13159

SoSe 22: Herrschaft, Territorium und natürliche Rohstoffe im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit

Helge Wendt

Comments

"People of the Ancien Régime live in constant precariousness" - wrote Fernand Braudel in the first volume of Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme. Unlike a narrative of progress in statehood, economic organisation and knowledge, material life can also be read as part of a constant interdependence of people, raw materials, economic modes, state organisation and knowledge. The relationship between urban and rural areas, the interplay of types of raw materials and the competition of European states, dominions and territories make the early modern period more than just a pre-capitalist economic system - they are diverse forms of local, regional and transterritorial relations of production and exchange. From the poorest social relations of dependency to the most elaborate forms of goods extraction in mining and metallurgy, the anthropogenic changes in natural conditions enabled the state's monopoly position on the one hand and made it even more dependent on investments in new technologies on the other. Integrated into raw material flows and competitions that took on global dimensions with colonisation outside Europe, the European states had to constantly redefine and defend their respective territoriality. In this sense, the seminar provides an introduction to the material world of everyday life and state organisation in Europe in the early modern period.Raw materials are probes into different social spheres, political organisations, contexts of action and knowledge developments. Famine, fuel scarcity, overexploitation and exploitation of people are as central a topic as the dynamics of knowledge about the respective raw materials. close

13 Class schedule

Regular appointments

Thu, 08:00 - 10:00 13 Class schedule

Thu, 2022-04-21 08:00 - 10:00

Lecturers:
PD Dr. Helge Wendt