The Peace of Westphalia

The peace of westphalia, i think you could see it as a moment when germany moves on from its religious warring past. It wasn't an end to all religious wars, but there wouldn't be the kind of wars for religion or wars over the empire's constitution that we see from 16 18 forty eight. But they certainly didn't need the emperor telling them what to do any more. The threat of france is always a very handy, handy reason to keep everyone in line. So from that alone, there really was a good reason to look more closely to your own interests.