European wars of religion new political order that is now known as Westphalian sovereignty. The conflicts began with the Knights' Revolt (1522), a minor war in the Holy Roman Empire. Warfare intensified after the Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation in 1545 against the growth of Protestantism. The conflicts culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated Germany and killed one-third of its population. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) put an end to the war by recognising three separate Christian traditions in the Holy Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. Although many European leaders were 'sickened' by the religious bloodshed by 1648, religious
Pomeranian War Frederick's downfall and to humiliate and destroy the Swedish queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, Frederick's sister. The Hats faction was also encouraged to declare war by France, whose wishes were central to the Hats' actions. Frederick's invasion of Saxony in 1756 was used as a pretext for war, being denounced by both Sweden and France as a violation of the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, of which they were both guarantors. On March 21, 1757 the governments of France and Austria agreed a convention in which Sweden and France explained that they had to maintain Germany's freedom in line with