The Reformation (1517-1700), initiated by Martin Luther, a monk and Biblical studies professor at the University of Wittenberg , split Germans according to religious beliefs. When German electoral princes adopted Lutheranism as a way to restrict the flow of money to the Vatican, things got messy. Hapsburg Emperor Charles V (Karl V), the most powerful leader since Charlemagne, resolved to destroy the subversive Lutheran doctrine, but he signed the 1555 Peace of Augsburg instead. Charles’ successors were not happy about this, and when the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria imposed Catholicism on Bohemia, his Protestant subjects rebelled by throwing a papal representative out a window in the 1618 Defenestration of Prague. Violence between the German Catholics and Protestants reached its breaking point when Catholic France sided with German Protestants to oppose the Habsburgs, leading to the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), which devastated the population. The Peace of Westphalia at the end of the war made each prince sovereign in his own territory. The treaty also served as the de facto constitution of the empire until its abolition by Napoleon in 1806.
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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.
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