Effects Of The 30 Years War

To fully understand modern history, it is important to comprehend the full effects of the Thirty Years War. The end of the Thirty Years War produced a number of dramatic consequences and altered Western Europe in significant religious, political, and social ways. Generally speaking, the post-war period produced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the subsequent fall of the Hapsburg powers. The later divisions that occurred made Europe more like it is now with the Catholic areas in the south and the Lutherans farther north and more importantly, it took the central power from the Catholic Church. It also worked to quelled some of the religious struggles with the eventual Peace of Westphalia. The war also had a large impact on society as it decimated a large portion of the German population, destroyed crops, aided in the spread of disease and obliterated the German economy from the small to large scale. The average people living in Europe during this time were perhaps the most affected by the war. The armies were huge and in order to fund them, states had to raise taxes. In addition, many of the mercenaries went through villages and towns taking all they could from already destitute towns and this, coupled with the increasing demands of the state, planted the seed of anger toward governments that would later emerge throughout the Enlightenment and future rebellions.
Although it was not easy to come to a resolution the Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648 and as a result, Western Europe was changed politically. Because of the war, a number of important geographical consequences occurred; Germany was broken up, the Swiss Confederation and the Netherlands were declared as autonomous nations, but most importantly, the Holy Roman Empire lost power and began to decline from the signing of the Peace until modernity. Another significant development that arose in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia is that France and Sweden came to the forefront of European