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War brings death and destruction to everyone
who is involved in it – from soldiers in
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the armies, to sailors and merchants.
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Nevertheless, it is the civilian population
that suffers the most.
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This is especially true for the Thirty Years’
War.
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Although the effects that the war had on religion,
warfare, and politics are thoroughly covered,
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its effects on the general populace are often
overlooked.
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This is even more surprising considering the
fact that millions of people died and that
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the Holy Roman Empire lost between a quarter
and a third of its population, with some areas
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having lost more than half.
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A variety of factors contributed to the devastation
and we will discuss them in this video.
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As the Thirty Years’ War lasted for 3 decades
between 1618 and 1648, the fighting varied
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in intensity and scope depending on the region
and the year in question.
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During the initial phase of the war, the action
was concentrated along the Danube, Upper Hungary,
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Bohemia, and Moravia.
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Although all of the horrors of the war are
largely associated with the final phase of
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the conflict, they were already present in
the beginning.
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Plunder, plague, and the murder of civilians
were widespread in the affected areas.
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Bohemia also saw an additional loss of population,
as all non-Catholics who refused to convert
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were forced to leave.
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Following the battle of White Mountain and
the pacification of Bohemia, war operations
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continued in the territories of the Palatinate
and in Lower Saxony.
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It is at this point that Frederick V decided
to employ the services of Ernst von Mansfeld,
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a mercenary leader.
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While serving under Frederick, Mansfeld’s
mercenaries plundered Alsace and Hesse.
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Not limiting themselves to the territories
of their enemies, the mercenaries also ravaged
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the lands that they were supposed to protect.
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Mansfeld proved to be a shrewd leader, as
after leaving Frederick’s service, he subsequently
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entered the service of Christian of Brunswick
and ravaged Lorraine, the United Provinces,
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and East Frisia while campaigning for his
new employer.
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On paper, mercenaries seemed expensive to
hire and maintain and not many rulers would
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have the resources to hire them, however,
they turned out to be one of the main causes
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of suffering and devastation during the war.
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The Protestants were on the cusp of defeat
after the battle of Stadtlohn.
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The possibility of a complete change in the
religious balance in Central Europe worried
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King Christian IV of Denmark, and he would
enter the war in 1625.
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Seeing this as a serious threat, the Emperor
asked Albrecht von Wallenstein for military
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assistance.
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The ever-ambitious Wallenstein, not satisfied
with the gains that he had made during the
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Bohemian campaign, agreed to help only if
he was allowed to plunder the territories
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that he would capture.
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Wallenstein’s army ravaged lower Saxony
for much of late 1625 and 1626.
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The Danish were soundly defeated by both Tilly
and Wallenstein, however, Wallenstein’s
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insatiable ambition also led him to want a
Baltic Sea port.
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To that end, he sought to capture Stralsund,
and on the way to the city his forces pillaged
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Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
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Besides the mercenaries, another important
factor was the forces of the Catholic and
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Protestant Leagues.
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These armies were indeed easier to finance
than mercenaries, and in any ordinary war
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that would not have been a major problem.
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For the first few years of the Thirty Years’
War it was not a problem either, but, as time
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passed and the economies of the realms involved
in the wars began to diminish, so did their
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ability to pay the soldiers.
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By the end of the Danish involvement in 1630,
the states involved in the war could only
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finance the recruitment and equipment of their
new soldiers.
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Meanwhile, the soldiers’ salaries and supplying
the armies fell upon the civilians of the
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regions where the armies were.
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During the 1620s, armies frequently relied
upon so-called “contributions”, when either
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the governors of the affected areas would
pay a certain amount of money, or the army
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itself would extort funds from the civilians
in an organized manner.
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At times, the amount of money that the armies
demanded was extraordinary, forcing the people
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to sell their stores of grain, wine, and other
essentials in desperate attempts to satisfy
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mounting demands.
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The only two countries which were able to
both pay and supply their soldiers for the
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entirety of the war were Spain and the United
Provinces.
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Therefore, it should be no wonder that the
population of the Spanish and Dutch Netherlands
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escaped relatively unharmed from the war.
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The troops, of course, were suffering from
a constant lack of supplies as well.
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As a result, they frequently took whatever
the civilians had left in their stores.
