The Histories

Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 5

2019

The Peace of Westphalia and it Affects on

International Relations, Diplomacy and Foreign
Policy
Steven Patton

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Histories: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.
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The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 91

III
The Peace of Westphalia and it Affects on
International Relations, Diplomacy and Foreign Policy

By Steven Patton ‘12

The Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended the Thirty and Eighty Years Wars and
created the framework for modem international relations. The concepts of state sovereignty,
mediation between nations, and diplomacy all find their origins in the text of this treaty written
more than three hundred and fifty years ago. This peace, which was actually made up of two
different peace conferences, was the first attempt at modem international diplomacy and
formally solidified the beginnings of religious toleration from a political perspective. It was one
of the first attempts at codifying an international set of laws and essentially provided the basis for
international communities like the European Union and the United Nations and even laid the
groundwork for an early American nation. The Westphalian system still remains the model for
international politics around the world and the concept of state sovereignty, solidified by the
peace, is still the basis for modem international treaties and conventions.

In order to understand the significance of the Peace of Westphalia, it is necessary to look

briefly at the wars which sparked the gathering of the congress. The 30 Years War (1618-1648)
was a conflict between feuding Catholic and Protestant estates within the Holy Roman Empire
which gradually evolved to become a conflict involving most of Europe.1The war was also, and
more importantly as far as the lasting effects on international affairs is concerned, about the right
of princes in the Empire to sovereign rule. 12 Throughout the conflict, the Catholic Hapsburgs
fought Protestant princes of Germany who were supported by France, Sweden, and Denmark.3
This summation of a thirty-year long conflict obviously is an oversimplification of the complex
circumstances which sparked and sustained this war but, for the purposes of explaining the treaty
which ensued, is sufficient. The Peace of Westphalia also ended the 80 Years War which raged

1 Bobbitt. Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
2 Asch, Ronald G.. The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe 1618-1648. 1 ed. New York: St.
Martain's Press, 1997.
Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 92

from 1568 until 1648 and was fought over the Netherlands’ desire for independence from Spain.4
After the Twelve Year Truce, a ceasefire agreement between both sides which proved to be
short-lived, fighting resumed in 1621 and from then on coincided with the 30 Years War until
both wars ended in 1648.5 Despite this, the prevailing conflict which the peace addressed in
greatest detail was the 30 Years War, a war which ravished the Holy Roman Empire, displaced
thousands of Europeans, and killed approximately 3-4 million Germans, a significant portion of
the population.6
The negotiations known as the Congress of Westphalia began in 1642 and lasted another
4 years until the end of the 30 Years War in 1648.7 Diplomatic representatives from 96 different
entities were present at the negotiations which met in two cities within 30 miles of each other-
Osnabriick and Munster.8 The Catholic estates involved in the conflict including Spain, France,
the Dutch, the Holy Roman Empire, and a papal mediator met in Munster while the Protestant
estates met under the leadership of Sweden and an imperial representative at Osnabruck.9 During
the entire duration of the Congress at Munster and Osnabruck, the war was raging only a “three
day’s hard ride” from the peace talks.10123Because a conference on such a large scale had never
taken place prior to the 17th century, the “diplomats” who attended the peace talks were
“stumbling over conflicting claims of precedent” and were worried that even participating in the
negotiations was a threat to their nation’s future power.11 Additionally, while the negotiations
commenced in 1642 and the Congress convened on December 4, 1644, some scholars argue that
true negotiations did not begin until November of 1645 when Count Trauttmannsdorff, the
President of the Imperial Privy Council (of the Holy Roman Empire) arrived in Munster.
Finally, by 1648, conditions for nearly every nation involved in the conflict had worsened, the
Empire had lost about a third of its population, and leaders began to compromise. Soon after, a
compromise was reached and, on October 24, 1648, when the Treaty of Munster was signed, the
Peace of Westphalia ended the 30 Years War.14
Before an understanding of the peace of Westphalia can be achieved, an analysis of the
goals of the treaty must be completed. When the representatives from all involved nations and
states met at Munster and Osnabruck, they had certain goals in mind. National representatives

