Czech army in the 30 years war. x

THIRTY YEARS WAR (1618–1648) - war of the Habsburg bloc (Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, Catholic princes of Germany, papacy) with the anti-Habsburg coalition (Protestant princes of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and France). One of the first all-European military conflicts, which affected, to one degree or another, almost all European countries (including Russia), with the exception of Switzerland. The war began as a religious clash between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but then escalated into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe.

Prerequisites:

The great-power policy of the Habsburgs (Since the time of Charles V, the leading role in Europe belonged to the House of Austria - the Habsburg dynasty).

The desire of the papacy and Catholic circles to restore the power of the Roman Church in that part of Germany, where in the first half of the XVI century. Reformation won

Existence of disputed regions in Europe

1. Holy Roman Empire of the German nation: contradictions between the emperor and the German princes, religious schism.

2. Baltic Sea (struggle between Protestant Sweden and Catholic Poland for territory)

3. Fragmented Italy, which France and Spain tried to divide.

Causes:

The unstable balance established after the religious peace of Augsburg in 1555, which fixed the split of Germany along religious lines, was in jeopardy in the 1580s.

At the very end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII century. Catholic pressure on Protestants intensified: in 1596 Archduke Ferdinand Habsburg, ruler of Styria, Carinthia and Kraina, forbade his subjects to practice Lutheranism and destroyed all Lutheran churches; in 1606 Duke Maximilian of Bavaria occupied the Protestant city of Donauwert and converted its churches into Catholic ones. This forced the Protestant princes of Germany to create in 1608 for the "protection of the religious world" the Evangelical Union, headed by Elector Frederick IV of the Palatinate; they were supported by the French king http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/istoriya/GENRIH_IV.htmlHenry IV. In response, in 1609 Maximilian of Bavaria formed the Catholic League, entering into an alliance with the main spiritual princes of the Empire.

In 1609, the Habsburgs, taking advantage of the dispute between two Protestant princes over the inheritance of the duchies of Jülich, Cleve and Berg, tried to establish control over these strategically important lands in northwestern Germany. Holland, France and Spain intervened in the conflict. However, the assassination of Henry IV in 1610 prevented the war. The conflict was settled by the Xanten Agreement of 1614 on the division of the Jülich-Cleve inheritance.

In the spring of 1618, an uprising broke out in Bohemia against the rule of the Habsburgs, caused by the destruction of several Protestant churches and the violation of local liberties; On May 23, 1618, the townspeople http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/Earth_sciences/geografiya/PRAGA.html of Prague threw three representatives of Emperor Matthew (1611–1619) out of the windows of Prague Castle (Defenestration). Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia joined the rebellious Bohemia. This event marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.

Sides:

On the side of the Habsburgs: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of Germany, Spain, united with Portugal, the Holy See, Poland (traditional conservative forces). The Habsburg bloc was more monolithic, the Austrian and Spanish houses kept in touch with each other, often conducting joint military operations. Wealthier Spain provided financial support to the emperor.

On the side of the anti-Habsburg coalition: France, Sweden, Denmark, the Protestant principalities of Germany, the Czech Republic, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, supported by England, Scotland and Russia (strengthening national states). There were major contradictions between them, but they all receded into the background before the threat of a common enemy.

Periodization:

(There were several separate conflicts outside of Germany: the War of Spain with Holland, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Russian-Polish War, the Polish-Swedish War, etc.)

1. Czech period (1618-1625)

Emperor Matthew of Habsburg (1612–1619) tried to reach a peace agreement with the Czechs, but the negotiations were interrupted after his death in March 1619 and the election to the German throne of the implacable enemy of the Protestants, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria (Ferdinand II). The Czechs entered into an alliance with the Transylvanian prince Bethlen Gabor; his troops invaded Austrian Hungary. In May 1619, Czech troops under the command of Count Matthew Turn entered Austria and laid siege to Vienna, the residence of Ferdinand II, but were soon due to the invasion of Bohemia by the imperial general Bukua. At the General Landtag in Prague in August 1619, representatives of the rebellious regions refused to recognize Ferdinand II as their king and elected in his place the head of the Union, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. However, by the end of 1619, the situation began to take shape in favor of the emperor, who received large subsidies from the pope and military assistance from Philip III of Spain. In October 1619, he concluded an agreement on joint actions against the Czechs with the head of the Catholic League, Maximilian of Bavaria, and in March 1620, with Elector Johann-Georg of Saxony, the largest Protestant prince in Germany. The Saxons occupied Silesia and Lusatia, Spanish troops invaded the Upper Palatinate. Taking advantage of the differences within the Union, the Habsburgs obtained from her an obligation not to provide assistance to the Czechs.

Under the command of General Tilly, the army of the Catholic League pacified upper Austria while the Imperial troops restored order in lower Austria. Then, having united, they moved to the Czech Republic, bypassing the army of Frederick V, who was trying to fight a defensive battle on distant lines. The battle took place near Prague (Battle of the White Mountain) on November 8, 1620. The Protestant army suffered a crushing defeat. As a result, the Czech Republic remained in the power of the Habsburgs for another 300 years. The first phase of the war in eastern Europe finally came to an end when Gabor Bethlen signed peace with the emperor in January 1622, gaining vast territories in eastern Hungary for himself.

Results: Habsburg victory

1. The collapse of the Evangelical Union and the loss by Frederick V of all his possessions and title. Frederick V was expelled from the Holy Roman Empire.

2. The Czech Republic fell, Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Palatinate, securing a foothold for another war with the Netherlands.

3. An impetus for a closer unity of the anti-Habsburg coalition. June 10, 1624 France and Holland signed the Treaty of Compiègne. It was joined by England (June 15), Sweden and Denmark (July 9), Savoy and Venice (July 11).

2. Danish period (1625-1629)

The attempt of the Habsburgs to establish themselves in Westphalia and Lower Saxony and carry out a Catholic restoration there threatened the interests of the Protestant states of Northern Europe - Denmark and Sweden. In the spring of 1625, Christian IV of Denmark, supported by England and Holland, began hostilities against the emperor. Together with the troops of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, the Danes launched an offensive in the Elbe basin.

To repel it, Ferdinand II granted emergency powers to the new commander-in-chief of the Czech Catholic nobleman Albrecht Wallenstein. He gathered a huge mercenary army and on April 25, 1626 defeated Mansfeld near Dessau. On August 27, Tilly defeated the Danes at Lutter. In 1627 the Imperials and Ligists captured Mecklenburg and all of Denmark's mainland possessions (Holstein, Schleswig, and Jutland).

But plans to create a fleet to capture the island part of Denmark and attack Holland fell through due to the opposition of the Hanseatic League. In the summer of 1628, Wallenstein, seeking to put pressure on the Hansa, besieged the largest Pomeranian port of Stralsund, but failed. In May 1629, Ferdinand II concluded the Treaty of Lübeck with Christian IV, returning to Denmark the possessions taken from her in exchange for her obligation not to interfere in German affairs.

