Culturally diverse, politically fragmented, and geographically fluid, Germanic Europe has played an influential role in the development of the natural, cultural, and social sciences. Before 1648, when Germanic Europe consisted of most of the Holy Roman Empire plus East Prussia along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, religious strife beset the region. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which removed Switzerland and the Netherlands from the Empire but kept German states and principalities and the Habsburg Monarchy, reformers viewed natural and technological knowledge as a resource for restoring political stability and social discipline. After the Holy Roman Empire crumbled in 1806 and the Congress of Vienna redrew the map of Central Europe again in 1815, Prussia, Bavaria, and the Austrian Empire (the largest German-speaking states), along with Baden and smaller states along the Rhine, nurtured a scientific culture through their bureaucracies, industries, and educational systems.