Participants of the 30 Years' War. Causes of the Thirty Years' War. What did this world bring to the Germans?

15.01.2024

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, persistent, bloody and long-lasting in the history of the Old World. It started out as a religious one, but gradually turned into a dispute over hegemony in Europe, territories and trade routes. Conducted by the House of Habsburg, the Catholic principalities of Germany on the one hand, Sweden, Denmark, France, and 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
— 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

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. The main driving motive of the soldiers was 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 unfolded in the lands of 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 - 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 the characteristic features of a world war. Military operations took place throughout Europe. The duchies of Savoy, Mantua, the Republic of Venice, and Hungary intervened in the war. The fighting took place in Pomerania, Denmark, Austria, still in the German lands, in the Czech Republic, Burgundy, Moravia, the Netherlands, and in the Baltic Sea. In England, which supports Protestant states financially, an outbreak broke out. A popular uprising raged in Normandy. 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

The Thirty Years' War: causes, course and results.
The Thirty Years' War was 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 took part in the war.
Causes of the Thirty Years' War.
After the Reformation, which swept across Europe, the Catholic Church began to try to regain its previously lost influence, and because of this movement, religious unrest increased in many European countries.
The Roman Popes tried by any means to incite the monarchs to eradicate Protestantism and return to the fold of the Vatican. Meanwhile, the power of the Jesuit order and the Holy Inquisition was seriously increasing.
In the Holy Roman Empire, unrest began to break out among Catholics, who were still in the minority. To suppress the growing rebellion, 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.
The 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 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On the other side were the Protestants, who created the anti-Habsburg coalition, which included France, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Venice, the Netherlands and several other smaller states. Russia, Scotland and England provided some form of support for the anti-Habsburg coalition.
It should be said that the Habsburg camp and their allies were more united, since they fought on the same side more than once. And their opponents had great contradictions, but they were forced to put them aside in order to confront such a powerful enemy.
At the first stage, the fighting took place on the territory of the Czech Republic, where Protestants remained dissatisfied with the Catholic monarch. The Protestants started, they won a number of 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 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 found new allies, they were still unable to resist the Catholic League and its forces occupied Northern Germany.
The third period - Swedish (1630-1634) also ended with the defeat of 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) France, along with its many allies, went to war against the Habsburgs. The war proceeded with varying degrees of success and both sides were greatly exhausted by the fighting.
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.
Total losses during the Thirty Years' War were 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 country's rural and 30% of its urban population.
Because of the war, inflation began, which seriously undermined the economy of the empire.
If before the start of the war the Habsburgs held hegemony in Europe, then after the war France gained it. Spain began a serious decline, although the Habsburgs were not completely defeated. Sweden also flourished during the war, which lasted until the Northern War.
This war also brought changes in military tactics; artillery began to play an increasingly important role on the battlefield, and infantry with melee weapons began to play a smaller role. The role of supplying the army increased, as the troops themselves grew in number and required huge amounts of provisions.

The immediate cause of the war was the May 1618 events in Prague. Openly trampling on the religious and political rights of the Czechs, guaranteed in the 16th century and confirmed at the beginning of the 17th century by a special imperial “Charter of Majesty,” the Habsburg authorities persecuted Protestants and supporters of the country’s national independence.

The response was mass unrest, during which the noble opposition played a particularly active role. An armed mob broke into the old royal palace of Prague Castle and threw two members of the Habsburg-appointed government and their secretary out of a window. All three miraculously survived after falling from an 18-meter height into the fortress moat. This act of "defenestration" was perceived in the Czech Republic as a sign of its political break with Austria. The revolt of the “subjects” against the power of Ferdinand became the impetus for the war.

First (Czech) period of the war (1618-1624).

The new government, elected by the Czech Sejm, strengthened the country's military forces, expelled the Jesuits from it, and negotiated with Moravia and other nearby lands on the creation of a general federation similar to the United Netherlands Provinces.

Czech troops, on the one hand, and their allies from the Principality of Transylvania, on the other, moved towards Vienna and inflicted a number of defeats on the Habsburg army.

Having announced their refusal to recognize Ferdinand's rights to the Czech crown, the Sejm elected the head of the Evangelical Union, the Calvinist Elector Frederick of the Palatinate, as king. The noble leaders of the Czech uprising hoped that German Protestants would provide them with military assistance. They were afraid to rely on the weapons of the people.

Calculations about the power of Frederick of the Palatinate turned out to be false: he had neither large funds nor an army that still had to be recruited from mercenaries. Meanwhile, a stream of money from the pope and the Catholic League poured into the emperor’s treasury for similar purposes, Spanish troops were recruited to help Austria, and the Polish king promised assistance to Ferdinand.

In this situation, the Catholic League managed to force Frederick of the Palatinate to agree that hostilities would not affect German territory proper and would be limited to the Czech Republic. As a result, the mercenaries recruited by Protestants in Germany and the Czech forces became separated. Catholics, on the contrary, achieved unity of action.

On November 8, 1620, approaching Prague, the combined forces of the imperial army and the Catholic League in the Battle of White Mountain defeated the Czech army, which was significantly inferior to them. It fought steadfastly, but to no avail. The Czech Republic, Moravia, and other areas of the kingdom were occupied by the victors.

Terror of unprecedented proportions began. The torture and execution of participants in the uprising were particularly sophisticated. The country was flooded with Jesuits. All worship other than Catholic worship was prohibited, and Czech national shrines associated with the Hussite movement were desecrated. The Inquisition expelled tens of thousands of Protestants of all denominations from the country. Crafts, trade, and Czech culture suffered a heavy blow.

The rampant counter-reformation was accompanied by massive confiscations of the lands of those executed and refugees, whose property passed to local and German Catholics. New fortunes were created, new tycoons appeared. In total, during the Thirty Years' War in the Czech Republic, the owners of three quarters of the lands changed. In 1627, the so-called Funeral Diet in Prague consolidated the loss of national independence by the Czech Republic: the “Charter of Majesty” was canceled, the Czech Republic was deprived of all previous privileges.

The consequences of the Battle of Belogorsk affected the change in the political and military situation not only in the Czech Republic, but throughout Central Europe in favor of the Habsburgs and their allies. The possessions of Frederick of the Palatinate were occupied on both sides by the armies of the Spaniards and the Catholic League. He himself fled from Germany. The Emperor announced that he was depriving him of the dignity of Elector - from now on it passes from the Count of the Palatinate to Maximilian of Bavaria, the head of the league.