The Catholic League sought to return the Catholic possessions lost in the Peace of Augsburg. Under her pressure, the emperor issued the Restitution Edict (1629). Wallenstein's unwillingness to implement the edict and the complaints of the Catholic princes about his arbitrariness forced the emperor to dismiss the commander.

Results:

1. Peace of Lübeck Empire with Denmark

2. The beginning of the policy of restoration of Catholicism in Germany (Edict of Restitution). Complication of relations between the emperor and Wallenstein.

3. Swedish period (1630-1635)

Sweden was the last major state capable of changing the balance of power. Gustav II Adolf, king of Sweden, sought to stop the Catholic expansion, as well as to establish his control over the Baltic coast of northern Germany. Prior to this, Sweden was kept from the war by the war with Poland in the struggle for the Baltic coast. By 1630, Sweden ended the war and enlisted the support of Russia (Smolensk War). The Swedish army was armed with advanced small arms and artillery. It did not have mercenaries, and at first it did not rob the population. This fact has had a positive effect.

Ferdinand II had been dependent on the Catholic League ever since he disbanded Wallenstein's army. At the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Catholic League under the command of Tilly. A year later, they met again, and again the Swedes won, and General Tilly died (1632). With the death of Tilly, Ferdinand II turned his attention back to Wallenstein. Wallenstein and Gustav Adolf clashed at the fierce Battle of Lützen (1632), where the Swedes narrowly won, but Gustav Adolf died.

In March 1633 Sweden and the German Protestant principalities formed the Heilbronn League; all military and political power in Germany passed to an elected council headed by the Swedish chancellor. But the absence of a single authoritative commander began to affect the Protestant troops, and in 1634 the previously invincible Swedes suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Nördlingen (1634).

On suspicion of treason, Wallenstein was removed from command, and then killed by soldiers of his own guard in Eger Castle.

Results: Peace of Prague (1635).

Annulment of the "Edict of Restitution" and the return of possessions to the framework of the Peace of Augsburg.

The unification of the army of the emperor and the armies of the German states into one army of the "Holy Roman Empire".

The ban on the formation of coalitions between princes.

Legalization of Calvinism.

This peace, however, could not suit France, since the Habsburgs, as a result, became stronger.

4. Franco-Swedish period (1635-1648)

Having exhausted all diplomatic reserves, France entered the war itself. With her intervention, the conflict finally lost its religious overtones, since the French were Catholics. France involved its allies in Italy in the conflict. She managed to prevent a new war between Sweden and the Republic of both peoples (Poland), which concluded the Stumsdorf Truce, which allowed Sweden to transfer significant reinforcements from behind the Vistula to Germany. The French attacked Lombardy and the Spanish Netherlands. In response, in 1636 the Spanish-Bavarian army under the command of Prince Ferdinand of Spain crossed the Somme and entered Compiègne, while the imperial general Matthias Galas tried to capture Burgundy.

In the summer of 1636, the Saxons and other states that had signed the Peace of Prague turned their troops against the Swedes. Together with the imperial forces, they pushed the Swedish commander Baner to the north, but were defeated at the Battle of Wittstock. In 1638, in East Germany, Spanish troops attacked the superior forces of the Swedish army. Having avoided defeat, the Swedes spent a hard winter in Pomerania.

The last period of the war proceeded in conditions of exhaustion of both opposing camps, caused by colossal tension and overexpenditure of financial resources. Maneuvering actions and small battles prevailed.

In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, and a year later, King Louis XIII of France also died. Five-year-old Louis XIV became king. His regent, Cardinal Mazarin, began peace negotiations. In 1643, the French finally stopped the Spanish invasion at the Battle of Rocroix. In 1645 Swedish marshal Lennart Torstensson defeated the Imperials at the Battle of Jankow near Prague, and Prince Condé defeated the Bavarian army at the Battle of Nördlingen. The last prominent Catholic military leader, Count Franz von Mercy, died in this battle.

In 1648, the Swedes (Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel) and the French (Turenne and Condé) defeated the Imperial-Bavarian army at the Battle of Zusmarhausen and Lans. Only the imperial territories and Austria proper remained in the hands of the Habsburgs.

Results: In the summer of 1648, the Swedes besieged Prague, but in the midst of the siege, news came of the signing of the Peace of Westphalia on October 24, 1648, which put an end to the Thirty Years' War.

Westphalian peace.

The Peace of Westphalia means two peace agreements in Latin - Osnabrück and Münster, signed in 1648 and was the result of the first modern diplomatic congress and laid the foundation for a new order in Europe based on the concept of state sovereignty. The agreements affected the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and their allies represented by the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Until 1806, the norms of the Osnabrück and Münster treaties were part of the constitutional law of the Holy Roman Empire.

Participants goals:

France - break the encirclement of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs

Sweden - to achieve hegemony in the Baltic

Holy Roman Empire and Spain - to achieve smaller territorial concessions

Conditions

1. Territory: France received South Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verden, Sweden - Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, Saxony - Lusatia, Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden

2. The independence of Holland was recognized.

The war between France and Spain continued for another eleven years and ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.

Meaning: The Peace of Westphalia resolved the contradictions that led to the Thirty Years' War

1. Equalized the rights of Catholics and Protestants, legalized the confiscation of church lands, abolished the previously existing principle “whose power is the faith”, instead of which the principle of religious tolerance was proclaimed, which further reduced the significance of the confessional factor in relations between states;

2. put an end to the desire of the Habsburgs to expand their possessions at the expense of the territories of the states and peoples of Western Europe and undermined the authority of the Holy Roman Empire: from that time on, the old hierarchical order of international relations, in which the German emperor was considered senior in rank among monarchs, was destroyed and the heads of independent states Europe, who had the title of kings, were equal in rights with the emperor;

3. According to the norms established by the Peace of Westphalia, the main role in international relations, which previously belonged to monarchs, passed to sovereign states.

Effects

1. The Thirty Years' War was the first war that affected all sections of the population. In Western history, it has remained one of the most difficult European conflicts among the predecessors of the World Wars of the 20th century.

2. The immediate result of the war was that over 300 small German states received full sovereignty with nominal membership in the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806.

3. The war did not lead to the automatic collapse of the Habsburgs, but changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became evident. In addition, Sweden became a great power, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic.

4. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.

5. It is customary to count the modern era in international relations from the Peace of Westphalia.

THIRTY YEARS WAR (1618–1648), war of the Habsburg bloc (Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, Catholic princes of Germany, papacy) against the anti-Habsburg coalition (Protestant princes of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and France).

The cause of the war was the great-power policy of the Habsburgs and the desire of the papacy and Catholic circles to restore the power of the Roman Church in that part of Germany, where in the first half of the 16th century. the Reformation won.

