Causes of the beginning of the 30 years war. Thirty Years' War. Significance of the Peace of Westphalia

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 White Mountain 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. IN 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. Appeared on the map independent states Switzerland and the Netherlands, 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.

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 the 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 got the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Electoral Palatinate, securing a foothold 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 - against imperial army Denmark
1625, April 25 - Emperor Ferdinand appointed Albrech von Wallenstein as 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 at the battle of Dessau defeated the Protestant troops of Mansfeld
1626, August 27 - Tilly's Catholic army defeated the troops 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 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, during the battle at the Rhine fortress, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army Tilly died, 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 Edict of Restitution 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 character traits world war. Military operations were conducted throughout Europe. The duchies of Savoy, Mantua, the Venetian Republic, and Hungary intervened in the war. The fighting was fought 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

Causes of the Thirty Years' War

Emperor Matthew (1612-1619) was just as incapable a ruler as his brother Rudolph, especially in the tense state of affairs in Germany, when an inevitable and cruel struggle threatened between Protestants and Catholics. The struggle was accelerated by the fact that the childless Matthew appointed his cousin Ferdinand of Styria as his successor in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. The steadfast character and Catholic jealousy of Ferdinand were well known; Catholics and Jesuits rejoiced that their time had come; Protestants and Hussites (Utraquists) in Bohemia could not expect anything good for themselves. The Bohemian Protestants built two churches for themselves on the monastic lands. The question arose - do they have the right to do so or not? The government decided that it was not, and one church was locked up, another was ruined. defenders, granted to the Protestants by the “Letter of Majesty”, gathered and sent a complaint to Emperor Matthew in Hungary; the emperor refused and forbade the defenders to gather for further meetings. This terribly annoyed the Protestants; they attributed such a decision to the imperial advisers who ruled Bohemia in the absence of Matthew, they were especially angry at two of them, Martinitsa and Slavat, distinguished by Catholic zeal.

In the heat of irritation, the Hussite deputies of the state Bohemian ranks armed themselves and, under the leadership of Count Thurn, went to Prague Castle, where the board met. Entering the hall, they began to speak in large words with the advisers and soon turned from words to deeds: they seized Martinitz, Slavat and the secretary Fabricius and threw them out of the window “according to the good old Czech custom,” as one of those present put it (1618). By this act, the Czechs broke with the government. The ranks seized the government into their own hands, expelled the Jesuits from the country and put up an army under the leadership of Turn.

Periods of the Thirty Years' War

Czech period (1618–1625)

The war began in 1619 and began happily for the insurgents; Thurn was joined by Ernst von Mansfeld, the daring leader of the mob squads; the Silesian, Lusatian and Moravian ranks raised the same banner with the Czechs and drove the Jesuits away from them; the imperial army was forced to clear Bohemia; Matthew died, and his successor, Ferdinand II, was besieged in Vienna itself by the troops of Thurn, with whom the Austrian Protestants joined.

In this terrible danger, the steadfastness of the new emperor saved the throne of the Habsburgs; Ferdinand held on tight and held out until bad weather, lack of money and provisions forced Thurn to lift the siege of Vienna.

Count Tilly. Van Dyck painter, c. 1630

In Frankfurt, Ferdinand II was proclaimed emperor, and at the same time the ranks of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia broke away from the House of Habsburg and elected the head of the Protestant union, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, as king. Frederick accepted the crown and hurried to Prague for the coronation. The nature of the main rivals had an important influence on the outcome of the struggle: against the smart and firm Ferdinand II, the empty, inflexible Frederick V stood. In addition to the emperor, the Catholics also had Maximilian of Bavaria, strong in personal and material means; on the side of the Protestants, Maximilian corresponded to the elector John George of Saxony, but the correspondence between them was limited to material means alone, for John George bore the not very honorable title of the beer king; there was a rumor that he said that the animals that inhabited his forests were dearer to him than his subjects; finally, John George, as a Lutheran, did not want to have anything to do with the Calvinist Frederick V and sided with Austria when Ferdinand promised him the land of the puddles (Lusatia). Finally, the Protestants, beside the incapable princes, did not have capable generals, while Maximilian of Bavaria accepted into his service the famous general, the Dutchman Tilly. The fight was uneven.