Meanwhile, the troops of the league, under the leadership of the major military leader Tilly, plundering entire regions along the way, advanced north, supporting and establishing Catholic orders. This caused particular concern in Denmark, England and the Republic of the United Provinces, which saw Tilly's successes as a direct threat to their interests. The first stage of the war was over, its expansion was brewing.

Second (Danish) war period (1625-1629).

The Danish king Christian IV became a new participant in the war. Fearing for the fate of his possessions, which included secularized church lands, but also hoping to increase them in case of victories, he secured large monetary subsidies from England and Holland, recruited an army and sent it against Tilly between the Elbe and Weser rivers. The troops of the North German princes, who shared the sentiments of Christian IV, joined the Danes.

To fight new opponents, Emperor Ferdinand II needed large military forces and large financial resources, but he had neither one nor the other. The emperor could not rely only on the troops of the Catholic League: Maximilian of Bavaria, to whom they obeyed, understood well what kind of real power they provided, and was increasingly inclined to pursue an independent policy. He was secretly pushed towards this by the energetic, flexible diplomacy of Cardinal Richelieu, who headed French foreign policy and set as his goal, first of all, to cause discord in the Habsburg coalition.

The situation was saved by Albrecht Wallenstein, an experienced military leader who commanded large detachments of mercenaries in the imperial service. The richest magnate, a Germanized Czech Catholic nobleman, he bought up so many estates, mines and forests during the time of land confiscations after the Battle of Belogorsk that almost the entire north-eastern part of the Czech Republic belonged to him.

Wallenstein proposed to Ferdinand II a simple and cynical system for creating and maintaining a huge army: it should live off high but strictly established indemnities from the population. The larger the army, the less will be the ability to resist its demands.

Wallenstein intended to turn the robbery of the population into law. The emperor accepted his offer. For the initial costs of forming an army, Ferdinand provided Wallenstein with several of his own districts; in the future, the army had to feed itself from the conquered territories.

Wallenstein, who later proved himself to be an outstanding commander, had extraordinary organizational skills. In a short time, he created a 30,000-strong army of mercenaries, which by 1630 had grown to 100,000 people. Soldiers and officers of any nationality were recruited into the army, including Protestants.

They were paid a lot and, most importantly, regularly, which was rare, but they were kept under strict discipline and paid great attention to professional military training. In his possessions, Wallenstein established the manufacturing production of weapons, including artillery, and various equipment for the army. In necessary cases, he mobilized thousands of craftsmen for urgent work; Warehouses and arsenals with large reserves were prepared in different parts of the country. Wallenstein quickly and repeatedly covered his expenses through enormous military booty and gigantic indemnities mercilessly collected from cities and villages.

Having devastated one territory, he moved with his army to another.

Wallenstein's army, which advanced north, together with Tilly's army, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Danes and the troops of the Protestant princes. Wallenstein occupied Pomerania and Mecklenburg, became master in Northern Germany and failed only in the siege of the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, which was helped by the Swedes.

Invading Jutland with Tilly and threatening Copenhagen, he forced the Danish king, who fled to the islands, to sue for peace. Peace was concluded in 1629 in Lübeck on terms quite favorable for Christian IV due to the intervention of Wallenstein, who was already making new, far-reaching plans.

Without losing anything territorially, Denmark pledged not to interfere in German affairs. Everything seemed to return to the situation of 1625, but in reality the difference was great: the emperor dealt another powerful blow to the Protestants, now had a strong army, Wallenstein was entrenched in the north, and received an entire principality as a reward - the Duchy of Mecklenburg.

Wallenstein also acquired a new title - “General of the Baltic and Oceanic Seas.” There was a whole program behind it: Wallenstein began the feverish construction of his own fleet, apparently deciding to intervene in the struggle for dominance over the Baltic and the northern sea routes. This caused a sharp reaction in all northern countries.

Wallenstein's successes were also accompanied by outbursts of jealousy in the Habsburg camp. During the passage of his army through the princely lands, he did not consider whether they were Catholics or Protestants. He was credited with wanting to become something like a German Richelieu, intent on stripping the princes of their liberties in favor of the central authority of the emperor.

On the other hand, the emperor himself began to fear the excessive strengthening of his commander, who had troops loyal to him and was increasingly independent in political matters. Under pressure from Maximilian of Bavaria and other leaders of the Catholic League, dissatisfied with the rise of Wallenstein and not trusting him, the emperor agreed to dismiss him and disband the army subordinate to him. Wallenstein was forced to return to private life on his estates.

One of the biggest consequences of the defeat of the Protestants in the second stage of the war was the adoption by the emperor in 1629, shortly before the Peace of Lübeck, of the Edict of Restitution.

It provided for the restoration (restitution) of the rights of the Catholic Church to all secularized property seized by Protestants since 1552, when Emperor Charles V was defeated in a war with the princes. In accordance with the edict, the lands of two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, and a number of abbeys and monasteries were to be taken away from the owners and returned to the church.

Taking advantage of the military victories, the emperor and the Catholic Church wanted to turn back time. The edict caused general indignation among Protestants, but also worried some Catholic princes, who were afraid that the emperor was beginning to overly energetically reshape the established order of the Empire.

The growing deep dissatisfaction with the results of the war and imperial policy among Protestants, discord in the Habsburg camp, and finally, the serious fears of a number of European powers in connection with the sharp disruption of the political balance in Germany in favor of the Habsburgs - all these were symptoms of the insecurity of the position of the emperor and the forces that supported him, which, seemed to be at the pinnacle of success. The events of 1630-1631 again decisively changed the situation in Germany.

Third (Swedish) period of the war (1630-1635).

In the summer of 1630, having imposed a truce on Poland, having secured large subsidies from France for the war in Germany and a promise of diplomatic support, an ambitious and courageous commander, the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, landed in Pomerania with his army.

His army was unusual for Germany, where both belligerents used mercenary troops and both had already mastered Wallenstein's methods of maintaining them.

The army of Gustav Adolphus was small, but homogeneous national in its core and distinguished by high combat and moral qualities. Its core consisted of personally free peasant countrymen, holders of state lands, obliged to perform military service. Seasoned in battles with Poland, this army used the talented innovations of Gustavus Adolphus, not yet known in Germany: the wider use of firearms, light field artillery from rapid-firing cannons, uncluttered, flexible infantry battle formations. Gustav Adolf attached great importance to its maneuverability, not forgetting about the cavalry, the organization of which he also improved.

The Swedes came to Germany under the slogans of getting rid of tyranny, protecting the freedoms of German Protestants, and fighting attempts to implement the Edict of Restitution; their army, which had not yet expanded with mercenaries, did not plunder at first, which caused the joyful amazement of the population, who gave it the warmest welcome everywhere. All this ensured at first major successes for Gustavus Adolphus, whose entry into the war meant its further expansion, the final escalation of regional conflicts into a European war on German territory.

