Edmund Ulbricht, World Power and the National State. (A political history, 1500-1815.) Revised and published by Gustav Rosenhagen, Leipzig, 1910 (668 pp.).
In the text, repeated mention of “imperialist plans”, etc.
Only 2½ pages, 666-68, are devoted to the period after 1815: “Retrospect and Prospect”.
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“Liberation wars also consummate the world-historical struggle for maritime and trade supremacy: the result— England’s mastery of the seas. |
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“But the era of revolution and wars of liberation signify also the beginning of new developments. The revolution shattered the old feudal system of France and thereby gave an impulse to the transfor- mation of the social order and the state; it was only with the help of the peoples that the other European states were finally able to maintain themselves against the forces the revolution had brought to life in France. Of all the ideas of the revolution, none proved more effective, from the very outset, than the nation- al idea. Under the oppression of cruel foreign rule and in heroic struggle against it, the other European peoples also became conscious of the inner connec tion between state and nation. In the eighteenth century the big states rose to defend the independence of Europe and its equilibrium against the excessive power of a single state; now the peoples themselves have been rejuvenated and revitalised by the influx of new forces from the depths. The national idea becomes the crux and aim of almost all wars of the nineteenth century. |
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“Naturally, the peoples’ increased consciousness of their strength was bound to make itself felt also in their own states. The masses began to demand a share in the administration of the state.
“The French revolution, Napoleon’s world domination and the liberation wars made national feeling and the urge for political freedom invincible forces of recent history. National tendencies were interwoven and fused with the liberal and democratic ideas born of the age of enlightenment to produce the theory of the sovereignty of the people. According to this theory, statehood should be based on the undivided nation, and in such a way that the supreme will and supreme power are invested in the nation, and that only from its right is the right of the head of state derived” (667).
This theory threatened both the monarchies and their national composition; the Restoration was opposed to these ideas....
The nineteenth century as a whole, however, signified an advance towards political freedom and nationality
“But that did not relegate to the background the competitive trade and political struggles, which have increasingly influenced the history of the nations ever since the epoch of early money economy and the great discoveries. True, at first Britain enjoyed absolute trade supremacy, and using that power and the doctrine of free trade, she overcame the era of economic struggles which mercantilism had brought with it. With the help of this doctrine which, like political liberalism, stems from the age of enlightenment, Britain conquered the world and won the battle for international free trade and intercourse. The economically weaker states submitted to this system for a time; even the youngest of the European national great powers—Italy and Germany—could not isolate themselves from the new doctrine.
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“Then, however, the United States of America, after overcoming a severe inter- nal crisis, emerged as a new, powerful competitor in the trade and political arena. A new era of economic struggles has begun, in which there has been a return to the policy of safeguarding national labour by protective tariffs and trade treaties, but without lapsing into the crude mercantilist policy of force. In this the United States has been followed by the French Third Repub- lic and, since 1880, by the new German Empire as well. With the conclusion of the struggles for liberal and national state systems, and with the structure of the constitutional state completed, efforts are made to assure maximum scope for the enhanced power of the nation. In the colonial race, the Great Powers seek to acquire territories as markets for their goods and sources of essential raw materials. Their incessant diplomatic activity aims at opening up new trade areas for their industrious peoples. These expansion efforts, how- ever, are accompanied by a growing urge for economic autarchy. Britain wants to form, with her colonial possessions, a uniform closed trading area, a Greater Britain. America strives for economic self-sufficiency, she wants to make herself independent of the Old World in regard to trade and industry. International rivalry for world power and world trade, in the proper sense of the word, has only just begun. It is leading to the rise of several world empires existing side by side, and their policy, if indeed they want to maintain them- selves, must be imperialism. |
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| “imperialism” | |||||
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“The name and concept of the new imperialism are derived neither from the Roman Empire nor from the medieval empire and Papacy; it is no longer a question of the world rule of a single power. Colonial expansion, par- ticipation in world trade, protection of overseas interests by means of power- ful navies—these, from the example of the British Empire, have become the characteristic features of modern world powers. Such powers are quite capable I of existing side by side and of promoting the progress of mankind through peace- ful competition between the nations” (667-68). (End of the book.) |
“new imperialism” |
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| “charac- teristic features” |
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N.B. Old and new impe- rialism |
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From the Introduction, p. XXIII:
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“The old imperialism went to its grave in the loneliness of St. Hele- na; its last representative died with Bonaparte, and this man of great deeds was still surrounded by the roman- tic glitter of a past imperial magnifi- cence. A new period begins; its basis is the national idea, which proves strong- er than the reactionary aspirations of the princes and statesmen of the first decades after Napoleon’s downfall. What the sixteenth century began was com- pleted by the nineteenth century, when the two nations of Central Europe, Italy and Germany, which for centuries had been a sphere of exploitation by foreign powers, at last achieved national unification. On such a national basis, however, the possibility arises of a new world policy. The term im- perialism acquires a new life and a new content. Brit- ain, the never-conquered opponent of Napoleon, had already laid the basis for this in the eighteenth century when, unconsciously rather than consciously, by the acquisition of overseas colonies and the maintenance of a powerful navy, she founded a new world empire outside Europe. She is now being followed by the other world powers: economic necessity drives all the nations of the world to economic rivalry.” |
“the old imperialism is dead” |
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N.B. “new world policy” N.B. “new imperialism” |
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The book is divided into three sections,
“Section I: End of the medieval world empire and the emergence of national states in the epoch of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, 1500-1648.