Frederick V arrived in Prague, but from the very beginning he behaved badly in his affairs, he did not get along with the Czech nobles, not allowing them to participate in the affairs of government, obeying only his Germans; he pushed away the passion for luxury and entertainment from himself, also by Calvin iconoclasm: all the images of saints, paintings and relics were taken out of the Prague Cathedral Church. Meanwhile, Ferdinand II concluded an alliance with Maximilian of Bavaria, with Spain, attracted the Elector of Saxony to his side, and brought Austrian officials into obedience.

The troops of the emperor and the Catholic League, under the command of Tilly, appeared near Prague. In November 1620, a battle took place between them and the troops of Frederick at the White Mountain, Tilly won. Despite this misfortune, the Czechs did not have the means to continue the struggle, but their king Frederick completely lost his spirit and fled from Bohemia. Deprived of a leader, unity and direction of movement, the Czechs could not continue the struggle, and in a few months Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia were again subdued under the power of the House of Habsburg.

Bitter was the fate of the vanquished: 30,000 families had to leave the fatherland; instead of them, a population alien to the Slavs and Czech history appeared. Bohemia was considered to have 30,000 inhabited places; only 11,000 remained after the war; before the war there were over 4 million inhabitants; in 1648 no more than 800,000 remained. A third of the land was confiscated; the Jesuits rushed to the booty: in order to break the closest connection of Bohemia with its past, in order to inflict the heaviest blow on the Czech people, they began to destroy books on Czech as heretical; one Jesuit boasted that he had burned over 60,000 volumes. It is clear what fate must have awaited Protestantism in Bohemia; two Lutheran pastors remained in Prague, whom they did not dare to expel, for fear of arousing the indignation of the Saxon elector; but the papal legate of Caraffa insisted that the emperor give the order to expel them. “The matter is going on,” said Caraffa, “not about two pastors, but about freedom of religion; as long as they are tolerated in Prague, not a single Czech will enter the bosom of the Church.” Some Catholics, the king of Spain himself, wanted to moderate the jealousy of the legate, but he did not pay attention to their ideas. “The intolerance of the House of Austria,” said the Protestants, “forced the Czechs to revolt.” “Heresy,” said Caraffa, “ignited a rebellion.” Emperor Ferdinand II expressed himself more strongly. "God himself," he said, "incited the Czechs to rebellion in order to give me the right and the means to destroy the heresy." The Emperor tore up the Letter of Majesty with his own hands.

The means for the destruction of heresy were as follows: Protestants were forbidden to engage in any kind of skill, it was forbidden to marry, make wills, bury their dead, although they had to pay the cost of burial to the Catholic priest; they were not allowed into hospitals; soldiers with sabers in their hands drove them into churches, in the villages the peasants were driven there with dogs and whips; the soldiers were followed by Jesuits and Capuchins, and when a Protestant, in order to save himself from a dog and a whip, announced that he was converting to the Roman Church, he first of all had to declare that this conversion was made voluntarily. The imperial troops allowed themselves terrible cruelties in Bohemia: one officer ordered the killing of 15 women and 24 children; a detachment consisting of Hungarians burned seven villages, and all living things were exterminated, the soldiers chopped off the hands of babies and pinned them to their hats in the form of trophies.

After the battle of the White Mountain, three Protestant princes continued to fight the league: Duke Christian of Brunswick, Ernst Mansfeld, already known to us, and Margrave Georg Friedrich of Baden-Durlach. But these defenders of Protestantism acted in exactly the same way as the champions of Catholicism: unfortunate Germany now had to experience what Russia experienced shortly before in Time of Troubles and once tested France in its troubled times under Charles VI and Charles VII; the troops of the Duke of Brunswick and Mansfeld consisted of combined squads, completely similar to our Cossack squads of the Time of Troubles or the French Arminaks; people of different classes, who wanted to live merrily at the expense of others, flocked from everywhere under the banner of these leaders, not receiving salaries from the latter, lived by robbery and, like animals, raged against the peaceful population. German sources, in describing the horrors that Mansfeld's soldiers allowed themselves, almost repeat the news of our chroniclers about the ferocity of the Cossacks.

