10 Deadliest Wars In History

6. Thirty Years' War (Holy Roman Empire, 1618-1648): 5.9 Million-11.5 Million Deaths

Strangely enough the aptly-named Thirty Years' War did actually last three decades - unlike the Hundred Years' War, which was 116 years long - and resulted in the dissolution of much of the Holy Roman Empire. A series of battles - primarily in what is now modern-day Germany - over religion between 1618 and 1648 resulted in the death of anywhere between 5.9million and 11.5million Europeans. Beginning as a war between Protestant and Catholic powers once Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II attempted to impose Roman Catholic absolutism on all his dominions, the Protestant nobles of Austria and Bohemia decided to rebel against him. So brutal were the Bohemian Revolt, the Huguenot Rebellions and the other wars brought about by intervention by nations including the French, the Danish and the Swedes, that it is estimated that the populations of the German states were reduced by up to 40% during the Thirty Years' War. In fact, the region of Württemberg lost three-quarters of its population between 1618 and 1648. As is so often the case during warfare, typhus and other diseases also accounted for millions of deaths - and half of the men in what is now modern-day Germany died during the war. The Thirty Years' War greatly diminished the power of the Holy Roman Empire - and the Peace of Westphalia agreement of 1648 helped formulate the modern-day sovereign nation-state. However, up to 11.5million Europeans lost their lives in the 30 years preceding this agreement...