The Thirty Years’ War was a 17th-century religious conflict fought primarily in central Europe.

It remains one of the

longest and most brutal wars in human history, with more than 8 million casualties resulting from military battles as
well as from the famine and disease caused by the conflict.

The war lasted from 1618 to 1648, starting as a battle among the Catholic and Protestant states that formed the Holy
Roman Empire. However, as the Thirty Years’ War evolved, it became less about religion and more about which group
would ultimately govern Europe. In the end, the conflict changed the geopolitical face of Europe and the role of
religion and nation-states in society.

Causes of the Thirty Years’ War

With Emperor Ferdinand II’s ascension to head of state of the Holy Roman Empire in 1619, religious conflict began to
foment. One of Ferdinand II’s first actions was to force citizens of the empire to adhere to Roman Catholicism, even
though religious freedom had been granted as part of the Peace of Augsburg.
Signed in 1555 as a keystone of the Reformation, the Peace of Augsburg’s key tenet was “whose realm, his religion,”
which allowed the princes of states within the realm to adopt either Lutheranism/Calvinism or Catholicism within their
respective domains.

Still, the Holy Roman Empire may have controlled much of Europe at the time, though it was essentially a collection of
semi-autonomous states or fiefdoms (An organization or department over which one dominant person or group
exercises control. Anything under a person's complete control or authority). The emperor, from the House of Habsburg,
had limited authority over their governance.

Defenestration of Prague
But after Ferdinand’s decree on religion, the Bohemian nobility in
present-day Austria and the Czech Republic rejected Ferdinand II
and showed their displeasure by throwing his representatives out
of a window at Prague Castle in 1618.

The so-called Defenestration of Prague (fenestration: the

windows and doors in a building) was the beginning of open
revolt in the Bohemian states – who had the backing of Sweden
and Denmark-Norway – and the beginning of the Thirty Years’
War.

Bohemian Revolt
In response to Ferdinand II’s decision to take away their religious freedom, the primarily Protestant northern Bohemian
states of the Holy Roman Empire sought to break away, further fragmenting an already loosely structured realm.

The first stage of the Thirty Years’ War, the so-called Bohemian Revolt, began in 1618 and marked the beginning of a
truly continental conflict. Over the first decade-plus of fighting, the Bohemian nobility formed alliances with the
Protestant Union states in what is now Germany, while Ferdinand II sought the support of his Catholic nephew, King
Phillip IV of Spain.

Soon, armies for both sides were engaged in brutal warfare on multiple fronts, in present-day Austria and in the east in
Transylvania, where Ottoman Empire soldiers fought alongside the Bohemians (in exchange for yearly dues paid to the
sultan) against the Poles, who were on the side of the Habsburgs.
Peace of Westphalia
Over the course of 1648, the various parties in the conflict signed a series of treaties called the Peace of Westphalia,
effectively ending the Thirty Years’ War – although not without significant geopolitical effects for Europe.

Weakened by the fighting, for example, Spain lost its grip over Portugal and the Dutch republic. The peace accords also
granted increased autonomy to the former Holy Roman Empire states in German-speaking central Europe.

Legacy of the Thirty Years’ War

Ultimately, though, historians believe the Peace of Westphalia laid the groundwork for the formation of the modern
nation-state, establishing fixed boundaries for the countries involved in the fighting and effectively decreeing that
residents of a state were subject to the laws of that state and not to those of any other institution, secular or religious.

This radically altered the balance of power in Europe and resulted in reduced influence over political affairs for the
Catholic Church, as well as other religious groups.

As brutal as the fighting was in the Thirty Years’ War, hundreds of thousands died as a result of famine caused by the
conflict as well as an epidemic of typhus, a disease that spread rapidly in areas particularly torn apart by the violence.
Historians also believe the first European witch hunts began during the war, as a suspicious populace attributed the
suffering throughout Europe at the time to “spiritual” causes.

The war also fostered a fear of the “other” in communities across the European continent, and caused an increased
distrust among those of different ethnicities and religious faiths – sentiments that persist to some degree to this day.

Sources
“The Economist explains: What happened in the Thirty Years War?” [Link].

Napoleon Bonaparte Challenged the Peace of Westphalia

The Napoleonic Wars were wars which were fought during the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte over France. They started
after the French Revolution ended and Napoleon Bonaparte became powerful in France in November 1799. War began
between the United Kingdom and France in 1803.
The causes are relatively simple; the Napoleonic Wars were caused by the French Revolution. After years of excesses
caused by the French Revolution, Napoleon rose to establish some measure of peace and stability in France. Bonaparte
believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity to the rest of Europe and
thus challenged the power of kings, nobility, and religion in Europe.

