Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

1. ConceptThe complex of ideas associated with the concept of the Manifest Destiny of the United States is best described as the notion of its quasi-divine mission of territorial expansion (Expansionism) and of the history of the United States as the fulfillment of that mission.  John L. O'Sullivan, a New York journalist and politician of the Democratic Party, coined the phrase in an 1845 essay in the periodical he edited, the United States Magazine and Democratic Review: “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development…

See Communist Manifesto

See Humanity | Humankind, human being

See Men's associations

1. IntroductionMannerism in art, literature, and music is generally defined as the characteristic of a self-consciously elaborate or artificial style, and in art history in particular as an epoch located between the Renaissance and the Baroque. The term was coined in art studies in the late 18th century as a derivative of  “manner” (see below, 2.1.). In this context, it refers to a period between around 1520/30 and 1590/1600, a phase supposedly displaying symptoms of decadence in art and architec…

1. A social idealManners were understood from the late 15th century as the sum of all behaviors that expressed politeness or courtesy (German Höflichkeit; Italian  cortesia, gentilezza; Spanish  cortesía; French  politesse, civilité, towards ladies also  courtoisie and  galanterie; Dame) in practice. These were therefore more than merely forms of conduct corresponding to applicable social rules. Such prescribed conduct differed in the early modern period according to gender, estate, profession, confession, and social, ethnic, and…

See Dining | Table culture

The term manor (German Rittergut) denotes a legal status deriving from a rural ensemble consisting of a manor house, agricultural uses belonging to it, and other entitlements (Estate). The German  Rittergut was only loosely related to the medieval estate of the  Ritter (Knights). The term has nothing to do with the  Reichsritterschaft (“Imperial Knights of the Holy Roman Empire”); it is related instead to the process of state formation in the early modern period. In 19th-century Germany, it took on great importance in the debates over constitutional monarchy. The term  landown…

See Estate | Gutsherrschaft

1. TerminologyThe term “manorialism” (also, “seigneurialism”; German: Grundherrschaft) designates the medieval economic system that was based on individual units of land known as “manors” or “seigneuries,” each of which was subject to a “lord of the manor” or “seigneur” (German:  Grundherr). Modern medieval historians view the rise of manorialism in the early Middle Ages as a key factor in the peculiar development of Europe. Its effective organization of labor, which combined seigneurial self-sufficiency (“Salic patrimony”) centered o…

See Mining technology

See Murder

1. ConceptA manufactory was a production plant in a preindustrial trade (Industrial trades and crafts), generally belonging to proto-industrial export industries (Proto-industrialization). Members of its labor force worked outside their own household economy under the supervision and coordination of a third person – a manager, a merchant-manufacturer, or a master manufacturer. The centralization of the production process might relate to a single production step (horizontal integration), but verti…

See Enterprise | Factory (manufactory) | Industrialization | Production, global areas of | Productivity | Proto-industrialization

See Industrial town

1. Concept Manuring is the addition of nutrients to the soil. In arable farming, this was done by adding organic and inorganic substances, and by so-called green manuring (Leguminosae). Meadows received nutrients primarily through irrigation.Werner Troßbach 2. Animal feces Farmyard manure was obtained by mixing animal feces with strewing materials, such as straw, leaves, conifer needles, and twigs. It contains all the nutrients required for the cultivation of grain and enriches the soil humus. Degradation of nutrients ca…

1. Rediscovery of ancient textsIntensive study of Latin and Greek manuscripts as material evidence of classical intellectual and cultural history is regarded as a defining characteristic of Humanism, the aspirational educational and cultural movement that spread from Italy in the 14th century, sweeping the whole of Europe by the 16th [2]; [7]. Monastic scriptoria had maintained an almost continual effort of conserving and caring for ancient and medieval texts throughout the Middle Ages, primarily for teaching and educational purposes. Such mos…

See World

See Cartography

1. Concept and definitionFrom the 17th to the 19th centuries, postal maps were one of the most important travel aids of the early modern period, contributing to strengthening and clarifying networks across Europe. These works combined cartography (Map, road/street) with (postal) scheduling (Itinerary) and distance tabulation (mile markers, mile disks) in order to give a visual impression of spatial conditions. These travel maps omitted any reference to road or street names, focusing purely on the d…

