How did religious wars reshape europe from the mid-sixteenth century through the seventeenth century?

International politics of the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century showed the division of European states into two religious camps. Of these, the Catholic camp, headed by the Habsburgs, first Spanish (during the time of Philip II), then Austrian (during the Thirty Years War), was distinguished by a greater cohesion and more aggressive character. If Philip II could break the resistance of the Netherlands, acquire France for his home, and turn England and Scotland into one Catholic Britain, - such were his plans - if, a little later, the aspirations of Emperors Ferdinand II and III would come true, if finally, Sigismund III dealt with Sweden and Moscow and used part of the Polish forces, which operated in Russia during the troubled times, to fight in the west of Europe in the interests of Catholicism - the victory of the reaction would be complete; but Protestantism had defenders in the person of such sovereigns and politicians as Elizabeth of England, Wilhelm of Orange, Henry IV of France, Gustav Adolf of Sweden, and in the face of entire nations whose national independence was threatened by the Catholic reaction.

The struggle took on such a character that both Scotland, during the reign of Mary Stuart, and England, under Elizabeth, and the Netherlands and Sweden, under Charles IX and Gustav-Adolf, had to defend their independence together with their religion, as in the Catholic camp aspirations prevailed political hegemony over Europe.

Catholicism sought in international politics to suppress national independence; Protestantism, on the contrary, linked its work with the cause of national independence. Therefore, in general, the international struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism was a struggle between cultural reaction, absolutism and enslavement of nationalities, on the one hand, and cultural development, political freedom and national independence, on the other.

Explanation:

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north atlantic treaty organization.