>What were the most important political trends in seventeenth-century Europe? Chapter 15 examines seventeenth-century political developments. The seventeenth century was a period of crisis and transformation in Europe. Agricultural and manufacturing slumps led to food shortages and shrinking population rates. Religious and dynastic conflicts led to almost constant war, visiting violence and destruction on ordinary people and reshaping European states. While absolutism emerged as the solution to these challenges in many European states, a small minority, most notably England and the Dutch Republic, adopted a different path, placing sovereignty in the hands of privileged groups rather than the Crown.