Contents of the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 Ix

Albert von Wallenstein - commander Thirty Years' War

Causes of the Thirty Years' War

— Counter-Reformation: an attempt by the Catholic Church to win back from Protestantism the positions lost during the Reformation
— The desire of the Habsburgs, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and Spain, for hegemony in Europe
— Concerns of France, which saw in the Habsburg policies an infringement of its national interests
The desire of Denmark and Sweden to monopolize control of the Baltic sea trade routes
— The selfish aspirations of numerous small European monarchs, hoping to snatch something for themselves in the general trash

Participants of the Thirty Years' War

— Habsburg bloc - Spain and Portugal, Austria; Catholic League - some Catholic principalities and bishoprics of Germany: Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Würzburg
— Denmark, Sweden; Evangelical or Protestant Union: Electorate of the Palatinate, Württemberg, Baden, Kulmbach, Ansbach, Palatinate-Neuburg, Landgraviate of Hesse, Electorate of Brandenburg and several imperial cities; France

Stages of the Thirty Years' War

• Bohemian-Palatinate period (1618-1624)
• Danish period (1625-1629)
• Swedish period (1630-1635)
• Franco-Swedish period (1635-1648)

The course of the Thirty Years' War. Briefly

“There was a mastiff, two collies and a St. Bernard, several bloodhounds and Newfoundlands, a hound, a French poodle, a bulldog, several lap dogs and two mongrels. They sat patiently and thoughtfully. But then a young lady came in, leading a fox terrier on a chain; she left him between the bulldog and the poodle. The dog sat down and looked around for a minute. Then, without a hint of any reason, he grabbed the poodle by the front paw, jumped over the poodle and attacked the collie, (then) grabbed the bulldog by the ear... (Then) all the other dogs opened hostilities. The big dogs fought among themselves; The small dogs also fought with each other, and in their free moments they bit the big dogs on the paws.”(Jerome K. Jerome "Three in a Boat")

Europe 17th century

Something similar happened in Europe at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Thirty Years' War began with a seemingly autonomous Czech uprising. But at the same time, Spain fought with the Netherlands, in Italy the duchies of Mantua, Monferrato and Savoy were sorted out, in 1632-1634 Muscovy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fought, from 1617 to 1629 there were three major clashes between Poland and Sweden, Poland also fought with Transylvania, and in turn called on Turkey for help. In 1618, an anti-republican conspiracy was discovered in Venice...

• 1618, March - Czech Protestants appealed to the Holy Roman Emperor Matthew demanding an end to the persecution of people on religious grounds
• 1618, May 23 - in Prague, participants in the Protestant congress committed violence against representatives of the emperor (the so-called “Second Prague Defenestration”)
• 1618, summer - palace coup in Vienna. Matthew was replaced on the throne by Ferdinand of Styria, a fanatical Catholic
• 1618, autumn - the imperial army entered the Czech Republic

  Movements of Protestant and Imperial armies in the Czech Republic, Moravia, the German states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, sieges and capture of cities (Ceske Budejovice, Pilsen, Palatinate, Bautzen, Vienna, Prague, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Bergen op -Zoom), battles (at the village of Sablat, on White Mountain, at Wimpfen, at Hoechst, at Stadtlohn, at Fleurus) and diplomatic maneuvers characterized the first stage of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1624). It ended in victory for the Habsburgs. The Czech Protestant uprising failed, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Electoral Palatinate, providing a springboard for another war with the Netherlands

• 1624, June 10 - Treaty at Compiegne between France, England and the Netherlands on an alliance against the imperial house of Habsburg
• 1624, July 9 - Denmark and Sweden joined the Treaty of Compiegne, fearing the growing influence of Catholics in northern Europe
• 1625, spring - Denmark opposed the imperial army
• 1625, April 25 - Emperor Ferdinand appointed Albrech von Wallenstein commander of his army, who invited the emperor to feed his mercenary army at the expense of the population of the theater of operations
• 1826, April 25 - Wallenstein's army defeated the Protestant troops of Mansfeld at the Battle of Dessau
• 1626, August 27 - Tilly's Catholic army defeated the troops of the Danish king Christian IV at the Battle of the village of Lutter
• 1627, spring - Wallenstein's army moved to the north of Germany and captured it, including the Danish peninsula of Jutland
• 1628, September 2 - at the Battle of Wolgast, Wallenstein once again defeated Christian IV, who was forced to withdraw from the war

