1598. Philip II. of Spain dies, leaving a ruined navy and an exhausted kingdom.
1603. Death of Queen Elizabeth. The Scotch dynasty of the Stuarts succeeds to the throne of England.
1619. Commencement of the Thirty Years' War in Germany.
1624-1642. Cardinal Richelieu is minister of France. He breaks the power of the nobility, reduces the Huguenots to complete subjection; and by aiding the Protestant German princes in the latter part of the Thirty Years' War, he humiliates France's ancient rival, Austria.
1630. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, marches into Germany to the assistance of the Protestants, who ware nearly crushed by the Austrian armies. He gains several great victories, and, after his death, Sweden, under his statesmen and generals, continues to take a leading part in the war.
1640. Portugal throws off the Spanish yoke: and the House of Braganza begins to reign.
1642. Commencement of the civil war in England between Charles I. and his parliament.
1648. The Thirty Years' War in Germany ended by the treaty of Westphalia.
1653. Oliver Cromwell lord-protector of England.
1660. Restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne.