CATHERINE FLETCHER
Why did Italy become the focus of powers from across Europe?
It’s one of the two particularly wealthy areas of Europe. You’ve got Italy on one hand, and then the low countries, the Netherlands, on the other. So it’s natural that the larger states of Europe have an interest in ensuring their influence in those areas, and you really have two big states in play at this point. You have France, which had been consolidating into something approaching its modern shape for a while. And then you have Spain, which had been unified much more recently under Ferdinand and Isabella, who then conquered Andalusia. They’re in
