Palatinate summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Palatinate.

Palatinate , German Pfalz, Historical region, now part of Germany. The region was once under the jurisdiction of the counts palatine (secular princes), who in the 14th century became electors of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Palatinate was a stronghold of Protestantism. It was divided into two parts: the Lower, or Rhenish, Palatinate, on both sides of the Rhine River in the area south of the Main River; and the Upper Palatinate, in northern Bavaria around Amberg and Regensburg. The boundaries of the Palatinate varied with the political and dynastic fortunes of the counts palatine.

Peace of Westphalia Summary

Peace of Westphalia, European settlements of 1648, which brought to an end the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War. The peace was negotiated, from 1644, in the Westphalian towns of Münster and Osnabrück. The Spanish-Dutch treaty was signed on

Germany Summary

Germany, country of north-central Europe, traversing the continent’s main physical divisions, from the outer ranges of the Alps northward across the varied landscape of the Central German Uplands and then across the North German Plain. One of Europe’s largest countries, Germany encompasses a wide