Q- Examine the Causes and Phases of ”Thirty Years War”.
Ans– The Thirty Years Wars
The Thirty Years’ War was one of the greatest and longest armed contests of the early modern period. The Thirty Years’ War was a series of conflicts that began early in the 17th century in the Holy Roman Empire and finally involved much of Europe. It started as a conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics but soon became a struggle for political power. The war began in Bohemia.
Causes of Thirty Years Wars
Such a complex continental conflict does not boil down to just one cause but many interlinked ones. due to the diversity of the different territories within the Holy Roman Empire and continental Europe, the long-standing tensions were bound to come to a head.
Spanish and Dutch at war-
A religiously charged battle between Habsburg authorities in the Low Countries and Dutch Protestant rebels seeking independence from the Spanish took place during the sixteenth century. The Eighty Years’ War between the two had begun in 1568 and continued into the Thirty Years’ War after a 12-year truce.
Spanish and French rivalry-
The French had fought the Spanish throughout the 16th century for control of Italy during the Italian Wars. Although France had lost, the rivalry between the countries continued. Europe changed throughout the 17th century as the Protestant Reformation continued to split nations. This weakened the Habsburg authority, and the French earmarked it as an opportunity to establish their dominance over Europe.
Catholic vs. Protestant-
The Protestant Reformation of 1517 sent reverberations across Europe. This meant that Lutheran and Calvinist movements were taking hold in various nations. It polarised European politics. France, Spain, Austria, and parts of the Holy Roman Empire were predominantly Catholic. Meanwhile, other regions of the Empire, England, The Netherlands, and Sweden, were predominantly Protestant.
The Holy Roman Empire-
The Holy Roman Empire was a vast mass of land in Central Europe. It was also home to the Protestant Reformation in Saxony. As an entity of many kingdoms and states, the Holy Roman Emperor granted its principalities a measure of power but not full sovereignty that we can recognise today. In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg allowed Catholics and Lutherans to practise their respective beliefs – but any compromise to this treaty would cause trouble.
The Four Phases of the Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years’ War was precisely that. It sparked in 1618 in the Kingdom of Bohemia (within the Holy Roman Empire) and ended thirty years later with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Thirty Years War eventually involved the armies of multiple nations and because of its religious nature that sometimes caused warring within a nation, we can understand it in four phases.
Phase One: The Bohemian Phase (1618-1625)
In 1618, Ferdinand II, Catholic ruler of Bohemia, started to limit the kinds of religious activities allowed by his subjects. Protestants under his rule felt restricted and oppressed and began to look for help from Protestants in other areas. These areas included Denmark, the Dutch, and Great Britain. When Ferdinand got wind that these nations planned to come to the Protestant aid, he reached out to Spain, German Catholics, and of course, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Ferdinand and his pals were able to defeat the Protestant group in the Battle of White Mountain.
Phase Two: The Danish Phase (1625-1629)
In this part of the Thirty Years War, the Protestant Danes were challenged by the Catholic Imperial armies. Their success led to major Catholic victories and put the Catholic Habsburg rulers of Spain and Austria at the height of their power. After this Catholic victory, Ferdinand declared an “Edict of Restitution” which took back lands for the Catholic Church that had previously been overtaken by Protestants. Ferdinand also limited worship in the HRE to only two groups: Catholics and Lutherans.
Phase Three: The Swedish Phase (1630-1635)
Here’s where it gets interesting! In this phase, we look at how Sweden’s Protestant king, Gustavus Adolphus, decided to get involved in defending the Protestants in the HRE. However, France’s Catholic chief minister and Catholic Cardinal Richelieu were getting nervous about the increased power of the Hapsburgs. He, therefore, aided the Swedish Protestants in their fight against Habsburg Catholicism! Gustavus Adolphus was killed in battle in 1632, weakening the Protestants after two successive victories.
Phase Four: The French Phase (1635-1648)
Though Gustavus Adolphus death had dealt a blow to the Protestants course, Cardinal Richelieu was actually more afraid of the threat of the Habsburgs, who were gaining more and more power as they racked up victories, than he was of the Protestants. He believed the Hapsburg rulers could become a rival to the French absolute kings he had worked so hard to strengthen. As a result, Richelieu funded and sent the military to Spain to make war on the weaker side of the Habsburg clan.
Outcomes of The Thirty Years War
The French victory at Lens concluded the war. The major participants signed two treaties known as the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Spanish-Dutch Treaty: This confirmed the creation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
Holy Roman Empire, German princes, French and Swedish Treaty: Sweden gained control of the Baltic Sea, and France gained territory in the Rhineland.
Conclusion-
After the Peace of Westphalia, there were seismic changes across Europe. The French came to enjoy a period of domination under Louis IV. The Dutch also began demonstrating their authority, with William of Orange becoming King of England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. As the first modern European-wide conflict, the Thirty Years’ War would come to have a considerable impact, along with its result: the primitive birth of nation-states.
Total deaths are estimated at between 4 and 12 million, Some believe that it wiped out 20% of the entire European continent, meaning it was certainly on a scale comparable to the two world wars.