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120-479: The solutions are also referred to by the names of the states they proposed to create, Kleindeutschland and Großdeutschland (" Lesser Germany " and " Greater Germany "). Both movements were part of a growing German nationalism . They also drew upon similar contemporary efforts to create a unified nation state of people who shared a common ethnicity and language, such as the Unification of Italy and

240-726: A republican Großdeutsche Lösung , whereas the liberal center favored the Kleindeutsche Lösung with a constitutional monarchy . Those supporting the Großdeutsche position argued that since the Habsburgs had ruled the Holy Roman Empire for almost 400 years from 1440 to 1806 (the only break coming from the extinction of the Habsburg male line in 1740 to the election of Francis I in 1745), Austria

360-504: A "Greater Germany" today; those that do are often regarded as fascist and/or neo-Nazis . Lesser Germany The term " Lesser Germany " ( German : Kleindeutschland , pronounced [ˌklaɪ̯nˈdɔɪ̯t͡ʃlant] ) or " Lesser German solution " (German: Kleindeutsche Lösung ) denoted essentially exclusion of the multinational Austria of the Habsburgs from the planned German unification as an option for solving

480-698: A German nation-state. The Czech politician František Palacký explicitly rejected the offered mandate to the Frankfurt assembly, stating that the Slavic lands of the Habsburg Empire were not a subject of German debates. On the other hand, for Austrian prime minister Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg , only the accession of the Habsburg Empire as a whole was acceptable because it had no intention to part from its non-German possessions and dismantle in order to remain in an all-German Empire. Thus, some members of

600-560: A crucial role in the development of European liberalism: By abandoning English constitutionalism and creating a new republic based on the rights of the individual, the North Americans introduced a new force in the world. Ideas spread most rapidly when they have found adequate concrete expression. Thus republicanism entered our Romanic/Germanic world.... Up to this point, the conviction had prevailed in Europe that monarchy best served

720-480: A draft constitution for Paoli'se use. Similarly, Voltaire affirmed in his Précis du siècle de Louis XV (1769: chapter LX) that " Bravery may be found in many places, but such bravery only among free peoples ". But the influence of the Corsican Republic as an example of a sovereign people fighting for liberty and enshrining this constitutionally in the form of an Enlightened republic was even greater among

840-545: A financier of Winston Churchill . Large-volume money transfers followed, making the customs union impractical as the economic crisis deepened. In Germany, Adolf Hitler , an Austrian German by birth, had been a firm proponent of the unification of Germany and Austria. A demand for a Greater Germany was included in a 1920 party platform of the Nazi Party . Hitler's election in Germany set into motion increased pressure for

960-566: A friend that in England "almost sixteen thousand has gone off – and in Ireland above forty thousand". Paine may have been inclined to talk up sales of his works but what is striking in this context is that Paine believed that Irish sales were so far ahead of English ones before Part II had appeared. On 5 June 1792, Thomas Paine , author of the Rights of Man was proposed for honorary membership of

1080-621: A laboratory for such political experiments, Corsica combined a number of factors that made it unique: a tradition of village democracy; varied cultural influences from the Italian city-states, Spanish empire and Kingdom of France which left it open to the ideas of the Italian Renaissance , Spanish humanism and French Enlightenment ; and a geo-political position between these three competing powers which led to frequent power vacuums in which new regimes could be set up, testing out

1200-434: A merger between Germany and Austria that swayed many Austrian politicians. But fascist Italy , despite its friendly relations with Hitler, strongly opposed any kind of merger of Austria into Germany, and pressured and threatened Austrian politicians from pursuing such a course. Austria, meanwhile, adopted Austrofascism which focused on the history of Austria and opposed the absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany (according to

1320-596: A new Austrian constitution which defined Austria as a centralist state. By then, the German National Assembly was already divided in 'Greater Germans' (often Catholics) and 'Lesser Germans'. The latter tendency became in March 1849 the majority. It voted for a German constitution that left open the accession of Austria, but elected the Prussian king to be German Emperor. It also made for the first time

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1440-473: A regeneration of their country". By 1795, Tone's republicanism and that of the society had openly crystallized when he tells us: "I remember particularly two days thae we passed on Cave Hill. On the first Russell, Neilson, Simms, McCracken and one or two more of us, on the summit of McArt's fort, took a solemn obligation...never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted her independence." The culmination