The actions of the Swedes in the first year were constrained by the maneuvering of the Brandenburg and Saxon electors, who remembered the defeat of Denmark and were afraid to openly support Gustavus Adolphus, which made it difficult for him to advance through their possessions.

Taking advantage of this, Tilly, at the head of the league troops, besieged the city of Magdeburg, which had sided with the Swedes, took it by storm and subjected it to wild robberies and destruction. The brutal soldiers killed almost 30 thousand townspeople, not sparing women and children.

Having forced both electors to join him, Gustavus Adolphus, despite the low effectiveness of the assistance of the Saxon troops, moved his army against Tilly and in September 1631 inflicted a crushing defeat on him at the village of Breitenfeld near Leipzig.

This became a turning point in the war - the way to Central and Southern Germany was opened for the Swedes. Making rapid transitions, Gustav Adolf moved to the Rhine, spent the winter period, when hostilities ceased, in Mainz, and in the spring of 1632, he was already near Augsburg, where he defeated the emperor’s troops on the Lech River. In this battle Tilly was mortally wounded. In May 1632, Gustav Adolf entered Munich, the capital of Bavaria, the emperor's main ally. The victories strengthened the Swedish king in his rapidly expanding plans to create a great power.

The frightened Ferdinand II turned to Wallenstein. Having reserved unlimited powers for himself, including the right to collect any indemnity on the conquered territory and independently conclude truces and peace with opponents, he agreed to become the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Empire and quickly recruited a large army.

By this time, Germany was already so devastated by the war that Wallenstein, who tried to use the military innovations of the Swedes in his army, and Gustav Adolf began to increasingly resort to tactics of maneuvering and waiting, which led to the loss of combat effectiveness and even the death of part of the enemy troops from lack supplies.

The character of the Swedish army changed: having lost part of its original composition in battles, it grew greatly due to professional mercenaries, of whom there were many in the country at that time and who often moved from one army to another, no longer paying attention to their religious banners. The Swedes now robbed and pillaged just like all the other troops.

In an effort to force Saxony - the Swedes' largest ally in Germany - to break its alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, Wallenstein invaded its lands and began to methodically devastate them.

Responding to the Saxon Elector's desperate calls for help, Gustavus Adolphus led his troops into Saxony. In November 1632, near the city of Lützen, again near Leipzig, the second major battle took place: the Swedes won and forced Wallenstein to retreat to the Czech Republic, but Gustav Adolf died in the battle.

His army was now subject to the policies of the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstierna, who was strongly influenced by Richelieu. The death of Gustav Adolf accelerated the fall of the Swedish hegemony that had actually been established in Germany. As had happened more than once, the princes, fearing any great-power plans, began to lean toward the idea of reconciliation with the Habsburgs if they refused to carry out the counter-reformation in foreign lands.

Wallenstein exploited these sentiments. In 1633, he negotiated with Sweden, France, and Saxony, not always informing the emperor about their progress and his diplomatic plans.

Suspecting him of treason, Ferdinand II, set up against Wallenstein by a fanatical court camarilla, removed him from command at the beginning of 1634, and in February in the fortress of Eger Wallenstein was killed by conspiratorial officers loyal to the imperial power, who considered him a state traitor.

In the fall of 1634, the Swedish army, having lost its former discipline, suffered a severe defeat from the imperial troops at Nördlingen.

Detachments of imperial soldiers and Spanish troops, having driven the Swedes out of southern Germany, began to devastate the lands of the Protestant princes in the western part of the country, which strengthened their intention to achieve a truce with Ferdinand.

At the same time, negotiations were underway for peace between the emperor and the Saxon elector. He was imprisoned in Prague in the spring of 1635. The Emperor, having made concessions, refused to carry out the Edict of Restitution in Saxony for 40 years, until further negotiations, and this principle was supposed to extend to other principalities if they joined the Prague Peace.

The Habsburgs' new tactics, designed to split their opponents, bore fruit - North German Protestants joined the peace. The general political situation again turned out to be favorable for the Habsburgs, and since all other reserves in the fight against them had been exhausted, France decided to enter the war itself.

Fourth (Franco-Swedish) period of the war (1635-1648).

Having renewed the alliance with Sweden, France made diplomatic efforts to intensify the struggle on all fronts where it was possible to confront both the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs.

The Republic of the United Provinces continued its war of liberation with Spain and achieved a number of successes in major naval battles. Mantua, Savoy, Venice, and the Principality of Transylvania supported the Franco-Swedish alliance. Poland took a neutral but friendly position to France. Russia supplied Sweden with rye and saltpeter (for making gunpowder), hemp and ship timber on preferential terms.

The last, longest period of the war was fought in conditions where the exhaustion of the warring parties as a result of the enormous long-term strain on human and financial resources was increasingly felt.

As a result, maneuver warfare, small battles, and only a few times larger battles prevailed.

The battles went on with varying degrees of success, but in the early 40s, the growing superiority of the French and Swedes was determined. The Swedes defeated the imperial army in the fall of 1642, again at Breitenfedde, after which they occupied all of Saxony and penetrated into Moravia.

The French captured Alsace, acting in concert with the forces of the Republic of the United Provinces, won a number of victories over the Spaniards in the Southern Netherlands, and dealt them a heavy blow at the Battle of Rocroi in 1643.

Events were complicated by the intensified rivalry between Sweden and Denmark, which led them to war in 1643-1645.

Mazarin, who replaced the deceased Richelieu, made a lot of efforts to achieve an end to this conflict.

Having significantly strengthened its position in the Baltic under the terms of peace, Sweden again intensified the actions of its army in Germany and in the spring of 1646 defeated the imperial and Bavarian troops at Jankov in Southern Bohemia, and then launched an offensive in the Czech and Austrian lands, threatening both Prague and Vienna.

It became increasingly clear to Emperor Ferdinand III (1637-1657) that the war was lost. Both sides were pushed to peace negotiations not only by the results of military operations and the growing difficulties of further financing the war, but also by the wide scope of the partisan movement in Germany against the violence and looting of “friends” and enemy armies.

Soldiers, officers, and generals on both sides have lost their taste for the fanatical defense of religious slogans; many of them changed the color of the flag more than once; Desertion became a widespread phenomenon.

As early as 1638, the pope and the Danish king called for an end to the war. Two years later, the idea of peace negotiations was supported by the German Reichstag in Regensburg, which met for the first time after a long break.