  On May 22, 1629, a peace treaty was signed in Lübeck between Denmark and the Holy Roman Empire. Wallenstein returned the occupied lands to Christian, but obtained a promise not to interfere in German affairs. This ended the second stage of the Thirty Years' War

• 1629, March 6 - the emperor issued the Edict of Restitution. fundamentally curtailed the rights of Protestants
• 1630, June 4 - Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War
• 1630, September 13 - Emperor Ferdinand, fearing Wallenstein’s strengthening, dismissed him
• 1631, January 23 - an agreement between Sweden and France, according to which the Swedish king Gustavus Adolf pledged to keep a 30,000-strong army in Germany, and France, represented by Cardinal Richelieu, assumed the costs of its maintenance
• 1631, May 31 - The Netherlands entered into an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, pledging to invade Spanish Flanders and subsidize the king's army
• 1532, April - the emperor again called Wallenstein into service

  The third, Swedish, stage of the Thirty Years' War was the most fierce. Protestants and Catholics had long been mixed in the armies; no one remembered how it all began. Main driving motive the soldiers had profit. That's why they killed each other without mercy. Having stormed the Neu-Brandenburg fortress, the emperor's mercenaries completely killed its garrison. In response, the Swedes destroyed all prisoners during the capture of Frankfurt an der Oder. Magdeburg was completely burned, tens of thousands of its inhabitants died. On May 30, 1632, during the battle of the Rhine fortress, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army Tilly was killed, on November 16, in the battle of Lützen, the Swedish king Gustav Adolf was killed, on February 25, 1634, Wallenstein was shot by his own guards. In 1630-1635, the main events of the Thirty Years' War took place in Germany. Swedes' victories alternated with defeats. The princes of Saxony, Brandenburg, and other Protestant principalities supported either the Swedes or the emperor. The conflicting parties did not have the strength to bend fortune to their own benefit. As a result, a peace treaty was signed between the emperor and the Protestant princes of Germany in Prague, according to which the execution of the Edict of Restitution was postponed for 40 years, the imperial army was formed by all the rulers of Germany, who were deprived of the right to conclude separate alliances among themselves

• 1635, May 30 - Peace of Prague
• 1635, May 21 - France entered the Thirty Years' War to help Sweden, fearing the strengthening of the House of Habsburg
• 1636, May 4 - victory of Swedish troops over the allied imperial army in the Battle of Wittstock
• 1636, December 22 - the son of Ferdinand II Ferdinand III became emperor
• 1640, December 1 - Coup in Portugal. Portugal regained independence from Spain
• 1642, December 4 - Cardinal Richelieu, the “soul” of French foreign policy, died
• 1643, May 19 - the Battle of Rocroi, in which French troops defeated the Spaniards, marking the decline of Spain as a great power

  The last, Franco-Swedish stage of the Thirty Years' War had characteristic features world war. Military operations took place throughout Europe. The duchies of Savoy, Mantua, the Republic of Venice, and Hungary intervened in the war. Fighting were fought in Pomerania, Denmark, Austria, still in the German lands, in the Czech Republic, Burgundy, Moravia, the Netherlands, in the Baltic Sea. In England, which supports Protestant states financially, an outbreak broke out. It was raging in Normandy popular uprising. Under these conditions, peace negotiations began in the cities of Westphalia (a region in northwestern Germany) Osnabrück and Münster in 1644. Representatives of Sweden, German princes and the emperor met in Osanbrück, and ambassadors of the emperor, France, and the Netherlands met in Münster. Negotiations, the course of which was influenced by the results of the ongoing battles, lasted 4 years

Reasons:
1. The religious clash between Protestants and Catholics in Germany then developed into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe.
2. Confrontation between France and the coalition of Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. It was in France's interests to keep the empire fragmented and prevent the two Habsburg monarchies from uniting their actions. She had territorial claims in Alsace, Lorraine, the Southern Netherlands, Northern Italy, and the territories bordering Spain. France was ready to support the Evangelical League despite the difference in confessions.
3. The Republic of the United Provinces saw the Evangelical League as a natural ally against the Habsburgs
4. Denmark and Sweden tried to protect themselves from competition in the northern sea routes
5. England constantly fought with Spain at sea, and for her the anti-Habsburg policy seemed natural. But, at the same time, it competed in foreign trade with the countries of the anti-Habsburg coalition.

