Peace of Westphalia

A Peace of Westphalia is a peace treaty that ...

• See: International Law, Nation State, European Wars of Religion, Thirty Years' War, Holy Roman Empire, Eighty Years' War, Spanish Empire.

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References

2018

• (Wikipedia, 2018) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia Retrieved:2018-4-7.
  • The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster, effectively ending the European wars of religion.

    These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire between the Habsburgs and their Catholic allies on one side, and the Protestant powers (Sweden, Denmark, Dutch, and Holy Roman principalities) and their Catholic (France) Anti-Habsburg allies on the other. The treaties also ended the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognising the independence of the Dutch Republic. The Treaties of Westphalia brought to a close a tumultuous period of European history which saw the deaths of approximately eight million people. The peace negotiations involved a total of 109 delegations representing European powers, including Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Philip IV of Spain, the Kingdom of France, Cristina of the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic, the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and sovereigns of the free imperial cities. Thousands of diplomats and support staff attended these conferences. The Peace of Münster together with the Treaty of Münster between the Holy Roman Emperor, France and their allies and the Treaty of Osnabrück involving the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden and their allies collectively formed the Peace of Westphalia. The Peace of Westphalia established the precedent of peaces established by diplomatic congress, and a new system of political order in central Europe, later called Westphalian sovereignty, based upon the concept of co-existing sovereign states. Inter-state aggression was to be held in check by a balance of power. A norm was established against interference in another state's domestic affairs. As European influence spread across the globe, these Westphalian principles, especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing world order.

2018a

• (Dasgupta, 2018) ⇒ Rana Dasgupta. (2018). “The Demise of the Nation State - After decades of globalisation, our political system has become obsolete – and spasms of resurgent nationalism are a sign of its irreversible decline.” In: The Guardian
  • QUOTE: … Let us start with the west. Europe, of course, invented the nation state: the principle of territorial sovereignty was agreed at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The treaty made large-scale conquest difficult within the continent; instead, European nations expanded into the rest of the world. The dividends of colonial plunder were converted, back home, into strong states with powerful bureaucracies and democratic polities – the template for modern European life.

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