Introduction

In 1980, I covered the problem of peace congresses in the century following the Peace Treaties of Westphalia (1648) for the first time. At that time, the main interest was in formal questions, especially the institution of mediation, whose changing substance and practice I then sketched. Central to the argument was the question why and when the pre-modern age tackled the problem of peacekeeping by developing mechanisms to prevent the outbreak of conflicts instead of merely putting an end to wars, and how successful these efforts, which culminated in the congresses of Cambrai and Soissons in the 1720s, were.

After twenty years, one approaches a question quite differently, according to changing paradigms of research. In this chapter, more emphasis is put on the internal logic and the internal mechanisms of peacemaking, and also on the categories which were used in order to situate the material results of the negotiations in a particular conception of the world. But the chapter also takes into account that the interests of research have considerably moved towards historical semantics, the changing use and meaning of notions and key words, and in general the direction of the language used in the treaties.

Westphalia as a turning point?

First of all, there is a need to reflect on the specifics of the period and on the fundamental changes which took place in the character of the interstate relations and the treaties in comparison with the preceding period.