The Peace of Augsburg

• 1555

• Ended the religious civil war (the Schmalkaldic war) between Roman Catholics and Lutherans in the German states.

• Gave each German prince the right to determine the religion of his state, either Roman Catholic or Lutheran.

• Failed to provide for the recognition of Calvinists or other religious groups.

The Council of Trent

• 1545-1563

• Reformed Catholic Church discipline and reaffirmed church doctrine.

• Preserved the papacy as the center of Christianity.

• Confirmed all seven existing sacraments

• Reaffirmed Latin as the language of worship.

• Forbade clerical marriage.

The Edict of Nantes

• 1598

• Issued by Henry IV of France

• Granted religious toleration to French Protestants (Huguenots)

• Marked the first formal recognition by a European national monarchy that two religions could coexist in the same country

• Revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.

The Peace of Westphalia

• 1648

• Ended the Thirty Years' War

• Recognized Calvinism as a legally permissible faith

• Recognized the sovereign independent authority of over 300 German states.

• Continued the political fragmentation of Germany

• Granted Sweden additional territory, confirming its status as a major power.

• Acknowledged the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands

The Peace of Utrecht

• 1713

• Ended Louis XIV's efforts to dominate Europe

• Allowed Philip V to remain on the throne of Spain but stipulated that the crowns of Spain and France should never be worn by the same monarch.

• Granted the Spanish Netherlands (now called the Austrian Netherlands) to the Austrian Habsburgs along with Milan, Naples, and Sicily

• Granted England a number of territories including Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Gilbraltar

• Granted England the asiento, the lucrative right to supply African slaves to Spanish America

The Pragmatic Sanction

• 1713

• Guaranteed the succession of Habsburg emperor Charles VI's eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, to the throne.

• Guaranteed the indivisibility of the Habsburg lands.

• Violated when Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Silesia in 1740.

The Congress of Vienna

• 1815

• Enacted a settlement that was acceptable to both the victors and to France

• Created a balance of power that lasted until the unification of Germany in 1871

• Underestimated the forces of liberalism and nationalism

• Used the principle of legitimacy to restore the Bourbons to the French throne

• United Belgium with the Netherlands to form a single kingdom of the Netherlands

• Created a loose confederation of 39 German states dominated by Austria

• Ended the Napoleonic Wars

The Berlin Conference

• 1884-1885

• Established rules for dividing Africa amongst the European powers. A European state could no longer simply declare a region of Africa its colony. It first had to exercise effective control over the territory.

• Declared the Congo to be the 'Congo Free State', under the personal control of Leopold II of Belgium

• Established rules governing the race for African colonies.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• 1918

• Ended Bolshevik Russia's participation in WWI

• Negotiated by Vladimir Lenin because he was unwilling to risk Bolshevik gains by continuing a war that could no longer be won

• Nullified following Germany's defeat by the Allies

The Treaty of Versailles

• 1919

• Refused to allow either defeated Germany or Communist Russia to participate in peace conference negotiations

• Forced Germany to sign a war-guilt clause that was used to justify imposing large war reparations payments

• Changed the map of Europe by returning Alsace-Lorraine to France and dissolving Austria-Hungary in the separate states of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

• Created the League of Nations to discuss and settle disputes without resorting to war.

• Left a legacy of bitterness between the victors and Germany.

The Locarno Pact

• 1925

• Recorded an agreement between France and Germany to respect mutual frontiers.

• Marked the beginning of a brief period of reduced tensions among the European powers.

The Kellogg-Griand Pact

• 1928

• Outlawed war as an instrument of national policy

• Violated repeatedly during the 1930s

The Munich Conference

• 1938

• Ceded the Sudetenland to Adolf Hitler

• Discredited the British policy of appeasement.

The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

• 1939

• Created a nonaggression agreement in which Hitler and Joseph Stalin promised to remain neutral if the other became involved in a war.

• Divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet zones.

The North Atlantic Pact

• 1949

• Established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to coordinate the defense of its members.

• Implemented Harry Truman's policy of containing the Soviet Union

• Forced to move its headquarters from Paris to Brussels when Charles de Gaull withdrew French forces from the "American-controlled" NATO

The Treaty of Rome

• 1957

• Created the European Economic Community (EEC), generally known as the Common Market.

• Marked the beginning of European economic integration

The Helsinki Accords

• 1975

• Ratified the European territorial boundaries established after WWII

• Established "Helsinki watch committees" to monitor human rights in the 35 nations that signed the Helsinki Accords.

• Marked the high point of Cold War detente.

The Maastricht Treaty

• 1991

• Created the European Union (EU), the world's largest single economic market.

• Created a central bank for the European Union.