Concrete diplomatic preparations for peace began, however, later. Only in 1644 did the peace congress begin in Münster, where negotiations were held between the emperor and France; in 1645, in another, also Westphalian city - Osnabrück - negotiations opened to clarify Swedish-German relations.

At the same time, the war continued, becoming increasingly meaningless.

In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was concluded, according to which Sweden received all of Western Pomerania with the port of Stettin and a small part of Eastern Pomerania, the islands of Rügen and Wolin, as well as the right to the Pomeranian Gulf with all coastal cities. As Dukes of Pomerania, the Swedish kings became imperial princes and were given the opportunity to directly intervene in imperial affairs. The secularized archbishoprics of Bremen and Ferden (on the Weser), and the Mecklenburg city of Wismar also went to Sweden as imperial fiefs. She received a huge cash payment. The estuaries of the largest rivers in Northern Germany - the Weser, Elbe and Oder - were under Swedish control. Sweden became a great European power and realized its goal of dominating the Baltic.

France, which was in a hurry to complete negotiations in connection with the outbreak of the parliamentary front and was ready, having achieved the necessary general political result of the war, to be content with relatively little, made all acquisitions at the expense of imperial possessions. It received Alsace (except for Strasbourg, which was not legally part of it), Sundgau and Haguenau, and confirmed its century-old rights to three Lorraine bishoprics - Metz, Toul and Verdun. 10 imperial cities came under French tutelage.

The Republic of the United Provinces received international recognition of its independence. According to the Treaty of Munster - part of the treaties of the Peace of Westphalia - issues of its sovereignty, territory, status of Antwerp and the Scheldt estuary were resolved, problems that still remained controversial were identified.

The Swiss Union received direct recognition of its sovereignty. Some large German principalities significantly increased their territories at the expense of smaller rulers. The Elector of Brandenburg, whom France supported in order to create a certain counterbalance to the emperor in the north, but also - for future times - and Sweden, received by agreement Eastern Pomerania, the archbishopric of Magdeburg, the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Minden .
The influence of this principality in Germany increased sharply.

Saxony secured the Lusatian lands, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and its duke became the eighth elector.

The Peace of Westphalia cemented Germany's political fragmentation for two hundred years. The German princes gained the right to conclude alliances among themselves and treaties with foreign states, which actually ensured their sovereignty, although with the caveat that all these political ties should not be directed against the empire and the emperor.

The empire itself, while formally remaining a union of states headed by an elected monarch and permanent Reichstags, after the Peace of Westphalia, in reality turned not into a confederation, but into a barely connected conglomerate of “imperial officials.” Along with Lutheranism and Catholicism, Calvinism also received the status of an officially recognized religion in the empire.

For Spain, the Peace of Westphalia brought the end of only part of its wars: it continued hostilities with France. Peace between them was concluded only in 1659. He gave France new territorial acquisitions: in the south - at the expense of Roussillon; in the northeast - due to the province of Artois in the Spanish Netherlands; in the east, part of Lorraine passed to France.

The Thirty Years' War brought unprecedented devastation to Germany and the countries that were part of the Habsburg Empire. The population of many areas of North-East and South-West Germany has decreased by half, in some places by 10 times. In the Czech Republic, out of a population of 2.5 million in 1618, by the middle of the century only 700 thousand remained.

Many cities were damaged, hundreds of villages disappeared, and vast areas of arable land were overgrown with forest. Many Saxon and Czech mines were put out of action for a long time. Trade, industry, and culture suffered heavy damage. The war that swept through Germany slowed down its development for a long time.

The Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648 affected almost all European countries. This struggle for the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire became 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 grew into a larger conflict - the struggle against the hegemony of the Habsburgs.

Rice. 1. German Protestants.

The second is France’s desire 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.

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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 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 from the Thirty Years' War.

Progress 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, opposed the Habsburgs. France's attempts to drag strong Sweden into the conflict were unsuccessful. In May 1629, Denmark is defeated and leaves the war.

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

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

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

Russia also took part in this war, opposing the Poles, but was defeated. After this, the Swedes moved to Poland, who were defeated by the Catholic Coalition and in 1635 they were forced to sign the Treaty of Paris.

However, over time, 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. Thus, among the results of the war we can name the conclusion of the Treaty of Westphalia, which was important for everyone, which took place in 1648, on October 24.

The terms of this agreement were as follows: Southern Alsace and part of the Lorraine lands went to 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 who were not affected by this military conflict were Switzerland and Türkiye.

Hegemony in international life ceased to belong to the Habsburgs - after the war, their place was taken by France. 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. Evaluation of the report

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At the turn of the 2nd centuries of the 16th and 17th centuries, this situation was unstable and carried the preconditions for another pan-European conflict. From 1494 to 1559, Europe experienced a conflict called the Italian Wars. In the modern era, conflicts are becoming increasingly large-scale and acquiring a pan-European character. What is the complexity of the international situation?

France, after the religious wars ended and Henri (Henry) 4 Bourbon reigned, began to prepare to expand its territory, strengthen its borders and establish claims to hegemony in Europe. Those. the hegemonic position occupied by Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs in the mid-16th century did not remain vacant for long. In order for his hegemonic aspirations to have some basis, Henry 4 renews, or rather confirms, the agreement concluded back in 1535-36 with Ottoman Turkey, aimed at setting the Turks against the Venetian Republic and the Austrian Habsburgs.

In the 16th century, the French tried to solve the problem of the Habsburgs and eliminate, at least temporarily, the pincers of the Habsburgs, Spanish and Austrian, which were squeezing France from the east and west.

Now the French are preparing to start wars to expand their territory and finally overthrow the Habsburgs. This preparation was completed in 1610 by a completely unexpected event. The religious fanatic Revolier stabbed Henry IV with a dagger. This assassination attempt was caused not only by internal religious and political events in French society, but also by the machinations of the Austrian Habsburgs.

Therefore, France’s preparations for an active offensive foreign policy and territorial expansion were disrupted for at least 10 years, because inter-power was established in France, the young Louis 13, his mother the regent. In fact, another Fronde has struck - disagreements between the nobility, Protestant and Catholic. In general, these nobles tried to weaken the strength of royal power.

Therefore, from 1610 to 1620, France sharply weakened its position and activity in the European arena.

Louis then comes of age. Just recently they showed a film about how he regained power. He kills his mother's favorite and regains power. And after Cardinal Richelieu came to power in 1624, who ruled the country together with the king until 1642, France gained momentum in strengthening the absolute monarchy and strengthening state power.

This policy meets with support from the third estate, from the growing population of cities, craftsmen, merchants, the bourgeoisie and the untitled nobility. Richelieu managed to pacify the titled nobility at least temporarily.