The unstable balance established after the Augsburg religious peace of 1555, which fixed the split of Germany along religious lines, was threatened in the 1580s: in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585) and Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg (1576–1611) forcibly prevented the secularization of the Archbishopric of Mainz , one of the seven electors of the German Empire; in 1586 the Protestants were expelled from the Bishopric of Würzburg, and in 1588 from the Archbishopric of Salzburg. At the very end of the XVI - beginning of the XVII century. Catholic pressure on Protestants intensified: in 1596 Archduke Ferdinand Habsburg, ruler of Styria, Carinthia and Kraina, forbade his subjects to practice Lutheranism and destroyed all Lutheran churches; in 1606 Duke Maximilian of Bavaria occupied the Protestant city of Donauwert and converted its churches into Catholic ones. This forced the Protestant princes of Germany to create in 1608 for the "protection of the religious world" the Evangelical Union, headed by Elector Frederick IV of the Palatinate; they were supported by the French king Henry IV. In response, in 1609 Maximilian of Bavaria formed the Catholic League, entering into an alliance with the main spiritual princes of the Empire.

In 1609, the Habsburgs, taking advantage of the dispute between two Protestant princes (Elector of Brandenburg and Count Palatine of Neuburg) over the inheritance of the duchies of Jülich, Cleve and Berg, tried to establish control over these strategically important lands in northwestern Germany. Holland, France and Spain intervened in the conflict. However, the assassination in 1610 of Henry IV prevented the war. The conflict was settled by the Xanten Agreement of 1614 on the division of the Jülich-Cleve inheritance

. In the spring of 1618, an uprising broke out in Bohemia against the rule of the Habsburgs, caused by the destruction of several Protestant churches and the violation of local liberties; On May 23, 1618, the citizens of Prague threw three representatives of Emperor Matthew (1611–1619) out of the windows of Prague Castle (Defenestration). Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia joined the rebellious Bohemia. This event marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, which went through four stages: Czech, Danish, Swedish and Franco-Swedish.Czech period (1618–1623). Emperor Matthew of Habsburg (1612–1619) tried to reach a peace agreement with the Czechs, but the negotiations were interrupted after his death in March 1619 and the election to the German throne of the implacable enemy of the Protestants, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria (Ferdinand II). The Czechs entered into an alliance with the Transylvanian prince Bethlen Gabor; his troops invaded Austrian Hungary. In May 1619, Czech troops under the command of Count Matthew Turn entered Austria and laid siege to Vienna, the residence of Ferdinand II, but were soon due to the invasion of Bohemia by the imperial general Bukua. At the General Landtag in Prague in August 1619, representatives of the rebellious regions refused to recognize Ferdinand II as their king and elected in his place the head of the Union, Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. However, by the end of 1619, the situation began to take shape in favor of the emperor, who received large subsidies from the pope and military assistance from Philip III of Spain. In October 1619, he concluded an agreement on joint actions against the Czechs with the head of the Catholic League, Maximilian of Bavaria, and in March 1620, with Elector Johann-Georg of Saxony, the largest Protestant prince in Germany. The Saxons occupied Silesia and Lusatia, Spanish troops invaded the Upper Palatinate. Taking advantage of the disagreements within the Union, the Habsburgsher obligation not to assist the Czechs. At the beginning of September 1620, the combined army of the emperor (imperials) and the League (ligists) under the command of Tilly launched an offensive in Bohemia and on November 8 at the White Mountain near Prague utterly defeated the troops of Frederick V; the uprising was put down. Frederick V fled to Holland, the Union actually broke up, and Bethlen Gabor in January 1622 made peace with Ferdinand II in Nikolsburg. The only ally of Frederick V in Germany was the Margrave Georg-Friedrich of Baden-Durlach; however, thanks to the financial assistance of the Dutch government, Frederick V was able to win over two of Germany's largest mercenary commanders - Christian of Brunswick and Ernst von Mansfeld. April 16, 1622 Mansfeld defeated Tilly at Wiesloch and joined withMargrave of Baden. But, having received reinforcements from the Spaniards, Tilly defeated his opponents on May 6, 1622 at Wimpfen and on June 22 at Hoechst, and then captured the Lower Palatinate. On August 29, 1622, he defeated Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick near Fleurus and drove them to Holland. In February 1623, Ferdinand II deprived Frederick V of the elector's dignity and part of his possessions (Upper Palatinate), which were transferred (for life) to Maximilian of Bavaria. In 1623, Frederick V suffered another fiasco: Tilly thwarted the invasion of Christian Brunswick in Northern Germany, defeating it on August 9, 1623 at Stadtlon.Danish period (1625–1629). The attempt of the Habsburgs to establish themselves in Westphalia and Lower Saxony and carry out a Catholic restoration there threatened the interests of the Protestant states of Northern Europe - Denmark and Sweden. In the spring of 1625, Christian IV of Denmark, supported by England and Holland, began hostilities against the emperor. Together with the troops of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick, the Danes launched an offensive in the Elbe basin. To repel it, Ferdinand II granted emergency powers to the new commander-in-chief of the Czech Catholic nobleman Albrecht Wallenstein. He gathered a huge mercenary army and on April 25, 1626 defeated Mansfeld near Dessau. On August 27, Tilly defeated the Danes at Lutter. In 1627 the Imperials and Ligists captured Mecklenburg and all of Denmark's mainland possessions (Holstein, Schleswig, and Jutland). But plans to create a fleet to capture the island part of Denmark and attack Holland fell through due to the opposition of the Hanseatic League. In the summer of 1628, Wallenstein, seeking to put pressure on the Hansa, besieged the largest Pomeranian port of Stralsund, but failed. In May 1629, Ferdinand II concluded the Treaty of Lübeck with Christian IV, returning to Denmark the possessions taken from her inin exchange for her commitment not to interfere in German affairs.

Encouraged by the victories, Wallenstein put forward the idea of an absolutist reform of the Empire, the elimination of the autocracy of the princes and the strengthening of the power of the emperor, but Ferdinand II chose the policy of restoring Catholicism in Germany and issued a Restorative Edict on March 6, 1629, which returned to the Church of Rome all the lands and property lost by it in the Protestant principalities after 1555. Wallenstein's unwillingness to put the edict into effect and the complaints of the Catholic princes about his arbitrariness forced the emperor to dismiss the commander.

