Thirty Years' War

Epic card · No. 5835

The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, with parts of Germany reporting population declines of more than 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco–Spanish War, the Torstenson War, and Portuguese Restoration War. Its causes derived from religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire, sparked by the 16th-century Reformation. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but was later destabilised by the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries. Combined with disagreements over the limits of imperial authority, religion was thus an important factor in starting the war. However, its scope and extent were largely the consequence of external drivers such...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Karl Friedrich Lessing, Public domain