1556-1648


 * 1556-1648 (The Peace of Westphalia)**

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Thirty Years War and The Peace of Westphalia
During the Thirty Years War there were **popular revolts** due to massive inflation. During this time places like France and Spain faced problems with **Absolutism.** In France, Louis XIV ruled his people harshly. He got rid of the **Edict of Nantes** causing religious tension between Hugenots and Catholics because of his want of Catholic unity. He wanted a Catholic nation because he wanted to use it as a tool to unite his people. He also used spying and terror causing more unpopulaity. His finacial advisor, **Jean- Baptiste Colbert,** would use **Mercantilism** to help the state gain money for war to expand. In Spain, they faced economic hardship due to getting rid of the middle class with the in reconquista. This them to declare bankruptcy several times. Because of their economic decline, nations such as Portugal and Catalonia gained independance. Once the last Habsburg died, they created the **Peace of Utrecht** ensuring that the French and Spanish empires would never be one, ensuring the balance of power.
 * ======**Poplar Revolts**======
 * ======**Absolutism**======
 * ======**Edict of Nantes[[image:http://www.deepsea.se/images/dutch-colonial-network.jpg align="right" caption="The Trade Route of The Dutch Republic"]]**======
 * ======**Peace of Utrecht**======
 * ======**Constitutional Monarchies**======
 * ======**States General**======
 * ======**stadholders**======
 * ======**Dutch East India Company**======
 * ======**The War of Spanish Succession**======
 * ======**Jean-Baptiste Colbert**======
 * ======**Mercantilism**======

Places like England and the Dutch Repulbic set up **Constitutional Monarchies.** The Dutch gained their indepencence from Spain in the Peace of Westphalia. They used the **States General** to ensure more peoples rights using **stadholders** as representitives. This goes along with their middle class values including religious toleration of all. This was similiar to the polotique method of as long as religion is done in private, there is religious toleration. Because of the religious toleration many people imigrated to the Dutch Republic. They had a very prosperous fishing industry allowing them to become world powers. They expaned their empire with the **Dutch East India Company** making them more prosperous and showing their power. They also gained territory in Africa called Cape Town. Due to their fighing with France and England in **The War of Spanish Succession,** they suffered from loss of labor and finacial resources causing their economic downfall.

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=Scientific Thinkers:=

These five scientific thinkers paved the way for the enlightenment. =Mopping Up!=
 * ===Copernicus===
 * ===Newton===
 * ===Galileo===
 * ===Descartes===
 * ===Bacon===
 * Copernicus: He was a Polish clergyman and an astronomer. He theorized that the stars and planets revolved around a fixed sun. This was the **Copernican hypothesis**. This destroyed the ideas of the Aristotelian view and altogether questioned Christianity
 * Galileo: He examined motion and mechanics in a different way. His greatest achievement was the consolidation of the **experimental method**. This created controlled experiments to see what would actually happen rather than just guess. He was tried for heresy and forced to take back his views.
 * Newton: He used other scientific thinkers to write the book //Principia. He// formulated mathematical laws to explain motion and mechanics. His main achievement was the **law of universal gravitation**. This stated that everything in the universe could be explained through mathematics.
 * Descartes: His greatest achievement was to develop his vision into philosophy of knowledge and science. He reasoned that everything can be reduced into matter and mind and that is also physical and spiritual. This became known as the **Cartesian dualism**.
 * Bacon: He was an English politician and writer. He rejected the Aristotelian and medieval methods of just spectating reason to build theories. Instead, he believed that knowledge had to be pursued through empirical experimental research. He created the idea of **empiricism**.

A new paradigm started to begin during the scientific revolution. Thinkers began to take old ideas and fix them up into new ones. For example, people believed that the center of the universe was the earth but the scientific thinkers mopped that idea up and informed the population that the universe revolves around the sun. They also mopped up the ideas of Good vs. Evil, God is love, soul is eternal and others. But, not all of the old Aristotelian ideas were able to be mopped up by the thinkers. Also, some of the old ideas fit into the new paradigm like the idea of universal truth exists, god exists, women serve men and man is at the center of the universe.