East came to an end with the fall of Constantinople. By the end of the 16th century, economics had shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic with the Spanish discovery of the New World. With this trade shift the worldwide economy was in the makings. In the 17th century mercantilism is very prominent. Things such as state-granted monopolies, regulated exports and imports, tariffs, custom duties, quotas, slavery, colonial taxes, and plantation system were in full effect. By the 18th century, a supply and demand economy had produced. Through mercantilism, state regulations lowered the living standards of workers. The every day lives that were led in modern Europe where primarily surrounded by religious ideas. In the times of the 15th century, religion in Europe revolved around the religious beliefs of the Papal Court. Though there were many religious battles over the Church, few doubted the Church, following its every demand. By the 16th century, many began to challenge that of the Papal State. People felt that the beliefs and efforts of the Church had traveled way off track, and was in need of some repair. Martin Luther began the radical attempt to fix what had gone wrong within the Papal State by posting his Ninety-five Theses upon the door of the Wittenberg University. The outcome of Luther's efforts supplied Europe with beginnings of a new religious view, Lutheranism. Lutheranism practices and beliefs based on biblical precedents (life of Christ) and the early church fathers. In the 17th century, religious debates went into full-blown warfare. In the Thirty-Year’s War, the Catholics went head to head with the Protestants. This great religious battle finally concluded in 1648 at the Treaty of Westphalia. At the treaty, it was determined that Calvinism would be tolerated, and the Hapsburg had to accept Protestants in their German lands. In the 18th century, The Age of Reason, religion was still of importan...
