religious wars
Battles over belief
Religious wars are armed conflicts fought primarily over matters of faith, doctrine, or sectarian identity.
The term often refers to the European wars of the 16th and 17th centuries between Catholics and Protestants, though religious motivations have fueled violence across many eras and traditions.
The phrase also appears in debates about whether modern conflicts are truly religious or merely use religion as cover for territorial or political aims: Critics dismissed the idea that the Crusades were purely religious wars.
- Edict of NantesFrench Protestant tolerance proclamation
- CrusadesMedieval wars for Jerusalem
- holy warArmed conflict over faith
- Thirty Years' War1618-1648 European religious conflict
- Protestant ReformationReligious movement splitting Christianity
Reconquista · Albigensian Crusade · sectarianism · sectarian violence · iconoclasm · jihad · blasphemy laws · ethnic cleansing · blood in the streets · theocracy · terrorism · Counter-Reformation · extremism · secularism · martyrdom · fundamentalism · radicalization · heresy
- religionChristianity, Islam, beliefs, Judaism, Hinduism
- church historychurch history, apostles, Protestant Reformation, Christian history, baptism
- Early ModernRenaissance, 1500s, 1600s, Reformation, sixteenth century
- religious historyChristian history, Jewish history, early Christianity, early church, church councils
- 1500sElizabeth I, Shakespeare, Spanish Armada, Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther
- church-statechurch-state, separation, church-state separation, establishment clause, state religion
religious warsterritorial disputes
Conflicts over land ownership
resource wars · border conflicts · wars of conquest · colonial wars · trade wars
religious warsreligious tolerance
Acceptance of differing faiths
ecumenism · interfaith dialogue · religious pluralism · Peace of Westphalia · religious freedom
religious warspower politics
Statecraft prioritizing strength over principles