Peace of Westphalia - Summary, Effects and Significance

The Peace of Westphalia took place in the year 1648 in Münster (which is in Germany). This Peace Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War, which had started with an anti-Habsburg revolt which took place in Bohemia in the year 1618 this became an inclusion of other conflicts which concerned the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, which was the religion, and the state system of the European culture.

This contest was a civil term that is “German war,” but the foreign power had played a very important role. The Peace of Westphalia involved the signing of the two treaties which took place between the two great powers that are - Sweden and France, they had settled their own conflicts which were emerging inside the empire with acute assurances.

In this context, we are going to learn the same about the Treaty of Westphalia. 

The War That Called for Peace

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24th of October in the year 1648 was the date when the Treaty of Westphalia was signed which finally marked the end of the ongoing Thirty Years' War.

The Westphalia area which was in north-western Germany gave its name to the treaty that had ended the Thirty Years' War, this was one of the most destructive conflicts in the entire history of Europe.

The war or series began at the time when the Austrian Habsburgs had tried to force on the Roman Catholicism their Protestant subjects in the Bohemia region. This pitted the Protestants against the holy Catholic, while the Holy Roman Empire against France, the German princes and princelings were against the emperor and each other, and France was against the Habsburgs of Spain in this war.

Before the thirty years war treaty, the war was majorly fought on German soil that was reduced by the country in a state to desolation the hordes of the mercenaries. They were left unpaid by their masters and went out to live off the land. In the countryside, rapine, pillage, and famine stalked the entire country as the armies marched about and plundered the towns, the villages, and the farms to a large extent.

People could not believe that this could happen to them – this was the recording of Wenceslas Hollar who recorded the devastation in the war zone in the engravings of the 1630s and the starvation that reached at such an extreme point in the Rhineland that there were cases of cannibalism even. The horror became another style of life and when the war finally got its end, the mercenaries and their womenfolk did complain about their livelihood as this was completely gone.

Treaty of Westphalia Summary

The peace conference that denoted the ending of the war opened in the Münster and Osnabrück in December in the year 1644. The treaty involved no lesser than about 194 states, the states were ranked from the biggest state to the smallest ones, treaty is also represented by around 179 plenipotentiaries. There are thousands of other ancillary diplomats and other support staff, who had to be given the housing, fed, and water supply as well and they did all these by themselves very effectively for around four years, despite the fact that there was famine attack in the country.

Who Presided Over the Conference?

The Papal Nuncio, Fabio Chigi (he is the future Pope Alexander VII), and the Venetian ambassador presided over the conference of Peace of Westphalia.

The initial six months were consumed by arguing about who was to sit in which place and who was to go into the room ahead of whose turn and so. The principal who was the French and Spanish envoys could never manage to meet all the events because the correct protocol was never met by them.

While a special postal system was handled reams of the letters that was done between the envoys and their principals who at a time took ten days or even more than that to send a communication from the Münster to Paris or to the Vienna and twenty days or even more to the Stockholm or to Madrid. Slowly the deals were then hammered out. Even when it took almost three weeks only to organize the signing ceremony, which commenced at around 2 pm on the afternoon of the Saturday that was 24th of October in the year 1648.

The treaty gave the Swiss region full independence from the captive of Austria and the Netherlands got their independence from Spain. The German principalities were very much secured to their autonomy. Sweden then gained territory with a payment in cash, while on the other hand, Brandenburg and Bavaria made their own gains too, and France had acquired most of the Alsace-Lorraine. The prospect of a Roman Catholic reconquest of Europe completely got vanished forever. Protestantism was in the world to stay here.

Peace of Westphalia effects 

This horrifying thirty years' war acted as a series of blood bath which was fought by the European nations for their own varied reasons, this was ignited in the year 1618 over an attempt by the king of Bohemia (who was the future Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II) this was to impose the belief of Catholicism throughout his own domains. The protestant nobles rebelled regarding this and by the year the 1630s, most of continental Europe was engaged in war.

Peace of Westphalia effects was felt in the Netherlands when they had gained their independence from Spain, next Sweden had gained complete control of the Baltic and France was regarded as the preeminent of the Western power. The power of the Holy Roman Emperor was later broken and the German states were again able to determine their own religion of their own lands.

The principle of the state of sovereignty even emerged as a result of this Treaty of Westphalia which was indeed a peace treaty serving as the basis for the modern system of all the nation-states.

Treaty of Westphalia significance 

The most effective sign of the Treaty of Westphalia is that it was regarded as a key step in the development of acute tolerance and secularization that was across the world. It also strengthened the nations since they now could enter into foreign alliances and decide the important matters peacefully.

Did You Know?

• Treaties of Westphalia are used as a useful benchmark. This acts as a significant benchmark in international history, as the treaty ended the religious authority which rules that many states had the transition over to the secular rule.

• The Treaty of Westphalia was indeed a turning point because this was developed in Europe's ability to live with the most religious diversity. It even led to the sovereignty of the states, that kept the peace by maintaining a balance of equal power.

• Peace of Westphalia was indeed a treaty that ended the thirty years war. The treaty on its own had a nature of equality which brought out some major changes in many countries. It gave assured freedom to some and representation to others.