The Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years' War began in 1618 (Davis 563). This war began with politics and religion, which, when combined over war, result in a bloody outcome.


Religion was a major reason for the Thirty Years' War. The Peace of Augsburg was an important factor in starting the war. Ever since it was issued in 1555, the arguments over religion raged even though peace had been brought to the land. In the Peace of Augsburg it declared that Lutheranism was the only Protestant religion that would be allowed to be practiced (Davis 504).

The Thirty Years' War mostly took place in the area we now know as Germany. obviously sparked by political means as well as religious. The Peace of Augsburg allowed the rulers to choose which religion would be practiced in their state. If a Protestant Lutheran lived in a Catholic state they could leave and go to a Protestant state. However, Lutheranism was not the only branch of Protestantism.


The Thirty Years' War began in Bohemia after Ferdinand the First, who was Catholic, was made king of Bohemia and Hungary. The majority of Bohemia was Protestant and all the residents of Bohemia held pride in their independence (Jerome Blum, Cameron, Barnes 207). It was in May 1618 when a few of the Bohemian nobles rebelled against Ferdinand by throwing three Catholic officials out of a window in the Hradschin Castle. The drop was around fifty feet. The Catholics were claiming that angels had saved them from dying. However, the Protestant party had said that they had landed in a pile of poop that just happened to be right outside the window (Jerome Blum, Cameron, Barnes 207-8).


The war began in 1618 (Davies 563) and ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which was a victory for the Protestants in Germany an a defeat for the Catholics. This peace allowed both Lutheranism and Calvinism to be legal religions and supported the Peace of Augsburg (Jerome Blum, Cameron, Barnes 212).


Religion and politics were the two major factors in the Thirty Years' War, which began in Bohemia and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 (Jerome Blum, Cameron, Barnes 211). One reason the Thirty Years' War can be considered religious as well as political is because The Peace of Augsburg was very important in the Thirty Years' War.

Blum, Jerome, Rondo Cameron and Thomas G. Barnes. The European World a History. Boston; Little, Brown and Company, 1996.

Davies, Norman. Europe a History. New York: NY; Oxford University Press, Inc., 1996.