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Europe in the Balance: An Appraisal of the Westphalian System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

Arthur Eyffinger
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Extract

For all its merits and shortcomings, the Peace of Westphalia is a crossroad of European history. It represents one of the very rare moments of concerted action on the part of its nations to rearrange the disarray of their jigsaw puzzle. It must be said that Europe has not exactly been blessed with such tokens of united will-power. Only three or four serious efforts are worth mentioning as having had any lasting consequence: Westphalia(1648), Vienna(1814–15), Versailles (1919) and, with some restrictions, San Francisco (1945–46).

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Articles
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Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , August 1998 , pp. 161 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1998

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References

1. Such as at Nymegen (1678), Rijswijk (1697), Utrecht (1713), Paris (1856) or Berlin (1878).

2. Most illustrative of the conduct of states in this respect is the impotence of the First Hague Peace Conference of 1899. Summoned without a compelling need, it achieved only a fraction of what the Guns of August enforced a mere twenty years later.

3. The Spanish-French enmity would linger on till 1659.

4. The thesis defended by P. Geyl, L.J. Rogier and J.W. Smit. See E.H. Kossmann, Politieke theorie en geschiedenis [Political Theory in History] (Amsterdam, E.H. Bakker 1987). On the occasion of the 1948 commemoration three articles in lll De Gids (1948) by W.J.M. van Eysinga, J.A. van Hamel and L.J. Rogier; H.A. Enno van Gelder, Vijf Eeuwgetijden [The Tides of Five Centuries] (Amsterdam, Van Kampen 1948); J.J. Poelhekke, De Vrede van Munster [The Peace of Munster] (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff 1948); J. Presser, in H. Enno van Gelder, et al., eds., Vrede van Munster 1648–1948 (Delft, Delftsche Uitg. Mij. 1948); C. Smit, Het vredesverdrag van Munster [The Peace Treaty of Munster] (Leiden, Brill 1948); J.J. Woltjer, De Vredemakers [The Peacemakers], 89 TVG (1976) pp. 299–321.

5. Israel, J.I., The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World, 1601–1661 (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1982);Google Scholaridem, The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806 (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1995);Google ScholarParker, G., The Army of Flanders andthe Spanish Road (1567–1659) (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1972);Google Scholaridem, The Thirty Years War (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1984);Google ScholarElliott, J., Imperial Spain 1469–1716 (London, Arnold 1963).Google Scholar

6. Among the wealth of literature: Deursen, A.Th. van, Mensen van klein vermogen [Men of Small Fortune] (Amsterdam, Ooievaar 1996);Google ScholarGroenveld, S., et al., De kogel door de kerk? De opstand in de Nederlanden 1555–1609 [A Bullet through the Church? The Uprising in the Netherlands 1555–1609] (Zutphen, De Walburg Press 1991);Google Scholar idem, and Leeuwenberg, H.L.Ph., De buidin de schuit. De consolidatie van de Republiek 1609–1650 [The Bride in the Boat. The Consolidation of the Republic 1609–1650] (Zutphen, The Walburg Press 1985);Google ScholarPoelhekke, J.J., Frederik Hendrik, Prins van Oranje. Een biografisch drieluik [Frederik Henrik, Prince of Orange. A Biographical Triptych] (Zutphen, The Walburg Press 1978); J. de Vries en A. van der Woude, Nederland 1500–1815 (Amsterdam, Balans 1995); H. de Schepper, et al., eds., Congres Vrede van Munster, Conference Proceedings, Werkgroep Zeventiende Eeuw (Hilversum, Verloren 1997).Google Scholar

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9. De Visscher, op. cit. n. 8, at p. 6.

10. Lutherans only at this stage.

11. How indeed should one have reacted to Princes who first abandoned Catholicism, then again substituted Lutheranism for Calvinism; or to the Bishop of Cologne, who turned Protestant but refused to resign?

12. Thus, the same creed which openly served patriotism in Holland, served the subversive Huguenots in France.

13. Jean Bodin (1530–1596), author of Six Livres de la République (1576).

14. William Barclay (1541–1608), a Scottish political thinker, whose main thesis was elaborated in De regnoet regalipotestate (1600). Barclay insisted on the patriarchical principle of primogeniture as the exclusive way of succession.

15. Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), author of De Cive (1642) Leviathan (1651; Tuck, R., ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1996).Google Scholar See Sorell, T., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1996),Google Scholar and Tuck, R., Philosophy and Government 1572–1651 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1993).Google Scholar

16. Charles De Visscher once acutely observed that fear and anxiety have been the common denominators of all advocates of absolutism through the centuries. In Italy it materialised into the plea for the strictest Realpolitik, the ferocity of the lion and the slyness of the fox, with cynical disdain for moral precepts or religious considerations. See De Visscher, op cit. n. 8, at p. 12.

17. The German Johannes Althusius (1557–1638), author of Politica methodice digesta (1603).

18. Such as Bacon's New Atlantis, Harrington's Oceana, Campanella's City of the Sun or Andreae's Christianopolis.

19. The idea can be traced to the 13th century in the works of Pierre Dubois, and continued with King Georg von Podebrad, Emeric Crucé and the Grand Dessein of Henri IV's minister De Sully down to William Penn, the Abbé de St.-Pierre, Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant. See C.J. Lange and A. Schou, Histoire de l'internationalisms II; De lapaix de Westphalie jusqu'au Congres de Vienne (Kristiana, Aschehoug 1954); J. Ter Meulen, Der Gedanke derInternationalen Organisation in seiner Entwicklung, 3 Vols. (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff 1917–1940), Vol. 1; H. J. Schlochauer, Die Idee des ewigen Friedens (Bonn, Röhrscheid 1953).

20. Grotius was perhaps the first to systematically assemble the prevailing traditions of his day around a body of principles rooted in the law - and the law exclusively. See Bull, H., et al., eds., Hugo Grotius and International Relations (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1990);Google Scholar C.G. Roelofsen, Studies in the History of International Law, diss. Utrecht (Utrecht, s.l., s.n. 1991) pp. 75–131; Ch. De Visscher, op. cit., passim.

21. To 19th century Eurocentrism and ‘civilised nations’ doctrine the universalist outlook obviously had no appeal.

22. The tension between law as a product of natural reason (fusis), a universally valid, cosmic counterpart to the particular man-made ‘law and order’ of the city-state (nomos)was a constant topic of argument in antique Greece, the one phrased in statements of most general nature, the latter, typically, in strict prescriptions.

23. To Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, man was a member of the oikeiosis, that great family of mankind which spanned the entire globe: katholikon. See G. Abel, Stoizismus und frühe Neuzeit (Berlin, De Gruyter 1978); G. Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1982).

24. See L. Gross, ’The Peace of Westphalia, 1648–1948‘, in 42AJIL(1948)pp. 20–41 at pp. 31–33; P. Vinogradoff, ‘Historical Types of International Law’, in H.A.L. Fisher, ed.,Collected Papers Vinogradoff, II (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1928) pp. 296 et seq.Google Scholar

25. Cf., Suarez, De Legibus II. XIX.9: ‘for these states when standing alone are never so self-sufficient that they do not require some mutual assistance, association and intercourse’, and Grotius, DJBP, Prolegomena 22: ‘…there is no state so powerful that it may not some time need the help of others outside itself.’

26. See L. Gross, op. cit. n. 24; T. Turretini, La signification des traités de Westphalie dans la domainedudroitdes gens (Geneva, Imprimerie Genevoise 1949); Dickmann, F., Der Westfdlische Frieden (Munster, Verlag Aschendorff 1972);Google ScholarIsrael, F.L., ed., Major Peace Treaties of Modem History 1648–1967, Vol. I (New York, Chelsea House 1967);Google ScholarOsiander, A., The States System of Europe, 1640–1990 (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1994).Google Scholar

27. See Polisensky, J.V., Tragic Triangle: The Netherlands, Spain and Bohemia, 1617–1621 (Prague, Charles University 1991);Google Scholaridem, War and Society in Europe, 1618–1648 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1978);Google ScholarParker, G., The Thirty Years War (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1984);Google ScholarWedgwood, C.W., The Thirty Years War (London, Routledge 1989).Google Scholar

28. It all started when the ambitious Catholic King of Bohemia, by imposing the cuius regio principle on his territories, enforced absolutism on his nobility. His political cleansings through the Edict of Restitution made the Protestant Union to call in the help of Christian IV of Denmark, Gustave II Adolph of Sweden and Louis XIII.

