Economics Trumps Religion: The Danish Intervention 1625-1629 | Thirty Years’ War

The events unfolding in 1625 changed the nature of the Thirty Years’ War drastically. Previously, Protestants and Catholics had fought both for religious reasons and political authority in the Holy Roman Empire. Now, economics and international power politics were becoming the major driving forces. This led Denmark-Norway to enter the war on the Protestant side. It was the richest state in Europe at the time, and supposedly able to buy the military forces to defeat the Holy Roman Emperor. The Danish King, Christian IV, styled himself as the god-sent liberator of German protestants, but he was in fact mainly interested in expanding his political power in northern Germany and also in remaining in control of the Baltic Maritime Trade, probably the most lucrative trade route at the time. In this video we look at what is referred to as the Danish Intervention in the Thirty Years’ War. This phase of the war was characterized by the rapid rise of figures such as Wallenstein and increasing intertwining of politi