Spain’s Empire and European Absolutism
The Habsburgs ruled a great deal of Europe.
 The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was
continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between
1438 and 1740. The house also produced
emperors and kings of the:
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› Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of
Germany, Kingdom of Hungary, Kingdom of
Croatia, Kingdom of Ireland, Kingdom of Portugal,
and Habsburg Spain, as well as rulers of several
Dutch and Italian principalities.

Following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555,
King Charles abdicated his throne and split
up his kingdom before retiring to a
monastery.
› Ferdinand received HRE and Austria
› Philip inherited Spain, Spanish Netherlands, and
the American colonies (Florida and Mississippi…)
Each region could choose their own religion.
 In 1580, Philip takes over Portugal and its
territories in Africa and India
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His empire provided him
with great wealth
including gold from
America.
Devout Catholic
Saw himself as defender
of faith against Ottoman
Muslims and European
Protestants
Sent his Armada against
England and lost.
In addition to building palaces and
supporting the navy, the great wealth of
Philip and other nobles was the basis of
patronage of the arts in Spain.
 Two great Spanish painters:

› El Greco
› Diego Velazquez

Emphasis on faith and Spanish culture

Don Quixote: Published in 1605, it is often
called the beginning of the modern European
novel. Written by Miguel Cervantes, it is
about a poor Spanish nobleman who
becomes a little crazy after reading about
heroic knights.
Don Quixote by Pablo Picasso

The influx of gold and silver from America
caused severe inflation in Spain.
› Population growth and rising costs of goods
Spain had removed most of the Jews and
Muslims from the country leaving it without
good businessmen and artisans
 Spain’s nobles did not have to pay taxes.
 Burden on poor, limited growth and no
middle class.

Because of outdated guilds and poor
economic structure many goods were bought
from the French and English (Spain’s
enemies).
 Spain had to borrow from Italian and
German bankers
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› Spain declared bankruptcy 3x
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Philip needed to maintain an army to keep
control .
› The Dutch had little in common with Spanish rulers.
 Spain= Catholic, poor
 Dutch= Calvinist, strong middle class
Dutch rebel against Catholic churches, Spain
responds with raids – 1500 killed in one day.
 Dutch split between 7 northern provinces that
were Protestant and 10 southern that were
Catholic – present day Belgium

Religious toleration practiced.
 Republic not a kingdom

› Elected governors fro each province
This peace and stability allowed Dutch to
concentrate on trade and economic growth.
 The Dutch will grow to have the largest
merchant fleet in the world:

› 4500 ships in 1600’s

Dutch will replace Italians as bankers of Europe
The Netherlands will match in 1600s what
Florence was in 1400s
 Wealthy merchants will become the patrons
of the Dutch art world.
 Rembrandt van Rijn
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› Paints portraits of wealthy middle-class
merchants
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Jan Vermeer
› Chooses domestic, indoor settings
Those who wanted to be Absolute Monarchs
believed that all power within their state’s
borders rested in their hands.
 They believed in the theory of DIVINE
RIGHT – the idea that God created the
monarchy and the monarch acted as God’s
representative on earth.

› An Absolute monarch answered only to God not
his or her subjects.
Monarchs grew increasingly powerful after the
Middle Ages and as feudalism declined and
cities rose this helped with the centralization of
power.
 The continuous warfare and upheaval of the
17th century led to growth of militaries and an
increased tax burden on the people.
 Peasant revolts led to harsh penalties and more
control by the monarchs.
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› Their goal was to free themselves from limitations of
nobility. The goal was absolute power…