Progress of the war:
The Thirty Years' War is traditionally divided into four periods: Czech (1618–1623). , Danish(1625–1629), Swedish(1630–1635) and Franco-Swedish(1635–1648).
Conflicts outside Germany took the form of local wars: the war between Spain and the Netherlands, the War of the Mantuan Succession, Russian-Polish War, Polish-Swedish War.

The war began with the Czech uprising (“Prague Defenestration”) against Habsburg rule. In 1620, the Czech Republic was defeated, which gave. The Habsburgs had a noticeable advantage. In 1625, Protestant Denmark came out against them. France tried to drag strong Sweden into the war, but it failed. The Catholic camp won a number of victories and forced Denmark to withdraw from the war in May 1629. In 1628, clashes between France and the Habsburg forces began in northern Italy; they lasted three years and proceeded extremely sluggishly. In 1630 - and! Sweden entered the war, its troops marched throughout Germany and on September 17, 1631 won a victory at Breitenfeld, in May 1632 they occupied Munich, and in November at Lützen they defeated the Habsburg army. In 1632, Russia entered into a war with Poland, but, not receiving the expected reinforcements, the Russian army was defeated, and in 1634 Russia concluded the Peace of Polyanovsky. The Swedes belatedly moved to Poland, but in September 1634 at Nördlingen they were defeated by the united forces of the Catholic Coalition. In 1635, Sweden signed the Treaty of Paris with the Habsburgs, which was joined by some German Protestant princes; in the same year, Sweden concluded the Treaty of Stumsdorf with Poland and the Treaty of Saint-Germain with France. The final, decisive period of the war began, during which France waged military operations against Spain and Germany. Gradually, military superiority leaned towards the opponents of the Catholic Coalition. After a series of victories over the Habsburgs (at Rocroi, Nördlingen), France and Sweden began to divide Germany. According to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Sweden received the mouths of the navigable rivers of Northern Germany, France - Alsace, Verdun, Metz and Toul; Holland gained independence from Spain. Swedish troops remained in Germany for another 5 years, and the war between France and Spain continued until 1659.

Results:
1. The Peace of Westphalia was concluded on October 24, 1648. Under the terms of the peace, France received Southern Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, Sweden - the island of Rügen, Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, plus an indemnity of 5 million thalers. Saxony - Lusatia, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden. Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, the Bavarian Duke became Elector. All princes are legally recognized as having the right to enter into foreign political alliances. Consolidation of the fragmentation of Germany.

2. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) - one of the first pan-European military conflicts, which to one degree or another affected almost all European countries (including Russia), with the exception of Switzerland and Turkey

3. After the Thirty Years' War, hegemony in the international life of Western Europe passed from the Habsburgs to France. However, the Habsburgs were not completely crushed and remained a serious international force.

2. a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.

The Thirty Years' War in Germany, which began in Bohemia and lasted a whole generation in Europe, had one specific feature compared to other wars. The “first violin” in this war (a couple of years after it began) were not the Germans, although they, of course, took part in it. The most populous provinces of the Roman Empire became battlefields for the armies of Spain, Denmark, Sweden and France. How and for what reason did the Germans survive this?

1618 - Ferdinand of Styria (1578–1637) was heir to the Habsburg throne. Ferdinand was a convinced Catholic, raised by Jesuits. He was extremely radical towards the Protestants among his servants. In fact, this person could become like this powerful emperor The Roman Empire, which had not existed since the time of Charles V. However, the Protestant rulers did not strive for this.

He could even surpass the great Charles as emperor. In the Austrian and Bohemian lands, which were ruled directly by the Habsburgs, Ferdinand had real power. As soon as he became King of Bohemia in 1617, he revoked the conditions of religious toleration that his cousin Rudolf II had granted to Protestants in 1609. The Bohemians were in the same position as the Dutch in the 1560s - alien to their king in language, customs and religion.

