The Thirty Years War Affects on Europe

Ideas of the renaissance can be traced back to lead to the Thirty Years War. Humanism, individualism, rationalism and most of all secularism first appeared in popular culture during that time period and are the core ideas. These ideas gave Luther the ideas for his reforms of the church and cause the protestant reformation which will then lead to a main force in the Thirty Years War which is secularism at the beginning. Protestant reformation drove Europe into a time a chaos such as the Middle East in today 's world. The war raged all over Europe but most severely in what is now Germany. Although the war did not just cause mass destruction, but it also made countries such as France and Sweden emerge as greater powers. Religions of Calvinism and Lutherans were able to spread. Territorial and dynastic disputes were a large part of the extended part of the war not early. After the initial fighting over religious intolerance was over it quickly was common war of war lords for land and power. These causes of power resist make disputes that religion was ever a cause of the war hard to make however, religion can not be dismissed. Initial start of the war was through Catholic king Ferdinand and his religious intolerance, Protestant revolted. The Protestant leader was the Fredrick V of Prussia, a very powerful state for its size (figure 2 shows how diverse Europe had become religiously). This hatred fire would spread throughout Europe by way of the Holy Roman Empire. Holy Roman Empire is a group of states loosely held together by a weak constitution. Ambitious war lords of large states wanted more territory and this power vacuum of the Holy Roman Empire was a perfect place to nip away at the country side. Once Sweden joined the war it was becoming ever clearer the motivation for war was becoming territorial. Sweden is not protestant but becomes a powerful ally for protestant revolt. They strictly joined for more land and power. This was most prevalent

Bibliography: 1."Thirty Years ' War." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia Britannica Premium Service. 1 Dec. 2005