In many ways, the Thirty Years War was leftover business from the savage religious wars of the previous century. Though not a global war, the Thirty Years War involved countries as far as Poland to the east, England to the west, Sweden to the north, and Italy to the south. The French emerged as top dog, ushering in the age of the Sun King (Louis XIV). By war’s end, the Dutch had won their independence from Spain and Habsburg hegemony had shrunk to what we’d recognize as Austria today, leaving the rest of the Empire as a hazy geopolitical notion of modern Germany. Its atrocities and devastation were a trial run for the world wars of the 20th century, and it left us with a recognizable outline of modern Europe. The Thirty Years War (1618-48) isn’t exactly a household word, though maybe it should be. It was also the beginning of the Thirty Years War. Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, ruled by Catholic Habsburgs in Vienna, and this was the famous Defenestration of Prague. They pitched three of their Catholic overlords out of the Hradschin Palace in Prague. On May 23, 1618, a coalition of Protestant nobles in Bohemia hit on a novel way to topple a government - right out of a fourth floor window.
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