{maketoc}
<em>1648</em> covers the period between the beginning of 1399Neptune-Pluto1892 to its half-point in other ways by speaking of it in terms of the 1398-1571 and 1572-1648 quarters. Nonetheless, looking each half as a unit helps expand our perspective.
<h2>Connecting the dots</h2> 
Outer planet positions at 1571, the half-point of the this first half reveals much. Here we The Netherlands battling for its independence from Spain; Spain at war with France by its support in the French Religious Wars; in the German regions growing Calvinism was undermining the 1555 Peace of Augustus; in the British Isles, its most popular queen struggled to unite the country behind its state religion. Economically, Spain's flood of American bullion created an inflation that would undermine its empire and push Europe toward greater mercantile stance. And despite the enmity across the region, Europeans managed to defeat Turks at the battle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto_%281571%29">The Battle of Lepanto</a>, a sign of a shift to full Christian control of the Mediterranean.

