2 2 Origins of the modern state
Summary
TLDRThe video explores the historical evolution of the modern state, particularly in Europe. It examines how, over the past 500 years, the feudal system gave way to centralized sovereign states. Starting with fragmented political units, the shift was driven by warfare, technological advancements, and rising mercantilism. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 marked a key moment in recognizing sovereign states. The video also discusses Europe's colonial dominance and how nation-states became the preferred form of political organization globally, influenced by military, economic, and cultural factors.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The modern state's formation is a relatively recent development, with its roots in Europe over the past five centuries.
- 🏰 Feudalism characterized medieval Europe with a complex web of political relationships and overlapping claims to sovereignty.
- 🗺️ The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 marked a pivotal moment, establishing the principle of secular leaders as sovereign authorities within their territories.
- 🔝 The rise of the sovereign state was influenced by warfare, which favored larger entities capable of raising standing armies and building fortifications.
- 💵 The growth of capitalism and the merchant class contributed to the need for stable governance, which the emerging states could provide.
- 🏛️ The shift from collective to individualistic societal views supported the development of the nation-state concept.
- 🌐 The global spread of the sovereign state model was largely due to European colonization, which imposed this form of governance on conquered territories.
- 🛡️ Technological advancements and military innovations played a significant role in the ability of states to consolidate power and conquer others.
- 📈 The cycle of war and state development was self-reinforcing, with states needing war to justify their existence and war making states stronger.
- ❓ The reasons why Europe was the cradle of the modern state and its ability to dominate globally remain a subject of debate, with factors like climate, agriculture, and immunity to diseases being considered.
Q & A
What was the political landscape of Europe like around the year 1300?
-Around the year 1300, Europe was characterized by a multitude of small political units and only a few larger entities. There were over 500 states or quasi-states, and the political map was complex due to the interrelated web of political relationships that made up the feudal system.
How did feudalism impact the political structure of medieval Europe?
-Feudalism divided power and overlapped claims to sovereignty. It was a system where serfs worked the land under the orders of local leaders or vassals, who in turn were granted authority by a lord. This system led to a complex hierarchy with shifting alliances and allegiances, often in conflict over legitimacy claims to land.
What significant change occurred in the political structure of Europe around 1648?
-In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, which marked a significant change by establishing the principle that secular leaders and non-religious authorities were the sovereign power in a given territory. This event is seen as the moment when the idea of the sovereign state became internationally recognized.
Why did the modern state form in Europe and not elsewhere?
-The modern state formed in Europe due to a combination of factors including technological advancements in warfare, the rise of a capitalist merchant class, and the need for stability and protection for business growth. These factors favored the development of larger, more centralized states over smaller entities like city-states.
What role did warfare play in the development of the modern state in Europe?
-Warfare was a significant factor in the development of the modern state in Europe. New military technologies and the need for standing armies favored larger states that could raise and maintain these forces. The cycle of war and state development led to the growth of bureaucracies for revenue collection and the expansion of state power.
How did the concept of the nation-state emerge after World War I?
-After World War I, the concept of the nation-state emerged as the preferred unit of political authority. This was influenced by the desire for smaller, ethnically homogeneous states, which were seen as more stable and less prone to the nationalist tensions that had contributed to the war.
What was the impact of the Peace of Westphalia on the development of the modern state?
-The Peace of Westphalia had a profound impact on the development of the modern state by internationally recognizing the sovereign state as the legitimate source of political authority. This principle laid the groundwork for the consolidation of larger political units and the decline of smaller entities.
Why did the European model of the sovereign state become the global standard?
-The European model of the sovereign state became the global standard largely due to European colonization. As European powers established colonies around the world, they imposed the institution of the sovereign state. Upon gaining independence, these colonies often adopted the same political structure, thus spreading the model globally.
What is the 'Leviathan' mentioned in the script, and how does it relate to the state?
-The 'Leviathan' refers to the concept of a powerful, centralized state as described by Thomas Hobbes. In the context of the script, it symbolizes the state's ability to organize, extract resources, and build sophisticated war machines, which played a role in Europe's ability to conquer and colonize much of the world.
What is Jared Diamond's explanation for Europe's ability to colonize and conquer large parts of the world?
-Jared Diamond, in his book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel,' suggests that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and Europe were fortunate due to a favorable climate, good crops, and access to animals for domestication. This allowed them to develop more food, technology, and commercial advancements, which in turn facilitated their ability to colonize and conquer other parts of the world.
Outlines
🏰 The Evolution of Political Authority in Europe
This paragraph introduces the historical development of the modern state in Europe, starting from the feudal system around 1300 with numerous small political units to the emergence of larger states by 1648. The feudal system was characterized by overlapping claims of sovereignty and a complex web of relationships between serfs, vassals, lords, and the Pope. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 marked a significant shift towards recognizing the sovereign state as the legitimate source of political authority, leading to the formation of larger political entities. The paragraph also touches on the role of warfare, technology, and the rise of capitalism in shaping the modern state.
