During The Period Between 1450

During the period between 1450-1750, Western Europe has gone through various religious upheavals and drastic changes. Some of these changes have led to conflict, often bloody, and subsequently shifts of power within the West. In contrast, some of these changes have also led to the technological advancement of the West and the eventual world dominance of Western Europeans in economics, politics, and innovation. These revolutionary changes and eras include the Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment. Even so, there are continuities in that time period, including the Western desire to discover, and the states that continued to be Catholic in the face of reformation and Protestantism. The year is 1450, and most of Western Europe is still largely Roman Catholic. The Spaniards are in the process of removing the Muslim Moors from Andalusia. In the late 1400s to early 1500s, the Italian Renaissance, or "Age of Rebirth" was spreading to Portugal and Spain, who began exploring and colonizing the Americas and Africa. Societies affected by the Renaissance placed a much smaller emphasis on religion in every day life and instead focused on individual success and discovery. A characteristic of the Renaissance was that the Catholic Church was beginning to decline. Criticism of the Catholic Church, also called heresy, was spreading through Western society. A major upheaval that would forever disrupt Catholic dominance in the West was about to occur. The Protestant Reformation began in 1517, initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Protestant reformers. Martin Luther opposed and challenged the corrupt ideals and practices of the Catholic Church, such as the selling of indulgences (forgiveness from sins) for money, the selling of religious positions, and the fact that Bibles were in Latin, when no one even understood it. From these oppositions, Protestantism was formed and quickly gained support and conversion in Germany, the Baltic states, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and Britain. The Catholic Church's power in Western Europe had been diminished for years to come. In Protestant countries, literacy rose, and corrupt Catholic practices were being removed from Christianity. The Northern Renaissance began in the late 1500s, which was a re-iteration of the Italian Renaissance, but in Northern Europe. France and England began exploring and colonizing the Americas, new technologies developed in Northern Europe, and Northern Europe led the world in scientific discoveries. Even with the diminishing of Catholicism, the Church wasn't quite removed of its significance in European society, and religion conflict was brewing. The Catholic Counter-Reformation, initiated by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) in Northern Italy, was a revolution in Catholicism that sought to remove all corrupt practices from the Church and to challenge the rise of Protestantism in Europe. The Catholic Church condemned Protestants of heresies, and succeeded in the rebirth of an almost corrupt-free Catholic religion. Positions and indulgences were no longer sold for money, Bibles were translated to local languages, and various powers of the Pope were lessened. In 1609, the Protestant Netherlands declared independance from their Catholic masters, the Spanish, France, Denmark, and Sweden sought to control the German states of the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was then a broken group of mostly German states, bitterly divded between Catholics and Protestants. The result of these religious conflicts finally culminated in the beginnings of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a religious war between Catholic and Protestant countries and included most of Western Europe. On the Protestant side included England, France, Scotland, Denmark, Scotland, and Sweden. The Catholic alliance included Spain, Austria, Bavaria, and the Catholic League of the Holy Roman Empire. After entire populations were devastated, disease became rampant, and famine was widespread, the war ended with the Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties. The general goal of the treaties was to get European countries to recognize religious freedom within Christianity. Such religious (Christian) freedom led Western philosophers to think: "Why are we fighting over religion, when we can innovate and focus on improving Western society?" In the 1650s, cultural and intellectual life in Western Europe revolutionized in a period of social reformation, with philosophers, scholars, and thinkers emphasizing the importance of reason and individualism, rather than following in line with authority, especially that of the now-reformed Catholic Church. Scientific discoveries were praised and had great support from intellectual societies, and the significance of religion in everyday life further diminished, and began to be replaced with the significance of discovery and innovation. Western governments soon realized this revolution, and began to support scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers in their studies, and also passed laws protecting further religious freedom. An English philosopher and scientist, Francis Bacon, invented the Scientific Method, and played a large role in the Scientific Revolution in the West. Literacy improved all over Western Europe, intellectual texts such as encyclopedias, philosophical compilations, and dictionaries were being widely published, and institutions of learning were being established all over. The West had finally moved out of religious dominance in everyday life and into the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, which began in the 1650s and lasted until the late 18th century. Throughout this period of much change and revolution in the West, some continuities can be identified. Spain, Portugal, and the Italian states remained largely Catholic, Even with less power and corruption, the Catholic Church and the Pope continued to operate. Christianity was still present in all of Western Europe, and though its significance in everyday life greatly went down, most Europeans were still Christians throughout this time period. A consistant trend in this period was the rising importance of intellectual life, and the falling importance of religious life. In conclusion, the years between 1450-1750, Western Europe was consistantly falling into eras of social reformation, of which religion played a major role. The first of which was the Protestant Reformation, a breakaway sect of Christianity that opposed the corrupt Catholic Church. Following that was the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which sought to fight the rise of Protestantism and to remove corrupt elements from the Church. The end of the Thirty Years' War and the Age of Enlightenment brought religious freedom throughout Western Europe and subsequently the declination of Christianity in Western society and the increasing importance of intellectuality, a common theme in all of these events.