Thirty Years' War

(noun)

A series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. Initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers.

Related Terms

Examples of Thirty Years' War in the following topics:

  • Religious Divide in the Holy Roman Empire

    • The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire between 1618 and 1648.
    • The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.
    • The population's sentiments notwithstanding, the added insult of the nobility's rejection of Ferdinand, who had been elected Bohemian Crown Prince in 1617, triggered the Thirty Years' War in 1618, when his representatives were thrown out of a window and seriously injured.
    • Religion in the Holy Roman Empire on the eve of the Thirty Years' War.
    • Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, whose aim, as a zealous Catholic, was to restore Catholicism as the only religion in the Empire and suppress Protestantism, and whose actions helped precipitate the Thirty Years' War.

  • The Peace of Westphalia

    • The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster that ended the Thirty Years' War.
    • Over a four-year period, the warring parties of the Thirty Years' War (the Holy Roman Empire, France, and Sweden) were actively negotiating at Osnabrück and Münster in Westphalia.
    • These treaties ended both the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic.
    • France came out of the war in a far better position than any of the other participants.
    • The treaty did not entirely end conflicts arising out of the Thirty Years' War.

  • Bohemian Period

    • The Bohemian Revolt (1618–1620) was an uprising of the Bohemian estates against the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, in particular Emperor Ferdinand II, which triggered the Thirty Years' War.
    • Immediately after the Defenestration, the Protestant estates and Catholic Habsburgs started gathering allies for war.
    • This became known as the first battle in the Thirty Years' War.
    • This also contributed to catalyzing the Thirty Years' War.
    • A later woodcut of the Defenestration of Prague in 1618, which triggered the Thirty Years' War.

  • Swedish-French Intervention

    • No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the war on the side of the Protestants to counter the Habsburgs and bring the Thirty Years' War to an end.
    • Over the next four years, fighting continued but all sides began to prepare for ending the war.
    • The Battle of Prague in 1648 became the last action of the Thirty Years' War.
    • In 1648, the Swedish army entered Prague and captured Prague Castle, where the catalyst of the war, the Defenestration of Prague, took place 30 years before.
    • Identify the reasons why France was invested in the events of the Thirty Years' War

  • France and Cardinal Richelieu

    • His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
    • Before Richelieu's ascent to power, most of Europe had become enmeshed in the Thirty Years' War.
    • Richelieu was instrumental in redirecting the Thirty Years' War from the conflict of Protestantism versus Catholicism to that of nationalism versus Habsburg hegemony.
    • Richelieu did not survive to the end of the Thirty Years' War.
    • Moreover, Louis took advantage of his nation's success during the Thirty Years' War to establish French hegemony in continental Europe.

  • The Peace of Westphalia and Sovereignty

    • The treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic.
    • Two destructive wars were the major triggers behind signing the eventual Peace of Westphalia: the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic.
    • The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.
    • The Thirty Years' War devastated entire regions, with famine and disease significantly decreasing the populations of the German and Italian states, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Southern Netherlands.
    • After a 12-year truce, hostilities broke out again around 1619, which coincided with the Thirty Years' War.

  • Swedish Intervention

    • The Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War was a major turning point of the war, where King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden ordered a full-scale invasion of the Catholic states.
    • The Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War, that took place between 1630 and 1635, was a major turning point of the war often considered to be an independent conflict.
    • The new European great power would last for a hundred years before being overwhelmed by numerous enemies in the Great Northern War.
    • France then entered the conflict, beginning the final period of the Thirty Years' War.
    • Discuss why the Swedish were inclined to join in the war

  • A Global War

    • The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763.
    • Because of its span and global impact, some historians have argued that the Seven Years' War was the first world war (it took place almost 160 years before World War I).
    • However, this label has also been given to various earlier conflicts, including the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, and to later conflicts, including the Napoleonic Wars.
    • The Seven Years' War influenced many major events later around the globe.
    • Assess the claim that the Seven Years' War was the first world war

  • Effects of the Peloponnesian War

    • The destruction from the Peloponnesian War weakened and divided the Greeks for years to come, eventually allowing the Macedonians an opportunity to conquer them in the mid-fourth century BCE.
    • In fact, 3000 such men were chosen by the Thirty to share in the government of Athens.
    • Athens struggled to recover from the upheaval caused by the Thirty Tyrants in the years that followed.
    • This led to a number of Spartan expeditions against Thebes, known as The Boeotian War.
    • Discuss the effects of the Peloponnesian War on the Greek city-states.

  • The Confederacy's Defeat

    • Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.
    • Lee's extended lines were mostly on small sections of thirty miles of strongholds around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia.
    • President Andrew Johnson formally declared the end of the war on August 20, 1866.
    • The Confederate president was subsequently held prisoner for two years in Fort Monroe, Virginia.
    • Summarize the events at the end of the war leading to the Confederacy's defeat.