As in the Netherlands, a rebellion broke out in Bohemia. 1617, May 23 - hundreds of armed representatives of the Bohemian nobility literally cornered the two most hated Catholic advisers of Ferdinand in one of the rooms of the Gradsin castle in Prague and threw them out of the window down from a height of more than 50 meters. The victims survived: perhaps (according to the Catholic point of view), they were saved by angels or (as Protestants believed) they simply fell into the straw. As a result of the incident, the rebels were brought to trial. They declared their goal to preserve the former privileges of Bohemia and save Ferdinand from the Jesuits. But they actually violated Habsburg laws.

The crisis spread rapidly from Bohemia to the edges of the empire. The elderly Emperor Matthias, who died in 1619, gave Germany's Protestant rulers the chance to join in the rebellion against Habsburg rule. Seven electors had the exclusive right to choose Matthias's heir: three Catholic archbishops - Mainz, Trier and Cologne, three Protestant rulers - Saxony, Brandenburg and the Palatinate - and the king of Bohemia.

If the Protestants had denied Ferdinand the right to vote, they could have canceled his candidacy as Emperor of the Roman Empire. But only Frederick V of the Palatinate (1596–1632) expressed his desire for this, but was forced to give in. 1619, August 28 - in Frankfurt, all votes except one were cast for Emperor Ferdinand II. A few hours after the elections, Ferdinand learned that, as a result of a riot in Prague, he had been dethroned, and Frederick of the Palatinate had taken his place!

Frederick received the crown of Bohemia. War was now inevitable. Emperor Ferdinand was preparing to crush the rebels and punish the German upstart who dared to lay claim to the Habsburg lands.

The uprising in Bohemia was at first very weak. The rebels did not have a heroic leader like John Hass (c. 1369–1415), who had led a revolt in Bohemia two centuries earlier. Members of the Bohemian nobility did not trust each other. The Bohemian government hesitated in deciding whether to introduce a special tax or create an army.

Lacking a candidate to replace Ferdinand, the rebels turned to a German elector from the Palatinate. But Frederick was not best choice. An inexperienced young man of 23 years old, he had no idea about the religion he was going to defend, and also could not gather enough money and people. To defeat the Habsburgs, the people of Bohemia turned to other princes who could help Frederick. However, only a few went to meet them halfway; Frederick's friends, for example his stepfather, King James I of England, also remained neutral.

The main hope of the rebels was based on the weakness of Ferdinand II. The emperor did not have his own army, and it is unlikely that he could create one. The Austrian lands of the Habsburgs and the majority of the nobility and townspeople supported the rebels. But Ferdinand was able to buy an army from three allies. Maximilian (1573–1651), Duke of Bavaria and the most powerful of the Catholic rulers, sent his army to Bohemia in response to a promise that the Emperor would grant him the franchise of Frederick and part of the lands of the Palatinate.

King Philip III of Spain also sent an army to help his cousin in exchange for the lands of the Palatinate. More surprisingly, the Lutheran Elector of Saxony also helped conquer Bohemia, his target being Habsburg Lusatia. The result of these preparations was a lightning-fast military campaign(1620–1622), during which the rebels were defeated.

The Bavarian army was easily able to defeat Bohemia at the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620. From the Alps to the Oder, the rebels capitulated and surrendered to the mercy of Ferdinand. Bavarian and spanish army then they conquered the Palatinate. Foolish Frederick was nicknamed “the king of one winter”: by 1622 he had lost not only the crown of Bohemia, but also all his German lands.

This war did not end in 1622, because not all issues could be resolved. One of the reasons for the continuation of the conflict was the emergence free armies, controlled by Landsknechts. Among their leaders, Ernst von Mansfeld (1580–1626) was the most memorable. A Catholic from birth, Mansfeld fought against Spain even before his conversion to Calvinism, and, having given his army to Frederick and Bohemia, he later frequently switched sides.

After Mansfeld fully supplied his army with everything necessary, plundering the territories through which he passed, he decided to move to new lands. After Frederick's defeat in 1622, Mansfeld marched his army into Northwestern Germany, where he met the forces of Maximilian of Bavaria. His soldiers did not obey the captain and mercilessly plundered the population of Germany. Maximilian benefited from the war: he received a significant part of Frederick's lands and his place in the electorate; In addition, he received a good sum of money from the emperor.

