AP Euro - Thirty Year's War?

Question

Explain how the Thirty Year's War & Protestant Reformation destroyed Hapsburg and Holy Roman Empire.

can anyone give me a terse review?

Answer 1

A result of the war, was the enshrinement of a Germany divided among many territories, all of which, despite their membership of the Empire, had de facto sovereignty. This significantly hampered the power of the Holy Roman Empire and decentralized German power. It has been speculated that this weakness was a long-term underlying cause of later militant German Romantic nationalism.

The Thirty Years' War rearranged the previous structure of power. The conflict made Spain's military and political decline visible. While Spain was preoccupied with fighting in France, Portugal — which had been under Spanish control for 60 years (since 1580) — declared itself independent in 1640. The House of Braganza became the new dynasty of Portugal, beginning with King John IV. Meanwhile, Spain was finally forced to accept the independence of the Dutch Republic in 1648, ending the Eighty Years' War. With Spain weakening and Germany fractured and bled dry, France became the dominant power in Europe.

This defeat for Spain and imperial forces also marked the decline of Habsburg power and allowed the emergence of Bourbon dominance.

From 1643–45, during the last years of the Thirty Years' War, Sweden and Denmark fought in the Torstenson War. The result of that conflict and the conclusion of the great European war at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 helped establish post-war Sweden as a force in Europe.

The edicts agreed upon during the signing of the Peace of Westphalia were instrumental in laying the foundations for what are even today considered the basic tenets of the sovereign nation-state. Aside from establishing fixed territorial boundaries for many of the countries involved in the ordeal (as well as for the newer ones created afterwards), the Peace of Westphalia changed the relationship of subjects to their rulers. In earlier times, people had tended to have overlapping political and religious loyalties. Now, it was agreed that the citizenry of a respective nation were subjected first and foremost to the laws and whims of their own respective government rather than to those of neighboring powers, be they religious or secular.

The war had a few other, more subtle consequences:

The Thirty Years' War marked the last major religious war in mainland Europe, ending large scale religious bloodshed in 1648. There were still religious conflicts but no great wars.
The destruction caused by mercenary soldiers defied description (see Schwedentrunk). The war did much to end the age of mercenaries that had begun with the first landsknechts, and ushered in the age of well-disciplined national armies.