In foreign policy, expansionist sentiments are again intensifying, and France is resuming preparations for the struggle to establish French hegemony at least in the continental part of Europe.

The French's opponents are the Spaniards, Austria, and to some extent England. But here qualitative changes in French policy begin, because both Henry 4 and Cardinal Richelieu preached an active foreign policy.

Henry 4 believed that there are territories where they speak French, there are territories where they speak Spanish, German, then Henry 4 believed that French-speaking territories should be part of his kingdom. Those lands where German dialects are spoken should go to the Holy Roman Empire, and Spanish ones to the Kingdom of Spain.

Under Richelieu, this moderate expansionism is replaced by immoderate one. Richelieu believed: the purpose of my stay in power is to revive Gaul and return to the Gauls the borders intended for them by nature itself.

Remember the period of antiquity. Gaul is a rather huge amorphous region, and the return of its intended borders meant that the French, at least in the east, should reach the Rhine and include the left bank of the Rhine together with the Netherlands in the new Gaul, and reach the Pyrenees in order to expand the territory in the west and south countries.

Thus, put France in the place of Gaul and, according to Richelieu’s idea, form a new Gaul. This unbridled expansion was naturally presented in a shell, camouflaged in beautiful expressions: secure borders, natural boundaries, restoration of historical justice, etc.

Underneath these sentiments lay certain economic, social, and demographic problems in France. The fact is that France was the most populated country. This is at least 15 million people. And naturally, living space is required.

Since the 16th century, as a result of the GGO and other changes, France has entered a phase of rapid economic growth, and not just an economy, but the creation of a market economy, which requires and is the basis of expansion. On the one hand, a powerful economy allows for an active foreign policy and an offensive policy, and on the other hand, this economy requires new markets. The construction of the French colonial empire begins in the new world, in India, etc.

Beginning of the 17th century, France and the French are faced with the problem of a new strengthening of the Habsburgs. We know that in the 16th century the Habsburgs were weakened. From the beginning of the 16th century, the memory of these defeats and the influence of the factors that led to the weakening of the Habsburgs weakened to some extent. There are 5 of these factors:

1) The desire to create a universalist, unified monarchy in Europe. This endeavor suffered a crushing defeat in 1556. Charles 1 (Charles 5) enters a monastery, his possessions are divided into the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs and the Spanish branch. Those. this state is falling apart. This is the first factor that led to the weakening of the Habsburgs in the mid to second half of the 16th century.

2) The fight against the rebel Netherlands, the Dutch Revolution. The dates are different. From the iconoclastic uprising to 1609, the conclusion of a 12-year truce. Or the end of the Anglo-Dutch wars with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In fact, the revolution lasted about 80 years. 3 generations of Dutch revolutionaries fought for the ideals of the revolution. This factor weakened the power of the Habsburgs.

3) The struggle against the dominance of the Habsburgs within the Holy Roman Empire. Moreover, not only Protestant rulers, like the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, fought, but also Catholic rulers like the Duke of Bavaria, who believed that a weak emperor was better than a strong one.

4) Anglo-Spanish rivalry on the seas. The defeat of the Great Armada, the largest fleet in 16th-century history, in 1588. These wars at sea, accordingly, in the 17th century after the change of dynasty in England, the arrival of the Stuarts, weakened, because the Stuarts were trying, on the one hand, to compete with Spain, and on the other hand, to establish normal relations, to conclude a dynastic alliance, in order to go not only to war, but and dynastic diplomatic relations.

5) Rivalry between the two branches of the Habsburgs, Austrian and Spanish, for primacy in the House of Habsburg on the one hand, and secondly for establishing their influence both in southern Germany and in the Italian lands, which largely went to the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs.

These 5 factors that separated the Habsburgs and weakened them in the 16th century, these factors cease to operate or weaken in the 17th century.

And there is a desire to connect these 2 branches through a dynastic marriage and unite the broken state again into a single monarchy.

As you understand, these death plans are similar for many European countries. For the same France, the restoration of the power and unity of the Habsburgs means that the nightmare of the 16th century is being revived, these Habsburg pincers, from the east and from the west, which threatened to crush France, and France felt like between a rock and a hard place.

The strengthening of the Habsburgs is facilitated by a factor that is often underestimated in our literature: the weakening of the Ottoman threat by the end of the 16th century.

1573 – 4th Venetian-Turkish War.

1609 - the 6th Austro-Turkish War ends and also land wars for 10 years, the threat to Austria and Hungary weakens. This means that the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs have freed up resources and can channel them into other areas of their foreign policy, i.e. direct their forces against France and other European countries.

This is how the international situation changed in the early and first half of the 17th century.

The threat of strengthening the Habsburgs, and they are orthodox Catholics, no less than the Pope, and the threat of a revival of Catholic reaction, i.e. counter-reformation, the onset of the corresponding inquisition and revision of the results of the Reformation in religious, social, political, property terms - it was a very serious threat at the beginning of the 17th century. And this threat was directed against a number of states.

First of all, for the German Protestant lands and cities of the Hanseatic League, the victory and strengthening of the Habsburgs was like death. Why? Because then it was necessary to return to the Catholic Church everything that they took from it during the years of the Reformation. But it would not be limited to this, but there would be an Inquisition, bonfires, prisons, gallows, etc.

The same would have been true for the rebellious Netherlands, which until 1609 carried out military operations against the Spaniards. Then both of them fizzled out, and in 1609 they concluded a 12-year truce or the Peace of Antwerp until 1621.

Protestant Denmark could not agree with the strengthening of the Habsburgs. Because the Danes considered themselves the heirs of the weakened Hanse, they believed that Denmark should restore control over trade routes in the North and Baltic seas. Accordingly, the increase in the territory of the Danish kingdom at the expense of the North German lands was always welcomed by the Danes.

Sweden – Sweden was ruled by a talented monarch, reformer, Gustavus 2 August. He constantly waged wars with his neighbors Russia and Poland. Its goal is to establish Swedish dominance in the Baltic region, to take control of the coast, all major ports and mouths of navigable rivers in the Baltic in order to control profitable trade in the North Sea, to turn the Baltic into an inland Swedish lake. To saddle (control) trade meant to impose duties and taxes on trade, so that Sweden could live comfortably through the exploitation of this trade and increase its economic, political and military power. Therefore, for Sweden, the strengthening of the Habsburgs was dangerous and unprofitable.

England. The position of Protestant England was more complex and less definite. On the one hand, for England, as a Protestant country, the threat of the restoration of Catholicism and the Counter-Reformation was unacceptable. In addition, England continued to remain a potentially dangerous rival of Catholic countries... Therefore, strengthening the Habsburgs in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic was not part of the plans of the British. Therefore, the British tried to harm them wherever they could, and supported all anti-Habsburg forces.

