The consequences of the opening of the Atlantic, which included an expansion in trade and an increase in wealth, but also the growth of the slave trade, the spread of disease, and the destruction and transformation of native cultures.
The population explosion and the rise in prices that signaled the advent of a capitalist system and the transition from town-centered economies to national economies.
The relationship between new forms of production and the class-structure in European societies.
The impact of education and government policies on the newly emergent and increasingly influential bourgeoisie.
The divergences between the development of eastern and western Europe.
Philip II's encounters with the Dutch and English during his campaigns against Protestantism and the consequences of the ensuing conflicts for both the Netherlands and England.
The feudalistic nature of the religious wars in France, and the tensions between centralization and localism.
The ramifications of the issuing and revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The variety of religious, civil, and international issues over which the Thirty Years' War was fought.
The fragmentation of Germany and the subsequent forestalling of German national unification.
The advent of the modern European system of sovereign states.