Danish period (1625–1629)

The Protestant partisans could not stand against Tilly, who triumphed everywhere, and Protestant Germany showed a complete incapacity for self-defence. Ferdinand II declared Frederick V deprived of the electoral dignity, which he transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria. But the strengthening of the emperor, the strengthening of the House of Austria, was to arouse fear in the powers and force them to support the German Protestants against Ferdinand II; at the same time, the Protestant powers, Denmark, Sweden, intervened in the war, besides political, and from religious motives, while Catholic France, ruled by the cardinal of the Roman Church, began to support the Protestants from purely political goals in order to prevent the House of Habsburg from growing dangerously for her.

The first to intervene in the war was Christian IV, the Danish king. Emperor Ferdinand, who until now was dependent on the league, triumphant through Tilly, the commander Maximilian of Bavaria, now set his army against the Danish king, his commander: it was the famous Wallenstein (Waldstein) Wallenstein was a Czech of humble noble origin; born in Protestantism, he entered the house as an orphan as a minor, to a Catholic uncle, who converted him to Catholicism, gave him up to the Jesuits, and then enrolled him in the service of the Habsburgs. Here he distinguished himself in Ferdinand's war against Venice, then in the Bohemian war; having made a fortune for himself in his youth by a profitable marriage, he became even richer by buying up confiscated estates in Bohemia after the Battle of Belogorsk. He suggested to the emperor that he would recruit 50,000 troops and support him, without demanding anything from the treasury, if he was given unlimited power over this army and rewarded from the conquered lands. The emperor agreed, and Wallenstein fulfilled his promise: 50,000 people actually gathered around him, ready to go wherever there was prey. This huge Wallenstein squad brought Germany to the last stage of disaster: having captured some terrain, Wallenstein's soldiers began by disarming the inhabitants, then indulged in systematic robbery, sparing neither churches nor graves; having plundered everything that was in sight, the soldiers began to torture the inhabitants in order to force out an indication of hidden treasures, they managed to invent tortures, one more terrible than the other; finally, the demon of destruction took possession of them: without any benefit to themselves, out of a single thirst for extermination, they burned houses, burned utensils, agricultural implements; they stripped men and women naked and let hungry dogs on them, which they took with them for this hunt. The Danish War lasted from 1624 to 1629. Christian IV could not resist the forces of Wallenstein and Tilly. Holstein, Schleswig, Jutland were deserted; Wallenstein had already announced to the Danes that they would be treated like slaves if they did not elect Ferdinand II as their king. Wallenstein conquered Silesia, expelled the Dukes of Mecklenburg from their possessions, which he received as a fief from the emperor, the Duke of Pomeranian was also forced to leave his possessions. Christian IV of Denmark, in order to preserve his possessions, was forced to make peace (in Lübeck), pledging not to interfere anymore in German affairs. In March 1629, the emperor issued the so-called Restorative edict, according to which all her possessions, captured by the Protestants after the Treaty of Passava, were returned to the Catholic Church; apart from the Lutherans of the Augsburg Confession, the Calvinists and all other Protestant sects were excluded from the religious world. The Restorative Edict was issued to please the Catholic League; but soon this league, i.e., its leader Maximilian of Bavaria, demanded something else from Ferdinand: when the emperor expressed a desire that the league withdraw its troops from there to facilitate Franconia and Swabia, Maximilian, in the name of the league, demanded that the emperor himself dismiss Wallenstein and dissolve him an army that, with its robberies and cruelties, seeks to completely devastate the empire.

