The thirty Years War

It is a crazy thing how so often different aspects of my life touch each other.  Earlier in the year I read the book 1632 which was a pretty crazy book.  Then I attended the virtual Germanna conference in which one of the talks was about the many things happening in the world that affected the settlement of Germanna in Virginia.  The settlers came in two waves in 1714 and in 1717.  Many had been refugees from Germany who were basically camping out in the shadow of the Tower of England living in dire straights.  And the book 1632 helped me really understand now terrible the conditions were in Germany as the Thirty Year war ravished the country side!

The principal battlefield for all these intermittent conflicts was the towns and principalities of Germany, which suffered severely. During the Thirty Years’ War, many of the contending armies were mercenaries, many of whom could not collect their pay. This threw them on the countryside for their supplies, and thus began the “wolf-strategy” that typified this war. The armies of both sides plundered as they marched, leaving cities, towns, villages, and farms ravaged. 

From Wikipedia:

The Germanna Colonies consist primarily of the First Colony of forty-two persons from the Siegerland area in Germany brought to Virginia to work for Spotswood in 1714, and the Second Colony of twenty families from the Palatinate, Baden and Württemberg area of Germany brought in 1717, but also include other German families who joined the first two colonies at later dates.



While I am certain that the Germanna settlers had families that had been affected by the 30 years war, it would seem that many years had gone by since the end of that war in 1648 and the actual move to Virginia in 1714.  I need to look at this more....but it is absolutely interesting.