Western Civilization



Abstract

This paper focuses on how the European states struggled to find ways to make their governments strong enough to maintain their political and military power between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the beginning of the nineteen century. Furthermore, Spain, Prussia and Poland countries have been taken into account for the comparison between the countries and to see how these countries strengthen or weaken their National Governments and ultimately which country was the most successful in becoming a strong international power.

Western Civilization

Introduction

For anyone living in the Western world, Europe is so much more than just a varied mix of travel destinations, an inspiring example of different cultures living side by side, and a set of historical events that forever altered the history of Western civilization. Europe is, in fact, as much an idea as it is a place. Although history may well be made up of events taking place over time, the true meaning of history can never be discerned through a linear recitation of those events. That's because history is a mosaic—and to grasp that mosaic's meaning is to learn to see history in its entirety; to understand the ways in which ideas, institutions, and social forces have interacted to paint each tile, set it among the others, and, when necessary, shatter them into fragments to replace them with others.

Discussion

Centralization of power increased in the end of the Thirty Years war. New governmental organization and new taxations had arisen - to include subsides to specific industries. In Europe, a new absolutism was spreading. With supplies and recruitment for the military, a new war council had been created and government organization increased.

Spain

The Thirty Year war was a testing ground for economic structures which might have survived reasonably intact the strains or small, short wars but were exposed in their inherent fragility by the forty-five years of total war which began when the council decided to attach the Dutch and Spain was 'drawn into the policy of violence, prestige and energy from which there was to be no honorable retreat'. Unsound finance became more damaging as Europe entered what was to prove a long recession in economic activity. Spain was the worst hit of any country and, within Spain; Castile experienced the steepest decline in national productivity and income, the sharpest fall in population and the most damaging fluctuations of currency values. There is no lack of statistics to give an impression of scientific validity to any interpretation of Spain's decline in economic terms, but they should be treated with caution. Castile was the major part of Spain. It was the rapid deterioration within Castile that led Castilians to demand help from the other provinces. It is unlikely that its decline would have been arrested even of that help had been forthcoming.

Poland is an extreme case of a country in which the nobility remained dominant, socially and politically. Spain was another. Here there were extremes of wealth and poverty that find no parallel until we reach the ...