The Difficulties of Peace Making. Early Modern Peace Making Processes and the example of the Westphalian Peace Congress

• Applicant: Dr. Dorothée Goetze
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: Funded in 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 420591275

The Westphalian Peace Congress is one of the most deeply described events in early modern history. Research focuses on the formation of the treaties ending the Thirty Years War and the conflicts entwined therein.The supposedly long duration of the congress (1643-1649) can be seen as an indication that peace making is not easy but a highly complex process. Future research has to consider this as well as the multifarious factors which shape the process of peace making for no longer simply taking peace as the end of war but as deliberately brought into effect by humans. The results of the international and DFG-funded conference “The Difficulties of Peace Making. The Westphalian Peace Congress from an Interdisciplinary Perspective” (Bonn University, 31.08.- 01.09.2018), which initiated such a shift in perspective, are summed up in the present essay collection.The authors take up a growing historiographic interest in the peace making process of the years between 1640 and 1650. Focussing on cultural history and emphasising the role of diplomatic actors, the methods of the New Diplomatic History broaden the approaches to understand the Westphalian peace negotiations and thus offer new perspectives on peace making processes and its difficulties in general.The present essay collection focuses on diplomatic practices and discourses which are closely connected to each other and essential for the success and failure of early modern peace negotiations. The contributions analyse the instruments for and the conditions of early modern peace making processes.The articles in this essay collection are contextualized by reflections on the research tradition about the Westphalian Peace Congress as well as considerations on the selection and reading of sources which are determinant for our understanding of the past.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Lena Oetzel