The Thirty Years’ War

The Peace of Augsburg had achieved two things: the victory of the princes over the Emperor both on the question of the constitution and on that of the church, Germany remained the country of political decentralization, one may even say of political dissolution. Cologne remained Catholic, and the Protestant Administrators disappeared from the Westphalian bishoprics before the Spanish battalions. This should be borne in mind: Spanish soldiers built this cornerstone of Catholic Germany. Thus as regards the constitutional question too the frightful sacrifices of the war might have been spared, and again we may remind ourselves that it really broke out in consequence of Spanish intervention. Thus the Thirty Years' War was, in the preparation and the making, the work of foreigners in Germany. The Russian invasion in 1558 began the game, which ended in 1625 with partition between Sweden and Poland, Sweden annexing the north, up to the river Dvina, and Poland the south, the Duchy of Courland.