The Causes of the Thirty Years War

Students can be forgiven for getting muddled when trying to identify the causes of the Thirty Years War. Many of the books on the subject confound the reader with complex discussions about general long- term political and religious tensions throughout Europe and within the Holy Roman Empire. But the Thirty Years War did not begin as a result of these general tensions; it began as an internal Habsburg dispute, a rebellion against Habsburg government and religious policy in Bohemia. That this soon developed Europe- wide implications and coalesced with other long-term factors was the result of the rebellion and the way it unfolded, rather than its cause. If we look at these tensions, what is remarkable, perhaps, is that they did not lead to war.