seguire la volontà di Dio, cioè di liberare il suolo di Francia dall’invasore inglese. Negli anni si fecero perentorie: le affidavano la missione di liberare la città di Orléans e poi di condurre Carlo di Valois all’incoronazione. Dopo essere esorcizzata dal parroco, indossò abiti maschili e partì. Quando giunse al castello di Chinon fu interrogata sulla sua devozione e la sua moralità. L’esame fu rigoroso e lo superò, da allora sarebbe stata chiamata “la Pulzella”, la vergine. “la Pulzella” Carlo VII re di Francia Carlo, pur senza convinzione, decise di darle retta. Giovanna voleva agire, combattere affinché egli diventasse re, e questo non poteva che tornargli utile. Nel 1429 Giovanna liberò Orléans: gli inglesi si ritirarono di fronte alla sua inattesa capacità militare. Giovanna incoraggiava e spingeva all’entusiasmo i soldati, ed esortandoli ad attaccare servendosi di se stessa come esempio. 
 Liberata Orléans il delfino venne incoronato Carlo VII re di Francia nella cattedrale di Reims come imponeva la tradizione. 
 Giovanna all'assedio di Orléans, pittura di Jules Eugène Lenepveu 
 processo rogo guerriera santa Dopo questo successo la Pulzella cominciò a diventare una figura ingombrante nell’ambiente di corte, venne catturata dai Borgognoni, senza ricevere tentativi di liberarla da parte di Carlo VII. Dopo alcuni mesi, gli inglesi ebbero Giovanna per 10 000 scudi d’oro e fu sottoposta ad un processo dell’ Inquisizione con l’accusa di eresia. Durante gli interrogatori Giovanna dimostrò fermezza e intelligenza: replicava a tono e con ironia agli inquisitori che cercavano di confonderla. Alla lunga però, disorientata e stremata, accetto di abiurare, e poi ritrattò la confessione. Come sempre in questi casi fu dichiarata relapsa, cioè recidiva: nel 1431, all’età di 19 anni, la ragazza che aveva restituito alla Francia il suo re e aveva risvegliato lo spirito nazionale andò al rogo nella piazza del mercato vecchio di Rouen.
 I secoli successivi hanno consolidato il mito della vergine guerriera. Con il tempo però è emerso anche l’aspetto spirituale, tanto che nel 1909 Giovanna è stata dichiarata santa. !12 LA STAMPA
 raro e prezioso lezione saltata la mediazione manoscritti la carta L'introduzione e la diffusione della stampa a caratteri mobili rappresenta senz'altro uno dei più importanti avvenimenti per la tecnologia e la cultura occidentali. A partire da questo momento, tradizionalmente collocato intorno al 1453, fu possibile produrre libri con una rapidità prima mai neanche immaginabile, trasformandone profondamente l'uso e perfino il significato. 
 Il libro era nel Medioevo un oggetto raro e prezioso che poteva essere posseduto solo da potenti istituzioni, come i monasteri e le corti, oppure da un ristretto numero di persone particolarmente facoltose. Nella maggior parte dei casi il libro veniva ascoltato più che letto: il proprietario o il custode di questo bene infatti lo leggeva a voce alta per gli altri. Il termine lezione deriva non a caso da lectio, ossia lettura del testo da parte del professore universitario. La dimensione scritta veniva così ancora mescolata alla dimensione orale, e la lettura di un libro era perciò ancora un fatto pubblico e sociale. Quando i libri furono disponibili in grandi quantità e a prezzi più accessibili, invece, un numero sempre crescente di persone poté leggerli direttamente e da soli, saltando la mediazione (e spesso l'interpretazione) del lettore. La lettura divenne un fatto prevalentemente visivo più che uditivo, modificando profondamente la coscienza stessa del lettore. La stampa non è stato il frutto di una singola intuizione geniale, ma si colloca semmai al termine di un lungo processo tecnico in cui i vari problemi sono stati affrontati e risolti. La stampa, nel senso più ampio del termine, è fondamentalmente un procedimento per riprodurre immagini: l'inchiostro viene applicato a una superficie opportunamente preparata che lo riporta poi su un materiale adatto a riceverlo. Proprio quest'ultimo passaggio rappresentava una sorta di «strozzatura» perché fino a quando non fu disponibile un materiale economico in grado di ricevere l'inchiostro, non aveva senso cercare di inventare una macchina in grado di produrre un numero molto elevato di copie della stessa immagine: dal momento infatti che per realizzare una sola copia di un manoscritto di 200 pagine erano necessario le pelli di 25 pecore, è chiaro che l'operazione della copiatura era di gran lunga quella che incideva di meno sul costo finale. In effetti intorno all'800 un libro manoscritto costava (in Spagna) come due mucche, mentre in Lombardia, tra il Trecento e il Quattrocento, un libro di legge costava quanto il mantenimento di una persona per manoscritto Inferno di Dante circa 16 mesi. 2 In questo senso la condizione essenziale per la nascita della stampa fu l'introduzione in Europa della carta, avvenuta ai primi del XII secolo dal mondo musulmano. 
 La materia prima indispensabile alla fabbricazione della carta sono gli stracci, i quali venivano lavati, imbianchiti al sole, ripuliti di tutte le sporcizie, quindi tagliati a strisce. Dopo essere state abbondantemente bagnate, le strisce di straccio vengono messe a fermentare per diverse settimane in un maceratoio, sfibrata e battuta fino a essere ridotta in 2 www. danteonline.it !13 poltiglia. La materia viene così ridotta a una sospensione fibrosa di colore biancastro: la pasta di carta, che poi viene pressata in modo da creare un vero e proprio foglio. tavolette Sappiamo che nel Trecento si usavano già tavolette abbastanza grandi per stampare disegni sullo stucco dei muri e sui tessuti. Questa tavolette, una volta ridotte di dimensioni, furono usate per stampare carte da gioco (un'idea proveniente dall'Oriente) e immagini molto semplici a carattere religioso. Il procedimento era molto semplice: la figura da riprodurre, realizzata in rilievo su una tavoletta, veniva spalmata di inchiostro. Su di essa veniva appoggiato il foglio, che veniva premuto a mano con l'aiuto di un tampone di cuoio. Tutto il procedimento veniva eseguito a mano. olio di lino cotto Inizialmente si usò lo stesso inchiostro dei copisti, una soluzione a base di acqua che poteva dare buoni risultati solo se steso su una superficie di legno. In un secondo momento comparve un inchiostro a base di olio di lino cotto. Non se ne conosce l'inventore, anche se qualcuno lo attribuisce a Gutenberg. In ogni caso questo nuovo tipo di inchiostro rese possibile l'adozione del torchio tipografico, derivato direttamente dalle presse per biancheria presenti all'epoca in ogni casa ben fornita: una pesante tavola fungeva da base per due sostegni verticali che sorreggevano una traversa orizzontale. Una vite di legno, passando attraverso quest'ultima, premeva verso il basso un piano rinforzato. In questo modo era possibile esercitare una pressione uniforme su una superficie abbastanza grande.  Il torchio tuttavia non rappresenta ancora la nascita della stampa vera e propria. È probabile che fosse inizialmente usato nelle officine che preparavano le carte da gioco e le immagini sacre. L'idea della stampa comunque era nell'aria e in molti stavano avvicinandosi ad essa. Probabilmente si cominciò a comporre brevi didascalie per le immagini religiose, e la necessità di riparare le tavolette troppo logorate sostituendo una singola lettera fece forse venire l'idea di scrivere l'intera parola in questo modo. Fino a quando il materiale restava il legno, non c'era possibilità di ottenere lettere precise nelle dimensioni necessarie per comporre la pagina di un libro. Era indispensabile passare alla produzione di tipi in metallo, e questo avvenne certamente a Magonza.3 torchio tipografico torchio tipografico 
 I caratteri mobili 
 lettere in metallo Questo infatti era il nucleo dell'idea: preparare un gran numero di lettere delle stesse dimensioni e incise nel metallo, metterle le une accanto alle altre in modo da comporre le parole del testo, inchiostrare il tutto e con il torchio premere un foglio di carta sui caratteri sporcati di inchiostro. In un giorno una coppia di stampatori poteva realizzare fino a 300 copie di un singolo foglio; raggiunta la tiratura voluta, le lettere veniva separate le une dalle altre e ricomposte in un altro ordine per stampare altre centinaia di copie di una seconda pagina, e così via. Le cose non erano però così semplici come sembrano in questa sommaria descrizione del procedimento. La realizzazione delle lettere in metallo era particolarmente difficile perché il lavoro andava eseguito rigorosamente a mano e la tolleranza accettabile era minima. 3 http://www.storiadellastampa.unibo.it/materiali.html !14 punzone matrice Prima di tutto doveva essere realizzato un punzone, ossia un piccolo cubetto di metallo posto all'estremità di un'asta. Una faccia di questo cubetto, del lato di pochi millimetri, veniva scavata con lo scalpello e la lima in modo da far apparire il profilo della lettera. Il punzone veniva martellato sulla superficie liscia di un metallo più morbido: l'incavo che si produceva in questo modo, e che riproduceva per così dire «in negativo» il carattere, era detto matrice. Nella matrice veniva colata una lega di stagno e piombo per realizzare i caratteri che venivano effettivamente usati per stampare, e che in questo modo risultavano tutti (quasi) perfettamente uguali. Ogni carattere, a forma di piccolo prisma quadrangolare alto circa 2,5 cm, andava comunque rifinito a mano per rendere le sue dimensioni perfettamente identiche a quelle degli altri caratteri: si è calcolato che due operai specializzati non potevano produrre più di 25 caratteri finiti all'ora. 4 processo di produzione dei caratteri mobili Prima di iniziare un lavoro impegnativo era perciò necessario un lavoro preparatorio di almeno tre settimane per avere a disposizione un numero sufficiente di caratteri. I caratteri a questo punto venivano mandati in  composizione: l'addetto li prendeva da una serie di cassettini e li ordinava in un vassoio di legno, della grandezza di una pagina stampata, che poteva essere stretto con forza sui lati per tenere le lettere al loro posto. È probabile che il compositore della metà del Quattrocento non riuscisse a comporre più di una pagina al giorno. Quando il lavoro di composizione era terminato veniva stampata una pagina di prova e passata correttore o «lettore». Questi normalmente era un intellettuale, dalle cui conoscenze e dalla cui acutezza dipendeva la reputazione di uno stampatore. La bozza corretta tornava al compositore, che sostituiva i caratteri sbagliati e stampava una seconda bozza che veniva nuovamente corretta prima che la pagina andasse definitivamente in stampa. Complessivamente quindi la stamperia di Gutenberg doveva avere un personale di circa 25 persone: almeno due fonditori addetti alla realizzazione dei caratteri,  sei compositori, un «lettore», dodici operai addetti ai torchi e alcuni aiutanti. un compositore al banco 4http://www.storiadellastampa.unibo.it/materiali.html !15 
 L’ETA’ DELLE ESPLORAZIONI incontro di “mondi paralleli” completo controllo europeo Il periodo storico che va sotto il nome di «età delle scoperte» e che si estende approssimativamente tra la prima metà del Quattrocento e la seconda metà del Cinquecento costituisce uno dei periodi storici più importanti per la comprensione del mondo attuale. Per la prima volta, culture che avevano vissuto «storie parallele» senza contatti reciproci o con contatti estremamente superficiali si incontrano in modo profondo e duraturo: il mondo umano si avvia a diventare qualcosa di unitario e non più diviso. Noi viviamo tuttora in una situazione condizionata e anzi modellata dal modo in cui questo evento si è realizzato: una regione relativamente povera e frammentata politicamente come era l'Europa di quel tempo, ha preso l'iniziativa e ha stabilito contatti via mare con quasi tutte le altre regioni del pianeta, con le quali aveva avuto fino a quel momento rapporti estremamente saltuari o non ne aveva avuti affatto. Non solo: nel giro di breve tempo alcune di queste regioni (come l'America centrale e meridionale) sono state sottoposte all'egemonia europea attraverso l'occupazione fisica del loro territorio e la distruzione dei regimi politici prima esistenti, mentre in altre regioni (quelle dell'India e dell'Indonesia) gli europei, non avendo ancora la forza per imporsi alle culture indigene, ne hanno monopolizzato i commerci più redditizi. Il quasi completo controllo europeo di queste aree, oltre a quello dell'Africa e dell'Oceania, sarebbe stato raggiunto nell'arco dei tre secoli successivi. Due quindi sono gli aspetti decisivi di questa vicenda: il processo di esplorazione e di espansione è stato unilaterale e si è svolto attraverso gli oceani. Il mare, e non la terra, si è rivelato il fattore di unificazione dell'umanità. Capire come e perché sia avvenuto questo fatto decisivo equivale a capire come e perché sia avvenuta l'esplorazione europea degli oceani.    !16 LE ESPLORAZIONI PORTOGHESI Le prime esplorazioni portoghesi lungo la costa occidentale dell'Africa vengono spesso sottovalutate. In realtà esse ebbero una notevole importanza, sia pratica sia culturale, perché per misero di acquisire importanti basi commerciali e contribuirono in modo decisivo a smentire convinzioni cosmografìche profondamente radicate nella mentalità europea. Il Portogallo, nel corso del Medioevo, non era un paese particolarmente sviluppato dal punto di vista economico e nautico: a partire dalla fine del XIII secolo assisteva al passaggio dei convogli di galee genovesi e poi veneziane che, lungo la rotta dal Mediterraneo agli scali delle Fiandre, potevano far tappa a Lisbona, mentre agli inizi del XIV secolo le prime navi anseatiche si spinsero fino alla capitale lusitana. In questo modo veniva a chiudersi l'«anello marittimo» che, circondando l'Europa, favorì potentemente le comunicazioni e i trasporti da un capo all'altro del continente. Tuttavia i portoghesi non disponevano né di merci né di capitali per inserirsi in questo tipo di commercio marittimo a lungo raggio; anche la pesca, esercitata nelle acque costiere, impegnava una percentuale modesta della popolazione. Inoltre il regno portoghese doveva fare i conti con un minaccioso vicino, il regno di Castiglia, che cercava tradizionalmente di sottometterlo. Schiacciati lungo le coste atlantiche, privi di risorse, i portoghesi decisero nei primi decenni del Quattrocento di espandersi nell'unica direzione rimasta libera, ossia il mare stesso. La prima fase: il superamento dei limiti tradizionali terre da colonizzare Enrico il Navigatore L'obiettivo iniziale di questa espansione non era affatto l'India. I portoghesi si proponevano di trovare nuove terre da colonizzare, ma soprattutto di rintracciare la regione da cui proveniva l'oro che affluiva sulle coste mediterranee attraverso le carovane del deserto. All'inizio essi pensarono che questi obiettivi andassero raggiunti con la conquista del Marocco: nel 1415 venne così conquistata la città di Ceuta, sulla sponda meridionale dello stretto di Gibilterra. Si trattò però di una falsa partenza. I musulmani cercarono per anni di riconquistare la piazzaforte, che rimase pertanto bloccata e che non potè mai essere usata come base di partenza per i viaggi esplorativi. La strada giusta era un'altra. L'animatore delle esplorazioni portoghesi in questo periodo fu il principe Henrique, fratello del re, che fu detto il Navigatore anche se personalmente non partecipò a nessun viaggio di scoperta. Egli intuì che gli sforzi portoghesi dovevano essere diretti sul mare, in direzione sud. Per questo motivo Henrique organizzò una spedizione dopo l'altra, cercando di esplorare quanta più costa africana fosse possibile. Il Principe Henrique detto il Navigatore Già da tempo i portoghesi avevano occupato lo spazio marittimo degli arcipelaghi atlantici: nel 1402 era iniziata la colonizzazione delle Canarie, intorno al 1420 due portoghesi scoprirono le isole di Madera e Porto Santo; quasi tutte le Azzorre, situa te nel bel mezzo dell'Atlantico, erano segnate sulle carte nautiche prima del 1439. In questo modo i portoghesi si conquistarono un vasto spazio marittimo e impararono a percorrerlo sfruttando i venti dominanti, effettuando navigazioni di centinaia di chilometri in mare aperto. !17 scopo: oro capo Bojador e alisei Gil Eanes Tuttavia le isole non producevano oro, che era lo scopo di Henrique: per trovare quest'ultimo era necessario esplorare le coste africane, lungo le quali la navigazione presentava molte difficoltà. Il litorale infatti è estremamente inospitale, con pochissimi approdi dove rifornirsi d'acqua; spesso si incontrano secche pericolose e la corrente che scorre parallela alla costa da nordest verso sud-ovest può creare   gravi   pericoli   alle   imbarcazioni.   A partire da  capo Bojador, poi, cominciano a soffiare gli  alisei, venti costanti da nord-est, che rendevano difficile il ritorno. Questo capo, in particolare, rappresentava nell'immaginario collettivo dei marinai il limite del mondo abitabile e navigabile, un punto di non ritorno che non era mai stato oltrepassato a memoria d'uomo e che quindi non poteva essere superato.  Nel 1434 questo capo venne superato da un gentiluomo portoghese, Gil Eanes, a bordo di una piccola imbarcazione che poteva naviga re sia a remi sia a vela. Questo episodio poco noto è invece importantissimo, perché rese possibile tutto il resto: una volta dimostrato che al di là del capo si poteva navigare senza nessun problema, era solo questione di volontà e di resistenza. L'esplorazione non poteva procedere con le barchas usate da Eanes: cominciarono perciò a essere utilizzate le caravelle, navi agili e di scarso pescaggio, lunghe una ventina di metri e   attrezzate con vele latine (cioè di forma triangolare), che furono le protagoniste dell'era delle scoperte. Caravella con vele latine  volta do mar Con queste navi divenne possibile la cosiddetta  volta do mar, il vero «segreto» dei portoghesi: una nave che fosse arrivata oltre capo Bojador, spinta dai venti alisei dominanti in quella zona, non doveva cercare di torna re in Portogallo secondo una rotta diretta, ma doveva dirigersi su una rotta nord-ovest in pieno oceano Atlantico, fin quando non avesse incontrato, a latitudini più elevate, i venti dominanti che soffiano da ovest, e da questi venti si sarebbe fatta portare in patria. Le difficoltà erano soprattutto psicologiche, per la lunga permanenza in mare aperto senza vedere terra: in realtà si trattava di una tecnica piuttosto sicura dal momento che sfruttava venti costanti e che sul loro percorso le navi potevano sostare in numerose isole. La prima testimonianza scritta della volta do mar risale al 1441, ma questa pratica doveva essere applicata già da tempo. Il primo sfruttamento economico
 schiavi rottura paradigma epistemologico L'esplorazione della costa continuò, anche se per molti anni non si riuscirono a ottenere significativi guadagni commerciali. In questo frangente si vede l'importanza della guida, anche indiretta, da parte del potere statale: un commerciante «puro», vista l'assenza di un ritorno in termini economici, si sarebbe fermato. I portoghesi invece continuarono. Dal 1441, anche per avere un qualche guadagno, i capitani portoghesi cominciarono a rapire indigeni africani da rivendere in Europa come schiavi, una prassi che nei secoli successivi sarebbe stata ampliata enormemente. Nel 1442 venne fondata, vicino a capo Bianco, la stazione commerciale di Arguim; due anni dopo Nuno Tristao arrivò alle foci del Senegal. Lo stesso anno venne avvistato anche Capo Verde, la punta più occidentale della costa africana. Queste scoperte furono importanti perché iniziarono a modifica re il quadro concettuale degli europei, in quanto dimostravano che l'ipotesi di origine classica, secondo cui le zone equatoriali erano inabitabili per il calore, era falsa. Al contrario, non solo si trovavano popolazioni numerose, ma anche una florida vegetazione. Il mondo era più grande di quanto pensassero gli antichi. !18 
 re Alfonso e Fernão Gomes L'esplorazione portoghese conobbe una prima sosta tra il 1448 e il 1455, a causa di complesse vicende diplomatiche e di una crisi politica interna. Quando riprese, con il mercante veneziano Alvise di Ca' da Mosto, vennero subito scoperte le Isole di Capo Verde. Il principe Henrique morì nel 1460 e fino al 1469 non ci furono ulteriori viaggi di scoperta. Quell'anno il re Alfonso riprese l'esplorazione africana con una strategia del tutto nuova: diede l'appalto a un commerciante portoghese, Fernão Gomes, che si impegnava a esplorare con le sue caravelle 100 leghe (circa 600 km) all'anno di costa per cinque anni, ricevendo in cambio il diritto di sfruttare economicamente le sue scoperte. Fu fortunato. Quasi subito le sue navi raggiunsero le coste delle attuali Liberia e Costa d'Avorio, dove cresce una varietà di pepe (la malagueta) meno pregiata di quella orientale, ma pur sempre commerciabile con profitto. Le caravelle di Gomes raggiunsero poi l'attuale Ghana, dove veniva ricavato oro alluvionale, e si spinsero negli anni seguenti fino all’equatore. Il consolidamento delle conquiste
 trattato di Alcaçovas commercio ricco e florido Al suo scadere il contratto non venne più rinnovato, e i sovrani portoghesi si concentrarono sullo sfruttamento e la difesa delle regioni scoperte. Il regno lusitano infatti dovette affrontare una lunga guerra con la Castiglia, le cui navi tentavano operazioni di contrabbando sulle coste africane: i portoghesi, nonostante la loro inferiorità in terraferma, vinsero sul mare e con l'importante Trattato di Alcaçovas del 1479, pur cedendo le Canarie alla Spagna, ottennero che le acque a sud del 26° di latitudine fossero di loro pertinenza. Questo Trattato, come vedremo, ebbe importanti conseguenze sul prosieguo delle esplorazioni atlantiche. Libero finalmente dalle preoccupazioni sul fronte castigliano, il sovrano portoghese Giovanni II fece costruire nel 1481 il forte di  São Jorge de Mina, in Ghana, per la protezione del traffico d'oro da quel la regione. Tra la fine del XIV secolo e i primi vent'anni del XV le caravelle trasportarono in Portogallo 700 kg d'oro all'anno, cui vanno aggiunti gli schiavi (circa 500), il pepe e l’avorio. Si trattava quindi di un commercio ricco e florido, che andava protetto con cura. Il forte di El Mina venne prefabbricato a Lisbona, smontato, caricato sulle caravelle e ricostruito in Africa: esso inoltre rappresentò un modello per Colombo, che visitò il forte e ne costruì uno analogo sulle coste di un'isola caraibica. Si chiudeva così, con l'occupazione di numerosi punti strategici sulla costa dell'Africa occidentale, la prima fase delle esplorazioni portoghesi. !19 IL PRIMO VIAGGIO DI COLOMBO Il primo viaggio di Colombo la partenza Il primo viaggio attraverso l’Atlantico è stato talmente caricato di significati simbolici e ideologici che è difficile ricostruire con precisione quello che avvenne.  Il punto di partenza per qualsiasi ricostruzione resta naturalmente il Diario tenuto da Colombo stesso. Il testo ci fornisce un racconto apparentemente chiaro e semplice: alle otto del mattino del 3 agosto 1492 le due caravelle (Nina e Pinta) e la ñao Santa Maria uscirono dalla foce del fiume Rio Tinto, vicino al paesino di Palos nella Spagna meridionale, e puntarono verso le isole Canarie. Dopo una sosta di quasi un mese, il 6 settembre le navi ripartirono dirigendosi direttamente verso ovest, incontrando venti favorevoli e condizioni climatiche molto miti. La notte dell’11 ottobre fu avvistata terra e il mattino successivo Cristoforo Colombo sbarcò su un’isoletta delle attuali Bahama. Che rotta ha seguito Colombo?   
 problema della rotta divisione delle acque
 Come sappiamo, il testo originale di Colombo non è arrivato fino a noi e quello che leggiamo oggi attraverso il riassunto di Las Casas presenta molte difficoltà. Un problema particolarmente serio è rappresentato dalla misurazione della rotta percorsa: il giorno 9 settembre (dice il Diario) Colombo «decise di contare un numero di leghe minore di quelle coperte, di modo che se il viaggio fosse risultato lungo la gente non avesse a spaventarsi o a perdersi d'animo». Il problema è che la somma delle distanze che Colombo considera «sbagliate» (perché volutamente sottostimate) è pari a 2918 miglia nautiche odierne, ossia corrisponde quasi esattamente alla distanza reale tra le Canarie e le Bahama (2975 miglia), mentre la somma delle distanze «giuste» dà 3515 miglia, ossia collocherebbe le navi più o meno in Messico! Come è possibile un errore così grossolano quando le stime delle distanze effettuate da Colombo tra un’isola e l’altra dei Carabi sono molto più precise? La spiegazione tradizionale è che gli strumenti dell’epoca erano poco precisi quando si trattava di navigare lontano dalla costa. In realtà c’è un’altra interpretazione possibile: Colombo, come ipotizzano alcuni studiosi portoghesi, potrebbe aver seguito una rotta molto più meridionale di quella descritta nel Diario e quindi più lunga. Questa rotta inoltre si adatterebbe meglio alle correnti e ai venti descritte da Colombo, e sarebbe molto simile a quella dei viaggi successivi. Per quale motivo però Colombo avrebbe dovuto tener nascosto il suo vero percorso? I trattati internazionali esistenti all’epoca tra il Portogallo e la Castiglia (in particolare quello di Alcaçobas del 1479) dividevano l’Atlantico in due zone d’influenza lungo il parallelo delle Canarie: a nord c’erano le acque spagnole, a sud quelle portoghesi. Colombo perciò non poteva dichiarare di essere sceso sotto la latitudine delle Canarie, perché altrimenti il sovrano di Lisbona avrebbe avuto diritto di reclamare come sue le terre scoperte (che effettivamente erano più a sud delle Canarie). !20 L’avvistamento  
 avvistamento di notte premio a chi avvistò terra Il Diario registra in data 11 ottobre che «dopo il tramonto del  sole... saranno andati a 12 miglia all'ora e fino alle due dopo mezzanotte avranno percorso 22 leghe e mezzo», cioè oltre 100 km in sei  ore circa. Quando il marinaio Rodrigo di Triana avvistò la terra, essa distava circa dieci km. Colombo fece ammainare tutte le vele: solo il mattino successivo le navi si avvicinarono e gli spagnoli sbarcarono. Il Diario riporta però un dettaglio su cui la critica ha molto discusso: alle dieci della sera precedente Colombo avrebbe visto una luce, e quindi sarebbe stato davvero lui il primo ad avvistare l’America. Chi difende l'interpretazione tradizionale ipotizza grandi falò accesi dagli indigeni per difendersi dalle zanzare; gli altri si chiedono perché, se Colombo era convinto di aver avvistato terra, non ha fermato subito la flotta come fece più tardi. In ogni caso doveva essere a circa cento km dall’isola, ossia troppo lontano per scorgere un semplice falò. Quello che c'è di certo è che Colombo grazie a questa dichiarazione si intascò la pensione vitalizia di 10.000 maravedis che i sovrani avevano promesso in premio al primo che avesse avvistato terra. le rotte seguite da Colombo nel il viaggio di andata e ritorno5 5 http://history-persons.ru/2011/09/kolumb-xristofor-enciklopediya/ !21 Le spedizioni successive a Colombo
 i Caboto Nel frattempo tutta l’Europa atlantica aveva compreso l’importanza della gara per la spartizione delle nuove terre. La prima a muoversi dopo Spagna e Portogallo fu l’Inghilterra. Nel 1497 i navigatori italiani Giovanni e Sebastiano Caboto, al servizio della monarchia inglese, esplorarono le coste del Labrador, seguendo una rotta più settentrionale rispetto a quella di Colombo.
 
