The document summarizes key developments in Europe and colonial empires during the 17th century. It describes the rise of absolute monarchy and decline of the Spanish Empire. Absolute rulers consolidated power while societies remained divided between privileged and underprivileged estates. Population growth slowed due to wars, epidemics and famines. New trading routes and companies challenged Iberian control over colonial trade. The Thirty Years' War and English revolutions curtailed monarchical power. The Scientific Revolution advanced knowledge through empiricism and rationalism. The Spanish Empire lost territories and influence due to economic troubles and succession issues.

1. THE 17TH
CENTURY:
ABSOLUTE MONARCHY AND THE
DECLINE OF THE HISPANIC EMPIRE

2. DEMOGRAPHY: SLOW POPULATION GROWTH, DUE TO HIGH MORTALITY
RATES CAUSED BY WARS, EPIDEMICS AND FAMINES.
SOCIETY: STILL DIVIDED INTO ESTATES (PRIVILEGED AND UNDERPRIVILEGED)
INCREASING DISCONTENT OF THE BOURGEOIS (ECONOMIC POWER,
BUT NO POLITICAL POWER)
ECONOMY:
- AGRICULTURE CONTINUED TO BE THE PREDOMINANT ECONOMIC
ACTIVITY.
- SOME CHANGES IN PRODUCTION ( MANUFACTORIES) AND TRADE
(NEW ROUTES AND TRADING COMPANIES).

3. GOBELINS ROYAL MANUFACTORY, PARIS
MANUFACTORIES
Merchants concentrated tools and workers in big workshops. They provided
the raw materials and paid a salary to the workers. Finished products
belonged to the merchants, who could sell them directly in the market,
without intermediaries.
In some kingdoms the State created
royal manufactories to provide the
royal palaces with tapestry, crockery,
glassware and so on.

4. CASTILIAN AND PORTUGUESE TRADE ROUTES
The Castilians controlled the precious metals route to America
The Portuguese controlled the spice route to Asia.

5. COLONIAL EMPIRES . AMERICA IN THE 17TH
CENTURY
GALLEON
Heavier ships and with more
cargo capacity

6. TRADE ROUTES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
Other kingdoms
broke the Iberian
monopoly in colonial
trade. England and
Holland seized
several Portuguese
colonies in Asia (India
and Indonesia)

7. TRIANGULAR TRADE
It linked Europe, Africa and America.

8. EAST INDIA HOUSE IN LONDON
TRADING COMPANIES
SEAL OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY
LOGO OF THE HUDSON´S BAY
COMPANY
Companies dedicated to trade, whose
shareholders invested money in a commercial
business and received profits in proportion to
their investment. Trading companies got the
protection of the States they belonged to.

9. THE THIRTY YEARS´ WAR (1618-1648)
-Confrontation between the
Protestant kingdoms of Northern
Europe and the Catholic
kingdoms of Southern Europe.
- France fought for the
Protestants to defy the Habsburg
´s hegemony.
-The main battles took place in
the Habsburg Empire.

10. PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION LOSS IN THE EMPIRE DURING
THE THIRTY YEARS´WAR
Around 3.5-4.5
million people died,
most of them
civilians.

11. PEACE OF WESTPHALIA (1648)
-End of religious wars in Europe.
-Independence of the Low Countries
(United Provinces of the
Netherlands)
-End of the Hispanic hegemony in
Europe. France became
hegemonic.
-Consolidation of the State- nations
and Absolute Monarchy.
Signature of the Treaty of Münster

12. ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
Monarchs continued to reinforce their power
and some scholars justified ther power as
derived from God, in order to make it
untouchable.
-In theory the king concentrated all the
powers. His power was unquestionable,
because it was considered to be derived from
God.
-But in practice there were some institutions
that limited the king´s power to a certain
extent: councils, Parliaments… Kings tried to
avoid calling the Parliament.
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

13. Louis XIV of France was the perfect example of an absolute
monarch.

14. Louis XIV built the Versailles
Palace and organized parties
and meetings to entertain the
nobles and avoid revolts and
conspiracies against his power.
Versailles Palace is an example
of the king´s power.

15. THE ENGLISH REVOLUTIONS
In less than 50 years
there were two revolutions
in England during which a
king was beheaded and
the monarchs’ power was
finally reduced, giving birth
to Parliamentary
Monarchy.

16. CHARLES I OF ENGLAND (1600-1649)
He tried to rule as an absolute monarch,
without the control of the Parliament. He
arrested and executed those who opposed
him. The Parliament rebelled and a civil war
started. In 1649 Charles I was decapitated
and the Republic was proclaimed.

17. OLIVER CROMWELL
He was the strongest man of the
English Republic between 1649
and 1658. He acted as a dictator.
In 1658 he was appointed
Protector Lord. After his death,
monarchy was reestablished in
1660.