The Napoleonic Code is also called the "French Civil Code of 1804" defined the concept of equality before the law and
also secured the right to property. Under the code all male citizens are equal: primogeniture ( the state of being the
firstborn child. The right of succession belonging to the firstborn child, especially the feudal rule by which the whole real
estate of an intestate passed to the eldest son), hereditary nobility, and class privileges are extinguished; civilian
institutions are emancipated from ecclesiastical control; freedom of person, freedom of contract, and inviolability of
private property are fundamental principles.
Advantages:
Established equality before law.
Abolished all privileges based on birth.
Simplified administrative divisions.
Granted the right to property to French citizens.
Abolished feudal system and freed peasants from serfdom.
Eliminated restrictions on guilds in town.
Made efforts to improve transport and communication.
Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte
At Waterloo in Belgium, Napoleon Bonaparte suffers defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to
the Napoleonic era of European history. The Corsica-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history,
rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s.

Why did Napoleon lose the Battle of Waterloo?

In the first view, historians claim that the French loss at Waterloo was a direct result of Napoleon's own leadership
blunder (stupid, careless mistake) and inferior methods of warfare. The second argument claims that Napoleon was
defeated mainly due to the superior strategy and tactics of his enemies, the Prussians and Anglo-Allies.

Concert of Europe, in the post-Napoleonic era, the vague consensus among the European monarchies favoring
preservation of the territorial and political status quo. The term assumed the responsibility and right of the great powers
to intervene and impose their collective will on states threatened by internal rebellion. Also known as the Congress
System or the Vienna System after the Congress of Vienna, was a System of dispute resolution adopted by the major
conservative powers of Europe to maintain their power, oppose revolutionary movements, weaken the forces of
nationalism, and uphold the balance of power.

The Concert of Europe. From 1815 to 1914, the Concert of Europe established a set of principles, rules and practices
that helped to maintain balance between the major powers after the Napoleonic Wars, and to spare Europe from
another broad conflict. Ultimately, the Concert of Europe ended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914 when the
Concert proved ultimately unable to handle the collapse of Ottoman power in the Balkans, hardening of the alliance
system into two firm camps (the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente), and the feeling among many civilian and military
leaders on both sides that a war was inevitable or even desirable.

Imagined Communities

Benedict Anderson, 1983, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
Defines the nation as an "imagined political community": imagined because the members of the smallest nation will
never know most of their fellow-members, meet them or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of
their communion. A nation exists when a significant number of people in a community consider themselves (or, in other
words imagine themselves as to form a nation, or behave as if they formed one.

In fact, Anderson says, all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these)
are imagined. Communities are to be distinguished not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are
imagined.

The great sacred communities of the past (Christendom, the Islamic Ummah, the Middle Kingdom) were imaginable
through the medium of a sacred language and written script.

The birth of the imagined community of the nation can best be seen if we consider the basic structure of two forms of
imagining that first flowered in Europe in the eighteen century: the novel and the newspaper. For these forms provided
the technical means for re-presenting the kind of imagined community that is the nation.

The newspaper in particular creates and

"extraordinary mass ceremony: the almost
simultaneous consumption...". This ceremony is
performed in silent privacy, in the lair of the scull.
Yet each communicant is well aware that the
ceremony he performs is being replicated
simultaneously by thousands or millions of others
of whose existence he is confident, yet of whose
identity he has not the slightest notion. What more vivid figure of the for the secular, historically clocked imagined
community can be envisioned?

Implications of the concept: The Internet provides new media and new styles in which communities can be imagined.
It is more important to understand these styles of imagining than to argue for or against the "falsity/genuineness" of
communities in cyberspace. What are the new "ceremonies" in which participants engage? What are the shared
symbolic systems created, recreated and modified in the practices of such communities? It can be argued that these
communities can be more participatory and democratic because the "medium of imagining" is more flexible and open
for intervention on the part of all members, compared to the newspaper, television, etc. But are they more
participatory, more equal, more inclusive indeed?

International relations
refers to a field of study and practice focused on understanding the unique relationships that exist between various
nations and cultures. These relationships can impact everything from international politics, law, and economics to
security, diplomacy, and governance.