Swedish infantry during the Thirty Years' War

So Maximilian was not too keen on peace. Some Protestant rulers who had remained neutral in 1618–1619 now began to invade the imperial borders. In 1625, King Christian IV of Denmark, whose lands of Holsten were part of the empire, entered the war as the defender of Protestants in northern Germany. Christian was passionate about preventing the Catholic takeover of the empire, but he also hoped to gain his own benefit, as did Maximilian. He had a good army, but he could not find allies. The Protestant rulers of Saxony and Brandenburg did not want war, and they decided to join the Protestants. In 1626, Maximilian's troops defeated Christian and drove his army back to Denmark.

So, Emperor Ferdinand II benefited most from the war. The surrender of the rebels in Bohemia gave him a chance to crush Protestantism and rebuild the country's governance scheme. Having received the title of Elector of the Palatinate, Ferdinand gained real power. By 1626 he had achieved what had proved impossible in 1618 - he had created a sovereign Catholic Habsburg state.

In general, Ferdinand's military goals did not completely coincide with the aspirations of his ally Maximilian. The Emperor needed a more flexible instrument than the Bavarian army, although he was Maximilian's debtor and could not support the army on his own. This situation explained his surprising affection for Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634). A Bohemian Protestant from birth, Wallenstein joined the Habsburgs during the Bohemian revolution and managed to stay afloat.

Of all those who took part in the Thirty Years' War, Wallenstein was the most mysterious. A tall, menacing figure, he embodied all the most unpleasant human traits imaginable. He was greedy, evil, petty and superstitious. Achieving the highest recognition, Wallenstein did not set limits to his ambitions. His enemies were afraid of him and did not trust him; for modern scientists it is difficult to imagine who this person really was.

1625 - he joined imperial army. Wallenstein quickly became friends with the Bavarian general, but he still preferred to conduct the campaign on his own. He drove Mansfeld out of the empire and captured most of Denmark and the German Baltic coast. By 1628 he already commanded 125,000 soldiers. The Emperor made him Duke of Mecklenburg, giving him one of the newly conquered Baltic lands. Rulers who remained neutral, such as the Elector of Brandenburg, were too weak to stop Wallenstein from seizing their territories. Even Maximilian begged Ferdinand to protect his possessions.

1629 - the emperor felt that the time had come to sign his Edict of Restitution, perhaps the most full expression autocratic power. The Edict of Ferdinand outlawed Calvinism in the Holy Roman Empire and forced Lutherans to return all church property they had confiscated since 1552. 16 bishoprics, 28 cities and about 150 monasteries in Central and Northern Germany were converted to the Roman religion.

Ferdinand acted independently, without recourse to the imperial parliament. The Catholic princes were just as intimidated by the edict as the Protestant ones, because the emperor trampled on their constitutional freedoms and established his unlimited power. Wallenstein's soldiers soon captured Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Bremen and Augsburg, which for many years were considered truly Protestant, and forcefully established Catholicism there. There seemed to be no obstacle to Ferdinand, with the help of Wallenstein's army, completely abolishing the Augsburg formula of 1555 and establishing Catholicism in his empire.

The turning point came in 1630, when Gustavus Adolphus came with his army to Germany. He declared that he had come to defend German Protestantism and the freedom of the people from Ferdinand, but in reality, like many, he tried to make the maximum profit out of it. Swedish king faced the same obstacles as the previous leader of the Protestant movement, King Christian of Denmark: he was an outsider without German support.

Fortunately for Gustav Adolf, Ferdinand played into his hands. Feeling secure and in control of Germany, Ferdinand convened parliament in 1630 to name his son as successor to the throne and help Spanish Habsburgs oppose Holland and France. The emperor's plans were ambitious, and he underestimated the hostility of the German princes. The princes refused both of his proposals even after he tried to please them.

Having removed Wallenstein from the post of commander-in-chief of the army, Ferdinand did everything possible to strengthen his power. Gustav Adolf, however, had one more trump card. The French Parliament, headed by Cardinal Richelieu, agreed to sponsor his intervention in German affairs. In fact, the Cardinal of France had no reason to help Gustav Adolphus. Yet he agreed to pay Sweden a million lire a year to maintain a 36,000-strong army in Germany, because he wanted to crush the Habsburgs, paralyze the empire and voice French claims to territory along the Rhine. All Gustav Adolf needed was support from the Germans, which would allow him to become almost national hero. It was not an easy task, but as a result he persuaded the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony to join Sweden. Now he could act.

