AP Euro - Thirty Years' War and Treaty of Westphalia

Causes of the Thirty Years' War

"- In the Holy Roman Empire, Lutheran princes felt compelled to form the Protestant Union (1608, and Catholics retaliated with the Catholic League. Each alliance was determined that the other should make no religious or territorial advances. - The Spanish Habsburgs strongly supported the goals of their Austrian relatives: the unity of the empire and the preservation of Catholicism with it."

Result of Thirty Years' War

"Peace of Westphalia; the most destructive event for the central European economy and society prior to the two world wars, Brandenburg - Prussia becomes most powerful German state, France becomes the most powerful state in Europe."

Defenestration of Prague

"The Protestant reaction to the newly named Holy Roman Emperor's, Ferdinand II, revoking of religious freedom of the Bohemian Protestants. He wanted to fully restore the Catholic religion to the Eastern Habsburg lands of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary. In response, Protestant nobility threw the Holy Roman Empire's regents out of a window of the castle (part of the Bohemian Phase)."

The Bohemian Phase

"The first phase (1618-1625) was characterized by civil war in Bohemia between the Catholic League and the Protestant Union. In 1620, the Catholic forces defeated the Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain."

The French Phase

"The fourth phase (1635-1648) was prompted by French chief minister Richelieu's concern that the Habsburgs would rebound after the death of Gustavus Adolphus. Richelieu declared war on Spain and sent military as well as financial assistance. Finally, in October 1648 peace was achieved."

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

"The name of a series of treaties that concluded the 30 Years' War in 1648 and marked the end of large-scale religious violence in Europe. It recognized the independent authority of more than 300 German princes, reconfirming the emperor's severely limited authority; the Augsburg agreement of 1555 became permanent adding Calvinism to Catholicism and Lutheranism as legally permissible creeds; and the north German states remained Protestant, the south German states Catholic."

The Danish Phase

"The second phase (1625-1629) witnessed additional Catholic victories. The Protestants were under the leadership of the King Christian IV of Denmark. The Catholic imperial army led by Albert of Wallenstein swept through Silesia, north to the Baltic, and east into Pomerania, scoring smashing victories. Under Charles I, England briefly and unsuccessfully intervened by entering alliances against France and Spain. Habsburg power peaked in 1629. The emperor issued the Edict of Restitution, whereby all Catholic properties lost to Protestantism since 1552 were restored, and only Catholics and Lutherans were allowed to practice their faiths."

The Swedish Phase

"The third phase (1630-1635) began with the arrival in Germany of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and his army, who intervened to support the empire's Protestants. The French chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, subsidized the Swedes, hoping to weaken Habsburg power in Europe. King Adolphus won two important battles but was fatally wounded in combat."

Proved it was now More of a War of Greed and Politics

Assassination of Wallenstein by Ferdinand II