Thirty Years War Effects

The Thirty Years War which lasted from 1618 until 1648 and engulfed the entire continent of Europe in a state of war. The Thirty Years War was caused by religious divisions among the protestants and the Roman Catholics in a struggle for the balance of power. The Thirty Years War had many consequences and benefits for different countries, but undoubtedly changed Europe in religious, social, and political ways. In the war between the Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestants had the favorable outcome. A lot of central power was taken away from Catholic Church as Europe became divided over its different religious policies. The Peace of Westphalia “reflected protestant success in the final two decades of war” (445). The Peace …show more content…
An example of this is Gustavus Adolphus’ raid of Magdeburg “three-fourths of the 40,000 inhabitants of the town were slaughtered” (443). Many crops were destroyed, which cultivated a spread of disease and ultimately led to the downfall of the economy. To make matters worse, many new taxes were imposed in every country due to the need to fund for the expensive war. Expensive armies took around “half of the wealth produced by the land” (452). Combined with the decline of agricultural production, the peasants were suffering and a revolt was aspiring. Especially in France, under the control of Louis XIII power abuse and peasants disease was rampant. “At times desperate peasants revolted and attacked nearby castles and monasteries. War and intermittent outbreaks of plague cost some German towns one-third or more of their populations. One-third of the inhabitants of Bohemia also perished”. The number of deaths show the depth of the suffering that the peasants had to face. Revolts became more common and populations of the towns began to …show more content…
The war waged on the Roman Catholic Church proved to be devastating for the Spanish. Prior to the Thirty Years War, Spain was seen as the greatest power in Europe. But, after the Thirty Years War, France, under the power of Louis XIV came out as the dominant military force in Europe with their ally, Sweden. This was due to the constant gambles that Spain took to attack the French troops. After many failed attempts to invade, portugal was able to regain their independence from Spain after much of the Spanish Armada was destroyed. Sweden was able to prosper during the time of the Thirty Years War because of their growing navy and because of their control over the Gulf of Finland. The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire lost most of his power over German states and now the Diet was looked upon to solve disputes among the people. Germany was now given independent authority over its states. Another political change was in military. Normal armies were not strong enough in the Thirty Years War, so mercenary armies had to be called upon to aid the countries in warfare, which caused taxes to be raised, so peasants had a strong feeling of resentment for the government which slowly built