VIGOUR, ENTHUSIASM AND PRINCIPLES: EDMUND BURKE'S VIEWS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-325
Author(s):  
SORA SATO
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
State System ◽  
European History ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
European State ◽  
Gradual Development

This essay analyses Burke's ideas on European history, which lay scattered over his works, and suggests that Burke may have considered Europe, with the notable exception of ancient Rome, as having been in a state of barbarism or confusion from the ancient era until the sixteenth century, despite the gradual development of society. Unlike some of his contemporaries, he did not closely examine the growth of a European state system, nor the rise of the balance of power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Nor did he specially underline the collapse of feudalism and the process of establishing absolute monarchy. Instead, Burke stressed more fundamental elements. While he often drew attention to the glimmer of hope towards future prosperity amid devastation, which dominated large parts of European history, his ideas on European history reflected his long-held social theory that nations could revive and develop as long as the foundations of society were not damaged.

Anomaly and commonplace in European political expansion: realist and institutional accounts

1991 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Strang
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
State System ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Western State ◽  
Global Expansion ◽  
European State ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
International Status

The global expansion of the European state system suggests strong connections between political “life chances” and international status. Polities recognized as sovereign within the Western international community are much less likely than unrecognized polities to be colonized and are much less likely than dependencies to merge or dissolve. These variations in stability are difficult to understand through balance-of-power politics. They may be more plausibly explained through the institutional structure of the state system and, in particular, the organization of the system as a community of mutual recognition. Sovereign members of this community are treated in fundamentally different ways than are those seen as outside Western state society or as the dependent possessions of sovereign states.

Religious Wars and the “Common Peace”: Anglican Anti-War Sentiment in Elizabethan England

1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-436
Author(s):  
Ben Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
State System ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
European History ◽  
Religious Wars ◽  
The Common ◽  
Gospel Message ◽  
Interpretive Framework ◽  
As If

The “age of religious wars” usually serves as the main interpretive framework for students of late sixteenth-century European history. This period is often conceptualized as just preceding the establishment of a secularized, politique-based state system that provided domestic tranquility as welcome relief from extended, highly partisan warfare. It is true that religious sentiments ran high among certain Protestants and Catholics who believed millions of souls were at stake, and that passionate defenses of doctrinal purity, to the point of taking up arms, characterize a good deal of the polemic of the age. Consequently, since prominent clerics were most vocal and influential in stirring up pious fervor for holy causes, many historians have focused on clerical martial rhetoric and found in it the ideological basis for the “religious wars” that ensued. Unfortunately, a hint of teleology informs much of the historical narrative that then follows, as if confessional devotion were synonymous with volatile, even bellicose calls for godly reform. A broader, more nuanced look at some of the pertinent sources, however, suggests that in many, perhaps even the majority, of cases, newly energized evangelicals found holy causes abhorrent and contrary to the gospel message.

2. States, Nations, and Empires

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global Order ◽  
European State

This chapter discusses what is often regarded as the central institution, not only of domestic or national political order but also of current international or global order—the state. Alongside the state, we must also consider the idea of the nation and the ideology of nationalism—perhaps the most powerful political ideology to emerge in the modern world. There is, however, another form of international political order that has actually been far more common throughout history, and that is empire. With the rise of modernity from around the beginning of the seventeenth century, we also encounter the rise of the modern state and state system in Europe along with ideas about sovereignty, citizenship, the nation-state, and democracy. The chapter then looks at the effective globalization of the European state system through modern imperialism and colonialism and the extent to which these have been productive of contemporary global order.

Habsburg History, Eastern European History … Central European History?

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Chad Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Balance Of Power ◽  
European History ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Central European ◽  
East European ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of

Germany and all things German have long been the primary concern ofCentral European History(CEH), yet the journal has also been intimately tied to the lands of the former Habsburg monarchy. As the editor stated in the first issue, published in March 1968,CEHemerged “in response to a widespread demand for an American journal devoted to the history of German-speaking Central Europe,” following the demise of theJournal of Central European Affairsin 1964. The Conference Group for Central European History sponsoredCEH, as well as the recently mintedAustrian History Yearbook(AHY). Robert A. Kann, the editor ofAHY, sat on the editorial board ofCEH, whose second issue featured a trenchant review by István Deák of Arthur J. May'sThe Passing of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914–1918. The third issue contained the articles “The Defeat of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and the Balance of Power” by Kann, and Gerhard Weinberg's “The Defeat of Germany in 1918 and the Balance of Power.” That same year,East European Quarterlypublished its first issue.

Turkey's entry into the Concert of Europe

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
FIKRET ADANIR
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Muslim Country ◽  
The European Union ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
European Public ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
History Of ◽  
Concert Of Europe

From the start, Turkey's aspirations to join the European Union aroused considerable opposition. Recently, the debate has focused increasingly on supposed disparities in the spheres of culture, politics or mentality, implying that this Muslim country would not be able to comply with European norms and values. Supporters of Turkey's candidacy, on the other hand, have pointed out that Turkey has always been an important element of the European balance of power and was, in the nineteenth century, even a member of the Concert of Europe. Both sides invoke history to justify their arguments. The present paper examines the evolution of the European state system and the major stages in the history of the Turkish–European relationship, with a view to arriving at a more balanced judgement. It can be shown that new concepts, such as state interest and balance of power, had already begun in the sixteenth century to undermine the old theological worldview and, beginning with the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was treated – at least de facto – as an actor that observed fully the norms of European public law (jus publicum Europeum). However, a de jure recognition of the Empire's status had to wait until the Treaty of Paris (1856), but even then it did not include an effective guarantee of Ottoman territorial integrity.

Colonial Law and “Native Customs”: Indigenous Land Rights in Colonial Spanish America

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Dominant Feature ◽  
Indigenous Land Rights ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Indigenous Land

Scholars of colonial Spanish America are divided between those who cherish Spaniards for respecting indigenous land rights and those who denounce them for not having done so. For the first group, Spanish respect was enshrined in political and theological debates and in legislation and practice that from the sixteenth century asserted that natives had right to the lands they possessed before Europeans arrived. For the second group, native dispossession was a dominant feature of colonial life. Whatever the theory may have mandated, the balance of power favored non-natives by allowing them access to a wide variety of social, legal, political, economic, and cultural instruments enabling them to control the land.

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