The Thirty Years' War 1618-1648

Between 1618 and 1648, Europe was ravaged by war. No synthesis has until now shown with such clarity the violence and the scope of this civil and European war.

The first clashes of the Thirty Years' War broke out in Bohemia in 1618, with the Defenestration of Prague. What at first appears to be an act of rebellion by Protestant-leaning nobles against the Holy Roman Emperor degenerates into an unprecedented conflict on a European scale. It drew in the Habsburgs of Vienna and Spain, princes of the Holy Roman Empire, the papacy, the King of Denmark and the King of England, Sweden, and France under Richelieu and then Mazarin. For three decades, the continent was the theatre of unprecedented violence: the effects of devastation and plunder were multiplied by epidemics. This war, which is estimated to have killed at least 15 to 20% of the Holy Roman Empire's population, was proportionally the deadliest in the continent's history. It was imperative to establish the foundations of a lasting peace; this is what the Treaties of Westphalia achieved in 1648.

In this unprecedented work, founded on original research, Claire Gantet produces the first truly global approach to the Thirty Years' War. Drawing on a narrative as lively as it is captivating, she sheds light on the role of the men who, from the outset, sought to limit and regulate the exercise of force. The Peace of Westphalia, "wonder of the world", reshaped relations between European powers right up to the wars of the twentieth century.