I. The Thirty Years War (Chapter 15)

Time Period: 1618-1648

A. Laying the Groundwork

  • Sovereign (independent) states emerge

    • Secular laws

    • New political institutions (e.g. judges, lawyers, etc.)

  • Power struggles (social struggles)

    • Monarch vs. corporations vs. minority groups

  • Nobles push back (regional autonomy vs. centralization/absolutism)

    • Nobles win out in Poland-Lithuania

      • Weak king; foreigner as king

      • Regionally autonomous (inclusive and diverse)

    • King win in France

      • Absolute rule (less diverse)

      • Eventually ends EDICT OF NANTES

  • Local linguistic, ethnic, cultural minorities → resistance

    • Problems for the king

  • 17-18th century debate: French absolutism vs. Constitutionalism

    • Constitutionalism: Power is granted not to an individual ruler, but the people

    • US: Lockean (House of Reps; social contract), Hobbesonian (SCOTUS)

B. Europe’s 30-Year Eruption

  • Religion started the 30 Years; War, but secularism/nationalism ended it

  • HRE: Catholicism and Protestantism vied for control

    • Absolute disaster

    • Waiting for a spark

  • Emergence of armed camps

    • Palatinate’s Protestant Union vs. Bavaria’s Catholic League

  • Habsburgs (Cath.) looked to Spain, Protestants looked to France

    • These alliances fueled a deadly war

  • Bohemia replaced Ferdinand (C) with Frederick V (P) → start of war (1618)

    • Basically a succession attempt from the HRE and Catholic control

    • This spark would eventually destroy the HRE

  • Spain + Ferdinand start the war destroying Protestants (1620-22)

    • Protestant blowout at White Mountain

C. Danes Gains (1625-1629)

  • This part of the war was known as the Danish phase of the war

  • Christian IV (P) aided Protestant war effort, aligning with United Provinces & England

  • Wallenstein (C) defeated Christian, ending Danes Baltic supremacy and making Dutch exit the war

  • Ferdinand II issued the EDICT OF RESTITUTION, because war was going well

    • Prohibited Calvinist worship

    • Restored land to Catholic Church

D. Swedes Drop the Hammer (1630-1635)

  • Sweden Baltic power

    • Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden

    • Disciplined, professional, equipped (funded) army

  • Battle of Lutzen

    • Sweden defeated Wallenstein (Catholic leader)

    • Adolphus killed, “pyrrhic victory”

    • Massive leadership vacuum (hard to replace)

  • By 1634, Swedish forces are pushed out of southern Germany (Bavaria)

  • Ferdinand revokes Edict of Restitution, but fails to lead to peace

  • Adolphus’ salvo and organized fighting = imitations

    • Kings start hiring professional, nationalistic armies, away from disloyal mercenaries

E. Franco-Swedish Phase (1635-1648)

  • Catholic France officially enters the war on the slide of the Protestants to keep the Germans disunited and weaken the Habsburgs

    • This shows a shift in secular motives for war

    • France wants everything good for the French, ignores religion

  • Battle of Rocroi: France defeats Spain

  • French victories continue in Bavaria

  • Renaissance ideas of secularism: context for Thirty Years’ War

  • Peace of Westphalia (1648) ends 30 Years’ War

  • Peace of Pyrenees (1659) ended Franco-Spanish War

    • Ultimately results in Spain drifting, and France being dominant

F. Peace of Westphalia

  • HRE states choose their own religion, again

    • “Turning back the clock” to Peace of Augsburg

  • France, Sweden, Brandenburg, and Bavaria gained Germanic lands

  • HRE emperor becomes a figurehead, no real power

  • New power emerges: Prussia-Brandenberg

  • Politics trumped religion → internationalism as sovereign states (hint: Dutch independence!)

  • HRE devastated and decentralized

    • 35% urban population decline, 50% rural