The 30 Years War "1618–1648"

Very interesting period from much can be learned. Here are some interesting notes but I suggest reading the entire site.

Like every imperial travesty there is a group of allies whom play some role in support and legitimizing the act of aggression...

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The rulers of the nations neighboring the Holy Roman Empire also contributed to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War:

Spain was interested in the German states because it held the territories of the Spanish Netherlands in the western part of the Empire and states within Italy that were connected by land through the Spanish Road.

France was nearly surrounded by territory controlled by the two Habsburg states - Spain and the Holy Roman Empire (the leader of which was Ferdinand II of house Habsburg), and feeling threatened, he was eager to exert its power against the weaker German states.

Sweden and Denmark were interested in gaining control over northern German states bordering the Baltic Sea.

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The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618–1648.[14] It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, and one of the longest.

Initially a war between Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmenting Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers of Europe,[15] becoming less about religion and more a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.

The Thirty Years' War saw the devastation of entire regions, with famine and disease significantly decreasing the population of the German and Italian states, Bohemia, and the Low Countries. The war also bankrupted most of the combatant powers. Both mercenaries and soldiers in armies were expected to fund themselves by looting or extorting tribute, which imposed severe hardships on the inhabitants of occupied territories.

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So great was the devastation brought about by the war that estimates put the reduction of population in the German states at about 25% to 40%.[65] Some regions were affected much more than others.[66] For example, Württemberg lost three-quarters of its population during the war.[67] In the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two-thirds of the population died.[68] The male population of the German states was reduced by almost half.[69]

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Among the great traumas abetted by the war was a major outbreak of witchcraft persecutions that followed the first phase of the conflict. This wave of witch-hunting first erupted in the territories of the Franconian Circle, but the turmoil unleashed by the war enabled the hysteria to spread quickly to other parts of Germany. Residents of areas that had been devastated not only by the conflict itself, but also by various crop failures, famines and plagues, were quick to blame these calamities on supernatural causes and allegations of witchcraft against fellow citizens flourished.[77] The sheer volume of trials and executions during this time would mark the period as the peak of the European witch-hunting phenomenon

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Phillip Adolf von Ehrenberg, an ardent supporter of the Counter-Reformation, who was eager to assert Catholic authority in the territories he administered.[79] Beginning in 1626, von Ehrenberg staged numerous mass trials for witchcraft in which all levels of society, including the nobility and the clergy, found themselves targeted. By 1630 it is estimated that 219 men, women and children were burned at the stake in the city of Würzburg itself, with an additional 900 executed elsewhere in the province.[78] Concurrent with these events, a similar large-scale witch hunt claimed 300 to 600 lives in nearby Bamberg, where the prince-bishop erected a specially designed Malefizhaus (witch house), containing a torture chamber whose walls were adorned with Bible verses, in which to interrogate the accused

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FULL LINK

And link to the powerful House of Habsburg which was very influential.

LINK

And I wanted to list casualties, this site has it at 15 million and #17 on "Humanity's 100 deadliest achievements".

LINK