29. See Holsti, K.J., Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order 1648–1948 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1991) p. 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30. Innocent X refused to sign and proclaimed the Peace null and void in the Bull Zelo domus Dei.

31. Mazarin felt no scruples in proposing an alliance to the Protestant regicide of his king's uncle, Oliver Cromwell.

32. Cf. the word of Hobbes: ‘The Sword of Justice in the municipal sphere is directed by law; the Sword of War, in international affairs, is directed by power.’

33. See Gulick, E., Europe's Classical Balance of Power (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press 1955);Google Scholar A. Vagts and D. Vagts, ‘The Balance of Power in International Law: A History of an Idea’, 73 AJIL (1979) pp. 555–580.

34. It is this notion which still prevails in the Permanent Membership of the Security Council.

35. See H. Bull, op. cit. n. 7, at pp. 101–126.

36. Treatises of the period, Graswickel's De jure majestatis (A2), Uytenbogaert's Overheydt (1644) or Grotius' De imperio (1647) all settle the issue of state and church by advocating the pragmatic, regent and merchant class approach. See H. W. Blom, in Munster/De Zeventiende Eeuw [Munster/The Seventeenth Century] pp. 89–97; idem, Causality and Morality in Politics, diss. (1995) pp. 167 et seq.

37. See S. Groenveld and H.L.Ph. Leeuwenberg, eds., De Unie van Utrecht. Wording en werking van een verbond en een verbondsacte [The Union of Utrecht. The Origin and Operation of a Treaty and a Treaty Act] (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff 1979); Andreae, S.J.Fockema, De Nederlandse Staat onder de Republiek [The Dutch State under the Republic] (Amsterdam, Noord-Hollandsche U.M. 1962);Google Scholar and Colenbrander, H., Geschiedenis Staatsinstellingen [Constitutional History] (The Hague, Nijhoff 1922).Google Scholar

38. See A.A.H. Struycken, De Hoofdtrekken van Nederlands buitenlandsch beleid [The Main Features of Dutch Foreign Policy] (Arnhem, S. Gouda Quint 1923) p. 18.

39. See Voorhoeve, J.J.C., Peace, Profits and Principles. A Study of Dutch Foreign Policy (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff 1985);Google Scholarvan Sas, N.C.F., ed., De Kracht van Nederland, Internationale Positie en Buitenlands Beleid [The Strenghth of the Netherlands, the International Position and Foreign Policy] (Haarlem, Becht 1991);Google ScholarHellema, D., Buitenlandse Politiek van Nederland [Foreign Policy of the Netherlands] (Utrecht, Het Spectrum 1995).Google Scholar

40. Karnebeek, H.A. van, Veertig Jaren (1898–1938) [Forty Years (1898–1938)] (The Hague, Van Stockum 1938) p. 4.Google Scholar

41. Being whichever power dominated the European scene: Spain, France or Germany.

42. William even aspired to expansionism along the Rhine and Mosella, only to find himself checked by Prussia.

43. Vagts and Vagts, op. cit. n. 33, at p. 580.

44. Holsti, op. cit. n. 29, at p. 44.

45. Charles II, the Spanish King, stipulated by will that the kingdoms of Spain and France were never to be joined in a personal union under a Bourbon.

46. Vagts and Vagts, op. cit. n. 33, at pp. 556–557.

47. Grotius pushed this claim even further: it was not only a question of affirming on an ontological plane the substantial unity of the human community within the juridical and political order of modern states, but also, on the existential level, of recovering the unity destroyed by religious struggles. The dependence of a law of nations on natural law guarantee[d] this cohesion.