1600 - European

Religious Wars. Leading up to the Thirty Year’s War. The Schmalkaldic Wars and the Peace of Augsburg of the 1540’s through the 1550 created a number of issues for Charles V of Austria. The debate over whether German states could adopt had not been resolved. The peace of Augsburg proved for the states’ princes to adopt either Catholicism or Lutheranism, but not Calvinism. The issue of the German princes’ power and authority was also at risk, as the princes always wanted more power, so the princes ended up taking church land, angering Charles v. Thirty Year’s War. Starting with the “Defenestration of Prague”, where protestants threw two of Ferdinand’s catholic officials out of a window in the city of Prague. The officials survived. The Catholics claimed the “angels caught them.” The protestants claim they “fell in a pile of manure.” The war, started over religion, ended up being between two powers to determine which would become the main power in Europe. The Catholic French funded the Protestant Dutch, Protestant Princes of the holy roman empire, and other non Catholics like Sweden, Denmark and Turkey; since they were all fighting the Hapsburgs. Richelieu, a high member of the Catholic Church, put his nation’s interests ahead of his religion, he openly funded the Protestant groups in his fight against Austria. The Thirty Year’s War is split into four phases; Bohemian, Danish, Swedish, and French. The Bohemian Phase. 1618-1625 Starting on May 23rd 1618 with the defenestration of Prague. This stage deals with a civil war between the Catholic League, led by Ferdinand, and the Protestant Union led Frederick. ( the elector of Palatinate) The Bohemians fought for religious liberty and independence from Hapsburg rule. In 1620 Frederick was defeated by Catholic forces at the Battle of White Mountain. Ferdinand had a ruthless retaliation leading to Bohemia’s defeat and complete conversion to Catholicism. Austrian Victory. The Danish Phase. 1625-1630 King Christian IV of Denmark, ineffective leader, supported N. German Protestants. Catholic general Albert Wallenstein was hired to defeat Protestant forces and restore the land the Catholic Church lost. Had many victories, Silesia, Schleswig, Jutland, Baltic area, and Pomerania. As a result of Austrian victories, Ferdinand II [ Ferdinand from the catholic league, but had become elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.] issued the Edict of Restitution in 1629, ordering that Protestants could no longer seize and secularize Catholic land and only the Catholics and Lutherans were allowed to practice their faith. Again, Austria is victorious and Denmark is easily defeated. 1629 was the peak of the Habsburg power. The Swedish Phase. 1630-1635 Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus, a devoted Lutheran, went to Germany to help out the oppressed Protestants. Cardinal Richelieu gave money to the Swedes, hoping to weaken the Habsburg power in Europe. Adolphus won at Breitenfeld with a small but well-disciplined army equipped with muskets. Then he won again at Lutzen. The death of Adolphus was followed by the defeat of the Swedes at the Battle of Nordlingen. The French Phase. 1635-1648 The defeat at Nordlingen prompted the French to join the war on the side of the Protestants. In 1635, Richelieu declared war on Spain and once again sent aid to the Swedes and the Protestant Princes. Because of the French support, the war was very long, to the point of exhaustion on all sides, they were all ready for peace.

October 1648 The Peace of Westphalia ended the religious war. The treaty recognized the authority of more than three hundred German Princes, allowing each of them to govern his territory. This was the first time that all parties were brought together at once. After Effects. France became the dominant power in Europe, they received Alsace-Loraine, won the Thirty Years’ War which stopped the German unity. Dutch and the House of Orange receive independence from Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Swiss earned independence from the Holy Roman Empire and got control of the Baltic Sea. Prussia’s rise as a great military power. The German Princes now had authority and could select Calvinism for their states. The Peace of Westphalia was the end of the Counter-Reformation and Calvinism was now tolerated. The Spanish lost their colonies and territorial possessions, resulting in a loss in income. In 1648 is the end of the Holy Roman Empire and the emperor because the Princes now have sovereignty. The Peace of Westphalia, which marked the end of the Counter-Reformation, ended the church’s supremacy and papal authority. Germy is kept disunited and is divided into hundreds of individual states. Baroque Art. Characterized by rich and vibrant colors, intense use of light and shading, and great drama. Used by Catholics to show dramatic biblical scenes and to make religion more enjoyable, in attempt to reconvert protestants. [refer to picture warm up.]

