Abstract
An enduring question for social scientists concerns the origins of the system of states we currently live in. In this review paper, we aim to clarify the terms of the discussion by mapping out three different ways of periodizing its emergence. The first view is what we call the ‘millennial’ account of the system of states: it defines states and systems of states in the broadest fashion, identifying them as far back as the Bronze Age, if not earlier. The second and most famous position is the ‘early modern account’: it is grounded in the emergence of new actor categories like ‘state’ and ‘sovereignty,’ and points to major institutional developments pertaining to the fiscal-military apparatus. The third nascent position we present views the long nineteenth century as the birthplace of the system of states. Having mapped these accounts, we conclude by reflecting on their relation to one another.
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Notes
We will use the phrases ‘system of states’ and ‘states-system’ interchangeably in this paper.
For an illuminating discussion, see Le Goff (2016).
For a recent set of discussions, see Kaspersen and Strandsbjerg (2017).
Other accounts point to the state’s greater effectiveness as a provider of private property rights. See North and Thomas (1973).
For a broader overview, see Rae (2007), 128.
Another important account is Justin Rosenberg’s The Empire of Civil Society (1994). Rosenberg considers the European system of states to be a byproduct of the capitalist reorganization of European societies, notably the separation of the public and private spheres. He traces these developments through to the globalization of the system of states in the aftermath of the Second World War, but his account is less precise in its description of origins.
For an important precursor to this later leap, see Kantorowicz (2016).
This account differs from those that—although they see the nineteenth century as a moment of profound change—identify a more modest transformation of the system of states inherited from the early modern period. Barry Buzan and George Lawson’s Global Transformation (2015) is a case in point, outlining a shift from absolutist states toward what they call ‘rational states’ (see especially chapter 5) that echoes similar claims made in earlier IR scholarship. For a brief discussion of this difference, see Bruneau (2023a).
Compare with Tilly (1990, 67–70).
As Carsten Andreas Schulz has shown, in spite of the linear claims made in legal instruments such as the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), in practice, jurisdiction in Latin America and especially Chile, remained ‘often-imprecise’ and political authority unevenly exercised—much as it was in the Middle Ages and most of early modernity in Europe. Using the example of Chile, Schulz claims that modern territoriality emerged ‘gradually during the eighteenth century and gathered force in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars’ (Schulz 2019, 879). This linearization of borders was imperfect and continued to be refined over the course of the nineteenth century (Goettlich 2019).
Another example of this can be found in the work of Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu (2015). While they do not dispute the core aspect of the Brenner-Wood thesis regarding the emergence of capitalism in early modern England, as well as Benno Teschke’s claim that Britain subsequently became the first modern state as a result of it, they bring to light the many global entanglements (e.g. the spread of the Black Death during the Pax Mongolica, the impact of the Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry on European political developments) that permitted these developments.
For a discussion, see Vergerio 2022, 189–196.
Using the example of early modern treaties concluded by British envoys, Evgeny Roshchin has shown that the subjects of ‘friendship’ in these legal documents remained overwhelmingly kings and queens. As he puts it, ‘the state appeared as a major party to friendly relations only in the late 18th-early nineteenth centuries’ (Roshchin 2006, 615).
Naturally, some exceptions remained, but the key is that they were now seen as exceptions rather than as the norm.
In certain respects, these accounts echo Adam Watson’s description of world history as a pendulum swinging between states-systems made up of juridically equal units and suzerain systems organized along more hierarchical principles (Watson 1992). The latter category encompasses empires of all sorts and is depicted as the more common form of political organization across history.
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Acknowledgements
For sustaining our conversations around the issues raised in this article for about eight years, we want to thank the Old Parsonage, The Perch, The Gardener’s Arms, and Pakhuis. We also thank Martin Bayly and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
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Bruneau, Q., Vergerio, C. Three histories of the system of states. Int Polit (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-024-00566-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-024-00566-9