The Hapsburg-Valois Rivalry (the rivalry between the rulers of Spanish Empire and The holy Roman Empire and the rulers of Valois dynasty in France)

1476, Maximilian of Austria, the Holy Roman Emperor, married Mary of Burgundy

1495, Johanna (Spanish) and Philip (Hapsburg) married.

In Thirty Years War (1618-1648), French, although believed in Catholic, lent support to Protestants enemies in North Germany of Catholic Austria, with the aim to weaken the Hapsburg Empire.

And French also assisted the Dutch Protestant or Calvinist against the Catholic Spanish Netherlands.

Spanish put together a naval force to fight and defeat the turks in Lepanto in 1571.

The Invisible Armada of Spain

The fight between Spanish and English navy

An Escalation of colonial rivalries

Main players between the middle of the 16th and the end of 17th Century

The scientific Revolution

Astronomy

Nicholas Copernicus 1473-1543

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies (1543)

Heliocentric Theory: The idea that the earth and all the planets revolve around the sun

1576, the king of Denmark financed the construction of an observatory for Tycho Brahe (1546-1601).

Johannes Kepler 1571-1630

Galileo Galilei 1564-1642

The Urbanization

The urban industrialization

The French and American Revolution

Thomas Hobbes

the liberal tradition

agricultural Revolution

European expansion