1631 - Gustavus Adolphus defeated the imperial army at Breitenfeld. This was one of the largest battles of the Thirty Years' War as it destroyed the gains of the Catholics of 1618–1629. During next year Gustav Adolf systematically occupied previously untouched Catholic regions in central Germany. The campaign in Bavaria was thought out especially carefully. The King of Sweden was preparing to behead Habsburg Austria and acted more and more actively, seeking to take Ferdinand's place on the throne Holy Empire.

Gustavus Adolphus's intervention was powerful because he preserved Protestantism in Germany and broke the imperial core of the Habsburgs, but his personal victories were not so bright. 1632 - Wallenstein returned from his retirement. Emperor Ferdinand had already approached the general with a request to again take command of the imperial troops, and Wallenstein eventually gave his consent.

His army became more than ever his personal instrument. On a dark, foggy November day in 1632, the two commanders-in-chief met near Lützen in Saxony. The armies clashed in furious battle. Gustavus Adolf set his horse at a gallop in the fog, being at the head of the cavalry. And soon his horse returned wounded and without a rider. The Swedish troops, deciding that they had lost their king, drove Wallenstein's army away from the battlefield. In the darkness, they eventually found Gustav Adolf's body on the ground, literally littered with bullets. “Oh,” exclaimed one of his soldiers, “if God would once again give me such a commander to win this glorious battle again!” This dispute is as old as time!”

The old differences had in fact led to a stalemate by 1632. No army was strong enough to win and weak enough to surrender. Wallenstein, who as before was the most feared figure in Germany, had a chance to resolve all issues peacefully through compromises. Unburdened by passionate religious beliefs or loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty, he was willing to make a deal with anyone who would pay for his services.

1633 - he served the emperor little, periodically turning to the enemies of Ferdinand: German Protestants who rebelled in Bohemia, the Swedes and the French. But now Wallenstein was too weak for decisive and dangerous game. 1634, February - Ferdinand removed him from his post as commander-in-chief and ordered a new general to capture Wallenstein, alive or dead. Wallenstein spent the winter in Pilsner, in Bohemia. He hoped that his soldiers would follow him and not the emperor, but they betrayed him. Soon after his flight from Bohemia, Wallenstein was driven into a corner. The final scene was gruesome: an Irish mercenary threw open Wallenstein's bedroom door, impaled the unarmed commander, dragged his bleeding body across the carpet and threw him down the stairs.

By that time, Ferdinand II was convinced that he lacked Wallenstein's military talent. 1634 - the emperor made peace with German allies Swedes - Saxony and Brandenburg. But the end of the war was still far away. 1635 - France, under the rule of Richelieu, sent new people and a considerable sum of money to Germany. To fill the gap due to the Swedish defeat, the belligerents now became Sweden and Germany against Spain and the Emperor.

The war escalated into a clash between two dynasties - the Habsburgs and the Bourbons, which was based on religious, ethnic and political reasons. Only a few Germans agreed to continue the war after 1635; most chose to remain on the sidelines. Nevertheless, their lands continued to remain battlefields.

The final part of the war from 1635 to 1648 was the most destructive. The Franco-Swedish army eventually gained the upper hand, but their goal seemed to be to maintain the war rather than a decisive blow against their enemy. It is noted that the French and Swedes rarely invaded Austria and never plundered the lands of the emperor in the way they plundered Bavaria and the territory of Central Germany. Such a war required greater talent in looting than in combat.

Each army was accompanied by “sympathizers” - women and children lived in the camp, whose duties were to make the army’s life as comfortable as possible, so that the soldiers’ desire for victory would not disappear. If you do not take into account the plague epidemics that often raged in military camps, the life of the military in the middle of the 17th century was much calmer and more comfortable than that of the townspeople. Many cities in Germany became military targets in that era: Marburg was captured 11 times, Magdeburg was besieged 10 times. However, the townspeople had the opportunity to hide behind the walls or outbid the attackers.

On the other hand, the peasants had no other option but to run away, which is why they suffered the most from the war. Total losses the population figures were staggering, even if we do not take into account the deliberate exaggeration of these figures by contemporaries who reported losses or demanded tax exemptions. Germany's cities lost more than one-third of their population, and during the war the peasantry decreased by two-fifths. Compared to 1618, the empire in 1648 had 7 or 8 million fewer people. Until the beginning of the 20th century, no European conflict had led to such human losses.

