Treaties; Diplomacy; International Organizations - AP European History

During the Renaissance, Italy consisted of five main city-states: Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Naples, each with its own system of government. There were struggles for power among these various political entities, and their internal and external struggles made Italy vulnerable to invasion. Continental powers (notably the French and Austrians under Charles V) fought for territorial control in Italy in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In the wake of the Protestant reformation, some German princes embraced Lutheranism for myriad reasons, which increased political division within the German states of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V and the French Valois dynasty went to war repeatedly throughout the sixteenth century, and much of the fighting took place in Germany. The French kings tended to support Lutheran princes to promote disunity and defy Charles V. Eventually, Charles V accepted the Peace of Augsburg, which recognized Lutheranism and permitted German princes to choose whether their states would be Catholic or Lutheran.

The Thirty Years' War erupted when the Peace of Augsburg (1555) no longer seemed to be sufficient to keep the peace in the various German states; the growth of Calvinism, which was not accounted for in the previous treaty, further threatened the status quo. Lutheran princes formed a Protestant Union (1608), and Catholic princes formed the Catholic League (1609). Tensions came to a head in 1618, when Protestants in Bohemia threw the representatives of a Catholic king out of a window (the Defenestration of Prague). The war lasted for thirty years, with both the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs siding with the Catholic princes.

The Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. In Germany, it reinforced the previous stipulations of the Peace of Augsuburg, with the addition that Calvinism was also permissible. The northern German states were largely Protestant; the southern German states were Catholic.

The term “Asiento” is a Spanish term that in British history is used to refer to an arrangement made in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht that Britain was to be given a forty-year contract to provide slaves to the Spanish colonies of the New World. The “Asiento” was an extremely lucrative contract because it gave the British a near monopoly on the valuable sale of goods and slaves to Spanish colonists.

The Peace of Augsburg was signed in 1555. It ended the protracted Civil War that had been raging in the German Prince-led states of the Holy Roman Empire between the Lutherans and the Catholics. The Peace of Augsburg may be understood as an early extension of religious tolerance in Europe based on pragmatism; however, the extension of its tolerance had very strict limits. Firstly, the population of each princely state had little say in the religion its members could practice; that was decided by the ruler, and the rest of the population was then required to follow him. Secondly, all other Protestant denominations were excluded from the Peace of Augsburg—it only extended to Lutherans and Catholics. Calvinists continued to be persecuted by both groups.

The Edict of Nantes was issued in 1598 by the French King Henry IV. It brought to an end the French Wars of Religion, which had raged violently for almost forty years. The Edict extended religious tolerance to Calvinists (known as Huguenots) within the Kingdom of France, although they were still persecuted on both a state and local level on a frequent basis. The Edict was revoked in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. The Edict of Nantes can also be understood as an extension of the Edict of St. Germain, which was issued by Catherine de Medici during the period of time when she reigned as regent of the French Kingdom. The Edict of St. Germain allowed for French Calvinists to worship privately, but was widely ignored and came at the height of tensions between the Catholic and Protestant populations, tensions that would very soon break out into civil war through the French Wars of Religion.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is one of the most important treaties in European history. It brought to an end the brutal fighting of the Thirty Years’ War that had devastated the population of German-speaking central Europe and pitted all the major continental powers of Europe against one another. It included formal religious tolerance for all three major branches of Protestantism, including Calvinism for the first time. It provided territorial gains for the Kingdoms of France and Sweden, who both emerged as dominant European powers during this time period. Finally, it provided de jure independence for the territory of Switzerland that had previously only enjoyed de facto independence.

The Peace of Utrecht ended the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714). The War of Spanish Succession broke out when King Charles II, the last Hapsburg monarch of Spain, died childless and without a clear legitimate heir to the throne. It was Charles’ wish that the throne, and the entire Spanish colonial inheritance, be left to Philip, Duke of Anjou, who just so happened to be the grandson of the French King Louis XIV. During this time period, the Kingdom of France was growing dramatically in power and influence, and the idea of a Kingdom of France and Spain, with all their overseas holdings, all under the dominion of King Louis XIV, troubled the other ruling princes of Europe, who were worried that France would become a hegemonic power and upset the balance of power in Europe. The Peace of Utrecht allowed Philip to inherit the Spanish throne on the condition that he renounce any future claims to being King of France.

The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was issued by the Hapsburg ruler Charles VI to ensure that in the event of there being no legitimate male heir, his throne and the various inheritances of the Hapsburgs would pass to his eldest daughter Maria Theresa. Prior to the Pragmatic Sanction, ancient German law prevented a daughter from inheriting lands and titles from her father. Charles VI did indeed die without leaving a legitimate male hair and Maria Theresa did succeed him as ruler of Austria and the diverse Hapsburg lands, but her accession nonetheless resulted in the outbreak of conflict in 1740 with the War of Austrian Succession.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748 and brought to an end the hostilities of the Austrian War of Succession. The Treaty was understood, even at the time, as little more than a truce, particularly between France and Great Britain, as it settled few of their disputes over North America, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent. These issues would reemerge only six years later with the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War.

The Congress of Vienna convened in 1815 to decide how to divide Europe among the major European powers in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. All of these representatives are correctly matched except for Prince Metternich, who was the Austrian diplomatic representative. Prussia was represented by Karl von Hardenberg.

Both Russia and Prussia had designs on Polish territory at the Congress of Vienna. Russia, and Alexander I in particular, was determined to incorporate the whole of Polish territory into the Russian Empire. Fearing Russian hegemony in Europe, the other major European powers, except for Prussia, conspired against the Tsar, and in the end, he accepted the city of Warsaw as an independent state to be concurrently ruled by the Tsar of Russia. Prussia was granted extensive territory in Saxony, as well as the Grand Duchy of Poznan.

The War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War both took place during the eighteenth century, whereas the Congress of Vienna took place in 1815, at the beginning of the nineteenth century; therefore, neither of these events contributed to the decline of the “Concert of Europe” in the time period described. The “Concert of Europe” refers to the balance of power implemented in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars designed to preserve peace and the status quo in Europe. It was negatively impacted by the Revolutions of 1848, which encouraged the rise of liberalism and democracy in Europe. It was also negatively impacted by the unifications of Germany and Italy, as two additional major powers emerged on the European scene concurrent with the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After World War Two, the governments of France and West Germany wanted to integrate their economies so heavily that a future war would not only be impractical, but an economic impossibility. To this end, they integrated their coal and steel production communities under one umbrella organization. The original treaty was signed in 1951 by six countries: West Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It can be understood as the first step in the transnationalism that later led to the creation of the European Union.

The Berlin Conference was held in 1884 and 1885. It was a formal meeting of the major European powers to regulate the wave of African colonialism that marked the era of New Imperialism. It coincided with the emergence of Germany as an imperial power with designs on control over significant portions of the African continent. Among many other things, it granted the territory of the Congo Free State to the personal control of the Belgian King Leopold II.

The Treaty of Versailles was passed in 1919 and formally dissolved the formerly massive Empire of Austria-Hungary (one of the central powers, and losers, of World War One). The territory of Austria-Hungary was divided into smaller independent nations, including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, formally ended the hostilities of World War One. The victorious nations of France, Britain, the United States, Italy, and Japan imposed harsh terms on the defeated Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formally dissolved, and Germany was forced to make excessive reparation payments to the Allied powers. One of the clauses of the treaty was that the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, occupied by German forces, should be returned to French control.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in 1928 by most of the major powers in the world. It formally renounced war as a means of settling international disputes. Obviously, given that the Second World War broke out just a decade later, it was not effective; however, the principal it established was influential in the formation of the United Nations following the end of World War Two.