Lesson 1 - The origins of capitalism
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Why did the Dutch (and the British) become so rich in the 17th century? Watch the first 3 minutes and 26 seconds of this film to get you started. It will introduce you to some ideas that I would have liked to have considered last year, especially the importance of the Protestant Reformation. Next were going to apply a classic PESC (Political, Economic, Social and Cultural) explanation for the origins of capitalism. This a typical way in which historians tidy up the past and make sense of it. |
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Socio-cultural causes
The Dutch Republic and the British Isles were also home to some of the most significant scientific innovators in this period we know as the 'Scientific Revolution'. The main reason for this, was the freedom and protection these countries provided for scientists to be left alone to experiment. Both countries produced internationally significant scientists like Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632 -1723) in Holland and Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726) in England. Both countries had institutions which encouraged scientific thinking, like the University of Leiden in Holland (1575) and the Royal Society (1662) in England. Both countries (Holland first) allowed its citizens a degree of individual freedom which had been hard won as a result of war or civil war. Holland, with its geographical proximity to a predominantly Catholic Europe, became a safe haven for free-thinking scientists and philosophers from all over Europe. Comenius (1592 –1670), Descartes (1596-1650) and Spinoza (1632 –1677) all found refuge in the Dutch Republic. Again due to the Dutch climate of tolerance, book publishers flourished. Many books on religion, philosophy and science that might have been deemed controversial abroad were printed in the Netherlands and secretly exported to other countries. Thus during the 17th century the Dutch Republic became increasingly Europe's publishing house.
The Dutch Republic and the British Isles were also home to some of the most significant scientific innovators in this period we know as the 'Scientific Revolution'. The main reason for this, was the freedom and protection these countries provided for scientists to be left alone to experiment. Both countries produced internationally significant scientists like Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632 -1723) in Holland and Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726) in England. Both countries had institutions which encouraged scientific thinking, like the University of Leiden in Holland (1575) and the Royal Society (1662) in England. Both countries (Holland first) allowed its citizens a degree of individual freedom which had been hard won as a result of war or civil war. Holland, with its geographical proximity to a predominantly Catholic Europe, became a safe haven for free-thinking scientists and philosophers from all over Europe. Comenius (1592 –1670), Descartes (1596-1650) and Spinoza (1632 –1677) all found refuge in the Dutch Republic. Again due to the Dutch climate of tolerance, book publishers flourished. Many books on religion, philosophy and science that might have been deemed controversial abroad were printed in the Netherlands and secretly exported to other countries. Thus during the 17th century the Dutch Republic became increasingly Europe's publishing house.
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Political causes
Both countries enjoyed significant advantages for the development of capitalism. Firstly, both countries enjoyed a degree of political stability after years of disruption. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch Republic and Spain and the Thirty Years' War between other European superpowers, brought the Dutch Republic formal recognition and independence from the Spanish crown. In England after civil war and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a period of political stability followed. The nature of both political systems also encouraged the development of capitalist business. Neither the Netherlands nor England were absolute monarchies dominated by the power of great landowners. The Dutch Republic was highly decentralized, urban and largely run by the leading businessmen in their interest. Whilst in England, the Bill of Rights of 1689 set out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech in Parliament. Parliament had significantly weakened the power of the monarch. |
(Above) Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and friends provide a humorous take on Westphalia
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Economic causes
But it was economically that the Netherlands had the real advantage. The Low Countries were favourably positioned at a crossing of east-west and north-south trade routes, and connected to a large German territories through the Rhine river. Dutch traders shipped wine from France and Portugal to the Baltic lands and returned with grain for countries around the Mediterranean Sea. The Dutch had large merchant and shipping fleets. In 1670, about ten per cent of Dutch adult males were sailors; - the Dutch had more ships than England, France, Germany, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain combined. The Dutch built ships, the fluyt sailing ship (see right), more cheaply, more quickly and better than any of her rivals. |
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Dutch religious tolerance also attracted skilled workers, many of whom came to work in the new cloth industries that increasingly replaced expensive high-quality woollen cloth. In addition to the mass migration of natives from the Southern Netherlands, there were also significant influxes of non-native refugees who had previously fled from religious persecution, particularly Jews from Portugal and Spain, and later Huguenots (Protestants) from France. The Pilgrim Fathers also spent time there before their voyage to the New World (America).
