The Thirty Years' War ...

...is incredibly complicated. Perhaps it is too much to say that there was no "Germany," or no "Italy," I'm too early in to tell. But there are so many effing princes, of so many effing principalities, and then religion will come in and either support or obstruct their rule. 

I haven't read much history on war, since delving into our own seminal conflict. But reading this, I'm really developing a perverse admiration for simple elegance of the Civil War, and the great lengths one must take to look at a statement, like this, from the Vice-Preseident of the Confederacy:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

And the many, many others, and then--with a straight-face--claim the Civil War was about "agrarianism." 

To be clear, the Civil War is complicated. But not like this. For those who missed it, I'm currently reading CV Wedgewood's 30 Years War.