Our Series on The World as it Was is taking us to Europe around the Year 1600.
Europe in 1600 counts fewer sovereign countries than today's Europe. While England, Ireland and Scotland are still different countries, the rest of Europe is more politically concentrated: Portugal, Sardinia and Southern Italy are under Spain's sovereignty, Norway is in union with Denmark and Finland is part of Sweden. The Holy Roman Empire, along with other Habsburg lands, controls most of Central Europe, while the Eastern part is divided between three powerful monarchies: the Russian Tsardom, the Ottoman Empire, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Switzerland and the Dutch Republic are emerging nations, whose independence from the Holy Empire would only be fully recognized after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. Also noticeable are the Western regions of the Empire that gradually became part of France in the following 2 centuries, reaching the current border between France and Germany over the Rhine River.
Europe in 1600
