COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR AND THE EUROPEAN WAR.
In order to learn what suggestions from the Thirty Years' War may be of use for the League of Nations in the future it will be well to mention the general similarities and differences between this war and the recent European war.
The similarities are as follows:
1. The Thirty Years' War began with the throwing out of a window (defenestration) of detested persons; the European war started from an assassination.
2. The Thirty Years' War had been expected for some time; a general European war had been predicted for many years.
3. The Thirty Years' War, beginning with a local incident, spread from country to country, just like the European war did.
4. The Thirty Years' War was exceedingly brutal for its generation, just as the European war has been for our time.
5. The Thirty Years' War was a very long one for its generation; the European war has been a relatively long one for recent times.
As to the differences between the two wars, it may be said that—
1. In the Thirty Years' War both belligerents finally proved to be nearly equal in strength. In the European war one of the belligerents, though at first meeting with reverses, in the end completely overcame the other.