The Rise Of The Dutch Republic A History V 6 11 History Of The United Netherlands From The Death Of William The Silent To The Twelve Years Truce 1609 V 1 1584 1585 V 2 1585 1587 V 3 1587 1590 V 4 1590 1598 V 5 1598 1605 V 6 1605 1609 V 12 14 The Life And Death Of John Of Barneveldt Advocate Of Holland With A View Of The Primary Causes And Movements Of The Thirty Years War V 15 17 The Correspondence Of John Lothrop Motley Edited By George William

Author : Peter H. Wilson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067424625X
Total Pages : 1038 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Thirty Years War written by Peter H. Wilson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 1038 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world. When defiant Bohemians tossed the Habsburg emperor’s envoys from the castle windows in Prague in 1618, the Holy Roman Empire struck back with a vengeance. Bohemia was ravaged by mercenary troops in the first battle of a conflagration that would engulf Europe from Spain to Sweden. The sweeping narrative encompasses dramatic events and unforgettable individuals—the sack of Magdeburg; the Dutch revolt; the Swedish militant king Gustavus Adolphus; the imperial generals, opportunistic Wallenstein and pious Tilly; and crafty diplomat Cardinal Richelieu. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict. By war’s end a recognizably modern Europe had been created, but at what price? The Thirty Years War condemned the Germans to two centuries of internal division and international impotence and became a benchmark of brutality for centuries. As late as the 1960s, Germans placed it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as their country’s greatest disaster. An understanding of the Thirty Years War is essential to comprehending modern European history. Wilson’s masterful book will stand as the definitive account of this epic conflict. For a map of Central Europe in 1618, referenced on page XVI, please visit this book’s page on the Harvard University Press website.