Thirty Years' WarThe Thirty Years' War was a series of wars fought in the Holy Roman Empire, involving most of the interior countries. The war lasted 30 years. This war massively affected Europe and created a cultural divide between Catholics and Protestants. Philip III of Spain attempted to carry forward the foreign policy ideas of his father, Philip II, which essentially meant that Spain had to be kept ready for war. Thus in 1618, when Ferdinand II, heir to the Bohemian throne, began to cut off some religious privileges enjoyed by his subjects, they immediately asked for help from the Protestants in the rest of the empire and from the main foreign Protestant states: Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Denmark (Trueman). Even though the war between the German Catholics and the German Protestants were all in the Holy Roman Empire and were both Christians, the war spread slowly and was more of a struggle for the balance of power. There were two sides in the Thirty Years' War: the Protestant League and the German Protestants. Catholic League. The Protestant League consisted of Frederick of Bohemia who was the leader of the Protestant princes, Denmark led by King Christian IV, Sweden led by King Gustavus Adolphus and the Netherlands led by the House of Orange, all supported financially by King Louis of France XIII. The Catholic League consisted of the leader of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, the Holy Roman Empire led by Emperor Ferdinand II and the Spanish King Philip IV (Billiet). There were five main phases of the Thirty Years' War: Bohemian Revolt, Palatinate phase, Danish intervention, Swedish intervention and French intervention (Thomas). In the Bohemian phase a group of Bohemian Protestants captured the governors of Prague and chased them out. of the palace with...... middle of paper ...... on both flanks the remaining infantry moved to attack the Tercio of Naples (the best unit of the Spanish army). The German infantry failed horribly and the Spanish veterans held their position with the help of musketeers in the woods. The Spanish managed to wound Brunswick and drove his army from the field. The Protestants lost 3,000 people, 500 were wounded and 1,500 were captured. The Spaniard couldn't have asked for a better fight. The Spanish suffered 300 killed and 900 wounded. The next day the Spanish cavalry annihilated the remaining Protestant infantry as they marched. Of the 24,000 men who left the Palatine that day only 3,000 Protestant knights made it to the next city (Thomas). As demonstrated many times in historical battles of the past, such as the one between the Persians and the Greeks, numbers don't matter, it's the strategy and will of people to protect their way of life..