The schism between the Catholic Church and the various new Protestant faiths started by Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century led to nearly a century of conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War from 1618 to 1648. Centered in the German states, with their mish-mash of different dominant sects and complex political alliances, the region became the center of expansionist endeavors by the great powers of the day. The war bankrupted Spain, elevated to France as the pre-eminent great power in Europe, and killed over five percent of the population of Europe. The German states were the most devastated, with some losing more than half of their people. It was one of the most destructive wars in European history, and one which created the impetus to begin seeing the world in a different way.
To understand the changes manifesting themselves in Europe, one has to understand the structure of the past system. Throughout the Middle Ages, lands were ruled by nobles who swore fealty to kings who were given the right to rule by the divine will of God. If some other land and king believed in God in a different way, than they did not have a divine right to rule, which meant it was totally okay to go punch their teeth in. However, the Protestant reformation created a situation where those believing different things were no longer living in some distant land reached by Crusades, but instead were just the next fiefdom over, or possibly one’s own neighbor in the same village. The result were countless conflicts and atrocities, culminating in shitfest that was the Thirty Years War. Not wanting to see another such clusterfuck, a movement spread across Europe for greater religious toleration, at least amongst the various Christian faiths, which began to bring up all sorts of other questions, such as if it was okay for the person next door to have a different way of praying then you, than who in the hell was giving the schlub at the top of the pile wearing the crown the divine right to rule?
Now, throughout the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, Europe was changing rapidly in a lot of different ways beyond religion. Populations were growing rapidly, global trade networks were bringing in a vast amount of wealth and resources, not to mention new ideas from far off lands, scientific advancement was leading to significant industrialization, people were moving into cities, the printing press made books and pamphlets more available which in turn led to a sharp increase in literacy rates, and all of this together was combining into the creation of a new and expanding merchant and middle class which began to see the world in a very different way than their predecessors. The end result was a period of time from roughly 1650 to 1800 which later history nerds termed the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.
Now much like most political and social movements, it’s really hard to discern exactly how things changed over time but change they did. Starting with the idea that maybe the church wasn’t the center of the world and that it was okay for different people to pray different ways, the philosophers and free thinkers of the day, branched off from there, beginning to question all sorts of thinks that were just considered normal at the time. Instead of absolute monarchies and fixed religious dogmas, people began to explore ideas like individual liberty and religious tolerance. Rather than kings ruling because of some divine right, the idea that kings ruled because the people chose not to revolt and behead their sorry asses became more mainstream, creating the idea that the purpose of nobles was to serve the people rather than the other way around. Rather than emotion and scripture, the world was to be ruled by logic and reason.
All sorts of ideas grew out of this way of thinking; including democratic principles, universal rights, abolition, the separation of church and state, equality and equity, capitalism, the end of capital punishment, atheism, and feminism; ideas that would take a greater hold Europe and its colonies as time progressed. Of course, not everyone was down with these new ideas, especially those who were already at the top of the heap, while others subverted them to their own uses, riding the wave while keeping themselves at the top of said heap, but overall, it was the start of something new, which would grow into the world we live in today.
