SOCIAL PATTERNS

POPULATION TRENDS

• 16th century rise in population accompanied by political and scientific revolutions
• Population increase followed by long decline
• Infant mortality rate around 50%
• Big families rare due to this and economic factors
• Women unable to replenish population because of medical and biological limitations

POPULATION TRENDS

• Population further stunted by external pressures
• England and Netherlands recovered from depression and grew
• 30 years war sent Europe into economic depression

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SOCIAL STATUS

• Determinants of status viewed differently among different groups
• Wealth important chiefly to merchants
• Education important to professionals
• Background important to nobility
• Wealth and education became more important

SOCIAL STATUS

• Increased mobility between classes
• Women still treated inferior to men
• However many women became successful

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MYSTICISM

• Belief in magic more prevalent in simpler rural areas
• Helpless old women targeted and persecuted for random events of chance
• Witch hunts swept Europe, resulting tens of thousands executed by burning at the stake
• Hunts subsided by 1650s due to fear of anarchy in the upper classes, urbanization
• Religious officials also began to denounce magical practices as superstitious

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URBAN LIFE

• Villagers no longer felt like part of a cohesive population
• Literacy higher in urban sites following the Reformation due to its necessity in commerce
• Cities allowed for greater political participation with newspapers
• Most people resorted to odd jobs and crime
• Theater and opera became popular for women as well as books.

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SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY

• Taxes were increasing, so peasants left the countryside.
• Fled to cities or military to avoid poverty
• Most peasants remained on the road, becoming beggars
• Cities failed to help most with their financial issues, leaving the poor worse off
• Entire societies of crime created, and criminals were treated horribly

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CONCLUSION

• Confidence and orderliness
• "Battle of the Books"
• Relinquish the antiquity
• Superiority over ancients
• Increased optimism