The Thirty Years’ War
1618-1648
The FIRST continent-wide war in modern history!!!!
Culmination of religious wars from the 16th century!!!!
And it ends with . . .
Peace of Westphalia: 1648
What kind of war?
• not just a religious war
• German civil war of religion
• German civil war of constitutional issues
• International war between France & Habsburgs, Spain &
Dutch.
• Kings of Denmark & Sweden and prince of Transylvanian
become involved
• War of horrific violence: loss of life & destruction of
property
• majority of battles fought on German soil
• generals were soldiers of fortune with their own designs on land,
wealth & power
Religious/Political Reasons
for War?
• Peace of Augsburg – solved nothing
• Granted rights to Lutherans, but other Protestant religions
left out
• Large minority of Calvinists and Calvinist princes now also
exist in the Northern German States – they want official
recognition and the right to practice their religion
• Ferdinand II
• Holy Roman Emperor and elected King of Bohemia
• devout Catholic who wants to bring his dominion under
one church
• Begins his fight in Bohemia after Protestant rebel against
the closing of their churches
Four Phases of the War
• Phase I = Bohemian (Czechs) (1618-1625)
• begins with Defenestration of Prague
• 1620 Battle of White Mountain Protestant forces
defeated by Imperial forces
• RESULTS: Re-Catholicization of Bohemia
Four Phases of the War
• Phase II = Danish (1625-1629)
• Denmark’s King Christian IV (a.k.a. Duke of Holstein) vs.
Ferdinand II
• Ferdinand II wins under gen. Wallenstein who plunders
Germany and Danes
• RESULTS: Germany is completely engulfed by the
Counter Reformation
• 1629 HRE issues “Edict of Restitution”: All Catholic states
pre Peace of Augsburg (1555) are restored as Catholic
• Terror sweeps Germany, France, Denmark &
Sweden
Four Phases of the War
• Phase III: Swedish (1630-1635)
• Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus lands in Germany to take
over fight for Protestantism
• in the meantime...French Cardinal Richelieu has turned
Catholic states of HRE against Ferdinand II
• Why? Richelieu and Louis XIII are concerned with the power of
the Habsburgs and will do anything necessary to break it
• Protestant victories at 1631 Breitenfeld & 1632 Lützen where
GA dies in battle
• RESULTS: Ferdinand realizes that he cannot root out
Protestantism SO he concedes to tolerations of
Lutherans = Peace of Prague, 1635
Four Phases of the War
• Phase IV: French-Swedish (1635-1648)
• French King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu and Swedes
keep up the fighting for another 11 years
• Greatest concern is the power of the Habsburgs – if the war
ends and the Habsburgs reconcile with the Protestants how
strong will the Holy Roman Emperor be?
• Other countries involved in this stage include Spain and
Switzerland
• fighting however occurs only in German States
• War finally comes to an end in 1648 with the Treaty
of Westphalia
• Results: see next slide
Final Results
• Germany devastated! Some areas 2/3 population dead
• Holy Roman Empire stagnates
• borderlands fall away
• DUTCH REPUBLIC& SWITZERLAND gain INDEPENDENCE
• no laws may be made, taxes levied, soldiers recruited, war waged
or peace treaty signed without approval of imperial estates
• Germany sinks back into “feudal chaos”
• Habsburgs weakened
• Austria losses power over HRE and Switzerland
• Spain losses Portugal, Catalonia and Dutch Republic
• Religious Wars END!!! = permanent split in Christendom
• FRANCE begins to rise!
Small Group Assignment
• With you small group read the text on page 429 in
your textbook and do one of the following
• write a short 90 second news sound bite that sums up
the experience portrayed in the text (serious not satire)
• create a series of “tweets” or facebook status updates
that reflect the experiences portrayed in the text (satire)