 Amerigo Vespucci Il navigatore fiorentino Amerigo Vespucci fu il primo a capire che la terra tocca da Colombo, ritenuta da tutti una parte dell’Asia, era in relato un continente nuovo e grandissimo. In suo onore questo Nuovo Mondo fu chiamato America. 
 Il nome America appare per la prima volta nel 1507 su una carta del mondo realizzata da Martin Waldseemuller, un cartografo tedesco. carta del mondo di Martin Waldseemuller Magellano Nel 1519 partì una spedizione guidata dal navigatore portoghese Ferdinando Magellano: la spedizione era voluta dalla monarchia spagnola e aveva il medesimo obiettivo di quella di Colombo, ovvero raggiungere l’Oriente passando da Occidente.
 Dopo circa un anno di navigazione, Magellano giunse nello stretto che ora porta il suo nome: era riuscito a trovare il passaggio verso Oriente. 
 Magellano continua la navigazione nel Pacifico e raggiunse le Filippine, dove morì in uno scontro con gli indigeni. Attraversò l’Oceano Indiano, passò il Capo di Buona Speranza e nel 1522 rientrò in Spagna: in questo modo compie la prima circumnavigazione del globo terrestre. !22 Il trattato di Tordesillas la raya trattato di Tordesillas Quando Cristoforo Colombo tornò dal suo primo viaggio, la Pigna si fece riconoscere da Papa Alessandro VI i diritti su tutti i territori di Occidente.. I Portoghesi protestarono e per risolvere il contrasto si stabilì una suddivisione delle sfere di influenza: l’Oceano Atlantico fu diviso con una linea immaginaria, la raya, fissata a 370 leghe a ovest delle isole Azzorre; le terre a ovest della raya sarebbero state della Spagna, quelle a est del Portogallo. L’accordo venne siglato con il trattato di Tordesillas nel 1494, che però di fatto non venne mai rispettato.
 Dalla seconda metà del cinquecento Olanda, Inghilterra e Francia cercarono di opporsi al monopolio iberico: sostenevano che i mari e il commercio dovevano essere liberi e per questo effettuavano azioni sistematiche di pirateria e bando. Il trattato di Saragozza isole Molucche Il trattato di Saragozza fu stipulato nel 1529 dalle corone di Spagna e di Portogallo con lo scopo di decidere a quale regno spettasse il controllo delle isole Molucche. Le isole Molucche furono prese dal Regno di Portogallo e il Regno di Spagna ricevette un risarcimento monetario di 350.000 ducati d'oro. trattato di Tordesillas e Saragozza !23 Il planisfero di Cantino Alberto Cantino località fedeli alla latitudine Il Planisfero di Cantino è una mappa, composta da 6 fogli di pergamena incollati, che mostra le conoscenze geografiche dell'Impero portoghese all'inizio del XVI secolo. Si tratta del più antico planisfero portoghese sopravvissuto. 
 Il planisfero prende il nome da Alberto Cantino, un agente del Duca di Ferrara, che contrabbandò dal Portogallo all'Italia nel 1502. La mappa ritrae la costa brasiliana, scoperta nel 1500 dall'esploratore portoghese Pedro Álvares Cabral, e mostra la costa africana dell'oceano Atlantico e indiano con grande accuratezza e dettaglio. Il planisfero di Cantino è uno dei primi esempi di mappa nella quale le località sono collocate sulla base della loro latitudine, e non riportando la rotta e la distanza stimata da altre località, come avveniva nelle carte del Mediterraneo del secolo precedente. il planisfero di Cantino !24 THE TUDOR PERIOD The Tudor period, from 1485 until 1603, marked a great step for England: it represented the passing from medieval system to modern Era, in which England set all the bases to become a powerful nation.
 
