What is Peace of Westphalia?
The '''Peace of Westphalia''' refers to the pair of [[Peace treaty|peace treaties]], the Treaty of [[Osnabrück]] and the Treaty of [[Münster]], signed on [[May 15]] and [[October 24]] of [[1648]], which ended both the [[Thirty Years' War]] and the [[Eighty Years' War]]. The treaties involved [[Holy Roman Emperor]] Ferdinand III, the other [[Holy Roman Empire|German]] [[prince]]s, [[Spain]], [[France]], [[Sweden]] and representatives of the [[Dutch Republic]]. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in [[1659]], ending the [[war]] between France and Spain, is also often considered part of the overall agreement. ==Locations== The peace negotiations were held in the cities of [[Münster]] and [[Osnabrück]], which lie about 50&nbsp;km apart from each other, in the present German states of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] and [[Lower Saxony]]. [[Sweden]] had favoured Osnabrück because of its Protestant background, France chose Münster because of its Catholic background. In any case, two locations were required because the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] and [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] leaders refused to meet each other. The Catholics used Münster, and the Protestants used Osnabrück. == Results == Spain accepted the independence of the Dutch Republic. [[Image:Europe map 1648.PNG|thumb|300px|A simplified map of Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.]] The power that Ferdinand III had taken for himself against the Holy Roman Empire's constitution was stripped. That meant that the rulers of the German states could again determine the religion of their lands. *All parties would now recognize the [[Peace of Augsburg]] of 1555 by which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, whether Catholicism, Lutheranism or now Calvinism. *Christians living in principalities in which their [[Christian denomination|denomination]] was ''not'' the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will. [[Image:Holy Roman Empire