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The Dutch exploited the wind-powered saw-mill (invented 1596) to turn timber into lumber more efficiently than their rivals. The Netherlands were also at the forefront of agricultural innovation. Instead of periodically leaving land fallow, the Dutch rotated crops (turnips, peas, and clover alternating with grain). This enabled them to sustain high levels of production without exhausting the land. Alternation of "fodder crops" with grain also allowed the farmer to keep more livestock and use their manure to fertilize the land, so winning both ways.
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Activity
Make a revision diagram to explain the origins of capitalism in the Netherlands and Britain. If produced on paper it should be no more than one page and clearly designed to help you remember the key concepts and supporting examples for a test. Other formats are welcome including mime, dance, music and cartoon etc. But whatever the form, they must be uploaded to your History OneNote before the weekend is over. I'd love to spend my birthday on Monday marking all your fabulous work.
When you have finished your diagram (or performance) I'd like you to write a brief reflection on why the PESC approach is so useful.
Make a revision diagram to explain the origins of capitalism in the Netherlands and Britain. If produced on paper it should be no more than one page and clearly designed to help you remember the key concepts and supporting examples for a test. Other formats are welcome including mime, dance, music and cartoon etc. But whatever the form, they must be uploaded to your History OneNote before the weekend is over. I'd love to spend my birthday on Monday marking all your fabulous work.
When you have finished your diagram (or performance) I'd like you to write a brief reflection on why the PESC approach is so useful.
Lesson 2 - The VOC and British East India Company
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The Spanish and Portuguese had a monopoly of the East Indies spice trade until destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 by the British, which permitted the British and Dutch to seek their share of this wealthy import business. The British formed the East India Company in 1600. The Dutch founded two important trading companies: - the Dutch East India Company (1602), (Dutch: Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (1621). These private companies behaved like political states and acted relatively independently of the Dutch and British governments. They even had their own armed forces to defend the territories they controlled.
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Tea, coffee, and spices were its most important commodities. They were the first-ever multinational corporations, financed by shares that established the first modern stock exchange. Spices were imported in bulk and brought huge profits due to the efforts and risks involved and seemingly insatiable demand. Spices, at the time, could only be found on these islands. Spices such as pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon could bring profits as high as 400 percent from one voyage. To finance the growing trade within the region, the Bank of Amsterdam was established in 1609, perhaps the world's first central bank central bank. Amsterdam's dominant position as a trade centre was strengthened in 1640 with a monopoly for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for trade with Japan through its trading post on Dejima, an island in the bay of Nagasaki. From here the Dutch traded between China and Japan and paid tribute to the shōgun.
The tension was so high between the Dutch and the British East Indies Trading Companies that it escalated into at least four Anglo-Dutch Wars between them: 1652-1654, 1665-1667, 1672-1674 and 1780-1784. By the time of the last of these wars Britain was the dominant economic power and was on the verge of launching the second stage in the development of capitalism, the industrial revolution.
Three inherent problems of capitalism.
1. Capitalist competition between companies results in some successful companies taking over less effective companies. Eventually, this can create monopolies where only one company remains that has no-one left to compete with. If only one company provides a service or a product, it is said to be a monopoly. Why might this be a problem?
2. Capitalism is not controlled by anything but the marketplace, the law of supply and demand. If your product is popular, but scarce, you will be able to get a good price for it. This encourages lots of investors to place their money in companies that produce the same product as you. This creates an economic boom in which investors can make a lot of money by buying a share of these companies that make such profits. At some point, however, too many companies are over-producing the same product and profits decline. Suddenly the investors withdraw their money and sell their stock. A good example was the The Great Tulip Bubble of 1636-37. This creates a crash in which lots of investors and companies go bust. Capitalism's second problem is that economic boom and bust are inevitable and this has significant social consequences.
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The Great Tulip Bubble, 1636-37 Not all Dutch investment was solid and sensible. Tulips were introduced from Ottoman Turkey and grown in the Netherlands during the early seventeenth century. The beautiful flowers served as an extravagant display of wealth and taste for prosperous Dutch burghers. Suddenly in 1634-35, there was an explosion in demand and prices soared. Particularly rare and beautiful bulbs fetched thousands of florins, and speculators invested in "tulip futures" - buying the flowers before they had even grown in the fields. The speculative bubble burst abruptly; prices began to fall and investors were left holding worthless assets bought with borrowed money. To restore some sort of stability, a government commission finally ruled that any contract could be terminated by paying 3.5% of the purchase price. |
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3. Capitalism always tries to reduce its costs in order to increase its competitivity (see point 1 above). Capitalism makes its profits by employing people to work for wages that are lower than the market value of the product that they produce. Capitalism always seeks to reduce costs and keep wages low. These leads capitalists to exploit their workers by employing them for as little as possible and by preventing the workers from organising themselves to prevent their exploitation. Capitalists seek to control the government so that laws are passed in their interest to stop workers from, for example, voting or joining trade unions.
