HIST 2376 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Russian Empire, Middle Ages, Mercantilism
Document Summary
Catholicism: british royal family became german-blooded, russian empire is ruled by the romanoff family. Political systems: most kings wanted to be absolute monarchs, but varied in their effectiveness. In medieval monarchies, kings had little power because they had no state apparatus to carry out anything, had to rely on nobles: the french monarchy broke the power of their nobility and used nobles to the king"s advantage. Mercantilism: government has a direct interest in the economy and manipulates international trade for the benefit of the royal economy. Includes monopoly capitalism - the state raises money by selling monopolies to people: the reason that britain has colonies in north america is to raise money for britain, and no one else can trade with the colonies. Pre-colonial africa is not untouched by european influence. America: three separate colonial administrations, also controlled the philippines as part of nueva espana, brazil is the biggest destination for enslaved africans and is controlled by portugal.