AP euro chapter 7 summary essay

People in the elite culture could participate down with the popular culture but the popular culture could not move up without exceptional transformation by education and marriage. The language of the educated became standardized in a nation; dictionaries were begun and the literacy rate rose. On the other hand, the popular culture was mainly oral and was much more resistant to change. Wealth produced major differences: The poor largely ate bread, cabbages and beans; they lived in crude shelters with limited furnishings; they ate from wooden bowls. Popular books became common--almanacs with astrology, weather, proverbial advice, or “how to” books on behavior. Religion normally brought the classes together; in large towns, some churches would be “fashionable.” Many of the poor did not often go to church. The elite culture, becoming skeptic, was also less religious. Diseases were shared, though famine and plague were more likely to strike the poor, crowded in their slums. In 1600, superstitions and belief in magic and witches were common to all; by 1700,they were mainly among the poor. By 1700, the elite was a spectator at most. The gulf between classes widened as the elite took to more formal manners and to neoclassicism in literature and the arts. Merchant capitalism, domestic industry, and mercantilism grew rapidly. While most nations were still rural/agricultural (in 1789 only 50 cities had over 50,000 people), many rural people were employed in the domestic system of industry. Though domestic trade provided the largest volume, foreign trade had become vital, with the largest enterprises, the greatest commercial fortunes, the most capital. And from it the wars of the century grew.
Many East India companies formed, including Prussian, Swedish, Venetian--but only the French, Dutch, British survived: they had the capital and the diplomatic, military, naval support. The winners made immense profits, with Britain dominant in Asia and America, France leader in