18. CHARLES II (1660-1685)
Charles II was Charles I´s son. He
had to accept the control of the
Parliament and the Habeas
Corpus, which prevented arbitrary
detentions and guaranteed
individual freedom. At his death
the Duke of York, his brother,
became the king. He reigned as
James II.

19. JAMES II (1685-1688)
He reigned only for three years. His
religious policy confronted him against
the Parliament. A new revolution
against absolutism started.
A group of nobles asked James II´s
son-in-law, the Dutch prince William of
Orange, to invade England. When
William of Orange invaded England
James II fled to France, where he was
hosted by Louis XIV.

20. WILLIAM OF ORANGE (1688-1702)
He accepted the proposition of
some English nobles to dethrone
James II and become the king of
England on the condition of limiting
his power. In 1689 he swore the
BILL OF THE RIGHTS, which
limited the king´s power and put
some decisions under the control of
the Parliament.
England was the first country to
have a limited monarchy, with
separation of the executive (king)
and the legislative (Parliament)
powers.

21. CULTURE: THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Science and thinking made big progress
with the development of Empiricism and
Rationalism. This is why the 17th
century
is known as the Scientific Revolution
century.
- Empiricism: method of knowledge
and research based on experience
(observing, formulating hypotheses,
proving them with experiments…). The
main representative of the empiricist
method was Galileo Galilei: he improved
the telescope (invented by Johannes
Kepler) and he defended the
heliocentric theory formulated by
Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th
century.
Galileo was condemned by the
Inquisition and was on the verge of
dying burnt at the stake for contradicting
the official Catholic dogma.
Galileo obliged to recant before the
Inquisition Court

22. Rationalism was started
by the French philosopher
René Descartes, who
defended the use of doubt
as a method to know the
world and he proposed the
mathematic language as a
model on which to base
knowledge. He exposed his
ideas on the Discourse on
the Method.

23. Royal Academy of Sciences, París
Royal Society, Londres
Academies continued to have an
important role in commissioning
scientific researches. In the 17th
century some kings were
conscious of the importance of
scientific knowledge and they
founded academies, as the Royal
Academies of Sciences, Art and
Language in France or the Royal
Society in Great Britain.

24. THE DECLINE OF THE HISPANIC EMPIRE

25. PHILIP III (1598-1621)
DUKE OF LERMA DUKE OF UCEDA
He left the government in the hands
of two favourites:

26. - TWELVE YEARS TRUCE (1609-1621): the Northern Provinces of the Low
Countries became practically independent
- EXPULSION OF THE MOORISH (1609): more than 300,000 people were
expelled (20% of the population of the kingdom of Aragón and 33% of the
kingdom of Valencia). This strongly affected the Crown of Aragón´s
economy.
-DEVALUATION OF CURRENCY: gold and silver coins were mixed with
copper.
Expulsion of the Moorish
at Denia port

27. PHILIP IV (1621-1665)
COUNT-DUKE OF OLIVARES

28. Thirty Years´ War (1618-1648)
The Hispanic Monarchy supported the Catholics. At the beginning the
Hispanic tercios conquered Breda (1634), but the intervention of France
changed the sign of war and the tercios were defeated in Rocroi (1643).
The Surrender of Breda
Velázquez
Rocroi
At the end of the war the United Provinces of the Netherlands became
independent and the Hispanic Monarchy lost the supremacy in Europe

29. Olivares´s project of the Union of Arms
provoked uprisings in different kingdoms in
1640. The most serious revolts took place in:
- Catalonia, supported by France. The
conflict ended with the Peace of the
Pyrenees (1659): Aragon lost the territories
of Roussillon and Perpignan.
- Portugal: the conflict ended with the
Treaty of Lisbon and the definitive
independence of Portugal (1668)
Count Duke of Olivares
Reapers´ war in Catalonia

30. INBREEDING IN THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG

31. CHARLES II (1665-1700)
Phisically and mentally disabled and constantly sick,
he was known as “the Hexed”.
Complicated situation and a powerful enemy: France
When he died without direct successors, a
succession war started, JUAN JOSÉ OF AUSTRIA
FERNANDO DE VALENZUELA

32. Beggars and rogues,
painted by Murillo
DEMOGRAPHY, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
-DEMOGRAPHY: population decreased due to bad harvests, wars, plagues,
migration to the Indies and the expulsion of the Moorish.
-ECONOMIC RECESSION: negative political decisions, inefficient farming techniques and
competition of cheaper and better quality foreign products
-SOCIETY: nobility
was the social model
and manual work was
considered to be
shameful and
dishonest. Many
people wanted to live
without working. The
economic recession
made the number of
beggars and rogues
bigger.

33. The Lazarillo de Tormes (anonymous writer) and The Swindler
(written by Quevedo) reflected the society of the 17th
century.

34. THE GOLDEN AGE OF LITERATURE
QUEVEDO CERVANTES LOPE DE VEGA GÓNGORA
CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA TIRSO DE MOLINA