Low soil quality and decreasing plot size made life hard for farmers in the higher elevations of the Spessart. Conditions became worse with the destruction and diseases brought by wars like the "Bauernkrieg" in 1525, the "Schmalkaldsche Krieg" of 1546/47 and then the Thirty Years' War in 1618-48. In the wake of the chaos of the Thirty Years' War, bands of brigands began to operate in the Spessart ("Spessarträuber"). Due to the area's low density of population, important trade routes passing through lonely forest territory and the Spessart's extremely fragmented political situation (there were at times 17 separate jurisdictions), banditry was a lucrative business. Although merchant "caravans" of up to 70 wagons banded together for mutual protection, bands of brigands repeatedly succeeded in spectacular raids that made them the terror of the region. Bandit activity again peaked in the early 19th century (1803–11), during the Napoleonic Wars and following the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. It was only after the end of the political fragmentation in the region that law and order were restored. The last "Spessarträuber" were executed at Heidelberg in 1812.