Portrait of Albrecht von Wallenstein

The imperial princes hated Wallenstein, an upstart who, from a simple nobleman and leader of a huge band of robbers, became a prince, insulted them with his proud address and did not hide his intention to place the imperial princes in the same relation to the emperor, in which the French nobility was to their king; Maximilian of Bavaria called Wallenstein "dictator of Germany". The Catholic clergy hated Wallenstein because he did not care at all about the interests of Catholicism, about spreading it in the areas occupied by his army; Wallenstein allowed himself to say: “One hundred years have already passed since Rome was last sacked; now he must be much richer than in the time of Charles V. Ferdinand II had to give in to the general hatred against Wallenstein and took away his command over the army. Wallenstein retired to his Bohemian estates, waiting for a more favorable time; he did not wait long.

Swedish period (1630–1635)

Portrait of Gustav II Adolf

France, ruled by Cardinal Richelieu, could not indifferently see the strengthening of the House of Habsburg. Cardinal Richelieu first tried to oppose Ferdinand II with the strongest Catholic prince of the empire, the head of the league. He presented to Maximilian of Bavaria that the interests of all German princes required resistance to the growing power of the emperor, that the best remedy to maintain German freedom consists in taking the imperial crown from the House of Austria; the cardinal urged Maximilian to take the place of Ferdinand II, to become emperor, vouching for the help of France and its allies. When the head of the Catholic League did not succumb to the seductions of the cardinal, the latter turned to the Protestant sovereign, who alone was willing and able to fight against the Habsburgs. It was the Swedish king Gustavus Adolf, son and successor of Charles IX.

Vigorous, gifted, and well educated, Gustavus Adolphus, from the very beginning of his reign, waged successful wars with his neighbors, and these wars, by developing his military abilities, strengthened his desire for a role more significant than the modest role played in Europe by his predecessors. He ended the war with Russia with the Peace of Stolbov, beneficial to Sweden, and considered himself entitled to announce to the Swedish Senate that the dangerous Muscovites were driven away from the Baltic Sea for a long time. On the Polish throne sat his cousin and mortal enemy Sigismund III, from whom he took Livonia. But Sigismund, as a zealous Catholic, was an ally of Ferdinand II, therefore, the power of the latter strengthened the Polish king and threatened Sweden with great danger; relatives of Gustav-Adolf, the dukes of Mecklenburg, were deprived of their possessions, and thanks to Wallenstein, Austria was established on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Gustavus Adolphus understood the basic laws of European political life and wrote to his chancellor Oxenstierna: “All European wars are one huge war. It is more profitable to transfer the war to Germany than to be forced to defend oneself in Sweden later. Finally, religious convictions imposed on the Swedish king the obligation to prevent the destruction of Protestantism in Germany. That is why Gustav-Adolf willingly accepted Richelieu's proposal to act against the House of Austria in alliance with France, which meanwhile tried to settle peace between Sweden and Poland and thus untied Gustav-Adolf's hands.

In June 1630, Gustavus Adolphus landed on the shores of Pomerania and soon cleared this country of imperial troops. The religiosity and discipline of the Swedish army was in striking contrast to the predatory character of the army of the league and the emperor, so the people in Protestant Germany received the Swedes very cordially; from the princes of Protestant Germany, the Dukes of Lüneburg, Weimar, Lauenburg and the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel took the side of the Swedes; but the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony were very reluctant to see the entry of the Swedes into Germany and remained inactive to the last extreme, despite the exhortations of Richelieu. The cardinal advised all German princes, Catholics and Protestants, to take advantage of Swedish war, connect and force the emperor to have peace that would ensure their rights; if they now split up, some will become for the Swedes, others for the emperor, then this will lead to the final destruction of their fatherland; having one interest, they must act together against a common enemy.

