http://www.answers.

com/topic/peace-of-westphalia
What is significant about the TREATY OF WESTPHALIA 15
May - 24 October 1648?
It officially ended the Thirty Years' War, which marked the end of the Holy Roman Empire. Essentially, it
ended the old system of the Holy Roman Empire and brought in the modern European state system -
creating the basis for the modern international system of independent states. In addition, the Swiss
Confederation and the Netherlands were formally recognized as independent states. Furthermore,
religious warfare came to an end, establishing religious tolerance in Europe.

Four main principles from the treaty:

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.

"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." [1]

"In short,the Peace of Westphalia believed that there is nothing more important than the sovereignty of
states." [1]

more information:
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. The peace as a whole is often used by historians to
mark the beginning of the modern era.

MORE INFORMATION:
The Westphalia area of north-western Germany gave its name to the treaty that
ended the Thirty Years War, one of the most destructive conflicts in the history of
Europe.
The war or series of connected wars began in 1618, when the Austrian Habsburgs
tried to impose Roman Catholicism on their Protestant subjects in Bohemia. It
pitted Protestant against Catholic, the Holy Roman Empire against France, the
German princes and princelings against the emperor and each other, and France
against the Habsburgs of Spain. The Swedes, the Danes, the Poles, the Russians,
the Dutch and the Swiss were all dragged in or dived in. Commercial interests and
rivalries played a part, as did religion and power politics.

Among famous commanders involved were Marshal Turenne and the Prince de
Condé for France, Wallenstein for the Empire and Tilly for the Catholic League, and
there was an able Bavarian general curiously named Franz von Mercy. Others to
play a part ranged from the Winter King of Bohemia to the emperors Ferdinand II
and Ferdinand III, Bethlen Gabor of Transylvania, Christian IV of Denmark, Gustavus
II Adolphus and Queen Christina of Sweden, the Great Elector of Brandenburg,
Philip IV of Spain and his brother the Cardinal-Infante, Louis XIII of France,
Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and several popes. Gustavus Adolphus was shot in
the head and killed at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. The increasingly crazed
Wallenstein, who grew so sensitive to noise that he had all the dogs, cats and
cockerels killed in every town he came to, was murdered by an English captain in
1634. Still the fighting went on.

The war was largely fought on German soil and reduced the country to desolation
as hordes of mercenaries, left unpaid by their masters, lived off the land. Rapine,
pillage and famine stalked the countryside as armies marched about, plundering
towns, villages and farms as they went. ‘We live like animals, eating bark and
grass,’ says a pitiful entry in a family Bible from a Swabian village. ‘No one could
have imagined that anything like this would happen to us. Many people say that
there is no God...’ Wenceslas Hollar recorded devastation in the war zone in
engravings of the 1630s and starvation reached such a point in the Rhineland that
there were cases of cannibalism. The horror became a way of life and when the war
finally ended, the mercenaries and their womenfolk complained that their
livelihood was gone.

The peace conference to end the war opened in Münster and Osnabrück in
December 1644. It involved no fewer than 194 states, from the biggest to the
smallest, represented by 179 plenipotentiaries. There were thousands of ancillary
diplomats and support staff, who had to be given housing, fed and watered, and
they did themselves well for close to four years, despite famine in the country
around. Presiding over the conference were the Papal Nuncio, Fabio Chigi (the
future Pope Alexander VII), and the Venetian ambassador.

The first six months were spent arguing about who was to sit where and who was
to go into a room ahead of whom. The principal French and Spanish envoys never
managed to meet at all because the correct protocol could not be agreed. A special
postal system handled reams of letters between the envoys and their principals at a
time when it took ten days or more to send a communication from Münster to Paris
or Vienna and twenty days or more to Stockholm or Madrid. Slowly deals were
hammered out. Even then it took almost three weeks just to organise the signing
ceremony, which commenced at two o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, October
24th, 1648.

The treaty gave the Swiss independence of Austria and the Netherlands
independence of Spain. The German principalities secured their autonomy. Sweden
gained territory and a payment in cash, Brandenburg and Bavaria made gains too,
and France acquired most of Alsace-Lorraine. The prospect of a Roman Catholic
reconquest of Europe vanished forever. Protestantism was in the world to stay.

Richard Cavendish

Why is the treaty of Westphalia important?

It was one of the first European Agreements that dealt with the issue of freedom of religion by
allowing minority religions the right to retain and to practice their faith.

In many ways it laid the foundations for the modern concept of a "state", by establishing for the first
time such concepts as sovereignty.
The term Peace of Westphalia, referring to the two peace treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, signed
on May 15 and October 24 of 1648 respectively