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The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War
Coverage
Background and Overview
The Holy Roman Empire
The Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther
The Beginning
The Four Sections
Major Events
The End
Introduction
of the Thirty
Years War
1618-1648
The Thirty Years' War was a 17th-century religious
and political conflict in central Europe that initially
started between the Holy Roman Empire and the
Lutheran Church. It remains one of the longest and
most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8
million casualties resulting from military battles as
well as from the famine and disease caused by the
conflict.
Facts
The Thirty Years War killed more people than the
American Revolution and the Napoleonic
Revolution combined.
The Thirty Years War was not entirely a religious
war.
The influence of the Roman Catholic Church was
far greater than imagined.
Page 06
The Holy
Roman
Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, a revival of the ancient Imperial
Roman state, was founded at the outset of the 9th
century by Charlemagne, who in 800 had himself
crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome.
The Holy Roman Empire encompassed the territories of
present-day Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia,
Belgium, and the Netherlands as well as large parts of
modern Poland, France and Italy.
Page 08
Emperor Otto I
placed the territorial empire of
Charlemagne under German rule
and established in Central
Europe the feudal state that
would be called, by the thirteenth
century, the Holy Roman Empire.
Page 09
The
Protestant
Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform
movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. It
resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity
called Protestantism, a name used collectively to
refer to the many religious groups that separated
from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences
in doctrine.
Page 11
Martin Luther
German theologian and religious
reformer who was the catalyst of
the 16th-century Protestant
Reformation in which he single-
handedly challenged the
doctrines of the Roman Catholic
Church.
Martin Luther
Formerly a law student whom according to
historical accounts, was struck by lightning and
prayed to Saint Anne promising he'd become a
monk. He later survived the ordeal and on the
next day, decided to become an Augustinian
monk.
Luther was focused on the effects of corruption
and greed.
Luther came across a friar named John Tetzel who came
to Wittenberg, selling indulgences which costed three
marks. Luther felt it was not something to be sold.
In response, Luther wrote 95
theses against indulgences.
Martin Luther
"Salvation comes through faith, not
good works, - not through prayer,
fasting, vigils, pilgrimages, relics,
giving to the poor, the sacraments,
or any action that a person can take,
we can't ever be good enough,
through our actions to merit
salvation."
Page 16
Sola Fide
"Only Faith" or "By Faith alone".
How did one single
man manage to
threaten the Roman
Catholic Church and
The Holy Roman
Empire in general?
Luther's Ideas
Christians were saved only through faith and the
grace of God. "Sola Fide".
The Church's rituals didn't have the power to save
souls.
The Church is far from being infallible, the
church, and the pope made errors all the time.
Luther denied that the Church and the officers of
it had any spiritual powers.
Imperial Diet of Worms
Emperor
Charles V
"A single friar who goes counter
to all Christianity for a thousand
years must be wrong".
What significance
did Martin Luther
make that made
him stand out from
the one's before
him?
Printing Press
Page 23
The German
Peasants Revolt
Inspired by changes brought by
the Reformation, peasants in
western and southern Germany
invoked divine law. As the
uprising spread, some peasant
groups organized armies.
Page 24
The
Beginning of
the Thirty
Years War
The Peace of Augsburg
1555
Emperor
Rudolph II
Granted the Letter of Majesty to
solve the Catholic-ruler and
Protestant-majority issue.
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Emperor
Matthias
Page 30
Emperor
Ferdinand II
A devout catholic, and after
ascending rulership, he revoked
the Letter of Majesty causing
outrage in Bohemia, the modern-
day Czechoslovakia.
Defenestration of Prague
The Four
Phases of
The Thirty
Years War
Local and
Bohemian
Religious
Danish Struggle
Swedish continental
and political
French struggle
Page 35
The Bohemian
Phase
With the Bohemians in an open revolt, the rebellious
fervor began to spread across Germany. Emperor
Ferdinand II had to ask for help from his cousin.
Philip IV of
Spain
Agreed as this conflict would
help offer the Spanish an
opportunity to reconquer the
Dutch.
In a desperate attempt to have a major power to
back them, the Bohemians started sending out deals
to everyone they could think of but were
unfortunately seized by the Austrians who amde it
public that Bohemians were whoring out the same
deals to multiple people.
Page 39
King Frederick
V
Was elected as the king of the
Bohemians in 1619.
Battle of White Mountain
The Danish
Phase
Page 43
King Christian
IV
Was a Danish protestant king
whom had a vested interest in
the conflict since Denmark is
right above the territory of the
Holy Roman Empire.
In 1625, Denmark's army headed south to aid the
fellow protestant nations but was firmly repelled by
a Catholic mercenary.
Page 45
Albrecht Von
Wallenstein
Drove out the Danish forces to
withdrawal.
Page 46
The Swedish
Phase
Up until this point, the conflicts were fought purely on
religious basis. In 1630, Sweden joins the war.
Ferdinand loses trust on Wallenstein and ultimately
dismisses him.
Page 48
King Gustavus
Adolphus of
Sweden
A Lutheran, a commander, and a
king. The father of modern
warfare.
King Gustavus Adolphus descends to the HRE to the
Protestants' aid and achieved victory on the battle of
Breitenfeld with credit to the use of mobile artillery
which named him the Father of modern warfare.
gustavus IN
Swedish CHARGE OF THE
KILLING
louis xiii FUNDS
French SWEDEN'S WAR
EFFORTS
Why France, a
Catholic nation,
helping the
Protestant Swedes?
The religious basis of The Thirty Years War became
less and less prevalent and politics became a
deciding factor.
What pushed
France to join
Sweden?
France, knowing that it was surrounded by the
Habsburgs saw that backing Sweden was a way to
bring Habsburg down a notch and secure themselves
a more balanced and equal playing field in Europe.
On the 6th of November, 1632 the Swedish king
Gustavus Adolphus died in battle while leading a
cavalry charge subsequently ending the Swedish
phase.
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The French
Phase
With Gustavus' death, Sweden decided to take a
backseat role, and in 1635, Sweden switches roles
with France.
IN CHARGE OF
Swedish handling the
budget
now in charge
French of the
killlings
The French phase was considered as the longest, the
bloodiest and the most defining part of The Thirty
Years War.
Page 61
Resurgence in
witch hunts
Page 62
Mass
Hangings
Page 63
Famine
After 30 years of war of fighting, like most wars, the
result was inconclusive.
Treaty of Westphalia