Among other things, an unbelievable inflation hit Europe during that period.
It was caused by what the Spanish empire did. It brought back huge amount of which
initiated the value of gold to plummet. Europe has never been in this situation
and it was incomprehensible to They thought more gold is better, but suddenly
prices started to increase bizarrely. There was also very few silver
being produced at the time, hence pirate attacks became very rampant.
A large part of the continent was torn apart by conflicts both domestic
and international between varying religions like Protestants and Catholics.
There was the Dutch revolution between 1568 and 1648, the French Wars of
Religion which lasted 36 years from 1562 to 1598, the Thirty Years War in 1618
through 1648, and the Spanish Armada Expedition, to name a few.
Another problem was in the East, the threat Ottoman Yurkey which posed
to Europe.
<span>There was also population decline, plague,
economic warfare, and famine. </span>