So I was sick during "Candide" lectures, but I hope someone, sometime mentioned this:
The Peace of Westphalia, also known as the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, is the series of treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War and "officially" recognized the United Provinces and Swiss Confederation. The Spanish–Dutch treaty which ended the Eighty Years' War was signed on January 30, 1648. The treaty signed October 24, 1648 comprehended the Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III, the other German princes, France, and Sweden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia
Sardonic in outlook, it follows the naïve protagonist Candide from his first exposure to the precept that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," and on through a series of adventures that dramatically disprove that precept even as the protagonist clings to it. The novel satirizes the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz. In "Candide", Leibniz is represented by the philosopher Pangloss, the tutor of the title character.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide)
[Liebniz wrote] The Théodicée tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by a perfect God.The Théodicée tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by a perfect God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz
It all makes so much more sense now. | 
