protections in a nation that was not defined by their religious practices. This may not seem to be a major step for the nation at the time because the edict did nothing to address other religious groups, such as Jews and Muslims, in the same way. That being said it did set the stage for the possibility of France being more open to religious tolerance and secularism later down the line. While this is the reason this Edict is remembered it did not have the effect it was meant to. Inside of opening France up to increased religious tolerance it was actually revoked and Protestantism was declared illegal when in 1685 Louis XIV issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. Nevertheless the Edict of Nantes is an important document when it comes to the history of religious tolerance.

The Peace of Westphalia on the other hand was more concerned with ending a detrimental political situation than preventing internal religious strife. The Peace of Westphalia was a series of treaties that worked to ended the Thirty Years War. Signed in 1648 after two years of deliberation, the treaties brought peace to the conflicts that had been occurring between the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of France, the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic, and various other free imperial cities. The lasting results of this event, aside from ending the conflict within Europe, were also two-fold. One major and lasting result was that this event effectively broke up much of the Holy Roman Empire. Power was returned to individual cities and territories such as Switzerland, which became a sovereign nation, and the Holy Roman Empire was essential no more. The other was that even though all conflict was ended by this peace (Spain and France continued hostilities for the year or so), it did a great deal in the way of establishing lasting nation borders and the overall ideas about what a sovereign nation is and how it should be recognized.

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is the term used for a series of treaties that ended both the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648). The treaties were signed in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony (Germany); and Munster, Westphalia (Germany), creating peace between the Dutch Republic and Spain (ending the Eighty Years' War); and the warring between the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Habsburg, France, Sweden, Spain and other city-states (concluding the Thirty Years' War).

The Edict of Nantes (1598) was signed by France's King Henry IV and granted French Protestants (Calvinists and Huguenots) new liberties in the predominantly Catholic country. It provided Protestants with amnesty and renewed civil rights and brought an end to the French Religious Wars of the 16th century. It was not viewed happily in Rome, however, where Pope Clement VIII declared, "This crucifies me."