Chapter 8 Section 4 The German States

The German States While the Bourbons were building the strongest monarchy in Europe, the Protestants of Austria were trying to set up their own absolute monarchy in central and eastern Europe. Their efforts renewed tensions between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants. This eventually led to yet another conflict the Thirty Years’ War. Though most of the fighting took place in Germany, all the major European powers except England became involved.

The Thirty Year’s War Conflicts between Catholics and Protestants had continued in Germany. These disputes were complicated by the spread of Calvinism, a religion that had not been recognized by a previous peace settlement. Furthermore, the Protestant princes of Germany resisted the rule of Catholic monarchs.

In 1618, the Thirty Years’ War began in Bohemia In 1618, the Thirty Years’ War began in Bohemia. This was because a Catholic heir curtailed, reduced, the freedom of Bohemian Protestants, most of who were Czechs. The Czechs rebelled and took over. Soon the rebellion developed into a full scale civil war-Catholics against the Protestants. The Czech revolt was crushed by 1620 and, over the next 10 years, the Czechs were forcefully reconverted to Catholicism. Although the revolt was put down eventually fighting would emerge and continue again.

In fact, more and more countries became involved to either protect the Catholics or the Protestants. For example, Demark fought against the Catholics, hoping to take German territory then Sweden entered to also help the Protestant cause. The war went on for 12 years, and religious issues were taking second place to political ones. Then, to make matters worse, in 1635, Roman Catholic France decided to take up arms with Roman Catholic Germany to keep them from getting too powerful.

The war continued for 13 more years until 1648 when it finally ended The war continued for 13 more years until 1648 when it finally ended. The outcome was that Germany was weakened and the rise of France as Europe’s leading power. Calvinism became the official religion which divided the Holy Roman Empire into more than 300 separate states.

Austria After the Thirty Years’ War, the Austrian Catholics concentrated on building a strong monarchy in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia. This was possible because Austria was still the most powerful of the German states. They regained territory in the Balkan Peninsula from the Ottomans and the Austrians gained the Spanish Netherlands and acquired lands in Italy. With these gains trade barriers between Austria and Bohemia were ended and Austria’s production of textiles and glass boosted.