• Crisis was linked with cooling known as Little Ice Age
  • Climate conditions caused crop yields to drastically lower
• Three main reasons for inflation in Europe
  • Demographic expansion in Eurasia in sixteenth century
  • Reliance on cash and debasement of currency
  • Spanish conquest of New World bringing precious metals
• Only rulers recognizing cooling temperatures were Mughals ruling India
• Thirty-Years’ War (1618-1648) contained nearly all European nations in war
• Wars defined emerging European state system
  • Wars involved virtually all European states in single system
  • Wars led to consolidation into fewer political units
• Taxes and loans supplied money to rulers of European states
• Rulers would rather use “divine right” to resources than force
• European states imposed duties on virtually all imported goods
• France lost Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), lost claims in North America and India
• As empires reached limits of expansion, rulers had to legitimize rule