123 School Work

Peace of Westphalia

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  The Peace of Wesphalia:
  
  -Gigantic Step forward for international law
  -since there was so much destruction, the state had to create a role in economic reconstruction
  -The Peace of Westphalia sanctioned a religious development, the origin of which can be traced back to the Reformation in the beginning of the 16th century. The religious unity of Catholic Europe prevailing till that point of time collapsed in the 16th century. A reform movement, called the Reformation, which had started in Germany from 1517 under the influence of Martin Luther, had resulted in the division of western and central European Christianity into Catholics and Protestants. A similar movement was started by Zwingli and Calvin in Switzerland, where the reformed denomination came into being and spread to Germany as well. Thus, Germany was divided into Roman-Catholic, Protestant-Lutheran and Protestant-Reformed sections. However, all the three different religious denominations had one claim - namely, that theirs was the sole, legitimate form of Christianity.
  -the strong position enjoyed by the states (Bundeslnder) in the prevailing system of federal government in Germany is the result of a development that has been shaped in no small measure by the Peace of Westphalia.
  
  -Lastly, the Peace of Westphalia is one of the milestones in the history of development up to the point of current international law. The medieval idea of the unity of western Christianity under the leadership of the Kaiser and the Pope was abandoned. And this was replaced by the concept of sovereign states with equal rights based on an inter-governmental order constituted of treaties and international law...