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Production also declined as seed corn was
consumed and vital assets, like tools or mills,
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were destroyed.
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The majority of the trade routes in the Holy
Roman Empire were affected, and trade ground
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to a halt; there were no alternative ways
for people to acquire food.
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This left many areas of the Empire with famine
and many people simply starved to death.
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The Swedish landing in Pomerania, in 1630,
initially did not change this pattern.
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Active operations resumed after a year’s
lull, but remained contained in Pomerania
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and Mecklenburg.
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Imperial and Catholic League units were withdrawn
from other parts of Germany, either to confront
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the Swedes or to join the siege of Mantua.
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This much-needed respite for the people of
the Empire, along with the great harvests
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of 1630 and 1631, cushioned the rising troop
numbers for a time.
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The full effects were delayed until the Swedish
exploitation of their victory at Breitenfeld
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rapidly spread the war into all parts of Germany
by 1632.
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Total troop numbers reached an unprecedented
250,000 thanks to the new regional armies
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formed in Westphalia, Lower Saxony, the Upper
Rhine, and Swabia, as well as the main forces
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campaigning in Bavaria, Franconia, and electoral
Saxony.
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The poor maintenance of the Imperial and Catholic
League armies was quite evident by this point.
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Following the siege of Magdeburg in 1631,
the ill-disciplined, hungry, and unpaid army
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led by Tilly sacked the city.
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The city was almost completely burned down
and widespread looting, rape, and murder occurred.
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Of the 25,000 inhabitants of the city at the
beginning of the siege, between 20,000 and
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24,000 were dead.
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Unfed and unpaid soldiers proved difficult
to control, even for a commander of Tilly’s
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caliber, and he was only able to stop the
sacking after 4 days.
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The ravaging of large, walled cities was still
an exception to the rule, rather than the
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rule itself.
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Other than the sack of Magdeburg, large cities
were quite rarely ravaged by armies as they
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proved invaluable to each side.
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On the other hand, the people of smaller towns
and the countryside bore the brunt of the
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war, with many of them ending up as refugees
in those larger cities.
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Gustavus Adolphus famously remarked “war
will pay for war”, indicating that mobility
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was crucial for an army’s survival, as staying
for too long in one place would lead to starvation.
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The Scottish mercenary captain Robert Munro
mentions in his memoirs that Gustavus Adolphus
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sympathized with the civilian population and
wished to lessen the burden on them as much
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as he could.
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As starved soldiers were prone to take their
frustrations out on the general populace,
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the Swedish King ensured that his army was
paid a regular salary, and that it would be
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supplied regularly.
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As bad as the situation was for the civilian
population, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus
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things only became worse.
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The commanders who took charge of the Swedish
armies were far less concerned with the wellbeing
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of the commoners than their late King.
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Moreover, the soldiers were also rarely paid,
as the commanders kept the money for themselves,
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and also suffered from food shortages.
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Much like in future wars, the Swedish army
was forced to “live off the land”, leaving
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peasants with very little food, if any at
all.
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Though sources offer diverging numbers, they
all agree that the Swedes were responsible
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for the destruction of thousands of villages,
towns, and other smaller settlements.
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The years from 1632 to 1640 are considered
to be the deadliest period of the war.
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This coincides with the death of the Swedish
King, along with the beginning of French operations
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within the Holy Roman Empire.
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The three armies were exhausted from years
of constant warfare.
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All semblance of order broke down and the
armies ravaged the countryside in the areas
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where they were stationed.
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In comparison to this brutal and indiscriminate
raiding, the “contributions” of the 1620s
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seemed rather benign at this point.
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The historian Ronald G. Asch mentions that,
quite paradoxically, the civilians were also
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responsible for each other’s suffering during
the 1630s.
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As armies raided, they took everything of
value from each household, only to later sell
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it in the neighboring town for a tenth of
its real price or exchange it for food.
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In addition, due to the constant marauding
of the armies, many peasants resorted to banditry
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or formed militias, attacking civilians and
soldiers alike.
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The Imperial army was especially under pressure,
as it now faced two very formidable foes.
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Desperate, they began employing scorched earth
tactics to make sure that the opposing armies
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would find absolutely nothing of use in involved
areas.
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The quick Swedish retreat from southern Germany
left the Protestant provinces there vulnerable.