 The most important novelties that occurred during this period are: • • • • • • • The introduction of humanism; The English Reformation: the separation of the Church of England from Rome; A new active middle class: they were both merchants and a new nobility; The growth of the cities, in particular the city of London; The growing importance of England as a nation; The development of overseas commerce and the search for new trade routes; The first english colonization of America. !25 HENRY VII (1485-1509) In 1485 in the battle of Bosworth Henry 7th defeated Richard 3rd of York. He was crowned king and married Elizabeth of York to put a definitive end to the fighting between the two families. the battle of Bosworth Bosworth Henry 7th restored the reputation of the monarch as one who rules, not merely reigns. 
 commerce and trade naval power John Cabot He was a clever sovereign, in fact he enforced law and order, pursued peace with neighboring countries and encouraged commerce and trade, making advantageous commercial treaties, and supported also the cloth industry.
 He laid the foundations of the English naval power by sending money on the building of ships so that England could have its own merchant fleet as well as increase its military strength. He also sponsored the voyage from Bristol of John Cabot in 1497 which led to the discovery of the North American mainland. Henry VII a brand new nobility He supported the merchant classes and the gentry and used the services of middle class: he sold land to the country men, so they could also get the noble shield. Through this process developed a brand new nobility that was obviously loyal to the king because he was in charge to choose them. At the same time he limited the power of the nobility, which had already been wrecked during the civil war: he taxed them and stopped them from having their own private army, which was an important step in the way to the modern Era. !26 HENRY VIII (1509-1547) Henry 7th was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII, in 1509. Soon after he obtained the papal dispensation required to allow him to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine of Aragon Henry VIII The first half of Henry’s reign was that of a typical Renaissance prince presiding over a cultured and splendid court. Henry himself was an accomplished musician and linguist. 
 Fidei Defensor In the first years of his reign Henry VIII effectively relied on Thomas Wolsey to rule for him, and by 1515 Henry had elevated him to the highest role in government: Lord Chancellor. In 1521 Pope Leo X conferred the title of Defender of the Faith on Henry for his book 'Assertio Septem Sacramentorum', which affirmed the supremacy of the Pope in the face of the reforming ideals of the German theologian, Martin Luther. 
 The father of the Royal Navy Henry VIII is known as the “father of the Royal Navy”. When he became king there were five royal warships. By his death he had built up a navy of around 50 ships. He refitted several vessels with the latest guns including the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545. Henry also built the first naval dock in Britain at Portsmouth and in 1546 he established the Navy Board. This set up the administrative machinery for the control of the fleet. A male heir love affair with Anne Boleyn Henry was acutely aware of the importance of securing a male heir during his reign. He was worried that he had only one surviving child, Mary, to show for his marriage to Catherine, who was now in her 40s. So he appealed to Pope Clement VII for an annulment and it soon became clear he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, who had been a lady-in-waiting to his first wife. But, unwilling to anger Catherine of Aragon's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the Pope refused. !27 Anne Boleyn The reformation In 1533, Henry VIII broke with the church and married the now pregnant Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony. Henry was excommunicated by the Pope. The English reformation had begun. 
 He decided to separate from the Church of Rome for economic, political and personal reasons: 1. Economic reasons • • • He had established a magnificent court on the Renaissance model
 It costed enormous sums He knew the Church was rich
 It owned large estates
 The monasteries contained treasures People had to pay taxes to the Church
 Reducing the Crown's income
 2. Political reasons
 • the power of the Church in England wasn't under the authority of the King
 3. Personal reasons (casus belli)
 • He fell in love with Anne Boleyn
 
