{"id":138768,"date":"2023-11-17T11:11:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T11:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=138768"},"modified":"2023-11-16T17:11:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:11:47","slug":"the-peace-of-westphalia-as-a-lesson-in-solving-religious-wars-past-present-or-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/the-peace-of-westphalia-as-a-lesson-in-solving-religious-wars-past-present-or-future\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peace of Westphalia as a Lesson in Solving Religious Wars Past Present or Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1999, a seemingly innocuous speech occurred in Chicago<\/a>, that unveiled a new paradigm in world affairs that was dubbed \u201cthe Blair Doctrine<\/em>\u201d. In this speech, Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Tony Blair asserted that the realities of the new age of terrorism had rendered the respect for sovereign nation states irrelevant and obsolete requiring a superior doctrine compatible with the need to periodically bomb sovereign nations you don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

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Tony Blair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This new age of humanitarian bombings would be called \u201cthe post-Westphalian age<\/em><\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recalling this speech in 2004, Blair mused<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Sept. 11, I was already reaching for a different philosophy in international relations from a traditional one that has held sway since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648; namely, that a country\u2019s internal affairs are for it, and you don\u2019t interfere unless it threatens you, or breaches a treaty, or triggers an obligation of alliance<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s original anti-Westphalia speech in 1999 occurred at moment that a fanatical sect of neocons was preparing to usher in a \u201cNew American Century<\/em>\u201d with a new focus on a Pearl Harbor moment that would justify a new Crusade of never-ending wars in Southwest Asia.<\/p>\n

One of the principle doctrines for this age involved invoking raging fires of war and hatred between Arab and Jew which is what animated Richard Perle\u2019s \u201cA Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm<\/em><\/a>\u201d as a strategic battle plan for Israel\u2019s new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Chung writes that<\/a> the:<\/p>\n

\u201cClean Break policy document outlined these goals: 1) Ending Yasser Arafat\u2019s and the Palestinian Authority\u2019s political influence, by blaming them for acts of Palestinian terrorism 2) Inducing the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime in Iraq. 3) Launching war against Syria after Saddam\u2019s regime is disposed of 4) Followed by military action against Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This hellish plan to light the Middle East on fire was in many ways made possible by the 1995 murder of Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin (by a radical zionist fanatic) and the American-Israeli creation of Hamas<\/a> as an anti-Arafat movement which would offset Yasser Arafat\u2019s tendency to find long term solutions with Israeli peacemakers like Rabin as witnessed by the efforts to create a two-state solution and Oslo Accords<\/em> in 1993.<\/p>\n

This tendency for peace between neighbouring faiths had to be stopped at all costs.<\/p>\n

Rules Based Dis-order vs Westphalia\u2019s Peace Among Faiths<\/strong><\/p>\n

By now, we all know the name for this unipolar doctrine and the smoldering wave of destruction and death that it justified for the ensuing two decades.<\/p>\n

What is less understood is the nature of the Treaty of Westphalia<\/em> of 1648 which Blair referred to as an obsolete doctrine in desperate need of replacing.<\/p>\n

Since the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia<\/em> set the foundations for the later UN Charter<\/em> drafted by Franklin Roosevelt and Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles in 1941<\/a> and since both this 1648 treaty and the UN Charter<\/em> have been systemically targeted for destruction by Borg-like armies of \u201cInternational Rule of Law<\/em>\u201d advocates pushing R2P and a Great Reset onto the world, let us take a moment to ask: What is the Treaty of Westphalia? How did it transform world history? And why is its defense so necessary in today\u2019s crisis-ridden world?<\/em><\/p>\n

The Peace of Westphalia: Phase Shift in World History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the Westphalian Treaty<\/em>, Europe was bereft in chaos and war.<\/p>\n

Not only did the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) eliminate over one third of the German population, but an additional century of religious war had set fire to Europe starting with the Knights Revolt of 1522 and the German Peasants War of 1524 that saw up to 300 thousand protestant peasants killed.<\/p>\n

Before blowing up in Germany, Protestant vs Catholic wars had ravaged France between 1562-1598 during a devastating period of chaos that came to be known as \u201cthe Little Dark Age\u201d, only coming to an end through the wise diplomatic maneuvers of King Henry IV of Navarre.<\/p>\n

It was Henry IV, alongside his lead advisor Maximilien de Bethune (aka: Duke of Sully) who reformed France by establishing religious tolerance in the famous 1598 Edict of Nantes (removing Lutheranism and Calvanism from the list of heresies), while clamping down on corruption, banning usury, ending speculation, banning high rents and investing in internal improvements with a focus on textile manufacturing and agricultural reforms.<\/p>\n

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The burst of economic growth generated by these reforms doubled the revenues of France within 12 years and revived the spirit of the great nation-building king Louis XI turning France from a house divided in Civil War into a unified state that won the admiration of all the people of Europe (and the disdain of the financier oligarchy).<\/p>\n

Henry IV also clearly aimed to revive the traditions of the Great Charlemagne<\/a> who was the last monarch to unite all of Europe under a common principle of law, when he said that Europe should become \u201ca Christian republic, entirely peaceful within itself<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Henry IV\u2019s murder by \u201ca lone assassin<\/em>\u201d in 1610 left a power vacuum and soon the religious wars grew once again out of control in Europe. This time however, they were concentrated in the more fertile soils of the highly fragmented Holy Roman Empire then occupying most of today\u2019s Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland.<\/p>\n

