The Modern State

HUM 2052: Civilization IISpring 2014Dr. Perdigao

January 27, 2014

• Shifts in idea about the state and politics

• Machiavelli’s prescription and prophecies about rule

• Don Quixote’s attempt to return to a golden age of heroes

• Question of place of religion in the modern world

• Sacrifice of tradition for new ways of thinking—prescription of how one should live

• Representative of shifts in Spanish court, politics and religion

• Don Quixote and Candide as reflective of these historical contexts

Art and Life

• “By the early twentieth century, Europeans had developed a sophisticated concept of the state: an active political entity to which its subjects owed duties and obligations. That concept became the foundation of the modern science of politics” (Perry 397).

• Sovereignty (“the state defined itself as supreme within its borders and over other institutions and organizations” ) emerging in modern period (397)

• • Church must recognize authority of the state

• War and taxation as part of the new system

• Foundations for Europe and American republic

• Ideas of human liberty—first conceived in Italy during the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance with the humanist’s work (397)

• Republican ideal not accepted as “a viable alternative to absolutism” until the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century (397)

• Changing forms of government—“In the democratic and republican revolutions of the late eighteenth century, Western Europeans and Americans repudiated monarchical systems of government and opted for republics” (397)

• Replacement of the prince’s world

Emergence of the Modern State

• Dynastic or national state—emerged from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century (Perry 369)

• Centralized government—site of absolutism

• Invincibility of the king

• Courts administered justice, collected taxes, dictated foreign policy, governed publication of books, regulated forms of dress permitted to classes (371)

• Republican or constitutional states emerged as alternate model in early modern Europe

• By 1800, preference for the more participatory system (371)

• Shift represented from Machiavelli’s study to new systems of government (and radical shift of power during the period)

• Middle-class—bourgeoisie—as part of the system, effected by tax collections, practices of national churches, and military conscription; prosperity dependent up on court-supported foreign and domestic policies (374)

The Evolution of the Modern State

• Example in Spain of the “interconnectedness of king, army, church, and taxation,” one of the “Most spectacular examples in history of the rise and equally dramatic fall of a great power” (Perry 372)

• Dynastic state turned into empire

• Ferdinand and Isabella—campaign for purity of blood and religion during their rule from 1479-1516

• Foundations for Spanish empire and Spanish domination of European affairs throughout the 16th century (374)

• Inquisition—church tribunal; interrogation and torture to guarantee faith of converted

• Extends to and is representative of the desire for conquest

• Exploration: Christopher Columbus’ and Hernando Cortes’ discoveries

• Their grandson, Charles (Charles V: 1516-1556), elected Holy Roman emperor, becoming most powerful monarch in Europe

In the Name of Nation and Religion

• Weakening of empire—Lutheran Reformation in Germany, led to religious struggles between Catholic Spain and Protestant Europe (376)

• No development of domestic industry, entrepreneurship, or international commerce; influx of gold led to inflation; financial crises in 1590s and beyond (376)

• Two lessons from the “Spanish experience”: “the state as empire can survive and prosper only if the domestic economic base continues to expand” and “living off subjugated colonies ultimately means economic stagnation and can lead to technological backwardness at home” (376)

In the Name of Nation and Religion

• France and England emerged as major powers in the wake of Spain’s decline in dominance (379)

• Two models of government

• England: constitutional monarchy, with Parliament limiting the king’s power, protecting the rights of English citizens; voting rights due to property, not noble birth or status

• French model emphasized sovereignty of the dynastic state, emphasizing the king’s rule, subordination of subjects to rule

• Divine right of kings—new power to the monarchy, gain control over rebellious feudal lords and resist papal claims of dominance over the French church (379)

• With Louis XIV, radical shift in king’s power—king and court ruled without formal consultations with subjects (379)

• In the Middle Ages, French monarchs recognized rights of the subjects and consulted local representative assemblies that reflected the three estates

• Three estates: first estate: clergy; second; nobility; third: rest of the population

• Estates met as circumstances—wars, taxes, local disputes—required and Estates General were summoned by king (379)

Competing Systems