You have just moved the navigation icon to "Westphalia", referring to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle on our map. This imperial circle of the Holy Roman Empire comprised territories of the former Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, Frisia, and the Westphalian part of the former Duchy of Saxony. It included numerous small states, as well as larger entities such as the prince-bishopric of Münster. It is also important to note that our map only shows the outline of the imperial circles as they existed in the mid-18th century, and that the composition of these circles changed over time. For instance, the Duchies of Guelders, Luxembourg, and the County of Drenthe, as well as Groningen, Overijssel, Utrecht, and Zutphen, were initially part of the Westphalian circle but transferred to the newly established Burgundian Circle in the mid-16th century. The Burgundian Circle itself became administratively detached from the Empire. Most of its regions were integrated into the independent Dutch Republic and left the Empire for good after the so-called Eighty Years' War in 1648. The is why the Burgundian Circle is only vaguely indicated in Herman Moll’s map of the Empire that we see here. The few regions that were still part of Burgundian Circle in the 18th century, among them Luxembourg, came under French control in 1791. Moreover, the hand-colouring of the map regions, which was added to Moll's engraved work later, is somewhat misleading. While most of the Westphalian Circle is highlighted in yellow, Liège, which also belonged to it, is marked in green.

The Westphalian Circle itself was dissolved in 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire came to an end. Until then, it had faced several crises and conflicts, both among its members and between circle members and other powers. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), for instance, the Elector of Cologne and the Prince-Bishop of Liège as influential ecclesiastical lords in the Westphalian Circle supported the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria against Maria Theresia of Austria. Another crisis was the Liège Revolution in 1789, during which the Prince-Bishop of Liège was temporarily deposed and replaced by a revolutionary government. When the Westphalian Circle failed to follow imperial demands for military intervention, forces from the Burgundian Circle were called to action instead.

To learn more about the history of the Westphalian Circle, we recommend the German research literature below.