Palmer #16, Question 4

Palmer #16, Question 4

Will Stewart

“Summarize and evaluate the Peace of Westphalia with respect to a) the religious settlement, b) territorial changes, c) constitutional issues within the Holy Roman Empire. Of what significance was the Peace of Westphalia for modern international relations?”

I. Background

a. Peace talks of Thirty Years War

b. Talks began in 1644, towns of Munster and Osnabruck

c. Attended by each individual German state

d. Hundreds of diplomats attended- from the HRE, Spain, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Venice, other Italian cities, the Pope

e. HRE reached settlement in 1648

II. Religious settlement

a. Put an official end to Counter Reformation in Germany

b. Renewed terms of Peace of Augsburg

i. Allowed each German state to determine religion

ii. Added Calvinism as option along with Lutheranism and Catholicism

c. Church territories secularized after 1552 were given entirely to Protestants

III. Territorial changes

a. Dutch and Swiss no longer belong to HRE

b. United Provinces and Swiss cantons (Helvetic Body)

c. French took control of small territories- Lorraine bishoprics

d. Sweden received new territories in Northern Germany

IV. Constitutional issues

a. Over 300 German states became virtually sovereign

i. Each had international relations and made treaties independently

b. HRE could not make new laws, could not raise taxes, could not recruit soldiers, could not declare war or ratify peace terms without consent of Imperial estates

i. Virtually impossible, never could happen

c. HRE ceases to be a real political entity

V. Significance in modern international relations

a. Made it clear that Europe was divided into independent sovereign states

b. People stopped pretending that Europe was significantly unified, religiously or politically