AD 1500-1650 Renaissance

Renaissance learning spread through Europe in the movement known as humanism. This merged with a desire for religious renewal instigated by dissatisfaction with the state of the contemporary Church. One of the early figures in this call for reform was Martin Luther (AD 1483-1564) in Germany, who emerged as leader of what became the Protestant Reformation. He came to reject the intermediary role of the Church hierarchy and emphasised individual faith and the words of the Bible. The Catholic Church responded with its own renewal, the Counter-Reformation, building on the work of the Council of Trent (1545-63).

This new religious division combined with political conflicts to inspire or encourage religious war. From the 1560s France experienced three decades of civil war between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) and the Dutch revolted against Catholic Spain. A Protestant revolt against the Habsburg ruler of Bohemia sparked off the ruinous Thirty Years War (1618-48), which came to involve most of Europe.

In the east the kingdom of Poland was challenged by the princes of Moscow, who took the title ‘tsar of Russia’ (emperor) and expanded their territories to include Ukraine in the 17th century. Under Suleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566) the Ottoman Empire reached its peak, dominating the Mediterranean and the Balkans and even besieging Vienna.