Peace negotiations began in 1644, but it took 4 years for diplomats meeting in Westphalia to finally reach an agreement. After all the disputes, the Treaty of Westphalia in 1644 became the de facto confirmation of the Peace of Augsburg. The Holy Roman Empire was once again becoming politically fragmented, divided into three hundred autonomous, sovereign principalities, most of which were small and weak.

The Emperor - now Ferdinand II's son Ferdinand III (reigned 1637–1657) - had limited power in his lands. The Imperial Parliament, in which all sovereign princes were represented, continued to exist de jure. Thus, the Habsburgs’ hope of uniting the empire into a single country with the absolute power of the monarch failed, this time completely.

The peace treaty also reaffirmed the provisions of the Augsburg Treaty regarding churches. Each prince had the right to establish Catholicism, Lutheranism or Calvinism on the territory of his principality. Compared to the 1555 treaty, major advances were made in terms of guarantees of personal freedom of religion for Catholics living in Protestant countries, and vice versa, although in reality the Germans continued to practice the religion of their ruler.

Anabaptists and members of other sects were excluded from the Treaty of Westphalia and continued to suffer persecution. Thousands of their followers emigrated to America, especially Pennsylvania, in the 18th century. After 1648 northern part The empire was almost entirely Lutheran, and the southern one was Catholic with a layer of Calvinists located along the Rhine. In no other part of Europe have Protestants and Catholics achieved such a balance.

Almost all the main participants in the Thirty Years' War received part of the lands under the Treaty of Westphalia. France got part of Alaska and Lorraine, Sweden - Western Pomerania on the Baltic coast. Bavaria retained part of the lands of the Palatinate and its place in the Electorate. Saxony received Lusatia. Brandenburg, given its passive role in the war, annexed Eastern Pomerania and Magdeburg.

Even the son of Frederick V, the future king of Bohemia, was not forgotten: the Palatinate was returned to him (albeit reduced in size) and eight seats in the electorate were presented to him. The Swiss Confederation and the Dutch Republic were recognized as independent of the Holy Empire. Neither Habsburg Spain nor Austria gained territory in 1648, but the Spanish Habsburgs already held the largest block of land.

And Ferdinand III had to control the political and religious situation in Austria and Bohemia more strictly than his father before the uprising in Bohemia. It could hardly be said that everyone received enough under the agreement for 30 years of war. But the state in 1648 seemed unusually stable and strong; political boundaries Germany were virtually unchanged before the arrival of Napoleon. Religious boundaries remained until the 20th century.

The Treaty of Westphalia ended the Wars of Religion in Central Europe. Even after 1648, the Thirty Years' War in the works of the 17th and 18th centuries. was considered an example of how not to wage wars. According to authors of the time, the Thirty Years' War demonstrated the dangers of religious unrest and armies led by mercenaries. Philosophers and rulers, despising religious barbarians war XVII centuries, came to a different way of waging war with an army that was professional enough to avoid looting, and introduced within such a framework as to avoid bloodshed as much as possible.

To 19th-century scholars, the Thirty Years' War seemed disastrous for the nation for many reasons, including the fact that it delayed the national unification of Germany for many centuries. Twentieth-century scholars may not have been so obsessed with the idea of ​​German unification, but they fiercely criticized the Thirty Years' War for being completely rational use human resources.

One historian formulated his thoughts this way: “Spiritually inhuman, economically and socially destructive, disordered in its causes and confused in its actions, ineffectual in the end - it is outstanding in European history an example of meaningless conflict." This statement highlights the most negative aspects war. It is difficult to find advantages in this conflict.

Modern critics draw some not entirely pleasant parallels between ideological positions and cruelty mid-17th century century and ours modern style constant war. Therefore, Bertolt Brecht chose the Thirty Years' War as the period for his anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children, written after the end of World War II. But of course, the analogies between World War II and the Thirty Years' War are strained: when everyone was eventually tired of the war, diplomats in Westphalia were able to reach a peace agreement.

