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His main foreign policy goal was to maintain French domination in the Thirty Years' War that swept Europe and to restrain the authority of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty.
How important was Cardinal Richelieu for the Thirty Years War?
The Thirty Years War was transformed by Richelieu from being yet another conflict between Catholics and Protestants for control of the Holy Roman Empire to one between the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs for supremacy over all of Europe. He saw to guarantee that the conflict was limited to the Hapsburg realms, destroying the German lands (Germany had not yet achieved political unification for 200+ years), and sparing the lovely France. In 1618, "Germany" was in a unique condition of economic, cultural, and social dynamism, and the conflict had utterly destroyed numerous German cities. Siege operations brought Late Middle Ages cities like Magdeburg, which had thrived, to cannibalism. Mercenary troops that treated citizens with utter disdain and as objects of entertainment invaded Germany. Following the Thirty Years War, Germany's economy suffered while Louis XIV's France soared to perhaps its highest point of dominance. Churchill discusses how, throughout the Cromwellian era, Britain observed the loss of Spain as a significant adversary in international affairs and the rise of France as both a rival and the dominant force in military and cultural matters. Richelieu was a great master of long-term planning, and during the Thirty Years War, the Habsburg Empire started its long, sluggish fall. The Age of Kings by TimeLife from its "Great Ages of Man" Series is a nice and simple to read book on this subject. Although reading it while pretending to be a man could be beneficial.
