At the beginning of the 17th century, Europe was undergoing a painful “reformatting”. The transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age could not be carried out easily and smoothly - any break in the traditional foundations is accompanied by a social storm. In Europe, this was accompanied by religious unrest: the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The religious Thirty Years' War in which almost all the countries of the region were involved.

Europe entered the 17th century, carrying with it the burden of unresolved religious disputes from the previous century, which also exacerbated 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.

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
• The fears of France, which saw in the policy of the Habsburgs an infringement of their national interests
• The desire of Denmark and Sweden to monopoly control the maritime trade routes of the Baltic
• Selfish aspirations of numerous petty European monarchs, who hoped to snatch something for themselves in a general dump

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

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

Religious issues 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, that is faith." The Habsburgs were zealous Catholics, and meanwhile their possessions extended to the "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 established the borders of European states, becoming the source document for all treaties until the end of the 18th century.
• German princes received the right to pursue a policy independent of Vienna
• Sweden has achieved dominance in the Baltic and the 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
• It is customary to count the modern era in international relations from the Peace of Westphalia

There is no way to retell its course here; suffice it to recall that all the leading European powers—Austria, Spain, Poland, Sweden, France, England, and a number of petty monarchies that now form Germany and Italy—were drawn into it in one way or another. 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, which was formed under the dictation of the Holy Roman Empire, was destroyed. From now on, the heads of independent states of Europe have become equal in rights with the emperor, which means that international relations have reached a qualitatively new level.

The Westphalian system recognized as the main principle the principle of state sovereignty; the basis foreign policy the idea of ​​a balance of power was laid down, which did 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 religious freedom to those whose religion differed from the official one.

Thirty Years' War: Causes, Course and Results.
The Thirty Years' War is a war that lasted from 1618 to 1648 and was fought for hegemony in the Holy Roman Empire and, in general, throughout Western Europe. Almost all large and small states of Western Europe were participants in the war.
Causes of the Thirty Years' War.
After the Reformation, which swept throughout Europe, the Catholic Church began to try to win back the influence it had lost earlier, and because of this movement, religious unrest increased in many states of Europe.
The popes of Rome by any means tried to set the monarchs to eradicate Protestantism and return to the bosom of the Vatican. Meanwhile, the power of the Jesuit order and the Holy Inquisition was seriously increasing.
In the Holy Roman Empire, Catholics, who were still in the minority, began to flare up. To suppress the rising uprisings, the Protestant princes united in the Evangelical Union, and the Catholics, in turn, created the Catholic League. However, this conflict extended beyond the Holy Roman Empire.
course of the Thirty Years' War.
On the one hand, there was the Habsburg camp and a number of Catholic states: Spain, the Papal States, Portugal and the Commonwealth. And on the other side, there were Protestants who created an anti-Habsburg coalition, which included France, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Venice, the Netherlands and several other smaller states. This or that support of the anti-Habsburg coalition was provided by Russia, Scotland and England.
It should be said that the camp of the Habsburgs and their allies were more united, as they fought on the same side more than once. And their opponents had great contradictions, but they were forced to discard them in order to confront such a powerful opponent.
At the first stage, the hostilities took place on the territory of the Czech Republic, where the Protestants remained dissatisfied with the Catholic monarch. The beginning was for the Protestants, they won a number of several important victories, including the capture of the largest Catholic city in the Czech Republic - Pilsen. Then, in 1619, the Catholics seized the initiative.
The key battle of this period should be considered the battle on White Mountain in 1620, where the Catholics inflicted a crushing defeat on the Protestant forces.
The first period of the war ended in 1624, and the victory remained with the Habsburgs.
During the Danish period (1625-1629), Sweden joined the Protestants. Despite the fact that the northern princes of the empire gained new allies, they still could not resist the Catholic League and its forces occupied Northern Germany.
The third period - Swedish (1630-1634) also ended with the defeat of the Protestant Sweden and the German princes and another victory for the Catholic League and the Habsburgs.
During the final stage of the war - the Franco-Swedish (1635-1648) against the Habsburgs, France went to war along with its numerous allies. The war took place with varying success, and both sides greatly exhausted themselves with hostilities.
It was not until the 1640s that France, together with its allies, began to seize the initiative, which soon led to the defeat of the Catholic League.
Results of the Thirty Years' War.
The total losses during the Thirty Years' War amounted to approximately 8 million people. This figure makes it clear that this war was one of the bloodiest in the entire history of Western Europe. Some lands of the Holy Roman Empire lost half of their population. In total, Germany lost 40% of the rural and 30% of the urban population of the country.
Due to the war, inflation began, which seriously undermined the economy of the empire.
If before the start of the war the hegemony in Europe was held by the Habsburgs, then after the war France acquired it. A serious decline began for Spain, although the Habsburgs were not completely defeated. Sweden also gained its heyday during the war, which lasted until the Great Northern War.
This war also brought changes in military tactics, artillery began to play an increasingly important role on the battlefield, and infantry with cold weapons began to play a smaller role. The role of supplying the army increased, as the troops themselves grew in numbers and demanded a huge amount of provisions.

