I was referring to the thirty years war and the Treaty of Westphalia which gave the first real definition of nations not as land owned by some king but as the p

I was referring to the thirty years war and the Treaty of Westphalia which gave the first real definition of nations not as land owned by some king but as the people who inhabit them. Germany was the center of the struggle between catholic and Protestant powers (since Germany had a north south divide between religions.) The war saw 1/3 of all Germans killed and the rise of the Dutch and Swedes as Protestant great powers who halted and reverted the Habsburg empires growth. Our modern idea of states is very much based around being the antithesis of what allowed the Habsburg monarchy to control pretty much all of Western Europe but France. I feel like an idiot I wasn’t even thinking of Germany during the Cold War, but that’s obviously what people will think when you mention it being divided and losing a third of its territory. No when these 33% went it wasn’t to a different polity: it was to a horrible early grave as the armies of all sides believed their opponents to be working for the literal devil.