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Activity - The VOC and problems of capitalism (Parts 1 and 2)
Read the text above and watch the Crash Course film. 1. The VOC was described as a 'state within a state', explain what is meant by this and why the VOC's long-term business plans, low interest rates and Dutch attitudes to investment and shares made for a successful business. (Video up to 8m15) 2. The VOC was established to help the Dutch gain a monopoly of the spice trade. What is meant by a monopoly, how did the Dutch achieve this monopoly and what were the consequences? (Video from 8m15) 3. Explain what happened in the The Great Tulip Bubble of 1636-37. Explain why it is a good example of the second inherent problem of capitalism, 'boom and bust'. |
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Lesson 3 - The Slave Trade
As we saw with the Dutch East India Company in the Banda Islands example, early European capitalism, backed by the armies of the state, forced weaker trading partners into uneven trade agreements. The biggest profits depend on keeping costs down and the biggest cost is human labour. What these early merchant capitalists tried to do was pay as little as possible for labour. The cheapest labour of all is slave labour.
The transatlantic slave trade was responsible for the forced migration of between 12 - 15 million people from Africa to the Western Hemisphere from the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 19th century. Over time, European demand for spices was replaced by a demand for luxury commodities - sugar, coffee, chocolate, tobacco - luxury because they are not essential to life.
An early 18th century coffee house in London.
Probably no more than a few hundred thousand Africans were taken to the Americas before 1600. In the 17th century, however, demand for slave labour rose sharply with the growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean and tobacco plantations in the Chesapeake region in North America. All the major European powers were involved in this enterprise, but by the early 18th century, Britain became the world's leading slave trading power. It's estimated that British ships were responsible for the forced transportation of at least 2-3 million Africans in that century. The wealth generated by slavery not only built the great port cities of Bristol and Liverpool, it also laid the economic foundation, the capital, essential to launching the British industrial revolution that made the modern world.
The majority of kidnapped Africans were not already slaves in Africa. They were free people who were kidnapped to provide the labour that the European powers required to build their colonies in the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade is sometimes known as the 'Triangular Trade', since it was three-sided, involving voyages:
from Europe to Africa
from Africa to the Americas
from the Americas back to Europe.
The majority of kidnapped Africans were not already slaves in Africa. They were free people who were kidnapped to provide the labour that the European powers required to build their colonies in the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade is sometimes known as the 'Triangular Trade', since it was three-sided, involving voyages:
from Europe to Africa
from Africa to the Americas
from the Americas back to Europe.
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Activity - The Slave Trade and the problems of capitalism (Part 3)
Read the text above and watch the extract from the Steven Spielberg film Amistad. The Amistad was a 19th century slave ship. Be warned the video contains some shocking scenes. Make a summary list of the conditions on board for African slaves on the middle passage. Can you suggest some reason why it took until the 19th century for European powers to finally ban the slave trade? |
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Lesson 4 - The Scientific Revolution
From scholasticism, through humanism to science.
From scholasticism, through humanism to science.
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Scholasticism - Aquinas incorporates Aristotle
Medieval thought was restricted to thinking about issues raised by the study of Christian doctrine, especially after new Arabic translations of classical Greek texts began to appear and challenge Christianity after the Fall of Toledo in 1085. Medieval intellectuals could be concerned with complex problems and would employ highly rational thinking. This intellectual world restrained by the limits of Catholicism we call 'Scholasticism.' |
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The greatest philosopher of the medieval period, Thomas Aquinas, explained what happened during the Eucharist, one of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic church. The problem to be solved was very practical. Why, during the Eucharist does the bread and wine not appear to change into the body and blood of Christ, after it is blessed? To explain this Aquinas used the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle argued there are two qualities to every object: its outer appearance that our senses can detect, (smell, taste, hear etc.) and its inner nature or fundamental structure that we cannot simply detect. The outer appearance changes all the time. For example, a chair can be made of wood or metal, but this is not essential to its being a chair: that is, it is still a chair regardless of the material from which it is made, these variations were called accidents. The fundamental property of all chairs, its inner essence - its ‘chairiness’ - Aristotle called its substance. The substance of an object cannot be detected by the senses, because to imagine a chair is to see a particular chair. So how did Aquinas use this? What happens during the Eucharist is that the accidental properties of the bread and wine do not change, but the substance - its ‘breadiness’ - does change in to the body of Jesus: the substance is changed, it is ‘transubstantiated’. Voila. Logical, rational and very learned. Medieval minds were not less logical or intelligent than ours!.
