f the religious wars which convulsed Europe during the reformation. The six combats were Germany, France, Spain, Bohemia, Denmark and Sweden. This conflict was three wars in one. It was a Religious war between Protestant and Catholic, International between Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark and Civil war between Princes and Emperor. It began as a religious and civil war and ended up as an international war fought mainly in Germany. The war gave Germany a national sense of inferiority and delayed national unity. The whole war left Germany with a need for authority. In the 1450s The Age of Exploration were sparked because they needed better navigational tools, spices to preserve food and needed trade routes. Even though there was little success rate for seamen returning for these explorations they went anyway because on land it was not any better, life expectancy was 30 years. Portugal was the first nation to engage in exploration on a large scale. Italy already had a monopoly on the far eastern trade route. Prince Henry the navigator was the first ruler to begin state funded trade expedition. Vasco De Gama reached India in 1490s. Out of his 180 men only 50 return with him. Pedro Cabral was sent to India but went to far west and accidentally rant into Brazil. This is why even today they mainly speak Portuguese there. In 1492 Christopher Columbus wanted to reach the Indies. He returned three times but never knew that he was on a new land instead of Asia. Amerigo Vespucci was the first to state that Columbus had found a new world and the new land was named Amerigo. Magellan was the first to complete a circumnavigated the earth. The Age of Exploration is when the African slave trade began, the American Indians were almost wiped out east of the Mississippi, open western mans vision of the earth led to a reassessment of western civilization and new foods were added to the diets of most Europeans. 1600s was the Age of the Kings , it was a cen...
