Violence and War in Culture and the Media

2    Perceptions of violence in theearly modern communicationsrevolution

The case of the Thirty Years War,1618–1648

Peter H. Wilson

Introduction

The Thirty Years War was the most destructive conflict in European history prior to the two twentieth-century world wars (Wilson 2009; Kampmann 2008). It was a struggle over the political and religious order in the Holy Roman Empire which encompassed what are now Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, parts of Denmark, France and Poland, as well as holding jurisdiction over northern Italy. This conflict was not inevitable, but resulted from the coincidence of adverse factors around 1600. War broke out when the Habsburg dynasty (holding the imperial title) was unable to contain the Bohemian Revolt, which ...