Tilly, who now commanded the troops of the league and the emperor together, spoke out against the Swedes. In the autumn of 1631, he met with Gustavus Adolf at Leipzig, was defeated, lost 7,000 of his best troops and retreated, giving the winner an open road to the south. In the spring of 1632, the second meeting of Gustav-Adolf with Tilly took place, which was strengthened at the confluence of the Lech into the Danube. Tilly could not defend the Lech crossings and received a wound from which he soon died. Gustavus Adolphus occupied Munich, while the Saxon troops entered Bohemia and captured Prague. In such an extreme case, Emperor Ferdinand II turned to Wallenstein. He forced himself to beg for a long time, finally agreed to again create an army and save Austria on the condition of unlimited disposal and rich land rewards. As soon as the news spread that the Duke of Friedland (the title of Wallenstein) had resumed his activities, seekers of prey rushed to him from all sides. Having ousted the Saxons from Bohemia, Wallenstein moved to the borders of Bavaria, fortified not far from Nuremberg, repulsed the attack of the Swedes on his camp and rushed into Saxony, still devastating everything in its path like locusts. Gustavus Adolf hurried after him to save Saxony. On November 6, 1632, the Battle of Lützen took place: the Swedes won, but lost their king.

The behavior of Gustavus Adolf in Germany after the Leipzig victory aroused the suspicion that he wanted to establish himself in this country and receive imperial dignity: for example, in some places he ordered the inhabitants to swear allegiance to him, did not return the Palatinate to his former Elector Frederick, persuaded the German princes to join the Swedish service; he said that he was not a mercenary, that he could not be satisfied with money alone, that Protestant Germany should separate from Catholic Germany under a special head, that the structure of the German Empire was outdated, that the empire was a dilapidated building fit for rats and mice, and not for man.

The strengthening of the Swedes in Germany particularly alarmed Cardinal Richelieu, who, in the interests of France, did not want Germany to have a strong emperor, Catholic or Protestant. France wanted to take advantage of the present turmoil in Germany to increase her possessions and let Gustavus Adolf know that she wanted to regain the heritage of the Frankish kings; to this the Swedish king replied that he had come to Germany not as an enemy or a traitor, but as a patron, and therefore could not agree that at least one village should be taken away from her; he also did not want to allow the French army to enter German soil. That is why Richelieu was very happy about the death of Gustavus Adolphe and wrote in his memoirs that this death delivered Christianity from many evils. But by Christianity we must understand here France, which really gained a lot from the death of the Swedish king, having received the opportunity to interfere directly in the affairs of Germany and get more than one village from her.

After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the government of Sweden, after the infancy of his only daughter and heiress Christina, passed to the State Council, which decided to continue the war in Germany and entrusted its conduct to Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, a famous state mind. The strongest Protestant sovereigns of Germany, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, shied away from the Swedish alliance; Oxenstierna managed to conclude an alliance in Heilbronn (in April 1633) only with the Protestant ranks of Franconia, Swabia, the Upper and Lower Rhine. The Germans inspired Oxenstierna not a very favorable opinion of themselves. “Instead of going about their business, they only get drunk,” he told a French diplomat. Richelieu in his notes says about the Germans that they are ready to betray their most sacred obligations for money. Oxenstierna was appointed director of the Heilbronn League; command over the army was entrusted to Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar and the Swedish General Gorn; France helped with money.

Meanwhile, Wallenstein, after the Battle of Lützen, began to show much less energy and enterprise than before. For a long time he remained inactive in Bohemia, then went to Silesia and Lusatia and, after minor battles, concluded a truce with enemies and entered into negotiations with the Electors of Saxony, Brandenburg and Oxenscherna; these negotiations were conducted without the knowledge of the Vienna court and aroused strong suspicion here. He freed Count Thurn, the implacable enemy of the House of Habsburg, from captivity, and instead of expelling the Swedes from Bavaria, he again settled in Bohemia, which suffered terribly from his army. From everything it was clear that he was looking for the death of his implacable enemy, Maximilian of Bavaria, and, knowing the intrigues of his enemies, he wanted to ensure himself from a second fall. Numerous opponents of him and envious people spread rumors that he wants to With help the Swedes to become an independent Bohemian king. The emperor believed these suggestions and decided to get rid of Wallenstein.

