Editing Thirty Years' War (section)

==Conflict outside Germany==

===Northern Italy===
{{Location map many|Northern Italy|caption = Northern Italy|border = black|width =350|float = right|relief = yes|Italy Piedmont#Italy
|label   = Montferrat    |pos = bottom|lat_deg   =45.050833|lon_deg  = 8.389722
|label2  = Turin         |pos2= left  |lat2_deg  =45|lat2_min=05|lon2_deg  = 7|lon2_min = 41
|label3  = Mantua        |pos3 = right|lat3_deg  =45|lat3_min=09|lon3_deg  =10|lon3_min = 47
|label4  = Casale        |pos4 = top|lat4_deg  =45|lat4_min=08|lon4_deg  = 8|lon4_min = 27
|label6  = Genoa         |pos6 = bottom|lat6_deg  =44.411111|lon6_deg  = 8.932778
|label5  = Milan         |pos5 = top|lat5_deg  =45|lat5_min=28|lon5_deg =9|lon5_min = 12
|label7  = Pinerolo      |pos7 = bottom   |lat7_deg  =44|lat7_min=53|lon7_deg  = 7|lon7_min = 20
}}
Northern Italy had been contested by France and the [[House of Habsburg|Habsburgs]] since the [[Italian Wars|end of the 15th century]], as its control provided access to the vulnerable southern borders of France and Austria. In addition, large sections of the [[Spanish Road]] ran through it, a route that allowed Spain to safely move recruits and supplies from their Italian possessions to support their [[Eighty Years' War|war against the Dutch]]. This reliance on long exterior lines of communication was a strategic weakness, which the French sought to exploit by disrupting the Road. This usually involved attacks on the Spanish-held Duchy of Milan, or blocking the Alpine passes.{{Sfn|Hanlon|2016|pp=118–119}}

[[Duchy of Montferrat|Montferrat]] and its fortress of [[Casale Monferrato]] were subsidiary territories of the [[Duchy of Mantua]] and their possession allowed the holder to threaten Milan. This meant when the [[Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua|last duke in the direct line]] died in December 1627, France and Spain backed rival claimants, resulting in the 1628 to 1631 War of the Mantuan Succession.{{Sfn|Wedgwood|1938|pp=235–236}} The French-born [[Charles I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua|Duke of Nevers]] was backed by France and the Republic of Venice, his rival the [[Ferrante II Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla|Duke of Guastalla]] by Spain, Ferdinand II, Savoy and [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]]. While a relatively minor conflict, the struggle had a disproportionate impact on the Thirty Years War, since [[Pope Urban VIII]] viewed Habsburg expansion in Italy as a threat to the [[Papal States]]. His opposition to Ferdinand II divided the Catholic powers, and made it acceptable for France to employ Protestant allies against Austria.{{Sfn|Wedgwood|1938|p=247}}

In March 1629, the French stormed Savoyard positions in the Pas de Suse, lifted the Spanish siege of Casale, and captured [[Pinerolo]].{{Sfn|Thion|2008|p=62}} The [[Treaty of Suza]] then ceded the two fortresses to France and allowed their troops unrestricted passage through Savoyard territory, giving them control over [[Piedmont]] and the Alpine passes into southern France.{{Sfn|Ferretti|2014|pp=12–18}} However, as soon as the main French army withdrew in late 1629, the Spanish and Savoyards besieged Casale once again. At the same time, mercenaries funded by Ferdinand II were used in a Spanish offensive which routed the main Venetian field army, and forced Nevers to abandon Mantua. By October 1630, the French position seemed so precarious their representatives agreed the Treaty of Ratisbon. It was never ratified, as Richelieu claimed he had not approved the terms.{{Sfn|Wedgwood|1938|pp=263–264}}

Several factors restored the French position in northern Italy, notably a devastating outbreak of [[1629–1631 Italian plague|plague]]; between 1629 and 1631, over 60,000 died in [[Milan]] and 46,000 in [[Venice]], with proportionate losses elsewhere.{{Sfn|Kohn|1995|p=200}} Richelieu took advantage of the diversion of Imperial resources to fund a [[Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War|Swedish invasion of Germany]], whose success forced the Spanish-Savoyard alliance to withdraw from Casale and sign the Treaty of Cherasco in April 1631. Nevers was confirmed as Duke of Mantua and although Richelieu's representative, Cardinal Mazarin, agreed to evacuate Pinerolo, it was later secretly returned under an agreement with [[Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy]]. With the exception of the 1639 to 1642 [[Piedmontese Civil War]], this secured the French position in northern Italy for the next twenty years.{{Sfn|Ferretti|2014|p=20}}

[[File:Dankaerts-Historis-9287.tif|thumb|left|upright=1.0|Siege and capture of [[Casale Monferrato]] by French troops, 1630]]

