The German Peasants' War (1524-1525) was a conflict between the lower class of the Germanic region of the Holy Roman Empire and the nobility over the feudal system of serfdom, religious freedom, and economic disparity. It was later characterized as epitomizing the struggle between the working class and their overlords by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The causes of the peasants' revolt are still debated, but, essentially, the rise of humanistic philosophy coupled with the religious reform movement of Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) challenged the status quo and led the lower class to hope for a radical change in the social hierarchy. The Knight's Revolt (1522-1523) is also cited as a contributing factor in that the knights under the leadership of Franz von Sickingen (l. 1481-1523) and encouraged by the knight-poet Ulrich von Hutten (l. 1488-1523) refused to pay taxes or tithes and encouraged peasants to do the same. At this time, the Roman Catholic Church took 10% of the peasants' wages as a tithe, and the nobility claimed other percentages based on their own tax systems, forcing the peasant population to live in poverty.

After Luther challenged the authority of the Church in 1517-1521, igniting the Protestant Reformation, other members of the clergy followed suit, such as Thomas Müntzer (l. c. 1489-1525), who initially hoped Luther would advocate for peasants' rights and, when he did not, denounced him for betraying the cause. The nobleman and knight Florian Geyer (l. c. 1490-1525), another admirer of Luther, joined Müntzer, the peasant leader Hans Müller (d. 1525), nobleman Wendel Hipler (d. 1526), and others in organizing a revolt against what they saw as unchristian and inequitable policies of the Church and nobility.

The peasants were poorly armed as compared with the armies of the nobility, lacked experienced leadership, and failed to present a united front, leading to their defeat in 1525 after a number of engagements, which were often more massacres than battles. It is estimated that approximately 100,000 German peasants were killed in the conflict, with more dying from starvation after the destruction of farmlands.

In some respects, the struggle mirrored the earlier Hussite Wars (1419 to c.1434) in pitting a peasant class against professional armies of the nobility, but there was no strong leader such as Jan Žižka (l. c. 1360-1424) for the Germanic peasants who were no match for the superior tactics and weaponry of the nobility. Marx and Engels, the German philosophers who formulated the system of Marxism and co-wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848, characterized the conflict as epitomizing class struggle and the peasant leaders as proto-Communist heroes.

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  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This is something I believe with my whole heart:

    The world would be better if Barack Obama had made his life goal to be the next David Attenborough instead of going into politics. He would’ve been so good as the perfect voice of nature documentaries that actually has the education behind it that makes Attenborough so much better than when random actors narrate them.

    In earth prime Obama got a PhD in conservation biology with a minor in public communications and became the next David Attenborough

    • copandballtorture [ey/em]
      ·
      2 years ago

      buy your own damn fries

      This random yt clip is excerpts of Obama's audiobook but it's edited to be chud pro Romney propaganda lmao goddamn so long ago, so much has changed. They went from motherfucking Willard Romney to Donald Trump in one election cycle