Swedish period (1630–1635). The growth of the power of the Habsburgs in Germany caused serious alarm in France and Sweden. Having concluded a six-year truce with the Commonwealth in Altmark in 1629 through French diplomacy, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf entered the war, proclaiming himself the defender of the German Protestants. June 26, 1630 he landed on about. Usedom at the mouth of the Oder and occupied Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In January 1631, a Franco-Swedish treaty was signed in Berwald (Neimark), according to which France was obliged to pay an annual subsidy of 1 million francs to the Swedes, and they guaranteed the rights of the Catholic Church in the lands they had occupied. April 13, 1631 Gustav II Adolf took Frankfurt an der Oder. After the terrible defeat by the Legalists on May 20 of Magdeburg, one of the main strongholds of Protestantism in Germany, the Elector Georg-Wilhelm of Brandenburg joined the Swedes; On September 1, Elector Johann Georg of Saxony followed suit.On September 17, at Breitenfeld, the combined Swedish-Saxon army utterly defeated the Leaguers and the Imperials. All of Northern Germany was in the hands of Gustav II Adolf. The Saxons invaded Bohemia and entered Prague on 11 November. At the same time, the Swedes moved into Thuringia and Franconia; in December they captured Mainz and occupied the Lower Palatinate. Ferdinand II had to return Wallenstein to the post of commander in chief, giving him complete independence. In early 1632, Wallenstein ousted the Saxons from Bohemia.

In March 1632 the Swedes launched an offensive in southern Germany. On April 15, they defeated Tilly at the Rine on the river. Leh; Tilly himself was mortally wounded. Gustav II Adolf entered Bavaria and captured Augsburg and Munich in May. Having unsuccessfully attacked Wallenstein's positions at Furte near Nuremberg on August 24, he moved to Vienna, but the invasion of the Imperials in Saxony forced him to rush to the aid of Elector Johann George. November 16, 1632 in the battle of Lützen southwest of Leipzig, the Swedes inflicted a severe defeat on Wallenstein, although they lost their king in the battle. In March 1633 Sweden and the German Protestant principalities formed the Heilbronn League; the entirety of military and political power in Germany passed to an elected council headed by the Swedish chancellor A. Oksensherna. Late 1633

Allied troops under the command of Duke Bernhard of Weimar and the Swedish General Gorn captured Regensburg and occupied the Upper Palatinate and Bavaria. Despite the orders of Ferdinand II, Wallenstein, entrenched in Bohemia, did not help Maximilian of Bavaria, and in January 1634 in Pilsen he forced the officers of his army to take a personal oath of allegiance to him and entered into negotiations with the Swedes and Saxons. However, on February 24, in Eger, he was killed by agents of the emperor. The new commander-in-chief, Archduke Ferdinand of Hungary, took Regensburg, expelled the allies from Bavaria, defeated them near Nördlingen on September 6, 1634, and captured Franconia and Swabia. The Swedes retained control only over Northern Germany. The Heilbronn League effectively collapsed. In May 1635, Johann George of Saxony concluded the Treaty of Prague with Ferdinand II, receiving Lusatia and part of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg for life and pledging to fight together with the emperor against "foreigners"; this treaty was joined by many Protestant and Catholic princes (Duke of Bavaria, Elector of Brandenburg, Prince of Anhalt, etc.); Only the Margrave of Baden, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the Duke of Württemberg remained loyal to the Swedes.Franco-Swedish period (1635–1648). The successes of the Habsburgs forced France to declare war on the emperor and Spain. She involved her allies in Italy - the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Mantua and the Venetian Republic - into the conflict. She managed to prevent (after the expiration of the Altmark Truce) a new war between Sweden and the Commonwealth, which allowed the Swedes to transfer significant reinforcements from the Vistula to Germany. At the beginning of 1636, the Imperials drove the Swedish army of J. Baner to Mecklenburg, but on October 4 they suffered a heavy defeat from him at Wittstock (Northern Brandenburg). In May 1637, the Imperials and Saxons blocked Baner at Torgau, but the Swedes managed to break out of the encirclement.

From 1638 the war marked a clear turning point in favor of the anti-Habsburg coalition. In January 1638, Bernhard of Weimar crossed the Rhine, on March 2 he defeated the imperial army of Jean de Werth at the Rheinfelden and occupied the Black Forest; at the same time, Baner drove the imperial forces of General Gallas back into Bohemia and Silesia. In 1639, the Swedes invaded Bohemia, the Dutch admiral Tromp destroyed the Spanish fleet at Gravelines and in the Downs Bay (Lamanche), and Bernhard of Weimar captured the strategically important fortress of Breisach in Alsace. In the autumn of 1640, the united Franco-Swedish army made a successful campaign in Bavaria. Due to the uprisings in Portugal and Catalonia in 1640, Spain had to significantly

reduce their aid to the Austrian Habsburgs. In July 1641, Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, concluded a treaty of neutrality with Sweden. On November 2, 1642, the new Swedish commander L. Torstenson defeated the Imperials at Breitenfeld; Leipzig capitulated, and Johann George of Saxony was forced to agree to a truce with the Swedes. Thorstenson occupied Silesia and penetrated into Moravia. In the same year the French captured Jülich on the Lower Rhine; in September they defeated the Spaniards near Lleida, took Perpignan and established control over Roussillon. On May 19, 1643, the commander of the French troops, Prince Conde, defeated the Spanish army of Francisco de Melo at Rocroix in the Southern Netherlands.

However, the allies had to suspend the further offensive. The Danish king Christian IV, who feared the establishment of Swedish hegemony in the Baltic, joined the Habsburg camp, which forced Torstensson to withdraw his troops to the north. In November 1643, the Bavarian general Mercy defeated the French at Teitlingen. But soon the anti-Habsburg coalition managed to restore its positions. A new ally of Sweden - the Transylvanian prince Gyorgy Rakosi - invaded Austrian Hungary. In August 1644, Conde defeated the Bavarians at Freiburg and captured Philippsburg and Mainz. Having won a series of victories over the Danes on land and at sea, the Swedes forced Christian IV to conclude a peace treaty in Bremsebru in 1645 and cede to them the islands of Gotland and Esel, as well as several areas in Eastern Norway. At the beginning of March 1645, Torstensson entered Bohemia, defeated the Imperials at Jankovice on March 6-7, joined the Transylvanians and approached Vienna. Only by making concessions to Rakosi and concluding a peace agreement with him, Emperor Ferdinand III (1637–1657) was able to avoid disaster; The Swedes, left without an ally, retreated from Austria. French commander Turenne

On March 2, he lost the battle of Mariendal to the Bavarians, but on August 3 he took revenge near Allersheim south of Nuremberg. The loss of strategic initiative by the Imperials and the Liguists prompted Ferdinand III to start peace negotiations at Münster with France and at Osnabrück with Sweden and the German Protestant princes; military operations, however, continued. In March 1647, Maximilian of Bavaria concluded a separate Ulm truce with the allies, which, however, was soon violated by him; in response, the Franco-Swedish armyTurenne, having defeated the Imperials at Zusmarshausen, occupied most of Bavaria. In the summer of 1648, the Swedes laid siege to Prague, but in the midst of the siege came news of the signing of the Peace of Westphalia on October 24, 1648, which put an end to the Thirty Years' War. According to its terms, France received Southern Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verden, Sweden - Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, Saxony - Lusatia, Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, and Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden; Dutch independence was recognized. The war between France and Spain continued for another eleven years and ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659.

The Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the era of Habsburg dominance in Europe. The leading role in European politics passed to France. Sweden became one of the great powers, establishing hegemony in the Baltic. The international position of Holland has strengthened. The political fragmentation of Germany was consolidated; within it, the importance of Saxony, Brandenburg and Bavaria increased.

see also WAR.

Ivan Krivushin

LITERATURE

Alekseev V.M. Thirty Years' War. L., 1961
Porshnev B.F. The Thirty Years' War and the entry into it of Sweden and the Muscovite state. M., 1976
Wedgwood G.V. The Thirty Years War. New York, 1980
Ivonina L.I., Prokopiev A.Yu. Diplomacy of the Thirty Years' War. Smolensk, 1996
Ivonin Yu.E. Thirty Years' War and French German Policy. - Questions of History, 2001, No. 5
Prokopiev A.Yu. Thirty Years' War in German historiography. — University historian. St. Petersburg, 2002, No. 1

And the religious wars of the sixteenth century. only consolidated the split of Europe, but did not lead to a solution to the problems generated by these events. The confrontation between the Catholic and Protestant states of Germany was especially acute, where the slightest change could lead to a violation of the fragile balance established in the process of the Reformation. Thanks to the developed system of international relations, the change in the situation in Germany affected the interests of almost all other European states. Both Catholics and Protestants had powerful allies outside the empire.

The combination of all these causes created a dangerous situation in Europe, which could be blown up by the slightest spark that arose in such an electrified atmosphere. This spark, from which a pan-European fire flared up, was a national uprising that began in 1618 in the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia (Czech Republic).

The beginning of the war

Revolt of the Czech Estates

By religion, the Czechs from the time of Jan Hus differed from other Catholic peoples who lived in the possessions of the Habsburgs, and have long enjoyed traditional liberties. Religious oppression and an attempt by the emperor to deprive the kingdom of its privileges led to a rebellion. In 1620 the Czechs suffered a crushing defeat. This event became a turning point in the entire history of the Czech Republic. The previously flourishing Slavic kingdom turned into a disenfranchised Austrian province, in which all signs of national identity were purposefully destroyed.

Peace of Westphalia 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, confirmed the equality of the Catholic and Lutheran religions throughout Germany. The largest Protestant states of Germany increased their territories, mainly at the expense of the former church possessions. Some church possessions came under the rule of foreign sovereigns - the kings of France and Sweden. The positions of the Catholic Church in Germany were weakened, and the Protestant princes finally secured their rights and actual independence from the empire. The Peace of Westphalia legitimized the fragmentation of Germany, giving the many states that made up her full sovereignty. By drawing a line under the era of the Reformation, the Peace of Westphalia opened a new chapter in European history.

Reference table for thirty years war contains the main periods, events, dates, battles, participating countries and the results of this war. The table will be useful to schoolchildren and students in preparing for tests, exams and the exam in history.

Bohemian period of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1625)

	Events of the Thirty Years' War	Results of the Thirty Years' War
	The oppositional nobles, led by Count Thurn, were thrown out of the windows of the Czech Chancellery into the ditch of the royal governors (“Prague Defenestration”).	Beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
	The Czech directory formed an army led by Count Thurn, the Evangelical Union sent 2 thousand soldiers under the command of Mansfeld.
	The siege and capture of the city of Pilsen by the Protestant army of Count Mansfeld.
	The Protestant army of Count Thurn approached Vienna, but met with stubborn resistance.	The 15,000-strong imperial army, led by Count Buqua and Dampier, entered the Czech Republic.
	Battle of Sablat.	Near České Budějovice, the imperials of Count Buqua defeated the Protestants of Mansfeld, and Count Thurn lifted the siege of Vienna.
	Battle of Vesternica.	Czech victory over Dampier's imperials.
	The Transylvanian prince Gabor Bethlen moved against Vienna, but was stopped by the Hungarian magnate Druget Gomonai.	On the territory of the Czech Republic, protracted battles were fought with varying success.
October 1619	Emperor Ferdinand II concluded an agreement with the head of the Catholic League, Maximilian of Bavaria.	For this, the Elector of Saxony was promised Silesia and Lusatia, and the Duke of Bavaria was promised the possessions of the Elector of the Palatinate and his electoral rank. In 1620, Spain sent a 25,000-strong army under the command of Ambrosio Spinola to help the emperor.
	Emperor Ferdinand II concluded an agreement with the Elector of Saxony Johann-Georg.
	Battle on White Mountain.	The Protestant army of Frederick V suffers a crushing defeat from the imperial troops and the army of the Catholic League under the command of Field Marshal Count Tilly near Prague.
	The collapse of the Evangelical Union and the loss of all possessions and title by Frederick V.	Bavaria received the Upper Palatinate, Spain - the Lower. Margrave George-Friedrich of Baden-Durlach remained an ally of Frederick V.
	The Transylvanian prince Gabor Bethlen signed peace at Nikolsburg with the emperor, gaining territories in eastern Hungary.
	Mansfeld defeated the imperial army of Count Tilly at the battle of Wiesloch (Wishloch) and joined with the Margrave of Baden.	Tilly was forced to retreat, having lost 3,000 men killed and wounded, as well as all his guns, and headed to join Cordoba.
	The troops of the German Protestants, led by Margrave George-Friedrich, are defeated in the battles of Wimpfen by the Tilly imperials and the Spanish troops that came from the Netherlands, led by Gonzales de Cordoba.
	The victory of the 33,000th imperial army of Tilly in the battle of Hoechst over the 20,000th army of Christian of Brunswick.
	At the Battle of Fleurus, Tilly defeated Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick and drove them into Holland.
	Battle of Stadtlon.	Imperial forces under Count Tilly thwarted Christian of Brunswick's invasion of northern Germany by defeating his 15,000-strong Protestant army.
	Frederick V concluded a peace treaty with Emperor Ferdinand II.	The first period of the war ended with a convincing victory for the Habsburgs, but this led to a closer unity of the anti-Habsburg coalition.
	France and Holland signed the Treaty of Compiègne, later joined by England, Sweden and Denmark, Savoy and Venice.

Danish period of the Thirty Years' War (1625-1629)

	Events of the Thirty Years' War	Results of the Thirty Years' War
	Christian IV, King of Denmark, came to the aid of the Protestants with an army of 20,000.	Denmark enters the war on the side of the Protestants.
	The Catholic army under the command of the Czech Catholic Count Albrecht von Wallenstein defeats the Protestants of Mansfeld at Dessau.
	Count Tilly's imperial troops defeated the Danes at the Battle of Lütter an der Barenberg.
	The troops of Count Wallenstein occupy Mecklenburg, Pomerania and the mainland possessions of Denmark: Holstein, Schleswig, Jutland.
	The siege of the port of Stralsund in Pomerania by Wallenstein's imperial troops.	The Catholic armies of Count Tilly and Count Wallenstein conquer much of Protestant Germany.
	Restitution Edict.	Return to the Catholic Churches of the lands taken by the Protestants after 1555.
	Treaty of Lübeck between Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV.	Danish possessions returned in exchange for an obligation not to interfere in German affairs.

Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War (1630-1635)

	Events of the Thirty Years' War	Results of the Thirty Years' War
	Sweden sent 6 thousand soldiers under the command of Alexander Leslie to help Stralsund.
	Leslie captured Ryugen Island.	Established control over the Straits of Stralsund.
	The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf lands at the mouth of the Oder and occupies Mecklenburg and Pomerania.	The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf enters the war against Ferdinand II.
	Wallenstein was removed from the post of commander-in-chief of the imperial army, field marshal Count Johann von Tilly was appointed instead.
	Franco-Swedish treaty at Berwald.	France pledged to pay the Swedes an annual subsidy of 1 million francs.
	Gustav II Adolf took Frankfurt an der Oder.
	Defeat by the troops of the Catholic League of Magdeburg.	The Elector of Brandenburg Georg-Wilhelm joined the Swedes.
	Count Tilly, having an army of 25,000 under his command, attacked the fortified camp of the Swedish troops, commanded by King Gustav II Adolf, near Verbena.	Was forced to retreat.
	Battle of Breitenfeld.	The Swedish troops of Gustav II Adolf and the Saxon troops defeat the imperial troops of Count Tilly. The first major victory of the Protestants in clashes with the Catholics. All of northern Germany was in the hands of Gustavus Adolf, and he moved his actions to the south of Germany.
December 1631	Gustav II Adolf took Halle, Erfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Mainz.
	Saxon troops, allies of the Swedes, entered Prague.
	The Swedes invaded Bavaria.	Gustav II Adolf defeated the imperial troops of Tilly (mortally wounded, died April 30, 1632) while crossing the Lech River and entered Munich.
April 1632	Albrecht Wallenstein led the imperial army.
	The Saxons are expelled from Prague by Wallenstein.
August 1632	Near Nuremberg, in the Battle of Burgstall, when attacking the Wallenstein camp, the Swedish army of Gustav II Adolf was defeated.
	Battle of Lützen.	The Swedish army wins the battle over Wallenstein's army, but King Gustav II Adolf is killed during the battle (Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar took command).
	Sweden and the German Protestant principalities form the Heilbronn League.	All military and political power in Germany passed to an elected council headed by the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna.
	Battle of Nördlingen.	The Swedes under the command of Gustav Horn and the Saxons under the command of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar are defeated by imperial troops under the command of Prince Ferdinand (King of Bohemia and Hungary, son of Ferdinand II) and Matthias Gallas and the Spaniards under the command of the Infanta Cardinal Ferdinand (son of King Philip III of Spain). Gustav Horn was taken prisoner, the Swedish army was actually destroyed.
	On suspicion of treason, Wallenstein was removed from command, a decree was issued on the confiscation of all his estates.	Wallenstein was killed by soldiers of his own guard at Eger Castle.
	Prague world.	Ferdinand II makes peace with Saxony. The Treaty of Prague is accepted by the majority of Protestant princes. Its conditions: annulment of the "Edict of Restitution" and the return of possessions to the terms of the Peace of Augsburg; unification of the armies of the emperor and the German states; legalization of Calvinism; a ban on the formation of coalitions between the princes of the empire. In fact, the Peace of Prague ended the civil and religious war within the Holy Roman Empire, after which the Thirty Years' War continued as a struggle against Habsburg dominance in Europe.

Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War (1635-1648)

	Events of the Thirty Years' War	Results of the Thirty Years' War
	France declared war on Spain.	France involved in the conflict its allies in Italy - the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Mantua and the Venetian Republic.
	The Spanish-Bavarian army under the command of the Spanish prince Ferdinand entered Compiègne, the imperial troops of Matthias Galas invaded Burgundy.
	Battle of Wittstock.	The German troops were defeated by the Swedes under the command of Baner.
	The Protestant army of Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar won the Battle of Rheinfelden.
	Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar took the Breisach fortress.
	The Imperial Army is victorious at Wolfenbüttel.
	The Swedish troops of L. Torstenson defeated the imperial troops of Archduke Leopold and O. Piccolomini at Breitenfeld.	The Swedes occupy Saxony.
	Battle of Rocroix.	The victory of the French army under the command of Louis II de Bourbon, Duke of Anghien (from 1646 Prince of Condé). The French finally stopped the Spanish invasion.
	Battle of Tuttlingen.	The Bavarian army of Baron Franz von Mercy defeats the French under the command of Marshal Rantzau, who was captured.
	Swedish troops under the command of Field Marshal Lennart Torstensson invaded Holstein, Jutland.
August 1644	Louis II of Bourbon at the Battle of Freiburg defeats the Bavarians under the command of Baron Mercy.
	Battle of Jankov.	The imperial army was defeated by the Swedes under the command of Marshal Lennart Torstensson near Prague.
	Battle of Nördlingen.	Louis II of Bourbon and Marshal Turenne defeat the Bavarians, the Catholic commander, Baron Franz von Mercy, died in battle.
	The Swedish army invades Bavaria
	Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign a peace treaty in Ulm.	Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria, in the fall of 1647 broke the treaty.
	The Swedes under the command of Koenigsmark capture part of Prague.
	At the Battle of Zusmarhausen near Augsburg, the Swedes under Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel and the French under Turenne and Condé defeat the Imperial and Bavarian forces.	Only the imperial territories and Austria proper remained in the hands of the Habsburgs.
	At the Battle of Lans (near Arras), the French troops of the Prince of Condé defeat the Spaniards under the command of Leopold Wilhelm.
	Westphalian peace.	Under the terms of the peace, France received Southern Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, Sweden - the island of Rügen, Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, plus an indemnity of 5 million thalers. Saxony - Lusatia, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden. Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, Bavarian Duke became Elector. All princes are legally recognized the right to enter into foreign policy alliances. Consolidation of the fragmentation of Germany. End of the Thirty Years' War.

The results of the war: Thirty Years' War was the first war that affected all segments of the population. In Western history, it has remained one of the most difficult European conflicts among the predecessors of the World Wars of the 20th century. The greatest damage was done to Germany, where, according to some estimates, 5 million people died. Many regions of the country were devastated and remained deserted for a long time. A crushing blow was dealt to the productive forces of Germany. In the armies of both opposing sides, epidemics broke out, constant companions of wars. The influx of soldiers from abroad, the constant deployment of troops from one front to another, as well as the flight of the civilian population, spread the plague farther and farther from the centers of disease. The plague became a significant factor in the war. The immediate result of the war was that over 300 small German states received full sovereignty with nominal membership in the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806. The war did not lead to the automatic collapse of the Habsburgs, but changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became evident. In addition, Sweden became a great power, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic. Adherents of all religions (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism) gained equal rights in the empire. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests. It is customary to count the modern era in international relations from the Peace of Westphalia.

