The Eternal Time of History - Part XVI #984316

The colonization of the Americas, Protestantism, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation are the three pillars of the sixteenth century around which the diverse human experiences of individuals unfold.
In Spain, entire families of colonists and explorers found themselves having to deal with the destruction of pre-Columbian civilizations by the conquistadors, and the blunder of Charles V's Universal Empire was not unanimously approved.
Few would seek a balance with those populations destined to be wiped out.
Similarly, the figures of Martin Luther and Calvin caused an irreparable rift within European society, and religion would compromise with the political and economic ambitions of autonomy or centralization.
The Catholic response would be a mixture of pietism and the Inquisition, paving the way for a period of censorship and persecution, while the precarious balance would give rise to ephemeral peace, without thereby limiting the spread of reformist ideas that would find widespread application in England during the Elizabethan era.
The century ended on the sweet notes of Shakespeare's writings and on the brink of the scientific revolution that England would lead, combining this with a period of new colonization and the establishment of a new Empire.