History of Münster Tower of St. Lamberti's steeple. The signing of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 at Münster and Osnabrück ended the Thirty Years' War and Eighty Years' War and was one of the foundations upon which modern Europe was built. It also guaranteed the future of the prince-bishop and the diocese; the area was to be exclusively Roman Catholic. In 1780 the University of Münster (official name: German "Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität") was established, now a major European centre for excellence in education and research with large faculties in the arts, humanities, theology, sciences, business and law. Currently there are about 40,000 undergraduate
History of Europe and Spanish trade routes into the Pacific Ocean, reaching Australia in 1606 and New Zealand in 1642. With the development of the printing press, new ideas spread throughout Europe and challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology. Simultaneously, the Protestant Reformation under German Martin Luther questioned Papal authority. The most common dating of the Reformation begins in 1517, when Luther published "The Ninety-Five Theses", and concludes in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended years of European religious wars. During this period corruption in the Catholic Church led to a sharp backlash in the Protestant Reformation. It gained many