DISRUPTION OF GERMANY
The Peace of Westphalia left Germany more divided than ever. Each one of the larger states was free to coin money, raise armies, make war, and negotiate treaties without consulting the emperor. In fact, the Holy Roman Empire had become a mere phantom. The Hapsburgs from now on devoted themselves to their Austrian dominions, which included more Magyars and Slavs than Germans. The failure of the Hapsburgs in the Thirty Years' War long postponed the unification of Germany.
EXHAUSTION OF GERMANY
During the Thirty Years' War Germany had seen most of the fighting. She suffered from it to the point of exhaustion. The population dwindled from about sixteen million to one-half, or, as some believe, to one-third that number. The loss of life was partly due to the fearful epidemics, such as typhus fever and the bubonic plague, which spread over the land in the wake of the invading armies. Hundreds of villages were destroyed or were abandoned by their inhabitants. Much of the soil went out of cultivation, while trade and manufacturing nearly disappeared. Added to all this was the decline of education, literature, and art, and the brutalizing of the people in mind and morals. It took Germany at least one hundred years to recover from the injury inflicted by the Thirty Years' War; complete recovery, indeed, came only in the nineteenth century.
RISE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The savagery displayed by all participants in the Thirty Years' War could not but impress thinking men with the necessity of formulating rules to protect noncombatants, to care for prisoners, and to do away with pillage and massacre. The worst horrors of the war had not taken place, before a Dutch jurist, named Hugo Grotius, published at Paris in 1625 A.D. a work On the Laws of War and Peace. It may be said to have founded international law. The success of the book was remarkable. Gustavus Adolphus carried a copy about with him during his campaigns, and its leading doctrines were recognized and acted upon in the Peace of Westphalia.
THE EUROPEAN STATE SYSTEM
The great principle on which Grotius based his recommendations was the independence of sovereign states. He gave up the medieval conception of a temporal and spiritual head of Christendom. The nations now recognized no common superior, whether emperor or pope, but all were equal in the sight of international law. The book of Grotius thus marked the profound change which had come over Europe since the Middle Ages.
STUDIES
1. On an outline map indicate the European countries ruled by Charles V.