1. 16th-17th centuries Maps developed in close correspondence with the history of travel. People on pilgrimages, emissaries (Diplomacy), nobles on the Grand Tour, and later citizens educating themselves on a  Bildungsreise appreciated early modern maps as sources of information and aids to orientation. The stimulus to the production of the first map in Germany was the 1500 Catholic Jubilee. The unsigned, undated map of the route to Rome is attributed to the Nuremberg compass maker Erhard Etzlaub ( Das ist der Rom Weg von meylen zu meylen mit puncten verzeychnet von e…

1. IntroductionThe Maratha Empire emerged in the Marathi-speaking region of western India (the present-day state of Maharashtra in the Indian union) in the 17th century, and grew to be an influential early modern power in the Indian subcontinent over the 18th century. The Maratha state forms a crucial element in early modern South Asian society and politics as one of the most important rivals and successor states of the Mughal Empire. Early in the 19th century, it was the most significant impedim…

See German Revolution (1848/9)

See Exclusion | Minorities | Social structure | Underclass

1. BasicsFrom the 2nd century on, numerous legends grew up around Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose life is only briefly sketched in the NT. Especially after the divine sonship of Jesus Christ was defined dogmatically in the 4th and 5th centuries, she was venerated privately and liturgically. Particularly in the Middle Ages, a growing number of Marian feasts were established and distributed throughout the church year, while churches and pilgrimage sites (Pilgrimage, local) were dedicated to the Mother of God (see 2.2. below).In the Middle Ages, she was also seen as an exempl…

Insurance covers losses of assets brought about by specific events by distributing them among a larger number of persons. The events relevant to marine insurance are accidents at sea up to and including sinking as well as hijacking and its consequences. In the early modern period, marine insurance in the narrower sense covered damage up to and including loss of ship and cargo, in the broader sense also the consequences for the individuals affected.The beginnings of marine insurance in the late Middle Ages differed greatly from current forms of insurance, but they sha…

See Puppet theater

1. ConceptMarital age is an important demographic parameter of the European marriage pattern, and the crucial factor in determining early modern fertility levels. Fluctuations in marital age have a telling influence on fertility and demographic growth rates (Population). A marital age differing by two years at first marriage (Marriage, contraction of) might mean (translated into number of offspring) one childbirth or offspring more or fewer, and thus a quicker or slower succession of generations.In early modern western and Central Europe, the marital age was g…

1. Concepts and theoriesThe concept of choice of partner must be seen in historical terms. “Partner” today connotes a concept of relationship based on legal, social, and economic gender equality and fundamental equal rights. None of this applied in the early modern period, nor was the term “partner” so used. Unlike terms like husband, wife, spouse, or consort (cf. German Gatte/Gattin, French  conjoint[e]), “partner” also holds connotations of other forms of relationship, while the goal of partner choice historically speaking is seen primarily in relatio…

1. ConceptThe term marital consent (German Ehekonsens) had a twofold meaning in the early modern matrimonial law of the Holy Roman Empire. Firstly, in matrimonial canon law it denoted the agreement or declaration of intent on the part of a man and woman to enter into a marriage  (Marriage, contraction of). Secondly, in many German territories – particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries – it denoted the permission to wed or recognition of a marriage that was granted by the sovereign power and local a…

See Social mobility

1. Legal scopeThroughout the early modern period, maritime commercial law was the branch of private law that regulated shipping by sea. It covered the legal relations of those involved in deep sea navigation: (1) the ship owner or shipping company as proprietor of the ship; (2) the skipper or captain of the ship as the highest authority on board and the proprietor’s representative; (3) the crew, which stood under the captain’s authority; and (4) finally the merchants shipping their wares. Seafarers’ articles of agreement ( Heuervertrag) were concluded between the proprietor …

See Marine insurance

See Shipping | Trade | Trade territory

1. Introduction Two main conditions determined the choice of sea route and the management of the movement of goods by sea in the early modern period. The first was the natural conditions governing travel by sailing ship (Deep sea navigation), and the second was requirements regarding the safety and security of transports. For covering long distances at sea, relatively steady wind and current systems, at least on a seasonal basis, were particularly useful. On longer voyages, such as betw…

Like the pound, the mark in the early modern period was (1) a unit of mass, (2) a counting unit, and (3) a minted coin.(1) As a unit of mass, the mark was also the basis of coinage systems (Weights and measures). In Central Europe, the Cologne Mark ( c. 233 g) [9] gained general acceptance over other regional mark weights like the Nuremberg Mark ( c. 255 g) and the Vienna Mark ( c. 280 g), and the Esslingen  Reichsmünzordnung (Imperial Coinage Ordinance) of 1524 declared it the basic coin weight of the Holy Roman Empire. Standard mark weights were available at the office…

