Nijmegen, Peace of 1678–79

a group of treaties concluding the war between a coalition of states headed by France and an anti-French coalition headed by the United Provinces (the Dutch Republic). The treaties were signed in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

According to the Franco-Dutch treaty of Aug. 10, 1678, France ceded the Dutch territory that included the city of Maastricht, which it had occupied in the course of the war. France also repealed the high customs tariff of 1667, which had undermined Dutch trade. In return, Holland recognized France’s colonial rights in Guiana and Senegal.

According to the Franco-Spanish treaty of Sept. 17, 1678, Spain ceded Franche-Comté to France, as well as a number of territories in the Spanish Netherlands. France returned to Spain part of the territory of the southern Netherlands that it had acquired under the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, including the cities of Charleroi and Courtrai, as well as the duchy of Limburg and Puigcerdá (in Catalonia).

The treaty between France and the Holy Roman Empire dated Feb. 5, 1679, confirmed the terms of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). France also repudiated its right to keep a garrison in the imperial fortress of Philippsburg on the Rhine, but it annexed the city of Freiburg im Breisgau.

The Swedish-Dutch treaty of Oct. 12, 1679, put an end to the state of war between the two sides without making any territorial changes.

The Peace of Nijmegen was a major diplomatic success for France and strengthened its hegemony in Europe.