1560-668: A republic became a powerful force in Britain's North American colonies, where it contributed to the American Revolution . In Europe, it gained enormous influence through the French Revolution and through the First French Republic of 1792–1804. In Ancient Greece , several philosophers and historians analysed and described elements we now recognize as classical republicanism . Traditionally,

1680-464: A republic was any stable well-governed political community. Both Plato and Aristotle identified three forms of government: democracy , aristocracy , and monarchy . First Plato and Aristotle, and then Polybius and Cicero, held that the ideal republic is a mixture of these three forms of government. The writers of the Renaissance embraced this notion. Cicero expressed reservations concerning

1800-614: A significant German-speaking population joining a Greater German state was maintained by some circles both in Austria-Hungary and Germany. It was again promoted after the close of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro–Hungarian monarchy in 1918 by the proclamation of the rump state , German Austria . Proponents attempted to incorporate German Austria into the German Weimar Republic . However, this

1920-701: A then-failed attempts to expand borders of the Confederation through inclusion of the original nucleus of Prussian statehood ( East Prussia ), as well as through annexing into the Confederation the Prussian-ruled share of the dismembered Polish state, enjoying a degree of autonomy and consisting of Pomerelia (renamed West Prussia ), the Lauenburg and Bütow Land , as well as the Greater Poland (renamed Grand Duchy of Posen ). Attempts to annex

2040-617: Is a natural undercurrent tending to a national feeling and toward a union of the Germans into one great nation, ruled by one common head as a national unit. Over the centuries, the Holy Roman Empire had to cope with a continuous loss of authority to its constituent estates . The disastrous Thirty Years' War proved especially detrimental to the Holy Roman Emperor 's authority, as the mightiest two entities within it,

2160-468: Is also sometimes called civic humanism . Beyond simply a non-monarchy, early modern thinkers conceived of an ideal republic, in which mixed government was an important element, and the notion that virtue and the common good were central to good government. Republicanism also developed its own distinct view of liberty . Renaissance authors who spoke highly of republics were rarely critical of monarchies. While Niccolò Machiavelli 's Discourses on Livy

2280-518: Is appropriately applied to the creation of a rationally designed government. Rather than being ideological, this approach focuses on applying a scientific methodology to the problems of governance through the rigorous study and application of past experience and experimentation in governance. This is the approach that may best be described to apply to republican thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli (as evident in his Discourses on Livy ), John Adams, and James Madison . The word "republic" derives from

2400-526: Is engaged in a direct relationship with the state , removing the need for identity politics based on local, religious, or racial identification. Républicanisme , in theory, makes anti-discrimination laws unnecessary, though some critics may argue that in republics also, colour-blind laws serve to perpetuate discrimination. Inspired by the American and French Revolutions, the Society of United Irishmen

2520-504: Is practicable or efficacious, or just which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion. The declaration, then, urged constitutional reform, union among Irish people and the removal of all religious disqualifications. The movement was influenced, at least in part, by the French Revolution. Public interest, already strongly aroused, was brought to a pitch by the publication in 1790 of Edmund Burke 's Reflections on

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2640-733: Is the period's key work on republics, he also wrote the treatise The Prince , which is better remembered and more widely read, on how best to run a monarchy. The early modern writers did not see the republican model as universally applicable; most thought that it could be successful only in very small and highly urbanized city-states. Jean Bodin in Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576) identified monarchy with republic. Classical writers like Tacitus , and Renaissance writers like Machiavelli tried to avoid an outspoken preference for one government system or another. Enlightenment philosophers, on

2760-461: Is the weakness of Ireland..." They adopted three central positions: (i) to seek out a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance essential to preserve liberties and extend commerce; (ii) that the sole constitutional mode by which English influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament; (iii) that no reform

2880-553: The Commonwealth of England in 1660 and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II discredited republicanism among England's ruling circles. Nevertheless, they welcomed the liberalism , and emphasis on rights, of John Locke , which played a major role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Even so, republicanism flourished in the "country" party of the early 18th century ( commonwealthmen ), which denounced

