17th Century Europe Notes

1. Spain 17th Century
• The Wars of King Phillip the Second
• King Charles the V gave up the throne in mid 16th century
• He gave many territories in Austria and Hungary to his brother Ferdinand
• He left his son, Phillip, Spain, Netherlands, and many other countries in Europe (western countries)
• Phillip II now king of Spain wants to enlarge the power and prestige of Spain
• He is catholic
• He has a plan to defeat the Ottoman Turks
• The Ottomans were the controlling family in Turkey
• He battles the Turkish forces in the battle of Lepanto in 1571
• Spanish defeat the Turks in this battle
• This is really the battle that gives Philip lots of prestige as a Catholic warrior
• Phillip II came to the throne when Spain was in control of the Netherlands
• So it was under Catholic control
• Phillip coming to power, imposed the inquisition over all of Spain including the Netherlands
• Basically an attempt by Catholic church to run out heretics and convert Jews and Protestants
• They did this by force, threat, torture, and execution
• When the inquisition was imposed there were many rebellions and protests
• The Duke of Alva was sent out by Phillip with 20,000 troops and they rounded people up in the Netherlands to be executed
• This caused the Netherlands people to revolt against Phillip and all of Spain
• The of Duke of Alva's action resulted in people protesting and becoming Calvinists in protest against Phillip instead of becoming Catholic
• Phillip saw that the Duke's tactics weren't working
• So he sent out the Duke of Parma
• He was more of a diplomat
• He smoothed over the situation
• He settles down the revolts in the Netherlands
• But he couldn't convince everybody
• 1581: the Dutch formally declared independence from the Spanish occupation
• 1581-1609 war occurs in Netherlands
• Netherlands basically splits in two, north is Calvinists; the south is Catholics
• The north breaks away from Spain (the Dutch), the south sticks with Spain
• Then England sees what the Spanish are doing and they are worried about Spain invading England
• So the queen openly helps the Dutch, she gives them money, troops, and lets privateers raid and attack Spanish ships
• Phillip is absolutely outraged by the English getting involved so he organizes the Armada to go against England
• The armada is a great fleet of ships
• Phillip wants to take over England, kill Elizabeth I, make himself king, and make England Catholic
• The Armada consisted of 130 ships, only 67 make it back to Spain
• The English navy completely dominates the Spanish
• The English have smaller, lighter ships and are able to dominate Spain who encounters bad weather, the Spanish ships aren't used to that bad weather, the English are
• Half of the Spanish navy was taken down in ONE battle
• HUGE REPRECUSSIONS FOR SPAIN
• THE SPANISH NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS, NEVER
• This begins a long decline for Spain's power and influence
• THE SPANISH'S POWER DECLINES WHILE THE ENGLISH'S PRESTIGE RISES
• This was in the 1580s (the Armada)
2. The 17th century is a great time to be Dutch
• The Dutch were able to strive because Spain had been beaten by England
• Since Spain lost, this leaves room for England to take over colonization in the New World
• England gained all the better areas in colonization
• The Northeast of America was timberland and it was really useful to the English
3. France
• There was an alliance between the French royalty and the Pope
• In 1516: it was made official with the Concordat of Bologna
• The Pope says that France gets to have its own French bishops
• It meant that the French would have a huge say in things in the Catholic Church
• This was beneficial for the Pope and for the French King
• There were Huguenots in France which were Calvinists or Protestants
• 1/10 of the population in France was Huguenots
• 2/5 and 1/2 of the French nobility became Huguenots
• They may have done this because in Germany (to the east) the Protestant Reformation was going on
• Religion and politics were huge during the reformation era
• 1572: St. Bartholomew's day Massacre
• Charles the IX's mother was Katherine de Medici from Italy
• With the support of the Medici family, the ST. Bartholomew's day Massacre was carried out
• Thousands of Huguenots had come to Paris for the wedding of Henry Navarre and Margaret of Valwa
• The followers of Henry and then the Huguenots were ambushed by the Catholic people and Charles and The Catholic Church
• Over 20,000 Huguenots died from this event
• This starts a civil war in France which lasts 15 years between Catholics and Huguenots
• This civil war destroys French trade, agricultural trade, and the French come to realize that if they don’t end it then France itself will fall
• During the War, a French Huguenot, Henry Navarre, rises up and becomes the leader of one of the houses of nobility, the House of Bourbon which is a Huguenot house of nobility
• House of Bourbon was the leading Huguenot house of nobility
• 1598: Henry becomes king and issues the order of Nantes
• He realizes he is in religious hot water here
• So he converts to Catholicism
• Henry Navarre is a great politician, but issues this order that allowed for the free practice of Calvinism
• Henry literally saves France
4. Holy Roman Empire
• Covered much of today's Germany and Italy and Austria
• It was made up of principalities
• Comprised of about 300 independent principalities
• 1555: Peace Treaty called Peace of Augsburg (this mainly occurred in the Germany part though)
• The treaty gives the right to each individual prince, the right to determine the religion of its principality
• Catholic and Lutheran were the only religions that the principalities' prince could choose to be
• They set up a structural situation where the thirty years war is going to develop
• IT ONLY ALLOWED FOR CATHOLICS AND LUTHERANS, CALVINISTS WEREN'T ALLOWED
• Because of this there are many unions made
• 1608: Protestant Union is formed
• 1609: the Catholic League is formed
• During this time the Protestants had made lots of gains in Austria
• The biggest dynasty was a Catholic family though