In 1618, the most devastating war of the seventeenth century, the Thirty Year’s War, began in the Holy Roman Empire as a war of religion between Protestants and Catholics. Although most of the fighting during the war took place in Germanic lands, the war spread throughout much of Europe. In addition, as the Thirty Year’s War progressed, the conflict shifted from a religious war to more of a politic war between two dynasties, the French Bourbons and the Spanish-Australian Hapsburgs. Between 1618 and 1648, the duration of the war, historians have separated the war into four different phases. The Bohemian Phase took place from the beginning of the war to 1625, followed by the Danish Phase (1625-1629), the Swedish Phase (1630-1625), and the Franco-Swedish Phase (1635-1648). During the Swedish Phase, one of the world’s greatest military commanders, Gustavus Adolphus, rose to the challenge of taking on the mighty Catholic army. Gustavus …show more content…
These squadrons were combined to form brigades, an idea developed by Gustavus Adolphus. The most common formation of the brigades were either four squadrons in a diamond formation or three squadrons in an arrowhead formation. Gustavus designated an equal amount of muskateers and pike-men within each of these brigades. The most important change Gustavus made in the infantry was his use of the salvo, which is “a simultaneous or successive discharge of artillery, bombs, etc.” During wars in the past, men fired row by row within the infantry. Salvo called for all rows of the infantry firing at the same time. Though difficult to perfect, this technique was extremely successfully at separating and killing most of the men on the opponent’s front line. After the shooting, the army performed a pike charge. On top of this, the combined arms tactic called for the cavalry to be on the sides to protect the flanks of the