One religious factor that played a large role in this war stemmed from the Peace of Augsburg, which declared that each state could prescribe the religion of its subjects. This principle led to a widespread scramble to name successors to incumbents and thus secure a territory as either Lutheran or Catholic. In 1608 the Elector Palatine, formed a Protestant union to defend their gains. This was shortly followed by the creation of a league of Catholic German states organized by Bavaria. All of these factors came into play in Bohemia in 1618. The fighting of the Thirty Years War began in Bohemia when residents felt that their newly crowned King, Ferdinand of Styria, was

Another political concern was that of the consolidation of central Europe under Habsburg control. This created an interest in the war for many countries. Countries such as Spain desired to consolidate this control while countries such as France were firmly opposed to the Habsburgs. These countries were thus drawn into the war to look out for their personal interests in this matter. France, convinced their personal help was necessary to counter the Habsburg ambitions, enlisted the help of the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus. Adolphus clearly had political motivations in this war, as he was interested in German lands along the Baltic, but he again tied into the importance of religious factors.

The Counter Reformation was now moving with full force. Catholics sought to stamp out Protestantism and as a result declared all church territories secularized since

Some topics in this essay:
Elector Palatine, Counter Reformation, Thirty War, Countries Spain, Albert Wallenstein, Peace Augsburg, Adolphus Adolphus, Ferdinand Styria, XI France, Catholic German, thirty war, king denmark, elector palatine, create kingdom, political considerations, religious factors, protestant affairs, protestant union, thirty war religious, war religious,