The Palestinian quest for statehood

After the second world war the allies decided that a homeland was needed for the Jewish people, after the atrocities that had been inflicted on them in the Holocaust, Israel seemed like the perfect place as within it lies the city of Jerusalem, which is the holy land for Jews (also Christians and Muslims), but the country was already populated with Palestinians (who are mostly Muslim) and when the Jewish people started to migrate tension between the two peoples grew and before long war broke out, the conflict is still going on today and it can be argued that the Palestinians have been hit the hardest by the conflict:

As the Palestinians and Israelis both live the same country: Israel: their is only one government and the conflict is seen as a civil war, The Palestinians want a two state system but the Israelis hatred would put them at risk if the Palestinians gained statehood.   

In 2011 Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, submitted a request for Palestinian Statehood and in 2012 the UN voted and Palestine did not gain Statehood but it was recognised as a "non member observer state" which gave Palestine access to UN bodies.

By April 2013, 132 of the UN's 193 members recognized Palestine as state but it is yet to gain statehood.

It could be argued that the Israel vs Palestine conflict is not just about war but about religion: Judaism vs Islam, or even culture as many western cultures such as the US and the UK have taken Israel's which could may build further tensions between Islam and the West.

  

The Peace treaty of Westphalia

In Westphalia born and raised, on the war ground is where I spent most of my days...

The Peace treaty of Westphalia was signed on the 24th of October marking the end of the thirty year war, The war was one of the most destructive in Europe's history. The war was more of a series connected wars rather then just one big war, it started when Austrian Hasburgs tried to impose Roman Catholicism on their Protestant subjects in Bohemia, from their things escalated and soon Catholics and Protstants were at war throughout most of Europe.

The war was largely fought on German soil and reduced the country to desolation. Pillage and famine stalked the German countryside as armies plundered through towns and villages. The awful lives that many Germans lived made many of them question whether their was a God at all: "no one could imagine that anything like this could ever happen to us, Many people say their is no God..." read an entry in a family bible. Starvation reached such a high that in Rhineland their were reports of cannibalism. Even when the war ended many smallfolk said their livelihood was gone.

The peace conference to end the war started in December 1644 in Munster and Osnabruck, 194 states took part in the peace committees. For the first six months of the meetings the leaders spent most of their time arguing about mundane things like who was going to sit where, but things begun to settle down and eventually, after four years, the peace treaty was signed.

Many states made gains from the treaty, the Swiss gained independence from Austria and the Netherlands gained independence from Spain, Sweden and gained territory and payment in cash, and many other States also benefited from the treaty.

The war had ended in Protestant victory and changed Europe forever, It sore an end to many years of Roman Catholicism and culture and a beginning to the state system in Europe, it also made many European countries allies and paved the way to future institutions like the European Union.