The Thirty Years' War: The Last War of Religion (aug 29, 1618 – nov 26, 1648)

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The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 had brought an end to religious warfare between German Catholics and Lutherans, but Lutherans and Catholics continued to try and gain control of principalities. A catholic League of German States was organized by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, and the Protestant Union was formed by Frederick IV. There were four distinct phases in the war: The Bohemian phase, in which Bohemia was declared a hereditary Hapsburg possession and Catholicism was established as the sole religion, the Danish Phase, in which Ferdinand II reissued the Edict of Restitution and prohibited Calvinist worship, the Swedish Phase, in which the Battle of Nordlingen guaranteed Southern Germany's Catholicism, and the Franco-Swedish phase, in which the French beat the Spanish and began defeating Bavarian armies in Southern Germany.