Treaty of Münster

The October 24th 1648 are published two treaties negotiated in Westphalia, area located at the west of the current Germany. They put an end to the Guerre Thirty Year old (1618-1648) which had decimated the German States. The treaty of Münster is the second Traité of Westphalia signed, after that of Osnabrück the September 8th 1648. It relates to the emperor and France.

Preliminaries

In fact, the princes and the representatives of the towns of Germany obtained from the emperor Ferdinand III the meeting of a congress in Westphalia as of the month of December 1644. But it is necessary nearly five years of negotiations to manage an agreement. Indeed the war continues and the involved parts hope that the fate of the engagements modifies their diplomatic position favorably. The 34 plenipotentiary diplomats with their collaborators and their domesticity remained in Münster almost making double its population, at the time of approximately 120.000 inhabitants.

The negotiations proceed this manner: the four principal belligerent powers, the Empire, the Spain, the Sweden and the France, discuss together and refer of it then each one with their allies. France, anxious to weaken the emperor Ferdinand III obtained that a hundred and fifty German principalities are represented.

In margin of the general negotiations, an final agreement between the United Provinces and Spain are concretized the January 30th 1648 by the signature with Münster of a peace treaty ratified next in May. This treaty irritates France because he escapes the general framework from the negotiations. The Dutchmen obtain, after 80 years of fight, the final recognition of the sovereignty and the independence of their country. They preserve all that they acquired during the war, the mouth of the the Scheldt, Maastricht and the district of In addition to Meuse.

Agreements

France has been confirmed in the possession of the Three évêchés of Metz, Toul and Verdun annexed in fact for one century. The house of Austria yields all the rights to him which it has on the Alsace, i.e. the landgraviats of Alsace, the Sundgau, Brisach, Philippsburg, rights of baillif on ten cities of the empire in Alsace without Strasbourg nor Mulhouse. It annexes the fortress of Pignerol in the Piedmont, Moyenvic in Lorraine. Many German princes preserve strongholds in Alsace after its fastening at France. The treaty stipulates that their possessions do not depend on the French right but on that of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire.

With the treaty of Münter, France achieves its goal which is to weaken the Empire durably. The emperor loses the right to follow the foreign policy of the Empire. This one from now on is subjected to the agreement of the Reichstag.

See too

References

Random links: