(Redirected from Treaty of Westphalia).jpg)
Ratification of the Treaty of Münster.
The 'Peace of Westphalia' refers to the pair of
treaties, the Treaty of
Münster and the Treaty of
Osnabrück, signed on
October 24 and
May 15 of
1648 respectively, which ended both the
Thirty Years' War and the
Eighty Years' War. The treaties involved the
Holy Roman Emperor,
Ferdinand III Habsburg, the other
German princes,
Spain,
France,
Sweden and representatives of the
Dutch Republic. The
Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in
1659, ending the
war between France and Spain, is also often considered part of the overall accord.
The
texts of the two treaties, in over a hundred
articles, are largely identical and deal with the internal affairs of the Holy Roman Empire.
[1] The Peace continues to be of importance today, with many
academics asserting that the
international system of
states,
multinational corporations and organizations which exists today began in 1648 at Westphalia.
[2] Both the basis and the result of this view have been attacked by
revisionist academics and
politicians alike, with revisionists questioning the significance of the Peace, and
commentators and politicians attacking the
Westphalian System of sovereign
nation-states.
Locations
The peace negotiations were held in the cities of
Münster and
Osnabrück, which lie about 50 km apart from each other, in the present day German states of
North Rhine-Westphalia and
Lower Saxony.
Sweden had favored Osnabrück due to its Protestant background, France chose Munster due to its Catholic background. In any case two locations were required because
Protestant and
Catholic leaders refused to meet each other. The Catholics used Münster, while the Protestants used Osnabrück.
Delegations
The French delegation was headed by
Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville and further comprised the diplomats Claude d'Avaux and
Abel Servien. The Swedish
plenipotentiaries were
Johan Oxenstierna, the son of chancellor
Axel Oxenstierna, and Johann Adler Salvius. The head of the delegation of the Holy Roman Empire for both cities was
Count Maximilian von Trautmansdorff; in Münster, his aides were
Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar and Isaak Volmar (a lawyer); in Osnabrück, his team comprised
Johann Maximilian von Lamberg and ''Reichshofrat''
Johann Krane, another lawyer. The Spanish delegation was headed by
Gaspar de Bracamonte y Guzmán. The
nuntius of
Cologne,
Fabio Chigi, and the
Venetian envoy
Alvise Contarini acted as mediators. Various
Imperial States of the Holy Roman Empire also sent delegations. The
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands sent a delegation of eight, and
Johann Rudolf Wettstein, the mayor of
Basel, represented the
Old Swiss Confederacy.
Results
A simplified map of Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Holy Roman Empire in 1648.
Internal political boundaries
The power which
Ferdinand III had taken for himself in contravention of the Holy Roman Empire's constitution was stripped, meaning that the rulers of the
German states were again able to determine the religion of their lands. [See ''cuius regio, eius religio'', below] Protestants and Catholics were redefined as equal before the law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition.
[3] [4]
Tenets
The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:
★ All parties would now recognize the
Peace of Augsburg of 1555, by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism (the principle of ''
cuius regio, eius religio'').
[5] ★ Christians living in principalities where their denomination was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.
[5]
There were also territorial adjustments:
★ The majority of the Peace's terms can be attributed to the work of
Cardinal Mazarin, the
de facto leader of France at the time (the
King,
Louis XIV, was still a child). Not surprisingly, France came out of the war in a far better position than any of the other participants. France won control of the Bishoprics of
Metz,
Toul and
Verdun near
Lorraine, and the cities of the
Décapole in Alsace (but not
Strasbourg, the
Bishopric of Strasbourg, or
Mulhausen).
★ Sweden received an indemnity, as well as control of
Western Pomerania and the Prince-Bishoprics of
Bremen and
Verden. It thus won control of the mouth of the
Oder,
Elbe, and
Weser Rivers, and acquired three voices in the
Council of Princes of the German Reichstag.
★
Bavaria retained the
Palatinate's vote in the
Imperial Council of Electors (which elected the
Holy Roman Emperor), which it had been granted by the ban on the Elector Palatine Frederick V in
1623. The
Prince Palatine, Frederick's son, was given a ''new'', eighth electoral vote.
★
Brandenburg-Prussia (later
Prussia) received
Farther Pomerania, and the Bishoprics of
Magdeburg,
Halberstadt,
Kammin, and
Minden.
★ The succession to the Dukes of
Jülich-Cleves-Berg, who had died out in
1609, was clarified.
Jülich,
Berg, and
Ravenstein were given to the
Count Palatine of Neuburg, while
Cleves,
Mark, and
Ravensberg went to Brandenburg.
★ It was agreed that the
Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück would alternate between Protestant and Catholic holders, with the Protestant bishops chosen from cadets of the House of
Brunswick-Lüneburg.
★ The independence of the city of
Bremen was clarified.
★ The
Palatinate was divided between the re-established
Elector Palatine Charles Louis (son and heir of
Frederick V) and
Elector-Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, and thus between the
Protestants and
Catholics. Charles Louis obtained the
Lower Palatinate, along the Rhine, while Maximilian kept the
Upper Palatinate, to the north of Bavaria.
