Final answer:
In the 14th to 17th centuries, rulers struggled with control over their territories and economic issues, while common people faced taxation and social disparities. This led to more centralized power and socio-religious changes, laying the foundations for the modern world.
Step-by-step explanation:
Powerful rulers in Europe during the 14th to 17th centuries faced immense challenges such as maintaining control over vast territories, handling economic tribulations due to famine, pestilence, and warfare, and managing shifting religious and political foundations. Common people, on the other hand, struggled with increased taxation, scarcity of resources, and social disparities that resulted from the changing socio-economic landscape.
As nations moved into the 1500s, these pressures led to centralized monarchical power, the decline of feudalism, the rise of new religious ideas, and increased social mobility, setting the stage for changes in political and religious structures, which in turn laid the groundwork for the modern world.