Thirty Years War Term Paper

Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years war was a series of battles that lasted from 1618 to 1648. This war was one of the great conflicts of early modern European History of this time 1. The opponents during the Thirty Years war The House Of Austria, The Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand II together with their Spanish cousin Philip 1V 2. During the war of thirty years, the Hapsburgs were opposed by many different international opponents of House of Austria, the Danish, Dutch, and France and Sweden 3. Along with the long years of the war, there was a dimension of a German Civil War. The principalities made Germany against Hapsburg, which also affected the Thirty Years War and pro-longed it. The Thirty Years war was also based on a religious war among Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists. Religion made the war complex enough, but adding to the conflicts within the political and military aspects, made the Thirty Years War highly complex.

The people of the time of the Thirty Years War highly affected why the battles lasted for such a long time especially for the reformation era of the Thirty Years War. When The Thirty Years war started, the bloodiest part was originated as a religious struggle in central Europe between Protestant and Catholic Rulers 4. The rulers of the Thirty Years War had a protestant military leader named King Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden. The Catholics on the other hand, through out the war, was led by the Hapsburg rulers of Austra 5. In the final stage of the conflict, Catholics Bourbons ruled France and opposed the Catholic Hapsburg rulers of both Spain and Austria 6. Despite the conflicts and the problems between Catholics and Protestants within this time, it also strengthened the civil authority after the battles were over.

With Thirty Years of one war, there has to be many phases, in this case, starting with the Bohemian phase. This Phase lasted from 1618 to 1621 and mainly was faced by the pressure from the Habsburgs, which made the Bohemian's "rise in revolt"7. They then deposed Habsburgs and then later crowned Frederick V of Palatinate as king. Within this time, the Spanish invaded and conquered the lower part of Palatinate which was Frederick's territories on the Rhine. This enabled the Spanish to secure the land routes from their territories in Northern Italy to their land in what is now today, modern day Belgium. This lead to the Bohemian Rebellion that lasted from 1618 to 1619.

The Palatinate Phase started in 1621 to 1624 and started to regain the Rhenish Palatinate from the Spanish and the Catholic league 8. The efforts were supported by the Dutch that was battled by the Spaniards for independence since 1568. All the efforts and presences on the Rhine were dismissed failures and did not accomplish much at this point in the war.

The Danish Phase started in 1625 and ended in 1630 with the French, Dutch, and English began forming a league to oppose the Habsburgs. They then found their "champion" in Christian IV that was from Denmark, whom had possessions in northern Germany 9. The Christians then invaded, but was defeated by the army of the Catholic League. The Edict of Restitution then came into play, requiring return of lands from the Roman Church since the 1500's. The territorial rulers then forced the Emperor to remove him from power and reduce the size of the Imperial army 10.

The Swedish Phase started in 1630 and went through the year 1634. This started with the concerns of the growth of Habsburg power along the Baltic. Gustavus Adolphus was the ruler of Sweden at the time, and he invaded northern Germany. Gustavus Adolphus was not techniqually welcomed by his fellow Lutherans, his ally was the French. The French in fact sub sized Gustavus Adolphus's armies during this period. There was four different battles in this specific phase, the Diet of Regensburg and the Swedish Invasion, (1630-1631), The Sack of Magdeburg and the Battle of Breitenfeld, (1613-1632), The Swedish Triumph and the Battle of Lutzen (1632) and The Heilbronn League, the Fall of Wallenstein and the Battle of Nordlingen (1632-1634).

The French Phase of The Thirty Years War started in 1643 and ended in 1648. This was when the German territorial rulers made their peace with the emperor 11. Under the Peace of Prague more then least of the church lands belonged to the Protestants in 1627. The French then took control of Alsace and much of the Rhineland while the Swedes took over or neutralized northern Germany and carried