 With the Act of Supremacy he proclaimed himself the Head of the Church of England. With the Treason Act everyone who was against his decisions was charged, such as Thomas Moore, the King’s Chancellor, who was executed because of his opposition.
 Head of the Church 
 abolished monks and friars The break from Rome was legitimized by Parliament which also suppressed orders of monks and friars a established the supremacy of the State over the Church even in spiritual matters. In fact, This act also brought him much needed wealth through the dissolution of the well-funded monasteries. Over four years the king’s secretary Thomas Cromwell ordered that 800 monasteries be disbanded and their lands and treasures taken for the crown. 
 monasteries destroyed The cultural and social impact was significant, as much of the land was sold to the gentry and churches and monasteries were gutted and destroyed. The monasteries became ruins and a new class of social landowners arose. Henry’s personal religious beliefs remained Catholic, despite the growing number of people at court and in the nation who had adopted Protestantism. !28 In September 1533 Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. Henry had grown tired of her, and after two further pregnancies ended in miscarriages, she was arrested in 1536 on trumped up charges of adultery and publicly beheaded at the Tower of London. Henry's third marriage, this time to lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, finally produced the son he so desperately desired with the birth of Edward in 1537. Jane Seymour died after childbirth and Henry ordered that she be granted a queen's funeral. a male heir 
 Jane Seymour The final years of his reign witnessed Henry VIII's physical decline and an increasing desire to appear all-powerful. Henry continued with fruitless and expensive campaigns against Scotland and France.
 
 Henry VIII died in 1547 and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI. !29 !30 !31 The Anthony Roll The Anthony Roll is a record of ships of the English Tudor navy of the 1540s, named after its creator, Anthony Anthony. It originally consisted of three rolls of vellum, depicting 58 naval vessels along with information on their size, crew, armament, and basic equipment. The rolls were presented to King  Henry VIII in 1546, and were kept in the royal library. As an historical record, the Anthony Roll is in many ways unique. It is the only known fully illustrated list of a Tudor period royal navy, though the pictures should not be seen as exact depictions drawn from real life: many details are present, but others are missing. Mary Rose ship “Army by Sea” When Henry VIII became king in 1509 he only had a handful of warships at his disposal: usually, in times of war, merchant vessels would be loaded with guns and used. However, with threats both from the Scots to the north and the French to the south, Henry knew he needed a standing navy, available at a moment's notice. So he got to work building his ‘Army by Sea’, starting with two carracks, the Peter Pomegranate and her larger sister ship, the Mary Rose.
 
 
 The Mary Rose It was a carrack, it was large, larger, wider and most complex than a cocca. It had four masts, two of them had square sails, while the other two latin sails. The castle of prow was the foremost and was used for fighting.
 The ship had gun holes with from 17 to 19 little guns and 15 great guns on the side, in fact it was more powerful than a galley, because it had gun holes only on the front part. It had a rudder and pennants, which are long ribbons that start from the mast. Mary Rose, the Anthony Roll !32 The battle of Solent 
 In early July the French fleet set sail and entered the Solent with 128 ships on 16 July. The English had 80 ships in place to oppose them, including the Mary Rose, but retreated into Portsmouth harbor as the fighting vessels were most effective in sheltered water.
 The first day of the Battle of the Solent consisted of a long range cannonade between the French galleys and the English fleet in which neither side suffered any real loss.
 the Mary Rose sank There are conflicting accounts as to what happened in the battle. According to the French, early in the morning of the 19 July, the French galleys took up the battle. The calm allowed the French to pound the English ships all too easily. Suddenly, much to the delight of the French, the Mary Rose heeled over and sank. Other accounts say that the French fleet attacked when Henry VIII was at dinner, and the Mary Rose sank towards the evening. 
 
 The captain made the ship turn on the other side, but the gun holes were open and water went back into the hall and the ship sunk very quickly. What is certain is that hundreds of men aboard the Mary Rose drowned as she went down, with only around 34 survivors. 
 The Cowdray Engraving, depicts the Battle of the Solent. The french fleet is on the left, the british fleet is on the right and the main and foremasts of the recently sunken Mary Rose are in the middle. A few men are tying to save themselves and little boats are coming to rescue them. close up of the Mary Rose sinking The Cowdray Engraving !33 EDWARD VI (1547-53) When Henry died, his and Jane Seymour's son Edward became king, but he was only nine and he couldn't reign on his own, so his uncle Duke of Somerset was appointed his protector. England was made a truly Protestant state with introduction of the Book of common prayer. But he was very tolerant, but for this reason he was imprisoned, sentenced to death and beheaded in 1547. 
 Edward died when he was young, he never reigned on his own. Edward VI MARY TUDOR (1553-58) 
 Edward was succeeded by Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She was catholic and as her mother she tried to restore catholicism in England. 
 She married Philippe II of Spain, who was catholic as well. She reconciled the Church of England with Rome against the will of Parliament and the feelings of the people.
 She strongly persecuted protestants: nearly 300 of them were burnt at the stake, in fact she was called “Bloody Mary”. 
 
 restore catholicism persecutions 
 wrecked country no heirs When she died she left a wrecked country: ill-governed, religiously divided and dependent on Spain.
 She didn't have child as Philippe married her only for political reasons and they rarely even met, because he hated foreigners. Mary Tudor She was succeeded by Elizabeth, her half sister, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London because she dreaded a protestant restoration, but Mary refused to kill her. !34 ELIZABETH I free from any bond Elizabeth was Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's daughter. She was a cunning politic, she decided not to marry because she didn't want any bond: she wanted to be free from every influence of foreign countries. She didn't want to marry an english nobleman who could obstacle her politics, in fact she said herself that she was “married to England”. She tried to behave as a man to govern, probably that's why she never got married. The Golden Age During her reign England developed successfully in economy, society, religion and culture. This period was addressed as the Golden Age. Elizabeth I Economy During this period trade flourished. After the discovery of America, the centre of trading shifted from the Mediterranean to the Ocean: England was in a perfect geographical position. Many english men went to explore new territories in hope to find gold and riches: the colonization of the new continent began. new territories 
 
 In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh founded the first english colony in America called Virginia after “the virgin Queen”. This territory was the first to be colonizes because of the presence of Caesar bay, the largest bay in the world, which provided an easy way to enter the land, that's the reason why it was the first colony. first american colony Virginia’s territory In the Atlantis Or telius Theatr us Mundi we can observe what they knew about America at the end of the 16th century. There aren’t english names, mostly french names, above all in Canada. Near Canada we can observe the Terra de Baccalaar, which is a huge amount of sea in which there are waters, from 10 m to 100 m where Mackerel can reproduce easily. the Atlantis Ortelius Theaters Mundi !35 trading companies The commercial expansion to other parts of the world began: some merchants together decided to found trading companies called “chartered companies” because they received the royal charter, the authorization of the monarchy to trade in a zone, they had to give part of the income to the Crown.
 