4 Britannica, Encyclopedia. "Peace o f Westphalia." http://www.britarmica.com/EBchecked/topic/641170Teace-of-

Westphalia (accessed April 22, 2009).
5 Ibid.
6 McLeod, Toby. ""Thirty Years War" The Oxford Companion to Military History.." (accessed April 22, 2009).
7 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
8 Ibid
9 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
10 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
11 Ibid.
12 Asch, Ronald G.. The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe 1618-1648. 1 ed. New York: St.
Martain's Press, 1997.
13 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
14 Ibid
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 93

Count Maximilian Von Trautmansdorff of the Empire, Johan Oxenstienna and Johan Adler
Salvius of Sweden, and Comte d’Avaux and Marquis de Sable of France all had specific
instructions by the leaders of their own respective nations not to engage in any sort of
compromise too quickly.15 No nation wanted to be seen as weak and none wanted to be held
responsible for the more than three decade long destructive conflict. By 1645 there were strong
motives for seeking some sort of peace agreement in a war which cost millions of lives
including, by some accounts, one third of the entire German population.16 The goals of the peace
conference for each nation can be summed up as follows: the French wanted control of strategic
military fortresses including of Metz, Toul, Verdun, Breisach, and Alsace among other areas in
addition to four cities on the Rhine known as the “forest cities”; the Empire wanted a united
kingdom under the leadership of the Emperor; the princes of the provinces of the Empire wanted
sovereignty over their own kingdoms; the Dutch wanted independence from Spain, and Sweden
wanted territorial gains of their own.1718The primary compromises of the represented estates at the
congress were written down in the two treaties at Munster and Osnabruck and are summed up by
David Maland as follows: the separate states of the Empire were recognized as sovereign;
attendance at the established state church was not mandatory; the Peace of Augsburg was
affirmed and Calvinism was accepted as a permissible religion; matters of religion were to be
settled not by a majority vote but rather by a compromise agreed to by the conflicting parties; the
United Provinces were granted independence from Spain and the Empire; Spain was forced to
“give away all points to the Dutch”, and other land boundaries were shifted. The additional
long term effects of the Peace of Westphalia, though likely not immediately foreseen by the
writers of the treaties, were far more influential than the short term land and power shifts.
The long term effects of the compromise which were achieved under the Peace of
Westphalia were significant and the peace itself was a monumental, modern, and for its time,
revolutionary achievement. In his essay on the Peace of Westphalia, Wyndham A. Bewes writes,
“no questions that had ever before received a diplomatic settlement had been of such far-
reaching importance, or had been settled with the concurrence of so many powers.”19 This notion
of an international effort to solve a conflict using diplomatic methods where all sides participated
and agreed to compromise, rather than a dominant nation simply dictating policy to a losing
nation, was very new in the 17th century.20 Bewes concludes, “Never [before the congress] had
there been such a numerous and brilliant assembly of Ministers and Statesmen of so many
different nations and never had so important and complicated political interests been discussed
with solemn sufficiency.”21

The peace dealt with many topics of high importance to the European powers at the time
but, from a modem international relations standpoint, three of the issues which were resolved are

15 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
16 Ibid
Ib id
18 Maland, David. Europe at War 1600-1650. 1 ed. Totowa NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.
Bewes, Wyndham A.. "Gathered Notes on the Peace o f Westphalia." Transactions of the Grotius Society 19, no.
(1933): 61-73.
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 94

of particular significance. The first of those issues is the religious freedom which was solidified
by the treaties at Munster and Osnabruck. The Peace of Westphalia “confirmed the Peace of
Augsburg which had granted Lutherans religious tolerance in the Empire” that had been taken
away by Emperor Ferdinand II in his Edict of Restitution of 1629 (the Peace also granted the
same tolerance to Calvinists). For religious issues, the peace was “essentially a broadening and
a clarification of the Peace at Augsburg” which, both then and in modern society, is of great
significance. Before the Peace, states viewed all other foreign nations and policies in terms of
good and evil: their own view as good and anything which opposed it as evil.2324 James Nathan
sums it up well: “If one side fought with God, it followed that the other had sided with the devil.
For the hundred years that preceded the treaties of Westphalia, only truces were permissible.”2526
Because of this, the Treaties of Munster and Osnabruck which dealt with rivaling nations were
fairly revolutionary. Before any compromises could be made, the dozens of parties present at the
congress had to agree on a sort of procedure for the talks. Scholars agree that “it was necessary
to reach preliminary agreements on procedure before the actual work of making peace could
begin”. Luckily, by late in the war, national leaders were quickly growing tired of the conflict
and began ordering their representatives at the conferences to make some concessions to put an
end to the damages which had been incurred by their states.27

