ABSTRACT
The negotiations in Westphalia led to a period of uneasy peace. The treaty of Osnabrück increased the territorial strength of Brandenburg-Prussia on paper, but the terms had to be implemented before Frederick William I could be satisfied with his gains. His possessions were still scattered from the Rhine to the Niemen. He was annoyed by his failure to win recognition of his claim to Jülich-Berg. From his point of view Stettin would have been vastly preferable to the East Pomeranian port of Kolberg or the bishopric of Kammin. His newly-won province of East Pomerania was separated from East Prussia by a broad Polish corridor, and the principalities of Hanover and Brunswick stood between Minden and the Old Mark of Brandenburg. The acquisition of Halberstadt was certainly gratifying in that it fulfilled a century-old Hohenzollern ambition, but possession of Magdeburg, promising control of the main Elbe crossing, had to wait until the death of its bishop-administrator, which did not occur until 1680.
