Two parallel congresses in neighbouring towns, so Catholic and Protestant envoys need not meet
Catholic powers at Münster, Protestant powers with the Emperor at Osnabrück; years of wrangling over precedence
History · Early modern
The Peace of Westphalia
24 October 1648
The settlement that ended the Thirty Years' War
Two treaties signed on the same day in two neighbouring German towns ended the Thirty Years' War and, at Münster, the Dutch revolt against Spain. They fixed the religious map of the Empire, confirmed the practical independence of its princes, and are conventionally credited with inventing the modern idea that states are sovereign within their own borders.
How to spot them
- ▸24 October 1648: the congress that closed Europe's longest and most destructive religious war
- ▸Quiz clue: 'Münster and Osnabrück', 'the normal year', 'Westphalian sovereignty'
- ▸Recognises the Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederation as independent of the Empire
- ▸Condemned by the Pope in a bull, and ignored by everyone
What happened
Spain at last acknowledging the independence of the Dutch Republic, after eighty years (30 January 1648)
Calvinism admitted alongside Lutheranism and Catholicism within the Empire
Extending the 1555 Augsburg formula to a third confession
1624 fixed as the 'normal year' for deciding which faith a territory kept
A pragmatic snapshot, freezing the religious map as it had stood before the worst of the fighting
France gains Alsatian territory; Sweden gains Western Pomerania and a seat in the Imperial Diet
The two outside victors were paid in German land
Pope Innocent X denouncing it in the bull Zelo Domus Dei (1650)
Declared null and void; the signatories had already agreed to disregard any papal protest
Often called the birth of the modern sovereign state system
The textbook claim; historians now argue it is read back into the treaties rather than found in them
Quick-fire facts
- •The two treaties were signed at Osnabrück and Münster on 24 October 1648
- •A separate treaty at Münster on 30 January 1648 — the Peace of Münster — ended the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch
- •The Franco-Spanish war continued regardless, ending only with the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659
- •The Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederation were formally recognised as outside the Holy Roman Empire
- •The imperial estates gained the right to make alliances, provided they were not against the Emperor
- •The Palatinate was restored to Charles Louis and an eighth electorate created for him, Bavaria keeping the one it had taken
- •Political scientists call the resulting doctrine 'Westphalian sovereignty' — territorial integrity and non-interference in other states' domestic affairs
- •The negotiations involved around 100 delegations and are often called Europe's first great diplomatic congress
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Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Peace of Westphalia
- Derek Croxton — Westphalia: The Last Christian Peace