31.3 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 10/30)

A few other remarks about Spain in this period seem indicated. Velasquez was a fine painter in that country. A feature often little noticed was the great influx of French into the Iberian peninsula. Artisans, odd job men, retailers, masons, builders as well as peasant farmers came from France apparently because of over-population there. As many as 200,000 Frenchmen may have been in Spain by 1669. (Ref. 260 ) (Continue on page 958)

Portugal

Portuguese power and prosperity continued to decline under the Spanish rule which had begun in 1580. By 1640, however, a revolt organized by a Professor Ribeiro, supported by the nobility and the clergy and financed some by France, then at war with Spain, succeeded and the Duke of Braganza became the Portuguese leader. After the country became officially independent by the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, the Duke became King Joao IV. There followed 28 years of war with Spain to defend that independence. Later, while Pedro II was king, gold fields were discovered in Brazil and after 1697 the Portuguese court was one of the most lavish in Europe, and no local money was needed for support. Multiple aqueducts brought water from the mountains to Portuguese cities throughout this century. (Ref. 260 ) (Continue on page 960)

France (the century of louis xiv, the sun-king)

After the assassination of Henri IV in 1610, civil and religious war again erupted, not to end until 1624 when Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (he had been made Cardinal in 1622) took over the reigns of government, as Louis XIII remained chiefly a figure-head. The king died in 1643 of intestinal tuberculosis. (Ref. 260 ) Although not a good financial administrator, for better or worse Richelieu increased the power of the royal bureaucracy at the expense of the nobles and Huguenots. His greatest achievements, however, were in foreign affairs, as he restored French influence in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. His work actually laid the foundation for the later power of Louis XIV, all of this occurring in spite of droughts, locust plagues and intermittent famines. (Ref. 260 )

France's participation in the Thirty Years War was chiefly as an ally of Sweden, first with subsidies and later with troops who fought the Bavarians. Along with the Swedes they ravaged Bavaria on their second invasion in 1648, just before the Treaty of Westphalia in which France received absolute sovereignty over Metz, Toul, Verdun and Upper and Lower Alsace, although some of those cities retained their membership in the Habsburg Empire. The French monarchy gradually became the greatest and most consolidated power in Europe. One reason for this domination was manpower, as France had 20,000,000 people in 1660 while Spain and England each had but 5,000,000 and Italy 6,000,000. The Holy Roman Empire had 21,000,000 but it was an empire in name only and was impoverished by the Thirty Years War. Although the French had cannon, they were not very effective. They developed a flintlock rifle by 1630, but it was accurate only up to 100 yards and until the end of the century the steel-headed pike on a wooden shaft was still the main infantry weapon. (Ref. 213 )