1. General remarks 1.1. DefinitionIn modern economic theory, the term market refers to the encounter of supply with demand for the purpose of exchange. A “perfect” or “complete” market – in contrast to a monopoly market – exists when the market price cannot be influenced by individual suppliers or demanders. This equilibrium price is considered efficient; it is possible in the absence of practical or seasonal preferences on the part of consumers or producers, when market transparency predominates, when th…

See Market

See Piazza

1. Market regulations From the 16th to the 18th century, markets in Europe were the subject of numerous legal provisions. Cities were responsible for holding weekly markets, although in some cases permission had to be obtained from the local ruler (as, for instance, in Prussia) [4. 33–37]. Municipal law and local territorial law, as well as special market ordinances, were accordingly sources of law for markets. Such norms were part of police ordinances ( gute Policey). They described markets from the perspective of the sovereign power, which they likewise reflecte…

1. Definition and originIn the western half of Germany, eastern France, large parts of Austria and Switzerland, and northeastern Netherlands,  Marken (“marks”) were a widespread form of common land [6]. The compound noun  Markgenossenschaft  (“mark cooperative association”), by contrast, was an organizational concept of the 19th-century German Historical School; its purpose was to interpret the specific forms of common use of agricultural and silvicultural resources as an essential feature of the oeconomica of Old Europe. At the same time,  Markgenossenschaft was among…

1. GeneralIn the Middle Ages, the term  Markscheidewesen – from Mark (obsolete: “territory, terrain”), Scheide (“boundary”), and Wesen (“entity”) – referred originally only to surveying in the context of mining. At the beginning of the early modern period it came to denote all the surveys and documentation required in mining; the Markscheider is the engineer responsible for all surveys, computations, and representations (plans, graphics) [5]. Measurements in conjunction with structures above and below ground were always a demanding job; carrying them …

1. European societies 1.1. General remarksThe term “marriage” denotes a lasting relationship between a man and a woman that derives its legitimacy from a religious or state ordinance. As a social institution, it is fundamental to the preservation of gender distinctions (see Gender; Gender roles) in society and of the social and symbolic order that goes along with these. The conventional, religious, and civil-rights ordinances connected with marriage (Matrimonial law) regulate and control the relation…

Marriage brokering could be accomplished through private contacts or operated as a professional business. Neither Church nor State in Europe ever raised any objections to private marriage brokering through parents or relatives, but professional brokering was continually subject to a degree of criticism on theological, legal, and moral grounds. The boundaries between private and professional marriage brokering are sometimes difficult to discern, however, since in many regions it was customary to compensate even private arrangements when they resulted in a marriage.Private m…

1. FoundationsCivil marriage refers to a form of marriage that was not based on a religious definition of marriage and was not enacted via religious ceremony. Whereas the Catholic Church saw marriage as a sacrament and the Protestant denominations saw it as symbolizing the ties between Christ and the Church (see Occasional services), civil marriage was based on the idea that marriage represented a private-law contract between two parties. It was contracted before representatives of bourgeois soci…

1. Legal frameworkThe canon law of the Catholic Church severely restricted the contraction of marriage (Marriage, contraction of) between relatives (Kinship).  Marriage was originally prohibited up to the seventh degree of kinship, but this limitation was reduced to the fourth degree at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 (see Incest 2.), albeit with a stricter calculation of degrees. In principle this regulation of Catholic canon law is still in force.The canon law prohibiting marriage within certain degrees of kinship included in-laws. Marriage to the relative…

1. RequirementsThe contraction of a legally valid marriage in the early modern period depended on satisfying specific legal requirements that served to monitor and guarantee this extremely important union in a community for the purpose of cohabitation and especially procreation. Impediments to marriage and formal requirements were used to reach this goal; the freedom to marry was sometimes limited for such regulatory purposes, insofar as marriage licenses were required (Marital consent). At the b…

1. DefinitionThe dissolution of marriage serves as the legal umbrella term for all ways in which a marriage may be terminated. In modern terms, one thinks first and foremost of divorce. In the early mode…

See Marriage, morganatic

1. Definition Morganatic marriage, also known as left-handed marriage, made it possible for men of the high nobility to marry a woman of inferior rank (Equal birth, principle of) and …