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The question of "how" aside, supposing that the devastation wrought on Germany during the Thirty Years War was avoided, and that the "sovereignty" of the princes established by Westphalia, which weakened the unity of the Holy Roman Empire, is averted. How would this change the economy of Europe in the latter 17th and 18th Centuries? How would these economic changes, in turn, affect the social and geopolitical history of the west overall? And, given these broad changes, where do things go from there?