The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two
peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the
Westphalian cities of
Osnabrück and
Münster. They ended the
Thirty Years War and brought peace to the
Holy Roman Empire, closing a calamitous period of European history that killed approximately eight million people.
[Clodfelter, Michael (2017). ''Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015.'' McFarland. p. 40. .]
The negotiation process was lengthy and complex. Talks took place in two cities, because each side wanted to meet on territory under its own control. A total of 109 delegations arrived to represent the belligerent states, but not all delegations were present at the same time. Two treaties were signed to end each of the overlapping wars: the
Peace Treaty of Münster and the Peace Treaty of Osnabrück. These treaties ended the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the
Holy Roman Empire, with the Habsburgs (rulers of Austria and Spain) and their Catholic allies on one side, battling the Protestant powers (Sweden, Denmark, and certain Holy Roman principalities) allied with France, which was Catholic but strongly anti-Habsburg under King
Louis XIV.
Joachim Whaley, a leading English-language historian of the Holy Roman Empire, mentions that later commentators such as
Leibniz,
Rousseau,
Kant, and
Schiller eulogized the Peace of Westphalia as the first step towards a universal peace, but he points out that "their projections for the future should not be mistaken for descriptions of reality".
Scholars of
international relations have identified the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations, including the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. This system became known as
Westphalian sovereignty.
Locations
Peace negotiations between France and the
Habsburgs began in
Cologne in 1641. These negotiations were initially blocked by
Cardinal Richelieu of France, who insisted on the inclusion of all his allies, whether fully sovereign countries or states within the
Holy Roman Empire. In
Hamburg and
Lübeck, Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire negotiated the
Treaty of Hamburg with the intervention of Richelieu.
The Holy Roman Empire and Sweden declared that the preparations of Cologne and the Treaty of Hamburg were preliminaries of an overall peace agreement.

The main peace negotiations took place in
Westphalia, in the neighbouring cities of
Münster and
Osnabrück. Both cities were maintained as neutral and demilitarized zones for the negotiations.
In Münster, negotiations took place between the Holy Roman Empire and France, as well as between the
Dutch Republic and Spain who on 30 January 1648 signed a
peace treaty, that was not part of the Peace of Westphalia. Münster had been, since its re-Catholicisation in 1535, a strictly mono-denominational community. It housed the Chapter of the
Prince-Bishopric of Münster. Only
Roman Catholic worship was permitted, while
Calvinism and
Lutheranism were prohibited.
Sweden preferred to negotiate with the Holy Roman Empire in Osnabrück, controlled by the Protestant forces. Osnabrück was a bidenominational Lutheran and Catholic city, with two Lutheran churches and two Catholic churches. The city council was exclusively Lutheran, and the
burghers mostly so, but the city also housed the Catholic Chapter of the
Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück and had many other Catholic inhabitants. Osnabrück had been subjugated by troops of the
Catholic League from 1628 to 1633 and then taken by Lutheran Sweden.
Delegations
holding an olive branch in her left arm and grasping the
tree of knowledge with her right hand.]]
The peace negotiations had no exact beginning or end, because the 109 delegations never met in a plenary session. Instead, various delegations arrived between 1643 and 1646 and left between 1647 and 1649. The largest number of diplomats were present between January 1646 and July 1647.
Delegations had been sent by 16 European states, 66
Imperial States representing the interests of 140 Imperial States, and 27 interest groups representing 38 groups.
* The French delegation was headed by
Henri II d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville and further comprised the diplomats
Claude d'Avaux and
Abel Servien.
* The Swedish delegation was headed by
Count Johan Oxenstierna and was assisted by
Baron Johan Adler Salvius.
* The Imperial delegation was headed by
Count Maximilian von Trautmansdorff. His aides were:
** In Münster,
Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar and
Isaak Volmar.
** In Osnabrück,
Johann Maximilian von Lamberg and ''
Reichshofrat'' Johann Krane.
*
Philip IV of Spain was represented by two delegations:
** The Spanish delegation was headed by
Gaspar de Bracamonte y Guzmán, and notably included the diplomats and writers
Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, and
Bernardino de Rebolledo.
