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Main article: Early Modern Europe
The Reformation had profound effects on the unity of Europe. Not only were nations divided one from another by their religious orientation, but some states were torn apart internally by religious strife, avidly fostered by their external enemies. France suffered this fate in the 16th century in the series of conflicts known as the French Wars of Religion, which ended in the triumph of the Bourbon Dynasty. England avoided this fate for a while and settled down under Elizabeth to a moderate Anglicanism. Germany, divided into numerous small states under the theoretical framework of the Holy Roman Empire, was also divided along internally drawn sectarian lines, until the Thirty Years' War seemed to see religion replaced by nationalism as the motor of European conflict.
Throughout the early part of this period, capitalism was replacing feudalism as the principal form of economic organisation, at least in the western half of Europe. The expanding colonial frontiers resulted in a Commercial Revolution. The period is noted for the rise of modern science and the application of its findings to technological improvements, which culminated in the Industrial Revolution. New forms of trade and expanding horizons made new developments in international law necessary.
After the Treaty of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War, Absolutism became the norm of the continent, while parts of Europe experimented with constitutions foreshadowed by the English Civil War and particularly the Glorious Revolution. European military conflict did not cease, but had less disruptive effects on the lives of Europeans. In the advanced north-west, the Enlightenment gave a philosophical underpinning to the new outlook, and the continued spread of literacy, made possible by the printing press, created new secular forces in thought.
Eastern Europe was an arena of conflict for domination between Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. This period saw a gradual decline of these three powers which were eventually replaced by new enlightened absolutist monarchies, Russia, Prussia and Austria. By the turn of the 19th century they became new powers, having divided Poland between them, with Sweden and Turkey having experienced substantial territorial losses to Russia and Austria respectively. Numerous Polish Jews emigrated to Western Europe, founding Jewish communities in places where they had been expelled from during the Middle Ages.Main article: English Civil War
The English Civil War was a battle between King Charles I and Parliament. Under Elizabeth I and James I England had become a relatively prosperous state. However, the acession of Charles I would see great changes.
The first and foremost cause of the English Civil War was religion. Elizabeth had established the Anglican Church in 1559 and had deliberately avoided controversial issues, such as Catholic-style relics in churches and ceremonial vestments in order to keep the peace. James had allowed the Elizabethan Church to continue. However, when Charles became King in 1625 he allowed an Arminian style of Anglicanism, which seemed like a slide back toward Catholicism and popery. Charles' marriage to the French Catholic princess Henrietta Maria seemed to confirm this slide.
Charles could never seem to get along with Parliaments, and unproductive sessions in 1625, 1626, 1628 and 1629 resulted in Charles's closure of Parliament for 11 years — called by his opponents the 11 Years Tyranny. Neither King or Parliament could agree over his (really his favourite minister the 1st Duke of Buckingham's) very expensive wars against Spain and France. Therefore, as Charles relied on Parliament for money, he spent carefully and ruthlessly enforced prerogative taxation, the most contentious of which was Ship Money.
Buckingham was murdered in 1628 and Charles's new ministers were Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. Wentworth became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1633 to ensure the colony became more profitable. Laud however started the Bishops Wars when in 1637 he tried to introduce the English Prayer Book in Scotland, and so the Scots invaded England in 1640.
Charles was forced to call Parliament to raise money for an army. However Parliament wanted its grievances addressed and was furious at not being referred to for 11 years. The Petition of Right, pushed through Parliament by the main opposition leader, John Pym, forced Charles to agree that the English people had rights and liberties and that he had been undermining them. Strafford was executed on 12 May 1641, and Laud was to follow him to the scaffold in 1645. Charles attempted to arrest Pym and five other members in February 1642 after they attempted to impeach the Queen, claiming that Henrietta had been attempting to control Charles and impose a French style tyranny on them.
The King and his family left London in May 1642 and the Queen and her children sailed for France. The raising of the royal standard at Nottingham started war. Charles's side were called the Cavaliers; Parliament's side were the Roundheads. In spite of initial successes, Charles's defeat was assured by 1644, when Pym signed an agreement with the Scots. Charles was defeated and captured at Marston Moor in 1647, but he fled to the Isle of Wight and enlisted the help of the Scots, as Parliament had reneged on their agreement. However, his hopes came to naught when the Roundheads defeated them at Naseby.
Charles was brought to trial by a special court in 1649. Pym had since died and the new Parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell wanted Charles dead. He was executed in January 1649. Monarchy was formally abolished and Cromwell was in control, with the support of his New Model Army. The unsuccessful Interregnum would last from Charles's death to 1660, when it was found that the absence of a monarchy, even a figurehead one, could not work. This resulted in the return of the son of Charles I, as King Charles II of England.
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