The Thirty Years War - What Can We Learn?

I listen to history lessons on CD’s from the Teaching Company. Lately I have been learning about the Wars of Religion which culminated with the Thirty Years War. The Thirty Years War started as a civil war in The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) --- primarily Germany and Austria --- and became what was perhaps the first European international war involving not only the HRE, but also Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, with financial support from England and Holland.

The causes and of the war are many, since many of the countries had their own agenda, but the initially cause of the civil war was clearly a struggle between Catholics and Protestants in what is now Germany, with the emperor trying to force Catholicism upon all his subjects. The war was devastating to Germany. Nearly one-third of the population was killed. Agriculture was ruined because the war was fought on the fields. The Emperor essentially lost his power, for the peace treaty allowed each German prince to decide the religion within the area he ruled.

Why did Denmark, Sweden, France and Spain become involved? Why did Netherlands and England give financial support? The reasons are involved, but France and England were concerned that a strong Germany would threaten the balance of power. Netherlands wanted independence from Spain. Denmark and Sweden sought an opportunistic seizure of land on the Baltic cost. Spain was a champion of the Counter Reformation, and was allied with the HRE. The King of Spain was related to the emperor of the HRE. Except for the destruction of the power of Germany – certainly not the goal at the start of the civil war, little positive was attained by this dreadful and destructive war. Religion toleration was about the same, except that Calvinism was recognized as an acceptable religion, in addition to Catholicism and Lutheranism.

One needs to contemplate some of the terrible and bloody struggles that have occurred in the past, and see if there are lesson to be applied to situations today.. The Thirty Years War occurred from 1618 to 1648 and started primarily from one group trying to force an ideology on another group. Any sensible person can see that there must have been a better way, negotiations, compromises and tolerance to accomplish objectives. The similarity to conditions among the Christian populations in the 1600’s and the Moslem populations in the 2000’s seems obvious. What can we do to insure there is not another Thirty Years War?