The Thirty Years War, in its causes, course, and consequences, was complex, and need not be presented at length here. It has already been introduced in the reading on Richelieu.
In 1618 war broke out between rebellious German states and the Holy Roman Emperor. As such a war involved the power of the Hapsburgs, other nations quickly took up sides and arms and soon a major international conflict tore at the heart of the Continent. It would become known as the Thirty Years War and would be the most devastating war in human history before the twentieth century. It became a war of two major alliances divided along religious lines – Catholic versus Protestant. The combined power of the Catholic Hapsburgs (Austria and Spain) and their German allies was ranged against the Protestant German states supported by the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and, France. It was a war of tremendous devastation and social disruption fought largely in Germany. Over seven million persons, largely German civilians, are estimated to have died as a result of famine, disease, and the brutalities of combat. The German population is estimated to have declined from 21 million to 13 million. Armies were made up of mercenaries led by ambitious adventurers and lived off the land pillaging and looting the towns and countryside terrorizing the populations. Peace negotiations began in Westphalia in 1644, but the war went on for another four years before a final peace was accepted.
What follows, for lack of better identity, is a narrative outline of the war.
Background causes: The Thirty Years War was two wars at the same time.
1. German civil war for A) religious reasons - Catholic vs. Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists)
B) political reasons - Habsburg Emperors sought to centralize the Holy Roman Empire under their direct sovereignty. The German princes wished to preserve their autonomy.
2. a major international war - involving the great European powers in shifting alliances with the German states for both religious and political reasons.
Specific cause: A Protestant rebellion against the strengthening of Austrian Habsburg rule in Bohemia marked the beginning of the war. It stemmed from a bizarre incident known as the “Defenestration of Prague” in May 1618. Responding to the rebellion in Bohemia, the Emperor sent two emissaries to Prague to meet with the rebel leadership. When presented with the Emperor’s demands to end their rebellion, the Bohemians defiantly expelled the two envoys from the palace by throwing them through an upper level window. Landing in a pile of dung, the Emperor’s officers’ physical injuries were minor compared to the injury to their dignity. (“Defenestration” has since come to mean to throw something - or someone - through a window!) The Bohemians named Frederick, the ruler of the German state of the Palatinate, as their new king. The Emperor responded by sending his armies to suppress the Bohemian rebels. The war was on.
The Belligerents
The “Catholic” Alliance The “Protestant” Alliance
Spain and its dominions Protestant German states (Bohemia, Saxony,
Austria and its dominions Brandenburg, and others)
Catholic German states (Bavaria and others) The Netherlands (UPN)
Denmark, 1625 - 1629
Sweden, 1630 - 1635
France, 1635 - 1648 (peace with Austria)
- 1659 (peace with Spain)
The War’s Four Phases
The Bohemian Period, 1618 - 1620
The Bohemians were joined by an alliance of German states calling itself the Protestant Union. Austrian forces defeated the Bohemians at the battle of White Mountain near Prague. Bohemia was restored to Austrian rule, pacified, and restored to Catholicism. The Dutch war against Spain resumed. Spanish forces invaded the Palatinate (in western Germany along the Rhine) and overwhelmed its defenders and moved northward into the German Rhineland regions. Frederick fled. The Protestant Union was dissolved.
The Danish Period, 1625 - 1629
In 1625 King Christian IV of Denmark, seeking to further Danish territorial ambitions in northern Germany, committed his country to the war on behalf of the Protestant cause. Denmark and its German allies found a formidable enemy in the armies of Albert von Wallenstein. In the service of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II, Wallenstein’s mercenary troops were brilliantly led and defeated the Danes, driving them back into Denmark. On making peace with Denmark, Ferdinand issued the 1629 Edict of Restitution.
The Edict of Restitution demanded the immediate restoration of all lands taken from the Catholic Church in the Empire since 1552. In the Protestant states defeated by the Austrians and Spanish, former Catholic properties were restored. The Restitution, reaffirming the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, also denied legality to Calvinism within the Empire. Catholicism and Lutheranism would remain the only legal religions in the Holy Roman Empire. With the defeat of the Danes and the Edict of Restitution, it appeared as if Protestantism in the Empire was doomed and that the Austrian Habsburgs would achieve sovereignty over the German states. This prospect was alarming to Sweden and France.