 The most famous were: • Eastland company: traded in the baltic • Africa company: traded in Morocco and the African coast • Levant company: traded in the Mediterranean • East India company: traded in India, Persia, Japan During this period took place the consolidation of the maritime power of England, which is destined to develop successfully over the following centuries. Society the gentry In this period there are two contemporary phenomena: the decay of the ancient nobility and the grow of the new class. The members of the nobility lost the power they had before, so they left their lands and went to the king's court. The middle class was composed by the gentry, that were countrymen and merchants, people in the cities. The gentry was composed by rich countrymen who bought the lands sold by the king, these lands came from the monasteries and the common land: lands for the poor to collect wood or feed animals. These poor were landless so they had to move to the towns.
 The gentry started to build enclosures, fences around the lands: one of the bases of the industrial revolution.
 enclosures 
 In the meantime there was the growth to the towns due to the development of trading: it led to the development of town, in particular London, that grow in size and in importance.
 The landless poor went tot he towns, they started working for the merchant but not all of them, many of them remained unemployed. This lead to the pauperism. In order to end it the Parliament approved the “Poor law”: it required each parish to provide for the “lame impotent, old and blind”. It considered the basis of the poor relief system until 1834. Religion Elizabeth reestablished Anglicanism. In 1559 Parliament enacted two acts: the second Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity. Act of supremacy said again that the head of the Church was the monarch, and the Act of Uniformity established one common Prayer Book, that had to be used by all English people. In the other hand, she avoided strong persecutions and avoided the excesses of fanatism. Culture
 During the Golden Age flourished the development of theatre: before this period plays were usually performed in public halls, courtyards, while from this period they began to be built on the south bank of the Thames, outside the city walls because plays were thought to encourage bad behaviours. 
 The most famous were the Theatre, the Curtain, the Rose, the Swan, the Globe. !36 Education
 grammar schools and universities Many schools appeared in town and in the countryside. In town appeared where they could learn the “Three Rs”: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic. Above all education spread among the nobles and merchants and the gentry sponsored external grammar schools, were the boys could learn Latin and Greek. At university the traditional teaching included the liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric and dialectics) and the scientific disciplines (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, musical theory). 
 Political issues
 Not everything was “gold”during her reign, in fact Elizabeth had to deal with different political problems. 
 Mary Stuart The first problem was internal and concerned Mary Stuart, who was Elizabeth's cousin and the next in succession after her, because she was childless, and she was the Queen of Scotland. When she became queen Scotland was a protestant country because John Knox had spread calvinistic doctrine, exploiting the fact that common people opposed the privileges and corrupt practices of the clergy.
 Mary tried to restore catholicism so people started to dislike her. Mary made a huge political mistake: her husband was murdered and after three months she married the murderer and she lost all the supports: public opinion, the Pope, France and Spain all abandoned her. Many noblemen took up arm against her and after some months of fighting she was deposed and succeeded by her son James VI of Scotland, who became king with the name James I of England.
 imprisoned and killed Philipp II She was imprisoned but she escaped in England in 1568. Elizabeth kept her as virtual prisoner but she became the centre of several plots against her. The Commons repeatedly asked for the execution of Mary and for many years she refused, but after the discovery of the last plot, in 1587 Mary was beheaded. The second problem was represented by Philip II, who was threatening to attack England and he claimed that it was for two religious reasons:
 • the repression of a catholic revolt in Ireland in 1579-81
 • the execution of Mary Stuart on 1587, because she was catholic Philip II The invincible Armada The Casus belli for the war in Spain was the Cadiz raid. The queen permitted Francis Drake to attack Spanish ships in 1587. He sailed a fleet into Cadiz and Corunna, destroyed harbors and merchant ships, then Philipp decided to invade England in 1588. The Invincible Armada sailed up the English channel towards the Spanish Netherlands to pick up troops for the invasion. Most of the Spanish ships were in the harbor, only a few were in the port, because usually into the port they cannot easily move. The Spanish were defeated by the Royal Navy and half of the ships were destroyed. 
 !37 engraving of the Spanish ships in the port and in the harbor The fighting against the Spanish Armada was the turning point of the Royal Navy, that since now is considered a great naval power. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 has long been held as one of England's greatest military achievements, and a sign of the strength and spirit imparted to the country by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. However, some more recent historians claim that the English victory was no more than a lucky accident. England’s military achievement The warship This picture of The Swallowe comes from a scroll of vellum, called the Anthony Roll, which describes and illustrates all the ships of King Henry VIII's navy. The Swallowe was listed as one of the Queen's ships of 308 tons during the preparations for the Armada campaign and it was commanded by Richard Hawkins, son of the famous John Hawkins. 6 the Swallowe 
 a new warship The Swallowe was an example of the new type of warship which had been designed by Matthew Baker, the Queen's Master Shipwright. He cut down the height of the castles, which made the ships less top heavy and easier to manoeuvre. The hulls were designed in the shape of a fish, with a full body tapering towards the stern. There was an old saying that recommended that a ship have “a cod's head and a mackerel's tail.” This new design, as well as making the ships lighter and more weatherly, enabled them to fire broadsides. This meant bombarding the enemies ships with cannon shot from a distance, instead of the older fighting technique, where ships grappled at close quarters and there was hand to hand fighting. John Hawkins was a merchant that traveled to America and was one of the first that made the Triangular Trade. He picked up goods from America, sold them in Africa, picked up slaves and transferred them to America. 6 !38 The Armada in the channel
 “A Thankfull Remembrance of God's Mercie” This is a picture from a book by George Carleton called “A Thankfull Remembrance of God's Mercie”, published after Queen Elizabeth I's death. God’s mercie The publication from which this picture came was a celebration of the greatness of the Queen's reign. It was also an expression of thanks to God for saving her from the various plots against her, hatched all manner of deadly and devious enemies. friendly wind This picture contains a wealth of detail for the historian. The beacons which gave the alarm can be clearly seen along the coast. The Armada is in its famous crescent shape, albeit struggling against the friendly (to England) wind. The preparations of the English at Tilbury are also clearly shown. Elizabeth inspires her forces “I have always so behaved myself, that under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects, and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my Kingdom, and for my People, my honour, and my blood, even in the dust.
 I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma of Spain, or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm. I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.” 
 Elizabeth’s speech to her troops Extract from a speech by Elizabeth as written down by Dr Lionel Sharp. Sharp was asked to read it to the troops the day after it had been delivered by Elizabeth. The Spanish plan was for the Armada to pick up the Duke of Parma's army in the Spanish Netherlands and then cross the Channel to invade England. At this point the Armada was in the North Sea but neither Elizabeth nor anyone else knew exactly where. There was still great danger. 
 
 This speech was meant to encourage the men in Elizabeth's army. Elizabeth is saying that she is prepared to die in defence of the kingdom. Parma was the Governor-General of the Netherlands and leader of the Spanish army, which was to invade. !39 The Armada's progress During July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed up the English Channel. The aim was to meet with the forces of the Duke of Parma, Governor-General of the Netherlands (then part of the King of Spain's empire). There was a series of running battles between the Spanish and English ships from the ports on the South coast.  The Armada in the English Channel The Armada was meant to take Parma's army across to England but they failed to meet up and the Armada had to sail around the British Isles to get back to Spain. Most historians agree that it was a very poor plan, with little chance of success. 
 This picture represents is the route that the Spanish armada followed to go back to Spain: they decided to pass north because the wind was b l o w i n g f r o m s o u t h , a s i t ’s represented by an angel that’s blowing, so they were not able to go back to Spain passing the english channel because they weren’t able to go against it. 
 The Spanish Armada’s route 
 However, when they arrived in Ireland a terrible storm occurred and almost all the ships sunk. Philipp II was sure he was fighting in the name of God and God destroyed his fleet., so English men were sure God was on their side. In this picture is represented Cornwall , the south west part of England, which is where the Spanish Armada arrived. The English people thought they would attack immediately, but they had to arrive to the Flanders to pick up the troop, so they just went through the english channel. The Spanish armada in the sea has the shape of a crescent moon. 
 The Spanish Armada’s arrival in Cornwall !40 In this picture there are represented two different episodes regarding the battle of Portland bill. On the left the scene represents the battle, where the English fleet is not able to stop the enemies. On the right there’s the Spanish fleet, which is going away.
 The last battle that occurred with the English and Spanish fleet against one another was in Gravelines, which was a melee. The battle of Portland !41 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR
 last religious conflict The Thirty Years War is the last European conflict that pretended to be a religious war, in fact after this, European culture accepted the separation between politics and faith. Politics concerned a public matter, while faith a private matter: for this reason it wasn’t necessary to let them clash one agains the other.
 Historians present the thirty years war a single war, however it consisted of a a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, with identical causes and identical factions (North Europe vs South Europe) It can be divided into four phases: • Bohemian revolt (1618-1623) • Danish intervention (1625-1629) • Swedish intervention (1630-1635) • French intervention (1635-1648) It started as a religious war between Protestant and Catholic states in the Holy Roman Empire, because the Emperor tried to impose religious uniformity on its domains and the northern Protestant states rebelled (first of all Bohemia), but it was immediately clear that the real causes were political. The main cause was the France-Hapsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence: this was very clear during the last phase, when the catholic France fought the catholic Empire, supporting Protestant states. The war became an economic war because of its length: the imperial economy against french economy. In the end Hapsburg’s economy was weaker than the french one, so the Empire lost. The Bohemian Revolt (1618-1623) catholicism in protestant Boemia After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, Bohemia became a Protestant state: they were a Slavic population with a Slavic language, so they wanted to be independent from the Empire. The Emperor wanted to have the full control of Bohemia, so he tried to restore Catholicism. The second defenestration of Prague The Defenestration of Prague is one of the main events that caused the bohemian revolt. In 1618 the emperor sent two Catholic counselors to administer the government in Bohemia. An assembly of Protestants seized them and threw them (and a secretary) out of the palace window. They fell from 21 meters off the ground, but they survived: the Catholics thought it was a miracle, while Protestants claimed that they only hit a bunch of excrements. This event started the revolt and Bohemia fought for its independence. the defenestration of Prague !42 War for independence The Bohemian crown was offered to the Calvinist Frederick V, who was the head of the League of Evangelical Union, which was a political alliance between the Protestant states of the Empire founded in 1608 by Frederick IV, a defensive coalition against the Catholic Reformation, furthermore the Catholics founded the Catholic League in 1609.
 
 Frederick refused to submit to the new Emperor so the war started in 1619, but he hadn’t enough military and economic resources. Frederick V 
 In the war there were two factions: 
The empire + Pope + Spain + Catholic League • imperial army: led by Count of Tilly • Spanish army: led by Ambrosio Spinola against the Evangelic Union + Bohemia + Savoia 
 Ferdinand, the Holy Roman Emperor and his allies won a major victory at White Mountain (a small hill outside Prague) in 1620 that allowed the extirpation of Protestantism in most of the Hapsburg lands. 
 Catholicism was imposed in Bohemia, which remained an imperial domain till 1918. the emperor won In the Battle of Palatinate Frederick was defeated by the Count of Tilly and the Spanish army: the Protestant rebellion had been crushed.
 
 Count of Tilly With the Peace Treaty the Evangelic Union was compelled to dissolve and Frederick lost his title of elector of the Palatinate, which was given to Duke Maximillian of Bavaria. Bohemia and Poland became Catholic. Between 1620 and 1639 found place a war in Valtellina, in which Protestant Grisons fought against the Empire and Spain. France, Savoy and Venice helped the Grisons, that obtained the control of Valtellina. !43 The Danish intervention (1625-29) 
 Christian IV of Denmark tried to stop imperial expansion because he feared that the recent Catholic successes threatened its sovereignty, as Denmark was a Protestant nation and  he wanted to expand his territories. Christian was backed by France and England: France funded the war and England sent an army. The Empire was trying to conquer the northern regions after the conquest of Bohemia and Palatinate. Christian IV of Denmark 
 
