The Thirty Years'
War was finally ended in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia.
The treaty guaranteed the religious and political
constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, giving the German
princes the sovereign right to settle the religious question
in their respective territories. France also achieved its
main war aim because the costly war and the concessions to
the princes effectively stopped the Habsburgs from
transforming the Holy Roman Empire into an absolutist state
under their direction. Nonetheless, in their own lands, the
Habsburgs enjoyed greater political and religious control
than before the war: they had gained loyal new followers
from among the nobles by redistributing estates confiscated
from rebels, and they were free to enforce religious
conformity, which they did based on the model applied
earlier in Bohemia.
Library of Congress Country Study
Library of Congress Country Study
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