GE SocSci 4: The Contemporary World LESSON 3 A History of Global Politics: Creating an International Order

Nation

An “imagined community ” that is limited because it does not go beyond a given “ official boundary. ” It is “limited” because nations often limit themselves to people who have imbibed a particular culture, speak a common language, and live in a specific territory. It is “imagined because ” belonging to a nation allows one to feel a connection with a community of people.

 

State A political unit

Based on Latin status- "to stand"

 

 Independent country

 

 Defined boundaries

 

Internationally recognized

 

 Sovereignty over land and people within boundaries

 

 Gray areas, including colonies

Nation A cultural unit

Based on Latin nation-"birth"

 

 Ethnic identity

 Common ancestry (mythical or actual);

 

 Common religion (usually) and /or language; accepted ways of behavior

 

Political aspirations

 

 Has a homeland

Treaty of Westphalia

It was a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years ' War between the major continental powers of Europe.

 

 Such powers designed a system that would avert wars in the future by recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete control over their domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each other ' s affairs.

The Napoleonic Code

The westphalian System provided stability for the nations of Europe, until it faced its first major challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, and fraternity) to the rest of Europe and thus challenged the power of kings, nobility, and religion in Europe.

 

 The Code forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom or religion, and promoted meritocracy in government service. Bonaparte was finally defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The Concert of Europe

To prevent another war and to keep their systems of privilege, the royal powers created a new system that, in effect, restored the Westphalian system.

 

 Also called the Metternich System, it was an alliance of " great powers " that sought to restore the world of monarchical, hereditary, and religious privileges. The Concert lasted until the dawn of World War I.

 

Internationalism

- The desire for a system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity among states and peoples.

·       Liberal Internationalism

Socialist Internationalism

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher who likened states in a global system to people living in a given territory. States, like citizens of countries, must give up some freedoms and " establish a continuously growing state consisting of various nations which will ultimately include the A nations of the world. " In short, Kant imagined a form of global government.

Jeremy Bentham

 

A British philosopher who coined the word "international" in 1780, and advocated the creation of "international law " that would govern the inter-state relations. Bentham believed that objective global legislators should aim to propose legislation that would create "the greatest happiness of all nations taken together. "

 

Giuseppe Mazzini

 

An Italian patriot who believed in a Republican government without kings, queens, and hereditary succession), and proposed a system of free nations that cooperated with each other to create an international system.

For Mazzini, free, independent states would be the basis of an equally free, cooperative international system.

 

Woodrow Wilson

One of the 20th century ' s most prominent internationalist, who saw nationalism as a prerequisite for internationalism. He forwarded the principle of self-determination —the belief that the world' s nations had a right to a free, and sovereign government.

 

He hoped that these free nations would become democracies, because only by being such would they be able to build a free system of international relations based on international law and cooperation.

 

League of Nations

An international organization established after World War I with the goal of maintaining world peace and promoting international cooperation. It was founded in 1920 and disbanded in 1946, with its functions and assets transferred to the newly formed United Nations.

 

The League was established by the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. Despite its goals, the League ultimately failed to prevent World War II, largely due to its inability to effectively enforce its decisions and the nonparticipation of major powers like the United States.

 

 Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

 

Founder: Woodrow Wilson

Karl Marx

A German socialist philosopher who was also an internationalist, but who differed from the former because he did not believe in nationalism. Instead, _______ placed a premium on economic equality; he did not divide the world into countries, but into classes.

 

 The capitalist class referred to the owners of factories, companies, and other " means of production." In contrast, the proletariat class included those who did not own the means of production, but instead, worked for the capitalists.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The new state created after the Russian Revolution of 1917, where Czar Nicholas I was overthrown and replaced by a revolutionary government led by the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin.

 

The Bolsheviks did not believe in obtaining power for the working class through elections. Rather, they exhorted the revolutionary " vanguard" parties to lead the revolutions across the world, using methods of terror if necessary. Today, parties like this are referred to as Communist parties.

Communist International

To encourage these socialist revolutions across the world, Lenin established the __________ in 1919. The Comintern served as the central body for directing Communist parties all over the world. This International was not only more radical than the Socialist International, it was also less democratic because it followed closely the top-down governance of the Bolsheviks.