أوراق على طاولة مفاوضات بوسط أوروبا، أنهت عدة حروب متشابكة ومعقدة، أبرزها حرب الثلاثين عاماً في الإمبراطورية الرومانية المقدسة وحرب الثمانين عاماً بين إسبانيا ومملكة الأراضي المنخفضة المتحدة، فيما بات يطلق عليه “صلح وستفاليا”، وهو أول اتفاق دبلوماسي في العصور الحديثة وقد أرسى نظاما جديدا في أوروبا الوسطى مبنيا على مبدأ سيادة الدول.
The Peace of Westphalia is the name given to the two peace treaties that were negotiated in the cities of Osnabrück and Münster in Westphalia, Germany. They were signed on May 15, 1648 and October 24, 1648, and were written in French. The decisions of this peace became part of the constitutional laws of the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed in 1659 between France and Spain, is often considered part of the general agreement on the Peace of Westphalia.
The peace agreements were signed by representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (Habsburg), the kingdoms of France, Spain and Sweden, the Republic of the Netherlands and the Protestant principalities of the Holy Roman Empire.
War drums
عام 1635 م، في ظل حروب تُغرق أوروبا من كل اتجاه، اقترح البابا أوربان الثامن عقد مؤتمر لبحث شروط المصالحة بين الجميع، واجتمع المندوبون للتفاوض في كولون الألمانية ولكنهم لم يصلوا إلى نتيجة. وفي هامبورغ في 1641 صاغ ممثلو فرنسا والسويد والإمبراطورية اتفاقية مبدئية لينعقد مؤتمر مزدوج في وستفاليا في 1642، وهي مقاطعة ألمانية سابقة كانت مستقلة ذاتيا ضمن إطار الدولة الألمانية “بروسيا” وعاصمتها مونستر. جرى دمجها بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية بقرار من سلطات الاحتلال البريطانية مع أقاليم في شمال حوض الراين لتؤسس مقاطعة شمال الراين.
وفي مونستر تلتقي فرنسا مع الإمبراطورية الرومانية لمعالجة مشاكلهما في ظل وساطة البابا والبندقية، وفي أوسنابروك، على بعد ثلاثين ميلاً، تلتقي فرنسا والإمبراطورية الرومانية مع السويد لإجراء المفاوضات في ظل وساطة كريستيان الرابع ملك الدنمرك. وكان هذا الفصل ضرورياً بسبب عدم رغبة المندوبين السويديين في الاجتماع تحت رئاسة ممثل البابا، ورفض ممثل البابا أن يجلس في صعيد واحد مع “الزنادقة”.
Differences win first
انقضت منذ دعوة البابا للصلح 6 شهور دون نتائج، حيث كان السفير الفرنسي يرفض أن يدخل في المفاوضات إلا إذا خوطب بلقب “صاحب الفخامة”. وعندما وصل السفير الأسباني تجنب السفير الفرنسي ونأى بنفسه عنه، لأن أياً منهما لا يعترف للآخر بالأسبقية وكان التواصل بينهما عن طريق شخص ثالث. ورفضت فرنسا الاعتراف لفيليب الرابع بلقب ملك البرتغال وأمير كاتالونيا. كما رفضت أسبانيا الاعتراف بلقب ملك نافار للويس الرابع عشر.
The Swedish delegates quarreled among themselves and wasted time until the young Queen Christina ordered them to come to terms.
The Pope's appeal would have been rejected without result, had it not been for the Swedish attack on Prague in July 1648, and the defeat of the Spanish in Linz on August 2 of the same year. These events convinced the Emperor to sign, while the Fronde revolution in France forced Cardinal Mazarin to make some concessions that would free his hand for the war at home. Thus, the Treaties of Westphalia were finally signed in Osnabrück and Münster on May 15 and October 24, 1648.
The most prominent results of the reconciliation
Most of the terms of the peace were drawn up under the influence of Cardinal Mazarin, the de facto ruler of France at that time, due to the young age of Louis XIV. Therefore, it was the largest sheep for France (whose wealth financed the victorious Swedes and whose leaders imposed peace), so the bishoprics of Metz, Verdun, and Toul near Lorraine and the cities of Decapolis (ten cities) in Alsace (without the bishopric of Strasbourg) were handed over to it.
Sweden gained control over the province of West Pomerania (known as Swedish Pomerania), the city of Wismar, and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden. Thus, it controlled the region of the mouths of the Oder, Alp and Weser rivers. Sweden received three votes in the Council of Princes in the German Reichstag.
Bavaria also maintained its status as an electoral state with its electoral vote in the Imperial Electoral Council (which elects the Holy Roman Emperor). Which was granted after the ban on the elected Palatine Frederick V in 1623. The Prince-Palatinate, son of Frederick, was given an eighth electoral vote.
كما حصلت سويسرا وهولندا وسافوي ومانتوا وتوسكانيا ولوكا ومودينا وبارما على اعتراف رسمي باستقلالهما (وقد عرفت هذه الأراضي استقلالا فعليا منذ زمن قبل الصلح)، وحصلت براندنبورغ – بروسيا (لاحقا بروسيا) على بوميرانيا الشرقية وأسقفيات مغدبورغ وهالبرستاد وكامين ومندن.
As for the rule of the united duchies of Jülich-Klefs-Burg after the death of the Duke in 1609, Jülich-Berg and Ravenstein were given to Count-Palatine Neuburg and Clefs, Mark and Ravensburg were given to Brandenburg.
It was agreed that the position of Prince-Bishopric of Ossenbrück would alternate between Protestants and Catholics, and that the Protestant bishops would be chosen from the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The independence of the city of Bremen was also confirmed, the barriers to commercial and economic activities that had been imposed during the wars were removed, and freedom of navigation to a degree was agreed upon on the Rhine River.
New map
This reconciliation resulted in pivotal results in the history of the European continent and the entire world, as these agreements drew a new map for the region, and their results affected all parties as follows:
Holy Empire
The Emperor of Austria had to be persuaded to recognize his royal rights in Bohemia and Hungary. Hence the Empire of Austria-Hungary took shape as a reality in the structure of the Holy Empire. The economies of the long-lasting empire collapsed, on the one hand due to population shortages and the decline of industry and trade during the war, and on the other hand due to the passage of large river ports to foreign countries from the Oder and Albe ports to Sweden, and the Rhine to the United Provinces.
France
The results of the peace later allowed Louis The Bourbon family replaced the Habsburgs as the great power controlling Europe, and Louis XIV quickly gained the title of Sun King.
Prussia
For historical note, France supported the emerging Hohenzollern dynasty in obtaining the largest gains from the peace on the basis of establishing another power against the Habsburgs, but history failed France, as Brandenburg later became Prussia, which would challenge France during the reign of Frederick the Great and be defeated by Bismarck.
Sweden
In addition to its gains from the Peace, Sweden later seized Livonia, Estonia, Angria, Karelia, and Finland, and became one of the great powers as the master of the Baltic states until the arrival of the Russian Emperor.
Church control
The hidden victim of the war is the Catholic Church, which was forced to retreat under this peace. The Catholic Church had to abandon the decision to return church property and return to the situation in which its property existed in 1624. It sees princes once again deciding the faith of their subjects. Be that as it may, this enabled the Church to extricate Protestantism from “Fragile Reformation” Bohemia. It destroyed the Counter-Reformation, for example, it was not likely that Poland would establish the Catholic doctrine in Protestant Sweden, as strong as it had been before.
