C. V. Wedgewood's Thirty Years War

Eccentric author C.V Wedgewood sought to inform readers about the Thirty Years War that dated from 1618 to 1648. This time was a barbaric time that was filled with famine, rape, and non-stop violence, in this war millions of people died yet it is not widely spoken of. In fact, Wedgewood states that the population went down 7 million in the country of Germany. When it comes down to it Wedgewood has an excellent and easy to understand way to write to where we understand yet the subject of the Thirty Years War is very difficult to understand. This war is known as a religious war as stated by Wedgewood yet he states that there is more to it. The moderation of this war and how long it lasted were linked to a society and its very nature of Germany. Once one country went to war with another it was almost impossible to keep it from spreading because of the allies each of these countries had. This is the main reason that peace negotiations went on for many years before they were able to become a reality.

Yet when it came down to it these soldiers weren’t very loyal they mostly only cared about their pay. It was known for defeated troops to switch sides. For instance, Armies of Catholics were made of a mixture of Catholics and Protestants and vice versa. This happened a lot in this war even with national armies which sounds weird but many of these armies were made up of people from very different countries. Yet the Swedish invasion seemed to be an exception when it came to this. Wedgewood states that Catholic armies rebelled because they were forced to participate in Catholic