Three of the most important generals in the army of the Duke of Friedland plotted against their commander in chief, and Wallenstein was killed at the beginning of 1634 in Jaeger. Thus perished the most famous ataman of a rabble gang, which, fortunately for Europe, no longer appeared in it after the Thirty Years' War. The war, especially at the beginning, was of a religious nature; but the soldiers of Tilly and Wallenstein did not rage out of religious fanaticism at all: they exterminated Catholics and Protestants alike, both their own and others. Wallenstein was a complete representative of his soldiers, was indifferent to faith, but believed in the stars, diligently studied astrology.

After the death of Wallenstein, the emperor's son Ferdinand assumed command of the imperial army. In the autumn of 1634, the imperial troops united with the Bavarian troops and utterly defeated the Swedes at Nördlingen, Horn was captured. The elector of Saxony concluded a separate peace with the emperor in Prague, Brandenburg and other German princes followed his example; only Hesse-Kassel, Badei and Wirtemberg remained in the Swedish alliance.

Franco-Swedish period (1635–1648)

France took advantage of the weakening of the Swedes after the Battle of Nördlingen to clearly intervene in the affairs of Germany, restore balance between the fighting parties and receive a rich reward for this. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, after the Nördlingen defeat, turned to France with a request for help; Richelieu concluded an agreement with him, according to which Bernhard's army was to be kept at the expense of France; Oxenstierna went to Paris and received a promise that a strong French corps would act in concert with the Swedes against the emperor; finally, Richelieu made an alliance with Holland against the Spanish, allies of the emperor.

In 1636, military happiness again went over to the side of the Swedes, who were commanded by General Baner. Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar also happily fought on the Upper Rhine. He died in 1639, and the French took advantage of his death: they captured Alsace, which they had previously promised to Bernhard, and took his army for themselves as a mercenary. The French army appeared in southern Germany to act here against the Austrians and Bavarians. On the other hand, the French were active in the Spanish Netherlands: the young Prince of Conde began his brilliant career with a victory over the Spaniards at Rocroix.

Peace of Westphalia 1648

Meanwhile, in February 1637, Emperor Ferdinand II died, and under his son, Ferdinand III, peace negotiations began in Westphalia in 1643: in Osnabrück between the emperor and the Catholics on the one hand, and between the Swedes and Protestants on the other; in Munster - between Germany and France. The latter was then more powerful than all the states of Europe, and its claims aroused just fears. The French government did not hide its plans: according to Richelieu, two works were written (Dupuy and Cassan), which proved the rights of the French kings to various kingdoms, duchies, counties, cities and countries; it appeared that Castile, Arragon, Catalonia, Navarre, Portugal, Naples, Milan, Genoa, the Netherlands, England must belong to France; imperial dignity belongs to the French kings as the heirs of Charlemagne. The writers reached the point of being ridiculous, but Richelieu himself, without demanding Portugal and England, explained to Louis XIII about "natural boundaries" France. “It is not necessary,” he said, “to imitate the Spaniards, who are always trying to spread their possessions; France must think only about how to strengthen itself in itself, it is necessary to establish itself in Maine and reach Strasbourg, but at the same time it is necessary to act slowly and carefully; one can also think of Navarre and Franche-Comte.” Before his death, the cardinal said: “The purpose of my ministry was to return to Gaul its ancient borders assigned to it nature compare the new Gaul in everything with the ancient. It is not surprising, therefore, that during the Westphalian negotiations, the Spanish diplomats began to curry favor with the Dutch, even ventured to tell the latter that the Dutch waged a just war against Spain, for they defended their freedom; but it would be highly imprudent of them to help France to grow stronger in their neighbourhood. Spanish diplomats promised two Dutch commissioners 200,000 thalers; the king of France wrote to his representatives whether it was possible to persuade the Dutch to his side by some gift.

