Absolute Monarchies in Europe Chapter 21. Big Idea During a time of religious and economic instability, Philip II ruled Spain with a strong hand and establishing.

Absolute Monarchies in EuropeChapter 21

Big Idea

• During a time of religious and economic instability, Philip II ruled Spain with a strong hand and establishing tradition of ruling as an absolute monarch with a divine right to rule.

Charles V• A king from the Hapsburg

family of Austria

• ruled a huge amount of land in Europe and the Americas:• Spain and their Colonial

Empire• Parts of Italy• Lands in Austria• And the Netherlands

• elected Holy Roman Emperor and ran most of Germany

Charles V … Retires?• After agreeing to the Peace

of Augsburg, which stopped the 30 years war, he retired

• Splits lands:

• brother Ferdinand: gave Austria and the Holy Roman Empire

• son, Philip II: he gave Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italian lands, and the Spanish American Colonies.

Philip II’s European Empire

Philip Seizes Portugal• Philip was religious and

very aggressive to add more land to his Empire

• 1580-king of Portugal dies

• Philip was the king’s nephew & he seizes the Portuguese throne, land, and colonial empire.

Philip’s Empire Brings Gold• Philip ‘s Empire brought him incredible wealth:

• By 1600- Spanish mines in New World supplied Spain with 339,000 pounds of Gold

• 1550-1650- Spanish mined 16,000 tons of silver

• The “Royal Share” of each shipload was 1/4th to 1/5th

Philip as the Defender of Catholicism

• Philip refused to let Protestantism into his empire

• Fights a war against the Ottoman Empire for the Pope

• launched the Spanish Armada against Elizabeth I of England

“Golden Age” of Spain

• Even though Philip was busy fighting wars in Europe, Spain enjoyed a Golden Age in Art and Literature as well…

• Artists such as El Greco and Velazquez painted fantastic portraits and scenes in brilliant colors with lifelike features

• The literary masterpiece of “Don Quixote” was written by Miguel de Cervantes was written in this era as well

El Greco• El Greco was born in Crete, but lived in Spain for much of his

adult life, specifically in Toledo, Spain

Diego Velazquez

• Velazquez was the official court painter of the royal family, but often painted his self portrait and scenes of everyday life as well.

Miguel de Cervantes • Cervantes wrote Don

Quixote de la Mancha

• A book about a poor noble who goes crazy after reading too many books on historic knights

• Some critics think Cervantes was making fun of chivalry, others say Don Quixote is about frustration in a materialistic world.

The Spanish Empire Weakens • Too much gold meant Spain endured

severe inflation

• Inflation is when the value of money declines while the price of goods and services rises

• caused by two reasons: gold and silver’s value was low and merchants raises prices

Other reasons for Spain’s decline:Guilds still ran Spain’s craft industrySpanish Merchants traded with French, English, and Dutch craftsmen rather then Spain’sSpanish nobles did not have to pay taxesA Spanish middle class never develops Spanish kings borrowed money from German and Italian banks to fight wars, where even Philip II had to declare Spain was “bankrupt” 3 times!

Dutch Art• The Netherlands become the 1600’s version of Florence during

the Renaissance.

• Artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Jan Vermeer painted subjects from kings to every day people using:

• Brilliant colors• Techniques• And the use of light and dark shadowing.

Dutch Trading Empire• The stability of the government of the Netherlands meant the

Dutch people could focus on economic growth

• For example: the Dutch found ways to make incredible profits on even farm goods items such as grain and tulip bulbs.

• The Dutch build the largest fleet of ships in the world, 4,800 ships by 1636.

• These ships helped the Dutch East India Company dominate the spice trade, and thus replacing Italians as the bankers of Europe.

Absolutism in Europe• All European kings and queens of this era strived to be

Absolute Monarchs.

• Absolute Monarchs were kings and queens who held ALL, or absolute, power within their states’ boundaries

• Absolute monarchs also believed in Divine Right- the idea that God created the monarchy and that the monarch was God’s representative on earth.

Growing Power of European Monarchs• The power Monarchs of Europe grew in this for the following

reasons:

• The decline of Feudalism and growth of cities

• The growing middle class supported monarchs because they promised peace which was helpful for business

• The wealth of the colonies paid for monarchs’ ambitions

• Church authority broke down because of the Reformation

• Crises in Europe…

Crises Leads to Absolutism• The 1600’s was a period of great upheaval • Continuous warfare over land and territory in Europe• Needed more armies, more Armies meant more taxes • These taxes meant unrest and even, sometimes, revolt! • Some monarchs regulated religious worship and social gatherings • Some created new government agencies to control the economy• Most wanted to gain more power away from their people’s

government such as parliament• All of these monarchs strived to live like Louis XIV of France