After the outbreak of the Franco-Spanish War in 1635, Richelieu supported a renewed offensive by Victor Amadeus against Milan to tie down Spanish resources. These included an unsuccessful attack on [[Valenza]] in 1635, plus minor victories at [[Battle of Tornavento|Tornavento]] and [[Mombaldone]].{{sfn|Duffy|1995|p=125}} However, the anti-Habsburg alliance in northern Italy fell apart when first Charles of Mantua died in September 1637, then Victor Amadeus in October, whose death led to a struggle for control of the Savoyard state between his widow [[Christine of France]] and brothers, [[Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano|Thomas]] and [[Prince Maurice of Savoy|Maurice]].{{Sfn|Wilson|2009|p=259}}

In 1639, their quarrel erupted into open warfare, with France backing Christine and Spain the two brothers, and resulted in the [[Siege of Turin (1640)|Siege of Turin]]. One of the most famous military events of the 17th century, at one stage it featured no less than three different armies besieging each other. However, revolts in Portugal and Catalonia forced the Spanish to cease operations in Italy, and the war was settled on terms favourable to Christine and France.{{sfn|Hanlon|2016|p=124}}

In 1647, a French-backed rebellion succeeded in temporarily overthrowing Spanish rule in [[Neapolitan Republic (1647)|Naples]]. The Spanish quickly crushed the insurrection and restored their rule over all of southern Italy, defeating multiple French expeditionary forces sent to back the rebels.{{Sfn|Kamen|2003|p=406}} However, it exposed the weakness of Spanish rule in Italy and the alienation of the local elites from Madrid. In 1650, the governor of Milan wrote that as well as widespread dissatisfaction in the south, the only one of the Italian states that could be relied on was the [[Duchy of Parma]].{{Sfn|Kamen|2003|p=407}}

===Catalonia===
{{main|Reapers' War}}
Throughout the 1630s, tax increases levied to pay for the war led to protests throughout Spanish territories, which in 1640 resulted in revolts: first in Portugal, then in the [[Principality of Catalonia]]. Backed by France as part of Richelieu's 'war by diversion', in January 1641 the rebels proclaimed a [[Catalan Republic (1641)|Catalan Republic]].{{Sfn|Parker|1997|p=153}} The Madrid government quickly assembled an army of 26,000 men to crush the revolt, which defeated the rebels at [[Battle of Martorell (1641)|Martorell]] on 23 January 1641. The French now persuaded the [[Catalan Courts]] to recognise Louis XIII as [[Count of Barcelona]], and ruler of Catalonia.{{Sfn|Van Gelderen|2002|p=284}}

On 26 January, a combined French-Catalan force routed a larger Spanish army at [[Battle of Montjuïc (1641)|Montjuïc]] and secured [[Barcelona]]. However, the rebels soon found the new French administration differed little from the old, turning the war into a three-sided contest between the Franco-Catalan elite, the rural peasantry, and the Spanish. There was little serious fighting after France took control of [[Perpignan]] and [[Roussillon]], establishing the current-day Franco-Spanish border in the Pyrenees. The revolt ended in 1651 when Madrid recaptured [[Siege of Barcelona (1651)|Barcelona]].{{Sfn|Mitchell|2005|pp=431–448}}

=== Outside Europe ===
[[File:Philip II's realms in 1598.png|thumb|right|upright=1.0|The [[Iberian Union]]; Spain's inability to protect Portuguese interests in the 1602 to 1663 [[Dutch–Portuguese War]] was a key factor in the 1640 [[Portuguese Restoration War]].]]

In 1580, [[Philip II of Spain]] also became ruler of the Portuguese Empire, creating the [[Iberian Union]]; long-standing commercial rivals, the 1602 to 1663 [[Dutch–Portuguese War]] was an offshoot of the Dutch fight for independence from Spain. The Portuguese dominated the trans-[[Atlantic]] economy known as the [[Triangular trade]], in which slaves were transported from [[West Africa]] and [[Portuguese Angola]] to work on plantations in [[Portuguese Brazil]], which exported sugar and tobacco to Europe. Known by Dutch historians as the 'Great Design", control of this trade would not only be extremely profitable but also deprive the Spanish of funds needed to finance their war in the Netherlands.{{Sfn|Thornton|2016|pp=189–190}}

In 1621, the [[Dutch West India Company]] was formed to achieve this, and a Dutch fleet captured the Brazilian port of [[Salvador, Bahia]] in 1624. After it was retaken by the Portuguese in 1625, a second fleet established [[Dutch Brazil]] in 1630, which was not returned until 1654.{{Sfn|Van Groesen|2011|pp=167–168}} In 1641, the Dutch seized Portuguese slave trading hubs in Angola and [[São Tomé]], with support from the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Kongo|Kongo]] and [[Kingdom of Ndongo|Ndongo]],{{sfn|Thornton|2020|p=?}}{{page needed|date=January 2025}} whose position was threatened by Portuguese expansion.{{Sfn|Thornton|2016|pp=194–195}} Although those gains proved short-lived, the Dutch retained territories elsewhere, like the [[Dutch Cape Colony|Cape Colony]], as well as Portuguese trading posts on the [[Portuguese Gold Coast|Gold Coast]], in [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]], on the [[Malabar Coast]], the [[Moluccas]] and [[Portuguese Ceylon|Ceylon]].{{Sfn|Gnanaprakasar|2003|pp=153–172}}