Master’s Degree in Comparative International Relations Final Thesis Westphalia Through the Looking Glass A Reconstruction of the Westphalia Peace Treaties and their Manipulation in the field of International Relations Supervisor Ch. Prof. Delogu Giulia Assistant supervisor Ch. Prof. Trampus Antonio Graduand Silvia Dal Soglio Matricolation number 857463 Academic Year 2019 / 2020 0 Index General Introduction .................................................................................................................... 4 PART I – THE HISTORICAL WESTPHALIA ........................................................................ 8 Chapter 1 - The Thirty Years War ............................................................................................. 9 1.1.2 The Thirty Years’ War: an Imperial War or a Religious One? ............................................ 10 1.1.4 The Problem of the Succession to the Imperial Thorne ....................................................... 13 1.2. 1618-1621: The Bohemian Crisis .......................................................................................... 15 1.3. 1621-1624: The Palatinate Phase ........................................................................................... 18 1.4. 1625-1629: The Danish Phase ............................................................................................... 20 1.5. 1630-1635: The Swedish Phase ............................................................................................. 23 1.6. 1636-1648 The French Intervention ...................................................................................... 25 1.7. The Cost of Westphalia .......................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 - The Making of the Peace Talks ............................................................................. 29 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 29 2.2 1641: The Treaty of Hamburg ................................................................................................ 31 2.3 1642: The (Slow) Arrival of the Delegates ............................................................................. 34 2.3.1 The Swedish and Papal Scares ............................................................................................. 37 2.4. 1644: The Official Beginning of the Talks ............................................................................ 38 2.5. The Westphalia Treaties ........................................................................................................ 41 2.5.1 The International Agreements.............................................................................................. 41 1 2.5.2 The Final Division of the Estates and the Recognition of Protestant Rights within the Empire ........................................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 3 - The Westphalia Treaties: the Birth of Modern Sovereignty? ............................ 45 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 45 3.2 The Concept of Sovereignty in the Treaties ........................................................................... 47 3.2.1 The Issues with the Recognition of the Sovereignty of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland ....................................................................................................................................................... 53 3.3 The Concept of Balance of Power in the Treaties .................................................................. 56 3.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 58 Part II – THE MYTHICAL WESTPHALIA ........................................................................... 61 Chapter 4 – The Birth of the Eurocentric Myth of Westphalia ............................................. 62 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 62 4.2 The Power of Myths................................................................................................................ 64 4.3 From a Religious Westphalia To a Political One.................................................................... 68 4.4 Europe’s 19th Century Legal Positivism Turn ........................................................................ 74 4.6 The Importance of Westphalia after World Word II .............................................................. 79 4.7 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 83 Chapter 5 – The Apogee of Presentism ..................................................................................... 85 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 85 2. A New Justification of the Myth ............................................................................................... 89 3. Westphalia and the 21st century ................................................................................................ 92 2 4. Why has the Myth Survive For so Long? ................................................................................. 95 5. The Opposers to Westphalia: The 1990s Debate and the First Challengers of the Myth ......... 97 Chapter 6 – Why Do Academics Accept the Myth of Westphalia? ...................................... 100 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 100 2. The Problem of Sources .......................................................................................................... 102 3. The Lack of Collective Incentives .......................................................................................... 105 4. The Silenced Debate of International Relations ..................................................................... 110 5. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 114 General Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 115 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 119 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 122 Sitography .................................................................................................................................. 129 3 General Introduction There are few years as loved as 1648 in the field of international relations. Considered the birth of the concept of state sovereignty, the 1648 Peace of Westphalia is commonly believed to be one of the most pivotal moments in the history of international relations and the year zero of the modern international system, with legal scholar Leo Gross describing it as a “majestic portal which leads from the old into the new world1”. This narrative, however, is historically inaccurate and numerous studies have proven that the vision of Westphalia as the birth of "the normative structure […] of the modern world order2" is just a myth. The aim of this research is therefore that of continuing the work of those academics who have criticised the unquestioned acceptance of Westphalia as the starting point of the modern international society by offering a slightly different analysis of the events and of their manipulation. Rather than trying to find answers to the daunting questions that the removal of Westphalia as the starting point of international relations poses (such as "which date or event can then be seen as the beginning of the modern international society?"), this paper will (first) analyse the historical background, content and language of the Westphalian treaties in order to prove that these agreements and their consequences cannot be considered as a turning point of international relations; (second) trace a historical account how their misinterpretation has come be accepted as true in the last 370 years; (third) provide a partial explanation to why the majority of the academics still accepts the myth as truth. Through the outlining of the history of the Westphalian myth and how it evolved in time, the research will therefore argue that the false narrative of the 1648 events 1 Gross, Leo. The peace of Westphalia, 1648–1948. American Journal of International Law 42.1 (1948): 28. 2 Baylis, John. The globalization of world politics: An introduction to international relations. Oxford university press, Oxford, 2020. 4 can be divided into two period, one dating from the 18th century to the 1960s and based on a Eurocentric vision of the events, and a second one that began in the 1960s and reached its apogee in the 1970s that is based on a presentist attitude. By following this red thread, this part of the research will then unveil how one of the most powerful myths of international relations was turned into an irrefutable