V. FRANCE: SIMILAR AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY, SIMILAR CYCLES OF CHANGE

 

NON-MECHANIZED FARMING, BASE OF PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN AND PRE-INDUSTRIAL FRENCH SOCIETIES 

It brings the same kind of political system, warfare and conflict between interests that have become obsolete and new forces that challenge them.  

Les très riches heures du duc de Berry / zoom

Zoom

Traditional farmers, Ghana

Summary

• Economic growth leads to conflict between interests that have become obsolete and new forces. The latter win. Stronger authority appears at the same time, which both protects and dominates them. 

After showing how growth trickled down from the Sahara with the fall of the Songhay Empire (in 1591), we turned to Djimini, a distant region on the forest fringe. There, a fight between Muslim traders and and the animist chief ends by accepting an infinitely divisible currency, which lets ordinary people engage in commerce. A chieftaincy strong enough to control the coming change appears at the same time. 

In France, "wars of religion" pit Catholics, whose religious practices limit profit, against budding Protestant capitalists, who do not have them. They end with a more muscular kingship that lets the Protestants continue, and dominate them at the same time.

• The old barriers to growth dismantled, the economy grows. So does authority.

In Djimini the new market of Bokhola prospers, others spring up, more powerful traders arrive and a new class of animist commercial producers appears. The son and successor of the Bokhala chief brutally checks them. They burn him alive in his hut. 

In France the civil wars end (in 1594) and the Protestants are officially tolerated (in 1598). But the stronger Bourbon monarchy controls them. Monuments and a new urban design are signs of its power. The economy expands.

• Conflict returns. 

Djimini animists and petty traders resist the long-distance merchants and commercial producers until a legendary slave-raider subdues them. He sets up a state rooted in slave-based agriculture for the growing markets.

In France, the Protestants are tolerated until their activities menace Catholics' economic predominance. Many manage to leave, but those who remain are forced to convert. Their conversions are superficial but since they are obliged to accept Catholic practices that are barriers to profit, no one cares.

The cycles end in Djimini when the European conquerors liberate the labor force, and in France when the Revolutions of 1789-1795 and 1830 suppress nobles' control of the State and let capitalism take wing. 

*    *

These pages have suggested 

another view of African history.

Now they do the same for France.

• Growth breaks loose 

• Economic growth and the "Wars of Religion"

• Absolute Monarchy takes the reins

• Louis XIV, the ultimate anti-capitalist

*      *      *

Next,
5.1.

 Growth breaks loose 

5.1. GROWTH BREAKS LOOSE

EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES BRING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH 

(FROM ABOUT 1480)

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

*    *

Behind each vessel is a whole chain of production, like that

which 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 on the borders of the mid-Atlantic expands with unprecedented speed (Spain is an exception). 

*     *

The new revenues threaten the nobles, but their social system absorbs many of the most dynamic newcomers: 

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

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

• Some lands let the owner automatically acquire a title. Or owning them helps marry a daughter to an impoverished noble, meaning one's grandchildren will be 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.

*     *

Nobles' prestige leads the newly-rich 

to spend gains instead of investing them. 

*     *     *

Next, 

5.2. 

Economic growth and the "Wars of Religion"

5.2. ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE "WARS OF RELIGION"

5.3.GROWTH & "WARS OF RELIGION"

WHEN ALL ASPECTS OF DAILY LIFE ARE SACRED,

CONFLICT IS TOO

France's 16th-century civil wars are said due to "fanaticism," a truism that skips their underlying cause.

(In 1562-98)

                  Sixteenth-century engraving, private collection

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

In brief

• Violence that has nothing to do with religion

• The "season" of Protestant massacre

• Protestants separate themselves from everyone else

• The traditional faith put brakes on gain

• The new faith shattered them

 *      *     * 

Next,

5.2.1. 

Violence that has nothing to do with religion

5.2.1. VIOLENCE THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION

GLORIFYING BRUTALITY PRECEDES THOSE WARS

Medieval painting can be violent but it does not linger over sadistic details.

