The European scene (1485-1688)

Discoveries and explorations

-1492 discovery of America by Christopher Columbus

-explorations of new country by Magellan, Cortez, Pizarro led to the colonization→ discovery gave states new vantage point of dominating

National states and the Church

-corruption of the Church

-religious protest called Reformation

-Martin Luther against the roman Church

-the church organized a counter-reformation

The Tudors (1485-1603)

-Henry VII→ provided the financial and governmental stability

-Henry VIII → title of Defensor Fidei ;severed the England and the Rome Church, he declared the king the head of the Church in England

-Henry VIII's successors→ Edward VI and Mary Tudor are not so memorable except for the epithet bloody given to Mary

-Elizabeth I→ reestablished Protestantism in the form of Anglicanism; started a policy of colonization; colonized  of Ireland; she died a "Virgin queen" because she didn't marry

The Stuart (1603-1688)

-James Stuart→ tried to rule without the help of Parliament; unified England and Scotland

-Charles I→ ruled the country as an absolute monarch causing great hostility in Parliament

   →1625: taxation without parliamentary consent → 1649: execution of Charles I

-Cromwell → created a republic under the name of Commonwealth

-Charles II→ reestablished the supremacy of the Anglican Church

-James II→ was Catholic; imposed the Catholic religion on a nation that was Protestant