Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia, concluded through the simultaneous Treaties of Osnabrück and Münster signed on 24 October 1648, ended both the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic. The settlements had several landmark features. First, they recognised the religious status quo as it had stood in 1624, granting Calvinism equality with Lutheranism and Catholicism — ending the Counter-Reformation's ambition of reimposing Catholic unity by force. Second, they granted the German princes nearly full sovereignty within the Empire, effectively ending the possibility of a Habsburg-dominated centralised German state. Third, they recognised the independence of the Swiss Confederation and the Dutch Republic. Historians debate the 'Westphalian system' as the foundation of modern international law and the principle that sovereign states should not interfere in each other's internal (religious) affairs — a principle that the treaties themselves established imperfectly, but which later theorists elevated into a founding doctrine. The wars killed perhaps 8 million people; parts of Germany lost a third to two-thirds of their population.
- Year: 1648 CE
- Category: Political
