THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA:

STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

Abstract

The present article aims to present the outline of the conflicts that were triggered during the thirty years of wars known as the Thirty Years' War and pacified with the Westphalia agreements, also known as the Peace of Westphalia, in addition to indicating that its problems generated changes in the relations between churches and state power, from which emerged new geographical-political and religious configurations, culminating in the definitive predominance of the State over the churches. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War (and also the Eighty Years' War of the Netherlands against Spain) and became a symbolic milestone in the evolution of the modern State and in the process of constituting the modern system of international relations, which lasted until the beginning of the First World War. The process of recatholicization of the territories of Moravia and Bohemia meant a reconfiguration of the relations given to the Central European space, specifically to the so-called Holy Roman Empire. In this sense, the present article considers the events related to the formation and need for a pacification that contemplated the religious, political and economic needs of the nations involved, decisively impacting the way the State is conceived.