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Westphalia, Congress of (1644-48) |
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The congress at which an end to the Thirty Years’ War was negotiated. It had venues at two Westphalian towns: Catholic Münster, to which were assigned the plenipotentiaries of France; and Protestant Osnabrück, 55 kilometres removed, to which were assigned those of Sweden. The representatives of the Emperor, the third of the main parties at the congress, were divided between the two towns, while the plenipotentiaries of the many other parties (including the Spanish, the Swiss, and the Dutch) gravitated to the one or the other depending on whether they were closer to France or Sweden, or on whether one of the venues had already attracted the delegation with which they wished chiefly to negotiate. The main fruits of the negotiations were the two treaties of peace signed on 24 October 1648 between the Empire and Sweden and the Empire and France. Known collectively as either the ‘Treaty’ or the ‘Peace’ of Westphalia, they are generally reckoned to have resolved the structure and codified the constitutional rules of the European states-system as it had emerged from the unity of medieval Christendom. Thereafter, it has not been unusual to see the term ‘Westphalian system’ used to describe the post-1648 system of international relations, i.e. that in which states - secular, sovereign, independent, and equal - are the members, and stability is preserved by the balance of power, diplomacy and international law. See also international society. |
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