- The Thirty Years' War ranges among the epoch-making confrontations in the history of Europe. This conflict, which involved the whole of central Europe, supported the modern process of state formation in such a way that it is justified to describe it as the beginning of a new period in early modern history. Its duration, its intensity and the social changes caused by that left their mark in the ...www.uni-potsdam.de/u/geschichte/mdk/h1e.htm