Historical Development International relations

The field of international relations emerged at the beginning of the 20th century largely in the West and in particular in
the United States as that country grew in power and influence. Whereas the study of international relations in the newly
founded Soviet Union and later in communist China was stultified by officially imposed Marxist ideology, in the West the
field flourished as the result of a number of factors: a growing demand to find less-dangerous and more-effective means
of conducting relations between peoples, societies, governments, and economies; a surge of writing and research
inspired by the belief that systematic observation and inquiry could dispel ignorance and serve human betterment; and
the popularization of political affairs, including foreign affairs. The traditional view that foreign and military matters
should remain the exclusive preserve of rulers and other elites yielded to the belief that such matters constituted an
important concern and responsibility of all citizens. This increasing popularization of international relations reinforced
the idea that general education should include instruction in foreign affairs and that knowledge should be advanced in
the interests of greater public control and oversight of foreign and military policy.

This new perspective was articulated by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913–21) in his program for relations
between the Great Powers following a settlement of World War I. The first of his Fourteen Points, as his program came
to be known, was a call for “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at” in place of the secret treaties that were
believed to have contributed to the outbreak of the war. The extreme devastation caused by the war strengthened the
conviction among political leaders that not enough was known about international relations and that universities should
promote research and teaching on issues related to international cooperation and war and peace.

The newly created LEAGUE OF NATIONS, which ushered in the hope and expectation that a new and peaceful world
order was at hand, was a second subject that captured significant attention. Some of the international relations schools
that were founded in the interwar period were explicitly created to prepare civil servants for what was expected to be
the dawning age of international government. Accordingly, intensive study was devoted to the genesis and organization
of the league, the history of earlier plans for international federations, and the analysis of the problems and procedures
of international organization and international law.

Source: [Link]
LIBERALISM IS A PRO-CAPITALIST IDEOLOGY. Classical liberals favor free trade, growth of global commerce, and also
favor rights of capital to penetrate anywhere in their search for profits. So the globalization of the regime of capitalist
competition and profit seeking is the liberal form of “internationalism” though historically liberals don’t use that word.

The socialist movement was formed originally as a movement for “THE SELF-EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKING CLASS”
FROM THE CAPITALIST REGIME. As such, the assumption is that class struggles — struggles against oppressor groups —
goes on around the world since capitalism is a global system. So socialist internationalism was based thus on the concept
of working class solidarity — “an injury to one is an injury to all” applied at international level. So the coordinated strike
against Amazon by unions countries recently is an example of worker internationalism — and thus socialist
internationalism.

Socialist internationalism was also expressed in the creation of a whole series of international federations of unions and
political groups — from the International Workingmen’s Association of 1864–72, to the Communist International of the
’20s and ‘30s, to the Socialist International (of parties) formed in the late 1800s, to the anarcho-syndicalist International
Confederation of Labor.

What was a goal of the Bolshevik party in Russia in 1917?

The goal of the Bolsheviks Party, along with Lenin in 1917, was to overthrow the Provisional Government and establish a
proletarian government, which was practical
in Communist rule. The Provisional
Government was set up in March 1917, by the
Duma, following the fall of the imperial
government.

Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary

Marxist current of political thought and
political regime associated with the formation
of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and
disciplined party of social revolution, focused
on overthrowing the existing capitalist state
system, seizing power and establishing the
"dictatorship of the proletariat".

MARXIST PHILOSOPHY
In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a state of affairs in
which the proletariat holds political power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is
the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist
economy, whereby the post-revolutionary state seizes the means of production,
compels the implementation of direct elections on behalf of and within the
confines of the ruling proletarian state party, and instituting elected delegates
into representative workers' councils that nationalise ownership of the means of production from private to collective
ownership. During this phase, the administrative organizational structure of the party is to be largely determined by the
need for it to govern firmly and wield state power to prevent counterrevolution and to facilitate the transition to a
lasting communist society. Other terms commonly used to describe the dictatorship of the proletariat include socialist
state, proletarian state, democratic proletarian state, revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat and democratic
dictatorship of the proletariat.

WORLD WAR II
World War II was fought between two major groups of nations. They became known as the Axis and Allied Powers. The
major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.
The Allies formed mostly as a defense against the attacks of the Axis Powers. The original members of the Allies included
Great Britain, France and Poland. When Germany invaded Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Russia becomes and Ally

At the start of World War II, Russia and Germany were friends. However, on 22 June 1941 Hitler, the leader of Germany,
ordered a surprise attack on Russia. Russia then became an enemy of the Axis Powers and joined the Allies.