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As the Imperial armies took Wurttemberg, their
treatment of the population, and their desire
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to leave nothing for the Swedish army, led
to severe depopulation, with some estimates
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ranging to even 69% of the population.
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The Swedish and French armies, themselves
not in an envious position, followed suit
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and started using scorched earth tactics too,
however, their involvement in the war brought
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respite to some areas.
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As the lands west of the Rhine were under
French control much of the time, they had
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a chance to recover after 1636.
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The Habsburg Monarchy also saw some peaceful
years, and the majority of Northern Germany
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also went through recovery before the Swedish
invasion of Denmark in 1643.
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Until the end of the war, the only areas that
were significantly affected were the areas
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with a large military presence.
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Southern Germany was severely devastated,
as that is where the Bavarians and French
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frequently fought.
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Bohemia and Moravia, after nearly 20 years
of relative peace, once again became a battleground
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after the Swedes invaded.
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The population of Pomerania and Brandenburg,
although not affected by war directly, was
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subjected to the cruelty of the Swedish garrisons
which were posted there for prolonged periods
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of time.
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Although it is widely known that armies also
decreased in size during this time, that proved
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to be a misconception, as the number of troops
that each state fielded during the war gradually
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increased until 1648.
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Another effect which the war had on the Holy
Roman Empire was of an ecological nature.
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There was an explosion in the rodent population
during 1636 that lasted several years and
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exacerbated the food shortage.
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Wolves roamed south-western Bavaria during
1638, returning in the early 1640s, while
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packs of wild pigs destroyed crops in 1639.
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Other animals disappeared as they became alternative
sources of food.
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A Bavarian soldier marching along the Lower
Rhine in February 1636 recorded that there
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‘was neither cat nor dog’, while there
are numerous accounts of urban populations
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consuming both types of animals during the
hunger years of the 1630s.
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Prolonged war, as always, also brought disease.
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Soldiers from various parts of Europe brought
unfamiliar microbes with them to the Empire.
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The civilian population, often starving, was
susceptible to the various diseases that engulfed
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the lands.
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For example, Wallenstein’s campaign down
the Elbe brought the plague to those areas
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and Northern Italy also suffered from a bubonic
plague epidemic after the Mantuan War.
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Scores of refugees, crowding into large, walled
cities only exacerbated the spread of disease,
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both by contributing to the famine and by
contagion.
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Furthermore, the aforementioned proliferation
of rodent populations only made things worse
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for the cities which were overflowing with
people.
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Although most sources only mention the plague,
it is quite plausible that dysentery and typhus
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caused many deaths too, as they became endemic
to Germany in the final years of the war.
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By sheer numbers of casualties, the war was,
quite possibly, the deadliest war in Europe
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until then.
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Total deaths in the Empire may have surpassed
8 million, given the relatively high number
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of military casualties and the fact that the
true extent of civilian losses is often masked
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by the presence of wartime births recorded
in overall population totals.
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However, if we take into account the percentage
of population loss, this war remains the most
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destructive war in European history.
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By comparison, the Soviet Union, which suffered
the heaviest casualties of the Second World
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War, lost less than 12 percent of its population.
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Both twentieth-century world wars were of
course briefer, with the casualties each year
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correspondingly higher.
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Nonetheless, around 20 million of those lost
during the First World War were due to the
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influenza outbreak at its end.
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A significant proportion of the victims of
the Second World War were killed in deliberate
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genocide, a feature mercifully absent from
the Thirty Years’ War, that was also waged
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with much less-potent weaponry.
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The population of the Empire recovered slowly
over the following decades, however the most
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profound effect that the war had was that
it created a sense of unity within the German
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nation.
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With the people spending most of their lifetime
at war and two generations completely lost
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to warfare, there was still a silver lining
in all of this - the survivors were left with
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a significantly higher standard of living,
much like the English peasants after the Black
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Death.
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With the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, the
Thirty Years’ War had finally ended.
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One of the most brutal and devastating conflicts
that Europe had seen was over and the civilians
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of the Holy Roman Empire could breathe a sigh
of relief.
00:17:27
We will continue talking about the Thirty
Years’ War and other conflicts, so make
00:17:32
sure you are subscribed to our channel and
have pressed the bell button.
00:17:36
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This is the Kings and Generals channel, and
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