The Thirty Years War

hey there students I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the 30 Years War which is the last major war of the Protestant Reformation and kind of wraps the whole thing up now when was the 30 Years War first of all it was from 1618 to 1648 and what do you know 30 years that's why we call it the 30 Years War just a little tip if you will remember 1648 then you can also remember when the war began in 1648 is really one of those years that you should know in the context of Western civilization or European history because it's a turning point because it's the end of the Protestant Reformation so to speak now where did it begin the 30 Years War began in the Holy Roman Empire and most of it was fought in the Holy Roman Empire as far as a little background the Reformation it happened okay this is really a war of the Reformation you've got to understand that Martin Luther lived in the Holy Roman Empire this is something that is a consequence of that and sort of wraps things up now in 1555 all the powers-that-be of the Holy Roman Empire they got together at Augsburg and they established the Peace of Augsburg after fighting amongst themselves for about 30 years and they established the principle of pious regno a use religio basically they had the choice whoever reigns his religion and if they wanted to be Lutheran they could be Lutheran if they want to be Catholic they could be Catholic now note they could not be Calvinists and this is going to be a point of contention because Calvinists really aren't going to care whether their religion is illegal or not the 30 Years War is divided into four phases first of all the Bohemian phase second the Danish phase and keep in mind that in these early phases this is a local and religious conflict but it's going to expand into the Swedish phase and the French phase now these phases become increasingly continental and political so bohemian Danish Swedish and French these are the four phases of the 30 Years War students come up with various mnemonic devices one time a student showed me a mnemonic device and it's something I couldn't share with you but it worked for them so okay so first of all the bohemian phase now where is Bohemia Bohemia is in the modern-day Czech Republic and this was an area that had a lot of Protestants and it had a Catholic ruler so what do you do when you have a Catholic ruler and a Protestant majority even though the Peace of Augsburg said all right whoever reigns his religion it's not that simple when you rule over people who are of a different religion than you are so what had happened is the Habsburg rulers had granted Protestants toleration through a letter of majesty that had been issued by one of the Habsburg rulers now then ferdinand ii who was a very devout catholic had been educated by the Jesuits he took over and he revoked this letter of majesty which ticked off the protestants leading to the defenestration of Prague defenestration basically a really fancy word for throwing somebody out of a window the Emperor sent some messengers to talk to the Protestants and all that kind of stuff the Protestants weren't having it they threw these messengers out the window they defenestrated them and these guys fell about 70 feet now this is like several stories okay like technically in this place thing was only like a third or fourth story window but if you think about that I mean these people are falling you know modern day about five six maybe seven stories this should kill you didn't kill them now there were competing views about this there were Catholics who said well they'd been saved by the intercession the Virgin Mary and the angels and all of that kind of stuff and then the Protestants said that's nonsense there was really just a big pile of manure at the bottom that they fell into and that's what saved them so regardless though these guys survived a pretty amazing fall and Ferdinand the seconds thinking hey these Protestants better recognize they can't just send my messengers out of windows into big piles of crap or the arms of the angels or whatever they fell into and Ferdinand confronted the Bohemians the Battle of White Mountain which was a decisive Catholic victory all right so this is something that could have been just a local conflict and there you go and at this point if we were to think of this is a ball game the Catholics would have one point on the board the Protestants zero then there's the Danish phase now keep in mind Denmark is immediately north of modern Germany the Holy Roman Empire back then and the King of Denmark actually ruled some places in the Holy Roman Empire and he was a Protestant so he's thinking like okay let me get involved here and try to help my fellow Protestants so the Lutheran King of Denmark comes into the Holy Roman Empire and then he is just straight-up owned by this guy wallenstein who is a mercenary that is working for the hapsburgs hey Jory hold it down I'm sorry I was watching that video that whole pop3 me to watch all kinds crazy stuff I was watching that time when I made this so just bear with me Pope's wand all right all right enough of that all right so this guy he is just sending the Protestants back the Danes go back to Denmark wallenstein actually follows them and they're having a hard time in their own place so the Danish phase really is yet another occurrence of the Catholics just owning the Protestants so Catholics - Protestants zero keep in mind so far this has been a local war within the Holy Roman Empire and really it's you know neighboring Danes but that's about to change all right the Swedish phase this is when Sweden is going to become directly involved and Gustavus Adolphus if you only remember one person from the 30 Years War Gustavus Adolphus is who you need to remember he was the Lutheran being of sweden and his involvement really makes a difference here getting involved in a war that's being dominated by catholics and he comes in as a protestant military mastermind alright and gustavus adolphus he is ridin thirty do you want to think of it that way um catholics gonna catch him riding thirty or something like that gonna catch me riding 30 and gustavus adolphus is often referred to as the father of modern warfare the reason for this being is that he was one of the first people to use mobile artillery on the battlefield these are cannons that you can move during a battle before his time cannons were so big that you would not be able to move him during a battle you could place them and then they were pretty much going to stay where they were but Gustavus Adolphus of the Battle of Breton field confronts the Catholics and it's not going so well for him at first but Gustavus Adolphus is able to turn and watch this mobile artillery on this map you're going to see that he moves his cannons to go where he needs them in the battlefield at that time so this is why he has this reputation as the father of modern warfare and while Gustavus Adolphus is fighting as the Protestant leader he's receiving support from the French so it's important to note this relationship in this Swedish phase of the war I think of it is SS FF Swedish swords French funds and the Swedes are doing the fighting the French are doing the funding now say what ok the Pope's confused here because remember