The Rise of the Sovereignty of the People Essay - 1743 Words

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Europe went through a period of intense thorough transformation. Even though religious wars in Europe had ended by the end of the seventeenth century through the Treaty of Westphalia, Religion was not the only matter that generated conflict among Europeans. The intellectual atmosphere generated by the Age of Enlightenment generated conflict with the Roman Catholic Church as well as with the Monarchial authorities because many European and Euro-American thinkers made use of reason to study the natural world as well as human behavior, doubting the fairness of their religious, economic, social, and political systems. As a result, many enlighten thinkers, commonly known as philosophes, questioned†¦show more content†¦During the heyday of this theory, most people believed in a supreme God who had created the universe, and thus, seeing kings as divine creatures chosen by God to rule over His earth seemed logical. Jacques-Benigne Bossue t claimed that the royal throne [was] not the throne of man, but the throne of God himself (document 30, page 147). As a result, many people feared standing against the authority of the kings because they feared to be standing against the direct authority of God. Bossuet stated that â€Å"[kings did not need to] render account to anyone or the orders he gives (document 30, page 148). Such idea strongly attracted the tsar Peter the Great, who in 25 years issued more than 3,000 decrees to westernize Russia. Even though Peter the Great gave some kind of autonomy to his subjects by allowing them to gain knowledge and freely exercise their religions, his decrees were absolute (document 31, page 151-152). Under the theory of the Divine Right, kings could not be questioned and had to be obeyed. However, during the era where the human ability to reason was glorified, many people began to question God as the creator of the universe and developed and distributed ideas of autonomy and progres s that threaten the traditional systems. By the seventeenth century, the British and French monarchies were facing challenges due to the cognizance of people who began to protest against the injustices of royalShow MoreRelatedThe Rise of the Sovereignty of the Peoples of Europe and the Americas1758 Words   |  7 Pagesof people threaten to weaken the system, influential Europeans had to strongly defend absolutism by clarifying its favorable functionality and religious bases. Some philosophes, such as Thomas Hobbes, believed that human nature was evil; hence, humans could not direct themselves and needed a king to guide them. As a result, kings had authority to set laws and rule as they pleased without being arbitrated. According to the theory of the Divine Right of Kings, the right to rule over the people cameRead MoreGlobalization Has Changed Over The World1416 Words   |  6 Pagesstandards, its single currency Euro and its barrier free immigration policies make up the very essence of what Wolf is implying Globalizatio n as. On the other hand, State Sovereignty is valued through the three fundamental ideas, ‘’absolute supremacy over internal affairs within its territory, absolute right to govern its people, and freedom from any external interference in the above matters† (Wang, 2004: 473). Therefore, a state is regarded as sovereign if it has a clear territorial border and thatRead MoreGlobalization Is The Single Most Important Development Of Geopolitical Affairs Post Wwii?1336 Words   |  6 PagesGlobalization is perhaps the single most important development in geopolitical affairs post-WWII, affecting the state in a forceful and wide ranging manner. 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However this essay will try to demonstrate that globalization is not undermining state sovereignty but that it is in fact leading to its transformation and to a new variety of nations. In order to prove it I will first define the main key words and will then focus on the different arguments about the effects of globalization and finally I will dem onstrate that globalization has led to a transformation of the concept of state sovereignty. GlobalizationRead MoreTheory of Modernity Essay928 Words   |  4 Pageshunger and high cost of living - all this has forced Louis XVI to go to convening the States-General, has not met since 1614. In early societies, the way people identified themselves was usually tied to which religion they were. National identity and community as a concept did not exist because the idea of established area where different people lived but were connected was not thought of yet. 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