A fuller discussion of that specific Habsburg attempt
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
After all, would not the forces possessed by the new monarchies in 1500 have seemed puny if they had been deployed against the enormous armies of the sultan and the massed troops of the Ming Empire? This was true in the early sixteenth century and, in some respects, even in the seventeenth century; but by the latter period the balance of military strength was tilting rapidly in favor of the West. For the explanation of this shift one must again point to the decentralization of power in Europe.
chapter: The “European Miracle”