Which treaty brought the Thirty Years' War to a close?

The Peace of Westphalia brought the Thirty Years' War to a close. Signed in 1648, it was a settlement made up chiefly of the Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück, negotiated in two Westphalian cities.

The war had begun in 1618 as a conflict rooted in religious and constitutional tensions within the Holy Roman Empire, but it expanded into a wider European struggle involving Sweden, France, Spain, and the Habsburgs. The peace restored stability to much of the Empire and confirmed important territorial and religious arrangements.

A common mix-up is the Peace of Prague, signed in 1635. That agreement ended much of the internal German conflict and temporarily reconciled several Protestant princes with the emperor, but fighting continued. The Peace of Westphalia was the broader and final settlement of the Thirty Years' War, although France and Spain remained at war until 1659.