The Thirty Years War - Essay Example

Bingjing Feng Module The Thirty Years War The thirty years old war took place between 1618 and 1648 in Europe with the most active region being the current Germany. It was one of the most destructive wars in history and it involved many regions in Europe. This war had no apparent beginning or motive, but it mostly took a religious dimension where Protestants and Catholics tried to outdo each other in the religious Roman Empire. It also shook the political landscape thereby shifting the balance of power in the region. Later, the war turned into a rather general conflict involving France and the Hapsburg poweri. As mentioned earlier, the war was spread in phases over the period from the year 1618 to 1648. Initially, there was a treaty called Peace of Augsburg signed in 1555 which brought temporary peace in regards to religious competition in the state of Germany. However, the treaty only recognized the Lutherans and Roman Catholic. Despite this, the Cal-vines had made gains in a number of states and consequently began to demand recognition of their rights and acceptance of their ways of life. In 1617, Ferdinand of Styria was the king of the Bohemian Kingdom and was an ardent supporter of numerous Catholic missions. This did not go well with the Calvinists because they feared that under Ferdinand rule they would be oppressed and their rights would not be recognized. The Calvinists went ahead and threw two Catholics from a building, seventy feet tall, as a show of their dissatisfaction with the king. Fortunately, the two Catholics just sustained minor injuries as they fell on a pile of manure. But this action led to the Catholics invading Bohemia which was a Calvinist strong hold. The conflict resulted into war ending with Catholics winning and Calvinists losing and sustaining heavy and multiple casualties1. Another significant period of the war was between 1625 and 1629 in Denmark where the Protestants went into battle with the Catholics. During this phase, the war claimed many casualties and a significant destruction of property from both sides. In the end, the Catholics claimed victory and installed their king who continued the unpopular policies directed towards oppressing non-Catholics. This alarmed those Christians who viewed this as sheer absurdity and ways of oppressing fellow man. As a result, the Protestants cooperated came together all over Europe with an aim of championing their rights and revolting against the dominant Catholic majority ii. The entire period of the thirty years war was characterized by many religious conflicts in many European countries and empires. However, the saddest thing was that, besides causing psychological harm, it also claimed many lives and led to massive destruction of property and infrastructure. Therefore, the war considerably affected the lives of many Europeans. According to statistics, it reduced the population of German states by about 25% with the male population being reduced to half. The destruction was also aided by diseases and famines in different regions all over Europe. It was hard to feed the masses as there was no time to cultivate hence significantly reducing the food supplies. Diseases were also hard to treat as there were no properly organized supplies of medicine and medical personnel. Furthermore, the hostility between different groups resulted in blocking of supply routes as rivals did all they could to cut supply to opposing sides. The destruction was also catalyzed by the expulsion of opposing religious groups from the regions where they were the minority. For instance, Protestants were expelled from Czech land; an action which reduced the population of the land by a third. The destruction was quite severe that the regions that were hard hit by the war took centuries to recover. Despite the thirty years war largely being religious inclined, it also involved political supremacy and conquest. This is because many rulers looked forward to taking advantage of the weakened regions to conquered them and spread their dominance. Different rulers took sides and supported different factions so that they could either consolidate their dominance or have the favor of the people. Some rulers also formed alliances so as to fight the opponents who were seen as threats and hindrances to their supremacy. This saw armies from different regions and empires forming alliances to face what was seen as a common enemy. The alliances were mostly formed according to religious inclinations, but this was just an excuse to conquer the weak regions and extend their dominance and superiority. Among the most affected territories was the German Empire. The reason was that it was subdivided into many territories, which despite their membership to the German empire, they had sovereign powers. This weakened the power of the largely Catholic dominated Holy Roman Empire. The division meant that the German Roman Empire did not have absolute control over the different territories. Hence, when going to war, some territories had all the rights to stay neutral or refuse to join the rest of the Germans. The weakening of the German empire was further contributed by the fact that the different territories were subdivided according to religions. Based on the hostility that existed between the different religious groups it was almost impossible to unite all the territories to fight as a single force. In fact, the territories usually disagreed amongst themselves due to these religious differences. These factors eventually weakened the German empire’s political dominance in Europe2. The thirty years war also rearranged the European political and power structures. Amongst the weakened empires was Spain which was forced to accept the independence of the Dutch republic which prior to the war had been a territory of Spain. Other empires emerged with the preserved power houses disintegrating to form many territories which practiced different religions. This meant that new political and power structures emerged in expense of the former power houses that dominated Europe and oppressed people professing different views and religious inclinations. The main casualties of political weakening were the predominantly Catholic states that oppressed non-Catholic ones such as Spain and Germany. This is because non-Catholics revolted and formed their own dynasties. As a result, there were subdivisions both geographically and demographically. Consequently, the empires which boasted of geographical and population dominance were reduced to smaller regions. This significantly reduced their tax collections as the population and territory span decreased. It also reduced regions’ war capabilities as they had a smaller pool of people to train the army from. This gave the emerging empires a chance to form their own independent states in which they practiced the religion of choice. The thirty years war also led to political stability and loyalty in most of Europe. This is because most parts of the war were fought using mercenary soldiers. The soldiers changed sides depending on the side that offered better terms. Hence, the soldiers acted as guns for hire with the side having favorable conditions receiving an upper hand. The soldiers were also self-financed with the looted goods from the conquered territories becoming payment. This caused a lot of lawlessness and soldiers took people from conquered regions through a lot of hardships as they tried to loot the available resources. This lawlessness raised an issue of having an organized and loyal force which would only fight for their empire and would be financed by their country of origin. As a result, armies from different countries were formed leading to some countries having strong armies than others. Hence, the strength of a state was measured by its army’s capabilities. This resulted into some countries being superior to others politically and economically. The European empires, which were participating in the thirty years war, extended the war beyond Europe to other regions where they had colonies. This was done in order to gain political superiority as colonies were considered as tantamount to supremacy. For instance, the Dutch sent a fleet of 70 ships to Brazil which was controlled by Portugal. The resulting war saw the Dutch take over Brazil in the expense of Portugal. This elevated the Dutch to a superior position in Europe especially militarily. Besides the Brazil war, other European states extended the battle to Africa and other regions beyond Europe3. The thirty years old war played a major role in changing the relationships between the subjects and their rulers. Before the war, people had overlapping political and religious alliances. However, after the war it was agreed that the citizenly of a respective nation were a subject to adhering to the law and order of their own government rather than those of dominant nations. For instance, the different territories formed after the German sub-division were first and foremost subjected to the rules and order of their particular territories before being subjected to the laws of the larger German empire. This meant that a specific territory could change their rules and laws without consulting the dominating empire. Hence, it was possible to have different territories in the same empire practicing and adhering to different sets of laws. As a result, the empire had little authority over the different territories4. The war also resulted into political subdivision where foundations of what are referred today as sovereign nations were laid. This is because people of common religion and interests were keen to stay on their own demarcated region. As a result, boarders were made developed that marked different territories and nations. These boarders formed what are today known as European sovereign states. Conclusion The thirty years old war was a major phenomenon in Europe mainly because of the huge loss of lives, numerous casualties and massive destruction of property. The war was mostly inclined towards religious differences but later politics were involved with the different empires willing to have or retain political superiority. This saw the forming of alliances among empires which had common interests. Finally, the war resulted into weakening of many political super powers, for example, the German Empire and at the same time emergence of new territories and empires. Works Cited Wedgegate. C. V and Grafton. A. Thirty Years of War. New York: New York classic review books, 2005. Print. Wilson, Peter H. The Thirty Years War: Europe Tragedy. New York: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. Print. End notes Read More