History 321: State and Society in Early Modern Europe: The Thirty Years War

History 321: State and Society in Early Modern Europe:The Thirty Years War

QuestionHow destructive was the Thirty Years War?Interpretationsthe all-destructive furyThe Lamentations of Germany (1638)Friedrich Schiller, 1790sGustav Freytag, Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit, 5 vols. (1859-1867) = Pictures from the German Pastboundless, chaotic violenceGermans as innocent victims of brutal foreign aggressorshope for a new GermanyInterpretationsthe early decline school (vs. the disastrous war school)S. G. Steinberg, The Thirty Years War and the Conflict for European Hegemony (1967)claims, but little evidenceReasons for debateThe extensive operations and rapid reversals of fortune fostered a climate of uncertainty (p. 783)shifts in theatres (p. 785)peasant revoltscrop failuresdiseasedepopulation / shift in populationimprecise statistical data

Demographic impactSteinberg: population increaseGnther Franz: decline by 40%Even a 15 per cent decline would make the Thirty Years War the most destructive conflict in European history (p. 787).Depopulation varied by region. Statistics on p. 788.The post-war demographic recovery flowed from a rising birth rate and a fall in mortality (p. 795).What were the causes of death?violence: soldiers, not civilians, the main victimsDisease proved more potent than muskets, swords and cannon (p. 790).ratio for soldiers killed in action to soldiers killed by disease (p. 791)bubonic plaguemigration, troop movementsvery likely that many of the people who died in the Empire between 1618 and 1648 would have had their lives cut short even without the war (p. 793)Economic Impacttrade and industryregional variationsoverwhelmingly negative impact of the Wardrainage project in the Archbishopric of Salzburg, 1625-1644agricultureconsolidation of farmsIncreasing value of labour

Economic Impacteconomic situation before the WarKipper and Wipper hyperinflation (1622)coin debasement after 1618private consortium (1622)1 silver mark = 19 fl. (1618), 79 fl., 110 fl.fall of revenue in real terms, price increases1623: use of imperial institutions to end crisis

Economic Impactindebtednessin evidence before 1618hyperinflationimprudent investments in conspicuous consumptionshrinking tax base (p. 803)Reichstag Recess, 1654 (p. 804)uneven economic recoveryanimal husbandrylabour and capital shortagescapital- and time-intensive industriesviticulture

Impact on the territorial statedecline of Estatescentralization of princely powerterritorial changesthreat to local governmentchange of the ideal of the state from the guardian of the established order to promoter of the common good (p. 811)Cultural impactdestruction / removal of cultural treasuresdemise of some Protestant universitiesemigration of artistsCultural impactartistic developmentsmusic: Heinrich Schtz (1585-1672)poetry: Martin Opitz (1597-1639)Johann Rist (1607-1667)Johann von Grimmelshausen (1622-1676)Simplicissimus (1668)

Jacques Callot, Miseries of War (1633)Sourcebook, docs. 79-90, 145-151What do the documents tell us about the Thirty Years War and the way in which contemporaries experienced it? Can we use them to show that absolute destruction was a myth (Wilson, Europes Tragedy, p. 779)?Do you think the accounts of contemporaries are reliable?How do the documents relate to the argument about the religious nature of the War?Identify two passages that you find particularly revealing about the violence of the War and / or the experience of living through the War. Why did you choose these passages?