3000-618: The Dutch Republic during and after the Eighty Years' War , which began in 1568. This anti-monarchism was more propaganda than a political philosophy; most of the anti-monarchist works appeared in the form of widely distributed pamphlets . This evolved into a systematic critique of monarchy, written by men such as the brothers Johan and Peter de la Court . They saw all monarchies as illegitimate tyrannies that were inherently corrupt. These authors were more concerned with preventing

3120-725: The Ferry Laws , which he intended to overturn the Falloux Laws by embracing the anti-clerical thinking of the Philosophes . These laws ended the Catholic Church's involvement in many government institutions in late 19th-century France, including schools. In recent years a debate has developed over the role of republicanism in the American Revolution and in the British radicalism of the 18th century. For many decades

3240-821: The Galician province, Slovenes in Carniola , and Italians in Lombardy–Venetia and Trentino , which was still incorporated into the Tyrolean crown land, altogether making up the larger part of the Austrian Empire. Except for Bohemia, Carniola, and Trento, these territories were not part of the German Confederation because they had not (in some cases not lately) been part of the former Holy Roman Empire, and none of them desired to be included in

3360-618: The German question , in opposition to the one of ' Greater Germany '. In the 19th century, a part of the Austrian Empire belonged to the German Confederation . In the revolutionary era of 1848–1850, it was discussed whether Austria or a part of Austria could belong to a new German federal state. In 1867–1871, the 'Lesser Germany' became reality: a federal state under leadership of Prussia and without Austria. After that,

3480-559: The Habsburg Monarchy would have had to be separate in terms of constitution, government and administration. The Austrian Emperor would have been the head of both parts, formed as separate states in a personal union only. Austria rejected demands for such a division of its imperial territory, as it viewed a personal union as insufficient to ensure integrity of the monarchy. In March 1849, the Austrian Emperor issued

3600-764: The North German Confederation , seeking to prevent the Austrian and Bavarian Catholics in the south from being a predominant force in a mainly Protestant Prussian Germany. He successfully used the Franco-Prussian War to convince the other German states, including the Kingdom of Bavaria, to stand with Prussia against the Second French Empire ; Austria-Hungary did not participate in the war. After Prussia's speedy victory,

3720-636: The Peace of Prague , the Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck , now at the helm of German politics, pursued the expulsion of Austria and managed to unite all German states except Austria under Prussian leadership, while the Habsburg lands were shaken by ethnic nationalist conflicts, only superficially resolved with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 . At the same time, Bismarck established

German question - Misplaced Pages Continue

3840-689: The Prussian deportations , they alienated decisively and irrevocably the Polish majority living in these territories from the Hohenzollerns as well as eroded any confidence or loyalty of Poles towards the State of Prussia. In the peace treaty with Austria, and already before with France, Prussia promised not to expand the North German state to southern Germany. Austria still tried to be a player in

3960-539: The Serbian Revolution . During the Cold War , the term was repurposed to refer to the matters pertaining to the division, and re-unification , of Germany. There is, in political geography, no Germany proper to speak of. There are Kingdoms and Grand Duchies, and Duchies and Principalities, inhabited by Germans, and each separately ruled by an independent sovereign with all the machinery of State. Yet there

4080-599: The War of the Austrian Succession , and then outlasted the French Revolution and Napoleon 's domination of Europe. Facing the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the ruling House of Habsburg proclaimed the Austrian Empire in 1804. On August 6, 1806, Habsburg Emperor Francis II abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in the course of the Napoleonic Wars with France . The 1815 restoration by

4200-569: The reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, is closer to what the Kleindeutsche Lösung envisioned (aside from the fact that large areas of the former Prussia were no longer part of Germany) than the Großdeutsche Lösung , for Austria remains a separate country. Because of the idea's association with Nazism and rise of Austrian national identity , there are no mainstream political groups in Austria or Germany that advocate

4320-584: The 19th century, when Austria had controlled large areas of non-German peoples, Austria became the subordinate partner in the new unified German-speaking state. From 1938 to 1942, the former state of Austria was referred to as Ostmark ("Eastern March") by the new German state. In a reference to the 19th-century "Greater German solution", the enlarged state was referred to as the Großdeutsches Reich ("Greater German Reich") and colloquially as Großdeutschland . The names were informal at first, but

4440-478: The Austrian Habsburg monarchy and Brandenburg-Prussia , evolved into rivalling European absolute powers with territory reaching far beyond Holy Roman Imperial borders. Meanwhile, the many smaller estates splintered further. In the 18th century the Holy Roman Empire consisted of hundreds of separate territories governed by distinct authorities. This rivalry between Austria and Prussia resulted in

