How was the pre-Westphalian international system different from the Westphalian international system?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

During the early years of the pre-Westphalian system, geographic features, such as mountain ranges and deserts, served as the boundaries that separated groups of people. Eventually, groups began to expand and some groups, such as the Romans, conquered vast areas, thereby forming empires. Thus, the type of government that ruled a region was determined by military force. For example, the regions conquered by the Romans were forced to follow Roman government. Various regions were not given the right of sovereignty to rule themselves without interference. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, feudalism developed in Europe—a system of allegiances between ruler, aristocrats, and peasants. However, once again, the players in this system defended their forms of government through force of arms. Gradually, the feudal system weakened, and monarchs gained more power, establishing the basis for the modern state.
After the Thirty Years’ War, the Westphalian system took hold. With this system, the states established by the monarchs were each given Westphalian sovereignty. According to this sovereignty, within a state’s borders there is no higher authority than the government of the state itself. Each state, regardless of its size or form of government, rules over its own territory and domestic affairs as it sees fit, and states are entitled to noninterference by other states in their domestic affairs. Therefore, even if a state such as France has much more power than a smaller state, such as Luxembourg, the powerful state has no right to dictate how the smaller state should govern its affairs. The use of military force to determine the type of government was thus significantly curtailed.