The Swedish Period, 1630 - 1635
Under the leadership of King Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden assumed leadership of the Protestant alliance. Sweden’s entry in the war was prompted by several factors. Gustavus Adolphus was an ardent Lutheran; Sweden’s Baltic territories in northern Germany were threatened by Wallenstein’s armies; and both France and the Netherlands had provided generous subsidies to help finance Swedish military forces. Gustavus Adolphus personally led his hymn-singing troops in successful campaigns against Wallenstein’s armies. Wallenstein, however, remained a powerful force, and the war raged on seemingly towards further Catholic victory. In 1631, however, Wallenstein’s destruction of the Protestant city of Magdeburg and resulting slaughter of some 20,000 of its defenseless inhabitants severely discredited the Catholic cause. Brandenburg and Saxony both joined the Protestant alliance. In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus was killed in battle, but Sweden remained an active belligerent through to the end of the war in 1648. Seeing Wallenstein as out of control and possibly having aspirations to the Imperial throne, Ferdinand engineered his assassination in 1634. With Swedish power weakening, many Protestant states made peace with the Emperor in 1635. To win them over, Ferdinand amended parts of the Edict of Restitution. Again it looked as if the Hapsburgs would triumph.
The French Period, 1635 - 1648
With Sweden’s involvement weakening, Cardinal Richelieu committed France to active belligerency in support of the Protestant alliance. Spanish and Imperial forces, initially successful, invaded France from those Hapsburg-dominated regions along France’s frontiers. The French, however, persisted and eventually pushed the invaders back beyond France’s boundaries. French armies moved into northern Italy, Bavaria, and Saxony. The French also encouraged rebellions against Spanish rule in Portugal and Catalonia (Barcelona). With the Spanish and Imperial forces on the defensive, and most of Central Europe devastated and exhausted, the new Emperor, Ferdinand III, expressed interest in negotiating a settlement. Peace negotiations began in 1644. They would take four years. Matters of protocol and precedence needed to be settled before any serious discussions could begin. Meanwhile the fighting continued.
The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
Negotiations began in the German state of Westphalia in 1644. Hostilities continued throughout the peace talks. Westphalia would be the first general peace conference in European history.
Terms of the peace
1) For the Holy Roman Empire
All lands, especially church lands, taken during the war were to be restored to the possession of whoever had held them in 1624.
The concept of cuius regio eius religio (each prince having the right to determine for his state the established religion of that state) heretofore limited to Catholic and Lutheran princes, was renewed in the Empire and extended to Calvinist princes. Calvinism thus became a legal religion in German states.
By imperial statute (law) religious issues were no longer subject to deliberation in the Imperial Diet unless both Protestant and Catholic princes agreed to consider them.
The German states (all 343 of them) achieved virtual independence from Imperial taxes, military recruitment, and foreign policy. (In effect the German states of the Empire were recognized by the Emperor as sovereign owing only nominal allegiance to the Emperor.)
2) The United Provinces of the Netherlands (UPN) was recognized as an independent sovereign state. In addition, the UPN received from Portugal (still then under the King of Spain) formal recognition of the Dutch presence in Guiana in South America and in the East Indies.
3) Switzerland was recognized as an independent sovereign state.
4) Sweden and Brandenburg (the German state centered in Berlin) received additional territories along the Baltic coasts of Germany.
5) France received territories along the Rhine River in Alsace. While this may not immediately appear to be significant, it really is. Alsace lies along the Rhine River. Think of what this means in relation to the Hapsburg encirclement of France. Has that situation changed?
Significance of the Peace of Westphalia
Westphalia, in effect, created the modern European state system. The ancient and anachronistic concept of a united Europe (an ideal dating back to the time of Charlemagne in the 800s and the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire in the late 900s) had been replaced by a system of independent states, each exercising sovereignty as it defined its interests.
The diplomats at Westphalia unknowingly also created the concept upon which states would exercise foreign policy from then on right to the present. The peace settlement produced the condition whereby the power (military, political, economic) of the respective states would be kept in balance. If any one state became increasingly powerful to the point that it threatened the sovereignty of other states, other states would form alliances to restore the balance of power. From 1648 on, all major European wars would be fought because the balance of power had been upset. The peace settlements ending such wars would follow the Westphalia model. The issues causing the war would be resolved and territories would be exchanged to restore the balance of power.
Sources for the Thirty Years War
Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Reason Begins. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961.
Knapton, Ernest. Europe 1450 – 1815. New York: Scribners, 1958.
Merriman, John. A History of Modern Europe. New York: Norton, 1996.
Palmer, Robert R. et al. A History of the Modern World. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.
Tapié, Victor-L. France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu. New York: Praeger, 1975.
Wedgwood, C.V. The Thirty Years War. New York: Anchor, 1961.