Unlike today\u2019s Germany, the land that blew up in religious conflict during these dark years was dominated by small-brained warlord Princes and Dukes whose power was contingent on how many mercenaries they could hire and land they could steal. In total, over 350 tiny states and principalities existed along with 2000 jurisdictions which divided the Holy Roman Empire under an array of mini sovereignties with no conception of a greater whole. [see map]<\/p>\n

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To say that the 30 years war was of a purely religious nature is an over-simplified error that many are wont to make.<\/p>\n

As outlined brilliantly by historian Pierre Beaudry<\/a>, throughout the conflict, Catholic Bourbons of France often used Protestant Proxies in Germany to fight Spanish (Catholic) Hapsburgs that were territorial rivals over low countries<\/a> or Poland.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the absence of any rules of territorial sovereignty welcomed constant infringement of factions onto each other\u2019s lands. Austro-Hungarian Habsburg emperors constantly pushed expansionist policies and Venetian games were often played on the Baltic and Black Seas while both Venetian, Dutch and other purse strings were funding all warring sides throughout the years of chaos.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, it was a disaster that was clearly sending Europe on a fast track towards a new dark age.<\/p>\n

By 1609, the world\u2019s first private central bank of Amsterdam was established along with the Dutch East India Company, which soon merged with the British East India Company and established a global maritime empire, where Venice had formerly been the dominant center of banking<\/a>, world trade, controller of bullion and maritime choke points.<\/p>\n

In reality, the same forces of Venice (and their sister \u201ccity state\u201d of Genoa) were largely behind the reallocation of imperial command centers from the Venetian Levant Company to the Netherlands and thence to England (where the later takeover was finalized during the 1688 \u2018Glorious Revolution\u2019 and the 1694 founding of the Bank of England.)<\/p>\n

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Realizing that a profound change was required to end this slide into hell, forces yearning to revive the policies of Louis XI and Henry IV and unite Europe in peaceful co-existence were organized around France\u2019s Prime Minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661) and his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Jean\u2013Baptiste Colbert (1616-1683).<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1642, Mazarin began a tedious process of organizing for the Treaty of Westphalia<\/em> offering to serve as peace broker, lead negotiator and guarantor of religious freedoms for all parties, finally arranging the signing to occur in two locations on October 24, 1648, where protestant signators met in Osnabr\u00fcck and Catholic signators met in M\u00fcnster.<\/p>\n

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The Benefit of the Other<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the Treaty<\/em> that established the framework for the sovereign nation state is often taught to students of political science as a messy legal protocol featuring 128 clauses designed to respect the rights of others to be left alone and not impinge onto territory that doesn\u2019t belong to you, something very special is often left out of the equation.<\/p>\n

This something is a principle outlined in the first two articles which serve as a guiding preamble of sorts and which infuse vitality into the entire framework:<\/p>\n

1) That all nations will now be guided by the concern for the benefit of their neighbors and 2) the forgiveness for all past transgressions. Since it is so rare that these articles are read in today\u2019s world, let us review them here:<\/p>\n

\u201cArticle 1: That there shall be a Christian and Universal Peace, and a perpetual, true, and sincere Amity. That this Peace and Amity be observed and cultivated with such a Sincerity and Zeal, that each Party shall endeavour to procure the Benefit, Honour and Advantage of the other; that thus on all sides they may see this Peace and Friendship in the Roman Empire, and the Kingdom of France flourish, by entertaining a good and faithful Neighbourhood.<\/em><\/p>\n

Article 2: That there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty, or Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, in what place, or what manner soever the Hostilities have been practised, in such a manner, that no body, under any pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any Trouble to each other.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

These were not pretty words on parchment applicable only to a \u201cwestern European cultural matrix\u201d as many believe, but foundational principles of natural law applicable to all civilizations and times. We need not look far to see their expression in the modern times not only in the UN Charter<\/em>, but also the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence<\/em> in 1954<\/a> which has come alive with the Eurasian Grand Design of win-win cooperation underlying the Belt and Road Initiative today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Economic Developments that Gave Vitality to the Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the same measure that the Westphalian principles outlined in Articles<\/em> 1 and 2 of the UN Charter<\/em><\/a> were contingent upon the successful implementation of the international New Deal economic programs showcased at Bretton Woods<\/a>, so too was the success of the Westphalian Treaty<\/em> contingent upon the implementation of great public works and economic reforms that were only partially realized across Europe in the decades following 1648.<\/p>\n

Before his death in 1661, Cardinal Mazarin outlined major infrastructure projects for both Germany and France which were directed towards developing of the internal powers of labor of the nations of Europe through canals, manufacturing and roads, while liberating European states from reliance on the Maritime monopolies of the Venetians, Dutch, Spanish and Genoese.<\/p>\n

As Beaudry outlines in his Peace of Westphalia and the Water Question<\/em><\/a>, chief among those canal projects outlined by Mazarin included:<\/p>\n