CLEP Western Civilization I with Online Practice Exams by Robert Ziomkowski

Author:Robert Ziomkowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Research & Education Association, Inc.
Published: 2013-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

Origins. The last of the religious wars occurred in the birthplace of Protestantism. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) had resolved the initial religious war by allowing the ruler of each state within the Holy Roman Empire to determine its religion, but this caused problems because antagonism persisted between neighbors of the rival faiths and because it did not take into account the religious inclination of the majority of citizens in each state. The Empire became divided into two rival camps: the Evangelical Union (1608) and the Catholic League (1609). This powderkeg was then set off when the people of Bohemia, who were mostly Protestant, revolted in 1618 against their Catholic Hapsburg ruler and threw two imperial ministers out of a window in an act known as the Defenestration of Prague. The conflict that ensued came to be known as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), which occurred in four major phases.

Conduct of the War. In the Bohemian phase (1618–1625), Catholic forces succeeded in suppressing the rebellion within the Empire. The period of foreign intervention that followed is known as the Danish phase (1625–1629), when Christian IV of Denmark alone fought the Catholics, who were led by the ambitious mercenary Count Wallenstein. Denmark was defeated in 1629 and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II (1619–1637), issued the Edict of Restitution, which transferred lands that the Protestants had seized from the Catholic Church. The Hapsburg victory prompted another round of foreign intervention—by Protestants who wished to reverse the Edict of Restitution and by Catholic France, which was encircled by the Hapsburgs and alarmed by their increased strength. Hoping to restore the balance of power, Cardinal Richelieu (d. 1642) of France agreed to provide financial support to the Protestants if they agreed to respect the religious freedom of Catholics in the territories they conquered. A Swedish phase (1630–1635) began when the Lutheran king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus (1611–1632), liberated northern Germany from Hapsburg occupation and seized Catholic lands in southern Germany. Gustavus Adolphus died in 1632, and the Protestant cause was carried on by his chancellor, Oxenstierna. However, Ferdinand II managed to roll back their victories (without Wallenstein, who was assassinated in 1634). In 1635 the Swedes and the Hapsburgs came to an agreement known as the Peace of Prague, which ended the religious aspects of the war by modifying the Edict of Restitution and settling territorial issues between Catholics and Lutherans. At this point Cardinal Richelieu intervened openly, initiating the French phase (1635–1648) by declaring war on Hapsburg Spain and sending French troops into the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, the last phase was a purely dynastic struggle in which the Catholic Bourbons of France were allied with Protestant (mostly Swedish) forces. As the fighting dragged on, Germany was devastated; it lost about a third of its population to war, famine, and plague.

Treaty of Westphalia. After several years of negotiation, the belligerents ended the war through the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). Furthermore, the treaty granted Alsace to France and certain Baltic regions to Sweden.

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