Connection Between War and Nation-States (biggest player in international politics)

Question 1

Feudalism in Europe: holy roman empire
Who Cares?

Answer 1

The empire was subdivided into individually governed entities at the time. These independent territories were governed by nobility rather than an absolute monarch. This was possible because the empire was run by the feudal system. There was no public authority.
Europe had been comprised of a fluid set of city states and smaller territories, many of which were overseen in some way by the church (under the guise of the ‘Holy Roman Empire’), which provided a guiding set of principles to each ruler. Under this arrangement, borders and the distribution of power were unclear and often undefined.
–Provides perspective on why we live in a world of states.

–Suggests potential for change.

Question 2

Monopolizing the legitimate use of force

Answer 2

Governments may use force, people cannot.

Question 3

Feudal violence

Answer 3

Many parties had the right to use violence in medieval Europe.
Kings
Lords
Soldiers
Pirates
Bandits

Question 4

The importance of disarmament

Answer 4

Encouraged Louis XIII to undertake a major disarmament.

Involved fighting local adversaries.

Condemned dueling, the carrying of lethal weapons, and the maintenance of private armies.

Declared royal monopoly over the use of force in 1620.
–threat to power and ability to rule, and therefore protection becomes a privilege and a threat to people

Question 5

The logic of expanding power

Answer 5

–War required resources.
–Extraction of the means of war.
–Increasing administrative capacity.

Question 6

Thirty years war

Answer 6

Starts in 1612 as a battle between Catholics and Protestant states. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II attempts to force Roman Catholicism on his subjects living in Bohemian states.

Ends: 1648
Big break of modern international politics after this, made people realize the importance of rules to prevent mass violence and uncontrolled war

Question 7

Treaty of Westphalia, 1648

Answer 7

–System based on sovereignty, rather than religious structures.
–Parties to agree on a set of defined borders, which the others recognized in turn.
–Led to the redrawing of the European map and the gradual emergence of the idea of today’s nation-states as territorially bound units, recognized by other such units as mutually sovereign.
–founding of the modern state system

Question 8

Conclusions

Answer 8

–State system is not immutable.
–Wars continue to produce centralizations of power.
–Future wars could be the catalyst for major systemic changes.