How did the division of the Habsburg Empire affect the Holy Roman Empire?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. After Charles V was forced to abdicate, his territory, which had consisted of Spain, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire, was divided between his son, Philip II, who obtained the claim to Spain and the Netherlands, and his brother Ferdinand, who received the Austrian Habsburg lands. While Charles had intended for the Holy Roman Empire to remain Catholic, he was met with opposition by the Germanic principalities, which wanted to be Protestant and were under pressure from the East by the Ottomans. Unable to maintain these war efforts, he capitulated in the Peace of Augsburg, which allowed each region of the Holy Roman Empire a policy of self-determination in choosing a religion. Therefore, the Habsburgs were marginalized to the eastern section of the Holy Roman Empire, although Ferdinand received the title, as well as the lands in Austria and Bohemia. Tensions flared again in 1618, with the start of the Thirty Years' War, which was initiated by the Defenestration of Prague, which in turn was a response to the emperor refuting the terms of the Peace of Augsburg and declaring Bohemia to be Catholic, despite local preferences for Protestantism. The war had devastating effects and killed about one-third of the population of Germany. The Peace of Westphalia was an act of settlement that ended the war and limited the Habsburg position, effectively ending the concept of the Holy Roman Empire as a religious entity.