In October 1648, the negotiations ended. France received the Austrian part of Alsace, Sundgau, Breisach, with the preservation for the imperial cities and the owners of their former relations with the empire. Sweden received most of Pomerania, the island of Rügen, the city of Wismar, the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, also with the preservation of their former relations with Germany. Brandenburg received part of Pomerania and several bishoprics; Saxony - the lands of the puddles (Lausitz); Bavaria - Upper Palatinate and retained the electoral dignity for her duke; The Lower Palatinate, with the newly established eighth electoral dignity, was given to the son of the unfortunate Frederick. Switzerland and the Netherlands were recognized independent states. Regarding Germany, it was decided that the legislative power in the empire, the right to collect taxes, declare war and conclude peace belongs to the Sejm, consisting of the emperor and members of the empire; the princes received supreme power in their possessions with the right to conclude alliances among themselves and with other states, but not against the emperor and the empire. The imperial court, which decided the disputes of the ranks with each other and with their subjects, was to consist of judges of both confessions; at the Diets, the imperial cities received equal voting rights with the princes. Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists were granted complete religious and liturgical freedom and equality of political rights.

Results of the Thirty Years' War

The consequences of the Thirty Years' War were important for Germany and for the whole of Europe. In Germany, the imperial power has completely drooped, and the unity of the country has remained only in name. The empire was a motley mixture of heterogeneous possessions, which had the weakest connection with each other. Each prince ruled independently in his domain; but since the empire still existed in name, since there was a general authority in name, which was obliged to take care of the welfare of the empire, and meanwhile there was no force that could force this general authority to cooperate, the princes considered themselves entitled to postpone any care for the affairs of the common fatherland and have unlearned to take its interests to heart; their glances, their feelings have been reduced; they could not act separately due to impotence, the insignificance of their means, and they completely lost the habit of any general action without being very accustomed to it before, as we have seen; consequently they had to bow before every power. Since they lost consciousness of the highest governmental interests, the only goal of their aspirations was to feed themselves at the expense of their possessions and feed themselves as satisfyingly as possible; for this, after the Thirty Years' War, they had every opportunity: during the war they were accustomed to collecting taxes without asking with ranks; they did not abandon this habit even after the war, especially since the terribly devastated country, which required a long rest, could not put up forces that would have to be reckoned with; during the war, the princes arranged for themselves an army, it remained with them after the war, strengthening their power. Thus, the restriction of princely power by ranks that existed before disappeared, and the unlimited power of princes with bureaucracy was established, which could not be useful in small possessions, especially in the above-mentioned character adopted by the princes.

In general, in Germany, material and spiritual development was stopped for a certain time by the terrible devastation caused by the gangs of Tilly, Wallenstein and the Swedish troops, who, after the death of Gustavus the throat of the most disgusting filth was known under the name of the Swedish drink. Germany, especially in the south and west, represented the desert. In Augsburg, out of 80,000 inhabitants, 18,000 remained; in Frankenthal, out of 18,000, only 324; in the Palatinate, only a fiftieth of the total population remained. In Hesse, 17 cities, 47 castles and 400 villages were burned.

With regard to the whole of Europe, the Thirty Years' War, having weakened the House of Habsburg, crushed and completely weakened Germany, thereby raised France, made her the preeminent power in Europe. Another consequence of the Thirty Years' War was that Northern Europe represented by Sweden took an active part in the fate of other states and was an important member of the European system. Finally, the Thirty Years' War was the last religious war; The Peace of Westphalia, proclaiming the equality of the three confessions, put an end to the religious struggle generated by the Reformation. The dominance of secular interests over spiritual ones is very noticeable during the Peace of Westphalia: spiritual possessions are taken away from the Church in a multitude, secularized, pass to secular Protestant lords; it was said that in Münster and Osnabrück the diplomats played with bishoprics and abbeys, as children play with nuts and dough. The pope protested against peace, but no one paid any attention to his protest.

The Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648 affected almost all European countries. This struggle for the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire was the last European religious war.

Causes of the conflict

There were several reasons for the Thirty Years' War.

The first is the clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Germany, which eventually escalated into a larger conflict - the struggle against the hegemony of the Habsburgs.

Rice. 1. German Protestants.

