1648

1648 was a pivotal year in European history, marking the formal end of the Thirty Years' War with the Peace of Westphalia. Signed in Münster and Osnabrück on 24 October 1648, the settlement redrew parts of the political map and established new norms for interstate relations. It recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic, approved Swedish gains in Baltic territories, and revised the balance of power within the Holy Roman Empire by reaffirming princes’ rights to determine the religion of their territories and extending protection to Calvinists.

In France, the Fronde began in 1648, a set of civil conflicts that erupted in response to attempts at centralizing authority under Cardinal Mazarin during the minority of Louis XIV. The Fronde involved nobles, parliament factions, and urban mobs, and while it temporarily unsettled royal authority, it ultimately contributed to the strengthening of the monarchy and the emergence of an absolutist state under Louis XIV.

In Eastern Europe, the Khmelnytsky Uprising intensified in 1648 as Ukrainian Cossacks rose against Polish rule in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The rebellion reshaped regional loyalties, contributed to shifts in power in the region, and influenced later treaties and negotiations that altered the balance of power in Eastern Europe.