The Thirty Years’ War, which lasted from 1618 until 1648, was the most gruesome war started by religion in European history. Almost every European nation was involved in the conflict either directly or indirectly, the major players being Bohemia, Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. The war, which began and ended in the Holy Roman Empire, devastated the whole of Europe, especially the massive losses in Germany. The war is considered the worst European disaster since the Black Death in the 1300s.
The original cause of the war was undoubtedly religion, primarily Catholics versus Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists). Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II took power in 1619, but the Bohemians (part of the empire), who were unhappy with a Catholic leader, declared Calvinist Frederick V their ruler (Perry 44). Ferdinand, who was opposed to the Bohemian’s religious beliefs and defiance of his empire, sent troops to take out the Bohemians, who were quickly decimated by Ferdinand’s army.
Religious disagreement was indeed the cause of the Thirty Years’ War, but soon another driving factor-power-prolonged the war and made it the great tragedy that would eventually become (Perry 22). The war between Protestants and Catholics sparked the war in the Holy Roman Empire, but several nations of Europe quickly saw the conflict as a way to gain land and influence, and sent their troops into battle (Spielvogel 78).
The nations that first looked for territorial gain were Spain and Bavaria. Both nations sent troops to assist Ferdinand in his fight against the Protestants. Then, in 1625, Denmark decided to enter the war on the side of the Protestants, a decision made in order for Denmark to extend their influence over the coastal towns of the North Sea (Perry 45). The Dutch were encouraged by the English and the French. And, the fact that a Catholic nation such as France would support a Protestant nation against Catholics is proof that the Thirty Years’ War was not based solely on religion.
Sweden entered the war next in 1630 and was bankrolled by the French minister Cardinal Richelieu as well as the Dutch, two interested viewers that definitely benefit with Spanish losses (Spielvogel 102). Gustavus Adolphus, who was the Swedish king, an extremely religious Lutheran, and a military genius, scored a huge victory Breitenfeld in 1630 that essentially reversed the course of the war in favor of the Protestants (Perry 47-48). Sweden, a Baltic superpower and unified Lutheran nation, joined the war primarily to preserve the freedoms of their fellow Protestants in crisis, though they too stood to gain lands and influence in Europe.
The French eventually entered the war in 1635, though they had taken sides against the Spanish years before. This period, called the “Swedish-French” period by historians, was when the German suffering became most evident (Spielvogel 113). The war, as a whole, was primarily fought in German territory. French, Swedish, and Spanish soldiers looted the whole of Germany as they battled, and it seemed as though the soldiers were warring for the sake of warfare alone (Perry 53).
Germans, tired of the constant warfare that demolished their lives, were not united by any stretch of the imagination and could not gather enough troops to defend their homes against the invading forces. At the end of the war, it is estimated that one in every three German citizens died as a result of the Thirty Years’ War, a catastrophic loss of life that is unparalleled to this day (Perry 54).
Germany was thought to be completely decimated at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. It was predicted that Germany would be a scattered mess of small states long after the war and would take decades, even centuries for the nation to recover. But surprisingly, the nation recovered relatively quickly and was able to get itself back together after devastating loss of structures and citizens.
The Treaty of Westphalia, signed in 1648, brought an end to all hostility within the Holy Roman Empire (Spielvogel 99). The treaty reasserted a major feature of the Peace of Augsburg, which allowed the ruler of each land to once again determine the religion in that land. The treaty also gave the Calvinists their hard-fought legal recognition. The Brandenburg-Prussia state emerged as the most powerful in northern Germany, one of only two German states that would gain any international significance during the 1600s, the other state being Austria (Spielvogel 109). Protestants gained broadened legal status after the Treaty of Westphalia, to the dismay of the pope. France and Spain remained at war with one another outside the Holy Roman Empire until 1659 when the Spanish were handily defeated, leaving France to become Europe’s dominant force in the decades following the war (Spielvogel 113).
The impact of the Thirty Years’ War was not only felt by the French and Spanish, it also had a massive affect on the whole of Europe. Germany lost ridiculous amounts of life and went through unimaginable hardships during the war, and many of their cities were totally destroyed due to the constant sieges from invading forces. The Treaty of Westphalia, which determined a land’s religion by the religion of its ruler, didn’t help Germany with the problem of unification (Spielvogel 109). Germany’s over 300 states were once again divided between Protestants and Catholics, and it seemed as if the war did nothing to solve the religious conflict in Germany (Perry 55).
The war, however, did solve problems elsewhere in Europe. Protestants were no longer seen as a vast minority in Europe, and with Calvinism getting legal recognition for the first time, Protestants now had a strong foothold on even more territories all across Europe. Catholicism was still the religion in some of the major nations such as France and Spain, but with Spain’s defeat at the hands of the French in the years following the war, it appeared as though Catholicism was definitely weakening.
The Thirty Years’ War was one of the most brutal and devastating wars in European history. A war that began as a small religious battle between the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia quickly escalated into a continental power struggle, with nations entering the war solely to gain land and influence. The key nations involved in the war were Bohemia, Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, but almost every nation in the continent would eventually get involved in the war one way or another. When the dust had settled, Germany had lost one-third of its entire population and many of its cities to invading forces. France eventually became the world power while Spain’s influence slowly decreased as the years passed. The war, one of longest and bloodiest wars in European history, is a horrifying example of how easily religious beliefs and a hunger for power can quickly throw an entire continent into a horrendous international bloodbath.
Works Cited
Perry, Marvin. Western Civilization, Ideas, Politics, and Society: Volume I. 8th ed. New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 6th ed. New York: Wadsworth, 2005.
