30YearsWar #42: The Silver Domino

30YearsWar #42: The Silver Domino

Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.


1629 was THE year of the Thirty Years War, when all the tributaries seemed to join the main river, and flow as one. The Swedish and Poles made their peace, under French sponsorship. The French expelled the Huguenots from La Rochelle. The Spanish continued their siege of Casale, in North Italy. The Danes made their peace with Wallenstein and the Emperor, and the Emperor let the ink dry on his Edict of Restitution, before releasing it to the world. But that wasn't all.

Across the Dutch border, something incredible was happening...

It's up for debate when the tide truly turned in the Thirty Years War, and the Habsburgs lost the initiative. However, I would make a strong case for the winds of change blowing in the Spanish Dutch War first, when a daring naval assault by Admiral Piet Hein seized 11 million florins worth of silver just off the Cuban coast. Though he couldn't have known it, Admiral Hein had just knocked over the first in what would be a series of dominoes, that would lead all the way to the peace of Westphalia twenty years later.

Not only did the Dutch seize the money, thus ruining Spain's precarious financial situation - they also spent that money on several armies, and invested the town of S'hertogenbosch, the capital of Catholic propaganda in the Spanish Netherlands. As if to tie it all together, who should stand side by side Frederick Henry, but Frederick V, Elector Palatine. Although his Austrian enemy was supreme, Frederick had ensured that the Habsburgs could not rest.

The Spanish were crumbling, and it remained for the Lion of the North to roar the whole place down in Germany....

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episoder(744)

#16: March-June 1914 - The Entente Part 3

#16: March-June 1914 - The Entente Part 3

In our final episode looking at the Entente, we bring our story up to the eve of the July Crisis.How had past lessons influenced the way Russia and France interpreted the world by spring 1914? Was war...

2 Aug 202457min

#15: Jan-March 1914 - The Entente Part 2

#15: Jan-March 1914 - The Entente Part 2

In our second installment of this Entente analysis, we look at the Liman von Sanders crisis.By late 1913, a new crisis in Russo-German relations centred on the status of General Liman von Sanders, app...

31 Jul 20241h 3min

#14: 1912-1913 - The Entente Part 1

#14: 1912-1913 - The Entente Part 1

In this first of three episodes, we look at the pre-war position of the Entente!Before we bring our narrative further, it would be useful to turn our attention to what came before. The Franco-Russian ...

29 Jul 202458min

#13: 13-14 July 1914 - Berchtold Supreme

#13: 13-14 July 1914 - Berchtold Supreme

As Belgrade burned with rage following the death of Ambassador Hartwig, Berchtold was on the verge of his greatest triumph. After several intense weeks of pressure, Stefan Tisza seemed finally to be s...

26 Jul 202426min

#12: 8-12 July 1914 - Hartwig's Last Act

#12: 8-12 July 1914 - Hartwig's Last Act

Now that German support had been acquired, and the delivery of an ultimatum to Serbia was virtually guaranteed, Berchtold had one final mission - to persuade the Hungarian Premier Stefan Tisza of the ...

24 Jul 202445min

#11: 7 July 1914 - Joint Council Meeting

#11: 7 July 1914 - Joint Council Meeting

By 7 July 1914, Austria-Hungary's leading officials gathered in Vienna. The key item on the agenda was what to do about Serbia, but an unspoken item amounted to what to do about Hungary.With German su...

22 Jul 20241h 1min

#10: 6 July 1914 - Saving Austria-Hungary

#10: 6 July 1914 - Saving Austria-Hungary

With the blank cheque secured, Austria had received its ally's blessing to pursue a punitive strike against Serbia - what would happen next? The morass of questions surrounding this development deserv...

19 Jul 202432min

#9: 5 July 1914 - Drafting the Blank Cheque

#9: 5 July 1914 - Drafting the Blank Cheque

Among all the controversies of the July Crisis, perhaps few compare to Germany's decision to provide Austria-Hungary with a 'blank cheque' for whatever policy it intended to adopt towards Serbia. In f...

17 Jul 202448min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
med-egne-oyne
rss-katastrofe
henrettelsespodden
historier-som-endret-norge
historier-som-endret-verden
rss-benadet
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
sektledere
rss-frontkjemperne
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
aftenposten-historie
historiepodden
rss-bisarr-historie
rss-gamle-greier
liberal-halvtime
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
vare-historier
taakeprat
rss-historier-fra-gudbrandsdalen