England gladly supported riots in the Netherlands and unrest in the Holy Roman Empire.

On the other hand, another factor acted on the British. The Dutch and French competed with the English crown in shipping. Therefore, there was no particular reason for the British to be particularly drawn into this conflict. And they sought to pursue such a policy that the opposing pro-Habsburg forces and the anti-Habsburg forces, without the active participation of England in military operations, would exhaust each other, and the British would benefit from this. Therefore, England sometimes took an indecisive position and sought to minimize its participation in the European struggle during the 30 Years' War.

The main epicenter of the arena of the future pan-European war, which we know as 30 years, 1618-1648, was Germany, the Holy Roman Empire. This is the main theater of military operations of the opposing sides. What are these sides?

At the beginning of the 1610s, 2 blocks emerged.

1 Habsburg block, which included the Catholic princes of Germany, Spain and Austria. Accordingly, this coalition was actively supported by the throne of St. Peter, this is the Pope, who at certain moments also participated in this war, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which fought its own wars, but dreamed of reuniting through the German lands..., to gain direct access to the Austrian lands, to receive the support of European Catholic monarchs.

Anti-Habsburg bloc. If Catholic forces supported the Habsburgs, accordingly the Protestants were opponents of both the Catholic princes and the Habsburgs, Spanish and Austrian. Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire, primarily Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Catholic France. The anti-Hasburg bloc was also strongly supported by Russia, to a large extent by England (before the start of the revolution), and Holland. Holland did not formally enter into any agreements on military alliances, but from 1609 and from 1621 there were wars between the Dutch and the Spanish until 1648. And these wars became, as it were, an integral part of this 30-year war.

Germany became the main theater of military operations, the center of a pan-European crisis. Why? First of all, the geographical factor. The country is terribly fragmented: 300 medium-sized and large principalities, 1.5 thousand small estates, imperial cities. Everyone fights with each other like cats and dogs. Accordingly, in this territory it is a pleasure for mercenary troops to walk, rob, and fight.

Secondly, the Holy Roman Empire is the patrimony of the Austrian Habsburgs, who tried to establish the triumph of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church and strengthen their power on this territory.

During the 16th and early 17th centuries, Germany experienced a period of economic, social, and political decline. The country was fragmented by the religious peace of 1555. The Augsturgian religious peace played a huge role in weakening the German lands and expanding the rivalry of the German princes.

In addition, the unsuccessful attempt of the early bourgeois revolution led to the weakening of the forces that advocated the renewal of German society. This means the creation of a market economy, the development of market bourgeois-capitalist relations and the strengthening of the forces that were for the conservation of these relations, the preservation of the old orders: feudal, Catholicism.

The last factor is the VGO and the changes in the trade and economy of Europe that they led to, the movement of the main trade routes. This led to the fact that the German states, which flourished in the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century, lost the impetus for their development. Accordingly, the handicraft and manufacturing economy fell into decline, and the urban economy collapsed. And this means a shrinking market for agricultural products. products and the decline of the country's overall economy. And in conditions of decline, tendencies towards conservatism triumph, i.e. not the development of agriculture along the market path, but the commutation of agriculture, a return to the old feudal tracks.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the political and religious struggle within the Holy Roman Empire intensified under Emperor Rudolf 2 of Habsburg (1576-1612). Under him, the prerequisites for a future pan-European conflict were outlined. First of all, the Catholic Church and the Jesuits under Rudolf 2 from the beginning of the 17th century went on the offensive in order to change the fragile balance of religious and political forces established by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555.

This threat forces the Protestant rulers to unite. And by 1608, create a Protestant or Evangelical Union led by the ruler (Elector) of the Palatinate, Frederick 5 of the Palatinate.

In response to this, in 1609, the Catholic princes created the Catholic League, led by the Duke of Bavaria, Elector Maximilian (Max) of Bavaria.

These 2 leagues have their own troops, their own treasury, their own coin, and conduct completely independent foreign relations. The formation of both religious and political groups in Germany by 1608-1609 means that the struggle on the territory of the German lands is entering a decisive phase. But Elector Frederick of the Palatinate is guided by France in foreign policy, by Henry IV of Bourbon, although he is a Catholic. With his support, he is trying to resist the pressure of Rudolf II of Habsburg, the pressure of the Spaniards and Austrians. At the same time, he is married to the daughter of James 1 Stuart, i.e. is his son-in-law, and is oriented to some extent towards England.

Max of Bavaria relies on the Spaniards and the Austrian Habsburgs.

However, by 1610 the conflict nevertheless did not develop. Causes:

The fact is that the main participants in the future conflict are not yet ready for war.

The Spaniards were busy suppressing the revolution in the Netherlands until 1609. They are exhausted by this war and are not able to immediately enter a new war. Although Philip 3 is in contact with the Austrian Habsburgs and supports Bavaria and the Catholic League, he cannot start a war.

1610 Armagnac kills Henri (Henry) 4 Bourbon and therefore France withdraws from active world politics for decades, as there is civil strife and the weakening of royal power.

England, which is in principle interested in a pan-European conflict that should destroy and weaken its competitors, also in the 1610s, Jacob 1 Stuart pursues the following policy: on the one hand, he supports the anti-Habsburg Protestant forces in Europe, and on the other hand, he tries to negotiate dynastic marriage with the Spanish Habsburgs. Therefore, he is also not entirely interested in this conflict.

Sweden and Russia are also busy with their own affairs in Poland and the Baltic states. The Poles undertook an unsuccessful campaign against Moscow in 1617-18 (Troubles, False Dmitry).

Those. Until 1618, all countries in Europe were busy with their own affairs.

The first period of this 30-year war was called the Czech-Palatinate. 1618-1624. The main events took place in the Palatinate and the Czech Republic. Both sides, both Habsburg and anti-Habsburg supporters, showed themselves to be quite aggressive forces that sought to weaken each other, to snatch a fatter piece from each other.

The fact is that the Czech Republic was included in the Habsburg Empire in 1526. This is the active phase of the peasant war, the Reformation. Ferdinand of Habsburg, who became the Czech king, promised the Czechs, when the Czech Republic was included in the Habsburg Austrian Empire, the preservation of religious freedoms, renunciation of persecution of Protestants, and the preservation of freedom and self-government of both Czech cities and the Czech Kingdom as a whole.

But promises are made by politicians in order not to fulfill them, but to think about how to get around them. Subsequent development led to the fact that all these liberties were crushed and reduced. Therefore, complaints from the growing cities of the Czech population grew. And the Czech Republic, Czech cities were the most prosperous region of the Habsburg Austrian state.

