War Crimes: The Thirty Years’ War: Europe’s First World War

The Thirty Years’ War refers to a series of wars that ravaged the European continent from 1618-1648. It began as a religious struggle, spawned from the Protestant Reformation, over the “Peace of Augsburg,” that had provided for Lutherans in the Holy Roman Empire without recognizing Calvinism and other Protestants sects. The Protestants were divided among themselves into Lutheran and Calvinists camps, and Lutheran, Calvinist and Catholic princes within the HRE endeavored to strengthen their forces by making alliances outside of the Empire. The Lutherans turned to Denmark and Sweden, the Calvinists sought help with England, the Dutch, the Netherlands, and France. The Catholics allied with the Papacy and Spain. How devastating was this war?

Many historians place it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as Germany’s greatest disaster. Also, it was one of the first wars where contemporaries stressed the importance of atrocities, the horrors of the fighting and also the sufferings of the civilian population.

In this lesson students are challenged to analyze this pivotal conflict by acting as the International Criminal Court of History determining whether to indict selected participants for committing war crimes. Students will assume the roles of the court judges, attorneys, witnesses and the defendant. Additional materials included will be post-activity discussion questions, extension activities, bibliography, time line and glossary.