The 17th century saw the rise of absolute monarchy in Europe and the decline of the Spanish Empire. Society was still divided into estates, while economies focused on agriculture and new manufacturing and trading companies. The Thirty Years' War devastated the Holy Roman Empire and marked the end of Spanish dominance. New monarchies like France grew powerful under absolute rulers like Louis XIV. The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution established constitutional monarchy and parliament in England. Culturally, the era saw the scientific revolution led by figures like Galileo, Descartes, and the founding of scientific organizations. The Spanish Empire went into decline due to overextension, economic problems, and the effects of the Habsburg dynasty.

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. Mercantilists thought that the governors had to protect national
production by taxing imported products, encourage exports in order to
increase the amount of precious metals. The more precious metals a
country could accumulate, the wealthier the country would be. This is why
European rulers supported and protected trading companies
MERCANTILISM

10. THE THIRTY YEARS´ WAR (1618-1648)
Confrontation between the Protestant
kingdoms of Northern Europe and the
Catholic kingdoms of Southern
Europe , although as time went by it
became a more general conflict for
the supremacy in Europe
- It started in the Habsburg Empire.
The Protestants got the support of
Denmark and Sweden.
- France, a Catholic kingdom, fought
for the Protestants to defy the
Habsburg´s hegemony.
-The main battles took place in the
Habsburg Empire.

11. MAIN BATTLES
Won by the Habsburgs:
- White Mountain (1620)
- Breda (1625)
- Nördlingen (1634)
Won by the Protestants
and allies:
- Rocroi (1643)
- Jankau (1645)

12. Percentage of population loss in the empire during
the Thirty Years´War
The death toll was
very high in the Holy
Roman Empire:
around 3.5-4.5
million people died,
most of them
civilians.

13. PEACE OF WESTPHALIA (1648)
-End of religion wars in Europe.
-The Emperor had to recognize the
sovereignty of the German States and
accept limits to his power.
-Independence of the Northern 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

14. 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

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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 revolted and a civil war
started in 1642. In 1649 Charles I was
decapitated and the Republic was
proclaimed.

19. OLIVER CROMWELL
He was the strongest man of the
English Republic between 1649
and 1658.. In 1653 he was
appointed Lord Protector and
acted as a dictator. After his
death, monarchy was restored
with Charles II in 1660.

20. 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.

21. JAMES II (1685-1688)
He reigned only for three years. His
religious policy confronted him with the
Parliament. A new revolution against
absolutism started (Glorious
Revolution).
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.

22. WILLIAM III 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.

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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 became
aware of the importance of
scientific knowledge and they
founded academies, as the
Royal Academies of Science,
Art and Language in France
or the Royal Society in Great
Britain.

26. THE DECLINE OF THE HISPANIC EMPIRE

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

28. - 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

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

30. 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

31. 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, fought until
1652. The conflict ended with the Peace of the
Pyrenees (1659): Aragon lost the territories of
Roussillon and Cerdagne.
- Portugal: the conflict ended with the Treaty of
Lisbon and the definitive independence of
Portugal (1668).
Count Duke of Olivares
Reapers´ War in Catalonia

32. INBREEDING IN THE HOUSE OF HABSBURG

33. 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

34. 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.

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

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