It was the second decade of the 17th century. Europe was divided. On the one hand, the Catholic Church, which for almost 1,300 years ruled the minds of the Europeans alone and now faced splits. On the other, several different churches, generically called evangelical, or Protestant, if we want to use a more historical name. Since the 16th century, when Luther wrote his 95 theses, where he questioned Catholic dogmas, Protestants had expanded: Lutherans (this is the church that emerged from Luther’s teachings and it is the first of all) in Northern Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark. Calvinists, church founded by Calvin in the Netherlands, south-eastern France, half of Switzerland, and much of England. The Anglicans, a church founded by the King of England Henry VIII, primarily in his own country, had been smaller but equally active churches. This religious division, early on, caused turmoil, swept and changed concepts, completely reshaped European politics and the European economy, created conflicts and further divided the already divided Europe. In a society where religion and politics mingled, where Christianity was an intrinsic part of the mindset of Europeans and where each church spoke the true and pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, accepting little of the others, war would be possible and unfortunately inevitable, but not even the most pessimistic could imagine that the religious divisions of European Christendom could cause the greatest of all religion wars in the history of the continent and one of the largest in the world: the Thirty Years War, which took place from 1618 to 1648. In this war, where virtually every European power has clashed, we find it all: betrayal, political Machiavellianism, contradiction, cruelty, patriotism, rebellion for freedom, ambition and religiosity. All of these ingredients are an integral part of this gigantic military conflict that would forever change the course not only of Europe but of the planet.
