The German Question, Part Twenty-Five

"The Thirty Years' War Brings Death, Destruction & A Partial Answer To The German Question," Part Three-"Results"

The generally accepted idea is, the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648 with what is known as "The Peace of Westphalia," which included two treaties negotiated in the German cities of Osnabrück and Münster, both in the German state of Westphalia (Westfalen, in German). Other treaties were negotiated elsewhere, as the war was truly a major European conflict, involving most European nations in some way.

The casualties were absolutely devastating, as they included civilians by the droves. While no true casualty figures can be certified, historians have attempted to piece together records from various sources, and with these records to at least give us some idea of how horrible things were. Some German states seem to have suffered perhaps as much as the loss of two-thirds to three-quarters of their population, although whether all died is uncertain, as many people fled to other areas. Since many foreign soldiers were present in German lands, including a good number of foreign mercenaries, they had to survive somehow, and that usually meant taking food and provisions from the local population, leaving the civilians with little or nothing to survive on themselves. The religious nature of the war caused expulsion of large segments of the civilian population in certain areas where forces of the opposing religion took over. So thoroughly were some villages and towns pillaged and the population decimated, that for all practical purposes, they were wiped out. Thousands of such villages and small towns can be counted in this category. The incoming soldiers from various areas, even within the German lands themselves, and the refugees fleeing their own locales, helped to spread disease, which also seems to have taken a high toll on both the military forces and civilians. All in all, it was a catastrophe!

The political results were many, but the main ones were:

-The Netherlands received full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire, and thus it is an independent country to this day. Since those times, and for some a bit before, no Dutchman, no matter how closely related to Germans, would EVER declare themselves to be German.

-Switzerland gained full independence from the German (Holy Roman) Empire. I can only write here what I've seen and heard on this, but some, or perhaps many, Swiss Germans may have still called themselves "German," in sort of a generic, linguistic and cultural sense, but not in any "national" sense. Certainly by the time Hitler came along, that undoubtedly changed forever, as the Swiss "Germans" knew a nutcase when they saw it, and they distanced themselves, figuratively speaking.

-The above two items give us a partial answer to our question "Who/What is a German."

-While the other German states remained under the "umbrella" of the Empire, they were all given much more independence and with more clearly defined borders, making the title of "German emperor" mainly symbolic. This was a blow to the Habsburgs and to the Roman Catholic Church.

-While there had been something of a "north-south" split in the German lands for quite some time, if for no other reason than the vastly different dialects dividing the north and south, now religion also tended to play a part, too, as much of the south remained Catholic, and much of the north was, or became, Protestant. Note that I say "much," because there were exceptions. Just to point out some things, Bavaria and Austria both shared a common dialect, "Bavarian," (now called "Austro-Bavarian") and pretty solid Catholicism. Both are southern German lands. Prussia, a northern state, and Lower Saxony, also northern, shared Protestantism, and somewhat similar dialects, mainly, but not always, based on Low German. These kinds of things tended to make allies of these states (and like-minded states) against the others in future political and military matters. The key word is "tended," because nothing was totally certain in the turbulent world of German affairs.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           WORD HISTORY: 

Treaty-This goes back to the Indo European base "tragh," which had the notion of "pull, drag, move." This gave the Latin offshoot "tractare," and the thus derived "tractatus," which had the same notion of its Indo European ancestor, but also carried a further meaning by extension, if you move or drag something, you "handle it, deal with it." This carried on in Latin-based Old French, but as "traité," which meant "agreement/treaty" (something you've dealt with). This was borrowed into English during the 1300s, first as "tretee," before the modern spelling. By the 1400s, it had taken on the idea of "agreement between countries."