Thirty-years-war Link

It established the "Westphalian System," the idea that a nation has exclusive rights over its own territory and domestic affairs (including religion).

The war began in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) when Protestant nobles, angry over the curtailing of their religious rights, tossed two Catholic royal officials out of a window in Prague Castle. Remarkably, they survived the 70-foot drop, but the act triggered a rebellion against the Holy Roman Empire. 2. From Religion to Politics thirty-years-war

The war was brutal. It introduced "total war" tactics where armies lived off the land, seizing crops and burning villages. It established the "Westphalian System," the idea that

The Peace of Augsburg was reaffirmed and expanded to include Calvinism, effectively ending the era of large-scale religious wars in Europe. The Peace of Augsburg was reaffirmed and expanded

France emerged as the dominant power on the continent, while the Holy Roman Empire began a long, slow decline into a loose collection of independent states.

The war ended with a series of treaties that fundamentally reshaped the world:

Spain and the Holy Roman Empire fought to maintain Catholic dominance and imperial unity.