V. SAME CAUSE, SAME RESULT: CYCLES OF CHANGE IN DJIMINI AND FRANCE

5. Similar cycles of change 

UNMECHANIZED AGRICULTURE MEANS THAT COMMUNAL AGRICULTURE IS AT BOTH 

SOCIETIES' BASE...

Les très riches heures du duc de Berry, June / zoom

Zoom

But economic growth brings an individual search for profit, that customs and philosophies inevitably reflect.

Horses, trappings and textiles demand an emphasis and organization opposed to the life the last picture suggests. 

The profit-seekers break rules that restrict them: For the Senufo gender associations that obliterate class lines. For Protestants, please read on. Conflict is inevitable: 

• In Djimini, between Tofanga with his "pagan" song and non-pagans, who can only be Muslims and so traders.

• In France, the 16th-century "Wars of Religion" between Catholics who limit private and nascent capitalists who promote it.

Le Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy (detail) by François Dubois, toward 1580 / zoom  

Strife ends in compromise. 

• Tofanga voluntarily cedes to Gnapon, a "warrior" who establishes Bokhala, the region's first market.  

• Catholics accept Protestants and their destabilizing activities (the Edict of Nantes in 1598) which a much stronger monarchy (that of the Bourbons) controls. 

Economic growth and political centralization characterize both societies for almost a century. 

• In Dimini, stronger authority is implied by Gnapon being succeeded by his son Nambolosse, a warrior who keeps the traders under control until his death (in 1878). The new market of Bokhola prospers, and others spring up.

  Zoom

• In France five years of civil war (the Fronde, in 1648-1653) confirm the exceptionally powerful kingship (that monuments along the main trade route already show). 

Combat of two horsemen during the Fronde, anonymous, 17th century / zoom

Conflict breaks out again:

• In Djimini, the Muslim producers become more powerful and sweep over much of the savannah, establishing theocracies whose economic dynamism is based on intensive slave labor. The legendary conqueror Samory defeats the Senufo, enslaves them and establishes such a state (in 1894). 

Animist horseman / zoom   

•  In France, Louis XIV* eliminates the emerging capitalists, who convert to Catholicism or leave France.  

*Active, 1660-1715 

Louis XIV, roi de France en tenue du sacre ("Louis XIV in coronation costume") by Hyacinthe Regaud, 1701 / zoom

In spite of the extreme misery that wars of choice soon bring, his monarchy is reinforced and economic growth is slowed.

The cycle ends in Djimini when an outside force steps in and in France when growth can no longer be contained.

• In Djimini the French conquerors liberate the captive labor force and impose their own economy, 

• In France when the French Revolution and Revolution of 1830 bring capitalism's success.

# # #

These pages have suggested 

another view of African history.

Now they do the same for France.

•  Economic growth and the "Wars of Religion"

• "Absolute Monarchy," the ultimate obstacle to growth

• Louis XIV, anti-capitalist

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Next,
V.1.
Economic growth and the "Wars of Religion"

V.1. ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE "WARS OF RELIGION"

5.1. Growth & the "Wars of Religion"

WHEN ALL ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE ARE SACRED,

CONFLICT IS TOO

France's 16th-century civil wars (in 1562-98) are said due to "fanaticism," a truism that skips their tangible cause.

Sixteenth-century engraving, private collection

Basic source: Jules Michelet's Renaissance an Reformation (1860's)

Topics

• Growth breaks loose

• Violence that has nothing to do with religion

• Massacres of Protestants are urban

• The traditional faith defends brakes on gain...

• The new faith shatters them

 *      *      * 

Next,

Growth breaks loose 

GROWTH BREAKS LOOSE

AFTER ABOUT 1480 EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES BRING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

Capitalism destabilizes the backwater that borders the Atlantic, with a speed that its relatively primitive states cannot contain.

# # #

Behind each vessel is a whole chain of production,

like that the trans-Saharan exchanges bring the African savannah 

Storm at Sea by Pieter Breughel the Elder, toward 1610 / zoom

Ship-building requires planks, sails, nails, ropes, tar, supplies, barrels like the one that has fallen into the sea. They in turn need warehouses, wagons, tools, donkeys, horses... .

Those chains of production have been developing since about the year 1000, especially around the Mediterranean. Growth in the rest of Europe has been gradual.

Now proximity to the Atlantic means that trade and production there expand with unprecedented speed.  

# # #

The new revenues first strengthen, the destabilize the social system as in Djimini, but the European caste of nobles absorbs the newcomers for a time: 

• The owner of the medieval castle in the background may be a former merchant, who has bought land to join a caste he reveres. 

Springtime by Pieter Breugel the Younger, about 1600 / zoom (with a traditional analysis in French)

 /

• That purchase may mean acquiring a title. At least it helps marry a daughter to an impoverished noble, making his grandchildren nobles (with somewhat tarnished escutcheons). 

The choice is not mercantile. Continuing business activities means losing noble status, and the income from the land diminishes with inflation.

The prestige of the nobility 

leads to the newly-rich spending gains 

instead of investing them. 

The practice slows growth

but does not stop it. 

*     *     *

Next, 

Violence that has nothing to do with religion

VIOLENCE THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION

GLORIFYING BRUTALITY PRECEDES THOSE WARS

Duels, the ideology of valor and sadistic art appear decades before the wars of religion. 

• Medieval painting can be violent...

     Martyrdom of Saint Denis (detail) by Henri Bellechose, toward 1400 /  zoom

• But it does not linger over details like this: 

Claude Abron

• At the Louvre a three-panel painting glorifies killers in Roman dress...