★ Barriers to trade and commerce erected during the war were abolished, and 'a degree' of free navigation was guaranteed on the Rhine.
[7]
Significance in international relations theory
Traditional view
The Peace of Westphalia is crucially important to modern
international relations theory, with the Peace often being defined as the beginning of the international system with which the discipline deals.
[8]
International relations theorists have identified the Peace of Westphalia as having several key principles, which explain the Peace's significance and its impact on the world today:
#The principle of the
sovereignty of
states and the fundamental right of political
self determination
#The principle of (legal) equality between states
#The principle of non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another state
These principles are common to the way the
dominant international relations paradigm views the international system today, which explains why the system of states is referred to as
"The Westphalian System".
Revisionist view
The above interpretation of the Peace of Westphalia is not without its critics. Revisionist historians and international relations theorists argue against all of these points.
#Neither of the treaties mention sovereignty. Since the three chief participants (France, Sweden and Holy Roman Empire) were all already sovereign, their representatives saw no need to clarify this situation.
[10] In any case, the princes of Germany remained subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor as per the constitution
[11]
#While each German principality had its own legal system, the final Courts of Appeal applied to the whole of the Holy Roman Empire - the final appellate was the Emperor himself, and his decisions in cases brought to him were final and binding on all subordinates.
[12] The Emperor could, and did, depose princes when they were found by the courts to be at fault
[12] [14]
#Both treaties specifically state that should the treaty be broken, France and Sweden held the right to intervene in the internal affairs of the Empire.
[15]
Rather than cementing sovereignty, revisionists hold that the treaty served to maintain the status quo ante. Instead, the treaty cemented the theory of ''Landeshoheit'', in which state-like actors have a certain (usually high) degree of autonomy, but are not sovereign since they are subject to the laws, judiciary and constitution of a higher body.
[16]
Modern views on the 'Westphalian Systems'
Main articles: Westphalian sovereignty
The Westphalian System is used as a shorthand by academics to describe the system of states which the world is made up of today.
[8]
In
1998, a Symposium on the continuing political Relevance of the Peace of Westphalia, then–
NATO Secretary General
Javier Solana said that "humanity and democracy [were] 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."
[18]
In
2000, then–German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer referred to the Peace of Westphalia in his
Humboldt Speech, which argued that the system of European politics set up by Westphalia was obsolete: "The core of the concept of Europe after
1945 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."
[19]
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".
[20]
It has also been claimed that
globalization is bringing an
evolution of the international system past the sovereign
Westphalian state.
[21]
However, European
nationalists and some American
paleoconservatives such as
Pat Buchanan hold a favorable view of the Westphalian state.
[22][23] Supporters of the Westphalian state oppose socialism and some forms of capitalism for undermining the nation state. A major theme of Buchanan's political career, for example, has been attacking
globalization,
critical theory,
neoconservatism, and other philosophies he considers detrimental to today's Western nations.
References
1. Osiander, Andreas 'Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth' ''International Organization'', Vol. 55 Issue '2' (Spring 2001) pp. 251-287.
2. Global Inc., , Medard, Gabel, The New Press, 2003,
3. Treaty of Munich 1648
4. Barro, RJ and McCleary, RM 'Which Countries have State Religions?'' Page 5. http://economics.uchicago.edu/download/state_religion_03-03.pdf - URL Accessed 7 November 2006
5. Section 28
6. Section 28
7. Gross, Leo 'The Peace of Westphalia' ''The American Journal of International Law'' Vol. 42 Issue '1' (Jan 1948) pp.20-41
8. p.251
9. Jackson RH and Owens P (2005) 'The Evolution of World Society' in Bayliss J and Smith S eds. ''The Globalization of World Politics'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press) p. 53.
10. p. 263.
11. Section 23
12. p. 274.
13. p. 274.
14. Trossbach, Werner (1986) 'Furstenabsetzungen im 18. Jahrhundert' ''Zeitschrift fur historische Forschung'' Vol 13 pp. 425-454.
15. p.266
16. pp.270-277
17. p.251
18. http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1998/s981112a.htm. URL accessed 14 July 2004.
19. http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/eu_politik/ausgabe_archiv?suche=1&archiv_id=1027&bereich_id=4&type_id=3. URL accessed 29 June 2004.
20. http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=5420. URL accessed 29 June 2004.
21. Critical Reflections on the Westphalian Assumptions of International Law and Organization : A Crisis of Legitimacy., Cutler, A. Claire, , , Review of International Studies, 2001
22. http://www.theamericancause.org/patsaygoodbye.htm. URL accessed 3 August 2006.
23. http://www.theamericancause.org/print/052206_print.htm. URL accessed 3 August 2006.
See also
★
Adam Adami - German diplomat in the peace negotiations
★
Eighty Years' War
★
List of treaties
★
History of Sweden 1648-1700
★
Thirty Years' War
External links
★
Treaty Text
★
Treaty Text (Yale University)
★
Texts of the Westphalian Treaties
★
High Resolution Map of Germany after the Treaty of Westphalia
★
Peace Treaty of Osnabrück (Full Text)
★
Peace Treaty of Münster (Full Text)
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