1. More on the Thirty Years War…and More… (I’m a poet, and I don’t even know it)

2.  Phase One: The Bohemian Phase (1618-1625)  Phase Two: The Danish Phase (1625-1629)  Phase Three: The Swedish Phase (1630-1635)  Phase Four: The Franco-Swedish Phase (1635-1648)

3. On Like Donkey Kong Donkey Kong  I see a little silhouette-o of a man…  The Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand was accepted as the Bohemian Estates’ king  These nobles were quickly unhappy with their choice because many of them were Calvinists, while Ferdinand was a devout Catholic  In and of itself, the Catholicism would not have been a problem, but Ferdinand began re-Catholicizing Bohemia and strengthening royal power  The Protestant nobles rebelled against Ferdinand in May 1618 and it was on like Donkey Kong  No, they literally did something that Donkey Kong may have considered: they threw two Habsburg governors and a secretary out of the window of the royal castle in Prague!

4.  They lived.  No. Seriously. They fell 70 feet from a castle and lived.  Now mind you, these are very religious people, so the Catholics pointed out that they survived only because of the Virgin Mary  The Protestants pointed out they fell into a manure pile  (You can’t make this up—sometimes history is greater than fiction)  The Bohemian rebels seized Bohemia, ousted Ferdinand and elected Frederick V (also head of the Protestant Union) as his replacement  Ferdinand refused to accept his deposition, as he was also recently elected as the Holy Roman Emperor  If Ferdinand had left, the balance of religious and political power in central Europe may have shifted, giving the Protestants more control of the Holy Roman Empire  Therefore, Ferdinand sought the help of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Catholic League and Frederick was defeated on November 8, 1620  Spanish troops took advantage of Frederick’s predicament by invading the Palatinate and conquering it by the end of 1622  Frederick fled, the Spanish took control of the western part of the Palatinate to gain access from Italy to the Netherlands  Now Emperor Ferdinand, he established Bohemia as a Habsburg possession, confiscated the land of the Protestant nobles, and established Catholicism as the sole religion  And that’s what happens when keepin’ it real goes wrong…

5.  The Danish phase of the war lasted from 1625-1629  It began when King Christian IV of Denmark, a Lutheran, led an army for the Protestants into northern Germany  His anti-Habsburg, anti-Catholic alliance with the United Provinces and England was looking to regain land for the Protestants and grab some Catholic territory in Northern Germany for his family  On the other side, the Bohemian noble Albrecht von Wallenstein had taken advantage of Ferdinand’s victory in Bohemia to become the country’s richest landowner  His tactics led the Catholic League to a victory over Christian IV’s troops in 1626 and 1627  Christian IV’s mission backfired as Wallenstein now occupied parts of northern Germany and ended Danish supremacy in the Baltic region  The Boys of Ferdy are lookin’ purdy…  …and because of that Ferdy 2 (also known by the rest of the civilized world as Emperor Ferdinand II) was at the height of his power and issued the Edict of Restitution in March, 1629 ◦ The devout Catholic prohibited Calvinist worship ◦ He restored all property taken by Protestant princes or cities in the previous 75 years to the Catholic Church ◦ However, German princes got scurred (scured? scurr’d?) and forced the dismissal of Wallenstein by Emperor Ferdy 2

6.  The Swedish phase of the war takes from 1630-1635 and begins Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus’s entry into the war  He was responsible for reviving Sweden and turning it into a great Baltic power  He would soon be seen as being responsible for being dead  A devout Lutheran, Adolphus felt compelled to aid his fellow Protestants against the Catholics  Gustavus’s army moved through Germany until the imperial side desperately recalled Wallenstein  At the Battle of Lutzen, the Swedish forces won, but it was a pyrrhic victory as Adolphus was killed in the battle  What do you think it means if one achieves a pyrrhic victory?  Hopefully you recognize that it means the Swedish troops were less effective…because that’s what happened  By 1634, on the orders of Ferdy 2, the imperial army knocked out the Swedes and guaranteed southern Germany for the Catholics  This was agreed upon because Ferdy 2 agreed to annul the Edict of Restitution of 1629, making peace with the princes of Germany…  …but that didn’t take care of the Swedes or the French…  …God’s a helluva drug… (semi-pun intended)…

7.  The final phase of the war is the Franco-Swedish Phase  The Catholic French were now supporting the Protestant Swedes (for political reasons) against the Catholic Habsburgs of Germany and Spain  This is where politics officially begins to supersede religion  The Battle of Rocroi in 1643 was the decisive victory for the French and ended Spanish military might  The French then defeated the imperialist-Bavarian armies in Southern Germany  Finally, everyone is ready for Peace…the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 (except the French and Spanish kept fighting until the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659)  By then, Spain was second-rate and France was the dominant European nation (as hard as that is to believe…)

8.  Peace of Westphalia: ◦ All German states, including the Calvinist ones, were free to determine their own religion ◦ France gained parts of western Germany, part of Alsace, and three cities of Metz, Toul, and Verdun  This gave France control of the border area between France and Germany  If you ever wondered why Germany generally, and Hitler specifically, was so concerned with France regaining the Alsace-Lorraine region following World War I, this is one of the first reasons ◦ The Austrian Habsburgs didn’t lose any land of note but their authority as rulers of Germany was diminished ◦ More than 300 states that made up the Holy Roman Empire were recognized as virtually independent because they could look after their own foreign policy (the Habsburg emperor was merely a figurehead) ◦ Religion and politics are now documented as separate ◦ The pope was completely ignored—politics is the guiding light ◦ Religion is less state-based and more of an individual choice ◦ Argument: the beginning of sovereign states operating as equals within a secular framework ◦ Economically, the damage was inconsistent, with the Holy Roman Empire likely being hit the hardest (likely a 15%-20% decline in the population)

9.  War terms to note (and know) to facilitate discussion: ◦ Calvary ◦ Squadrons/Battalions ◦ Conscription ◦ Salvo ◦ Standing armies ◦ Linear formations ◦ Musket + bayonet ◦ Naval arms race  Green: No military  Blue: No enforced conscription  Orange: Plan to abolish conscription in near future  Red: Conscription