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

A century later:

   

Detail of ceramic at the Renaissance Museum / Claude Abron

*    *

As well:

• Evoking antiquity makes this glacial work still more nightmarish: 

 

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

 

• A combat that has nothing to do with the subject:

Claude Abron

• A chronicler casually remarks there were "many killed and wounded..." during the tournament to celebrate the birth of a prince (in 1518).

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

• Nobles wear coats of mail under their doublets, even at the Louvre. 

-- Letter of Henri IV, 1573

• A platter shows a beheading:

Galerie Franck Baptiste

7 quai Voltaire, Paris 7e

The Wars of Religion justify and worsen violence,

 but do not cause it.

*     *     * 

Next: 

5.2.2.

The "season" of Protestant massacre

5.2.2. THE "SEASON" OF PROTESTANT MASSACRE

THE SAINT BARTHOLEMEW'S DAY MASSACRE STARTS IN PARIS IN THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 23, 1572

-- "Season:" term of Jules Michelet

It continues for several days there and for three months in other French towns.  

• The spark: queen Catherine de Medici incites the shooting of the Protestant leader so that his clan will take revenge on the dominant Catholics. The Protestant chief is wounded. The Catholic leader orders his thugs to storm the house where the wounded man is recovering. They attack him and throw his body out of the window.

Engraving of the time

• City authorities have been told of the planned assassination and have summoned a militia to maintain order. But when church bells toll to announce the fait accompli, it sides with the killers. Mobs join in.

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

 The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre by François Dubois, 1572 / zoom

Catherine de Medici

 

The noble Protestant leaders have come for the wedding of the sister of the king (Charles IX) and the king of Béarn (later Henri IV). Many of them reside at the Louvre, as guests of the king. Except for Henri, a royal cousin and a man his bride saves, all are murdered.

*    *

Civil war spreads to most towns and to the countryside. In rural areas atrocities are committed on both sides.

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

Soldiers are mercenaries or men who join to pillage. A rape is happening in the background.

But urban victims are mainly Protestant: blood lust, theft and settling scores leads to killing Catholics too, but later and less often. 

A list of commoner victims of the massacre shows that they were "shoemakers, bookbinders, hatmakers, weavers, pin-makers, armor-makers, barrel makers, watchmakers, goldsmiths, furniture makers, gilders, button-makers, hardware makers, etc."

-- The 16th Century by Jules Michelet, 1833

A century later (in 1684), Louis XIV demands that Protestants convert. Fifty thousand  families slip out of the kingdom. Voltaire describes the loss to France.

*     *

Detour: The tolling bells of Saint-Gervais, the royal church opposite the Louvre palace, set off the killings.

Zoom

The military transformation of the 1850's slated it for destruction. The man in charge (the Baron Haussmann), saved it: A Protestant, he did not want to be accused of vengeance.

*   *

Why were Protestants so hated?

The iconoclasm of some Protestants

was not a factor in Paris,

where there had been no incidents since 1525.

*    *    *

Next,

5.2.3.

Protestants separate themselves from everyone else

5.2.3. PROTESTANTS SEPARATE THEMSELVES

MANY LIVE OUTSIDE THE WALLS SO THAT THEY CAN PRAY AS THEY WISH  

They stand out by their unornamented sober dress; respect the saints but do not venerate them or join the innumerable events in their honor; do not participate in any Catholic activities, including funerals. 

They disengage from a world in which all is connected:  

• Commerce, fetes and quarrels take place in the streets without sidewalks.  

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

• The color and music of religious processions bring people together. 

Window at Saint-Etienne du Mont, 19th century / zoom 

• Professionals living within the city belong to guilds, which set standards, prices, the number of apprentices and make other rules. Members take part in their rituals and celebrations. 

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

• Notables and the Church are allies.

Zoom  

A bishop and leaders of charitable organizations in 19th-century Normandy.

 

• Saints are part of daily life. Days of the year are named after them: "Saint Valentine's Day" is a vestige. So are most streets. Individuals' "saint's day" are more important than their birthday.*

*Tolstoy introduces Natasha, heroine of War and Peace, through the festivities being prepared for her saint's day.

Corner of rue Saint-Denis and Boulevards

As God's righteous, separate elect, Protestants are literally "holier than thou." 

There is also a practical reason for hate.

*    *    *

Next,

5.2.4. 

The traditional faith put brakes on gain