How did the balance of power shape European diplomacy and warfare after Westphalia?
Topic 3.6 Balance of Power: the decline of religion as a cause of war, the rise of balance-of-power diplomacy, and the great-power conflicts of the late 17th and 18th centuries.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.6, covering the post-Westphalia decline of religious warfare, the rise of the balance of power as the organizing principle of European diplomacy, the wars of Louis XIV, and the emergence of the great powers and shifting alliances of the 18th century.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 3.6 asks you to explain how, after the Peace of Westphalia, the balance of power became the organizing principle of European diplomacy. The College Board wants you to see that religion declined as a cause of war between states, that states now fought over power and interest, and that coalitions formed to prevent any one state from dominating, as in the wars against Louis XIV's France.
From religious war to power politics
The balance of power
The balance of power explains the constant shifting of alliances in this period: states changed partners as the relative strength of their rivals rose and fell, with the goal of keeping any one power in check.
Checking Louis XIV
The clearest test case was Louis XIV's France, the strongest state in Europe. His repeated wars of expansion alarmed his neighbors, who allied against him to preserve the balance.
The 18th-century great powers
Over the 18th century the cast of major players changed. Alongside the established powers (France, Britain, Austria, Spain), two new great powers rose: Prussia, built into a military state by its Hohenzollern rulers, and Russia, modernized and expanded by Peter the Great. Diplomacy now revolved around a handful of great powers whose shifting alliances, as in the diplomatic realignments before the Seven Years' War, kept the balance in constant motion.
Why it mattered
The balance of power became the default framework of European international politics, lasting in various forms into the 20th century. It explains why no single state managed to dominate the continent for long, and it sets up Unit 5, where Napoleon's bid for mastery provokes exactly the kind of grand coalition the balance of power predicts, leading to the Congress of Vienna's attempt to restore it.
Try this
Q1. What is the balance of power? [Recall]
- Cue. The principle that no single state should dominate; when one grows too strong, others form coalitions against it to restore equilibrium.
Q2. Explain how the War of the Spanish Succession illustrates balance-of-power diplomacy. [Short explanation]
- Cue. A coalition fought to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns under Louis XIV's family, which would have made France overwhelmingly dominant, and the peace deliberately kept the crowns separate to preserve the balance.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2018 (style)3 marksBriefly describe what is meant by the balance of power. Briefly explain ONE way it changed European diplomacy after 1648. Briefly explain ONE war in which states acted to preserve it.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per task.
A. Describe: the balance of power is the policy of preventing any single state from becoming dominant by forming coalitions against the strongest power.
B. Change after 1648: religion declined as a cause of war between states, and states allied or fought according to power and interest rather than faith.
C. War: the War of the Spanish Succession, in which a coalition opposed the union of the French and Spanish crowns to check Louis XIV's France.
Markers want a definition, a diplomatic change, and a relevant war.
AP 2022 (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which the balance of power shaped warfare and diplomacy in Europe in the period c. 1648 to c. 1763.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point continuity-and-change rubric.
Thesis (1): "After Westphalia the balance of power became the organizing principle of European diplomacy, driving coalitions to check dominant states like the France of Louis XIV, a change from the religious wars of the previous age."
Contextualization (1): the Peace of Westphalia and the rise of sovereign states.
Evidence (2): the wars of Louis XIV and the War of the Spanish Succession; the rise of Prussia and Russia as great powers; shifting 18th-century alliances.
Analysis (2): explain how the balance of power replaced religion as the driver of conflict, then add complexity by noting continuities, such as the persistence of dynastic ambition.
Related dot points
- Topic 3.1 Contextualizing State Building, Expansion, and Conflict: the conditions after the wars of religion that drove rulers to centralize power and that produced rival absolutist and constitutional states.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.1, setting the scene for Unit 3: the exhaustion left by the wars of religion, the Peace of Westphalia and the sovereign state, the military revolution and the fiscal-military state, and how these conditions produced the rival models of absolutism and constitutionalism.
- Topic 3.7 Absolutist Approaches to Power: the theory and practice of absolutism, the reign of Louis XIV, the rise of absolutism in central and eastern Europe, and the tools rulers used to centralize power.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.7, covering the theory and practice of absolutism: divine-right monarchy, Louis XIV and Versailles, the absolutism of Prussia under the Hohenzollerns and Russia under Peter the Great, and the tools (standing armies, bureaucracy, taming the nobility) used to centralize power.
- Topic 3.4 Economic Development and Mercantilism: the theory and policies of mercantilism, the transatlantic economy, joint-stock companies, and how mercantilism financed the rise of strong states.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 3.4, covering mercantilism (bullionism, a favorable balance of trade, Navigation Acts), the transatlantic economy and joint-stock companies, and how mercantilist policy financed the rise of strong absolutist states and intensified colonial rivalry.
- Topic 5.2 The Rise of Global Markets: the expansion of global trade, the Atlantic economy and the slave trade, the growth of a consumer society, and the competition that linked Europe to the wider world.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 5.2, covering the rise of global markets in the 18th century: the expansion of Atlantic and global trade, the plantation and slave economies, the consumer society it fed, and the commercial competition that linked European prosperity to the wider world.
- Topic 2.4 Wars of Religion: the religious conflicts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the French wars of religion to the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia.
A focused answer to AP European History Topic 2.4, covering the wars of religion: the French wars of religion and the Edict of Nantes, the conflicts within the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years' War, and the Peace of Westphalia, and how political ambition mixed with religion.
Sources & how we know this
- AP European History Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)