2.+New+Monarchs+and+the+Rise+of+Nation+States

//Summary://
Renaissance political ideas inspired monarchs, who had previously been too weak to dominate the aristocracy and the Church, to enforce their power and start to build greater centralized authority. These “New Monarchs” were most successful in France, England, and Spain. Renaissance humanism also stimulated the impulse and curiosity for overseas exploration. “Gold, God and Glory” led Europeans to colonize in new ways that fostered economic development and Christianization. Monarchs began to create mercantilist economic systems through which they sought to increase their wealth and power by tightly regulating trade with the goal of maximizing exports and minimizing imports. Attaining overseas colonies was key.

As gold and silver infused the European economy, inflation benefited the middle class while hurting the poor and those on fixed incomes. In the sixteenth century Spain achieved a vast and powerful colonial empire in the Americas, but by the seventeenth century began to lose its dominance. At the same time France was on the rise as rulers tamed the chaos of religious wars and worked to steadily increase the power of the monarch. The most flourishing state of the seventeenth century was the Dutch Republic. Having successfully fought for independence from Spain at the beginning of the century, the republic was marked by religious tolerance and the most lucrative commercial, shipping and banking industries in Europe.

//Key Terms://
Vocabulary Words Unit 2

Questions to Guide your Reading
New Monarch and Witchcraft Reading 434-439 and 475-477

Causes of European Exploration 492-495

Columbian Exchange

Spain's Decline

Mercantilism

Text Reading on Mercantilism

Dutch and the Thirty Years' War

Special Resources
Philip II's Escorial [|Images of Escorial]

A social history image to analyze: **Pieter Bruegel's //Battle Between Carnival and Lent//**

(from Web Gallery of Art)