30 Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.  Being one of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in 8 million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine and plague.

A war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European great powers. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion and more about continuation of the France-Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.

Origins of the war

• The Peace of Augsburg

Phases of the war

• Czech-Palatinate war (1618-1623)
• Danish war (1625-1629)
• Swedish war (1630-1635)
• Swedish-French war (1635-1648)

Consequences

• The Peace of Westphalia - ended the war
• In Germany, the war caused a decline in population by an average of thirty percent
• Records of that time speak of a rapid increase in diseases
• Chronicles and period records provide information on the so-called 'Hungarian disease' (its true nature is not known), it is referred to as dysentery or syphilis
• The influence of war was evident mainly in German literature of the 17th century