Thirty Years' War, in short description, is a conflict in the center of Europe between the Catholic and Lutheran (Protestant) princes of Germany. For three decades - from 1618 to 1648. - military clashes alternated with brief, unstable truces, religious fanaticism mixed with political ambitions, the desire to enrich themselves through war and the seizure of foreign territories.

The Reformation movement, which began, we recall briefly, in the sixteenth century, divided Germany into two irreconcilable camps - Catholic and Protestant. Supporters of each of them, not having an unconditional advantage within the country, were looking for support from foreign powers. And the prospects for the redistribution of European borders, control over the richest German principalities and the strengthening of international politics in the arena prompted the influential states of that time to intervene in the war, called the Thirty Years' War.

The impetus was the curtailment of the broad religious privileges of the Protestants in Bohemia, where Ferdinand II ascended the throne in 1618, and the destruction of prayer houses in the Czech Republic. The Lutheran community turned to Great Britain and Denmark for help. The nobility and knighthood of Bavaria, Spain and the Pope, in turn, briefly promised all-round assistance to the Catholic princes, and at first the advantage was on their side. The Battle of Belaya Gora near Prague (1620), won by the allies of the Roman emperor in a confrontation that became thirty years old, practically eradicated Protestantism in the Habsburg lands. Not satisfied with a local victory, a year later Ferdinand moved troops against the Lutherans of Bohemia, gaining another advantage in the war.

Britain, weakened by internal political differences, could not openly take the side of the Protestants, but supplied the troops of Denmark and the Dutch Republic with weapons and money. Despite this, by the end of the 1620s. the imperial army took control of almost all of Lutheran Germany and much of Danish territory. V summary, The act of restitution, signed by Ferdinand II in 1629, approved the complete return of the rebellious German lands to the fold of the Catholic Church. It seemed that the war was over, but the conflict was destined to become thirty years old.

Only the intervention of Sweden, subsidized by the French government, made it possible to revive hope for the victory of the anti-imperial coalition. In short, the victory near the town of Breitenfeld gave rise to a successful advance deep into German territory by forces led by the King of Sweden and the Protestant leader Gustavus Adolphus. By 1654, having received military support from Spain, Ferdinand's army pushed the main Swedish forces beyond the borders of southern Germany. Although the Catholic coalition put pressure on France, surrounded by enemy armies, Spanish from the south and German from the west, she entered into a thirty-year conflict.

After that, Poland also took part in the struggle, Russian empire, and the Thirty Years' War, in short, turned into a purely political conflict. From 1643, the French-Swedish forces won one victory after another, forcing the Habsburgs to agree to an agreement. Given the bloody nature and a lot of destruction for all participants, the final winner of the long-term confrontation was not determined.

The Westphalian Accords of 1648 brought a long-awaited peace to Europe. Calvinism and Lutheranism were recognized as legal religions, and France achieved the status of European arbiter. The independent states of Switzerland and the Netherlands appeared on the map, while Sweden was able to expand its territory (Eastern Pomerania, Bremen, the mouths of the Oder and Elbe rivers). The economically weakened monarchy of Spain was no longer a "thunderstorm of the seas", and neighboring Portugal proclaimed sovereignty back in 1641.

