Browse Items (202 total)

In the 1600s the young Dutch Republic was the envy of Europe. Despite their small size and decentralized government structure, the United Provinces of the Netherlands managed to make themselves the middlemen of the world in the 17th century by…

The first documented case of European tobacco initiation came in 1518 during Juan de Grijalva’s expedition of the Yucatán Peninsula (Norton, 48). As such, tobacco was initially viewed as a brokering tool, not as a commodity. Yet, it gradually grew in…

What is now the Royal Palace of Amsterdam was originally inaugurated in 1665 as the Town Hall of the City of Amsterdam, to be the "eighth wonder of the world". With the newfound independence from Spain thanks to the Peace of Westphalia, and with the…

Aphra Behn was an English writer whose work Oronooko addressed the slave trade. She wrote about a slave rebellion in Surinam, drawing upon her own experiences there along with her knowledge of the slave trade (Wiesner-Hanks, 390). The slave trade,…

Adam Smith’s quintessential work of classical economic philosophy, Wealth of Nations, is seen as one of the most influential philosophical works of the entire Enlightenment era. In it, Smith bashes Mercantilist economic policies for their backward,…

Philip IV’s reign in Spain is also marked by attempts to centralize power, as was the trend in other European nations (most notably France behind the leadership of the Cardinal Richelieu). The man most associated with this centralization is Don…

One of the key parts of the Spanish economy in the New World following its conquest was the use of indigenous labor. This system was termed the encomienda system. One of the loudest voices against this system was Bartolomé de las Casas, a former…

The War of Austrian Succession established the dualism of Prussia and Austria which would characterize the empire until its collapse in 1806. At the end of the 30 years war in 1648 very few Germans likely would have been able to predict Prussia’s…

In the 17th century, the Enlightenment burst forth on the stage of European Intellectual life. It was a movement that stood out from the Renaissance by its focus on breaking free of the past, looking for more reasoned answers to questions, both new…

Published in 1776 by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations continues to be a seminal piece of classical economics. Smith’s contributions, however, went far beyond the scope of the classical school of thought, defining the very…

A court physician, ethical thinker, and political player, John Locke’s ideas figured prominently in the mainstream Enlightenment. His Essay Concerning Human Understanding put forth his thoughts on the origin of human knowledge. He wrote that everyone…

The mainstream Enlightenment may have put an emphasis on individual liberties and free thought, but these ideas rarely extended to “second class” members of early modern European society, including women. Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist philosopher…