II.5. NOBLES, GODS AND HEROES

MENU: 2.5. Nobles gods & heroes 

TOWARD 1500, EXPLORERS' DISCOVERIES LEAD TO NEW SOURCES OF INCOME AND SO TO A BOOM THAT UNDERMINES THE SOCIAL SYSTEM 

Nascent capitalists gain the means to challenge the ruling class of nobles, hereditary landowners who draw their wealth from peasant labor and define themselves as warriors.

          Discoveries in 1502 / zoom 

The earliest known map of the Age of Discovery

There were numerous ways of enforcing a social order said to be wished by God. They also developed a philosophy and arts that set them above ordinary humanity, with which the penny-pinching, humdrum but rising moneyed interests could not (yet) compete. 

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In brief

• The primacy of hereditary rank 

• Everything aids the overclass 

• Heroes of glamorized war

• Allegory, a reaction of nobles to rising capitalists

• The Church omits pagan decor...

• Detour: History — anecdotes or the economy?

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Next,

2.5.1.

The primacy of hereditary rank