By the beginning of the 17th century, the ruler of the Palatinate, Frederick 5, began to flirt with the Czechs, began to incite them to riot and promised to create an anti-Habsburg union consisting of the Palatinate, the Czech Republic, Holland, the Swiss cantons, the Venetian Republic, etc. Those. create an anti-Habsburg coalition that will help the Czechs free themselves from the influence of the power of the Catholic Habsburgs.

Under these conditions, Rudolph in 1611 was forced to confirm all existing liberties and concessions to the Czechs. And moreover, he accepted the Letter of Majesty. The essence of this letter was that since the Czechs have accumulated many claims against Austrian officials who do not fulfill their obligations, violate the rights of the Czechs, the liberties of cities, then we are establishing a government consisting of 10 deputies, called lieutenants, who govern on behalf of the Austrian monarch Czech Republic. But the Czechs, for their part, elect their proxies - controllers who must monitor both the observance of the civil rights of the Czechs and religious freedoms and the prevention of persecution of the Protestant Czech population. It turns out to be a kind of dual power. On the one hand, the official authorities, on the other hand, the Czech controllers.

Dual power does not exist in any country for a long time, because some scale begins to tug. These 10 lieutenants, deputies of the Austrian monarch, gradually begin to bribe the controllers and force them to cooperate. And the four most incorruptible ones were declared the opposition and tried to be expelled.

As a result, on May 5, 1618, an uprising breaks out in Prague, the territory, Prague Castle, is captured, and two of the most irreconcilable lieutenants are thrown out of the windows. Thus, this uprising begins the era of the 30 Years' War.

The Czechs quickly create their own government, which starts its own armed forces and its own treasury. They begin to call other Slavic lands to revolt, these are Moravia, upper and lower Lusatia, and Silesia in order to form their own unification within the Austrian empire, which would then break out of the orbit of the Habsburgs’ gravity and create an independent state.

This is unacceptable, although the Czechs are counting on the help of the German princes, including the Palatinate. This leads to a final split in Europe. The Austrian Habsburgs quickly find common ground, agreements with the Spaniards, and hire Spanish troops. The Bavarian ruler Max sends his troops under the command of the talented commander Baron Tilly.

Habsburg is deprived of the Czech throne, and Frederick 5 of the Palatinate is proclaimed the Czech king. This leads to the start of serious military operations on the territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia. Catholic troops, Spanish troops, and Austrian Habsburg troops invade, and the 30 Years' War begins.

The superiority of forces is on the side of the Habsburg coalition. But in the end, the German Protestant princes enter into an agreement with the Catholic princes of Germany, according to which the status quo is maintained in the German lands, and the Catholic troops receive free hand to operate in the Slavic lands (the Germans do not feel sorry for the Slavs).

As a result, on November 8, 1620, in the battle of White Mountain, the Czech army was defeated. The failed Czech king, ruler of the Palatinate, flees to Brandenburg. By 1624, Catholic troops, these are Spanish mercenaries, the troops of the Catholic League under the leadership of Max of Bavaria and the actual troops of Emperor Wallenstein capture all the rebel Slavic lands.

As a result, a regime of terror is established in the territory of the Czech Republic and Moravia. All opponents of the Habsburgs are exterminated. Their property is seized. Protestant worship and churches are prohibited. A completely Catholic reaction is established.

From that moment to this day, the Czech Republic is a Catholic country.

The Spaniards invade the Palatinate and also capture and ruin it.

In 1625-29, the second stage of the 30 Years' War begins. It was called the Danish period.

The essence of this period is that the situation of the Protestant camp in the German lands is becoming simply desperately difficult. All of central Germany is occupied, northern Germany is next.

All this leads to the fact that Denmark, which itself strives for territorial expansion in northern Germany and is trying to take control of both the North Sea and the Baltic, cannot come to terms with the triumph of the Catholic Spaniards and the Austrian Habsburgs. It receives subsidies from England and France. France is not yet ready for war. And Denmark enters the war. Therefore, the second period is called the Danish period.

The Austrian army under the leadership of Wallenstein is largely mercenary, operating under the Wallenstein system. The essence of this system was that the 30 Years' War was mainly, with the exception of the Swedish armies, mercenary troops. If you have money, that means you have hired troops. If you don't have money...

Denmark enters the war. On one side it is supported by Wallenstein, on the other side by Baron Tili, who commands the troops of the Catholic League. The Austrians create a powerful mercenary army, which operates according to the Wallenstein system. The essence of this system was that the troops had to be paid; as a rule, there was not enough money in the treasury. Wallenstein's system is that where the troops are billeted, they live off that territory. Either they rob the local population, or they feed themselves in a civil way through seizures, indemnities, and taxes. This army of Wallenstein, like locusts, passes through the whole of southern and central Germany, enters northern Germany, and defeats the Danish troops. As a result, by the spring of 1629, both the Protestant princes and Denmark were on the verge of final defeat.

All this forces the Protestant princes and Denmark to conclude the difficult peace of Lubez on March 6, 1629. According to this peace, Denmark refuses to participate in any German wars and withdraws its troops outside the Holy Roman Empire. All the Danes' ambitions turn out to be unrealized. Wallenstein is given the gift of the Duchy of Mecklenburg in northern Germany, which serves as a springboard for further Austrian aggression against both Denmark and the North German territories.

On March 6, 1629, the Protestant princes were forced to agree to the introduction of an edict of restitution. Restitution means restoration, return of some position. The essence of this edict of March 6, 1629 is that all the rights of the Catholic Church, its lands, its property, which it lost as a result of the Reformation, are returned to the old owners, monasteries, and the Catholic Church. Plus, all the bishops and archbishops of the Catholic Church are restoring their not only ecclesiastical, but also secular power within the Holy Roman Empire.

This greatest success of the Habsburg coalition by the spring of 1629 to some extent plays a cruel joke on these forces, because rulers always look at their commanders as possible competitors. So the Habsburgs looked at this Wallenstein, one of the greatest commanders, with suspicion. Therefore, in 1630 he was dismissed.

In 1630, the next Swedish stage of this war began. 1630-1635.

The fact is that the Peace of Lübeck and the Edict of Restitution opened up the possibility of implementing the Habsburgs’ political plans to create a universalist monarchy in Europe and establish Habsburg political hegemony in Europe. Therefore, the states that opposed the Habsburgs faced a real threat that had to be resisted.

