1.

Why was it easier for England to become a nation state earlier than many
countries in Europe?

Ans: Because England was an island meaning, she could not be attacked easily and only
could be attacked using ships.

2. What is the Thirty Years War?

Ans: When the rest of Europe (except England) was torn by religious troubles, it ended
in one of the most terrible wars the continent had known.

3. What did the Thirty Years War begin as?

Ans: As a religious war of Catholics against Protestants.

4. What did the Thirty Years War then turn into?

Ans: A struggle for power in Europe among the nation states.

5. Which countries and continents were constantly in war?

Ans: France, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, the German States, the Austrian empire
(Austria, modern Czechoslovakia, parts of Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia) and the
Spanish empire (Spain, Belgium, northern France, parts of eastern France, parts of
north Italy, southern Italy and Portugal) were constantly at war.

6. Why did the soldiers keep changing their sides?

Ans: Because they were greedy and thought they had a better chance to get power.

7. Most of the fighting took place in which places?

Ans: Germany and Eastern Europe.

8. What did the armies do when they were not in actual battle?

Ans: The soldiers marched to and for destroying villages and towns, and murdering,
sometimes because the people were of the opposite religion, sometimes for money and
sometimes just for savage amusement.

9. How many people in much of Central Europe died during the Thirty Years War?

Ans: Half and two-thirds of the population.

10. How many years did it take for the places where the war took place to get
recovered?

Ans: More than a century.

11. What was the last great war of religion in Europe?

Ans: The Thirty Years War.

12. What happened to the people after the Thirty Years War? (Positive side).

Ans: The Catholic and Protestant states learned to live together if not happily, at least
usually without fighting.

13. What happened to Spain after the Thirty Years War?

Ans: Spain was the biggest loser, and her power in Europe steadily decreased. In many
ways she shut herself off from Europe and turned back to the Middle Ages. She held
on to her territory in what is now Belgium and eastern France for a little longer, but
Portugal rebelled and became independent, taking with her the South American colony
of Brazil.

14. What happened to Holland and Switzerland after the Thirty Years War?

Ans: Holland and Switzerland, which had legally been part of the Holy Roman Empire,
now became fully independent republics.

15. What did Sweden do after the Thirty Years War?

Ans: Sweden seized some German states on the opposite side of the Baltic Sea which
enabled her to control the valuable trade there.

16. What happened to Germany after the Thirty Years War?

Ans: Germany, which had hoped to become more united, broke up into over three
hundred different states, some Catholic, some Protestant. Although some states had
alliances with others, none of them at the time were really great powers. Germany was
to be left relatively weak for over two centuries.

17. What happened to France after the Thirty Years War?

Ans: The biggest winner by far was France who emerged from the war as the most
powerful state in Europe. She gained important land in the north-east (now the province
of Alsace) from German states.

18. What did the conquest of Alsace from Germany by France lead to?

Ans: This territory caused bitterness between the two for the next three centuries,
and was one of the main causes of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and World War I
(1914-18).

19. Which country was determined to build on her power and to dominate the
whole of Europe?

Ans: France.

20. How old was King Louis when the Treaty of Westphalia was signed?

Ans: He was four-years-old.

21. By whom was France run by when the Treaty of Westphalia was signed?

Ans: Chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin.

22. What was chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu determined to?

Ans: He was determined to make France the greatest state in Europe, if not in the
world.

23. How old was King Louis XIV when the power was handed to him?

Ans: He was twenty-two years old.

24. Who had gone a long way to achieve King Louis XIV’s dream?

Ans: Cardinal Mazarin.