was end of "The 30 Yrs. War" in 1600s similar to situation after WW 2 in area of "Germany"?

Question

how compared and what about the Napoleonic Wars? or WW1?

any others? why German people seem to have attracted such very hard "Beatings" in history? how has changed them?

Answer 1

The two were nothing like each other to start with they were 300 years apart

The causes of the Thirty Years War in Western Europe:



By 1600, two camps had emerged in western Europe:



France and the United Provinces



The House of Habsburg (Spain and Austria)



Phillip III of Spain attempted to continue the foreign policy aspirations of his father, Phillip II, which essentially meant that Spain had to be kept on a war footing.



At the end of the Revolt of the Spanish Netherlands, the southern provinces of what had been the Spanish Netherlands (the so-called "Obedient Provinces") had remained loyal to Spain and had arranged a twelve year truce with the United Provinces (today’s Holland) in 1609 (the northern region of what had been the Spanish Netherlands but had rebelled against Spanish rule) but few believed that Spain would tamely let go of her this valuable area that contained the city of Amsterdam and its lucrative merchant industry.



After her successful campaign against the Spanish, the United Provinces had built up a powerful navy and had established herself as a powerful commercial and colonial power. The most obvious weak overseas colonies the United Provinces could target belonged to Spain. Phillip III and his advisors knew this and it is known from Spanish documentation that as early as 1618, Madrid had decided to renew the war against the United Provinces so that this threat was eradicated. Victory against the United Provinces would also allow Spain to re-occupy the region and gain access to the large sums of money being made in the state.



However, Spain was in a difficult military position. The calamity of the 1588 Spanish Armada defeat had been a shattering blow to Spain’s morale and she had never recovered from this shock. Any Spanish fleet sailing through the English Channel on its way to the United Provinces would never have been tolerated by England. Anti-Catholic feeling was rife in England after the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. Therefore, any military venture by the Spanish would have to be carried out by its army going over mainland Europe - and not by sea.



The only way to do this was to use what the Spanish referred to as the "Spanish Road". This was a route that took Spanish troops along the border of France to Luxembourg and onto the Obedient Provinces. North Italian states were relatively free of feeling threatened by the Spanish as they were Catholic; south German states were also Catholic and had little to fear from the movement of Spanish troops. France was also Catholic but she did fear any movement along her border of Spanish troops. Rivalry between France and Spain had gone back centuries and many historians believe that despite the fact that both were Catholic, neither had ever invaded the other simply because the Pyrannees impeded any form of large-scale military movement. France, therefore, remained wary of any movement of Spanish troops along her eastern border.

Answer 2

The "Thirty Years' War" was quite UN-like any other European conflict. Firstly, there was no "Germany", instead, a collection of sovereign States ranging in size from a single city to a country like Austria, forming the "Holy Roman Empire", under the authority of the Pope and an elected Emperor.

In the 16th.Century, the Reformation caused "wars of religion" between these States, until it was finally agreed that "The religion of each State shall be that of its ruler."

Then, in 1618, when the Catholic King of Bohemia died, the Protestant nobility offered the throne to the Protestant Prince Frederick of the Palatinate (Rhineland), who accepted it in defiance of the Emperor.

He was ousted by the Catholic army of the Duke of Bavaria, who then invaded the Palatinate - other States joined in on both sides, Sweden backing the Protestant cause, and Spain the Catholic one, and the war spread across Central Europe.

The armies though, were not "national", but professional "mercenary" ones, and their loyalty was to whoever paid them - and their leaders sometimes "changed sides". If they were not paid, then they took whatever they needed - and much more - from the local German populations, and in Winter, when campaigning was impossible, they settled themselves wherever they were, committing pillage, rape and murder with complete immunity, as well as spreading diseases.

The religious element steadily reduced, and the War turned into a struggle between Spain and France, Catholic France supporting the Protestant side when it was in its interest to do so. Spain was finally defeated, and France became the new "Great Power", while Prussia emerged as the most powerful German State, but "Germany" did not become a "Nation" until some 250 years later, in 1870

Read C.V.Wedgwood's "The Thirty Years' War" - quite fascinating, extremely "readable", and demonstrating Britain's enormous advantage in being an island !

Answer 3

According to a fairly recent survey the majority of Germans regard the 30 years war as the worst tragedy to ever affect their country. That says a lot.

It wasn't that "the Germans" took a beating - their land area was just the site for the war; there was no real conception of "Germany" at the time.