In 1628, Richelieu takes La Rochelle and crushes the Huguenots (Protestants) in France. But France does not want to go to war yet. Therefore, Richelieu decided to use the young energetic monarch King Gustavus Adolphus - truly one of the most talented monarchs of the 17th century, a reformer and a major military leader - as a weapon of war. France provides financial assistance. With this money, Gustav Adolf reforms his army. Its essence is this: before Gustavus Adolf, Catholic troops fought in huge regiments. Before Gustavus Adolphus, there were mercenary troops who fight when they are paid. Therefore, the Swedish king Gustav Adolf introduces a regular army, based on national armies. Not mercenaries, but recruiting. They have a higher degree of consciousness.

Next, he carries out a reform of the Swedish army, which consists of introducing linear progressive tactics. In this army, the main emphasis is on firearms. Swedish troops are equipped with more powerful artillery, including field artillery for the first time. The shelves line up...

As a result, Swedish troops landed in northern Germany in 1630, quickly captured it, and entered Central Germany, Saxony. They enter into an allied relationship with the Saxon Duke, and inflict 2 powerful defeats on the troops of the Habsburg coalition.

September 7, 1631 Battle of Breitenfeld. The army commanded by Baron Tili is defeated.

However, the battle of Lützen turned out to be fatal for Gustav II Adolf. He died. Historians debate how this happened. The Austrians fled, the Swedes began to pursue them. The king, at the head of a small detachment, rode in the hope of capturing one of the prominent military leaders. Either he ran into a more powerful detachment, or he was killed by his own military, who were bribed.

After this tragic victory, things went wrong for the Swedes and discipline fell. The Swedish army was already defeated in September 1634 at the Battle of Nervingen, and the Swedes lost their conquered positions in Germany. They retreat to the North Sea and the Polish border.

In 1635, the Swedish stage ends.

The last stage from 1635 to 1648 was called Franco-Swedish.

France concludes the Saint-Germain Treaty of Alliance with Sweden, which is gradually joined by other states: Holland, Mantua, Savoy, Venice. Gradually, a superiority of forces of the anti-Habsburg coalition is formed, which begins to affect the course of military operations.

On May 19, 1643, the Prince of Condé in the battle of Rocourt actually destroys and leads the army of the Habsburgs and German princes to flight.

And the Swedes on November 2, 1645, in the battle of Yankov, also won a victory over the Austrian army.

As a result, in 1846, the Swedish and French armies united and military operations were transferred to the territory of the Czech Republic and Austria. In fact, the winners, the Swedes and the French, can divide the territory of the Holy Roman Empire among themselves. They threaten to storm Vienna. All this forces the Austrians and German Catholic princes to enter into peace negotiations in order to end the war.

France is also interested in ending the war. All this leads to the fact that at negotiations in the two cities of Osnabrück and Münster on October 24, 1648, 2 peace treaties were concluded, which we know collectively as the Treaty of Westphalia.

Sweden concludes the Treaty of Osnabrück between Sweden, the Holy Roman Emperor, i.e. Austria, and Protestant and Catholic princes. And the treaty in Munster is concluded between France and Holland and their opponents. The Spaniards do not sign the treaty in Munster; they continue this war for many more years.

The main significance of the Treaty of Westphalia is that:

Sweden receives the northern coast of Germany, control over all major ports and the mouths of navigable rivers. As a result of the 30 Years' War, Sweden began to dominate the Baltic and became part of the Holy Roman Empire.

France receives territorial increments: upper and lower Alsace, recognition of its rights to the previously captured bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, which were captured back in 1552. This is a powerful springboard for further advancement to the east.

According to the Treaty of Munster, Spain and the whole world in 1648 finally recognized the independence of the Netherlands de facto and de jure.

The Peace of Westphalia ends 10 years of the Spanish-Dutch Wars, which began in 1572 until 1648.

Holland also receives some territorial gains.

Their allies, Brandenburg, also receive territorial increases and compensation in Germany.

The Franco-Spanish War continues until 1659, i.e. another 11 years, and ends with the signing of the Pyrenees Peace, according to which France expands its southern border to the Pyrenees, and in the east receives important counties: part of Flanders, and Artois.

The Peace of Westphalia and the 30 Years' War are of great importance for European countries. First of all, during the 30 years of war, the population of Germany decreased from 16 to 10 million people. This is a demographic catastrophe. This population was restored only by the middle of the 18th century. In some territories, such as Bavaria, Thuringia, Brandenburg, population losses amounted to 50%. In other principalities, 60-70% of the population was destroyed or died as a result of famine and epidemics.

1618 The Margraviate of Brandenburg captures the Duchy of Prussia and becomes the Brandenburg-Prussian state, which further builds its muscles.

Results of the 30 Years' War: demographic blow to Germany. Economic decline and ruin of cities and agriculture.

Under these conditions, conservative tendencies to return to feudal property and strengthen feudal rather than early bourgeois exploitation of both the urban and rural peasant population triumph. Most importantly, Germany remained fragmented until the mid-19th century. The disunity of the German nation.

As a result of the 30-year war and the Peace of Westphalia, two states triumph: Sweden, which becomes the largest power in the Baltic and subjugates the Baltic region to its influence. And France is also growing stronger. From the mid-18th century, it began to claim the role of hegemon in European politics.

Two new states appear: the Netherlands or the United Provinces and Switzerland, the Swiss cantons. These 2 states leave the Holy Roman Empire and become independent independent states.

Russia's participation in the 30 Years' War is that Russia did not directly participate in the 30-year war, although the wars that were fought between Poland and Russia took away the strength of the Catholic bloc.

Besides. Russia indirectly participated in this war, helping countries that were part of the anti-Habsburg coalition. Until 1625, Russia sold them strategic goods at low prices: bread and saltpeter. Until 1625, the main flow of grain and saltpeter went to England and Holland. From 1625 to 1629 Denmark was supported in the same way. Since 1630 - Sweden.

Dates:

30 Years' War. 1618-1648

Stage 1. Czech-Palatinate. 1618-1624.

Stage 2. Danish. 1625-1629. Ended with the Peace of Lübeck, the Edict of Restitution on March 6, 1629. Defeat of Denmark, Protestant princes.

Stage 3. Swedish. 1630-1635. 2 battles: at Breitenfeld on September 7, 1631. Defeat of the Catholic League troops under the command of Baron Tilly. Battle of Lutzen (Saxony, near Leipzig) November 16, 1632. Death of Gustav II Adolf.

Stage 4. Franco-Swedish. 1635-1648. The Battle of Roqua, the troops of Prince Condé won on May 19, 1643. Swedish victory in the Battle of Yankov on November 2, 1645.

The French border was advancing towards the Pyrenees. This treaty contained the seeds of future wars that Louis 14 would wage.