Humanism
Rather than learning methods and logic to explain and defend Christianity, Humanism, was concerned with knowledge itself and in particular, knowledge about humanity. That meant that humanists were interested in subjects like poetry, language (especially ancient Greek) and history. This is what we mean when we say we study the 'humanities' today. One of the most significant consequences of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 had been the arrival not only of the books from the greatest libraries in Europe, but also teachers who were familiar with the Ancient Greek necessary to translate them. At almost the same time, because of the printing press it became possible to read and spread a new knowledge that was not controlled by the church; new knowledge became abundantly available.
Rather than learning methods and logic to explain and defend Christianity, Humanism, was concerned with knowledge itself and in particular, knowledge about humanity. That meant that humanists were interested in subjects like poetry, language (especially ancient Greek) and history. This is what we mean when we say we study the 'humanities' today. One of the most significant consequences of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 had been the arrival not only of the books from the greatest libraries in Europe, but also teachers who were familiar with the Ancient Greek necessary to translate them. At almost the same time, because of the printing press it became possible to read and spread a new knowledge that was not controlled by the church; new knowledge became abundantly available.
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Humanism was the original rallying call to 'think outside of the box'. If the box was Catholic orthodoxy and Scholasticism was a thinking that fitted inside the box, humanism looked down at the box and laughed at how everything looked so square. A lot of what is remembered about humanism concerns how humanists made fun of the church. Humanists were often university academics who laughed at the ignorance of the priests and the strange superstitions of church ritual. The most famous of them, Erasmus, made fun of how the priests 'brayed like donkeys in church, repeating the words of psalms they don't understand'.
A more recent example that makes fun of medieval scholasticism is provided by Monty Python. |
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Paradigm shift' in science
For centuries, scientists and philosophers had accepted the work of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, which they interpreted in the light of Christian belief. (Scholasticism) But now Renaissance astronomers used the new scientific methods of experimenting and observation to study the skies. It was their sensational discoveries which shook European beliefs about the world. American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) described this process as a 'paradigm shift'. By 'paradigm' he means the scientific assumptions (and methods) that underlie what (and how) we know the world. The scholastic paradigm assumed that the ultimate truth was found in uncovering God's perspective as outlined in the Bible. This was replaced by a humanist perspective that suggested that the truth was to be uncovered by human observation of the natural world.
The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c.570-495 BC) proved that the Earth was round and Aristarchus suggested that the Earth and planets revolved around the Sun. However, these ideas were replaced by Ptolemy's theories of the universe written in about AD100. Ptolemy was an Egyptian mathematician, astronomer and geographer who believed that the planets and stars all revolved around the Earth. This 'geocentric' theory fitted well with the Church's ideas of the heavens being a circle, because it was the 'perfect' shape. It also fitted with the idea of the Earth (God's creation), the Church and God himself being at the centre of the universe
For centuries, scientists and philosophers had accepted the work of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, which they interpreted in the light of Christian belief. (Scholasticism) But now Renaissance astronomers used the new scientific methods of experimenting and observation to study the skies. It was their sensational discoveries which shook European beliefs about the world. American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) described this process as a 'paradigm shift'. By 'paradigm' he means the scientific assumptions (and methods) that underlie what (and how) we know the world. The scholastic paradigm assumed that the ultimate truth was found in uncovering God's perspective as outlined in the Bible. This was replaced by a humanist perspective that suggested that the truth was to be uncovered by human observation of the natural world.
The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c.570-495 BC) proved that the Earth was round and Aristarchus suggested that the Earth and planets revolved around the Sun. However, these ideas were replaced by Ptolemy's theories of the universe written in about AD100. Ptolemy was an Egyptian mathematician, astronomer and geographer who believed that the planets and stars all revolved around the Earth. This 'geocentric' theory fitted well with the Church's ideas of the heavens being a circle, because it was the 'perfect' shape. It also fitted with the idea of the Earth (God's creation), the Church and God himself being at the centre of the universe
What was the Scientific Revolution?
