The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed in 1748 and brought to an end the hostilities of the Austrian War of Succession. The Treaty was understood, even at the time, as little more than a truce, particularly between France and Great Britain, as it settled few of their disputes over North America, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent. These issues would reemerge only six years later with the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War.

The Congress of Vienna convened in 1815 to decide how to divide Europe among the major European powers in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. All of these representatives are correctly matched except for Prince Metternich, who was the Austrian diplomatic representative. Prussia was represented by Karl von Hardenberg.

The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was issued by the Hapsburg ruler Charles VI to ensure that in the event of there being no legitimate male heir, his throne and the various inheritances of the Hapsburgs would pass to his eldest daughter Maria Theresa. Prior to the Pragmatic Sanction, ancient German law prevented a daughter from inheriting lands and titles from her father. Charles VI did indeed die without leaving a legitimate male hair and Maria Theresa did succeed him as ruler of Austria and the diverse Hapsburg lands, but her accession nonetheless resulted in the outbreak of conflict in 1740 with the War of Austrian Succession.

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.