🔍 The Rise of the Modern State and Its Global Spread
The second paragraph delves into the reasons behind the formation of the modern state, with a focus on the role of warfare and military technology. It discusses how changes in warfare technology favored the rise of standing armies and the centralization of power in the hands of kings. The growing merchant class's demand for stability and protection also contributed to the strengthening of states. The paragraph further explains the transition from empires to nation-states after World War I, driven by the desire for national self-determination. It also addresses the global spread of the sovereign state model, largely due to European colonization and the imposition of statehood on colonies, which became independent as sovereign states upon decolonization.
🌏 Europe's Advantage and the Global Dominance of the State Model
The final paragraph explores why Europe was able to colonize and conquer much of the world, suggesting that Europe's advantageous climate, agriculture, and access to domesticatable animals contributed to its development of advanced societies and immune systems. It also mentions the state's efficiency in organizing, extracting resources, and building sophisticated military machines. The paragraph concludes with a reference to Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' as an interesting perspective on Europe's historical advantage and the global dominance of the state as a political institution.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Modern State
💡Feudal System
💡Peace of Westphalia
💡Nation-State
💡Warfare
💡Capitalism
💡Militarization
💡Colonization
💡Globalization
💡Jared Diamond
Highlights
Introduction to the origin of modern states in Europe and the transition from feudal systems.
Feudalism involved overlapping claims to political authority, where power was divided among vassals, lords, kings, and the Pope.
The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 marked a turning point in the recognition of secular political authority over religious control.
Between 1300 and 1648, larger political units consolidated power, replacing the smaller feudal entities.
Technological advancements such as the longbow and gunpowder shifted the balance of military power, favoring centralized states with standing armies.
Growing capitalist merchant classes supported larger, stable states, creating a feedback loop between economic and political power.
The modern state became the dominant form of political organization following centuries of warfare, empire-building, and revenue extraction.
The rise of nation-states after World War I and the collapse of empires like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia continued to reshape political borders.
The sovereign state model spread globally, especially through European colonization, where it was imposed on colonies.
Jared Diamond’s 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' offers a theory that Europe's dominance was partly due to geographic and environmental advantages.
Living in proximity to domesticated animals helped Europeans develop immunity to diseases, giving them an advantage in colonizing other regions.
The sovereign state has become the primary political institution worldwide in the last 100-200 years.
Colonization played a critical role in spreading the European model of the sovereign state, as European powers withdrew and left colonies with this system.
Technological advances and the accumulation of wealth through capitalism contributed to Europe's ability to develop powerful states.
The modern state's success in organizing and financing war efforts helped Europe conquer large parts of the world.
Transcripts
hello as you just saw today we have a
number of tricky questions how did the
modern state come to be we know what
developed over the past five hundred
years or so in Europe but why now this
might seem like a dumb question but
that's only because we take for granted
that states are the dominant and
universally accepted form of political
organization in the world today but why
do we have States what ever happened to
the city state are that loosely gov
allied regions and why did the modern
state take form in Europe will work to
answer these questions by looking at the
evolution of political authority in
Europe but let's begin by describing the
changes that we hope to explain starting
with the beginning of the formation of
the modern state towards the end of the
medieval period and going right up until
today so here's a political map of
Europe circa 1300 one thing you will
probably notice is that there are tons
of little political units and only a few
larger entities that look something like
the States we'd see on a recent map by
some counts there were over 500 states
or quasi States at this period in Europe
moreover this map does not actually
portray the complicated political
arrangements of this era as the entities
we see here are not really unified
consolidated single states but are part
of the interrelated web of political
relationships making up the feudal
system feudalism was a system in which
power was divided and claims to
sovereignty overlapped considerably the
basic idea was that serfs worked the
land as ordered by local leaders or
vassals who were given their authority
by a lord who controlled a number of
vassals these vassals swore oaths of
fealty to their Lord thus giving the
vassal the right to rule over a
territory in exchange for political and
military loyalty to the Lord in turn
many lords gave their oath to the king
but they did not always and they could
and did switch sides often finally in
theory the Pope sat at the top of this
system as God's earthly representative
his hierarchy oversimplifies because
they were often competing claims to
Authority with vassals Lords kings and
Pope's shifting alliances and
allegiances constantly a major part of
this was overlapping legitimacy claims
to land birth rights and divine
legitimacy were all in conflict this
system began to erode however
and gradually entities that look much
more like the states we know and love
today emerged here we see a political
map of Europe about 350 years later in
1648 and these are the boundaries that
were codified in the piste of Westphalia
and what you can see is a lot of much
bigger political units bigger than you
actually see on a modern political map
with Europe and basically what's been
happening here is that the big fish have
been eating the little ones and the
Peace of Westphalia was really a
watermark moment at this time Europe had
been torn by war for decades with the
thirty years war raging between
Catholics and Protestants in the middle
of the continent and a war between Spain
and the Dutch that had gone on for 80
years was important for us to note is
that the signatures of the Treaty of
Westphalia established the principle
that secular leaders and non religious
authorities were ultimately the
sovereign power in a given territory of
course the sovereign state did not just
