European balance of power Austria which continued to rule as Holy Roman Emperor. Hapsburg Austria did directly control some states outside of the Holy Roman Empire. It was France who took the status of dominant continental power from the Habsburgs thanks to the Treaty of Westphalia and the Treaty of the Pyrenees. In the 16th and 17th centuries, English foreign policy strove to prevent a creation of a single universal monarchy in Europe, which many believed France or Spain might attempt to create. To maintain the balance of power, the English made alliances with other states—including Portugal, the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands—to counter
Marie-France Garaud centralized power because of decentralization and the Maastricht Treaty which monopolizes the sovereignty and so makes France an area of the European continent instead of a free nation. She defines a free nation in the capacities to coin (France can't any more because of the Eurozone), to make the law (the European law is integrated in the French constitution and is above the French code), to do peace and war (France returned to NATO's military command under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy) and to provide Justice (European Court of Justice). She voted "no" in the French Maastricht Treaty referendum and