that France is a Catholic country and why is France helping the Protestants don't they know what religion they are and that sort of thing did they forget well actually they didn't remember this concept of politique that was championed by people such as Henry the fourth of Navarre and Cardinal Richelieu now Cardinal Richelieu was a churchman but he's also the first minister of France and he's got more important things to worry about than religion he is concerned about the balance of power and this is a theme that comes up over and over again in European history and when people are thinking about whose side to get on in a conflict they've got to think about what is going to be to their advantage and what is going to create a balance of power so that no one European entity is going to dominate the rest and so when you look at this map here you see that the House of Habsburg controlled at the time the Holy Roman Empire Austria Spain and also islands in the Mediterranean and southern Italy they had lands in Switzerland they controlled the Netherlands the hapsburgs were very very powerful and the French they're thinking okay we're kind of surrounded if you look at this map it's like whoa I mean the French are there and they're Hapsburgs here and Hapsburgs they're here a Habsburg their Habsburg everywhere a Habsburg that's a problem so what happens here is the French are helping the Swedes well they are until Gustavus Adolphus has to go and die in battle actually led a cavalry charge this guy was very hands-on like Alexander the great but you know even the best leaders those hands-on leaders they die so Gustavus Adolphus his death is going to lead to the decline of Sweden's active leadership and that's going to be a turning point in the war because the Swedes are going to pull back militarily but they're still willing to help somebody else and while they were there they put a point on the board for the Protestants and so we are moving toward the end of the war which is going to be a stalemate the fourth phase is the largest the bloodiest and the most continental this is the French phase and we're going to flip it over as far as what the roles were in the Swedish phase just go ahead and flip it over what's going to happen here is now the Swedes are funding the French while the French fight Swedish swords French fists flip it over so now as we're wrapping up let's go ahead and view the four phases again first of all remember you've got bohemian and the Danish phases which are largely local religious conflicts followed by the Swedish and French phases which become increasingly continental and political in scope and by the French phase okay so the French are fighting on the side of the Protestants or the Catholics winning the Protestants winning who's on whose side who's winning all of that you really don't know and by 1648 which is when this war ends remember 1618 to 1648 this is starting to get old alright the whole war thing can be an adventure at first maybe and let's see how many people we can hang in this tree over here but after a while it gets old especially after 30 years okay why are we fighting who's winning what's going on and they get together and kind of realize all right let's go ahead and make peace and this war is kind of inconclusive it's not like you'd say this side one this side loss now there are going to be consequences of the war that certainly it's going to wink it weakened the hapsburgs it's going to strengthen France but there's not really a winner they get together at Westphalia in 1648 and sign the Peace of Westphalia which first of all weakens the holy roman emperor the holy roman emperor now has no control over the princes of the empire which is going to lead Voltaire later on to say the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy nor Roman nor an empire and then the Spanish Habsburgs who had had control over the Dutch Netherlands the Dutch Netherlands are now going to be independent the Spanish will hold on to part of it but then part of it's going to be independent so that weakens the hapsburgs then brandenburg is going to gain territory this is going to lead to the rise of brandenburg-prussia which is going to be the foundation for a unified German state later on so the 30 Years War is really starting this process that's going to lead a few hundred years later to the unification of Germany then al seis is going to go to France and that's something that's going to be a point of contention between France and Germany as late as World War One and their switzerland that's going to become an independent Confederation which wetterlund is still independent today and it's kind of known for being independent neutral and all that kind of stuff so the Swiss get their independence from the 30 Years War and then just in general the Holy Roman Empire as an institution is weaker than it was before the 30 Years War and the balance of power is going to tip a little more toward France a little bit away from the Habsburg so keep in mind that France is now an ascended power and then the Holy Roman Empire is a declining power that's important to note here and then Calvinism is accepted remember Calvinism was a bit of a problem here in the sense that there were lots of Calvinists and the Holy Roman Empire but then they weren't allowed to practice their religion and speaking of the rise of Prussian Prussia Brandenburg the rulers of prussia brandenburg were Calvinists even though most of the people of brandenburg were lutheran so this is something where now you have three religions that are acceptable the Catholic religion the Lutheran religion and the Calvinist religion and then on top of everything else freedom of private worship if somebody's not getting in the way or causing a lot of trouble then let's just leave them alone we don't want to fight over religion anymore all right killing people because of what religion they are is stupid all right Europeans are finally starting to realize that after centuries of killing each other because of religion so this is something that is a big turning point for Europe is that they agree that you know that wasn't such a good idea so this is the last major religious war in Europe on a continent that it had dozens of religious wars over the centuries and it is also the end of violence accompanying the Protestant Reformation so we can kind of bring the Reformation to a close as far as something that causes contention and that sort of thing so that about wraps us up if you like what you heard if this helped you subscribe visit my website Tom Ritchie dotnet I'm on Twitter Instagram Facebook like 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Channel: Tom Richey

Views: 716,396

Rating: 4.8682575 out of 5

Keywords: Thirty Years' War (Military Conflict), thirty years war crash course, thirty years war summary, thirty years war ap euro, ap euro thirty years war, thirty years war tom richey, ap european history, AP European History Review, Tom Richey AP Euro, Tom Richey

Id: B18zwAVO4q0

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 10 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/gortepap]

Very informative video about the Thirty Years War, he explains it very well. He has a lot of other history mealtimevideos, if you're interrested in that sort of thing.