 Ferdinand II employed Albrecht of Wallenstein, a mercenary bohemian nobleman, that had helped the Empire to put down the Bohemian revolt, who became rich from the confiscated estates of his countrymen and created his own army.
 He worked for the Emperor but the wages for the soldiers were always late, so he made a deal with the Emperor: the Emperor gave him the right to plunder the territories crossed but the economy was totally destroyed. The Catholic League went to Northern Germany. Protestant states were worried because the Emperor wanted to give back to the Church secularized holdings, as in the possessions of the Catholic Church conquered during the religious wars in the previous century, so they called Christian for help. Albrecht von Wallenstein The Empire won: the empire won • Wallenstein defeated Mansfeld’s army at the Battle of Dessau Bridge in 1626 • Tilly defeated Christian’s army at the Battle of Lutter 1626 
 With the Treaty of Lubeck in 1629 Christian was forced to abandon his support for the Protestant German states and the Emperor enacted the Edict of Restitution in 1629, reclaiming lands in the empire belonging to the Catholic Church that had been acquired and secularized by Protestant rulers. In 1630 took place the Diet of Regensburg, which was a meeting of prince electors of the Holy Roman Empire, during which the Catholic electors opposed Ferdinand, who wanted the imperial army to be downsized and Wallenstein to be dismissed from command. They revoked the Edict of Restitution and Ferdinand suffered a defeat by the Imperial States.
 Edict of Restitution !44 The Swedish intervention (1630-35) Sweden ordered a full scale invasion of the Catholic states. 
 The State was ruled by Gustavus Adolphus Vasa, who became king in 1611 and inherited his father’s conflicts. Sweden was engaged in wars with Denmark, Russia and Poland and he brought about conclusive results to the conflicts with Denmark and Russia in 1613, however he couldn’t find peace with Poland. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus Gustavus established a new military system, thanks to this the Swedish military reached the highest levels. It was characterized by a tight discipline in the army: no luxury, no nepotism, small baggage (for the speed of movements), prayers before battles, crimes severely punished, soldiers rewarded for meritorious service. 
 The new army had an elaborate equipment with better technology and better weapons, also because Sweden was rich in timber and iron. The Swedish enacted also a new military tactics, the so called caracole. In this tactics cavalrymen advanced in formation, the soldiers of the first rank discharged their two pistols on their target, then retired to the back of the formation to reload, it was like a machine gun. 
 new military tactics the caracole The Swedish army landed in Germany in 1630, because France made Sweden enter the conflict and funded the war. Gustavus Adolphus signed a convenient treaty with Poland thanks to the diplomatic aid of Richelieu, Sweden obtained Livonia in the Baltic. Adolphus decided to take part in the war because he wanted to help the Protestant cause and he felt threatened by the Edict of Restitution and he wanted to conquer new territories in the Baltic. 
 Germany was destroyed Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany with an army of 14,000 soldiers and he defeated Tilly at first at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 (near Lipsia) and then entered the centre of Germany trying to size the lands for the nation (assecuratio) and for the army (satisfactio). Soldiers plundered the lands: there were no supplies from Sweden and Germany was destroyed by plunders, by Swedish army and Wallenstein’s army. the battle of Breitenfeld !45 the swedes lost The emperor recalled Wallenstein because Tilly had died. Wallenstein prevented the Swedes from entering Vienna and he and Gustavus Adolphus clashed in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632. During this battle the Swedes prevailed, but Gustavus Adolphus was killed, then Wallenstein was removed from command by the king and he was killed because of a conspiracy.
 Lacking Gustav’s leadership the protestant forces were defeated in the Battle of Nordlingen in 1634: the Swedes withdrew and lost their conquests. The Imperialists and the Protestant States signed the Peace of Prague in 1635, a delay in the enforcement of the Edict of Restitution for 40 years. The French intervention (1635-48) 
 The Peace of Prague failed to satisfy France, so France entered the conflict. Because of the renewed strength it granted the Hapsburgs, Sweden continued the war together with France and the war became a war of attrition, a long war with many small battles. 
 At this point the war became an economic war, in which the strongest economy won: France, because it didn’t have a feudal economy (as the Imperial one) and above all because of the huge military expenses of the Empire, the Hapsburgs destroyed their own economy.
 
 France decided to take part in the war because it considered the Hapsburg too powerful and wanted to replace their supremacy in Europe with its own supremacy: the 30 years’ war turned into a real hegemonic war to control Europe.
 France secured an alliance with Sweden, Netherlands and the Protestant states and in Italy with Mantova, Parma and Savoy to attack Milan thanks to Richelieu, who was the real centre of this political period and created a strong absolute monarchy in France because he was a cunning politician. war for hegemony in Europe The Swedish army won in Bohemia and Saxony, while the Spanish army invaded French territory and was repulsed. Spain was fighting on 3 fronts: in Germany, in Netherlands and in France, but it collapsed and its economy fell down. Spain was defeated in the Battle of the Downs in 1639 (English Channel), during which the Spanish fleet was totally destroyed by the United Provinces. This led to the crisis of Spain and revolts backed by Richelieu; the one in Cataluña was repressed, while Portugal became independent. 
 the empire was defeated In the Battle of Rocroi in 1643 (France) the Spanish army was defeated by the French army led by Louis II Prince de Condè, it’s the turning point of the perceived invincibility of the Spanish tercios, the military unit of the Spanish Empire, an infantry formation made up of pikemen, swordsmen and musketeers. 
 The empire was defeated in the Battle of Jankau in 1645 and Swedes won in Battle of Prague in 1648, where Swedish troops entered the city and seized Prague Castle.
 !46 End of the War The war officially ended with the peace of Westphalia in 1648, which consisted on a series of treaties signed between May and October in Westphalian cities. • The peace of Munster: between the Dutch Republic and Spain, ended the Eighty years’ war and Spain formally recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic. • The treaty of Munster: between France and the Holy Roman Empire • The treaty of Osnabruck: between Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire The war between France and Spain didn’t stop, it lasted till the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) and  the last battle was the Battle of Dunkirk (1658), when the French army and their Commonwealth allies won against Spain. 
 The consequences After the Thirty Years War a new system of political order established in central Europe based upon the concept of coexisting sovereign states and the balance of power.
 
 From now on no more religious wars will be fought, it’s something that for instance in the islamic world didn’t happen.
 It marked the end of the Catholic dream of the Emperor: the rulers of the Imperial States had the right to independently decide their religious worship, in fact all parties recognized the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and following “cuis regio eius religio” each prince had the right to determine the religion of his own state (Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism, which was given legal recognition) The war marked the end of the absolutistic dream of the Emperor : the power taken by the emperor returned to the rulers of the Imperial States, the empire was no more something real because it had no political power and Germany was divided into several States: the biggest was Prussia, Hapsburgs owned only their personal territories (Austria, Bohemia and Hungary) and they started to be interested in Italian and Balkan territories. France as the real winner France was the real winner of the war because  it reached an hegemonic position in Europe that lasted till 1871. Europe in 1648 !47 THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 
 
 Even though England was not the only country that rebelled during this period, unlike in the other European countries this revolt succeeded and led to Constitutional monarchy. All of this would have happened within a century in the rest of Europe, for example with the French Revolution. 
 The English revolution was the first real revolution, the first time a society fought the king and killed the king legally. It led to Constitutional monarchy, win which king’s powers come from the population and no more from God.
 
 
 
 Why in England?
 • economy: England was economically developed (the most developed in Europe) • society: the presence of a developed middle class, the gentry, which was composed by small noblemen who had bought the enclosures under Elisabeth and was similar to the bourgeoisie, while in the other countries there was still no middle class • politics: the Stuarts made several political mistakes and they created an absolute monarchy believing in the “Divine Right of Kings” and were determined to rule without Parliament • religion: struggle between the Stuarts and the Puritans. Puritanism was a Calvinist movement widespread across England and the members of Parliament were all Puritans 
 The Stuarts first union of England and Scotland In 1603 the crown of England went to James VI of Scotland, who was Mary Stuart’s son because Elisabeth had died childless. He created the first personal union of the Scottish and English kingdoms to establish a single country under one monarch. Ireland had been conquered in the 12 century, however England, Scotland and Ireland were very different countries and the memory of past conflicts ran deep, plus they favoured different forms of religion:
 • Scots: Calvinism • English: Anglicanism • Irish: Catholicism James I of England James established an absolute monarchy because he strongly believed in the “Divine Right of Kings”: a king received authority from God and answered for his actions to God alone. He had absolute powers, he reduced the authority of the Parliament and he created royal courts against the principles of Magna Charta. !48 Guy Fawkes James reaffirmed the Anglican Church, against Catholics’ hopes because his mother was catholic. 
 The catholics organized a plot, called the Gunpowder plot.
 On the 5th of November of 1605, the catholic Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellar of the parliament, because he intended to blow up Parliament House. 
 
 From the following day there was less tolerance towards the Catholics. New laws were passed preventing them from practising law, serving as officers in the Army or Navy, or voting in local or Parliamentary elections. Furthermore, as a community they would be blackened for the rest of the Guy Fawkes century, blamed for the Great Fire of London and unfairly fingered in the Popish Plot of 1678. Thirteen plotters certainly proved an unlucky number for British Catholics: stigmatised for centuries, it was not until 1829 that they were again allowed to vote. less tolerance for catholics 
 James was not only against the Catholics with his choice, but also against Puritans’ hopes: they wanted religious freedom.
 
