Where’s the Light in the Enlightenment Era? Part II

Debunking the Early Modern Period with an emphasis on the Enlightenment

(For the introduction, please refer to the previous essay.)

Religious Flux

Religion was, unlike during most of the Middle Ages, on thin ice. Christianity fragmented; we now had Protestantism, Calvinism, and others. This division escalated into the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century. Puritans emerged from Protestantism, were banished from Europe because of their extremism, and emigrated to the United States. What happened there later, we all know.

Regarding Protestantism, Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the church door. He lit a fire that spread across almost the entire continent. That firestorm divided the Christian world, or at least the Church. As mentioned before, new theological teachings emerged from this, but not only that - war broke out as well.

As for women, Protestantism gave them more space in the sense that they were included in the reform movement. Yet, women were still considered "assistants," so to speak. In other words, they were still subordinate to men. So much for progress!

Warfare

Non-historians previously thought that the Middle Ages were the most brutal period; however, if we count all the wars in the Early Modern Period, it outdoes the Middle Ages by far.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the late 15th century toward Europe frightened Western European kingdoms. The arrival of the Ottomans in Europe initiated wars that lasted for three centuries between them and Central and Western European countries. This changed and introduced new means of warfare: guns and cannons replaced bows and arrows; the scimitar or Turkish saber replaced medieval swords; and star-shaped forts with bastions replaced traditional medieval castles.

The Early Modern Period was riddled with conflict: the Wars of the Roses, where two English houses quarreled (York vs. Lancaster); the Ottoman - Venetian Wars; the Italian Wars; the Austro - Ottoman Wars; the Peasants' Revolts in Central Europe; the Anglo - Dutch Wars; the Seven Years’ War; and the Wars of the Spanish, Austrian, and Polish Successions. Too much blood for one period.

Injustice Toward Women

What about women? According to philosophers of that time, women were by nature destined to be mothers; their only role was to satisfy men - something some men still believe today. These men of philosophy believed in an anthropocentric approach, but they weren't all that rational themselves. Excluding an entire half of the population from public life is in no way rational.

Accordingly, women were subdued by the men in their family: father, brother, or husband. They were considered property; women could not own assets, partake in political life, or hold civil rights. Even the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) excluded women. Namely, the Declaration outlined natural, universal, and inalienable rights for all men - specifically white men. The document emphasized liberty, property, and security, yet ironically, while it established principles like free speech and equality before the law, these applied only to white men.

Another important thing to Enlightenment philosophers was education. Guess what? Women were excluded here, too. The only education they could receive was in religion, housework, music, and courtesy. Very limited and frustrating, isn't it? Not just from today’s point of view, but for the women of that time. This is the period when the first voices of feminism started to wake. Slow progress since then, but progress nonetheless.

Healthcare

Hygiene was at its lowest. It was believed that bathing was bad for your health because water supposedly opened the pores, allowing illness to enter the body. Hence, people would rather change their clothes, wear perfume, and put on wigs than wash - and that applied only to the aristocracy who had that privilege. Keeping that in mind, people in the Middle Ages were actually cleaner than those in the Early Modern Period!

Moreover, streets were dirty, filled with trash and feces, which helped diseases spread easily. Infrastructure had yet to modernize, though some European city governments began working on sewerage systems and other prophylactic techniques.

This era was also known for its epidemics. The most recurring was the Bubonic Plague, appearing every 20 years. Famous outbreaks occurred in London (1665-66), Italy (1629-31), and Marseille (1720). Alongside the Black Death were diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus, influenza, and syphilis, all of which had high mortality rates. We take some of them, like the flu, for granted today.

Conclusion

From today’s point of view, any historical period might seem like a nightmare, but we are not here to judge a period solely by our modern worldview. However, some things listed here were questioned even by contemporaries of the Early Modern Period. Therefore, the question remains: Where’s the light in the Enlightenment era? It is not as bright as some tend to portray it. This period, like many others, is easily romanticized. Even I idealize some periods - I’d live in the Neolithic! Jokes aside.

People then lived day by day, just as we do now. One generation might face war for their entire lives or experience a plague, which is almost unimaginable today (except perhaps in parts of Madagascar, Peru, or the USA). That is something to keep in mind when thinking of "advanced" Renaissance people. To conclude, there is no ideal time to live in except today.  

#essay #earlymodernperiod #enlightenmentera #blackdeath #epidemics #declarationoftherightsofmanandofthecitizen #frenchrevolution #protestantism #calvinism #martinluther #ottomanwars #ottomanempire

Sources:

Majander et al., “Ancient Bacterial Genomes Reveal a High Diversity of Treponema pallidum Strains in Early Modern Europe,” Current Biology, Volume 30, Issue 19, October 5, 2020, p. 3788–3803, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.058

Cartwright, F.F.; Biddiss, M., Disease & History, Sutton Pub Ltd, 2004

Goldstein, I. (editor), Povijest 10. Doba apsolutizma (17. Stoljeće), Zagreb: Jutarnji list, 2007

Postlewate, L., “Introduction: Women and Community in Early Modern Europe,” Women and Community in Early Modern Europe: Approaches and Perspectives, Issue 15.1 | 2018, https://sfonline.barnard.edu/introduction-women-and-community-in-early-modern-europe/

Coman, S., “A Community of Women Artists and Actresses at the End of the Ancien Régime: The Portrait of Madame Thénard mère in Hermione by Adèle Romany,” Women and Community in Early Modern Europe: Approaches and Perspectives, Issue 15.1 | 2018, https://sfonline.barnard.edu/a-community-of-women-artists-and-actresses-at-the-end-of-the-ancien-regime-the-portrait-of-madame-thenard-mere-in-hermione-by-adele-romany/

Kelly, J., Women, History, and Theory, University of Chicago Press, 1984. Essay "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" worth reading.

L. Knoppers, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Women's Writing, Cambridge University Press, 2010

Solar, M., Povijest svjetske književnosti, Zagreb: Golden Marketing, 2003

Nochlin, L., "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?", ArtNews, 1971

Bowers, J., & Tick, J., Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition, 1150-1950, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987

Pendle, K., Women & Music: A History, Indiana University Press, 2001

Schiebinger, L., The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science, Harvard University Press, 1989

Findlen, P., "Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy: The Strategies of Laura Bassi", Isis, 1993

Ogden, K., "Maria Sibylla Merian: The First Ecologist?", The Journal of Art History, 2004

Broad, J., Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2002

Fernández-Armesto, F., Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration, W. W. Norton & Company, 2007