Lesson 1: From Westphalia to

Interstate System

Unit 5: Origins of Interstate System

 Introduction
• How is the world structured even as globalization
links up countries and
blurs transnational borders through increasing
interdependence and global
consciousness?
• How does the world started to make change, from a
warring one to a
more integrated and interdependent world?
Presentation title
 Before After

• From a warring world (before) to an integrated on

What is Interstate System

• It is the whole system of human interactions.

• Modern world system is structured politically as an
interstate system - a system of competing and allying
states.
• Political scientist commonly call this the
international systems and this is the focal point of
the field of international relations
Treaty of Westphalia (Origin of
Interstate

• It’s a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the

Thirty Years' War between the major continental
powers of Europe; signatories include warring parties
namely: the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France,
Sweden, and the Dutch Republic.
Treaty of Westphalia (Origin of
Interstate

• Its product is the Westphalian system which divided

the world into separate, sovereign states; sovereignty
means “supreme authority within a territory”
(Stanford, 2020) or the full, autonomous right and
power of a state to govern itself.
Bonaparte’s Opposition

• Westphalian system provided stability for the nations

in Europe after the Thirty Years’ War, not after it met
some serious opposition from Napoleon Bonaparte
who challenged the status quo and aimed to replace
religion and monarchies with French Revolution ideals
of freedom, equality, and fraternity.
Bonaparte’s Opposition

• Bonaparte’s campaign called the Napoleonic

Wars started in 1803 and manage to undermine
the sovereignty of states across Europe until he
was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
The Metternich System

• After Bonaparte’s defeat, an alliance of powers

consists of United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and
Prussia known as the Concert of Europe created the
Metternich System aimed to prevent wars, restore the
sovereignty of states, and re-establish religious and
hierarchical power--in effect very similar to the
Westphalian System.
The Metternich System

• The concept of a European civilization became

fundamental to new understandings of international
order and new techniques of international rule.
• This system lasted from 1815 to 1914, failing to
hinder World War I.
The Interstate System

• The Westphalian System may have collapsed but

some of its elements can still be seen in the modern
world. For instance, under the United Nations
(established in 1946), states are considered sovereign.