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want to see the power of the em–
peror broken and the Spanish
beaten into submíssion. Historian
Friedrich Heer will observe that
"Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin
bear a large share in the guil t for the
disintegration of the Holy Roman
Empire in the Thirty Years' War."
M~~nwhile,
the papacy is ei ther
purposefully neutral -m-"passively
hostile to the empire.
Without the active intervention of
Catholic France, the empire would
have been in a good position to
crush the adherents of Protestantism
in its realm. But France's entrance
into the confiict turns the tide and
results in the shattering of the em–
pire.
The Thirty Years' War is to be the
first European "world war" and " the
first civil war of European dimen–
sions" as one historian will describe
it.
Towns are repeatedly sacked :
Marburg is occupied eleven times,
for example. Magdeburg
is
besieged
ten times. Not until the twentieth
century will Europe experience such
butchery again. Tbe empire has
seven or eight million fewer inhabi–
tants in 1648 than it did in 1618.
In sorne regions, population losses
amount to síxty percent. Rural pop–
ulation in Germany declines forty
percent; town population
is
down
by a third. On top of the military
and social debacle, France tloods
the empire with its goods. Trade war
is waged with a vengeance. France
is the first continental count ry to in–
dustrialize. She uses her leverage ef–
fectively.
Religion, politics and economics
are now intertwined. The idea of an
empire-wide customs union is pro–
mulgated by Spínola, the leading
exponent of mercantilist policies in
the empire.
To contemporaries, the Thirty
Years' War is one of the greatest
scourges on mankind since Attila
the Hun. Contemporary documents
speak of an "excidium Germaniae,"
the destruction ofGermany and of a
"Germanía expirans," a dying Ger–
many.
28
A whole generation grows up
without knowing peace. Farm lands
and cattle are des troyed. Men,
women and children are tortured
and killed by war. Alliances shift
back and forth. Cities, towns and
vi llages are pillaged. Though there
may be many exaggerations, it is
reliably estimated that the popu–
lation density of Germany has de–
creased by more than one half.
Hunger and endemic di seases
weaken the national health for cen–
turies. Trade and commerce are in
shambles.
The text of a pamphlet written in
the year 1647 bemoans the fact that
"kings formerly obeying the call of
the German Emperor .. . have be–
come our masters by our own dis–
cord .... Awake, O Germany!
Consider what thou reaUy art ....
The Empire can only be revived by
the Empire; Germany can only be
reborn by Germany ... ."
But the reawakening does not
come. The life-and-death struggle
between the French Bourbons and
the Austrian-Spanish Habsburgs is
decided in favor of the French. With
the Spanish crown undergoing
steady attrition, Austria finds herself
in a death struggle on two fronts.
France advances from the West ; the
Ottoman Turks from the East. And
both adversaries are often allied.
The Thirty Years' War is
the
pivota! event in Europe's history.
Before the wa r Europe is medieval;
after the peace she is modero. Be–
fore the war Catholicism and the
empire are superior; after the peace
neither have any great influence on
European politics.
Year 1648: Tbe Treaty of West–
pbalia. The Treaty of Westphalia
ends the Thirty Years' War and re–
sta res peace to the Holy Roman
Empire. But the pope of the day
protests against what is the greatest
peacemaking effort in European his–
tory. "The papacy, which for over a
thousand years had been the prop
and stay of ' Frankish' Western
Christendom and a partner with the
Empire and the Emperor, was not
among the partners whose treaty
gave a new shape to Europe." a
later his torian will write.
The great assemblage at West–
phalia will have no equal unti l the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, which
also meets to end European catas–
trophe. The assembled statesmen at
Westphalia realize the enormity of
their task.
The French secretary of state,
Brienne-wfltes, " Laid on us is the
greatest task there has been for cen–
turies. We have to make peace not
only between two crowns but for the
whole of Europe, and establish it so
securely that any aspiration of dis–
turbing it must remain vain."
The peace now rests not on the
unity of church and faith out on a
balance of power among secular
and sovereign states. The peace
treaty confirms the full sovereignty
of the German estates. The emperor
mus t obtain consent from the Diet
before putting legislation into prac–
tice.
Supreme power over the army
is restored to the princes. From 1648
until 1806 the empire will exist only
in name and on maps. The Republic
of the United Netherlands and the
Swiss Confederacy are formally re<r
ognized as independent European
powers. Sweden and France sit in
judgment of Germany's· future and
its boundaries, both gaining great
land concessions in the process. One
historian wiU make the following
pessimistic analysis: "Freed from its
diplomatic verbiage and elaborate
trimmings, this meant sirnply that
Germany had become a French
protectorate."
After the Peace of Westphalia,
the empire has no history of its own.
The history is now of separate and
independent German principalities.
Hundreds exist between the Alps
and the Baltic. Each has its own
laws, its own courts, a tiny army,
individual coinage, customhouses
on the borders and petty officials.
Trade, política! thought, literature
and progress in general are para–
lyzed.
The peace of Westphalia marks
the end of the Vienna-Madrid
Habsburg Axis.
o
PLAIN TRUTH June-July 1974