The Peace of Westphalia: Birth of the Sovereign State
How exhausted diplomats ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648 — and invented the rules of the modern map.
How one event spilled into the next
Defenestration of Prague
Officials thrown from a window spark a religious war across Europe.
Peace talks open
Envoys gather in Münster and Osnabrück while fighting continues.
The treaties are signed
Switzerland and the Dutch Republic are recognised; the 1555 rule letting rulers choose their realm's religion is restored.
The Westphalian world order
The UN's principle of sovereign equality still echoes 1648.
Did you know?
Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War — not the Hundred Years' War — and also the Eighty Years' War of Dutch independence.
Negotiations took about five years, split between two towns: Münster and Osnabrück.
Parts of Germany lost a third or more of their people to war, famine and disease.
Later writers credit it with the idea that each ruler governs his own territory free of outside interference — 'sovereignty'.
Key figures
- Cardinal MazarinSteered France's diplomacy
- Axel OxenstiernaSwedish chancellor at the table
- Emperor Ferdinand IIISigned for the Holy Roman Empire
Where this comes from
- Peter Wilson, Europe's Tragedy: The Thirty Years War (2009)
- Andreas Osiander, 'Sovereignty and the Westphalian Myth' (2001)
Dates marked by tradition or legend are given as approximate.
Other sides of the story
Gathering perspectives…
What do you remember?
Preparing your quiz…
Every border, every spillover
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