After the war, a treaty had been signed in 1648 called the Peace of Westphalia. It weakened the Hapsburg states of Spain and Austria, strengthened France by giving it German land, made German princes independent of the Roman Catholic Church, ended religious wars in Europe, introduced a new way of negotiating peace which is still used today.

Austria allied with France and Russia because they deemed that France wasn't the main enemy, and in response Prussia allied with Britain and they fought a seven years war. This didn't change the territorial situation in Europe. Both France and Britain were competing in North America and West Indies as well as India. Britain emerged as the real victors in the seven years war and France lost all of its colonies in North America and Britain gained sole economic domination of India.

The Austria Hapsburg (a family mentioned in the previous paragraph) reconquered Bohemia, and wiped out Protestantism there. They also created a new Czech Nobility loyal to them. The Hapsburg ruler centralized the government and created a standing army. Next, the Hapsburgs retook Hungary from the Ottomans. Charles VI became the Hapsburg ruler and he tried to figure out how to rule the diverse assortment of people. The Prussians also grew in the same time that the Austrians grew. Frederick William, the ruler of the Prussian states, built a standing army. They moved towards absolute monarchy and introduced a permanent tax as well as weakening the representative assemblies of their territories.

Henry, a French Protestant called the Huguenots, married into power. He converted from Protestant to Catholic to help France heal and also allowed the Huguenots to set up their churches in some cities peacefully. Henry IV dedicated his reign to rebuilding France, but some citizens didn't like his compromises, so a citizen stabbed Henry IV to death in a royal carriage.

Louis XIV, the most powerful French king and son of Louis XIII, wasn't the true successor of France, for that was for Cardinal Mazarin. However, anti-Mazarin riots forced Mazarin away from power, due to Mazarin raising taxes and strengthening the central government. The nobles even threatened Louis XIV, who was a little boy, with his life. The nobles' rebellion failed because the leaders distrusted each other a lot, they used violent repression, and the absolute king was a better alternative for rule.

Louis XIII, Henry IV's son, proved to be an incompetent ruler, but he made up for it by appointing Cardinal Richelieu as a minister. Richelieu ended up becoming France's leader and made two important moves to increase the power of the Bourbon monarchy. First, he ruled against the Huguenots, however, he didn't take away their right to worship. Instead, he moved all the Huguenots into cities without walls. Second, he sought to make the nobles' power weaker. He ordered the nobles to take down their fortified castles, and increased the government agents' power, who came from the middle class. The king used these agents often, so there wasn't any need for the nobles to have so much power.

When Cardinal Mazarin died, Louis XIV, who was 22, took over and reduced the power of the nobles by excluding them from his councils. He also increased the power of the government agents. Louis XIV dedicated himself to making France the most economically advanced country. Jean Baptiste Colbert, minister of finance for Louis XIV, helped by protecting French industries with high tariffs on imports, making France self-sufficient by giving government funds to French companies and encouraged people to move to Quebec to aid in the fur trade.

After Colbert died, Louis XIV removed the Edict of Nantes, which protected the Huguenots, and in turn the French lost many skilled workers.

Louis XIV also attempted to expand France's borders by invading the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Netherlands, he gained 12 towns from the Spanish Netherlands, but he fought even more wars. His luck ran out and bad harvests coupled with raising taxes made France weaker and weaker and the French people suffer more and more.

Phillip II, the nephew of Charles V, inherited a Spanish empire that had a lot of fortune. Phillip II was serious, shy, hardworking and paranoid. By 1600, American mines supplied Spain with 339,000 lbs of gold and between 1550 and 1650, 16,000 tons of silver bullions were shipped to Spain. Phillip waged a war on Protestant England and Muslims. His armada was defeated on 1588 to England. Spain's wealth covered up their setback.

El Greco and Diego Velazquez were both painters during the Golden Age of Spanish Art and Literature. They both distorted the body and used bright colors. Their paintings depicted deep Catholicism and Spanish pride. Also, Miguel de Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, which is considered the birth of the modern European novel.

Eventually, the Spanish monarchy started to weaken due to their massive wealth. Inflation was one of the main causes of decline. Spain's population rose a lot, so they needed more food, and in response, the Spanish merchants made goods more expensive. Another thing that didn't help was that Spanish nobles didn't have to pay taxes, so Spain didn't have a middle class, only poor or rich.

Ivan IV became the first Czar of Russia. Between the 1547 and 1560, Ivan IV ruled fairly and justly as well as conquering new lands for Russia and implementing a law code. He married Anastasia from a landowning noble clan called Romanov. After 1560, after Anastasia died, Ivan ruled unfairly and executed many boyars, who were the landowning nobles, and their peasants. In 1581, he killed his oldest son in a quarrel, and his incompetent second son was set to inherit the throne. He proved to be incompetent, and the time was difficult until 1613 when House Romanov elected Michael Romanov to become Czar.

Over time, these Romanovs strengthened Russia and paved the way for the monarch Peter the Great. When Peter the Great was ruling, Russia was a land of boyars and serfs. Peter the Great visited Germany and became inspired to westernize Russia. Although many of his people disagreed, he went through with it anyways. His reformations include: introducing potatoes to Russia (which became a staple of Russian diets), started Russia's first newspaper, raised woman's social status, abandoned Russian traditional wear for western clothing and opened a school for arts and sciences. Peter the Great believed that education was the key to success, while in the old times it was illegal to study the arts.

Peter the Great wanted education to be easier to access, which meant easier access to the West. So, Russia fought Sweden for a piece of land on the Baltic Coast and won it after 21 years of long war. He built another capital city on the desolate swamp land. He believed that it would promote education because there was easy access to the western Europe. He named it St. Petersburg after his patron saint.

Elizabeth I created a massive debt for her cousin, James I, to inherit. James I had big debates with the Parliament over money and he offended the Puritans of the Parliament because he didn't enact Puritan reforms.

After Cromwell died, the Parliament reformed and in 1659 they elected Charles II to be the new king of England. Charles II restored the monarchy and guaranteed freedom towards prisoners that they would have a judge that decided whether they would be incarcerated or acquitted. This act prevented the monarch from putting someone in jail because he opposed them and it prevented someone from being incarcerated for an indefinite period.

After Charles II died in 1685,James II became the king. James II was a devout Catholic and violated law by appointing several Catholics to high office. People became worried when James II had another son because they didn't want a line of Catholic kings. So, the older daughter of James II, Mary, was invited to overthrow James because she was a Protestant. In 1688, when James was overthrown, it was called the Glorious Revolution.

After William and Mary were coronated, they vowed to recognize the Parliament as their ruling partner. England at this point became a constitutional monarchy. They made the Bill of Rights and made a Cabinet System.