The major powers

351	Introduction to Seventeenth Century European History

(a) Spanish decline, French advance

	In 1600, France and Spain were the two most powerful states in Europe. These rivals had spent much of the 16th Century at war with one another. The deep religious divisions in France between Protestants (Huguenots) and Catholics almost allowed Spain to conquer France.
	However, France staved off the threat and under Henry IV began to rebuild, while Spain entered a long period of economic and cultural decline.
	By the later 17th Century, Spain was clearly weaker than her neighbors, while France was the superpower of Europe.

(b) Hapsburg ambitions thwarted

	During the 17th Century the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperors attempted to assert greater control over the patchwork of quasi-independent states in Germany and Central Europe.
	During the Thirty Years War, the Hapsburgs were fought to a standstill.
	However, the Hapsburgs did reform their rule and in the later seventeenth century extended it southward regaining much of the land in Hungary and the Balkans that the Ottoman Turks had conquered in the early 16th Century.

	Both dynastic and religious reasons led Sweden to support the Protestants in the Thirty Years War.
	Under Gustavus Adolphus and Christina, Sweden became a major European power, with a large navy and an efficient, highly-trained army.
	Sweden was a powerful presence in the Baltic sea, repeatedly defeated Denmark and controlled much territory on the southern shores of the Baltic.
	Swedish power declined in the early 18th century, after defeat in wars fought simultaneously with Russia, Prussia, Poland and Denmark.

Weak and divided at the opening of the 17th Century, Russia grew more stable after the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in 1613.

Russia obtained much of the Ukraine from Poland by 1667.

During the later 17th and early 18th Century, Russia expanded south and east into Ottoman lands, and took Swedish territory on the Baltic coast.

Peter the Great (d. 1725) began the painful process of modernizing and westernizing Russian society.

(e) Brandenburg-Prussia

	Brandenburg Prussia was ruled by the house of Hohenzollern. Throughout the 17th Century, it increased its territory, taking Cleves in 1614, and East Pomerania in 1648.
	By a combination of moderation and toleration in religious matters with rigid discipline in military ones, the Dukes built a powerful modern state on the basis of fragmented territories.
	To establish sovereignty and gain territory, the Elector Frederick William did not simply rely on military force, but indulged in diplomatic maneuvering of considerable complexity, entering and abandoning treaties with every major power.

	The Dutch had revolted against the Spanish Crown in 1568 and proclaimed their independence in 1581. However, it was not until the Twelve Years Truce of 1609 that war with Spanish forces ceased (temporarily), and not until 1648 that Spain finally acknowledged Dutch independence.
	Small in territory, the United Provinces grew extremely wealthy on the profits from shipping, fishing, extensive trade and efficient agriculture.
	The Dutch fought wars against England (their trading and shipping rivals), in the 1650s, 1660s and 1670s. But the threat from Louis XIV's expansionist policies led them to fight with the British (now ruled by William of Orange) against the French from 1689 until the end of the century and beyond.

	England and Scotland were both ruled by the Stuarts after 1603, but the two countries remained formally independent.
	Like the United Provinces, England was a trading and seafaring power of major importance. England's wealth and power continued to grow throughout the century, despite domestic upheaval.
	Religious, ideological and political divisions erupted into Civil War in 1642, and England was briefly a republic from 1649 to 1660.
	The monarchy was restored in 1660, but many of the underlying constitutional problems remained unresolved. In 1688 the massively unpopular, and Roman Catholic, James II was deposed and replaced by his daughter, Mary II and her husband William of Orange.
	William brought England into the war against Louis XIV (who sheltered the deposed James and his son, and supported the rebellion of Catholic Ireland against its hated English rulers).