Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War
Part of the European wars of religion and French–Habsburg rivalry
Left to right: The Defenestrations of Prague (23 May 1618) The death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen (16 November 1632) Dutch warships prior to the Battle of the Downs (21 October 1639) The Battle of Rocroi (19 May 1643)
Date 23 May 1618 – 24 October 1648 (30 years, 5 months and 1 day) Location Central Europe Result Peace of Westphalia Territorial changes France annexes the Décapole, and Sundgau[1] Sweden gains Wismar, Wollin, Western Pomerania, and Bremen-Verden[2] Brandenburg-Prussia obtains Eastern Pomerania[2] Swiss Confederacy gains independence from the Holy Roman Empire
Belligerents
Anti-Imperial alliance prior to 1635[a]  Kingdom of Bohemia Sweden Palatinate Savoy Transylvania  Dutch Republic  Denmark–Norway Heilbronn League Hesse-Kassel Brandenburg-Prussia  Saxony	Imperial alliance prior to 1635[b]  Habsburg Monarchy Spanish Empire  Bavaria Catholic League
Post-1635 Peace of Prague  France Sweden  Dutch Republic Hesse-Kassel	Post-1635 Peace of Prague  Holy Roman Empire Spanish Empire  Denmark–Norway
Commanders and leaders
Gustavus Adolphus  † Oxenstierna Banér Torstensson Wrangel Alexander Leslie Louis XIII Richelieu Mazarin Grand Condé Turenne Maurice of Orange Frederick Henry Maarten Tromp Frederick V von Mansfeld Jindřich Thurn Christian of Anhalt Christian IV Christian WIlliam John George I Bernard of Saxe-Weimar  Christian of Brunswick Gabriel Bethlen George William	Ferdinand II Ferdinand III Wallenstein X Gallas Archduke Leopold von Hatzfeldt von Holzappel † Piccolomini Philip IV Olivares Córdoba Spinola Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Maximilian of Bavaria Tilly † Pappenheim † Charles of Lorraine von Mercy † Montecuccoli von Werth
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 110,000 Imperial[10] 90,000 Spanish[11][f] 20,500 Bavarians[12]
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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