After a little hiatus, I am back on my blog again today.
Around the early to middle 17th Century, Europe was not a peaceful place as the Thirty Years’ War was taking place.
Effectively, the Thirty Years’ War was a series of wars in Europe that took place between 1618-1648. According to many, it was the longest and most destructive conflict in European history.
Initially a war between Protestants and Catholics, the war gradually became a power struggle for European dominance amongst the major European powers.
The Thirty Years’ War saw the devastation of entire regions, with famine and disease killing huge portions of the population, particularly in Germany and the Italian states as well as the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Low Countries.
While it took place, the Thirty Years’ War bankrupted most of Europe, where fighting powers largely funded themselves by looting and extortion, imposing severe hardships on inhabitants of occupied territories.
Amongst other countries, fighting powers included Sweden, France, Denmark, Bohemia, England, Spain, Hungary and a slew of others. Undeniably, these were not peaceful times.
The Thirty Years’ War was significant because thereafter the Dutch Republic became recognized as an independent power by the Spanish Empire, and Protestantism became more grounded as the Holy Roman Empire became less centralized. France and Sweden also rose to greater power after the war.
Did you know Europe struggled with such large-scale political and religious wars around the early to middle 17th Century?