Life and institutions of pre-Revolutionary
Basic characteristics:
·
Politics-
ruled by absolutist monarchs. Growing bureaucracy. Aristocratically-led armies.
·
Economy-
Agriculture based- still predominantly traditional in methods and organization
·
scarcity
·
slow
transport
·
low-level
iron production
·
mercantilist
government policies
·
Only
non-traditional economy in
·
Society- Aristocratic elite revives in 18th
century. Retain or gain legal privileges.
·
Established
Catholic and Protestant churches tied to state and aristocracy
·
Urban
work organized in guilds
·
Rural
peasantry still paid feudal dues, high taxes. Forced labor in east.
·
Hierarchical
society
·
Corporate
rights (Estate, village, guilds, parish, etc.). No individual rights.
·
Limited
social mobility
·
Internal
divisions: class conflict; no single standard of law, money, weights or
·
measures.
Signs of change: urbanization- population
growth
scientific
agriculture
new technologies-
canals, roads, steam engine, use of coke
scientific
revolution/reformation changing ideas.