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As the leaders of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburgs of Austria tried to unify the countries under their rule by converting their populations to Catholicism. In Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic), Catholics and Protestants had once coexisted in peace. However, when a Hapsburg monarch closed the Protestant churches there, civil war broke out. This conflict ignited the Thirty Years’ War, which raged from 1618 to 1648.
How did the Hapsburgs try to unify the people they ruled?
What is converting them to Catholicism