Andrew Andersen THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR (1618-1648) THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA (1648) Maps: Putzgers, F.W., Historischer Schul-Atlas, Bielefeld, 1929 The New Cambridge Modern History Atlas, 1970

PRE-WAR SITUATION The last 50 years before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War were relatively peaceful and quiet in Germany. The Empire seemed to function as a federal state, the imperial Diet (Reichstag) and the local diets were operating quite effectively. Several German states managed to expand by absorbing some smaller states and territories and religious rivalry seemed to be kept under control. Map: Imperial districts ca. 1600 (click on the map for bigger image)

The only area of the Empire where the hostilities went on, were the Netherlands. Dutch struggle against the armies of Spanish Habsburgs under William of Orange culminated in the mass uprising of 1571, and ten years later Northern Netherlands became independent as a “Republic of the United Provinces” Map: The Netherlands ca. 1600 (click on the map for bigger image)

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

The Thirty Years' War started in 1618 in Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) as an uprising of local nobility against the coronation of a Roman Catholic as King Fedrinand of Bohemia. Instead, the rebels offered Bohemian crown to Frederick of the Palatinate who was Protestant. The Emperor sent his troops to Bohemia, later reinforced by the armies of the Catholic League.
	Johann von Tilly, Imperial General

Initial success of Bohemia, Palatinate and their Protestant allies was brought to naught by the Battle of White Mountain (1920) where the Bohemians were defeated by the imperial army under General Johann von Tilly. In 1621 Spanish army invaded and devastated Lower Palatinate, and by 1924 it looked like the Catholic League was triumphant.

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THE DANISH PERIOD

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