IN early XVII century, Europe underwent a painful “reformatting”. The transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age could not be carried out easily and smoothly - any breakdown of traditional foundations is accompanied by a social storm. In Europe, this was accompanied by religious unrest: the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The religious Thirty Years' War began, in which almost all countries in the region were drawn into.

Europe entered the 17th century, carrying with it from the previous century the burden of unresolved religious disputes, which also aggravated political contradictions. Mutual claims and grievances resulted in a war that lasted from 1618 to 1648 and was called “ Thirty Years' War" It is considered to be the last European religious war, after which international relations took on a secular character.

Reasons for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War

• Counter-Reformation: an attempt by the Catholic Church to win back from Protestantism the positions lost during the Reformation
• The desire of the Habsburgs, who ruled the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and Spain, for hegemony in Europe
• Concerns of France, which saw in the Habsburg policies an infringement of its national interests
• The desire of Denmark and Sweden to monopolize control of the Baltic sea trade routes
• The selfish aspirations of numerous petty European monarchs, hoping to snatch something for themselves in the general chaos

The protracted conflict between Catholics and Protestants, the collapse of the feudal system and the emergence of the concept nation state coincided with the unprecedented strengthening of the imperial Habsburg dynasty.

Austrian ruling house in the 16th century it extended its influence to Spain, Portugal, Italian states, Bohemia, Croatia, and Hungary; If we add to this the vast Spanish and Portuguese colonies, the Habsburgs could claim to be the absolute leaders of the then “civilized world.” This could not but cause discontent among the “neighbors in Europe.”

Religious problems were added to everything. The fact is that the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 resolved the issue of religion with a simple postulate: “Whose power, his faith.” The Habsburgs were zealous Catholics, and yet their possessions also extended to “Protestant” territories. The conflict was inevitable. His name is Thirty Years' War 1618-1648.

Stages of the Thirty Years' War

Results of the Thirty Years' War

• The Peace of Westphalia set boundaries European countries, becoming the source document for all treaties until the end of the 18th century
• German princes received the right to conduct a policy independent of Vienna
• Sweden has achieved dominance in the Baltic and North Sea
• France received Alsace and the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, Verdun
• Holland is recognized as an independent state
• Switzerland gained independence from the Empire
• WITH Peace of Westphalia it is customary to count down modern era in international relations

It is not possible to retell its course here; it is enough to recall that all the leading European powers were drawn into it in one way or another - Austria, Spain, Poland, Sweden, France, England and a number of small monarchies that now form Germany and Italy. The meat grinder, which claimed more than eight million lives, ended with the Peace of Westphalia - a truly epoch-making event.

The main thing is that the old hierarchy that had developed under the dictation of the Holy Roman Empire was destroyed. From now on the chapters independent states Europe received equal rights with the emperor, which means that international relations have reached a qualitatively new level.

The Westphalian system recognized the main principle of state sovereignty; Foreign policy was based on the idea of ​​a balance of power, which does not allow any one state to strengthen at the expense of (or against) others. Finally, having formally confirmed the Peace of Augsburg, the parties gave guarantees of freedom of religion to those whose religion differed from the official one.

Reference table for thirty years war contains the main periods, events, dates, battles, countries involved and the results of this war. The table will be useful for schoolchildren and students in preparing for tests, exams and the Unified State Examination in history.

Czech period of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1625)

Danish period of the Thirty Years' War (1625-1629)

Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War (1630-1635)

Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War (1635-1648)

Results of the war: Thirty Years' War was the first war to affect all segments of the population. IN Western history it remained one of the most difficult European conflicts among the predecessors of the World Wars of the 20th century. The greatest damage was caused to Germany, where, according to some estimates, 5 million people died. Many regions of the country were devastated and for a long time remained deserted. Crushing blow was inflicted on the productive forces of Germany. In the armies of both warring parties Epidemics, constant companions of wars, broke out. The influx of soldiers from abroad, the constant deployment of troops from one front to another, as well as flight civilian population, spread the pestilence further and further from the centers of disease. The plague became a significant factor in the war. The immediate result of the war was that over 300 small German states received full sovereignty under nominal membership of the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806. The war did not automatically lead to the collapse of the Habsburgs, but it changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became obvious. In addition, Sweden has become great power, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic. Adherents of all religions (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism) found in the empire equal rights. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests. It is customary to count the modern era in international relations with the Peace of Westphalia.