Thirty Years War Facts
Thirty Years War Facts
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Interesting Thirty Years War Facts: |
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Although the belligerents were primarily divided along religious lines, there were notable exceptions. Overwhelmingly Catholic France declared war on the Holy Roman Empire in 1635 and Protestant Denmark aligned itself with the Holy Roman Empire in 1643 after being opposed to it in the first part of the war. |
The Imperial forces won many early successes, thrusting south into Bohemia and north into Denmark. The thrust into Denmark brought Protestant Sweden into the war again the Holy Roman Empire. |
The alliance of the Protestant German kingdoms was known as the Protestant Union, while the German Catholic countries were called the Catholic League. |
The Thirty Years' War was one of the first major wars where muskets were heavily used. Pikemen were also extensively deployed, but knights had been replaced by that time by hussars. |
The road to Prague was opened when an army of the Catholic League defeated a Bohemian Force at the Battle of White Mountain on November 8, 1620. In addition to having the Bohemians outnumbered, the Catholic force was better equipped and more professional, with more than 2,000 hussars. |
Although the Ottoman Empire was in decline by the seventeenth century, it was still relatively powerful and quite active in European affairs. The Islamic Ottomans sided with the Protestants. |
Although technically separate, the Smolensk War (1632-1634) is considered to be a adjunct to the Thirty Years' War. Catholic Poland fought against Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia in that war, although it had more to do with land than religion. |
Potatoes became a much more common crop in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. Potatoes had only recently been imported to Germany from the Americas, but necessity made them more popular. Opposing armies often targeted the fields of their enemies, but since potatoes are a root it was much more difficult to destroy potato crops. |
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