Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War
Part of the European wars of religion and French–Habsburg rivalry

Left to right:
Date23 May 1618 – 24 October 1648
(30 years, 5 months and 1 day)
Location
Result Peace of Westphalia
Territorial
changes
Belligerents
Anti-Imperial alliance prior to 1635[a] Imperial alliance prior to 1635[b]
Post-1635 Peace of Prague Post-1635 Peace of Prague
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Maximum actual[c][d]
  • 100,000–140,000 Swedish[5][6]
  • 27,000 Danes (1626)[7]
  • 70,000–80,000 French[8]
  • 80,000–90,000 Dutch[9][e]
Maximum actual
Casualties and losses
Combat deaths:[g]
110,000 in Swedish service[14]
80,000 in French service[15][h]
30,000 in Danish service[15]
50,000 other[15]
Combat deaths:
120,000 in Imperial service[15]
30,000 in Bavarian service[15]
30,000 other[15]
Military deaths from disease: 700,000–1,350,000[i]
Total civilian dead: 3,500,000–6,500,000[16]
Total dead: 4,500,000–8,000,000[17][18]

The Thirty Years' War,[j] from 1618 to 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%.[19] Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch-Portuguese War, and the Portuguese Restoration War.

The war can be seen as a continuation of the religious conflict initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries destabilised the settlement. However, while differences over religion and Imperial authority were important factors in causing the war, some contemporary commentators suggest its scope and extent were driven by the contest for European dominance between Habsburg-ruled Spain and Austria, and the French House of Bourbon.[20]

Its outbreak is generally traced to 1618,[k] when Emperor Ferdinand II was deposed as king of Bohemia and replaced by the Protestant Frederick V of the Palatinate. Although Imperial forces quickly suppressed the Bohemian Revolt, Frederick's participation expanded the fighting into the Palatinate, whose strategic importance drew in the Dutch Republic and Spain, then engaged in the Eighty Years' War. In addition, the acquisition of territories within the empire by rulers like Christian IV of Denmark and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden gave them and other foreign powers an ongoing motive to intervene. Combined with fears the Protestant religion in general was threatened, what started as an internal dynastic dispute became a European conflict.

The period from 1618 to 1635 was primarily a civil war within the Holy Roman Empire, with support from external powers. After 1635, the empire became one theatre in a wider struggle between France, chiefly supported by Sweden, and Emperor Ferdinand III, whose principal ally was Spain. Fighting ended with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, the terms of which included greater autonomy within the empire for states like Bavaria and Saxony, as well as acceptance of Dutch independence by Spain. The conflict shifted the balance of power in favour of France, and set the stage for the expansionist wars of Louis XIV which dominated Europe for the next sixty years.


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  1. ^ Croxton 2013, pp. 225–226.
  2. ^ a b Heitz & Rischer 1995, p. 232.
  3. ^ Parrott 2001, p. 8.
  4. ^ Nicklisch et al. 2017.
  5. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 484.
  6. ^ Clodfelter 2008, p. 40.
  7. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 387.
  8. ^ Parrott 2001, pp. 164–168.
  9. ^ a b Van Nimwegen 2014, p. 166.
  10. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 395.
  11. ^ a b Parker 2004, p. 231.
  12. ^ a b Clodfelter 2008, p. 39.
  13. ^ a b Wilson 2009, p. 791.
  14. ^ Parker 1997, p. 173.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Wilson 2009, p. 790.
  16. ^ Wilson 2009, p. 787.
  17. ^ Outram 2002, p. 248.
  18. ^ Wilson 2009, pp. 4, 787.
  19. ^ Parker 1997, p. 189.
  20. ^ Sutherland 1992, pp. 589–590.