WI: Large Scale Renaissance War?

Onyx

Banned
Whats the possibility of causing a Renaissance War to explode into a European continental conflict, spanning from Iberia to Anatolia?

Is there any possbility that something like a European World War can happen during the age of Renaissance? And if so, what could cause and what can start it?
 
Kinda late in the Renaissance, but maybe a significantly more successful Reformation, beginning earlier and spreading farther. Perhaps the corruption of Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) stimulates somebody to pull a 95 Theses-style protest earlier, around 1500. This reformation spreads throughout Northern Germany, France, and England. By the time Charles V comes up for election as Holy Roman Emperor two decades later, the electors are split and he doesn't get the election. He decides to use his Austrian, Spanish, and Neapolitan troops to bring the errant princes of Germany to heel, at which point they form an alliance of religion with France and England and an alliance of convenience with several Northern Italian states. If the Reformation can spread eastward, Poland gets involved, Scandinavia goes Protestant as OTL, and the Ottoman Empire takes advantage of the distraction the Austrians are experiencing to make inroads in Southern Europe.

I really don't see this as particularly plausible, but that's the period I know the most about. Prior to the Reformation, which nicely corresponds with the High Renaissance, you don't have the necessary conditions to split Europe into two heavily armed opposing camps - except for the period of the Schism. That might also offer some possibilities, but I'd have to think on it further.

There's also the overall difficulty of carrying off a continent-spanning war with the finances, the governments, and the logistical apparatus in most of Europe during the period. Sustaining long wars overseas will sap the treasury, and the monarchies of Europe are just now getting to the point where they'll be able to feasibly sustain lengthy campaigns countries away without running the risk of instability at home.
 
There's also the overall difficulty of carrying off a continent-spanning war with the finances, the governments, and the logistical apparatus in most of Europe during the period. Sustaining long wars overseas will sap the treasury, and the monarchies of Europe are just now getting to the point where they'll be able to feasibly sustain lengthy campaigns countries away without running the risk of instability at home.
This. The entire period is dominated overwhelmingly by "Can I pay my troops enough that they don't turn into bandits?" The army of the Netherlands for example mutinied a crazy number of times. Gustavus Adolphus' army ran around Germany because it was looking for plunder to support itself not because of overriding strategy most of the time.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
Doesn't the 30 year war count?

Two centuries too late; the renaissance is the 15th century and the first half of the 16th debatably.
And yeah, throughout the period, any major war saw soldiers causing sometimes more damage to their former employers in peace time than in wartime.
 
The Italian Wars spreading to Germany, maybe?

I can't really see that happening. The whole point of the Italian Wars was they were a struggle between France and Spain for hegemony in Italy. And the reason France initiated the Wars was to get land and money that wasn't in the direction of either Spain or Germany themselves. The Germans had no real interest in Italy at the time, at least not enough to fight over it without a very good excuse.

Maybe if you get the Italians to seek Austrian aid against one of the sides, then you can get the HRE in on it and have yourself a nice big war. The difficulty here is finding a reason for the Italians to call in Austria, and for Austria to join. Further, such a war is not big enough to satisfy the OP. Maybe if Spain could cultivate England as an ally against France, you would have a much larger war. But from here, getting Poland or the Ottomans involved isn't terribly easy.

Besides, such a war would be boring. Spain/HRE vs. France? Pretty near a curbstomp. Add England and it just gets ugly. And that's how the factions should go unless you butterfly away Chuck V, which you have 6 years to do after the start of the Italian Wars.
 
Top