The second is the desire of France to leave the Habsburg Empire fragmented in order to retain the right to part of its territories.

And the third is the struggle between England and France for naval dominance.

Periodization of the Thirty Years' War

Traditionally, it is divided into four periods, which will be clearly presented in the table below.

*years*	*Period*


	Swedish
	Franco-Swedish

Outside of Germany, there were local wars: the Netherlands fought with Spain, the Poles fought with the Russians and Swedes.

Rice. 2. A group of Swedish soldiers during the Thirty Years' War.

Course of the Thirty Years' War

The beginning of the Thirty Years' War in Europe is associated with the Czech uprising against the Habsburgs, which, however, was defeated by 1620, and five years later, Denmark, a Protestant state, came out against the Habsburgs. France's attempts to draw a strong Sweden into the conflict were unsuccessful. In May 1629, Denmark was defeated and withdrawn from the war.

In parallel, the war with the Habsburg domination begins France, which in 1628 enters into a confrontation with them in northern Italy. But fighting were sluggish and protracted - ended only in 1631.

The year before, Sweden entered the war, which in two years went through all of Germany and eventually defeated the Habsburgs at the Battle of Lützen.

The Swedes in this battle lost about one and a half thousand people, and the Habsburgs - twice as much.

Russia also took part in this war, which opposed the Poles, but was defeated. After that, the Swedes moved to Poland, who were defeated by the Catholic coalition and in 1635 were forced to sign the Paris Peace Treaty.

However, over time, the superiority still turned out to be on the side of the opponents of Catholicism, and in 1648 the war was ended in their favor.

Results of the Thirty Years' War

This long religious war had a number of consequences. So, among the results of the war, one can name the conclusion of the Westphalian peace treaty, which was important for everyone, which took place in 1648, on October 24.

The terms of this agreement were as follows: South Alsace and part of the Lorraine lands departed France, Sweden received a significant indemnity and also actual power over Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bregen, as well as the island of Rügen.

Rice. 3. Alsace.

The only ones that this military conflict did not affect in any way were Switzerland and Turkey.

Hegemony in international life ceased to belong to the Habsburgs - after the war, France took their place. However, the Habsburgs still remained a significant political force in Europe.

After this war, the influence of religious factors on the life of European states sharply weakened - interfaith differences ceased to be important. Geopolitical, economic and dynastic interests came to the fore.

What have we learned?

General information about the Thirty Years' War, starting with its causes and course, was also briefly learned about the results of the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. We learned which states were participants in this religious conflict and how it eventually ended for them. We received information about the name “Westphalian Peace Treaty” and its main conditions. Also considered available in the textbook for grade 7 general information about the conflict.

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The Czech uprising in 1618 developed into a war, which was called Thirty Years' War. It lasted from 1618 to 1648. Almost all the states of Europe participated in the Thirty Years' War, thus it was the first all-European war. Therefore, this period of time is often referred to as " Struggle for dominance in Europe».

Causes of the Thirty Years' War

At the beginning of the 17th century, relations between European states were still aggravated by dynastic, trade, economic and religious conflicts.

In 1630, the army of Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany. In a series of battles, Gustavus Adolphus defeated in parts the troops of the imperials and the Catholic League, which outnumbered his army. Military operations were transferred to the territory of the Catholic camp - to the south of Germany. The emperor urgently returned Wallenstein to command of the army, but this could not stop the Swedes. Even after the death of Gustavus Adolphus in one of the battles, they continued to successfully crush the troops opposing them.

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

The position of the Habsburgs became critical after Catholic France entered the war on the side of the Protestant states in 1635. From this moment on, the Thirty Years' War finally loses its religious character. French armies, successfully fighting against the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, they defended the interests of the French monarchy and the commercial and industrial circles associated with it. Germany turned into a huge battlefield where the one who had the power was right. All armies adopted the principle of "war feeds war". Mercenary squads turned into hordes of rapists and marauders(robbers). In the end, after everything that was possible was taken from the disadvantaged people, and there was nothing to plunder, the war came to an end.

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