Part 35: A Lifetime of War (1625-1630)
The Twenty Years' War, as the people of Europe eventually learned to call the Catholic-Reformist war, ended exactly where it started - in Austria. Emperor Maximilian IV died in 1622, and the Austrian front of the war essentially turned into an Austrian succession war between the Reformist Prince Charles and the Catholic Prince Augustin. Augustin was young and had little experience in warfare or ruling the nation, while Charles was battle hardened, found more and more support among the people, and had nearby allies in the form of the Munich League, and this difference led to the result of the war in Austria. For a while, Vienna and it's surroundings were propped up and kept alive by Visegrad, but when the Ottomans declared war on them, the capital was soon overrun by the Reformist forces, and Austria was united under a single Archduke once again. Prince Augustin, meanwhile, received the execution axe.
The Holy Roman Empire has been decapitated! After numerous French victories in Northern Italy and Lorraine, this was the final blow in the morale of the Catholic crusaders, and countries began asking for peace left and right. Visegrad was the first to sue for peace, followed by almost all of the members of the Catholic Crusade. It was such a large contingent, that a common peace treaty had to be drawn, done in Amsterdam. The Treaty of Amsterdam in 1630 ushered in a new order to Europe - borders were redrawn, new great powers arose and others sunk deep down, and both sides agreed to tolerate both religions in the Holy Roman Empire. Err... Holy Roman Empire? This former giant of Europe was rapidly disintegrating. The Reformists, hoping to transform the defensive Munich League into something more tangible, while at the same time wary of too radical change, offered the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor to Charles of Austria, crowning him as Charles V Habsburg, which caused furious reactions from most of Europe. A Reformist as the Holy Roman Emperor?! Insane! The Pope refused to crown Charles, so it was done in Vienna under a Reformist pastor, and the Catholics began mobilizing for a second round. However, both sides were too tired and exhausted by war to begin the first move, and while the "Holy" Roman Empire remained as an institution, the Catholic North German principalities and free cities left the Empire one after the other, as well as the republics and monarchies of Northern Italy, leaving the HRE as a shell of it's former self, dominated by Reformists, but more centralized than before.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
The war caused over seven million casualties, both military and civilian, almost nine percent of the population of Europe at the time, and it shaped the history of the continent for decades and centuries to come. Many regions were utterly devastated by the conflict, some losing over half of their population in the end. Among the many cases of social trauma caused on the collective populace was the beginning of mass witch hunts across both Catholic and Reformist states - the frustrated, angry peasantry would lash out on anyone but themselves in light of the disasters upon them. On the other hand, however, the mass demographic shock caused the speeding up of economic and cultural development in central Europe, especially Germany.
France was among the few countries you could call the "victors" in the war. During the Twenty Years' War, the French armies successfully defeated the Spaniards and Italians, dealt devastating blows to Imperial armies in Lorraine and Wallonia, annexing both of these French-populated lands into the Republic. Despite being less than a hundred years old, France already secured his place among the small circle of European great powers, ranking among Spain, Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire and slowly turning into a continental hegemon. Throughout the later stages of the conflict, France was headed by Director-General Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and his rule is considered to be the beginning of the so-called "French Golden Age". Under Colbert's 15 year rule, France rapidly began to transform to an urbanized, capitalist society, where the ancient guild system was being replaced by manufactories and the wealth and power within the state gravitated from the feudal nobility to the growing class of burghers and capitalists, the
bourgeoisie. During the 17th century, the Republic became a center of learning and innovation in science and technology, and it's wealth was staggering even compared to most of it's neighbors, where the development of modern era capitalism was slowed by the conservative and often reactionary monarchist regimes ruling them. Flanders and Wallonia, as well as the Paris region, were rapidly becoming the biggest industrial centers of Europe, where competition was so fierce that capitalists and landowners had to constantly look out for even the most minute or recent inventions to gain an edge over their competitors.
Director-General Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and the unofficial flag of Republican France, used by the French army and merchant ships. A variant without the coat of arms was also commonly used.
The
Netherlands, while a war participant on the Reformist side, got off very lightly, and after annexing Gelre and Friesland, the Free State finalized it's ambition of uniting all Dutch under one banner. Not only that, but the success of the Dutch fleet in the North Sea ensured their trade dominance in the region for years to come, and the growing Dutch colonial holdings in North Vespucia - New Netherland - was steadily growing due to an influx of war refugees and lucrative fur trade deals with the nearby Algonquin and Iroquois tribes. New Netherland was perhaps the least homogenous society in the New World - while Dutch was the official language, neither the majority of the populace nor the all of the colonial government were Dutch. There were Walloons, Frenchmen, many natives, slaves from Africa and nearby Native Vespucians. Unlike the cash crop Carribean and South Vespucian colonies that Spain and Portugal held, New Netherland functioned more as it's own society, though still subservient to the Free State. Around the same time, the Dutch merchant Willem Verhulst sailed around Africa, passing India and eventually arriving to Guangzhou, and was the first European who reached China through the "around Africa" route and not sailing under the Portuguese flag. The riches of China, India and Japan enticed the merchants of the Netherlands just as much as they did the Portuguese a hundred years ago, and East India was set to become a field for heavy competition between the two naval powers.
