Approximately 1500 = Modern World! Yea! We're out of the Middle Ages!!
Spain was the 1st big country in the Modern World. Around 700 AD, the Moslems (known as Moors in Spain) were swallowing countries. They got all of Spain up to the Pyrenees Mountains (there were Christian holdouts in the Pyrenees, who would eventually take Spain back). The Moslems kept most of Spain through the Middle Ages. But they fought among themselves so the Spanish Catholics coming down out of the mountains started capturing parts. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile are married and are rulers of the biggest parts of Spain (Aragon and Castile, respectively). They married to unite Spain. Ferdinand got to run the country. He wanted to grab all the power and bust the big nobles. Merchants were also in favor of busting the nobles cuz they kept bothering the highways and slowing down progress. Therefore, the king taxed the middle class (merchants), took the money and converted it into armies (especially cannons which are brand new, expensive, and capable of cracking castles.)
Granada was the last big Moslem hold in Southern Spain. Ferdinand whipped them in 1492. The fall of Granada freed up extra $ so people like Christopher Columbus can be fired off to the New World. Columbus explored during Ferdinand and Isabella's reign.
The Jews in Europe weren't doing well cuz they were the minority–especially a non-Christian minority! The European kings sometimes got notions and kicked out the whole population of Jews who became very mobile. Jews don't own land cuz it isn't allowed. They became the bankers so they can make a fast getaway and besides it's against the Christian religion (usury–lending money for interest). Jews had to pay for their protection all the time so their interest on loaning money was high so the people hated them and plotted to get them so they had to pay more protection $ and so forth and so on . . .
Jews also did the tax collection cuz nobody else would. Thousands of Jews were massacred in race riots. Jews couldn't take the pressure and suddenly got religion (Christian religion, that is). After the pressure was off, the Jews were suspected to be insincere. In the 1480's, a group of monks asked Ferdinand to investigate the insincere Jews. Ferdinand wasn't interested until the monks promised to confiscate the property of the guilty and give him 2/3 of the goodies. And thus was born the Spanish Inquisition. Charges were brought up against you, but you weren't told what you've supposedly done. But you had to confess. If you don't, they torture you. (There were lots of lovely tortures to aid in your ability to confess the truth: The Rack (Stretches you), Metal Band with Thumbscrews put around the person's head, Carriage Wheel (Metal Ladder with Rungs that Breaks your legs in 50 Different Places), Drawn and Quartered (Drawn=Incision in Abdomen, Get out Bowels and Burn while you watch your bowels getting burned; Quartered=Your Body is Cut Into Quarters and put on posts, etc. If you're interested in hearing about more of the tortures used, corner Stockmyer and get help.) Ferdinand used these things mostly against the rich cuz he got their land. Pope finally asks Ferdinand to stop cuz the torture is so unrestrained.
Spain was the leader in foreign policy. France was the enemy so anything done against France was a plus to Spain. Ferdinand had two daughters to use for policies; Marriage was not for romance in those days, it was for diplomatic reasons. Juana was his elder daughter and he married her off to the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Philip the Fair (as in fair of face). Their kids would stand to inherit all of Europe except (but surrounding) France. The second daughter, Catherine of Aragon, was married to Arthur of England (elder son of Henry VII). England wasn't much but it was better than France as far as Ferdinand was concerned. In 1504, Isabella died and Castile went to Juana according to the will assuming Juana was sane enough to run it. Ferdinand had Juana and Philip come stay with him and slowly poisoned Philip to drive Juana insane. It worked (but, sadly, Ferdinand lost the "Father of the Year" award!)!! Therefore, Juana couldn't assume rule and Ferdinand was "forced" to rule as regent and kept his country together. Ferdinand wasn't the nicest guy, but he was the first great king of the Modern World cuz he got things done!
England and France had been engaged in a skirmish called the 100 Years War (14th to 15th Century) cuz England kept getting into France's real estate through marriage, etc. England almost won. Towards the end, France won cuz of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc claims to hear the voices of angels and dresses as a man to lead the French troops. She rallied the French Army and became a symbol of victory. The English captured her and tortured her until she renounced the angel voices. She did but when her wounds healed, she said that she still heard voices, so they burned her at the stake as a witch. Capturing her wasn't so bad, but they made a big mistake by burning her cuz she became even more important to the French after her death.
After France was bored with too much peace cuz the 100 Years War had been over for some time, they decided they wanted to conquer Northern Italy which is rich cuz of trade from the Crusades. Of course, Spain couldn't allow France to get control of Italy, so they sent troops to help the Italians. Unfortunately for Italy, that meant that France and Spain were fighting their wars in Italy's territory rather than tearing up their own countries.