| Peace Of Westphalia |
Article Index for Peace Of |
Website Links For Peace |
Information AboutPeace Of Westphalia |
|
, 1648]] 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 United Provinces 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, 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 were held after initial talks held in the cities of Münster and Osnabrück , which lie about 50 km apart in the present day states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony . These cities were favoured by Sweden whereas Hamburg and Cologne were proposed by the French. Two locations were needed as the Protestant and Catholic leaders refused to meet each other. The city of Münster was used by the Catholics, while Osnabrück was used by the Protestants. RESULTS The results of the treaty were wide ranging. Among other things, the , the United Provinces and France . Sweden's time as a Great Power was to be short lived, however. 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:
SIGNIFICANCE It is often said that the Peace of Westphalia initiated modern Diplomacy , as it marked the beginning of the modern system of Nation-state s (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 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." {Link without Title} 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". {Link without Title} Also, it is often claimed that Globalization is bringing an Evolution of the international system past the sovereign Westphalian state. TRIVIA Adolf Hitler let his grievances be known in the book Mein Kampf about how the Treaty of Westphalia cemented Germany's internal divisions for over 200 years, hampering its unitary development and preventing it from achieving the colonial empires rivaling that of France and 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. SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|