30 years war

If we want to know how the European borders were founded as we know them today, we should review various dates and events, but if what we seek is an initial point of support, we would probably have to go back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which ended a confrontation known as the Thirty years war.

The 30 Years' War was a European-wide conflict that affected practically the entire continent although it was fought mainly in what is now Germany.

At that time, what is now considered the engine of Europe was a geopolitical space populated by independent kingdoms linked to a authority central (the Holy Roman Emperor-Germanic Emperor), but with great autonomy, so that they could fight between them, or allying with foreign powers (the German unification process would not take place until the end of the century XIX).

While the casus belli consisted of the confrontation between supporters and detractors of the Lutheran reform, the conflict soon involved the main European powers, who settled their differences and political influence in the fields of battle.

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The main confrontation was the one between the French Bourbon monarchy and, on the other hand, another, to the Habsburgs, who controlled the Holy Empire and also sat on the throne of Las Spain.

The trigger for the war was the Bohemian revolt of 1618, when the new king tried to impose Catholicism on a predominantly Calvinist population.

The armed conflict It soon began to spread to the rest of the Czech geographical area and, from there, it jumped to Germany.

The German princes appealed to the Spanish king for help and, hence, the intervention French was sung, because the Gallic monarchy was not willing to allow the Spanish to closed the possibility of intervening directly in German affairs, further surrounding them in their borders.

The fuse also lit in Austria, Hungary and in Transylvania (present-day Romania), with revolts by Protestant nobles and the people.

In 1619, Spanish troops began to move from the crown possessions in Flanders to Germany.

Little by little, the Catholics were cutting the air to the Bohemian revolt, in addition to defeating it militarily. By 1625 the revolt was practically annulled, and the Bohemian territories had been purged by the Catholics of Protestants.

It is at this time that, feeling threatened, Protestant Denmark decided to intervene in the conflict, entering German territory with a powerful army.

Said army was countered by a numerous force Bohemian Catholic, as well as German troops, who in addition to putting the Danes in retreat, looted the territories through which they were passing.

Germany would take the main destruction of the war, which in some regions meant that the population was decimated, especially the male.

The Danish defeat in Lutter opened the doors of the Nordic country to the invasion of the Catholic army, but this could not take its capital. At Lübeck in 1629, the Danish king gave up helping the German Protestants in exchange for keeping his kingdom.

Protestants began to be persecuted in Bohemia, but another Nordic champion would come to their defense.

In 1630, the Swedish troops under the command of King Gustav Adolf II entered Germany, rapidly gaining ground from the imperial troops.

Sweden was at that time a military power worth considering, and it bordered on Russia by having the territory which currently makes up Finland.

But both after this attack, and as in the case of the previous Danish intervention, there was gold and persuasion French; Cardinal Richelieu (one of the best statesmen the Gallic country has ever had, if not the best) wanted to undermine the authority of the Habsburgs in Germany, to be able to intervene in the area, and had offered both Sweden and Denmark before, influence over the Baltic cities of Germany.

The Swedes roamed Germany until 1634, when at the Battle of Nördlingen the forces of the Holy Empire together with the Spanish thirds and with the support of the Catholic League, the defeated.

In 1635, another peace (that of Prague) put an end to the Swedish intervention in the war, and restored a certain Balance between Catholics and Protestants. It would only be a mirage.

In 1636, France went to war, this time more for political interests than for religious reasons.

Despite being a predominantly Catholic country, France feared the excessive influence and power of the Habsburgs in Germany and Spain in the European set, so he intervened in favor of the side Protestant.

To undermine the Hispanic monarchy, France encouraged the revolt in Catalonia, one of the two that, together with that of Portugal, occurred on the peninsula in 1640.

Although the Spanish campaign against France was initially successful, the effort represented by the Catalan and Portuguese fronts began to cost the army military quality, until in 163 the hitherto invincible thirds were destroyed in Rocroi.

Militarily, an era was ending, that of the absolute rule of the thirds and, in addition, the decline of Spanish rule in Europe also began and the era of splendor and French rule began.

French and Swedish took the initiative from 1643, putting Catholics in trouble in the Czech and German territories.

However, all participants in the conflict are exhausted, both militarily and financially.

Germany is the territory that has fared the worst; used as a battlefield, the country is completely devastated.

Fatigue will lead the parties to sit at the negotiating table, from where they will come out with a treaty, the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648.

However, the conflict between France and Spain it will last another decade, until in 1659 the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed between both countries.

Fotolia photos: acrogame / fejas

Issues in War of the 30 Years