While most today would view the diffusion of religious influence in national affairs as a
positive aspect of the peace treaty, the Catholic Church and papacy at the time certainly did not.
Pope Innocent X, the leader of the Catholic church at the time of the negotiations, denounced the
Peace of Westphalia in a papal bull because it undermined his “pan-European political power”28
Similarly, most Catholics at the time saw the Peace of Augsburg (upon which many of the
religious tenets of Westphalia were based) as only a “temporary, emergency measure” which
should not become permanent law. What is also significant here is that the writers of the
treaties anticipated these objections from both the papacy and the Catholic population throughout
Europe. The treaties required any state which signed it to ignore any objection made on the
basis of religious supremacy from both Catholic and Protestant leaders.31 Once the Peace of
Westphalia was ratified by each estate’s representative, “the role of the Christian community of

22 Britannica, Encyclopedia. "Peace o f Westphalia." http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/641170/Peace-of-

Westphalia (accessed April 22, 2009).
23 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
24 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
25 Ibid
26 Colegrove, Kenneth. "Diplomatic Procedure Preliminary to the Congress o f Westphalia." The American Journal
o f International Law 13, no. 3 (1919): 450-482.
27 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
28
Ibid.
29
Parker, Geoffrey. The Thirty Years War. 2 ed. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Inc., 1987.
30
Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
31 Ibid
The Histories, Volume 10, Number l 95

states was replaced by the rule of state consent”. This new, revolutionary treaty completely
changed the relations between church and state and established a new precedent whereby states
would become sovereign entities, immune (generally speaking) from the political pressure of any
one church.3233 Conversely, since the Peace’s adoption, Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists at
least could practice their faith without any serious intrusion from the emperor.34

The second essential issue with which the Peace of Westphalia dealt was the nature of
war and its intended uses. Before 1648, war was the accepted means of instating policy changes
when one country found fault with another.35 It was the “legitimate form of solving conflicts”
before the Peace but, after the treaties were agreed upon, “No state was allowed to be
destroyed...and compensation was to be awarded to those states that gave up strategically
advantageous possessions.”36*Since the mindset of nations thinking in strict terms of “good” and
“evil” was beginning to disappear in the 17th century, diplomacy and negotiation could be used
as an alternative to war. While this is not to suggest that there was no form of negotiation
before the end of the 30 Years War, it seems that official recognition of the diplomats of
countries and official offers to compromise could not be utilized in terms of a nation’s foreign
policy prior to the peace.

The third and possibly most significant and lasting outcome of the Peace of 1648 is the
idea of state sovereignty. Before and during the 30 Years War, German provinces were under the
rule of the Holy Roman Emperor who controlled the actions of provincial princes.38 What the
Peace of Westphalia effectively established was “territorial superiority in all matters
ecclesiastical as well as political” of princes in the Empire.39 The Peace had given them many
rights which were previously held only by the Emperor: “they could ratify peace treaties, they
could levy taxes....they could declare war” and possibly most significantly, “war could not be
declared by the empire without their consent.”40 This meant that the princes’ power was greatly
increased while the Holy Roman Emperor saw a drastic reduction in the scope of his.41 After the
peace settlements, power in the Empire had become much more decentralized- a quality which
would prove to be very important in diplomatic negotiations in the centuries following the war.

The Peace of Westphalia is seen by many scholars in both history and in the field of
international relations to be the basis for much of modem international law and professional
diplomacy. 42 Each of the three primary elements of the treaties: wider formal religious freedom,