England was the only Catholic participant of the Twenty Years' War that was not present in the negotiations for the Treaty of Amsterdam - they were only at war with a limited range of opponents and had peaced out years before. 1627 marked the death of William III of England, the unifier of the British Isles under the English banner and the Catholic faith. His successor, Charles I, was a notable member of the Puritan movement, and a strong follower in divine right and absolutism. Under his rule, England was transformed into the
Kingdom of Britannia. The parliamentary system was disbanded and replaced with the King's absolute power - not without blood being spilled, of course. The followers of the Parliament took arms in revolt, but the King enjoyed popular support, especially from the devout English and Irish Catholics, and his "New Order" armies, often called the "Roundheads", named the former due to the numerous military innovations applied within their ranks and their strict discipline and the latter for the cropped heads of many Puritans, prevailed over the Parliamentary forces. Under Charles I, numerous leisure activities, such as theatre and sports, were banned, and the King freely ruled by decree and appointed the Ministers, only listening to the Lord and his Faith, as they say. Britannia became the first fully absolute monarchy in Europe, and while the Puritans were oppressive, the centralization and security that the King provided gave stability to the nation, and despite it's isolation, Britannia was developing just as swiftly as it's peers.
Sweden pretty much traded Livonia for Norway by the end of the War, and while it was definitely a fair trade, the Scandinavian nation found itself to be increasingly isolated as time went on. Both of it's neighbors - Denmark and Lithuania - were hostile for obvious reasons, and their allies in North Germany were only aligned due to opportunism and taking down a common foe. Britannia was also unwilling to cooperate, and the fanaticism of the English Puritans discouraged Erik XV from getting too close to hem and possible inciting something similar in Scandinavia. This diplomatic isolation led to the Swedes to look towards the sea - and towards the New World, no less. Sweden already had a little bit of experience in colonization in the form of Lapland and Finland, and the rumors of lucrative fur trade, cash crops and whaling opportunities gave additional incentive to look towards the seas.
Portugal was one of the few powers in Europe that stayed neutral throughout the entire conflict, and in the end of the Twenty Years' War, it ended up much wealthier than before. To understand the reason for this, one needs to look no further than South Vespucia. In the last years of the 16th century, the Inca Empire, inhabiting vast swathes of the Andes, had recently discovered massive reserves of silver in Sumaq Urqu, as well as in many other locations across the mountains, which instantly attracted the Portuguese like butterflies to a candle light. Because outright conquest of the Incas, or Tawantinsuyu as called in their language, was impossible to the Europeans, they instead offered a trade - silver for European production, like guns, weapons, alcohol and similar. The size of this trade route dramatically increased during the Twenty Years' War, when demand for precious metals and raw materials became almost astronomical, leading to what is often called
The Silver Road, stretching from Cuzco to Manuel City, the capital of Portuguese Manuela. Both of these empires benefited from the trade route - Porugal could acquire large amounts of silver and gold for a much smaller price than, say, from Carinthian mines, while the Inca were touched by the winds of modernization and began to adopt Western technology. Cultural exchanges also began, and this contact between two alien cultures brought interesting hijinks - the Inca were shocked that the Portuguese used things like "carts" to transport goods, while the Europeans were astonished by the complex mountain road and bridge network across the country. Outside of South Vespucia, profits from trade in East Asia also flocked to Lisbon, and while the wealth that this colonial empire acquired was staggering, it was bound to attract rivals.
Spain, while a colonial empire much like Portugal, was not in as good of a position after the War. The Spanish treasury was drained, it's positions in Italy weakened, and it's former great power status overshadowed by France, but the nation was quick to recover. Much like Britannia, Spain was treading towards a path of absolutism, though the power of the King was not as supreme as in the British Isles. Spain's defeat in the continent brought much more attention by it's kings to it's colonies in the Caribbean and Vespucia, places where the empire could expand freely and bash on unsuspecting natives to "regain it's pride". During the Twenty Years' War, the governor of Spanish Central Vespucia, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, made and commanded numerous
conquistador expeditions into the Yucatan peninsula, subjugating the small Mayan statelets in the region, and his successes in the field gave him noticeable PR in the eyes of the Royal Court, enough to continue funding the conquest efforts even long after Cervantes's death in 1628. Interesting developments around that era was the introduction of cotton to the Vespucias, first brought to the Spanish colony of Luisiana (named after Luis I, former King of Spain) to be cultivated as a cash crop. Back home, however, Spain was nowhere near willing to remain as the second fiddle to France in European hegemony...
But whatever disdain Spain felt was nothing compared to some of it's peers. Especially Germany.
Germany was burned, raped and salted during the War ten times over. Many cities were destroyed completely. Many regions lost over half of their population. The pride of the region was crushed even further - both sides had to rely on foreign assistance to even stand a chance against their opponents, after all. And what's worse - the nation, formerly united, albeit barely, under the Holy Roman Empire, was now split in half. While the southern states banded under the reformed Holy Roman banner, the northern coast and it's duchies and cities left the Empire, and, fearing a second Reformist invasion, formed the loose
North German Communion, headed by the Hamburg-Lübeck Union of Free Cities. Germany was now a battleground for the great powers of Europe to play around in and influence to their side, but the German spirit was not gone yet. Despite the gigantic loss of life that he region had endured, those who lived had access to surprisingly higher standards of living, and it is no surprise that Germany eventually developed to be one of the fastest growing regions of Europe. The South German statelets, most of them Reformist, enjoyed the same "bourgeoisization" and development of capitalism as France had, North Germany went through a similar process, and it started to look clear that if Germany were to be a single country, rather than thousands of little states, it could truly shake the balance of Europe.
But that is a story for a different time.
Modern Europe will never be the same as it used to be before the Twenty Years' War, however. Massive, gigantic changes were on the horizon, and none of the Europeans know that they were coming, either.