The Scientific Revolution is a concept used by historians to describe the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in science transformed views about nature. While its dates are debated, the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution. It is a paradigm shift, because the key assumption of a stationary earth surrounded by moving heavenly bodies is replaced by a new heliocentric view of the cosmos. The completion of the scientific revolution is attributed to the "grand synthesis" of Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia, that formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and completed the synthesis of a new cosmology.
The Scientific Revolution is a concept used by historians to describe the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in science transformed views about nature. While its dates are debated, the publication in 1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution. It is a paradigm shift, because the key assumption of a stationary earth surrounded by moving heavenly bodies is replaced by a new heliocentric view of the cosmos. The completion of the scientific revolution is attributed to the "grand synthesis" of Isaac Newton's 1687 Principia, that formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and completed the synthesis of a new cosmology.
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Deductive and Inductive Logic
We have previously examined how medieval scholastics like Thomas Aquinas applied Aristotle’s logic to problems of theological importance to the medieval mind. The question, 'should Christians attempt to covert dog heads?', followed impeccable deductive logic. We should attempt to convert to Christianity all creatures with souls Dogheads have souls Therefore we should try to convert dogheads. This example of deductive reasoning is called a syllogism. A syllogism is a deductive argument which arrives at a conclusion based on two or more propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. A typical example said to derive from Aristotle says: |
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All men are mortal.
Socrates is a a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
As long as the propositions are true, the conclusion must be true. Because dogheads have souls we should try and convert them. An argument can still be valid even when the conclusion is false, if one of the propositions is false.
All men have beards
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates has a beard
Socrates is a a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
As long as the propositions are true, the conclusion must be true. Because dogheads have souls we should try and convert them. An argument can still be valid even when the conclusion is false, if one of the propositions is false.
All men have beards
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates has a beard
The scholastic paradigm assumed that the ultimate truth was found in uncovering God's perspective as outlined in the Bible. It also assumed that there were mysteries of the universe that could never be understood. The medieval deductive arguments were valid, but could result in false conclusions because they were based on questionable propositions such as the existence of dog heads or that the earth is the centre of the universe. When Galileo posited a heliocentric view of the solar system, he was going further than Copernicus and Kepler (who worked out that planets do not orbit in perfect circles), because his conclusions were based on observations and measurements. These measurements were made possible by technological developments in optics that enabled Galileo to observe and measure the movement of the planets in ways that had previously been impossible. It also made Galileo very dangerous to the Catholic church, because his conclusions were not simply propositions or theories but rather they were proven by observation. This was a humanist perspective that suggested that the truth was to be uncovered by human observation of the natural world. This required a different type of reasoning, inductive logic. This would form the basis of the Scientific Revolution.
Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which the premises are viewed as supplying strong evidence for the truth of the conclusion. While the conclusion of a deductive argument is certain, the truth of the conclusion of an inductive argument may only be probable, based upon the evidence given. It is the weight of evidence that matters. The great 20th century Austrian/British philosopher Karl Popper summarized this uncertainty with the principle of empirical falsification. Scientific laws can never be proven, but they should be assumed to be true until proven otherwise (falsified). The basic method of inductive reasoning is the scientific method, which you are all familiar with and which was developed at the start of the Scientific Revolution by Francis Bacon.
Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which the premises are viewed as supplying strong evidence for the truth of the conclusion. While the conclusion of a deductive argument is certain, the truth of the conclusion of an inductive argument may only be probable, based upon the evidence given. It is the weight of evidence that matters. The great 20th century Austrian/British philosopher Karl Popper summarized this uncertainty with the principle of empirical falsification. Scientific laws can never be proven, but they should be assumed to be true until proven otherwise (falsified). The basic method of inductive reasoning is the scientific method, which you are all familiar with and which was developed at the start of the Scientific Revolution by Francis Bacon.
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Activities - The Scientific Revolution
There are lots of important complex ideas in this section. It is important that you take time to make your own notes in order to help your understanding. Answer the following questions and try to put as much as possible into your own words. 1. What was medieval scholasticism? Use examples from the Bartlett video to help explain your answer. 2. How was humanism different to medieval thinking, why was it a new 'paradigm shift'? 3. What is the difference between deductive and inductive logic? Provide your own example of deductive logic in which a valid argument provides a false conclusion like this famous one: All men have beards Socrates is a man Therefore, Socrates has a beard |
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Lesson 5 - The Scientists
As well as producing lots of exciting new ideas, the scientific revolution also produced a roll-call of heroic individuals who often lived through some dramatic times.
