The context and impact on Europe after the Protestant Reform
The seventeenth century is an extraordinarily turbulent century throughout Europe. Although the constants indicated for the economic-social organization of the previous century last in the substantial in the seventeenth, there are, however, deep disturbances that deeply affect the daily life of people. Wars, diseases, very adverse climate, bad harvests, hunger, diverse calamities travel Europe, reasons why this century has been considered as the century of the crisis or the century of iron.
In the social and economic sphere, strong tensions between the nobility and the bourgeoisie occur, which makes it in certain countries (France, Spain) can speak of refued or a stately monarchical reaction, by accumulating privileges and wealth the aristocrats, which increaseIn number, they increase their land possession and, therefore, reinforce their power. In these countries the state of state that has been called absolute monarchy has been consolidated, with a progressive centralization of power in the hands of the king and his close courtiers. However, in other places like Holland or England it is the bourgeoisie that grows in importance. There, consequently, new forms of political organization appear in which Parliament begins to fulfill the important function of controlling the royal power.
These processes are produced everywhere with sometimes very serious conflicts, not only between nobility and bourgeoisie, but also between aristocrat factions, between them and the monarch or, of course, between the powerful and the various groups of disinherited. Particularly striking are the peasant revolts that extend through Europe during the central years of the century, when the crisis is more acute and the most difficult living conditions. To all this we must still add religious antagonisms inherited from the XVI, which cause disturbances and wars of notable importance: English Puritans, French Hugonotes, etc.
Religious differences are precisely at the origin of the Thirty Year War, which, arising in the lands of the Germanic Empire, ends up involving in it the main European powers (Spain, France, Sweden …). Although, given the long duration of the conflict, alliances between countries are very variable for tactical reasons, there is a basic confrontation between the supporters of the Protestant reform and the Catholics, Adalides of the Counterreforma. In general, northern countries are more prone to the Protestant spirit, while those in southern Europe are the defenders of Catholicism and Papacy. After this long war, the most powerful territorial states (Spain and the Germanic empire) lose weight and influence, while France becomes the most important power, and England and Holland state like the most future countries.
The old medieval idea of Christianity, which had given some unity to European nations and had broken in the 16th century by the Protestant reform, sees the concept of Europe, which extends from the north of the continent, at the same time at the same time, at the same time, at the same time, at the same time at the same timeThat the national states that will be characteristic of the contemporary era are configured, increasingly. The idea of nation and the awareness of belonging to it is, therefore, as the substitute for the now fragmented and decadent conception of belonging to a religious community. The nations will since then the place where the new capitalist economic system and the space in which new feelings and group relationships are consolidated is developed.
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