32 Ibid
33 Parker, Geoffrey. The Thirty Years War. 2 ed. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Inc., 1987.
34 Ibid
35 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid
39 Ibid
40 Ibid
41 ib id .
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 96

the introduction of the diplomatic profession, and the recognition of sovereign states contributed
to this long-lasting impact.43 In the 17th century and throughout the 30 Years War, the idea of
supreme central authority of say, the Holy Roman emperor or the papacy, was starting to be
questioned though there had been very little effective international diplomacy which tried to alter
that reality.44 Scholars of history, law, and politics were beginning to seek out a more effective
system of relations for states which relied less on a supreme central authority and instead
diffused more power to each sovereign state.45 The 17th century historian Hugo Grotius who died
shortly before the settlements at Westphalia believed that “kingly states could only achieve
complete legitimacy as part of a society of sovereigns to whom they owed certain duties” and
“denied that there had to be a supreme sovereign for there to be a law of the society of kingly
states or sovereigns.”46 This concept of state sovereignty is a very long lasting one and is still in
practice in many areas of foreign policy today including in the U.N., the European Union, and
even the United States of America.

These three concepts which were established at Westphalia, however, did not come about
overnight; they instead seem to be the work of the evolution of political ideas over the 16th and
17th centuries. Kenneth Colegrove, a former U.S. diplomat and member of the executive council
of the American Society for International Law, writes that before the Congress of Westphalia,
“International law was in its infancy and the vocabulary of diplomacy had not yet assumed the
accuracy and precision which was to characterize it in a later period.”47 He argues that diplomats,
if one can call them such during the 17th century, did not even have words like “mediation” in
their vocabulary which made the negotiations at the peace congress extremely tedious, perhaps
explaining why they took several years.48 The process which occurred both at the congress and
during the years leading up to it was an important piece in the evolution of the diplomatic
process and remained in use, unchanged for more than two centuries.

While the concrete achievements which came from the Peace of Westphalia, namely state
sovereignty and religious freedom, were obviously significant, the diplomatic process and
profession which emerged from the congress was arguably just as important. Auburn University
international relations professor James Nathan argues:

Before the Westphalia settlement, there was no recognizable diplomatic profession.

Spies, irregular envoys, and heralds citing scripture or handing out ringing declamations
were the usual route that princes chose to alert one another to the start of war. After
Westphalia, the diplomatic craft was practiced by a kind of well-born guild, with

43 Gross, Leo. "The Peace o f Westphalia 1648-1948." The American Journal o f International Law 42, no. 1 (1948):
20-41.
44 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
45 Ibid
46 Ibid
47 Colegrove, Kenneth. "Diplomatic Procedure Preliminary to the Congress o f Westphalia." The American Journal
o f International Law 13, no. 3 (1919): 450-482.
48 Ibid
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 97

members who were adept at melding reason, precedent, and law with quiet allusion to the
implication of armed compunction.49

Nathan also believes that since the settlement at Westphalia, diplomats and those in combat
sought “victory less and the achievement of favorable peace more.”50 This shift in thinking by
both diplomats and combatants signaled a way of more modern thinking which paved the way
for modern inter-state politics. This was a change from previous medieval political thinking
which centered around a system based on obedience to a central hierarchy to a more modern
system wherein leaders recognized the sovereignty of each state and had the ability to utilize
diplomatic recourses before resorting to war.51 To further limit the possibility of war, power was
dispersed among various states in order to ensure that no one state would have the military might
to conquer others without the help of neighboring nations.52 This is obviously not to say that the
Peace prevented all wars but it did set a precedent and provide a platform for discussion between
nations in one of the earliest attempts to resolve international conflicts before the outbreak of
war. The diplomatic form which emerged from the Congress of Westphalia provided the model
upon which international negotiations progressed down through the First World War until the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919.53

Even after international relations were renegotiated after WWI, scholars argue that the
effects of the Peace of Westphalia and the framework which it provided can be seen in many
modem international communities including the United Nations, formerly the League of Nations,
the European Union, and even to an extent, the United States of America.54 The charter of the
United Nations written in 1945 has some of the very same provisions which were included in the
Peace of Westphalia written some 300 years earlier.55 A scholar of international law at Tufts
University, Leo Gross writes that the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia “constitute, in a
sense, an early precedent for Articles 10, 12, and 16, or the Covenant of the League of Nations”
and that the Charter of the United Nations “would seem to have left essentially unchanged the
framework of the state system and of international law resulting from the Peace of
Westphalia.”56 Just like the charters of the League of Nations and the United Nations, Westphalia
included provisions to discourage war and promote civility between sovereign states.57
Specifically, the treaty signed at Munster specifically outlawed any immediate recourse to arms.
Section CXXIV of the treaty states:
It shall not be permitted to any State of the Empire to pursue his Right by Force and
Arms; but if any difference has happen’d or happens for the future, every one shall try the