** The
Franche Comté and the
Spanish Netherlands were represented by
Joseph de Bergaigne (who died before peace was concluded) and
Antoine Brun.
* The
papal nuncio in
Cologne,
Fabio Chigi, and the
Venetian envoy
Alvise Contarini acted as mediators.
* Various
Imperial States of the Holy Roman Empire also sent delegations.
* Brandenburg sent several representatives, including Volmar.
* The
Dutch Republic sent a delegation of six, including two delegates from the province of Holland (
Adriaan Pauw) and
Willem Ripperda from one of the other provinces; two provinces were absent.
* The
Swiss Confederacy was represented by
Johann Rudolf Wettstein.
Treaties
Three separate treaties constituted the peace settlement.
* The
Peace of Münster was signed by the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Spain on 30 January 1648, and was ratified in Münster on 15 May 1648.
* Two complementary treaties were signed on 24 October 1648:
** The Treaty of Münster (''Instrumentum Pacis Monasteriensis'', IPM), between the Holy Roman Emperor and France, along with their respective allies
** The Treaty of Osnabrück (''Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugensis'', IPO), between the
Holy Roman Empire and Sweden, along with their respective allies.
Results
Internal political boundaries
thumb|upright=1.35|Holy Roman Empire in 1648
The power asserted by
Ferdinand III was stripped from him and returned to the rulers of the
Imperial States. The rulers of the
Imperial States could henceforth choose their own official religions. Catholics and Protestants were redefined as equal before the law, and
Calvinism was given legal recognition as an official religion.
[Treaty of Münster 1648] The independence of the Dutch Republic, which practiced religious toleration, also provided a safe haven for European Jews.
The
Holy See was very displeased at the settlement, with Pope
Innocent X calling it "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time" in the
bull ''Zelo Domus Dei''.
Tenets
The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:
* All parties would recognise the
Peace of Augsburg of 1555, in which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state (the principle of ''
cuius regio, eius religio''). The options were Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism.
* Christians living in principalities where their denomination was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in private, as well as in public during allotted hours.
* France and Sweden were recognised as
guarantors of the imperial constitution with a right to intercede.
It is often argued that the Peace of Westphalia resulted in a general recognition of the exclusive sovereignty of each party over its lands, people, and agents abroad, as well as responsibility for the warlike acts of any of its citizens or agents.
Territorial adjustments
* The
Old Swiss Confederacy was formally recognised as independent from the Holy Roman Empire, after decades of ''de facto'' independence.
* The
Dutch Republic, which had declared its independence from Spain in 1581, was formally recognised as a fully independent state from both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.
* France retained the Bishoprics of
Metz,
Toul and
Verdun near
Lorraine, received the cities of the
Décapole in Alsace (except for
Strasbourg, the
Bishopric of Strasbourg, and
Mulhouse) and the city of
Pignerol near the Spanish
Duchy of Milan.
* Sweden received an
indemnity of five million
thalers, which it used primarily to pay its troops. Sweden further received
Western Pomerania (thenceforth
Swedish Pomerania),
Wismar, and the Prince-Bishoprics of
Bremen and
Verden as hereditary fiefs, thus gaining a seat and vote in the
Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire as well as in the
Upper Saxon,
Lower Saxon and
Westphalian circle diets (''
Kreistage''). However, the wording of the treaties was ambiguous:
:*To escape incorporation into Swedish Bremen-Verden, the city of Bremen had claimed
Imperial immediacy. The emperor had granted this request and separated the city from the surrounding Bishopric of Bremen. Sweden launched the
Swedish-Bremen wars in 1653/54 in a failed attempt to take the city.
:*The treaty did not decide the Swedish-
Brandenburgian border in the
Duchy of Pomerania. At Osnabrück, both Sweden and Brandenburg had claimed the whole duchy, which had been
under Swedish control since 1630 despite
legal claims of Brandenburgian succession. While the parties
settled for a border in 1653, the
underlying conflict continued.
:*The treaty ruled that the
Dukes of Mecklenburg, owing their re-investiture to the Swedes, cede
Wismar and the Mecklenburgian port tolls. While Sweden understood this to include the tolls of all Mecklenburgian ports, the Mecklenburgian dukes as well as the emperor understood this to refer to Wismar only.
