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Thirty Years<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n By John Farnam<\/strong><\/p>\n Protestant King Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, the \u201cLion of the North,\u201d the \u201cSnow King,\u201d led a lean, efficient, and highly-mobile army that was able to move faster and hit harder than any thrown against it. He was ahead of his time and nearly unbeatable. His greatest fear was territorial encroachment from a Catholic Europe. Gustavus was always out front. He led his men personally, and, like most generals who do, he was fatally wounded at the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 (in present-day Germany).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Czech-born Count Albrecht Wallenstein (born into a Lutheran family) was the one ultimately selected to oppose Gustavus with a Catholic, and mostly mercenary, army. He led from the front too. At the same battle, Wallenstein watched as most of his staff fell around him. In the process, several musket balls passed through his coat. Wallenstein was defeated at Lutzen, but engineered an impressive victory over the Swedes the following spring. Gustavus\u2019 successor, the incompetent Count Thurn, was easily routed. As a reward for his brilliance, Wallenstein was murdered by a nervous Archduke Ferdinand von Hapsburg of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany), who was fearful of Wallenstein\u2019s growing popularity.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The dreadful \u201cThirty Years’ War,\u201d from 1618 to 1648, eventually engulfed all nations on the western edge of Eurasia, collectively called \u201cWestern Europe.\u201d It was ostensibly a battle between Catholics and Protestants, but, in reality, it (like all wars) was a struggle for real estate, political power, and posture on the World Stage. It would end with Western Europe\u2019s center, where major battles took place, depopulated and burnt to the ground. Recovery would take decades. The power of the Holy Roman Empire and the feudal system that supported it, founded centuries earlier by Caesar Augustus, would be broken forever (even Napoleon, a century and a half later, would be unable to resurrect it). However, Western Europe\u2019s festering instability was, by no means, tempered.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The War mostly fizzled out in 1648 with the \u201cPeace of Westphalia,\u201d as widespread destruction had left all sides exhausted and unable to continue fighting, at least on a large scale. However, what was left of mercenary armies still milled about restlessly.Many thus saw the necessity of Western Civilization permanently diverging into several strong, independent, Christian, nation\/states, united by nationalism, rather than religion. The \u201cGreat Powers\u201d were on their way, and world history would take yet another turn.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Comment: \u201cI profess that a people must never value anything higher than individual dignity and freedom; that it must defend these with the last drop of its blood; that it has no duty more sacred and can obey no higher law, that the shame of a cowardly submission can never be wiped out; that the poison of submission in the bloodstream of a people will be transmitted to its children, paralyzing later generations; that honor can be lost only once; that a people is unconquerable when it fights a spirited struggle; that an honorable fight assures rebirth, even if freedom were lost; and that such a struggle is the seed from which a new tree will inevitably blossom.\u201d <\/span><\/i>\u00a0(Von Clausewitz, 1820)<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n