European culture wars historically pitted Catholics against Protestants, from the extraordinarily violent [[Thirty Years War]] of the 17th century to the nonviolent [[Kulturkampf]] in Germany in the late 19th century when [[Bismarck]]'s German Protestant government sought and failed to suppress Catholicism. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the great battles were over cultural and ethnic nationalism, as well as political contests between clerical and secular forces, especially in France from 1789 to the early 20th century. | European culture wars historically pitted Catholics against Protestants, from the extraordinarily violent [[Thirty Years War]] of the 17th century to the nonviolent [[Kulturkampf]] in Germany in the late 19th century when [[Bismarck]]'s German Protestant government sought and failed to suppress Catholicism. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the great battles were over cultural and ethnic nationalism, as well as political contests between clerical and secular forces, especially in France from 1789 to the early 20th century. |