The Struggle for Mastery of Europe - Case Study Example

alee Full s the Paper is due] The Struggle for Mastery of Europe: 1494-1559 Between the years 1494 and 1559, a series of conflicts rose in Europe, specifically in most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, most of the major states of Western Europe, which includes France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and Scotland, as well as the Ottoman Empire. The wars simply originated from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. Eventually, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power, as well as territory among the various accomplices, and were denoted with an increasing degree of alliances, counter-alliances, and regular betrayals. The first Italian War, 1494-98, was caused by Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice. He found an ally, Charles VIII of France, and convinced him to invade Italy. In 1494, Ferdinand I of Naples died, and thus Charles VIII invaded Italy, starting at the peninsula with 25,000 men. From there onwards the French took Italy unopposed -- until their taking of Naples, which provoked a reaction, and thus the League of Venice was formed against them, cutting off Charles’ army from France. In the Battle of Fornovo, Charles was forced to withdraw back to France, and Ludovico, having betrayed France in Fornovo, retained his throne, only until 1499, when Louis XII of France (Charles’ successor) invaded Lombardy, and seized Milan. By 1500, just a year after, Louis XIII of France and Ferdinand I of Spain agreed to become abettors, and thus, started marching south from Milan. By 1502, French and Spanish forces had seized control of the kingdom. However, disagreements arose about the terms of partition, and this led to a war between Louis and Ferdinand. By 1503, Louis having been defeated at the Battle of Cerignola, and Battle of Garigliano, was forced to withdraw from Naples, and is now left under the control of the Spanish viceroy, General Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba. Meanwhile, Pope Julius II, being concerned with expanding the territory of the Republic of Venice, that the League of Cambrai was formed in 1508. This was the agreement of France, the Papacy, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to restrain the Venetians. By 1509, the League destroyed most of the Venetian Army, but if failed to capture Padua. The Pope, now seeing France as a greater threat, left the League and joined arms with Venice. For the following year, the Veneto-Papal alliance was repeatedly defeated, so the Pope proclaimed a Holy League against the French, which rapidly grew to include England, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. The French, having their leader Gaston de Foix killed in 1512, was forced to withdraw from Italy by the Swiss who invaded Milan, and reinstated Maximilian Sforza to the ducal throne. The Holy League was powerful, yet only until the death of Julius, who, when he died, left the league with no effective leadership. Then Charles I of Spain was elevated to Holy Roman Emperor, causing a fit with Francis I (Louis’ successor), who wanted that position. For many more years, this same pattern repeated in the different territories involved, and the different political leaders as well as the Papal authority. And finally, in 1559, when the wars ended, Habsburg, Spain had been established as the premier power to Europe, to the detriment of France. Thus, we now have the rise of the Spanish Empire. The Rise and Decline of the Spanish Empire: 1492-1643 The marriage of the Reyes Catolicos – Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, created a confederation of reigns, each having their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. As Henry Kamen stated, Spain was created by the Empire, rather than the Empire created by Spain. It is during the reign of Charles, grandson of the Reyes Catolicos, wherein Spain rose to become the superpower of Europe. This was in the 16th and 17th century, a time referred to as “The Golden Age of Spain”. Due to the marriage politics of the Reyes Catolicos, Charles inherited the Castilian Empire in America, the Aragonese Empire in the Mediterranean – which includes a large portion of modern Italy, also the crown to the Holy Roman Empire and of the Low Countries, and Franche-Comté. With an Empire acquired through inheritance, rather than conquest, as well as his defeating of the Castilian rebels, this made Charles the most powerful man in Europe. Thus, this was referred to as “the empire on which the sun never sets”. During this time, Spain’s source of wealth came from the large scale extractions of silver, taken from the rich deposits of Mexico’s Guanajuato, Mexico’s Zacatecas, and Peru’s Potosí. During the sixteenth century, Spain held the equivalent of U.S. $1.5 trillion, in gold and silver received from these places, otherwise known as the New Spain. The Spanish Empire soon expanded as they conquered the Philippines, through the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who died by the hands of Lapu-Lapu, a native leader of the Philippine lands. This expedition was successfully completed by his second in command. The Spanish Empire grew, having more colonies by circumnavigating the globe. During this time, stories of cities of gold spread – referring to El Dorado in South America, and Quivira and Cibola in North America, having more expeditions sent for this, but returning with nothing, or much less than expected. In 1522-1554, Spain passed on some new laws to protect its indigenous people. However, taking advantage of their remoteness, the colonists revolted upon seeing that their power was reduced. Later, weaker laws were passed, but their effectiveness was seen to be minimal. In 1556, Charles’ only legitimate son, Philip II of Spain, parted the Austrian possessions with his uncle, Ferdinand. Soon, he married Mary Tudor of England, thus Spain was allied to England. The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, signed in 1559, permanently recognized Spanish claims in Italy. This was between Spain and France. In 1565, Florida was colonized by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés when he founded Saint Augustine and then promptly defeated an attempt led by the French Captain Jean Ribault to establish a French foothold in Spanish Florida territory. Saint Augustine quickly became a strategic defensive base for the Spanish ships full of gold and silver being sent to Spain from its New World dominions. On April 27, of 1565, the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was founded by Miguel López de Legazpi and the service of Manila Galleons was inaugurated. In 1572, the Spanish trading post of Manila was established to facilitate this trade. The Philippines together with the Pacific islands of Guam, the Mariana Islands, and the Caroline Islands stayed under Spanish control until 1898. Soon, a series of European conflicts arose, that in 1643, in the Battle of Rocroi, Spain’s Empire came to an end, as it was defeated by the French, and they were forced to surrender with honorable terms. The reputation of the Spanish Army was broken, and together with it, the Spanish Empire. The Emergence of the English Colonialism: 1600-1700 England began exploration during the same period as the Dutch. In the year 1600, England granted charter to the East India Company, to establish overseas commerce and trade interests. The English government granted the company a monopoly of English trade with the “East Indies,” which the company eventually stretched to include the productive opium trade in China. Similar companies were established for the trade with Africa, Virginia, and other places in the Americas. English colonization in the Americas, however, remained almost unknown in the 16th century because England was still at war with Spain. The first English colony in North America was established on Roanoke Island, just off the North American coast. This colony failed and the English did not attempt further exploration and colonization in the Americas until 1604 -- after the time they made peace with Spain. During the 17th century, the English established colonies in the Caribbean and North America that became the foundations of the British Empire. In the West Indies, the English established sugar plantations, and in 1655 they conquered the Spanish colony of Jamaica, the first English colony to be taken by force. The English established a string of colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America. British colonial development in the New World was focused both on the Caribbean and the North American mainland. The English government was not interested in direct management of the colonies was matched by the liking of the settlers in the thirteen colonies for self-government, as well as the aversion for central authority had played an important role in their decision to emigrate. The economic life of the colonies was differentiated early, with plantations in the south, which grew cereals, cotton, and, later on, tobacco, and a more varied economy in the north, characterized in New England by fishing, commercial shipping, and timber. In the eighteenth century, a large number of immigrants, primarily from Germany and soon after, from Ireland, were attracted by the prosperity of the British colonies, only to submit to the lure of the frontier once they had arrived. The British had a colonial chance in Asia since the formation in of the East India Company in the year 1600, a trading organization on which business grew with stability and was steady at the expense of the Portuguese. By the eighteenth century, the company even had its own army; its greedy rule in Bengal stimulated Parliament to appoint a governor general in 1773. Over the next five hundred years, the British steadily occupied the whole of India, but the company continued in an administrative capacity until it was finally dissolved in 1858. Read More