1. Chapter 12, Section 3

2. Religious Division By the 1600s, almost all of southern Europe was Catholic, and the majority of northern Europe was Protestant. In the Holy Roman Empire, each prince was able to choose the religion for his territory, which meant that some neighboring territories had different religions. This caused a lot of conflict between countries and territories.

3. Division in the Americas Missionaries from both Protestant and Catholic churches spread their religion when they went to the Americas. Catholic countries (Spain, France, Portugal) settled parts of Mexico, Canada, Central and South America. England, Sweden, Norway and other northern European countries settled the 13 colonies of the USA, Australia, and other locations.

4. FRANCE  Religious differences often lead to violence or rebellion.  In France, most people were Catholic, but some were Protestants (called “Huguenots”).  Conflicts between the Catholics and Huguenots led to years of war.

5. CAUSE  The French king (Catholic) decided to get rid of all Protestants.  The king’s fight against the Protestants made things worse.  Protestants attacked Catholics in response, but finally agreed to stop fighting.  This didn’t work, and war went on for 20 years.  1598 – Henry IV (Protestant) issued the Edict of Nantes which gave religious freedom to most of France. EFFECT  He banned Protestant religions, punished or exiled (kicked out) any Protestants.  In 1562 violence breaks out when a Catholic noble kills a group of Protestants.  The king agreed to keep Protestants in France, but only in certain towns.  On St. Bartholomew’s Day 3000 Protestants were killed in Paris, and riots broke out all over France.  Protestants could live anywhere except Paris and a few other cities, so some people were still angry with the other religion.

6. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE  Just like France, the HRE had major problems.  1618 Protestants threw Catholic officials out a window in Prague.  They did this because the king wanted everyone in his kingdom to be Catholic, so he closed down Protestant churches.

7.  A long series of wars that involved most of Europe began because Protestants overthrew their Catholic rulers.  The Emperor asked Catholic countries for help.  The Protestants also got help.  Soon the war was about rivalries, control of territory and not about religion.

8.  1648 the rulers came up with an agreement that allowed them to decide what religion their country would be.  The Holy Roman Empire collapsed because the states of Germany gained their independence.

9.  Protestant churches didn’t have priests or bishops, so each congregation made its own rules and elected leaders.  This showed people that their own ideas were just as important as the ideas of religious leaders.

10.  Once people realized they could run their churches, they decided they could also have political power too.  In Scotland, England and some American colonies they began to run their towns.  Federalism – sharing power between local and central government. (Like the USA).

11. New Views of the World Once people began to think their ideas were important, they began to question how the world worked. They wanted to know more about the natural world. They refused to accept information without their own investigation. These ideas and thoughts led to the Scientific Revolution, where people began to study science and figure things out on their own.