The price paid for stability was enormous, and the German lands suffered the most damage. But the thirty-year conflict ended the period of wars on religious grounds, and the confrontation between Catholics and Protestants ceased to dominate among international issues. The beginning of the Renaissance allowed European countries to gain religious tolerance, which had a beneficial effect on art and science.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) is a pan-European war that resulted from the confrontation between France and the coalition of the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs.

Features of the Thirty Years' War:

1) The first war of a pan-European scale

2) Became a leading factor in determining the foreign policy interests and priorities of all European states

3) The collision of two lines of political development of Europe:

medieval political tradition, embodied in the desire to create a single pan-European Christian monarchy (Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs)

the principle of creating strong states on a national basis (England, France, Holland and Sweden). In these centralized states, except for France, the Protestant religion prevailed.

Background of the Thirty Years' War:

In 1608-1609, two military-political unions of German princes on a confessional basis arose in Germany - the Evangelical Union and the Catholic League, each of which received the support of foreign states.

Reasons for the war:

Confrontation between France and the coalition of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. It was in France's interests to keep the empire fragmented and to prevent unity of action between the two Habsburg monarchies. She had territorial claims in Alsace, Lorraine, the Southern Netherlands, Northern Italy, and territories bordering Spain. France was ready to support the Evangelical League despite the difference in confessions. The Republic of the United Provinces saw the Evangelical League as a natural ally against the Habsburgs.

Denmark and Sweden tried to protect themselves from competition in the northern sea ​​routes 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.

The specific interests of different European countries and their common desire to stop the hegemonic goals of the Habsburgs determined the participation of each of them in the war in its various periods.

History of the Thirty Years' War:

Czech (1618-1623)

Danish (1625-1629)

Swedish (1630-1635)

· Franco-Swedish (1635-1648). In the first three periods, the advantage was on the side of the Habsburg bloc. The latter led to the defeat of the empire and its allies.

The results of the war:

Mutual attrition of the opposing sides, the absolute ruin of the population of Germany

· Growing social tension in the warring countries themselves.

Thirty Years' War - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Thirty Years' War" 2017, 2018.

- Thirty Years' War

Youth Wallenstein, Albrecht von Albrecht (Vojtech Wenceslas) von Wallenstein (Waldstein) (German Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein (Wallenstein), Czech Albrecht (Vojtech) Václav z Vald&... .

- Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia

At the time when Richelieu was the first minister (1624-1642), the threat of a new strengthening of the Habsburgs again hung over France. By the end of the 16th century, the pressure of the Turks on the possessions of the Habsburgs weakened: the Habsburgs again turned their eyes to Germany, hoping to restore their influence there and ....

- Thirty Years' War

XX. Requirements for the placement of weapons, the equipment of weapons rooms, storages, warehouses, premises for displaying, demonstrating or trading in weapons, shooting galleries and shooting ranges RESOLUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION OF JULY 21, 1998 No. 814 BASIC ....

- Thirty Years' War

When, in 1618, an uprising broke out in Moravia and Bohemia, Wallenstein saved the state treasury from Olmutz, participated with the cuirassier regiment formed by him in suppressing the uprising and cleared the whole country of Protestant troops, for which he was promoted to major general with ...

Albert von Wallenstein - commander of the Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) was the first all-European war. One of the most cruel, stubborn, bloody and longest in the history of the Old World. It began as a religious one, but gradually turned into a dispute for hegemony in Europe, territories and trade routes. It was conducted by the house of Habsburg, the Catholic principalities of Germany on the one hand, Sweden, Denmark, France, German Protestants on the other

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
— The fears of France, which saw in the policy of the Habsburgs an infringement of their national interests
The desire of Denmark and Sweden to monopoly control the maritime trade routes of the Baltic
— Selfish aspirations of numerous petty European monarchs, who hoped to snatch something for themselves in a general dump

Members of the Thirty Years' War

— Habsburg bloc - Spain and Portugal, Austria; Catholic League - some of the 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)

course of the Thirty Years' War. Briefly

“There was a mastiff, two collies and a St. Bernard, some bloodhounds and Newfoundlands, a beagle, a French poodle, a bulldog, a few lapdogs and two mutts. They sat patiently and thoughtfully. But then a young lady came in, leading a fox terrier on a chain; she left him between a bulldog and a 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) and all the other dogs opened hostilities. The big dogs fought among themselves; small dogs also fought with each other, and in their free moments they bit big dogs by the paws.(Jerome K. Jerome "Three in One Boat")

