The Berlin Conference was held in 1884 and 1885. It was a formal meeting of the major European powers to regulate the wave of African colonialism that marked the era of New Imperialism. It coincided with the emergence of Germany as an imperial power with designs on control over significant portions of the African continent. Among many other things, it granted the territory of the Congo Free State to the personal control of the Belgian King Leopold II.

The Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992 and formally created the European Union. It led to the widespread adoption of the euro as the single currency of most of the members of the European Union. It also codified laws that all members of the European Union are obligated to abide by.

The term “Asiento” is a Spanish term that in British history is used to refer to an arrangement made in the 1713 Peace of Utrecht that Britain was to be given a forty-year contract to provide slaves to the Spanish colonies of the New World. The “Asiento” was an extremely lucrative contract because it gave the British a near monopoly on the valuable sale of goods and slaves to Spanish colonists.

Both Russia and Prussia had designs on Polish territory at the Congress of Vienna. Russia, and Alexander I in particular, was determined to incorporate the whole of Polish territory into the Russian Empire. Fearing Russian hegemony in Europe, the other major European powers, except for Prussia, conspired against the Tsar, and in the end, he accepted the city of Warsaw as an independent state to be concurrently ruled by the Tsar of Russia. Prussia was granted extensive territory in Saxony, as well as the Grand Duchy of Poznan.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, formally ended the hostilities of World War One. The victorious nations of France, Britain, the United States, Italy, and Japan imposed harsh terms on the defeated Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formally dissolved, and Germany was forced to make excessive reparation payments to the Allied powers. One of the clauses of the treaty was that the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, occupied by German forces, should be returned to French control.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in 1928 by most of the major powers in the world. It formally renounced war as a means of settling international disputes. Obviously, given that the Second World War broke out just a decade later, it was not effective; however, the principal it established was influential in the formation of the United Nations following the end of World War Two.

The Peace of Augsburg was signed in 1555. It ended the protracted Civil War that had been raging in the German Prince-led states of the Holy Roman Empire between the Lutherans and the Catholics. The Peace of Augsburg may be understood as an early extension of religious tolerance in Europe based on pragmatism; however, the extension of its tolerance had very strict limits. Firstly, the population of each princely state had little say in the religion its members could practice; that was decided by the ruler, and the rest of the population was then required to follow him. Secondly, all other Protestant denominations were excluded from the Peace of Augsburg—it only extended to Lutherans and Catholics. Calvinists continued to be persecuted by both groups.

The Treaty of Versailles was passed in 1919 and formally dissolved the formerly massive Empire of Austria-Hungary (one of the central powers, and losers, of World War One). The territory of Austria-Hungary was divided into smaller independent nations, including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is one of the most important treaties in European history. It brought to an end the brutal fighting of the Thirty Years’ War that had devastated the population of German-speaking central Europe and pitted all the major continental powers of Europe against one another. It included formal religious tolerance for all three major branches of Protestantism, including Calvinism for the first time. It provided territorial gains for the Kingdoms of France and Sweden, who both emerged as dominant European powers during this time period. Finally, it provided de jure independence for the territory of Switzerland that had previously only enjoyed de facto independence.

The War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War both took place during the eighteenth century, whereas the Congress of Vienna took place in 1815, at the beginning of the nineteenth century; therefore, neither of these events contributed to the decline of the “Concert of Europe” in the time period described. The “Concert of Europe” refers to the balance of power implemented in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars designed to preserve peace and the status quo in Europe. It was negatively impacted by the Revolutions of 1848, which encouraged the rise of liberalism and democracy in Europe. It was also negatively impacted by the unifications of Germany and Italy, as two additional major powers emerged on the European scene concurrent with the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.