“Section II: Formation of the five Great Powers of Europe in the epoch of princely absolutism.
“Section III: Emergence and decline of the new world power, France, and struggle of the powers for national independence, 1789-1815.”
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My addition: (“stages”) of the epoch Ergo. 1500-1789 = 289 years 1789-1871 = 82 years 1871-1914 = 43 years |
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The chief factors
Section I:
Emergence of the “Spanish national state” (p. 24 et seq.) and then “founding of the Spanish-Habsburg world power” (p. 51 et seq.).
Charles V in the struggle for world supremacy (the German Reformation), 1517-1555.
The national kingdom in Denmark and Sweden (p. 148 et seq.).... “Subjection of Estland to Sweden”, etc.
The development of Poland into a Great Power (163 et seq.) ... the Polish-Swedish union ... Poland and the struggle for Russia.
Beginning of the struggle with Spain. The Dutch “war of liberation” and the “secession of the Netherlands from Spain”. The Armada 1588. Result of the struggle: “Rise of France, Britain and the Netherlands. Decline of Spain” (233 et seq.).
The Thirty Years’ War, the period 1616-1659: “Spanish-Habsburg Catholic world policy in the struggle against German protestantism, against Denmark and Sweden against France and Britain” (273 et seq.).
(Including the alliance of Britain, Holland and Denmark against Austria.
The Swedes near Vienna. Sweden in a war against France, etc.).
Revolution in Britain, seventeenth century.
Section II:
Completion of the French national state” (Richelieu) and the “rise of France to dominance in Europe”. 1661-1685.
Restoration of European equilibrium (War of the Spanish Succession); the rise of England, Austria, Russia and Prussia.
Russia’s struggle against Sweden (and against Poland)....
“Sweden at war with Denmark, Poland, Brandenburg, Austria and the Netherlands” (1655-1660).
Austria’s struggle against Turkey (seventeenth century).
Wars of the Great Powers (1740-1789).
The Seven Years’ War (1758-1762) (“colonial war” of England and France).
The United States War of Independence (in alliance with France, Spain and Holland).
“Imperialist plans of Joseph II and Catherine II. The end of Poland.”
Section III:
Wars against the French Revolution.
First Coalition War (1792-97).
Second ” ” (1799-1801/2).
Anglo-French War (1793-1799)
Napoleon’s war against Prussia and “Napoleon’s plans of world domination”. (Collapse, 1812.)
“The Liberation Wars, 1813-15.”
Poland prior to 1660 (as given in a historical atlas):
Under the Lublin Union—1569—Poland possessed the Baltic coast with Danzig, Courland, Lifland with Riga (ceded to Sweden under the Oliva peace of 1660), the Ukraine with Kiev, Poltava and Chernigov, Podolia, Volhynia, etc., Byelorussia with Smolensk.
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⎛ ⎝ |
Ceded Smolensk, Kiev, Cher- nigov, Poltava, etc., to Russia under the Andrusovo Peace of 1667. |
⎞ ⎠ |
{ |
Partition of Poland: First 1772 Third 1795 |
} |
South America entirely free now except for the three Guianas:
| { | Spanish, Portuguese and | } | British | (1781) |
| Dutch in the 16-17th centuries | Dutch | (1667) | ||
| French | (1674) | |||
North America 1783. 13 states independent of England.
| Louisiana (now | Spanish | 1763 | ||
| a number of | French | 1802 | British | 1763 |
| states): | United States | 1803 | United States | 1783. |
| Mississippi ba- sin |
Mexico and Central America: Spanish
(Mexico, a republic since 1810)
Turkey: Empire of the Osmans under Mohammed IV (1648-1687) almost up to Vienna:
Austria, Rumania, Crimea, Caucasus,
the entire Balkan peninsula, etc.
| Serbia | { | Hungarian | since 1718 | } | a monarchy since 1817 |
| Turkish | since 1739 |
Sweden until (before) 1719 (from the middle of the 17th century) possessed also Finland Ingermanland (St. Petersburg).
| (Norway since 1815 | Estland |
| belonged to Sweden) | Lifland |
| part of Germany (western Pome- rania (Stettin) + Bremen) |
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United States. War of Independence 1775-1783 |
In 1763 Canada was ceded by France to England Independence of the 13 states proclaimed July 4, 1776. |
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⎧ ⎨ ⎩ |
1778—treaty of friendship with |
⎫ ⎬ ⎭ |
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| France | |||
| 1779—treaty of friendship with | |||
| Spain | |||
| { | 1781—the English defeated by | } |
End of the war, Septem- ber 3, 1783: Versailles Peace. Under it Spain, America’s war ally, re- ceives back Florida |
| Franco-American troops | |||
Florida joined the United States of America only in 1819
Portugal was Spanish from 1580 to 1640
Holland: seceded from Spain in 1581
1796 Belgium belongs to France
Holland = Batavian Republic
1814-1831 Belgium belongs to Holland
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