Please friend, don't get too excited about causes that were lost in the 17th century.
I am not trolling even a bit. If you want to discuss history, you should not get attached to 1 particular cause, like that of your own nation. Otherwise you will hear this and that you may NOT like.
Pointing the finger everytime to stifle an unwanted opinion and call people with other opinions trolls is not gonna cut it.
I think it's obvious that a lot of Germany's later "being-late-ness" in the world powers was to a large degree due to the 30 years war.
We are not totally unknowledgeable on the topic by the way. The (so called) 30 years war used to be studied in Germany until 20 or 30 years ago. Especially in East Germany where I grew up.
In several books I read the opinion has been that the war threw back the people of Germany a whole century. A simplification, that everything was only due to that war would of course be misleading, just as giving the fault to another nation. It's also obvious however that France was in a position of strength and used it. If the side had been reversed, the Kaisers would have done the same to France, as they did during the French Revolutions for example. So yeah no one is free of guilt because his opponent did something. They were all mostly vultures at the time.
Vive La France, amis
