Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War
Part of the European wars of religion and French–Habsburg rivalry
The Siege (Defence of a Church Courtyard During the Thirty Years' War) by Karl Friedrich Lessing (1848)
Date 23 May 1618 – 24 October 1648 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]
Belligerents
Anti-imperial alliance prior to 1635[a] 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 † Axel Oxenstierna Johan Banér Lennart Torstensson Carl Gustaf Wrangel Alexander Leslie Bernard of Saxe-Weimar Louis XIII Cardinal Richelieu Cardinal Mazarin Grand Condé Henri Turenne Maurice of Orange Frederick Henry Maarten Tromp Frederick V Graf von Mansfeld Jindřich Thurn Christian of Anhalt Christian IV Christian William John George I	Ferdinand II Ferdinand III Wallenstein X Matthias Gallas Archduke Leopold Melchior von Hatzfeldt von Holzappel † Ottavio Piccolomini Count Tilly † Pappenheim † Charles of Lorraine Raimondo Montecuccoli Johann von Werth Philip IV Olivares Cordoba Ambrogio Spinola Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand Maximilian of Bavaria Franz von Mercy †
Strength
Maximum actual[c][d] 100,000–140,000 Swedish[5][6] 27,000 Danes (1626)[7] 11,000 Hessian[8] 70,000–80,000 French[9] 80,000–90,000 Dutch[10]	Maximum actual 110,000 imperial[11] 90,000 Spanish[12][e] 20,500 Bavarians[13]
Casualties and losses
Combat deaths:[f] 110,000 in Swedish service[15] 80,000 in French, Bernardine,[g] and Hessian service[16][h] 30,000 in Danish service[16] 50,000 other[16]	Combat deaths: 120,000 in imperial service[16] 30,000 in Bavarian service[16] 30,000 other[16]
Total civilian and military deaths: 4,500,000 to 8,000,000[17][18][i]

The Thirty Years' War,^[j] fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from 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 had its origins in the 16th-century Reformation, which led to religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but the settlement was destabilised by the subsequent expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries. Combined with differences over the limits of imperial authority, religion was thus an important factor in starting the war. However, its scope and extent was largely the consequence of external drivers such as the French–Habsburg rivalry and the Dutch Revolt.^[20]

Its outbreak is generally traced to 1618,^[k] when the Catholic Emperor Ferdinand II was replaced as king of Bohemia by the Protestant Frederick V of the Palatinate. Although Ferdinand quickly regained control of Bohemia, Frederick's participation expanded 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, these factors turned an internal dynastic dispute into a European conflict.

The period 1618 to 1635 was primarily a civil war within the Holy Roman Empire, which largely ended with the Peace of Prague. However, France's entry into the war in alliance with Sweden turned the empire into one theatre of a wider struggle with their Habsburg rivals, Emperor Ferdinand III and Spain. Fighting ended with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, whose terms included greater autonomy 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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