The Rise of European State System

 

A nation state is nothing but a state with powerful government with uniform laws and political boundaries among all the people for a particular nation. After the decline of Roman Empire the political condition of European Nations disappeared at that time feudalism dominated over political condition.

From 13th century onwards England and France tried to maintain political centralization among the European countries. France and England were one of the strongest and first Nation states of Europe. 

The system of European State began to establish itself with the War of the Spanish succession in 1701 to 1714 and in the Great Northern War the Russia Triumph over Sweden in the year 1700 - 1721.

The process of state making which began to minimize the social economic and cultural differences within a state was the achievement of this process. Expansion of different ideologies helped to forget the political community with a sense of identity. 

The internal and external conditions help in consolidation of the nation state system. Therefore nation-state process was gradual and many nation States imitated others in the nation building process.

Rise in State System:

After the 30 years wars which drew into sharp belief pressure on the state to maintain standing military and it was this final limit that may have played the ultimate role in the decline of the feudal system and rise of the modern state in Europe. 

Exacerbated by ongoing 30 years of wars, kings and nobility were increasingly desperate to raise their revenue to finance their war.

According to historian Charles Tilley, whose most famous work is entitled War Making and State Making as Organized Crime, war was the primary driver of the state formation in Europe. As he puts in " War made the State and State made the War.

Armies gave nobility power over territory they already controlled. In order to finance these armies, nobles required a steady supply of revenue, especially in form of taxes paid in cash. 

To ensure the collection and management of tax revenue, State had to develop even more complex bureaucracies which led them back to having stronger and stronger armies.

Tilley saw the formation of the modern state essentially as a protection racket similar to those employed by organized crime, peasants and town people were forced to pay money to the king. 

In order that the king could maintain a military both to protect them from external threats, but also to compel the subjects to continue to pay their taxes. Thus, the 30 years wars saw a dramatic increase in size and professionalism of military forces involved.

The Treaty of Westphalia:

The Peace of Westphalia established the broad framework for the new European and later International order. In the Peace the party to the Treaty, which included most of the major political actor of the day, recognized one another's equal legal standing and agreed that each was an independent political actor.

These two principles were the legal equality of states and the independence from external control which became the basis of principle of sovereignty central to international relations today. 

This was the most articulated through the principle under the Peace of Westphalia that the ruler of the state had authority to determine the country's religion. But it extended all the aspects of the internal affairs of the states. In the recent years the principle of non- intervention has become more problematic.

The Westphalia Model recognized the solvency of territorial States along the law making power and settlement of disputes while all the states were equal in the eyes of law. 

While the legal rules did not take into account the asymmetry of power. Immunity from jurisdiction and immunity from the state agencies became the prominent rules.

Stages in European State System:

Scientist Gianfranco Poggi divided the formation of the state into 3 stages in European state system. 

Consolidation of rules which mainly refer to the western part of Europe in this stage he saw the rise of powerful centre by stabilizing superiority over others through the war making mechanism, thereby establishing control and unified it into a single territory.

Rule of nationalism was the stage to the growth of some selected and empowered functionaries forming the hierarchical structure units. This hierarchical structure included trained personnel such as bureaucracy.

Rule of expansion was the third stage which referred to the functional spear of the state their by catering to the needs of the society. It also considered growing economic modernization and social needs this was the function which was necessitated the growth of specialized administrative units. 

This expansion of rule was used by the European powers to extend the territories to other parts of the world such as Spain Portugal France Britain.

These stages of formation of these States reaped the fruits of discovery and exploitation on the non European lands which also aided by the new modes of communication. Hence it facilitated a new mechanism of political control over colonies.

The European state system facilitated a new form of control over the new territories. 

However it also give rise to anti colonial sentiments and became responsible for emergence of new nation States and modern nation States became the principal form of political rule across the globe along with the modern form of government.

Hence it was the intense battle of ideas, strength and was adaptive in nature as they adopted the changes in a very stressful situation.

Written by: Rakhi Sharma

Edited by: Gourav Chowdhury