'War is diplomacy by other means, von Clausewitz's famous doctrine, so familiar to historians of war. But the Thirty Years War took a different course, and war was the prime action, and overtook and relegated diplomacy, and for the first time in European or global history a European conflict became a world war - a 'first world war'. It also involved, crucially, colonial rivalry and 'modern' war crimes. The Peace of Westphalia 1648 ended the war but there was no absolute victory even for the most powerful states and conflict continued up to peace negotiations until peace articles were finally agreed. The text analyses the course of war in graphic detail and the major actors and the role of international law, including Civil Law and Canon Law, and here the role of the Catholic church, and Protestant bodies, was crucial. All leading actors were present from major states - Mazarin (France), Oliveres (Spain), Salvius (Sweden), Charles V (Holy Roman Empire), and host of rulers, states and statelets and the powerful and ruthless Dutch Republic. Great military commanders were major actors including kings (not the great Gustavus Adolphus, who personified the war and was killed in battle in1632), and the most successful Torstenson (Sweden) . The treaties leading to Westphalia from 1622 to 1648 reflect the course of war and were complex and 'modern' involving human rights, religious toleration, war law, freedom of the seas, refugees, property rights, and perhaps above all, colonial rivalry and expansion. So Westphalia occupies a crucial place in diplomatic and war history and is relevant to modern and even contemporary history. AUTHOR: John Pike is a historian, economist and barrister working currently as General Counsel for a Singapore public listed company. He graduated in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Oxford. He has worked variously as a merchant seaman, shipping executive, Investment banker, economist, barrister, general counsel, and for several years as a volunteer agricultural development adviser in Cambodia. He has lived and worked in France, Japan, Germany, Cambodia, Singapore and Burma. He was for some years the Director of economic and investment Research for a major German Bank. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 2004 thereafter practicing as a barrister out of Lincoln's Inn, having worked previously for the Serious Fraud Office. His legal practice included contract, fraud, commercial, chancery, and competition law, as well as political asylum cases. In Cambodia at the UN war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh he was a special adviser to the defence team of Nuon Chea (Pol Pot's deputy). His academic work on criminal cartels published in 2005 together with Sir Jeremy Lever QC has been cited in various Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Cases and is referenced in most textbooks on competition law. He is a military historian with deep knowledge of war and weaponry as well as technical, social, and cultural aspects of war, and his historical analysis is informed by his professional expertise in law, economics, and finance.