 For this reason they wrote the Millenary Petition in 1603, in which they demanded, among other things, the abolition of confirmation, wedding rings and the term “priest”. James was strict in enforcing conformity and started to persecute them: many of them fled, for example the Pilgrim fathers on Mayflower in 1620. James I was succeeded by his son Charles I in 1625. He ruled with absolute powers, he pursued his choices without feeling bound to explain or justify his actions and he was determined to rule without parliaments. Charles I 
 !49 The causes of the Civil War
 struggle King and Parliament new taxations struggle with puritans • political causes There was a struggle between the king and Parliament. He dissolved it 2 times because of disagreements and over the question of taxation. In 1628 the need for money compelled him to recall it and he was forced to sign the Petition of Rights, produced by the Commons. It denied the right to collect taxes without the approval of Parliament or the right to imprison a freeman without trial. In 1629 he dissolved it again and ignored the Petition. • economic causes The king imposed new taxations without consulting the parliament, for example ship money, a tax to maintain Royal navy o luxury of the court. So he was against puritan morality and against population’s sensibility, because they had to pay many taxes. • religious causes There was a struggle with the Puritans because Charles I made William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury, so there were strong persecutions against the Puritans. He also imposed Anglican Church also in Scotland, where Presbyterianism was spread everywhere and he introduced some catholic elements. This was real scandal for the puritans because the Anglican Church burdened public finances. Casus belli The causus belli were two: the war against Scotland and the Irish revolt.
 anglicanism in Scotland irish catholics rose up in arms The war against Scotland in 1639 occurred because the king attempted to impose uniformity of worship on Presbyterians of Scotland in 1637. They were against any form of liturgy and he provoked furious resistance, so the Scots rebelled. They enacted the National Covenant, a strong defense of Calvinism. He attempted to crush them by force but was defeated: the Scots invaded England and he was forced to summon Parliament in 1640. At first the Short Parliament, which only lasted a few months, but he was assailed by angry complaints about his policies, they mostly asked for the abolition of the Ship Money, so he dismissed it. He summoned a new parliament, the Long Parliament, from 1640-43, he thought to be able to control it but it refused to cooperate and they forced him to respect the Petition and puritan members began to push for wholesale reforms of the church. During the Irish revolt in 1641 the Catholics of Ireland rose up in arms killing hundreds of Protestants settled in their country. This rebellion caused panic in England because the Parliament suspected the king itself had fueled the revolt to have an army to fight against the Parliament. The king and the Parliament could not agree, so Charles I attempted a putsch (golpe) in 1642: he entered the Parliament with the army but failed and left London. The civil war began. !50 The Civil War (1642-49) During the civil war there were two different sides:
 • royalists: upper classes siding with the King, they controlled the north and the southwest and derived advantage from the support of the Welsh and the Cornish, who supplied him with many of his foot soldiers.
 • roundheads: puritan middle classes siding with Parliament, they controlled London and the east and derived more advantage from their possession of London Cromwell A puritan member of Parliament, Cromwell, realized they needed a better army and created the famous New Model Army: his soldiers were united by the same strong religious zeal, he gave them proper training and a regular wage. The king was defeated: • at Marston Moor in 1644 by a powerful Scottish army, in fact the Parliament had concluded a military alliance with the Scots • at Naseby in 1645 by the New Model Army the king was beheaded The Royalists were officially defeated in 1645: Charles I gave himself up to the Scots but they headed him over to Parliament. The king was executed because he managed to stir up another bout of violence (Second Civil War) and the Parliament realized the kingdom could never be settled in peace while Charles remained alive. They charged the king with high treason: he was tried, found guilty and beheaded in 1649. This was the first legal murder of a king in history. The Commonwealth (1649-60) the Republic Navigation acts a military dictatorship restoration of the monarchy After the death of Charles I, in England was established a republican regime. The republic was governed by Parliament and supported by the harsh military power of the New Model Army. Order was reestablished in England: the House of Lords and the Anglican Church were abolished and English traditional dominance over Ireland was brought back (1652), while Scotland was reduced to submission. The republic consolidated England’s commercial power: Cromwell revived English seapower, in fact he reorganized the Navy with the Navigation Acts. England made a decisive step towards naval supremacy. In 1653 Cromwell became Lord Protector. After disagreements with Parliament he reduced it to the so called Barebones Parliament, then he dismissed it. The republic became a military dictatorship: he ruled with almost absolute powers. 
 Cromwell died in 1658 and he was succeeded by his son Richard, but he proved unfit for the task and wasn't supported by the army, so he was obliged to resign. 
 After 18 months of confusion General Monk marched on London: he was in command of an English army in Scotland and demanded the formation of a free Parliament, the so called Convention Parliament. This Parliament restored the monarchy in 1660, when the late king's son was recalled from exile (in Paris) on condition that he granted a general pardon and allowed religious toleration: this marked the beginning of the Restoration. !51 General George Monk The Restoration strict anglicanism Charles II was a cunning politic: he secured the position of the Stuarts and he restored the Anglican Church. The parliament passed a series of Acts imposing a strict Anglicanism because the parliament feared Catholicism. He also allowed people to enjoy the pleasures of life that had been denied under the Puritan rule, even if the early years of his reign weren't glorious: in 1665 London was devastated by the Great Plague o in 1666 much of the capital was burned in the Great Fire of London. Charles II The Great Plague (1665) In 1665 many ships full of black rats arrived in London: the fleas on these rats carried the plague, they jumped from rats to people and bit them, so people caught the plague. Furthermore, the summer of 1665 was very hot and the streets of London were crowded and dirty, so the contagion was easier. In 1665 almost 70,000 people died out of a population estimated at 460,000. The plague continued to spread to other parts of the country so much that in 1666 other 2,000 people died. The Great Fire of London (1666) The Great Fire of London started in a backer’s shop in Pudding Lane (near London Bridge) on 2nd September 1666. Most of the houses were built of timber and were very close together and a strong wind was blowing. Samuel Pepys, a diarist of the period and Clerk to the Royal Navy, observed the fire and recommended to the King that buildings were pull-down, as it may be the only way to stop the fire. The Mayor was ordered to pull-down burning houses using fire hooks but the fire continued to spread. People forced to evacuate their homes chose to bury or hide what valuables they couldn't carry. Pepys buried his expensive cheese and wine. Samuel Pepys Pepys spoke to the Admiral of the Navy and agreed they should blow up houses in the path of the fire. They started blowing up houses in order to create a space to stop the fire spreading from house to house, in addition the wind changed direction blowing fire into the river. !52 The Navy, which had been using gunpowder at the time, carried out the request; by the next morning, Wednesday, 5 September 1666, the fire has been successfully stopped. Pepys recorded in his diary that even the King, Charles II, was seen helping to put out the fire. Most of London had been destroyed: 13,200 houses and 87 churches including St. Paul’s Cathedral. People needed to find a scapegoat to blame, so they blamed foreigners and Catholics, but in reality the fire was caused by a forgetful baker and fueled by a strong wind. It took nearly 50 years to rebuild the burnt area of London and most of the new buildings were built in brick or stone to avoid the risk of future fires. Near the northern end of London Bridge there’s a Doric column known simply as the Monument. Its height marks its distance from the site of the shop of Thomas Farynor, the king's baker, where the Great Fire began. The Monument In this period political parties were born: • Tories: supported the King and the Church, they were inheritors of the royalists • Whigs: not so supportive, they were inheritors of the parliamentarians Tory is an Irish term suggesting a catholic outlaw, while Whig is a term applied to horse thieves and later to Scottish Presbyterians and connoted non-conformity and rebellion. James excluded from the throne The king’s heir was his brother James. His second wife was a Catholic, so he had become catholic too, for this reason the parliament introduced the Exclusion Bill in 1679, to exclude James from the throne and give it to one of his protestant daughters from the first marriage with his protestant wife. The Commons were divided: the Tories supported James, while the Whigs wished to exclude him from the throne. The Bill was passed by the Commons but thrown out by the House of Lords.
 Nevertheless, James II became king in 1685. He tried to reintroduce Catholicism into England and Scotland, as he wanted to give the Catholic Church the same dignity as the Anglican Church, and even though rebellions broke out but they were crushed. He wanted to give Catholics important positions in the army and local government. a male heir The birth of James's son (a male heir) made things worse as the Parliament ha hoped for better times since James's heir was Protestant Mary, who married to William of Orange, the champion of the Protestant cause in Europe. William of Orange !53 The Glorious Revolution
 William of Orange bill of rights A group of representative Englishmen invited William of Orange to come over with an army. William landed in England on 5 November 1688 and at the same time James fled to France, for this reason it was considered a peaceful and non-violent revolution. 
 In 1689 William and Mary were crowned as joint monarchs. The monarchs were obliged to sign the Bill of Rights, which defined the relations between monarchy and parliament stating that the king ruled not by Divine Right, limiting the power of the king in favor of parliament. It's the beginning of Constitutional Monarchy, but it’s important to underline that the Bill is not a constitution, it’s a pact between the King and Parliament. Mary and William as joint monarchs William crushed James II's supporters in Scotland and Ireland: the repression culminated in the bloody Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In 1701 the Act of Settlement was passed, stating that Catholic claimants were excluded from the throne and that on the death of William III the throne would pass to Mary’s sister Anne, because Mary had already died in 1694 and William had no children, and after her to the Protestant House of Hanover, because Anne didn't have any children. George I of Hanover Anne George I 
 In 1702 William died and was succeeded by Anne. In 1707 the Act of Union was contrived stating the formal union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in order to ensure a Protestant succession in Scotland too. In 1714 George I of Hanover became king of England after Anne’s death. !54 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION American War of Independence (1775-1783) The American war of Independence is an extremely important event, because it represents the independence war of the colonies against the motherland. It was the first example of a struggle for liberation won by a non-European country against a European country. 
 Even though its population is of European descent, it led to the birth of the USA, which have a primary role in the contemporary era. This represented a crucial point in the Enlightenment because it’s part of the liberal and democratic revolutions and it’s linked with the Glorious Revolution and the French Revolution. We can find two interpretations about the war of independence: • enlightened and European point of view: it was the beginning of a new era, in which enlightened ideas came true • local, American point of view: they had different values, which were puritan values British colonization (1606-1733) The British colonization took place from 1606 to 1733 and it was the result of different drives. It was backed by Great Britain to fight the presence of France and Spain. There were different reasons: • economic reasons: the initiative of trade companies • political and religious reasons: the migration of persecuted people, for example the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, who were Puritans slavery and triangular trade 13 colonies The black slaves landed to Virginia in 1619 and slavery became a legal institute in 1661 to guarantee manpower to landowners. In 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht England became the leader in the triangular trade, which involved Britain, Africa, America. British ships carried metal good and arms to buy African slaves who were carried to America. In America there were the Thirteen Colonies, which included 2.500 million inhabitants, however there were differences between the colonies. In particular there was a huge gap between the north and the south. The Thirteen Colonies 
 !55 Northern colonies (New England) Southern colonies Middle colonies M a s s a c h u s e t t s, R h o d e Virginia, Maryland, North New York, New Jersey, Island, Connecticut, New Carolina, South Georgia Pennsylvania, Delaware Hampshire, Carolina small with many cities big with no cities founded by puritans founded with royal concession similar to the northern colonies economy: economy: • small property, trade and • strongly linked to the manufacture motherland fishing and boatyards • • based on large plantations thanks to a developed (tobacco, rice) smuggling with Caribbean society: society: only two social classes: high literacy rate: a high low literacy rate, low • • • landowners : British cultural level cultural level aristocracy • puritan values • Anglicanism with strong • poor: black slaves values • no class struggle linked to England The economy of the colonies was linked to the motherland: Britain had a trade monopoly and all the goods were addressed to it. Manufacture was hindered to avoid competition.
 They had a strong political autonomy and every colony had a royal governor and an Assembly elected by citizens. This is an experience of representative government. Another important feature of the politics was the autonomy of the local communities because of geographic reasons, which made it difficult to communicate, and because of puritan values, such as pluralism and tolerance only among the white. a new life The values were based on the idea of the selfmade man, who fought to reach the success. The colonists had been persecuted for political or religious reasons, so they wanted to begin a new life with determination. They were in an unknown world and they wanted to defend their freedom and conquests. The northern colonists had puritan values they considered themselves a chosen people meant to actualize the true Christian principles They were Calvinists; they interpreted material success and prosperity as evidence of divine grace, a successful man was predestined for salvation. In fact the puritans were an enterprising middle class bent on the making of money. !56 The Pilgrim Fathers were a group of Puritans who fled to America: they decided to look for religious freedom and start a new life in another land. 
 On the 16th of September of 1620 they left the port of Plymouth on the Mayflower, an old trading vessel, and on the 9th of November of 1620 they reached Cape Cod in Massachusetts, however they hadn’t enough food and water, so they decided to find another place.
 On the 21st if December they set up camp at a place they named Plymouth. 
 
 the pilgrim fathers thousand colonists It was difficult for them because it was winter and they had little food but they were determined to succeed, so they learned how to fish and hunt and even Amerindians helped them. Other Puritans followed them to America and 10 years later almost a thousand colonists settled nearby: that area became Boston. This settlement prospered: its population grew quickly and many puritans left England to escape persecutions. In 1691 the Boston and Plymouth colonies combined and became Massachusetts. 
 The struggle between England and the colonists
 
 Before the Seven Years’ War there were strong bonds between the colonies and England: the colonists were English subjects and military aid from England was necessary against France, Spain and Amerindians, however there were weak bonds among the colonies. The Seven Years’ War, from 1756 until 1763, was a war against France (and Spain from 1761) fought in America. With treaty of Paris in 1763 Britain obtained territories: Canada from France and Florida from Spain.
 