The best place to begin is with the father of scientific revolution Galileo. A little while ago I visited the Galileo museum in Florence. It is a beautiful museum with many beautiful exhibits. But for me this was the most impressive. It didn't look like much and most people walked straight passed. This is Galileo's telescope, it might be argued that the scientific revolution began with this.
Who were the scientists?
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
British. Bacon believed that knowledge shouldn't be derived from books, but from experience itself.
With inductive thinking, he begins by observing the variety of phenomena and derives general principles to explain those observations. Empiricism emphasises the importance of observable evidence produced in support of a theory. Bacon is considered to be the father of the scientific method:
1 Observe what happens.
2 Develop a theory.
3 Devise an experiment to test the theory. Repeat the experiment to ensure the same outcome.
4 Observe and measure the results of the experiment.
5 If the results do not fit, return to step 2 and develop a new theory.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
In 1610 the Italian mathematician, scientist and astronomer Galileo became one of the first people to build and use a telescope to observe the sky. He managed to observe the Milky Way, the Moon and the orbit of planets in the solar system. He concluded in his book of 1610, The Starry Messenger, that his scientific observations showed that Copernicus' theories, 67 years earlier, were indeed correct. This was to cause a negative reaction from the Catholic Church because these discoveries undermined the teachings of the Church, and attacked the idea that the Church and God were at the centre of a perfect universe. In 1633 Galileo went through a trial conducted by the Church, which led to him being under house arrest for the last eight years of his life!
William Harvey (1578-1657)
British. Harvey worked to discover how the heart and blood worked in the body. Prior to this, scientists in Europe were believers in the teachings of Galen, who was a Greek doctor from the second century. Galen taught that the blood was moved from the heart to all the different parts of the body, where it was used up. William Harvey's approach to Galen's teachings was to be more scientific; he began to experiment and measure scientifically how the blood moved around the body. Harvey experimented in order to discover how the blood circulated: • He pushed thin wire down veins. • He cut up live cold-blooded animals, such as frogs, to watch how their hearts worked.• He made attempts to pump blood past valves inside the veins. When he failed he realised that blood only flowed in one direction. • He took measurements of how much blood the heart pumped. Harvey's experiments had proved that the heart pumped blood to the body through arteries and the blood returned to the heart through veins.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
French mathematician and philosopher. Descartes was a deist who believed that God created the universe as a perfect clockwork mechanism that functioned thereafter without intervention. In Discours de la Méthode (1637), he advocated the systematic doubting of knowledge (scepticism), believing as Plato that sense perception and reason deceive us and that man cannot have real knowledge of nature. The only thing that he believed he could be certain of was that he was doubting, leading to his famous phrase Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Dutch. Antony Leeuwenhoek was a businessman and scientist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology, a friend and contemporary of Johannes Vermeer. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as 'the Father of Microbiology'. He found that plant and animal tissues were made out of rooms or cells, but they also discovered tiny monsters in mud puddles: hydras and amoebas. He was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, crystals in gouty tophi, and blood flow in capillaries. In 2004, a public poll in the Netherlands to determine the greatest Dutchman ("De Grootste Nederlander") named van Leeuwenhoek the 4th-greatest Dutchman of all time.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
British. Hooke was a professor of geometry, an astronomer and designer of the compound microscope. He described his invention and other pieces of equipment, and made detailed drawings from his observations of objects such as the flea. In 1665, he inspired the use of microscopes for scientific exploration with his book, Micrographia. Based on his microscopic observations of fossils, Hooke was an early proponent of biological evolution. Much of Hooke's scientific work was conducted in his capacity as curator of experiments of the Royal Society. He investigated the phenomenon of refraction, deducing the wave theory of light, and was the first to suggest that matter expands when heated and that air is made of small particles separated by relatively large distances.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
British. Forty-five years after the death of Galileo, the English physicist and mathematician. Sir Isaac Newton published what has been termed the greatest scientific book ever written. The book, published in 1687, was called Principia Mathematica and laid down the laws of motion and gravitation. He is mostly remembered for his law of gravity. The story goes that after watching an apple fall from a tree he began to wonder why it fell straight down and did not just stay where it was, or move sideways. His theory of gravity, developed in 1686, showed that all objects attract each other, depending on their mass and distance apart. Therefore the huge Earth pulls a small apple towards it by a force called gravity.
