Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 - A New Era (Lecture 6)

Lecture 6: The pivotal 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, closing the ordeal of the Thirty Years’ War, is the first of the great diplomatic peace conferences of modern times, negotiated in two cities in western Germany. One of its results was the creation of the European system of sovereign states asserting their independent status, overthrowing earlier ideals and claims of universal authority. A practical outcome of the new realities was also the rise of France as a superpower, displacing Spain’s preeminent status in Europe by the 1659 Peace of the Pyrenees. In the realm of ideas, important new concepts of international law set out to codify the new power politics, establishing a legacy that lasts down to our own times.

Essential Reading:
Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History, pp. 502–19.
Supplementary Reading:

Treaty of Westphalia online at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm.