2The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659 By the
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
For about a century and a half after 1500, a continent-wide combination of kingdoms, duchies, and provinces ruled by the Spanish and Austrian members of the Habsburg family threatened to become the predominant political and religious influence in Europe. The story of this prolonged struggle and of the ultimate defeat of these Habsburg ambitions by a coalition of other European states forms the core of this chapter. By 1659, when Spain finally acknowledged defeat in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, the political plurality of Europe—containing five or six major states, and various smaller ones—was an indisputable fact.
chapter: Chapter 2 . The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659