Thirty Year's War

The Holy Roman Empire had been a strong national entity since the latest 900’s where the First emperor, Ottoman 1 took power. Through marriages, treaties and alliances the empire grew to encompass Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and many other European nations. At the height of the empire a tragedy for its well being occurred. Martin Luther and other religious thinkers insinuated the Protestant Reformation. This tore the Empire apart and forced it to break it’s Spanish ties with King Phillip with its Austrian and Habsburg ties with Ferdinand II. The peace of Augsburg concluded this stage of the religious wars, it destroyed the hopes of a fully Catholic Europe from ever returning. The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 had brought a temporary truce
How large of an effect did this war have one Europe and the Habsburg's? and How did the Thirty Year’s War contribute to the loss of power in the Holy Roman Empire? A source that can be used to investigate this question is the Treaty of Westphalia, this treaty was written to finally bring an end to the Thirty Years War. The treaty was written by over 109 delegates of European Powers including, Ferdinand III of the Holy Roman Empire, Phillip IV of Spain, the Kingdom of France and others. This treaty established a balance of power for all of Europe’s soon to be “nations”, Interfering with other nations domestic affairs was frowned upon and this was unique to this era. The Treaty also outlined and signified the ultimate decline of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the most powerful empire finally giving up on their goals of widespread Christendom and their attempts to bring most or all of Europe under Habsburg control. The document written by all people of power established sets of rules and laws that affected many individuals in Europe. No lower class citizens had any opinion in this matter, and they were affected directly. The treaty allowed the German Princes to choose their own religion for their state. Whatever religion that Prince was, the rest of the people had to follow. The treaty like all treaties was written by the few an would
The Thirty Years War was a war fought by mercenaries that were typically not related or unloyalw to the nation they represented. These mercenaries were costly and not only in economical ways but in social ways as the mercenaries would ravage through towns burning down crops and mowing down peasants. The mercenaries saw the results of the First Phase and pressured the emperor to commission and support their troops. Ironically one of the Holy Roman Empires strongest generals, Wallenstein was actually a Czech Protestant this just showed the people the outrageousness of the Empire. As the war was fought over “religious” purposes, but the Empire was supporting Protestants. Wallenstein was in full control of his mercenary armies and he pillaged Germany and other areas of the empire. The people of the Holy Roman Empire did not have a very pleasant experience with mercenary armies and thus turned them not against the war, but the Holy Roman Empire itself. The cost of the war economically was starkly different from others as this was one of the first wars that included all of Europe fighting for their beliefs which made the scene totally different and more costly. “The thirty years war saw the change from little wars to an effectively total war. Nation’s economies now centered around fighting in the war. Since the Holy Roman Empire was in this war the longest out of any