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The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history.

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Lasting from 1618 to 1648, fought primarily in Central Europe. It involved most of the

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major European powers of the time, including the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, and France.

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An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine,

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and disease, while some areas of what is now modern Germany experience population declines

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of over 50%. The war began as a conflict between Protestant and Catholic states within the Holy

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Roman Empire, but it quickly escalated into a wider European conflict as other powers intervened

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on either side. One of the main causes of the war was the religious divide between Protestants and

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Catholics in Europe, which had been exacerbated by the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent

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proliferation of protestant sets the holy roman empire was a loose federation of states with a

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complex and decentralized system and many of its rulers sought to increase their own power

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and territory at the expense of their neighbors and sought to suppress protestant sets and

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maintain the dominance of the catholic church this led to a series of conflicts between protestant

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and catholic states with various powers supporting one side or the other the war was characterized

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by the use of mercenary troops, widespread devastation and plundering, and the use of

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scorched earth tactics. The war also had significant social and political consequences,

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as it contributed to the decline of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of the modern nation-state

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system in Europe. The war ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which recognized the

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independence of the Dutch Republic, granted Sweden control over much of the Holy Roman

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empire's territories in the north and recognized the rights of various protestant groups within

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the empire the treaty also established the principle of culis regio ice religio which

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allowed rulers to determine the religion of their subjects and led to the formalization

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of the modern system of nation states in europe