Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The thirty years war

Analyze various ways in which the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) represented a
turning point in European history.

The Thirty Years War was a bloody conflict that involved the powers of Europe between 1618 and 1648. Catholics, Protestants fought with and against each other in a battle to determine the power balance of Europe. The aftermath of the war changed Europe forever, it marked the end of the religious wars that had plagued Europe for centuries and completely changed the balance of power. The Thirty Years War and its aftermath in the Peace of Westphalia ensured the rise of France as the dominant power of Europe.

The war itself had ravaged the German states and parts of the Netherlands. France, having joined during the later phases of the war on the side of the protestant league had managed to come out with the least losses and much gain in territory while the power of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire was much diminished after the Peace of Westphalia and 30 years of combat attrition on their economies and armies. This left France as one of the strongest powers in the new European balance of power post-Thirty Years War.

Germany itself remained a fractured country of individual principalities which were either protestant or catholic according to their prince. With much of its population and land destroyed it was easy for France to gain influence in many of the states, more influence even than the now diminished Holy Roman Empire. This gaining of influence and power in Germany constituted to an increase in trade and goods for the French economy.

Moreover after the Thirty Years War the ideas of absolutism were all over Europe. Power in France had become much more centralized and it now had a professional Navy to rival the fleets of the British. The Thirty years war allowed the centralized power of France’s monarchy to flourish with a professional army and navy now in play.

The Thirty Years war culminated in a series of Treaties which in effect divided up Europe and set the rules of diplomacy. The clever time that France joined the war allowed it to come out on top at the end with no losses to territory and fewer casualties. The war also kept the German states fractured and France was able to gain influence in Germany to rival the Holy Roman Empire. The aftermath of the war set the stage for the most famous monarch in French history Louis XIV and put him in place in the right circumstances to make France the dominant power in Europe for decades to come.

Thesis statements:

1. Analyze the ways in which European monarchs used both the arts and the sciences to
enhance state power in the period circa 1500–1800.

- The artists and scientist of Renaissance Europe and who controlled their expertise were used as a way to determine power for European Monarchs from 1500-1800.

2. Analyze the various Protestant views of the relationship between church and state in
the period circa 1500–1700.

- The many protestant views of th

3. Analyze the various effects of the expansion of the Atlantic trade on the economy of
Western Europe in the period circa 1450–1700.


4. Compare and contrast the economic factors responsible for the decline of Spain with
the economic factors responsible for the decline of the Dutch Republic by the end of
the seventeenth century.

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