Peace of Westphalia 1648

‘Peace through dialogue’ is the slogan with which the city of Münster, in the Westphalia region of north-west Germany, commemorates the arguably most important event to have taken place within its walls: the negotiation and conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which put an end to the Thirty Years’ War. The war, which had broken out as a result of confessional conflicts between Catholic and Protestant states, had begun in 1618 as a local conflict in Bohemia, but had soon inflamed vast regions at the heart of Europe, involving powerful countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and the states of the German Empire. It lasted for three decades—and the fighting continued during the negotiations, which took more than three years. As some of the belligerent parties refused to talk directly to each other, the Congress, the first modern peace congress, was held in two different places, with envoys representing the rulers of the countries involved. Despite the complicated and exhausting negotiations, the Westphalian Peace Treaty became the ‘mother of all modern peace treaties’ as it was referred to in many future European treaties over the next 200 years. The two documents, one for the parties in Münster and one for those negotiating in nearby Osnabrück, began with a formula of amnesty for all crimes committed during the war. They found innovative solutions, such as the ‘normal year formula’, to resolve the conflicts over territorial gains and losses during the 30 years of war. And they defused the religious conflict that had triggered the war by not making it an issue in the treaties, but by leaving it aside. Some scholars argue that the strategies for dealing with a long-running conflict found in Westphalia could help resolve conflicts today, such as those in Syria or Ukraine.