Karl von Linné (1707-1778) also known as Carolus Linnaeus.
Swedish. Linnaeus is considered to be the father of taxonomy. In his Systema Naturae, published in 1767, he catalogued all the living creatures into a single system that defined their relations to one another: the Linnean classification system. Distinct living creatures he called "species," which means "individuals." Related species were called a "genus," which means "kind." And so on up a scale of more abstract relationships: family, class, order, phylum, and kingdom. Each individual species was marked by both its species and its genus name; this classification system, with some modifications, still dominates our understanding of the living world.
British. Bacon believed that knowledge shouldn't be derived from books, but from experience itself.
With inductive thinking, he begins by observing the variety of phenomena and derives general principles to explain those observations. Empiricism emphasises the importance of observable evidence produced in support of a theory. Bacon is considered to be the father of the scientific method:
1 Observe what happens.
2 Develop a theory.
3 Devise an experiment to test the theory. Repeat the experiment to ensure the same outcome.
4 Observe and measure the results of the experiment.
5 If the results do not fit, return to step 2 and develop a new theory.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
In 1610 the Italian mathematician, scientist and astronomer Galileo became one of the first people to build and use a telescope to observe the sky. He managed to observe the Milky Way, the Moon and the orbit of planets in the solar system. He concluded in his book of 1610, The Starry Messenger, that his scientific observations showed that Copernicus' theories, 67 years earlier, were indeed correct. This was to cause a negative reaction from the Catholic Church because these discoveries undermined the teachings of the Church, and attacked the idea that the Church and God were at the centre of a perfect universe. In 1633 Galileo went through a trial conducted by the Church, which led to him being under house arrest for the last eight years of his life!
William Harvey (1578-1657)
British. Harvey worked to discover how the heart and blood worked in the body. Prior to this, scientists in Europe were believers in the teachings of Galen, who was a Greek doctor from the second century. Galen taught that the blood was moved from the heart to all the different parts of the body, where it was used up. William Harvey's approach to Galen's teachings was to be more scientific; he began to experiment and measure scientifically how the blood moved around the body. Harvey experimented in order to discover how the blood circulated: • He pushed thin wire down veins. • He cut up live cold-blooded animals, such as frogs, to watch how their hearts worked.• He made attempts to pump blood past valves inside the veins. When he failed he realised that blood only flowed in one direction. • He took measurements of how much blood the heart pumped. Harvey's experiments had proved that the heart pumped blood to the body through arteries and the blood returned to the heart through veins.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
French mathematician and philosopher. Descartes was a deist who believed that God created the universe as a perfect clockwork mechanism that functioned thereafter without intervention. In Discours de la Méthode (1637), he advocated the systematic doubting of knowledge (scepticism), believing as Plato that sense perception and reason deceive us and that man cannot have real knowledge of nature. The only thing that he believed he could be certain of was that he was doubting, leading to his famous phrase Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Dutch. Antony Leeuwenhoek was a businessman and scientist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology, a friend and contemporary of Johannes Vermeer. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as 'the Father of Microbiology'. He found that plant and animal tissues were made out of rooms or cells, but they also discovered tiny monsters in mud puddles: hydras and amoebas. He was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, crystals in gouty tophi, and blood flow in capillaries. In 2004, a public poll in the Netherlands to determine the greatest Dutchman ("De Grootste Nederlander") named van Leeuwenhoek the 4th-greatest Dutchman of all time.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
British. Hooke was a professor of geometry, an astronomer and designer of the compound microscope. He described his invention and other pieces of equipment, and made detailed drawings from his observations of objects such as the flea. In 1665, he inspired the use of microscopes for scientific exploration with his book, Micrographia. Based on his microscopic observations of fossils, Hooke was an early proponent of biological evolution. Much of Hooke's scientific work was conducted in his capacity as curator of experiments of the Royal Society. He investigated the phenomenon of refraction, deducing the wave theory of light, and was the first to suggest that matter expands when heated and that air is made of small particles separated by relatively large distances.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
British. Forty-five years after the death of Galileo, the English physicist and mathematician. Sir Isaac Newton published what has been termed the greatest scientific book ever written. The book, published in 1687, was called Principia Mathematica and laid down the laws of motion and gravitation. He is mostly remembered for his law of gravity. The story goes that after watching an apple fall from a tree he began to wonder why it fell straight down and did not just stay where it was, or move sideways. His theory of gravity, developed in 1686, showed that all objects attract each other, depending on their mass and distance apart. Therefore the huge Earth pulls a small apple towards it by a force called gravity.
Karl von Linné (1707-1778) also known as Carolus Linnaeus.
Swedish. Linnaeus is considered to be the father of taxonomy. In his Systema Naturae, published in 1767, he catalogued all the living creatures into a single system that defined their relations to one another: the Linnean classification system. Distinct living creatures he called "species," which means "individuals." Related species were called a "genus," which means "kind." And so on up a scale of more abstract relationships: family, class, order, phylum, and kingdom. Each individual species was marked by both its species and its genus name; this classification system, with some modifications, still dominates our understanding of the living world.
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Activities - Part 1
Watch the film about Galileo. (a) How did Galileo prove the theories of Copernicus and Kepler? (b) How did Galileo get around the injunction not to write in support of Copernicus? (c) Why was Pope Urban VIII so upset by Galileo and why did he feel the need to take action? (d) How did Galileo defend himself? (e) Why in the end did Galileo confess, with what consequences for him and his book? |
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Part 2
Design a timeline of the scientific revolution, which includes all the scientists listed above and one that has not been. You need to indicate their life span (birth and death date) so that you can see how many scientists were contemporaneous. And you need to include a sentence or two to summarise their main scientific contribution. The film at the start of this lesson will also help with this. Here are some good examples from previous years.
Design a timeline of the scientific revolution, which includes all the scientists listed above and one that has not been. You need to indicate their life span (birth and death date) so that you can see how many scientists were contemporaneous. And you need to include a sentence or two to summarise their main scientific contribution. The film at the start of this lesson will also help with this. Here are some good examples from previous years.
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Extension suggestions
You never have to do extension suggestions, I just suggest them to extend you, if you feel like being extended. For this unit I recommend some reading. Probably the most readable books on the history of the scientific revolution are Dava Sobel's Longitude, the story of John Harrison an English clockmaker who solved the problem of how to measure longitude at sea and Galileo's Daughter which brilliantly captures a relationship and time: plague, Thirty Years' War and the Medicis. Longitude was also made into an outstanding TV film, very long, it is ideal for any long car journeys you may have coming up. |
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End of Unit Test 1 - The Making of the Modern World - Revision
The test will be divided into two sections. In the first section you will be presented with a series of multiple choice questions which test your knowledge of facts contained in lessons 1-4 above. I am so generous that I have prepared a quiz to help you answer all these question below. It is in a format that I have been using for nearly 20 years called 'Fling the Teacher'. Loosely based on the game show 'who wants to be a millionaire', if you get all 15 questions right (you also have three lifelines) you build a trebuchet which then painfully flings the aforementioned teacher in the air. Make the most of it, the Flash technology it uses is dying. It won't work on an iPad and you will need to approve its use on most browsers. From next year it probably won't work at all. Thanks Steve Jobs.
The second section will require you to write longer extended answers on some of the following topics: early capitalism (why Dutch first?), VOC (why did they dominate?) Capitalism (problems?) Slave trade (what? where? and why?) Medieval scholasticism v science (differences?) Galileo (what was the problem?).
Good luck. Make sure you come to the lesson fully powered-up and logged on. On the quiz below, remember to enable Flash and allow it to run.
Go to end of unit test 1
The test will be divided into two sections. In the first section you will be presented with a series of multiple choice questions which test your knowledge of facts contained in lessons 1-4 above. I am so generous that I have prepared a quiz to help you answer all these question below. It is in a format that I have been using for nearly 20 years called 'Fling the Teacher'. Loosely based on the game show 'who wants to be a millionaire', if you get all 15 questions right (you also have three lifelines) you build a trebuchet which then painfully flings the aforementioned teacher in the air. Make the most of it, the Flash technology it uses is dying. It won't work on an iPad and you will need to approve its use on most browsers. From next year it probably won't work at all. Thanks Steve Jobs.
The second section will require you to write longer extended answers on some of the following topics: early capitalism (why Dutch first?), VOC (why did they dominate?) Capitalism (problems?) Slave trade (what? where? and why?) Medieval scholasticism v science (differences?) Galileo (what was the problem?).
Good luck. Make sure you come to the lesson fully powered-up and logged on. On the quiz below, remember to enable Flash and allow it to run.
Go to end of unit test 1