:*
Wildeshausen, a petty exclave of Bremen-Verden and fragile basis for Sweden's seat in the Westphalian circle diet, was also claimed by the
Bishopric of Münster.
*
Bavaria retained the
Palatinate's vote in the
Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which it was granted by the imperial ban on the Elector Palatine Frederick V in 1623. The
Prince Palatine, Frederick's son, was given a ''new'', eighth electoral vote.
* The Palatinate was divided between the re-established
Elector Palatine Charles Louis (son and heir of
Frederick V) and
Elector-Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, and thus between the
Protestants and
Catholics. Charles Louis obtained the
Lower Palatinate, along the Rhine, while Maximilian kept the
Upper Palatinate, to the north of Bavaria.
*
Brandenburg-Prussia received
Farther Pomerania, and the Bishoprics of
Magdeburg,
Halberstadt,
Kammin, and
Minden.
* The succession to the
Jülich-Cleves-Berg, whose last duke had died in 1609, was clarified.
Jülich,
Berg, and
Ravenstein were given to the
Count Palatine of Neuburg, while
Cleves,
Mark, and
Ravensberg went to Brandenburg.
* The
Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück would alternate between Catholic and Lutheran bishops, with the Protestant bishops chosen from the
cadets of the
House of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
* Barriers to trade and commerce erected during the war were abolished, and "a degree" of free navigation was guaranteed on the
Rhine.
Legacy
The treaties did not entirely end conflicts arising out of the Thirty Years' War. Fighting continued between France and Spain until the
Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The
Dutch-Portuguese War had begun during the
Iberian Union between Spain and
Portugal, as part of the
Eighty Years' War, and went on until 1663. Nevertheless, the Peace of Westphalia did settle many outstanding European issues of the time.
Westphalian sovereignty
Scholars of international relations have identified the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern
international relations, including the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. This system became known in the literature as
Westphalian sovereignty.
Although scholars have challenged the association with the Peace of Westphalia, the debate is still structured around the concept of Westphalian sovereignty.
However, scholars have challenged the view that the modern European states system originated with the Westphalian treaties. The treaties do not contain anything in their text about religious freedom, sovereignty, or balance of power that can be construed as international law principles. Constitutional arrangements of the
Holy Roman Empire are the only context in which sovereignty and religious equality are mentioned in the text, but they are not new ideas in this context. While the treaties do not contain the basis for the modern laws of nations themselves, they do symbolize the end of a long period of religious conflict in Europe.
See also
*
Eighty Years' War
*
Freedom of religion
*
History of Sweden, 1648–1700
*
List of treaties
*
Peace of Augsburg
*
Peace of Münster
*
Thirty Years' War
*
Westphalian sovereignty
*
Magna Carta
References
Further reading
* Croxton, Derek, and Anuschka Tischer. ''The Peace of Westphalia: A Historical Dictionary'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002).
*
* Mowat, R. B. ''History of European Diplomacy, 1451–1789'' (1928) pp 104–1
online* Historiography.
External links
Texts of the Westphalian Treaties (full text in Latin, with translations to German, English, French, Italian, Swedish, and Spanish)
Peace Treaty of Münster(full text, English translation)
Peace Treaty of Münster(full text, German translation)
Peace Treaty of Osnabrück(full text, German translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westphalia, Treaty Of
Category:Thirty Years' War treaties
Category:1648 treaties
Category:Peace treaties of Sweden
Category:Thirty Years' War
Category:Treaties of the Holy Roman Empire
Category:Treaties of Flanders
Category:Treaties of the Dutch Republic
Category:Peace treaties of the Netherlands
Category:Peace treaties of Spain
Category:Treaties of the Swedish Empire
Category:Peace treaties of the Ancien Régime
Category:Treaties of the Spanish Empire
Category:Treaties of the Margraviate of Brandenburg
Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
Category:1648 in Germany
Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
Category:17th century in the Old Swiss Confederacy
Category:History of the Palatinate (region)
Category:17th-century diplomatic conferences
Category:Diplomatic conferences in Germany
Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
Category:Christina, Queen of Sweden
hu:Harmincéves háború#A vesztfáliai béke