Thirty Year War

The statement "The Thirty Years War is both the end of the middle ages and the start of the modern age" is in my opinion very accurate. The Thirty Year's War, was a series of declared and undeclared wars lasting between 1618 and 1648, primarily fought in Germany. The middle ages is described as being between the post Roman Empire and the Renaissance; 400 AD-1400 AD. During the middle ages people were controlled by the church. Leaders led by divine rule, deriving their power through God and the church. There was no separation of church and state and no single king, queen or other royalty, other than the church through the Pope, united the European countries. The Catholic Church used this opportunity to become the super power of Europe. The Church controlled everything, including the reproduction of books. The monasteries reproduced manuscripts manually and, accordingly, controlled what information was made available. Because these manuscripts were rare and expensive, they were only available to wealthy patrons and not to the common man.

During the Thirty years War all of this changed and the modern age began. The modern age is the period of the Renaissance, a rebirth of knowledge and redistribution of wealth and power. The invention of the printing press, paper and distribution contributed to the origins of the Thirty Year War and the resulting changes. Knowledge was no longer solely in the hands of the church or the wealthy. Martin Luther's ninety five thesis about the corruption of the church and the pope, that were privately mailed to the Archbishop of Knights, were translated and distributed in mass quantities around the kingdom, causing an uproar with the people. The Renaissance altered people's perspective creating a new image of the world. The reformation and the idea of humanism contributed to the modernization of people's thinking. These modern ideas were some of the causes of the war. People were developing self worth, realizing the humans