Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years' War, which raged from 1618 until 1648, embroiled most of Europe in a conflict that dramatically changed not only the map but also the balance of European power.

It remains one of the longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties resulting from military battles as well as from the famine and disease caused by the conflict.

In 1609, Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II had granted religious freedom in Bohemia in an attempt to curb rising tensions between different sects. With Emperor Ferdinand II’s ascension to head of state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1619, religious conflict began to foment. One of Ferdinand II’s first actions was to force citizens of the empire to adhere to Roman Catholicism.

What began as an attempt to correct abuses within the Catholic Church eventually led to a number of violent conflicts within that institution as well as between nations.

While there were underlying issues which set the stage for the Thirty Years' War, the immediate cause was the expulsion of two Catholic officials by Protestants from a window in Bohemia's capital, Prague. That event, known as the Defenestration of Prague, was the result of a meeting between Bohemian Protestants upset over Catholic oppression.

The Thirty Years War was primarily fought in the Holy Roman Empire. Its destructive campaigns and battles occurred over most of Europe, and, when it ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the map of Europe had been irrevocably changed.

By the end of the war much of Germany was in ruins, the Habsburgs were no longer masters of the continent, and the wars of religion which had ravaged Europe since the early 16th century were finally over.
Thirty Years War

Byzantium: Eastern Roman Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the successor of the Roman Empire in the East. While the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, the Byzantine Empire in the East lasted another 1,000 years.

The son of the Roman general Constantius Chlorus, Constantine I (“the Great”) is usually held to be the founder of the Byzantine Empire. Constantine was moving the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium (the origin of the word “Byzantine”), which he re-founded as the city of Constantinople.

After Constantine, few emperors ruled the entire Roman Empire. It was too big, and under attack from too many directions. The Western Roman Empire crumbled in the fifth century as it was overrun by invading Germanic tribes, while Constantinople became the largest city in the empire and a major commercial center.

With its magnificent palaces, churches, forums filled with sculptures and works of art, universities, and a countless building of great beauty, Constantinople was the cradle of civilization.

In 527, a high-ranking Byzantine nobleman named Justinian succeeded his uncle to the throne of the Eastern Empire. In an effort to regain Rome’s fading glory, Justinian in 533 sent his best general, Belisarius, to recover North Africa from the invading Germanic tribes.

Byzantium was overthrown in the fifteenth century, following the fall of Constantinople the Ottoman Turks on 29 May 1453.
Byzantium: Eastern Roman Empire