Absolutism. Authority resides in the king, not the nobility or the parliament, who consider themselves responsible to God alone. They created new state bureaucracies and standing armies, which regulated all the institutions of government, and secured the cooperation of the nobility. Western Europe. French Absolutism. Henry VI cared for his people, lowered taxes, achieved peace, and shifted the power of the nobility. His minister, Sully, brought financial stability and economic growth. Cardinal Richelieu, the ruler of France under King Louis XIII, broke the power of the French nobility. He had a policy of total subordination of all groups and institutions to the French monarchy. He changed the royal council, leveled castles, and crushed aristocratic conspiracies. He established an efficient administrative system using intendants, who further weakened the local nobility. The intendants delivered royal orders, recruited men from the army, and collected taxes. Through the Edict of Nantes Henry IV and given religious freedom to Protestants (Huguenots) in 150 towns, but Louis XIII decided otherwise. He defeated the city of La Rochelle in 1628 and re-instituted the Catholic mass. Richelieu supported the new French Academy, which created a dictionary to standardize the French language. After his passing Mazarin continued Richelieu's centralizing policies, but these policies gave rise to a period of civil wars known as the Fronde. Many people of the aristocracy and the middle classes opposed government centralization and new taxes; rebellion was widespread. The conflicts hurt the economy and convinced the new king, Louis XIV, that civil war was destructive of social order and that absolute monarchy was the only alternative to anarchy. Louis XIV, the "Sun King" as an absolutist. He was a devout Catholic who believed that God had established kings as his rulers on earth. He feared the nobility and was successful in collaboration with them to enhance both aristocratic prestige and royal power. He made the court at Versailles a fixed institution and used it as a means of preserving royal power and as the center of French absolutism. Social Aspects. The architecture and art of Versailles were used to carrying out state policy--a way to make his subjects and foreigners feel like they had to behave because of respect and some fear. The French language and culture became the international style. The court at Versailles was a device to undermine the power of the aristocracy by separating power from status. French classicism imitated and resembled the arts of the ancients and the Renaissance. The comedies of Molière and the tragedies of Racine best illustrate the classicism in French theater. Economy under Louis XIV’s minister - Colbert The Wars were expensive, but the tax farmers took much of the taxes while the nobility paid no taxes at all. Louis XIV's finance minister, Colbert, tried to achieve a favorable balance of trade and make France self-sufficient so the flow of gold to other countries would be halted. Colbert encouraged French industry, enacted high foreign tariffs, and created a strong merchant marine. Though France's industries grew and the commercial classes grew, its agricultural economy suffered under the burdens of heavy taxation, population decline, and poor harvests. Religious Aspects. In 1685, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes--then destroyed Protestant churches and

schools; many Protestants fled the country, because Louis XIV hated division within France--and because most people supported this policy. Louis XIV's wars The French army under Louis XIV was modern because the state, rather than the nobles, employed the soldiers. Louis himself took personal command of the army. Martinet created a rigid but effective system of training. Louis fought the new Dutch king of England, William III, and the League of Augsburg in a war. The Banks of Amsterdam and England financed his enemies. Louis's heavy taxes fell on the peasants, who revolted. Leading up to the Spanish Succession. Spain and it’s decline. Spain had developed an absolutist monarchy but by the 1590s it was in decline. Fiscal disorder, political incompetence, the lack of a strong middle class, population decline, intellectual isolation, and psychological malaise contributed to its decline. The Dutch and English began to cut into Spain's trade monopolies. Spain's supply of silver began to decline, leading to de-evaluation and bankruptcy. Spain had only a tiny middle class--which had to face many obstacles to their businesses. Aristocrats were extravagant and their high rents drove the peasants from the land. Spanish kings lacked force of character and could not deal with all these problems. Philip IV's minister Olivares mistakenly thought that revival of war with the Dutch would solve Spain's problems; war with France followed-all bringing disaster for Spain. The Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, which ended the French-Spanish wars, marked the end of Spain as a great power. Eastern Europe. Serfdom. The reestablishment of hereditary subjugation took place in Poland, Prussia, and Russia between 1500 and 1650. The consolidation of serfdom was accompanied by the growth of estate agriculture. Lords seized peasant land for their own estates. They then demanded unpaid serf labor on those estates. Serfdom increased because of political, not economic, reasons. Weak monarchs could not resist the demands of the powerful noble landlords. The absence of the western concept of sovereignty meant that the king did not think in terms of protecting the people of the nation. The peasants had less political power in eastern Europe. Austria and the Ottomans. The Habsburgs replaced the Bohemian Czech (Protestant) nobility with their own warriors. Serfdom increased, Protestantism was wiped out, and absolutism was achieved. Ferdinand III created a standing army, centralized the government in Austria, and turned toward Hungary for land. This eastward turn led Austria to became absorbed in a war against the Turks over Hungary and Transylvania. Under Suleiman the Magnificent the Ottoman-Turks built the most powerful empire in the world, which included part of central Europe. The Turkish sultan was the absolute head of the state. There was little private property, and a bureaucracy staffed by slaves. The Ottoman attack on Austria in 1683 was turned back, and the Habsburgs conquered all of Hungary and Transylvania by 1699. The defeat of the Ottomans had support from Protestant nobles in Hungary and Louis XIV of France. The Habsburg possessions consisted of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary, which were joined in a fragile union. Then it’s the Pragmatic Sanction. [1700’s.] Constitutionalism.