 

The Massacres of the Triumvirs by Antoine Caron, 1566 / zoom 

 

• And at the Renaissance Museum combat that has nothing to do with the theme is frequently inserted:

-- Though it is not present in the choice of works presented on the web.

Claude Abron

# # #

• Nobles are so used to violence that they wear coats of mail under their doublets, even at the Louvre. 

-- Letter of Henri IV, 1572

# # #

Violence honors the king:

• The six-day tournament to celebrate the birth of a Dauphin (Crown Prince) in 1518 leads to a chronicler's casual remark of "many killed and wounded..."

-- François Ier by Emmanuel Bourassin, 1997, p.75.

• And in the annual human sacrifice of mid-19th-century Dahomey the king dances, then throws cowries...

All removed their ornaments and girt their loins; it is a point of  honor to fight for the royal bakhshish, and nob and snob join in the melee. No notice is taken if a man be killed or maimed in the affair; he has fallen honorably for his sovereign. Some lose eyes or noses [...] I have seen a hand through which teeth met.

   -- Burton, 224

The Wars of Religion justify and worsen violence,

which a changed economy had already made endemic.

Stronger kingship for a time controlled it.

*     *     * 

Next: 

Why hate Protestants?

WHY HATE PROTESTANTS?

THE SAINT BARTHOLEMEW'S DAY MASSACRE SETS OFF A "SEASON" THAT SPREADS TO MOST FRENCH TOWNS

-- Jules Michelet

It starts in Paris on the night of August 23, 1572 and lasts three months. 

• Queen Catherine de Medici triggers it by trying to play off noble clans:

 The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre by François Dubois, 1572, Lausanne Museum

Catherine de Medici is the figure in black on the upper left.

Sixteenth-century engraving

She the Protestant leader shot so as to blame the noble Catholic clan and trigger Protestant revenge, but he is only wounded.

Fearing that revenge, the Catholic nobles attack the house where the wounded man is recovering, kill him and throw his body out of the window.

Town authorities are supposed have local militia keep order. When tolling church bells tell them that their role has begun, those militia join the underclass in killing the Protestant population.

-- Le massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy by Philippe Erlanger, 1960

.

• Both sides commit atrocities. That is true in the countryside, because the armies attract the same kind of men:

    

"Soldiers' Feast" (detail), tapestry, Renaissance museum, museum publication

Soldiers are mercenaries or pillagers, men cut off from the land and its rules. 

• But urban victims are mainly Protestant. Blood lust, theft and score-settling strike Catholics too, but less often and later.

Why? 

*    *    *

Next,

Catholic townspeople intertwine

CATHOLIC TOWNSPEOPLE INTERTWINE

 

WHY SHOULD "FANATICS" SUDDENLY ATTACK PEACEFUL CRAFTSPEOPLE AND SHOPKEEPERS?

Imagining the interwoven population. The paintings' vibrancy is Flemish, but the activities could have been anywhere:

• The narrow streets must have been as crowded and convivial as this open space, with shops selling wares through stands that gave directly onto them, processions, games, labor of all kinds and the Church part of daily life.

The Fight between Carnaval and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559 / zoom; enlarge the figures with your mouse.

 

• Processions: color, music and onlookers bring the town together:

Window at Saint-Etienne du Mont, 19th century / zoom (please click and scroll down).

For more processions, please click

• Guilds: professional organizations that set standards, prices, number of apprentices and other rules and have their rituals and celebrations. Craftspeople working within the city were obliged to belong to them.

Banquet of the Crossbowmen's Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Munster by Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1648 / zoom

• Saints: Interwoven into daily life. Days of the year ("Saint Valentine's Day") and streets are named after them. They respect the saints, but do not worship them or  participate in the innumerable events that honor them.  

They often live outside the city walls, stick together, standing out by their sober dress, refusal to participate in Catholic  — that is, neighborhood — events.  

*    *    *

Next,

The traditional faith defends brakes on gain...

THE TRADITIONAL FAITH DEFENDS BRAKES ON GAIN...

"MONEY, THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL..." 

Alms, an essential part of Catholicism: The poor are like Jesus and the wealthy get points for Salvation when they help them.

Distributing alms (thought to be Saint Gilles) Flanders, end 15th century / zoom

        A Bishop Distributing Bread to the Poor by Willem van Herp, Flemish, mid-17th century / zoom

          The Fight between Carnaval and Lent (detail) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559 / zoom

Other ways in which it limits gain:

• Belief in Purgatory leads to financing masses for the dead and leaving one's resources to the Church.

Virgin of Carmel Saving Souls in Purgatory, Circle of Diego Quispe Tito, 17th century / zoom

•  Forbidding lending at interest reinforces royal economic control. Bypassing the rule is possible but difficult. For major projects, one must turn to kings, as Columbus and Magellan turn to Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella. 

Columbus at the court of Barcelona, 1893 / zoom

Building and decorating sanctuaries disperses huge sums. 

Take the superb 16th-century churches of the trade-route junction at Troyes:

Adapted from a Pinterest map / zoom

Medieval churches:

All photos except the last from TripAdvisor: please click here and here for photos from 10 Troyes churches.

Renovation in the first part of the 16th century, before the civil wars break out. 

For the change in style, please click back.

Claude Abron

Contesting the Church 
means contesting deeply rooted barriers to gain.

 *     *     *

Next

The new faith shatters them