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1 Political Fragmentation of Europe
Europe is politically fragmented, but Mr. Kennedy thinks this is mucho bueno
1.1 Causes
- Geographical — no big plains but lots of rivers
- Harsher climate makes difficult central control
1.2 Effects
- Hard to be fully unified, and hence hard to be assimilated
- Diversity encouraged inter-dependence and trade (which, #why is this a
good thing necessarily?)
- Trade included bulk items primarily and not luxury-focused trade of the east
- Easy access to sea encouraged shipbuilding
- Quick, common day trade encouraged building on an economy — credit, banks, common currency
- Need for long-range fishing encourages the building of bigger ships, and that's good because #why?
1.2.1 Development of strong military technology
- Beginning around 14-1600s with the establishment of "gunpowder empires"
- Military powers begin concentrating
- Italy's use of the crossbowmen + pikes
- France and England gained monopoly with artilirary
- Notice! However, that there is nevertheless a variety of powers that made individual control difficult — no single individual ever gained an edge
- Varied political entities caused difficulty in controlling the whole continent
- Lean army of smaller nations encouraged fighting with artillery, and not direct combat — driving technological innovation
To most European statesmen the loss of Hungary was of far greater import than the establishment of factories in the Orient, and the threat to Vienna more significant than their own challenges at Aden, Goa and Malacca; only goverments bordering the Atlantic could, like the later historians, ignore this fact
Meaning… Generally weaker individual states originally caused less inter-continental fighting against the status-quo big nations (KBhHIST201MingChina1500/KBhHIST201Ottomans1500)
1.3 Advantages
Fragmentation also encourage competition:
- Trading and merchants less stigmatized (unlikeKBhHIST201ChinasDecline1500 China's Governmental Decline in the 1500s) => making supressing economic development difficult #why
- Encouraged small millitia (condottieri) to compete for contracts
- Created genuine innovation
- Experimentation with gunpowder
- Innovation by hired army
- Self-perpetuating cycle made attack and monopolization harder
- Innovative techniques often drive other innovation (experiments with cannons => more sturdy ships)