The US Joins the Allied Powers

The United States had hoped to remain neutral during
World War II. However, the US was attacked by surprise at
Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. This attack united the country
against the Axis Powers and turned the tide of World War II
in the favor of the Allies.

Allied Leaders (from left to right) Winston Churchill,

President Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin Photo by Unknown

Leaders of the Allied Powers:

Great Britain: Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of Great Britain during most of World War II, Winston Churchill was a
great leader. His country was the last country fighting against the Germans in Europe. He is known for his famous
speeches to his people when the Germans were bombing them during the Battle of Britain.

United States: Franklin D. Roosevelt - One of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States, President
Roosevelt led the country out of the Great Depression and through World War II.

Russia: Joseph Stalin - Stalin's title was General Secretary of the Communist Party. He led Russia through terrible and
devastating battles with Germany. Millions and millions of people died. After winning the war, he set up the Eastern Bloc
of Soviet led communist states.

France: Charles de Gaulle - Leader of the Free French, de Gaulle led the French resistance movement against Germany.
Other Allied leaders and generals in the war:

Britain:
 Bernard Montgomery - General of the British Army, "Monty" also led the ground troops during the invasion of
Normandy.
 Neville Chamberlain - Was the Prime Minister prior to Winston Churchill. He wanted peace with Germany.

United States:
  Harry S. Truman - Truman became president after Roosevelt died. He had to make the call to use the atomic
bomb against Japan.
 George Marshall - General of the US Army during World War II, Marshall earned the Nobel Peace Prize for the
Marshall Plan after the war.
 Dwight D Eisenhower - Nicknamed "Ike", Eisenhower led the US Army in Europe. He planned and led the
Invasion of the Normandy.
 Douglas MacArthur - MacArthur was General of the Army in the Pacific fighting the Japanese.
 George S. Patton, Jr. - Patton was an important general in North Africa and Europe.

Russia:
Georgy Zhukov - Zhukov was leader of the Russian Red Army. He led the army that pushed the Germans back to Berlin.
Vasily Chuikov - Chuikov was the general who led the Russian Army in defending Stalingrad against the fierce German
attack.

China:
 Chiang Kai-shek - Leader of the Republic of China, he allied with the Chinese Communist Party to fight the
Japanese. After the war he fled from the communists to Taiwan.
 Mao Zedong - Leader of the Communist Party of China, he allied with Kai-shek in order to fight the Japanese. He
gained control of mainland China after the war.

Other countries that were part of the Allies:

 Poland - It was the invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 that started World War II.
 China - China was invaded by Japan in 1937. They became a member of the Allies after the attack on Pearl
Harbor in 1941.

Other countries that were part of the Allied Nations included Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Yugoslavia,
Belgium, and Greece.
Note: There were even more countries that were on the same side as the Allies mostly because they had been taken
over or attacked by Axis countries.

Interesting Facts
 Great Britain, Russia, and the United States were sometimes called the Big Three. When China was included they
were called the Four Policemen. It was the Four Policemen who founded the United Nations.
 General Patton's nickname was "Old blood and guts". General MacArthur had the nickname "Dugout Doug".
 There were 26 countries who signed the original Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942. After the
war, on 24 October 1945, 51 countries signed the Charter of the United Nations.
 Winston Churchill once said "a joke is a very serious thing". He also said "A lie gets halfway around the world
before the truth has a chance to get its pants on".

[Link]
There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Why is German not an official language of the United Nations?

No German speaking country was part of the Allies, and therefore German was not a relevant language to include, and
still is not. The purpose of the UN has not changed.

The major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. The Allies formed mostly as a defense
against the attacks of the Axis Powers. The original members of the Allies included Great Britain, France and Poland.

Why is it called Axis powers?

The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis was a military coalition that fought in World War II against the
Allies. ... Benito Mussolini declared on 1 November 1936 that all other European countries would from then on rotate
on the Rome–Berlin axis, thus creating the term "Axis".

Which countries do not belong to the UN?

The two countries that are not UN members are Vatican City (Holy See) and Palestine. Both are considered non-member
states of the United Nations, allow them to participate as permanent observers of the General Assembly, and are
provided access to UN documents.

How many countries have veto power in the world?

The United Nations Security Council "veto power" refers to the power of the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) to veto any "substantive"
resolution.

What is the full form of veto?

A veto (Latin for "I forbid") is the power (used by an officer of the state, for example) to unilaterally stop an official
action, especially the enactment of legislation.