History of Europe and its lands. The European religious wars between German and Spanish rulers. The Reconquista ended Muslim rule in Iberia. By the 1490s a series of oceanic explorations marked the Age of Discovery, establishing direct links with Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Religious wars continued to be fought in Europe, until the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. The Spanish crown maintained its hegemony in Europe and was the leading power on the continent until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended a conflict between Spain and France that had begun during the Thirty Years' War. An unprecedented series of
Treaty of Turin (1696) The war was formally ended by the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick which incorporated the Treaty of Turin. By splitting the Allies, Savoy's defection enabled Louis to obtain better terms at Ryswick than he might otherwise have done, for a relatively minor cost. France relinquished Pinerolo but Savoy's territories in Transalpine France were almost impossible to defend and were occupied by France again from 1704 to 1714. Victor Amadeus achieved his primary goals of recovering Pinerolo and Casale, while his daughter's marriage enhanced Savoy's position on the European stage. The cost was a devastated and impoverished country and "...a reputation for...cynical