The Thirty Year War

Study the Thirty Years War using Online Video

Use these 2 online educational video titles to explore the 30-year period between 1618 and 1648, when European countries, including Spain, France, Sweden, Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire, were embroiled in a continuous was between Catholics and Protestants. Learn how the war ended the role of religion as a dominant force in Europe and sealed the doom of a feudal past.

Learning Objectives:

• Explore the period 1618-1648 in European history, a time when France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, Germany, and Bohemia were engaged in a continuous thirty-year war that began in Bohemia and spread because of greed and political motives.
• Explain the roles played by Cardinal Richelieu, Gustavus Adolphus, and Wallenstein.
• Discuss how the Thirty Years War extinguished the role of religion as a dominant force in European affairs and sealed the doom of feudalism as a socio-political system in Europe.
• Examine how the outcome of the Thirty Years War affected the participating countries, and discover which country emerged from the war as the most powerful state in Europe.
• Hear excerpts of songs and dialogue from Mother Courage and Her Children, a chronicle play by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht about this war's devastation.

• History > World History > The Thirty Years War
• The Players (Runtime: 19:37)
• The Victims (Runtime: 19:03)