Europe 17th century

Something similar happened in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century. The Thirty Years' War began as a seemingly autonomous Czech uprising. But at the same time, Spain fought with the Netherlands, in Italy they sorted out the relations between the Duchy of Mantua, Monferrato and Savoy, in 1632-1634 Muscovy and the Commonwealth clashed, from 1617 to 1629 there were three major clashes between Poland and Sweden, Poland also fought with Transylvania, that in turn called on Turkey for help. In 1618, an anti-republican conspiracy was uncovered in Venice ...

• March 1618 - Czech Protestants appealed to Holy Roman Emperor Matthew with a demand to stop the persecution of people on religious grounds
• 1618, May 23 - in Prague, the participants of the Protestant congress committed violence against the representatives of the emperor (the so-called "Second Prague defenestration")
• 1618, summer - palace coup in Vienna. Matthew on the throne was replaced 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 lands of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, sieges and the capture of cities (Ceske Budejovice, Pilsen, Palatinate, Bautzen, Vienna, Prague, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Bergen-op -Zoom), battles (at the village of Sablat, on the White Mountain, at Wimpfen, at Hoechst, at Stadtlon, at Fleurus), diplomatic maneuvers were characteristic of the first stage of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1624). It ended with the victory of the Habsburgs. The Czech Protestant uprising failed, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Electoral Palatinate, securing a springboard for another war with the Netherlands

• 1624, June 10 - Treaty of Compiègne 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 growth of Catholic influence in northern Europe
• 1625, spring - Denmark opposed the imperial army
• 1625, April 25 - Emperor Ferdinand appointed Albrech von Wallenstein as commander of his army, who suggested that the emperor feed his mercenary army at the expense of the population of the theater of operations
• 1826, April 25 - Wallenstein's army at the battle of Dessau defeated the Protestant troops of Mansfeld
• 1626, August 27 - The Catholic army of Tilly defeated the troops of the Danish king Christian IV in 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 phase of the Thirty Years' War.

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

  The third, Swedish, stage of the Thirty Years' War was the most fierce. Protestants and Catholics had already mixed up in the armies for a long time, no one remembered how it all began. The main driving motive of the soldiers was profit. Because they killed each other without mercy. By storming the fortress of Neu-Brandenburg, the emperor's mercenaries completely killed his garrison. In response, the Swedes destroyed all the prisoners during the capture of Frankfurt an der Oder. Magdeburg was completely burned, tens of thousands of its inhabitants died. On May 30, 1632, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Tilly, was killed during the battle at the Rhine Fortress; on November 16, the Swedish king Gustav Adolf was killed in the battle of Lützen; on February 25, 1634, Wallenstein was shot dead by his own guards. In 1630-1635, the main events of the Thirty Years' War unfolded in Germany. Swedish 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 advantage. 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 Restitution Edict was postponed for 40 years, the imperial army was formed by all the rulers of Germany, who lost 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 - the victory of the 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 Richilier, the "soul" of French foreign policy, died
• 1643, May 19 - Battle of Rocroix, in which the French troops defeated the Spaniards, which marked the decline of Spain as a great power

  The last, Franco-Swedish stage of the Thirty Years' War had specific traits world war. Military operations were conducted throughout Europe. The duchies of Savoy, Mantua, the Venetian Republic, and Hungary intervened in the war. fighting were conducted in Pomerania, Denmark, Austria, still in the German lands, in the Czech Republic, Burgundy, Moravia, the Netherlands, in the Baltic Sea. In England, supporting the Protestant states financially, broke out. A popular uprising raged in Normandy. Under these conditions, in 1644, peace negotiations began in the cities of Westphalia (a region in northwestern Germany) Osnabrück and Münster. Representatives of Sweden, the German princes and the emperor met in Osanbrück, and the ambassadors of the emperor, France, and the Netherlands met in Münster. Negotiations, the course of which was influenced by the results of incessant fighting, lasted 4 years