2º A BILINGÜE: CLASE DEL 18 DE MAYO DE 2020

Good morning everybody!

Last week we started a new unit: The Early Modern Period. We have already studied the two firsts parts that talked about the modern state and their economies. Today, we are going to focus on their society. You can find it in page 168 of your textbook. 

1.3. SOCIETY

The European population rose a lot during the 16th century. However, and as in the Middle Ages, feudalism continued existing and society was divided in different estates, although there were some changes in comparison to the past: 

1. The nobility: they continued to own large areas of land and kept their privileges, as did the clergy, but they lost political power that they had in the Middle Ages. 

2. Peasants: they did not improve much. In some European countries, they obtained their freedom from the feudal lords, but in others, as in Eastern Europe, they continued to be serfs. 

3. Bourgeoisie: we can still find differences among this social group. 

a. The high bourgeoisie: they gained more and more economic power and social influence because they controlled banking and trade, earning big profits from these activities. At the same time, the kings depended on the wealthy bourgeoisie to counteract the power of the nobles. The high bourgeoisie tried to imitate the way of life of the nobility and many of them bought land because it gave them social prestige. 

b. The petite bourgeoisie: it was composed of craftworkers and modest merchants, often came into conflict with the nobility and high bourgeoisie over their participation in the government of the cities. 

Now, we are going to do the activity 8 of page 169 of your textbook. It says: describe the paintig of the woman below. You must use these words: profile, hair, beauty, jewels, clothes, luxurious, nobility, high bourgeoisie, fair.