Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia, also known as the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, refers to the series of treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War and officially recognized the Dutch Republic and Swiss Confederation. The Spanish treaty which ended the Eighty Years War was signed on January 30, 1648. The treaty signed October 24, 1648 was between the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, the other German princes, representatives from the Dutch republic, France, and Sweden. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in 1659, ending the war between France and Spain, is also often considered part of the treaty. It is often used by historians to mark the beginning of the modern era.

Locations

The peace negotiations occurred in the cities of Münster and Osnabrück. These two cities lie about 50 km apart in the present day German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Sweden favored Münster and Osnabrück as sites whereas the French proposed Hamburg and Cologne. The negotiations required two locations as the Protestant and Catholic leaders refused to actually meet each other. The Catholics used Münster, while the Protestants used Osnabrück.

Principles of Westphalia

The Treaty of Westphalia incorporated four basic principles:

1—The principle of the sovereignty of nation-states and the concomitant fundamental right of political self-determination; 2—the principle of (legal) equality between nation-states; 3—the principle of internationally binding treaties between states; and, 4—the principle of non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of other states.

That is why the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) is so crucial in the history of international political relations. This important treaty formed the basis for the modern international system of independent nation-states. In fact, it marked the beginning of an international community of law between sovereign states of equal legal standing, guaranteeing each other their independence and the right of their peoples to political self-determination. The two most innovative principles being proclaimed were the principle of sovereignty and the principle of equality among nations. They were truly political and legal innovations for the time.

Thus, the Treaty defined these new principles of sovereignty and equality among states in order to establish a durable (eternal) peace and friendship among them, within a mutually acceptable system of international law, based on internationally binding treaties. This was a revolutionary approach to international relations because, for the first time, it established a system that respected peoples' rights and that relied on international law, rather than on brute force and the right of the strongest to regulate interactions between states.

A fifth principle was also present in the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, and it is the idea that in order to achieve an enduring peace, magnanimity, concessions and cooperation had to be shown by the victorious parties. It was the beginning of a genuine international constitution for humanity, the advent of a new international order and a big step forward for civilization.

Results

The results of the treaty were wide ranging. Among other things, the Netherlands now officially gained independence from Spain, ending the Eighty Years' War, and Sweden gained Pomerania, Wismar, Bremen and Verden. The power of the Holy Roman Emperor was broken, and the rulers of the German states were again able to determine the religion of their lands. The treaty also gave Calvinists legal recognition. Three new great powers arose from this peace: Sweden, the Dutch Republic and France. However Sweden's time as a Great Power was to be short lived.

The majority of the treaty's terms can be attributed to the work of Cardinal Mazarin, who was the de facto leader of France at the time. France came out of the war in a far better position than any other Power and was able to dictate much of the treaty.

Another important result of the treaty was that it laid rest to the idea of the Holy Roman Empire having secular dominion over the entire Christian world. The nation-state would be the highest level of government, subservient to no others.

Tenets

The major tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:

All parties would now recognize the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Lutheranism or Catholicism (the principle of cuius regio, eius religio).
There were also territorial adjustments:
- France got the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, Verdun, the Habsburgian parts of Alsace, and the cities of the Décapole (but not Strasbourg, the Bishopric of Strasbourg, or Mulhouse). It also acquired a vote in the German Reichstag.
- Sweden got Western Pomerania and the bishoprics of Bremen and Stettin. It won control of the mouth of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers, and also acquired a vote in the German Reichstag.
- Bavaria acquired a vote in the Imperial Council of Electors (which elected the Holy Roman Emperor).
- Brandenburg (later Prussia) received Pomerelia (Eastern Pomerania), and the bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, whose first secular governor was the Elector of Brandenburg's representative, Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal.
- Switzerland was recognized as a fully independent nation.
- The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Protestant Netherlands) was officially recognized as an independent nation (before its rebellion a century earlier, it had been a possession of the Habsburg family and thus of Spain).
- The various independent States of the Holy Roman Empire (about 360) were given the right to exercise their own foreign policy, but they could not wage war against the Holy Roman Emperor. The Empire as a whole still could wage wars and sign treaties.
- The election of Roman emperors vivente imperatore (election of next emperor before the death of the one who actually rules) was banned.
- The Palatinate (Pfalzgraviate of the Rhine) 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 the Catholics). Charles Louis obtained the western part, near the Rhine (including the later Rhenish Palatinate and the area around Heidelberg), and Maximilian kept the Upper Palatinate (in present northern Bavaria).

Significance

It is often said that the Peace of Westphalia initiated modern diplomacy, as it marked the beginning of the modern system of nation-states (or "Westphalian states"). This interpretation comes from the treaty's role as the first acknowledgment of each country's sovereignty. Subsequent European wars were not about issues of religion, but rather revolved around issues of state. This allowed Catholic and Protestant powers to ally, leading to a number of major realignments. It also cemented Germany's internal divisions, preventing it from uniting into one nation-state. It is the Peace of Westphalia that is most often pointed to as the foundation for studying international relations.

Modern views

In 1998 on a Symposium on the Political Relevance of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, then–NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said that "humanity and democracy two principles essentially irrelevant to the original Westphalian order" and levied a criticism that "the Westphalian system had its limits. For one, the principle of sovereignty it relied on also produced the basis for rivalry, not community of states; exclusion, not integration." [http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1998/s981112a.htm

In 2000, then–German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer referred to the Peace of Westphalia in his Humboldt Speech, which argued that the system of European politics set up by Westphalia was obsolete: "The core of the concept of Europe after 1945 was and still is a rejection of the European balance-of-power principle and the hegemonic ambitions of individual states that had emerged following the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, a rejection which took the form of closer meshing of vital interests and the transfer of nation-state sovereign rights to supranational European institutions." ^*

In the aftermath of the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, Lewis ‘Atiyyatullah, who claims to represent the terrorist network al-Qaeda, declared that "the international system built-up by the West since the Treaty of Westphalia will collapse; and a new international system will rise under the leadership of a mighty Islamic state". ^*

In 2004, Noam Chomsky said "Henry Kissinger for example described Bush Doctrine of pre-emption as a revolutionary new doctrine which tears to shreds the Westphalian System."^*

Also, it is often claimed that globalization is bringing an evolution of the international system past the sovereign Westphalian state.

The adjective "Westphalian" has become popular in critical theory literature, particularly feminist international relations, because of its perceived portmanteau of "West" and "phallus".

Trivia

Many German voices in the subsequent centuries, including Adolf Hitler's, harshly criticized the Treaty of Westphalia for having cemented Germany's internal divisions for over 200 years (in Austria's case to this day, with the brief exception of the Anschluss). These divisions were blamed for having hampered Germany's unitary development and preventing it from achieving a colonial empire rivaling that of France or Britain. Communism also predicted the ultimate demise of the Westphalian system, with an international workers' union replacing the formerly to-be-defunct nation-state system.

External links

Treaty text - English translation, with keyword indexes
Treaty Text Text of the Treaty of Westphalia, translated into English.
Treaty texts The texts of the Westphalian Treaties (IPO and IPM) and some translations (German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish).
Treaty of Osnabrück (Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugensis, IPO) in full text
Treaty of Münster (Instrumentum Pacis Monasteriensis, IPM) in full text
High resolution map of Germany after the Treaty of Westphalia

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