sectarianism had reduced in the 15th and 16th centuries with diminishing following of the Council of Trent by Catholics, it escalated in the early 17th century.
Clergies and worshipers passionately demanded for the broadening of Catholicism across the Holy Roman Empire. The main advocates of Catholicism were violent towards Protestant enthusiasts1. A rather minor cause that led to the war was from an economic perspective where people especially in Germany took advantage of the situation to serve as paid soldiers. Germany’s economy had flourished prior to the war due to its strategic location in the empire as it was a center for trade.
Organised groups of people were hence passionate about internal wars and conflicts in order to establish public and private wealth2. Additionally, Germany was doing well economically and rewarded soldiers well, and therefore the soldiers fuelled the internal disorders even more. The war was a promising venture for scrupulous leaders who sought to create political instability in order to accumulate wealth through corruption. It is therefore obvious that thirty years war was the product of a series of events arising from different perspectives including political, religious, and socioeconomic factors. Although the nations had signed a series of peace treaties prior to the war, it seems that they were not sufficient to control new wars and prevent them from happening.
Additionally, religious divisions seem to have led to the escalation of the war due to people having little regard for each other’s faith3. Major Events of the War The first major event of the war was the Bohemian revolt where the Holy Roman Empire responded to a revolt by the Protestants when the emperor, Ferdinand II reduced some of the religious privileges allowed to the subjects in his empire4. The Protestants having been