![]() It is one reason that peace negotiations went on for years before treaties became even possible.īut religion is key, and the desire by the Catholic Church and its affiliated rulers to role back the changes of the Reformation combined with wider ambitions to create a dangerous situation. ![]() Hundreds of competing principalities each had a complex web of allies and obligations which meant that once war began it became impossible to prevent it spreading. ![]() Its intensity and its length were linked to the very nature of society in Germany at the time. ![]() While the War is often described as a religious war, it was much more than this. Wedgwood does her best to keep control of the different strands of the history, and while I lost track on occasion, her narrative does the material justice. The conflict involved a vast number of different states, dragging in a bewildering variety of princes and generals, some of whom last barely a few pages before they die on the battlefield. Wedgwood's style is easy, yet the material is complicated and readers searching for an introduction to the Thirty Years War might want to begin elsewhere. This is a detailed history of a period that relatively few in the English speaking world will know much about. The population of Germany, according to Wedgwood's history, declined by seven million. Millions of people died, were displaced and suffered. ![]() It was a barbaric time of famine, plague, pillage, rape and endless violence. The Thirty Years War ran from 1618 to 1648. ![]()
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