 After the Seven Years’ War the colonies didn’t need British help any more because both the French and Spanish pressure had been removed. But Britain had spent a lot of money for the war, so the government decided that the colonies should bear part of the cost of the war. colonies paid for war new taxes Problems started to pop up in 1763 with king’s proclamation that “the Appalachians were to be considered a boundary not to be surpassed”: the lands beyond the limit were considered Crown dominions. This proclamation was an offence for the colonies.
 In 1764 and 1767 new taxes were imposed, for example the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, but the colonists considered the taxes illegitimate. 
 
 the sons of liberty During this period a movement of patriots was born: the Sons of Liberty. Their ideas were spread by pamphlets and it was clear that they started thinking of themselves as Americans, in fact they protested under the principle “no taxation without representation”, meaning that Parliament had no right to pass laws on the colonies since there were no American representatives in the British Parliament. !57 the sons of liberty 
 In 1770 took place the Boston Massacre, during which some some British Troops guarding the Boston Custom House fired at the crowd and 5 men died. The incident came to symbolize the British Tyranny. 
 Only three years later, in 1773 took place the Boston Tea Party to protest against the duty imposed on tea. The Sons, disguised as Amerindians, threw a cargo of British tea into the sea as a result the harbor was closed. Boston tea party engraving of the Boston massacre by Paul Revere first continental congress George Washington 4th of July England believed the colonies wouldn’t ally but in 1774 the representatives of all the colonies met in Philadelphia, it was the first Continental Congress. From this point the conflict became inevitable. 
 In 1775 there were the first act of war at Lexington (near Boston) and the second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and appointed George Washington commander of the Continental Army. The patriot forces were ill-trained and badly organized but they were fighting on their own land, that the British didn’t know well. 
 George Washington The war started as a civil war as nobody was thinking about independence, but the king wasn’t acting as a peacemaker, in fact he was deaf to colonists’ requests. On the 4th of July of 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, the head of a Committee of Five. This is considered the birth of the USA embodying a philosophy of freedom and equality. It’s a statement on human rights: of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and it inspired many other similar documents in other country in the following centuries. It based on the principles of the Enlightenment, in fact Locke’s Treaties of Government were the basis of the Declaration such as the principles of popular sovereignty and popular right to replace a governor who violates human rights influenced by the English Bill of Rights. The Declaration inspired similar documents and future Constitutions, for example The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789). !58 Saratoga campaign The first American victory occurred in the Saratoga campaign in 1777, which consisted of two battles, thanks to George Washington leadership. They conquered the Hudson Valley blocking English reinforcement from Canada. France, Spain and Holland allied with the colonies for vengeance (the losses of the 7 years’ war) and gained the last decisive victory in the battle of Yorktown (Virginia) in 1781. With the treaty of Paris in 1783 the independence of the colonies was officially ratified and France and Spain obtained some English territories. The United State of America constitution During the war each colony had enacted its own Constitution inspired by the same principles: they had a representative government system and they had respect for human rights, but respecting the different situations. In 1787 was organized a Constitutional Convention with 55 delegates led by George Washington and the Confederation became a Union (real state). The principled of the Constitution: • separation of powers: the legislative, executive and judicial powers are independent from each other • balance of powers: but they can control each other The federal government is divided into 3 branches:
 The legislative branch that consists of a bicameral Congress, consisting of two Chambers, which are a Senate, in which all the States have equal representation (2 seats) and a House of Representatives, in which the number of seats is based on the population of each State
 
 The executive branch represented by the President, who has a very strong position. The president is the head of government and head of State and also the commander in chief of the Armed Forces, fort his reason it is a Presidential Republic. He is indirectly elected by citizens through the Electoral College, through which each state chooses some electors who will vote in the Electoral College. The terms lasts four years and renewable only once.
 The judicial branch is composed by the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
 the division of powers !59 The Constitution was ratified on 21st June 1788 and signed by 11 of the 13 states (excluding South Carolina and Rodhe Island) and it came into force in 1789. The first President was George Washington and was reelected in 1793. the Bill of Rights In 1791 the first ten amendments, created in 1789, were ratified and known as the Bill of Rights, they add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedom and rights: offer protections of individual freedom and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government to address the objections raised by AntiFederalist during the battle over ratification of the Constitution. The actual composition is composed by 7 articles and 27 amendments. The first 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights, while the other 17 are up to expand individual civil rights protections. the american bill of rights the 5th amedment The fifth amendment to the U.S. constitution guarantees many rights for citizens accused of crimes, not the least of which is the protection against self-incrimination. Nowadays the fifth amendment is usually referred to with the sentence “I pledge the fifth”. The Westward Expansion began with the Ordinance of 1787, which was ratified and created the Northwest Territory, which was the first organized territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains. It established the government would expand westward with the admission of new states. !60 THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The industrial revolution occurred in the second half of the 18th century and it marked turning point in the English history. This was the age of revolutions: the American, French and Industrial. The Industrial revolution is called a revolution not because it was sudden, but radical and irreversible, in fact it led to great economic development: the economy shifted from agriculture to industry, based on factory system. It implied also huge economic and technical changes, great social and political transformations. The industrial revolution introduced some important changes: • use of new materials (iron and steel) • new sources of power (coal and stream engine) • technological inventions • the factory system • improvements in transportation and communication These changes led to a better exploitation of natural resources and a mass production of manufactured goods, as well as some other consequences: • improvements in agriculture • the rise of international trade • the growth of cities • the birth of working class movement Why in Britain? fleet, canals and roads agriculture growth of unemployed raw materials 
 
 new machines Thanks to commercial expansion and to the growing colonies England had monopoly of trade and great merchant marine and powerful fleet. It also had good canal and road system: it was the most development national market in Europe. The most important improvements concerned the agricultural world: new farming methods were introduced, farming machinery was improved and there were also social and economic changes, such as the enclosures phenomenon: landowners began to hedge their land into limited areas so the land was farmed more effectively, but enclosing costs money and poor farmers couldn't afford it and many of them left the country to find work in towns. 
 There were also social and economical changes: the growth of unemployed (future working class), the increasing of demand for goods: in the towns they needed to buy food, clothes, while in the villages they made their own clothes and grew their own food, the mass production began to substitute the old domestic system: families working together as economic units . Thanks to agricultural improvement and commercial expansion the capital started to increase rapidly. England also had a steady government: a constitutional monarchy and strong parliament, and had the availability of raw materials: coal and iron, cotton from the colonies, which was cheaper than wool and easier to be woven. 
 New machines were invented to make the manufacturing process faster, but they couldn't be used in people's houses because they were too big, so factories were built. !61 The technological development occurred mostly thanks to the invention of new machinery that overthrew the old working techniques. The new inventions were actual solutions to real problems, not scientific research. In the textile industry the most important inventions were:
 • new spinning machines: ‣ spinning jenny (Hargreaves in 1764) ‣ water frame (Arkwright in 1769) ‣ spinning mule (Crompton in 1779)
 • new waving machines ‣ power loom (Cartwright in 1785) spinning jenny spinning mule water frame power loom !62 steam engine Another important invention was the one of steam engine: steam power used in the new machines and patented by Watt in 1769. Steam engines used coalfired boilers, so the use of coal became necessary and the demand for coal higher. In the iron industry iron was used to produce new machines and Britain became the leading iron producer in Europe. 
 From a domestic system, also known as puttingout system, England shifted to a factory system because the new machines were too big to be held in people’s houses and they were introduced into factories. slums steam engine The revolution also implied urban transformations: factories were built in urban suburbs and poor farmers went to towns to work in factories. New houses for workers were built near the factories and these suburbs became slums, which means deprived urban neighbourhood. This led to overpopulation and a lack of the most elementary principles of sanitation, in fact everyone lived in terrible conditions and so close to one another: 5 to 9 people lived in a single room in terrible and harsh conditions. slums The novelties also caused important social changes: the innovations required financial support and people with money to invest, this led to a deeper social division: • capital: formed by the growing bankfinanced industrial class • labour: made up of underpaid workers often working under inhuman conditions the Great Exhibition The consequences of the revolution concerned mostly the economy, in fact Britain’s economic leadership reached its climax with the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a magnificent display of British scientific and technological progress.
 !63 Great exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace new ships The increasing production of all kinds of goods needed cheap and reliable transport, so there were an important attention on transports. First of all the ships, in particular in the USA, the most important ships were:
 • Clermont: it was the first steamboat were built by Fulton in 1807 and was a small vessel designed for insular transportation, propelled by a steam engine o carried passengers from New York City to Albany (in the Hudson) • Savannah: was the first steamship crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 1819 and an ocean faring seaworthy vessel propelled by a steam engine Clermont Savannah !64 new canals railways In England 6,000 km of new canals were dug because heavy items could be carried on the water more easily and transport by water was cheap. They formed a network which linked the main industrial towns with the sea ports. The first steamer was built by Bell in 1812, then Britain became the first producer of longdistance steamships: so overseas trade expanded and by the end of 18th century Britain was the most powerful trading nation in the world. They also built railways: the Locomotion was the first locomotive built by Stephenson in 1825, it travelled on the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) (40km) o hauling a 80ton load of coal with a speed of 39 km/h and it took 2 hours. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was built in 1830 and during the opening ceremony a procession of 8 trains built by Stephenson travelled, the most famous was the Rocket and it’s known that it killed a member of Parliament. The Locomotion the effects of railways 
 rich-poor workers’ conditions The rocket The railways affected people’s lives considerably: food from the countryside or the coast came into towns, people travelled more frequently and went on holidays, standard time was introduced everywhere because before clock in different towns were slower or faster than each other, national newspapers were sent all over the country, local accents and dialects became less extreme because people from different parts of Britain had more contacts. However the industrial revolution caused also some social problems: it increased the gap between rich and poor, in fact the new class of factory owners made large fortunes but workers were poor and they easily lost their jobs because new machines often took jobs from workers. Workers lived in overcrowded slums with no sanitary facilities, they only had contaminated water supply and persistent dampness. Urban people died due to diseases spreading through the cramped living conditions, for example tuberculosis, cholera, lung diseases from the mines. They also had strict working conditions, they had long working hours, from 12 to 16 hours and there were also child labour. !65 the Luddites The first social oppositions was represented by the Luddite movement in 1811: unemployed workers turned their anger towards the new machines and they began destroying factories, in this situation the government took drastic measures using the army. the Luddites The situation aroused humanitarian feelings, so much that special institutions were founded and charity school were opened. The Trade Union Movement began in the 20s: the trade union was an organization of workers who want to achieve common goals and they asked for better working conditions and higher wages using strike action. a strike the New poor Law The Whig government passed an Act of Parliament called the New poor Law in 1834, which enabled a new system of poor relief. Relief would only be given in workhouses and conditions in workhouses were not appealing, only the real poor would apply. The Poor Law was replaced by the rise of the welfare state in the 20th century. the new poor law !66