5378–5408 AM · 1618 CE — 1648 CE · world history
The Thirty Years' War
A religious war devastates Germany and ends with the Peace of Westphalia.
Beginning with a Protestant revolt in Bohemia, the war draws in most of Europe and turns into a struggle between dynasties and states. Mercenary armies live off the land, and parts of Germany lose a third of their population. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia recognises confessional parity and state sovereignty.
Sources
Documents of the period
- documents and chronicles of the period — the Peace of Westphalia treaties of 1648
Scholarship
- studies in European history — losses of up to a third of Germany’s population; the birth of the system of sovereign states
Basis: documents and evidence.