The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) began when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Bohemia attempted to curtail the religious activities of his subjects, provoking rebellion among Protestants. The strongest powers in Europe, for example Sweden, France, Spain, and Austria, all waged campaigns primarily on German territory. They are best known for the cruel acts committed by mercenary soldiers, ending the war with a series of agreements that constituted peace. from Westphalia. The consequence of this was the adjustment and modification of the political and religious map of Central Europe, creating the opportunity for the former centralized Roman Catholic Empire to submit to a community of sovereign states. The Holy Roman Empire is a vast complex of a thousand distinct states. , small autonomous political groups under the domain of the Austrian Habsburgs.Say no to plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essayOver the past two centuries, balance has been reached. of power in the dominant states emerged. But this ended in the 16th century, when the Reformation and Counter-Reformation divided Germany into aggressive Protestant and Catholic camps, each prepared to seek help from other countries to ensure its integrity if this became necessary. In 1618, when Ferdinand II began to withdraw certain religious privileges and enjoy the content there. Ask directly for help from Protestants in the empire and larger foreign Protestant states. For example, the Dutch Republic and Denmark. Ferdinand responds by asking Bavaria who rules the German Catholics and Spain. In the next effort, Ferdinand, elected Roman emperor in 1619, and his allies won a significant victory at White Mountain (1620), which resulted in the annihilation of Protestantism in most Habsburg areas. Confident in this success, Ferdinand in 1621 turned against the Protestant supporters of Bohemia in Germany. although they had help from Britain, Denmark and the Dutch Republic, they also lost, and in 1629 the imperial armies commanded by Albrecht von Wallenstein killed most of Protestant Germany and a large part of Denmark. Ferdinand then distributed the Edict of Restitution, taking back the lands of the empire belonging to the Catholic Church that had been captured and separated from the religion by Protestant rulers. Swedish military support saved the Protestant cause. In 1630, an army led by King Gustav Adolf arrived in Germany with French money. For twelve years, other armies fought the dirty war, forcing both to support themselves and demolish anything useful to the enemy country. Problems arose when men had difficulty locating resources. Over time came France's victory over the Spanish at Rocroi (1643) as well as Sweden's defeat against the Imperials at Jankau (1645) forcing the Habsburgs to make compromises which led in 1648 to the Peace of Westphalia . which solved most of the bigger problems. The Treaty is one of the most important documents in European history with details of the restitution of conquered territories, information about wrongful events during the war and armies would be disbanded and all prisoners of war released. A very important political result of the war and the treaty was that France became a dominant state in continental Europe. The treaty laid the legal foundations for the modern IR system. The novelty of this war was that it could be called the first modern war. New forces.