49 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
50 Ibid.
51
Ibid
52
Ibid
53
Ibid
54 Gross, Leo. "The Peace o f Westphalia 1648-1948." The American Journal o f International Law 42, no. 1 (1948):
20-41.
55 Ibid
57 I b ’ d
Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
The Histories, Volume 10, Number 1 98

means of ordinary Justice, and the Contravener shall be regarded as an Infringer of the
Peace. That which has been determin’d by Sentence of the Judge, shall be put in
execution, without distinction of Condition, as the Laws of the Empire enjoin touching
the execution of Arrests and Sentences. 58

This excerpt from the treaty written in the 17th century sounds very similar to the League’s
charter which bans any recourse to arms of a nation in search of territory expansion.5859

In addition to laying the foundations of international relations charters like that of the
League of Nations, some argue that Westphalia was also an early model for the birth of America
and the modern relations of European nations.60 Phillip Bobbitt, the author of The Shield of
Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History compares Westphalia to Philadelphia which was
the birthplace of the American colonies and says that both Westphalia and Philadelphia were
“the birthplace of a new constitution for a small society of states.61 This reference to the
American Constitution shows both the longevity of the Peace of Westphalia and its far reaching
effects, not just on Europe, but also on North America. Within Europe the peace provided the
model for the European Union in which each state or nation keeps its own sovereignty but is
united under the larger authority of the Union whose leadership is comprised of its member
states. In much the same way, the Westphalian system provided this sort of arrangement for the
sovereign principalities of Germany while keeping some form of cohesiveness amongst the Holy
Roman Empire.62
Scholars would agree that the Peace of Westphalia was, for its time, a revolutionary and
monumental achievement; it developed the framework for international diplomacy, a construct
which simply did not exist prior to the 17th century. This peace was extremely influential down
through the Treaty of Versailles and the Westphalian tradition can still be seen in modem
international politics. Compromises reached by the congress in 1648 on the issues of individual
state sovereignty, religious tolerance, and diplomatic solutions to international warfare were the
precedents of common and international law until the First World War and, arguably, still form
the core of foreign policy. The Westphalian tradition can be seen in various modem international
forums including the United Nations and is one of history’s leading examples of how one
conflict can impact the affairs of dozens of independent nations for centuries.

58 Toynbee, Arnold. Major Peace Treaties o f Modern History 1648-1967. 1 ed. 1, Fred L. Israel. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers, 1967.
59 Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and histoiy: Coercive Diplomacy and International Order. 1 ed. Westport
CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
60 Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New York: Anchor Books,
2003.
61
The Histories. Volume 10, Number 1 99

Works Cited

Asch, Ronald G.. The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe 1618-1648.
1 ed. New York: St. Martain's Press, 1997.

Bewes, Wyndham A.. "Gathered Notes on the Peace of Westphalia." Transactions o f the
Grotius Society 19, no. (1933): 61-73.
Bobbitt, Philip. The Shield o f Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course o f History. 1 ed. New
York: Anchor Books, 2003.
Britannica, Encyclopedia. "Peace of Westphalia."
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/641170/Peace-of-Westphalia
(accessed April 22, 2009).

Colegrove, Kenneth. "Diplomatic Procedure Preliminary to the Congress of Westphalia."

The American Journal o f International Law 13, no. 3 (1919): 450-482.
Gross, Leo. "The Peace of Westphalia 1648-1948." The American Journal o f International
Law 42, no. 1 (1948): 20-41.

Maland, David. Europe at War 1600-1650. 1 ed. Totowa NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980.
McLeod, Toby. ""Thirty Years War" The Oxford Companion to Military History.."
(accessed April 22, 2009).

Nathan, James A. Soldiers, Statecraft, and history: Coercive Diplomacy and International
Order. 1 ed. Westport CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.

Parker, Geoffrey. The Thirty Years War. 2 ed. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Inc., 1987.
Toynbee, Arnold. Major Peace Treaties o f Modern History 1648-1967. 1 ed. 1, Fred L. Israel.
New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1967.