appear at this moment but it was the
moment at which the idea of the
sovereign state became internationally
recognized by Europe's leaders as the
legitimate source of political authority
following this recognition and the
advent of the age of absolutism Europe
entered a period in which empires
increasingly ruled as you can see in
this map of Europe at the turn of the
20th century in this era Europe was
ruled by a few really large empires and
indeed these same empires ruled much of
the world as the colonial powers that
all changed however following the
seismic shifts of two world wars and the
first half of the 20th century in the
wake of the first world war the
nation-state became the preferred unit
of political authority the nation-state
is a political entity where national
identity borders and political borders
are the same basically in a nation-state
all of the people in a nation are in the
same state and everybody in that state
is of the same nation this is a very
idealistic notion as there is great
diversity in Europe as there is in most
of the world still as the first world
war was seen by many as inspired by
ethno nationalists ik tensions within
the old empires many players within the
international
and particularly the United States
pushed for the creation of smaller
nation states this trend continued
following the end of the Cold War with
the dissolution of many multi-ethnic
states including the Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in the
Balkans so we now have a basic idea of
what happened the complicated jumble of
claims to legitimate sovereign political
authority during feudalism eventually
gave way to the sole claim of the modern
state we're still left with the question
of why this happened one prominent line
of research sees warfare as the cause of
the modern state in Europe these
accounts often begin with the change in
technology in the 14th century that
slowly gave an infantry over an
advantage overnight so basically new
technologies like the longbow were able
to penetrate knight's armor and that
meant that standing armies became the
best method of warfare there were lots
of other inventions that made sea power
more important and eventually of course
gunpowder came along and these
developments favorite Kings Kings were
more evil than the smaller feudal
vassals to raise large standing armies
and to build the big fortifications
necessary to defend against other
standing armies meanwhile a growing
capitalistic merchant class wanted
stability and protection to grow their
businesses thus they were willing to pay
for the Kings protection therefore kings
and their larger states were able to
edge other political organizations out
of the way basically by out funding and
not fighting them and therefore the
state developed bureaucracies to collect
these revenues more and more effectively
as they became better at extracting the
states became larger and they became a
little bit more ambitious and hence
here's the Age of Empires coming at you
States tried to build enormous empires
meaning that they made more and more war
think of a Napoleon's quest and all of
the monarchs of England and Spain and
the stars of Russia with their imperial
aspirations these frequent Wars required
more and more extraction
States invested heavily in their
militaries and they developed more and
more deadly military technology all this
is expensive and they need to attract
more and more revenue to fund more and
more expensive Wars Charles Chile
captures the dynamics of the cycle
rather simplistically but rather
profoundly when he notes that war made
states and states need war so that's one
broad explanation of course it's not the
only explanation there are other
independent variables that worked
alongside war making and new military
technologies to explain our dependent
variable year of the modern state the
increase of trade and the appearance and
growth of the merchant box dwelling in
towns created more wealth and they
demanded more stability as we mentioned
there was also a cultural shift from an
emphasis upon predetermined roles in
society ranging from serf to king to
pope to a conception of society that's
more rooted in in the individual the
emphasis on war military technology and
extraction of revenues does help us
explain what other forms of organization
such as the city state or the
confederation of league of territories
not emerges dominant the state was
basically able to out raise and out
conquer them this process has mainly
occurred in Europe over hundreds of
years but the modern state has become
the dominant form of political
organization all over the world but that
only happened really recently if you
look here you can see the difference
between 1900 and 2000 with the blue
being sovereign states and the great
being colonies you can see that the blue
is now as of 10 years or 12 years ago
taken over the world pretty much
and indeed this map understates the
difference if you think back on the fact
that a lot of are all of the Americas
were once European colonies as well you
can see that the sovereign state as a
global phenomenon is something that
happened over the last maybe 100 to 200
years and this probably happened because
of colonization basically Europeans
imposed the institution of the sovereign
state upon their colonies this is how
the sovereign state became the world's
darling
political institution and the Europeans
imposed it especially as they withdrew
when they left they would basically say
okay you are a sovereign state now you
are independent well this brings up the
interesting question as to why Europe
was able to colonize and conquer so much
of the world this is an interesting open
question of course the technological
advances development of capitalistic
societies that generated enormous wealth
that helps lead to the state those are
major reasons but why did those happen
in Europe and not some other place in
the world I'm just gonna give you a
little flavor of one interesting
explanation and that's from Jared
Diamond and his rather famous book Guns
Germs and Steel and his explanation is
that the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and
Europe were simply lucky they had a good
climate good crops and access to animals
that they could domesticate this gave
them more food making a healthier and
more able to have their leisure time
devoted to technological and commercial
development and plus living in close
proximity to their domesticated animals
strengthened their immune system and
made them immune to many of the terrible
viruses that killed off so many of the
native peoples in the continents that
they later colonized and enslave well
perhaps the brutal efficiency of the
state as Leviathan and its ability to
organize extract and to build larger and
larger and more sophisticated war
machines also played an important role
in the European powers ability to
conquer so much of the planet so on that
cheery note I bid you adieu
good luck
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