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What Was The Cause Of The Thirty Years War Dbq

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Following many years of strife between Catholics and Protestant Reformers, war broke out in the Holy Roman Empire in 1618. This long lasting conflict, known as the Thirty Years’ War, would not cease until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The political, economic, and social causes had been intensifying since the Protestant Reformation and the Peace of Augsburg. With a nation divided vastly, in massive debt, and in continuous religious conflict, there was only one solution: war. The Thirty Years’ War was a turning point in modern European history because new strong nations emerged, but the war also brought devastation to European populations and economics. Division in the Holy Roman Empire and European nations and the battle over religious and political lands were the main political cause of the Thirty Years’ War. One of the reasons the Reformation was able to spread quickly throughout the Holy Roman Empire was because the empire had collapsed into 360 smaller states, which were ruled by princes who held vast amounts of power. As a result, the Holy Roman Emperor, …show more content…

There was animosity between the two major religions and internal Protestant religions. The Thirty Years’ War was mainly fought between the Protestants and the Catholics. Following the Protestant Reformation and the counter-reformation, both sides were annoyed with tolerating the other. The Protestants insisted on their rights while the Jesuits fought to take back control of Protestant lands, such as the Calvinist Palatinate. However, there were also internal conflicts within the Protestant religions. The Calvinists and Lutherans were in constant struggle because the Calvinists wanted to be recognized as a religion. The Peace of Augsburg refused to recognize Calvinism, but recognized Lutheranism. As a result, the Lutherans felt threatened by the Calvinists because the Calvinists wanted to become the main Protestant

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