[Madmartagen]

the 30 years war was supposedly the fight over religion: catholicism vs. the smaller sects that broke away ie protestants, huguenots, calvinists. you could argue that it was meaningless in terms of religion because France, then europes largest catholic country, fought on the side of the calvinists just to pick a fight with the holy roman empire, their rival at the time. but this was the first time war was fought with armies of such large mass. gustavus adolf had an army with 100,000 men and kicked the shit out of the catholic armies led by albrecht von wallenstein (who was a protestant). i think you should abandon an attempt to consider this an all out religious war, but that was what lit the fuse.