When Henry was made king he was short of money because he had fought lots of expensive wars. Henry then noticed that the church had a lot of money. If he took over the church all of its treasury would be his. Source 1 states that “monasteries were very rich and owned about a quarter of the land in the country”, so he could then close down the monasteries, take their money and sell of the land. Henry needed the money for power so that he could then build a stronger army and fight more wars.
He was also rumoured to be having sexual relationships which other men. Another example is Pope Leo X who committed the abuse, simony, from the sale of indulgences to improve St Peter’s Church in Rome, but a lot of this money went on military campaigns. Many of the Popes needed large amounts of taxes to fund their lifestyles and their demands became a matter of concern as the Pope was meant to be someone who could lead the people to salvation. This caused resentment among Christians especially those in Germany. The people of Germany already resented the papacy because it exploited Germany economically as it was one of the richest, most urbanised and educated parts of Europe, extracting the largest sums from the ruling families.
With this it decreased taxes collected and kept them from being able pay troops. The weak economy was the catalyst for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. If the Roman leaders had not been so power hungry and cause civil wars, brining chaos to the Roman government, then perhaps they could have been prepared for the German tribes that were coming in to capture Rome. It is apparent, through all of the problems that came to the late Roman Empire, the Roman treasury by barbarian tribes, discontinuing of trade between the east and west that the leaders of Rome following the Pax Romana were not paying adequate attention to the state of the empire. If they had been ruling sufficiently, then most of these problems that Rome faced could and would have been avoided, and the empire would have restored
With the introduction of Charles I in 1625, Scotland and England had relative peace. Charles I had hoped to combine the kingdoms of England, Scotland and also Ireland, but the English Parliamentarians were suspicious of this move. With the wars soon approaching, what were the causes of it, or were there more reasons to why the English Civil War had started? The end result of the war was countries without monarchs, who slowly tried to rebuild their political awareness. There were many events in the wars that had an effect on England, Scotland and Ireland, with these wars came many casualties and benefits and because of these facts, the wars were seen as a success or/and failure.
Additionally, suspicions had risen of radical parliamentarians and the people were reliant on Charles’ return to stop this. These reasons are the main factors for Charles’ support in 1646. Charles’ return to the throne would have meant an end to Parliament’s County Committees, which many felt were worse than living under Charles’ rule. A large portion of the population had suffered the brutal dominion of the County Committees, which only worsened as the war progressed and Parliament became more desperate to finance the war. Primarily made up of fiercely loyal Puritans, the County Committees were efficient in reaching the monthly quotas set by Parliament.
The First World War impacted significantly on the homefronts of the participating nations in many different social, political and economic areas. There was a widespread restructuring of primary industry with a large orientation towards militarism. There was massive political change where new systems of power were introduced that gave governments a range of new powers including the control over industry. The civilian population had severe restrictions placed upon their rights and liberties due to the necessities that total war required. The scale of the war forced all sectors of society to change and adapt to the growing scale of the war.
Rosalind Cresswell ‘The First World War increased rather than narrowed Germany’s political divisions’ How far do you agree with this statement? Initially the First World War narrowed the political divisions, as they all came together with the Burgfriede, which was declared on the 4th August as a political truce between all parties. However, this political unity was not to last as the military were unable to deliver on their promise of a quick victory so Germany soon became increasingly fragile by the war. Unity began to disband and the Kaiser became a politically distant figurehead who spent most of his time tucked away which created divisions as he failed to promote the image of a strong and caring leader. Furthermore, German politics suffered polarisation as the left and right became more extreme, divisions were caused by differing views over war aims and developing concern over the establishment of the ‘Silent Dictatorship’.
These divisions do not simply apply to the Pope’s reasoning but also of course to the varying masses of people who took up the cross [Riley-Smith, 113]. The overall result of the First Crusade was: that against all odds the crusading army defeated the ‘infidel’ armies of the East and conquered their idolized holy lands, but also that the papacy now spread its riches through to the East. Considering this all stemmed from one enigmatic presentation by the Pope, this leaves one with the question, was there a more political than simply righteous motive for the First Crusade? To consider the economic causes of the First Crusade the monetary climate within Western Europe must be evaluated. Western Europe prior to the First Crusade was struggling through outbreaks of plague and famine.
By exiling the Huguenots he lost a lot of potential revenue, and the lavish building of Versailles was not cheap. Moreover, he did not have the revenue to keep up his enormous army and after the early 1680’s his success in wars went in a never ending downward spiral. Perhaps if Louis XIV had learned to manage his money better and not gone to war so readily, his subjects would have been happier and he would have had an even more successful reign, but without a doubt he still remains one of the most powerful rulers in
It is a fact that people’s religions, when crossed, lead to bloodshed. Some of the most significant were those of the Christian Crusades. The Crusades were during a time of Western European expansion, conquest, and unspeakable atrocities. These wars were fought in the name of God, and to justify their actions they were declared as “Holy Wars”. In the Humanistic Tradition, it states on page 84, “It soon became apparent, however, that the material benefits of the Crusades outweighed the spiritual ones”.