The war began as a religious clash between the Protestants and Catholics of the empire, but then escalated into a struggle against Habsburg hegemony in Europe. The conflict was the last significant religious war in Europe and gave rise to the Westphalian system of international relations.

Prerequisites:

From the time of Charles V, the leading role in Europe belonged to the House of Austria - the Habsburg dynasty. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Spanish branch of the house, in addition to Spain, also owned Portugal, the Southern Netherlands, the states of Southern Italy and, in addition to these lands, had at its disposal a huge Spanish-Portuguese colonial empire. The German branch - the Austrian Habsburgs - secured the crown of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, were the kings of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia. While the Habsburgs tried to further expand their control over Europe, other major European powers sought to prevent this. Among the latter, the leading position was occupied by Catholic France, which was the largest of the European nation-states of that time.

The Habsburgs were supported by: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, united with Portugal, the Holy See of Poland. On the side of the “anti-Habsburg coalition: the Protestant principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, Sweden, Denmark, France, were supported by England, Scotland and the Moscow kingdom.

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555, signed by Charles V, temporarily ended the open rivalry between Lutherans and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, and in particular in Germany. Under the terms of the peace, the German princes could choose a religion (Lutheranism or Catholicism) for their principalities at their discretion, according to the principle: "Whose power, that is faith" (lat. Cuius regio, eius religio). However, by the beginning of the 17th century, the Catholic Church, relying on the support of the Habsbug dynasty, was regaining its influence and waged an active struggle against the Protestants.

To repel Catholic pressure, the Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire united in 1608 in the Evangelical Union. Union sought support from states hostile to the Habsburg dynasty. In response, the Catholics united in 1609 in the Catholic League of Maximilian I of Bavaria.

In 1617, the ruling emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of the Czech Republic Matthew, who had no direct heirs, forced the Czech Sejm to recognize his cousin Ferdinand of Styria as the heir. Ferdinand was an ardent Catholic, a Jesuit alumnus, and extremely unpopular in the largely Protestant Bohemia. Against this background, a conflict broke out in Prague between representatives of the Czech aristocracy and the royal governors.

Periods: The Thirty Years' War is traditionally divided into four periods: Czech, Danish, Swedish and Franco-Swedish. Outside of Germany, there were several separate conflicts: the War of Spain with Holland, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Russian-Polish War, the Polish-Swedish War, etc.

Members: On the side of the Habsburgs were: Austria, most of the Catholic principalities of Germany, Spain, united with Portugal, the Holy See, Poland. On the side of the anti-Habsburg coalition - France, Sweden, Denmark, the Protestant principalities of Germany, the Czech Republic, Transylvania, Venice, Savoy, the Republic of the United Provinces, provided support: England, Scotland and Russia. In general, the war turned out to be a clash of traditional conservative forces with growing nation-states. The Habsburg bloc was more monolithic, the Austrian and Spanish houses kept in touch with each other, often conducting joint military operations. Wealthier Spain provided financial support to the emperor.

1. Czech period: 1618-25

In June 1617, the childless Holy Roman Emperor Matthew (King of the Czech Republic under the name Matthias II) passed through the General Sejm a decision to declare his nephew Archduke Ferdinand of Styria the heir to the Czech throne. Raised by the Jesuits, Ferdinand was a fanatical adherent of the Catholic Church and was famous for intolerance towards Protestants. In the Czech Republic, most of whose population was Protestant, unrest intensified. Archbishop Jan III Logel forced the entire population to convert to Catholicism and ordered the destruction of the newly built Protestant church. In March 1618, burghers and opposition Protestant nobles, at the call of Count Turnn, gathered in Prague and appealed to the emperor, who had left for Vienna, demanding the release of prisoners and an end to the violation of the religious rights of Protestants. In addition, another, more representative congress was punished for May. The emperor in response forbade the holding of this congress and announced that he was going to punish the instigators. On May 23, 1618, the participants of the meeting, despite the resistance of the Catholics, threw the congress from the windows of the Czech Chancellery into the moat of the royal governors Vilem Slavat and Yaroslav from Martinice and their scribe Philip Fabricius. Although all three survived, the attack on the emperor's representatives was seen as a symbolic attack on the emperor himself.

In the autumn of the same year, the 15,000-strong imperial army, led by Count Buqua and Count Dampier, entered the Czech Republic. The Czech directory formed an army led by Count Turn. In response to the appeal of the Czechs to the Evangelical Union, Elector of the Palatinate Frederick V and Duke of Savoy Charles Emmanuel I sent a 20,000-strong mercenary army under the command of Count Mansfeld to help them. Under the onslaught of Turn, the Catholic troops were forced to retreat to Ceska Budejovice, and Mansfeld laid siege to the largest and richest Catholic city of Pilsen.

In the meantime, after the victory at the Battle of Sablat, the Habsburgs achieved some diplomatic successes. Ferdinand was supported by the Catholic League, and the King of France promised to facilitate the election of Ferdinand as emperors, using his influence on the Elector of Trier. On August 19, Bohemia, Lusiatia, Silesia and Moravia refused to recognize Ferdinand as their king. On August 26, Frederick V was elected king of the Czech Republic. On August 28, 1619, in Frankfurt, where news from Bohemia had not yet reached, Ferdinand was elected emperor. On October 31, Frederick arrived in Prague and on November 4 was crowned in St. Vitus Cathedral. The emperor put forward an ultimatum to the newly-made king of the Czech Republic: before June 1, 1620, he had to leave the Czech Republic. As a result, the battle took place on the White Mountain of Prague on November 8, 1620. The 15,000 Protestant army suffered a crushing defeat from the 20,000 Catholic. Prague capitulated without firing a shot. Friedrich fled to Brandenburg.

The defeat caused the collapse of the Evangelical Union and the loss of Frederick V of all his possessions and title.

On April 9, 1621, the truce between Spain and the United Provinces expired. The Dutch Republic granted Frederick V asylum and financial assistance. in the spring of 1622, three armies were ready to fight against the emperor - Mansfeld in Alsace, Christian of Brunswick in Westphalia and Georg Friedrich in Baden.

The first period of the war ended with a convincing victory for the Habsburgs. Bohemia fell, Bavaria gained the Upper Palatinate, and Spain captured the Electoral Palatinate, securing a springboard for another war with the Netherlands. This served as an impetus for closer rallying of the anti-Habsburg coalition. June 10, 1624 France and Holland signed the Treaty of Compiègne. It was joined by England (June 15), Sweden and Denmark (July 9), Savoy and Venice (July 11).

