Thirty Years War in context

Historical events really only become clear later when historians look back and try to understand what caused all the fuss. As people live through the turmoil it is never quite so clear. As the saying goes, “If it makes sense, you clearly don’t understand it.”

From the perspective of 400 years we can divide the conflict known as the Thirty Years War into the following phases:

The Bohemian Revolt: 1618 – 1620.
The Palatinate phase. 1621 – 1624.
The Danish intervention. 1625 – 1629.
The Swedish intervention. 1630 – 1635.
The French intervention. 1636 – 1648.

Each of these phases has its own character with regard to the combant forces involved, the orginsation of the forces and therefore their fighting characteristics, and also the commanders involved.