Constitutionalism is the limitation of the state by law; the state must be governed according to law, not royal decree. It refers to a balance between the power of the government and the rights of the subjects. Constitutional governments may be either republics or monarchies. The decline absolutism in England. The Stuart kings of England lacked the political wisdom of Elizabeth I. James I was devoted to the ideal of rule by divine right. His absolutism ran counter to English belief. The House of Commons wanted a greater say in the government of the state. Disagreements between King and the Commons formed; the Commons wanted political power equal to its economic strength. Charles I ruled without Parliament from 1629-1640. Many English people, called Puritans, were attracted by the values of hard work, thrift, and self-denial implied by Calvinism. The Puritans, who were dissatisfied with the Church of England, saw James I as an enemy. The English Civil War. 1642-1649 Members of Parliament believed that taxation without consent was despotism, so they tried to limit royal power. The Commons passed an act saying the king had to call Parliament every three years. It also impeached Archbishop Laud and abolished the House of Lords. Religious differences in Ireland led to a revolt, but Parliament would not trust Charles with an army. Charles initiated military action against Parliament. The civil war occurred because of the fight over who had authority, the king or Parliament. The civil war didn’t solve anything. Charles I was beheaded in 1649. With the execution of Charles I, a state of commonwealth arose. A commonwealth is a government without a king whose power rests in Parliament and a council of state. In fact, the army controlled the government; it wrote a constitution called the Instrument of Government, which gave power to Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell, leader of the "New Model Army" that defeated the royalists, came from the gentry class that dominated the House of Commons. Cromwell’s Rule. Cromwell's Protectorate became a military dictatorship, absolutist and puritanical. Cromwell allowed religious toleration for all, except Catholics, and savagely crushed the revolt in Ireland. He censored the press and closed the theaters. He regulated the economy according to mercantilist principles. The mercantilist navigation act that required English goods to be transported on English ships was a boon to the economy but led to a commercial war with the Dutch. The restoration of the English monarchy. The restoration of the Stuart kings in 1660 failed to solve the problems of religion and the relationship between King and Parliament. The Test Act of 1673 said that only Church of England members could vote, hold office, preach, teach, attend the universities, or assemble, but the new rules were not execute. Charles II appointed a council of five men (the "Cabal") to serve as both his major advisers and as members of Parliament. Catholic James II violated the Test Act by giving government and university jobs to Catholics. Fear of a Catholic monarchy led to the expulsion of James II and the Glorious Revolution. The "Glorious Revolution" got rid of James II, and put William and Mary on the throne, and ended the divine-right monarchy. It was "glorious" in that there was no bloodshed. It established the principal that power was divided between king and Parliament. The Bill of Rights of 1689 established the principal that law was made in Parliament, that Parliament had to meet at least every three years, that elections were to be free of Crown interference, and the judiciary was to

be independent of the Crown. The Dutch. The Dutch republic (the United Provinces of the Netherlands) won its independence from Spain--as confirmed by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Dutch achievements in science, art, and literature were exceptional--a "golden age." Power in the republic resided in the local Estates. The republic was a confederation: a weak union of strong provinces. The republic was based on values of thrift, frugality, and religious toleration, including that for Jews. Religious toleration fostered economic growth. The fishing industry was the cornerstone of the Dutch economy-- stimulating shipbuilding, a huge merchant marine, and other industries. The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602; it cut heavily into Portuguese trading in East Asia. The Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621, traded extensively in Latin America and Africa. Wages were high for all and most people ate well. War with France and England in the 1670s hurt the United Provinces.