Absolutism
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Transcript of Absolutism
Chapter 14 Summary
• Wars of the 16th century pitted Protestants against Catholics.
• From 1560 to 1650, wars and economic and social crises plagued Europe.
• European monarchs sought economic and political stability through absolutism and the divine right of kings.
• The people become concerned with order and power
The French Wars of Religion
• Calvinism and Catholicism had become militant (combative) religions by 1560.
• Their struggle for converts and against each other was the main cause
• The Huguenots were French Protestants influenced by John Calvin.
• Huguenots = 7% of the pop. But 50% of nobility, including the house of Bourbon
The French Wars of Religion (cont.)
• Townspeople were willing to help nobles weaken the monarchy - became a base of opposition against the Catholic king.
• Civil war raged for 30 years until in 1589, Henry of Navarre, leader of the Huguenots, succeeded to the throne as Henry IV.
• He issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
• It recognized Catholicism as France’s official religion, but gave the Huguenots the right to worship
Ferdinand and Isabella
Expelled Muslims in Grandada and enforced religious
unity.
Financed Christopher
Columbus on His expeditions.
Amounts of gold, silver and other precious jewels came to Spain.
Spain
By the 1500’s Spain had become the first modern European power.
Under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Spain had expelled the last of the Muslim rulers.
They had financed Columbus’ voyages to the new world.
Spain had led the conquest of the Americas
Spain
By 1519, Spain was so
large and so difficult to
rule that King Charles V
divided it in half and went
off to live in a monastery.
King Philip of Spain
Under Philip, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe.
Philip reigned as an absolute monarch, a ruler with complete authority over the government and the lives of the people.
He believed he ruled due to divine right, authority given him directly from God.
King Philip of Spain
From Spain he “defended” the Roman Catholic Church against the spread of Protestantism and Islam.
He fought the Ottoman Empire to prevent the spread of Islam in the Mediterranean.
He fought the English and the Netherlands to prevent the spread of Protestantism in Northern Europe.
In 1588, the Spanish Armada was sunk in the English Channel as they tried to invade England.
Spain’s siglo de oro or golden
century From 1550 to 1650
Spanish artists and writers produced many brilliant works of art.
Artists
El Greco
Diego Velazquez
The economic decline of Spain
By the late 1600’s, France had replaced
Spain as the most powerful European
nation.
Lack of leadership
Costly foreign wars
High taxes to pay for war
Expulsion of Protestants, Muslims and
Jews
Phillip II and Militant Catholicism
• King Philip II of Spain was the greatest supporter of militant Catholicism.
• He ruled from 1556 to 1598, period of greatness in Spain.
• Strict adherence to Catholicism and support for the monarchy.
• Spain - the nation God chose to save Catholic Christianity from the Protestant heretics.
• Spain was the world’s most populous empire when Philip’s reign ended in 1598.
• It seemed a great power, but in reality Philip had bankrupted the country by spending too much on war.
• Real power shifted to England.
Phillip II and Militant Catholicism (cont.)
The England of Elizabeth
• Elizabeth Tudor ascended to the throne of England in 1558.
• During her reign, this small island became the leader of the Protestant nations and laid the foundation for becoming a world empire.
• She tried to keep France and Spain from becoming too powerful by supporting first one and then the other, balancing their power.
The England of Elizabeth (cont.)
• In 1588, Spain sent an armada–a fleet of warships–to invade England.
• Yet the fleet that sailed had neither the manpower nor the ships to be victorious.
• The Spanish fleet was battered in numerous encounters and finally sailed home by a northward route around Scotland and Ireland, where storms sank many ships.