By the end of 1646, two massive problems plagued the negotiators. For France, the matter was Alsace, a huge chunk of territory along the sensitive Rhine region, which had long served as a buffer between the French and Imperial spheres. For Sweden, Pomerania, a slice of land along northern Germany's Baltic coast, was the central issue. The process by which the powers solved these questions, the compromises they agreed, and the implications they had, are all examined here.

Although in the context of Westphalian negotiations, the decisions reached were important, it is in them that we see the birth of new empires - the French, the Swedish, and one fascinating outlier, that of Brandenburg-Prussia. Truly, the foundations for such significant political and strategic acts which later defined early modern Europe were laid here. I hope you'll join me in checking them out!

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