Religiously, princes in Germany had the right to choose the religion of their provinces as Catholic, Lutheran or Calvinist. This caused a division religiously or based on religious affiliation within Europe with the Catholics in the south, Lutherans in central Germany, and the Calvinists in the northern part of Europe. “Socially, the Thirty Years War cause a significant number of problems, particularly for the peasant and working people” The only way to pay the vast amounts of money it required to prolong fighting was to heavily tax the citizens of the states at war. In France, the rate of land tax paid by peasants doubled in the eight years after France joined the war. Along with the heavy taxation, governments deliberately depreciated the value of the currency, which resulted in inflation and soaring prices. With the working peasant class becoming even poorer and the cost of living rising, the poverty rate in parts of Europe skyrocketed. The upper class and the lower peasant social classes grew even farther apart. Crop producers used the war as an opportunity to increase crop prices knowing that people needed a good food supply during the time of war.
That, along with bad harvests and food shortages caused a widespread famine in parts of Europe. “The Thirty Years War had a large impact on society in Germany as it decimated a larger portion of the German population, destroyed crops, aided in the spread of disease and obliterated the German economy…” To make things even worse, mercenary troops often seized small towns and took the peasants food. The peasants were required to feed the troops, who often brought women, children and other followers, when the peasants were barely able to work to feed their own families.
The Homework on Explain why there was growing involvement of the USA in Europe in the years 19 45-1948
In this essay, I will show why America had a growing involvement in Europe between 1945-1948. The USA implemented the Truman doctrine to contain communism, used the Long telegrams to spy on the USSR and gave money to western countries to discourage them from communism. I will explore all of these points in this homework and why America got involved in Europe because of these points. One reason was ...
Many families of towns destroyed by the war abandoned their homes and were forced to live off the land eating roots, grass, and anything they could find. 3 “…They devour roots which the animals cannot eat… This poor country is a horrible sight; it is stripped of everything…. People massacre each other daily with every sort of cruelty…” These are just a few words that Cecile Augon used to describe the conditions in France after the war. 2 In eastern France in 1637 a witness reported, “The roads are paved with people… Finally it came to cannibalism. Desperate for food, husbands would leave their families in search for better conditions, women and children would die while waiting in line for food at convents or churches, and sometimes hungry vagabonds, who sometimes banded together to beg for bread became more aggressive, occasionally threatening to burn a barn if they were not given food. Along with famine and reduced living conditions came disease and epidemics. 2 Continuous bad harvests led to malnutrition, which weakened people and made them more susceptible to epidemic diseases.
The plague was feared most and in one year it could cause the death of up to half a town or village’s population. Nearly 5% of France’s population died in the plague of 1628-1632. The working peasant class was obviously devastated the most on every aspect of life after the Thirty Years War. Laws such as the Poor Law in 1597 provided some relief to the poor but not one a wide enough scale to make a significant difference in the massive peasant population.