2. Danish period: 1625-29.

Tilly's army was advancing into the north of Germany and began to cause growing concern among the Scandinavian countries as well. German princes and cities, which had previously seen Denmark as a threat to their influence in the North and Baltic Seas, as Tilly approached, began to treat the Lutheran king of Denmark, Christian IV, more as a patron. England, France and Holland promised to support him financially. Having learned that a long-time enemy of Denmark, King Gustavus Adolf of Sweden, was going to help the Protestants in Germany, Christian IV decided to act quickly and in the spring of 1625 opposed Tilly at the head of a mercenary army of 20 thousand soldiers.

To fight Christian, Ferdinand II invited the Czech nobleman Albrecht von Wallenstein. Wallenstein proposed to the emperor a new principle for the formation of troops - to recruit a large army and not spend money on its maintenance, but to feed it at the expense of the population of the theater of operations. On April 25, 1625, Ferdinand appointed Wallenstein commander-in-chief of all imperial troops. Wallenstein's army became a formidable force, and at different times its number ranged from 30 to 100 thousand soldiers.

Wallenstein's army occupied Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The commander received the title of admiral, which testified to the emperor's big plans for the Baltic. However, without a fleet, Wallenstein could not capture the capital of Denmark on the island of Zeeland. Wallenstein organized the siege of Stralsund, a large free port with military shipyards, but failed. This led to the signing of a peace treaty in Lübeck in 1629. Another period of the war ended, but the Catholic League sought to return the Catholic possessions lost in the Peace of Augsburg.

3. Swedish period: 1530-35

Both Catholic and Protestant princes, as well as very many of the emperor's entourage, believed that Wallenstein wanted to seize power in Germany himself. Perhaps that is why in 1630 it was decided to refuse the services of Wallenstein.

At that time, Sweden remained the last major state capable of changing the balance of power. Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, like Christian IV, sought to stop Catholic expansion, as well as to establish his control over the Baltic coast of northern Germany. Like Christian IV, he was generously subsidized by Cardinal Richelieu, first minister of Louis XIII, King of France. Prior to this, Sweden was kept from the war by the war with Poland in the struggle for the Baltic coast. By 1630, Sweden ended the war and enlisted the support of Russia (Smolensk War). The Swedish army was armed with advanced small arms and artillery.

Ferdinand II had been dependent on the Catholic League ever since he disbanded Wallenstein's army. At the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631), Gustavus Adolphus defeated the army of the Catholic League under the command of Tilly. A year later, they met again, and again the Swedes won, and Tilly died (1632). With the death of Tilly, Ferdinand II turned his attention back to Wallenstein.

Wallenstein and Gustav Adolf clashed at the fierce Battle of Lützen (1632), where the Swedes narrowly won, but Gustav Adolf died. April 23, 1633 Sweden, France and the German Protestant principalities formed the Heilbronn League; the entirety of military and political power in Germany passed to an elected council headed by the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna.

The suspicions of Ferdinand II again got the better of him when Wallenstein began to conduct his own negotiations with the Protestant princes, the leaders of the Catholic League and the Swedes (1633). In addition, he forced his officers to take a personal oath to him. On suspicion of treason, Wallenstein was removed from command, a decree was issued on the confiscation of all his estates.

After that, the princes and the emperor began negotiations that ended the Swedish period of the war with the Peace of Prague (1635). Its terms provided for:

Annulment of the "Edict of Restitution" and the return of possessions to the framework of the Peace of Augsburg

The unification of the army of the emperor and the armies of the German states into one army of the "Holy Roman Empire"

The ban on the formation of coalitions between princes

Legalization of Calvinism.

This peace, however, did not suit France, as the Habsburgs grew stronger as a result.

4. Franco-Swedish period 1635-48

Having exhausted all diplomatic reserves, France entered the war itself (on May 21, 1635, war was declared on Spain). With her intervention, the conflict finally lost its religious overtones, since the French were Catholics. France involved in the conflict its allies in Italy - the Duchy of Savoy, the Duchy of Mantua and the Venetian Republic. The French attacked Lombardy and the Spanish Netherlands. In response, in 1636 the Spanish-Bavarian army under the command of Prince Ferdinand of Spain crossed the Somme and entered Compiègne.

In 1642, Cardinal Richelieu died, and a year later, King Louis XIII of France also died. Five-year-old Louis XIV became king. His minister, Cardinal Mazarin, began peace negotiations.

Peace of Westphalia: As early as 1638, the Pope and the Danish king called for an end to the war. Two years later, the idea was supported by the German Reichstag, which met for the first time after a long break.

the congress turned out to be the most representative meeting in the history of Europe: it was attended by delegations from 140 subjects of the empire and 38 other participants. Emperor Ferdinand III was ready to make large territorial concessions (more than he had to give in the end), but France demanded a concession that he had not originally thought of. The emperor had to refuse to support Spain and not even interfere in the affairs of Burgundy, which was formally part of the empire. National interests took precedence over dynastic ones. The emperor signed all the conditions in fact separately, without the Spanish cousin.

The peace treaty concluded on October 24, 1648 simultaneously in Münster and Osnabrück went down in history under the name of Westphalia.

The United Provinces, as well as Switzerland, were recognized as independent states. Only the war between Spain and France remained unsettled, which lasted until 1659.

Under the terms of the peace, France received South Alsace and the Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, Sweden - the island of Rügen, Western Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen, plus an indemnity of 5 million thalers. Saxony - Lusatia, Brandenburg - Eastern Pomerania, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Minden. Bavaria - Upper Palatinate, Bavarian Duke became Elector.

Effects:

The greatest damage was done to Germany, where, according to some estimates, 5 million people died. Many regions of the country were devastated and remained deserted for a long time. A crushing blow was dealt to the productive forces of Germany. The Swedes burned and destroyed almost all metallurgical and foundry plants, ore mines, as well as a third of German cities. In the armies of the opposing sides, epidemics raged - the constant companions of the war. The constant movement of soldiers, as well as the flight of the civilian population, led to the fact that diseases spread far from the foci of the disease.

Another result of the war was that over 300 small German states received de facto sovereignty, while nominally subject to the Holy Roman Empire. This situation continued until the end of the first empire in 1806.

The war did not lead to the automatic collapse of the Habsburgs, but changed the balance of power in Europe. Hegemony passed to France. The decline of Spain became evident. In addition, Sweden became a great power for a period of about half a century, significantly strengthening its position in the Baltic.

Adherents of all religions (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism) gained equal rights in the empire. The main result of the Thirty Years' War was a sharp weakening of the influence of religious factors on the life of European states. Their foreign policy began to be based on economic, dynastic and geopolitical interests.

Meaning: The Thirty Years' War was a reflection in the international sphere of the deep processes of the genesis of capitalism in the depths of feudal Europe; it turned out to be closely connected with the socio-political crises and revolutionary movements of this transitional era from the Middle Ages to the modern times.

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