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Ron Peters's Reviews > The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War
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“Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example in Europe of meaningless conflict.” (p. 520)
Every time I’ve read a history book containing passages on the Thirty Years War, I’ve been shocked by the level of brutality described, but I’ve never read a book entirely about this war.
Wedgwood’s book, though old, is a classic. The book cover summary contains a word that always scares me: magisterial. In my experience, this typically means a book that is too long because it is over-stuffed with material. This is relatively true: the level of detail is extensive.
Wedgwood writes in a decidedly old-fashioned style reminiscent of Will and Ariel Durant. If you don’t mind their Story of Civilisation books, you won’t mind this one either.
Wedgwood does a good job of showing that the early sixteenth century was already a period characterized by chaos and casual violence. So, the cruelty of this war is argued to be just a concentrated example of something true of that time in general. Still, the war was vicious enough that it resulted in an agreement on new rules for war to help end some of the worst atrocities.
Much of the chaos of the period sprang from the fact that the feudal system was dying, and it was still unclear what would replace it. Add to this the fierce hatreds engendered by the Reformation, Calvinism, and the Counter-Reformation you have a recipe for mayhem and murder. The fact that Europe was then ruled by hundreds of tiny little independent principalities and such-like also meant that it was impossible to conduct coordinated diplomacy to end widespread conflicts.
An important result of this war was that the many minor aristocrats of the day realized the advantages of forming a smaller number of states that could more easily negotiate with one another. Thus, this was the period that first saw a move toward forming nations with central governments. “The concepts of state sovereignty, mediation between nations, and diplomacy all find their origins in the text of this treaty written more than three hundred and fifty years ago.” https://tinyurl.com/483dnp3s
Every time I’ve read a history book containing passages on the Thirty Years War, I’ve been shocked by the level of brutality described, but I’ve never read a book entirely about this war.
Wedgwood’s book, though old, is a classic. The book cover summary contains a word that always scares me: magisterial. In my experience, this typically means a book that is too long because it is over-stuffed with material. This is relatively true: the level of detail is extensive.
Wedgwood writes in a decidedly old-fashioned style reminiscent of Will and Ariel Durant. If you don’t mind their Story of Civilisation books, you won’t mind this one either.
Wedgwood does a good job of showing that the early sixteenth century was already a period characterized by chaos and casual violence. So, the cruelty of this war is argued to be just a concentrated example of something true of that time in general. Still, the war was vicious enough that it resulted in an agreement on new rules for war to help end some of the worst atrocities.
Much of the chaos of the period sprang from the fact that the feudal system was dying, and it was still unclear what would replace it. Add to this the fierce hatreds engendered by the Reformation, Calvinism, and the Counter-Reformation you have a recipe for mayhem and murder. The fact that Europe was then ruled by hundreds of tiny little independent principalities and such-like also meant that it was impossible to conduct coordinated diplomacy to end widespread conflicts.
An important result of this war was that the many minor aristocrats of the day realized the advantages of forming a smaller number of states that could more easily negotiate with one another. Thus, this was the period that first saw a move toward forming nations with central governments. “The concepts of state sovereignty, mediation between nations, and diplomacy all find their origins in the text of this treaty written more than three hundred and fifty years ago.” https://tinyurl.com/483dnp3s
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