For the average history student to properly quantify the scale, change and devastation wrought by the thirty years war, one must look towards a comprehensive historical overview of the events, as the significance of this cataclysmic clash of faith and war, simply cannot be relegated to a footnote. Those just beginning to delve into modern European history may understand when the war occurred and how major events unfolded, but often, they struggle to place a finger on the “why”. Often, we may look to the defenestration of Prague as an easy spark identify, one which would bring Europe to its knees, much in the way that occurred with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand did for the Great War, but doing so would ignore over a century of tension and grim inevitability. The age of exploration and the renaissance would shape new world powers, one who’d come to dominate Europe and decide the fates of millions of lives. These details cannot be understated, and simply glancing over the exchange of post-war borders will never underscore how this truly changed the people of Europe.