Which 1648 peace settlement ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe?

The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War in Europe in 1648.

The name refers mainly to the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, negotiated in Westphalia and signed in October 1648. The Thirty Years’ War had begun in 1618 within the Holy Roman Empire and expanded into a wider European conflict involving religious, dynastic, and strategic struggles. The settlement brought a general peace to much of the empire, although fighting involving Spain and France continued until 1659.

The agreements recognized important territorial and political changes. Sweden gained territories around the Baltic and North Sea, France received rights and possessions connected with Alsace, and the independence of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland was formally recognized in the settlement’s wider diplomatic context. The treaties also reaffirmed and adjusted religious arrangements within the Holy Roman Empire.

Historians often associate Westphalia with the modern idea of state sovereignty. However, the simple claim that it single-handedly created the modern nation-state system is debated; sovereignty developed through longer historical processes.