4560-451: The Austrian government was not willing to live with the consequences of a German federal state. The German National Assembly refused to accept all of Austria, as this would have burdened the new state with the nationality conflicts of Austria. Only the part of Austria that was already federal territory was welcome, even if it included a large ethnic minority (the Czechs ). The Hungarian part of

4680-744: The Dublin Society of the United Irishmen. The fall of the Bastille was to be celebrated in Belfast on 14 July 1791 by a Volunteer meeting. At the request of Thomas Russell , Tone drafted suitable resolutions for the occasion, including one favouring the inclusion of Catholics in any reforms. In a covering letter to Russell, Tone wrote, "I have not said one word that looks like a wish for separation, though I give it to you and your friends as my most decided opinion that such an event would be

4800-547: The Enlightenment ideal of a written constitutional monarchy . But the perception grew that the monarchy had colluded with the invading power, a more radical group of reformers led by the Pasquale Paoli pushed for political overhaul, in the form of a constitutional and parliamentary republic inspired by the popular ideas of the Enlightenment. Its governing philosophy was both inspired by the prominent thinkers of

4920-558: The Final Act of the Vienna Congress established the German Confederation , which was not a nation but a commonwealth association of sovereign states on the territory of the former Holy Roman Empire. While a number of factors swayed allegiances in the debate, the most prominent was religion . The Großdeutsche Lösung would have implied a dominant position for Catholic Austria, the largest and most powerful German state of

German question - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-481: The Frankfurt parliament offered the German Imperial crown to King Frederick William IV of Prussia , who rejected it. The revolution failed and several subsequent attempts by Prince Schwarzenberg to more closely unite the German Confederation headed by Austria ( Greater Austria proposal ) came to nothing. These efforts were finally terminated by Austria's humiliating defeat in 1866 Austro-Prussian War . After

5160-475: The French monarchy in the 1790s, began by setting up a republic; Napoleon converted it into an Empire with a new aristocracy. In the 1830s Belgium adopted some of the innovations of the progressive political philosophers of the Enlightenment. Républicanisme is a French version of modern republicanism. It is a form of social contract , deduced from Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's idea of a general will . Each citizen

5280-649: The German question. In summer 1870, war broke out between France and the North German Confederation. The south German states were loyal to their military conventions with the North. Austria did not dare to support France because of its weak position after the war of 1866 and because of the German-speaking inhabitants sympathizing with the German cause. Finally, the Austrian government accepted

5400-411: The Grand Duchy to an ordinary Province of Posen . In an unexpected turn of events, the Prussian king refused, however, to accept in April the offered crown of the nascent German Empire (1848–1849) , primarily due to his negative perception of the form of the planned empire as designed by the Frankfurt Constitution, thus causing abortion of the efforts to establish the state. Nevertheless, he followed in

5520-401: The Greek concept of " politeia " was rendered into Latin as res publica. Consequently, political theory until relatively recently often used republic in the general sense of "regime". There is no single written expression or definition from this era that exactly corresponds with a modern understanding of the term "republic" but most of the essential features of the modern definition are present in

5640-498: The Hungarian part of the Austrian Empire, outside of the Confederation. The territory within the confederation was called bundeszugehörig (belonging to the confederation), the other bundesfremd (foreign to the confederation). Only Bundesgebiet (federal territory = territory within the boundaries of the confederation) was protected by the military provisions of the German Confederation. In March 1848, revolution broke out in Germany and other European countries. The Federal Assembly,

5760-425: The Irish, French and American causes. During the Enlightenment, anti- monarchism extended beyond the civic humanism of the Renaissance. Classical republicanism, still supported by philosophers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu , was only one of several theories seeking to limit the power of monarchies rather than directly opposing them. Liberalism and socialism departed from classical republicanism and fueled

5880-503: The Latin noun-phrase res publica (public thing), which referred to the system of government that emerged in the 6th century BCE following the expulsion of the kings from Rome by Lucius Junius Brutus and Collatinus . This form of government in the Roman state collapsed in the latter part of the 1st century BCE, giving way to what was a monarchy in form, if not in name. Republics recurred subsequently, with, for example, Renaissance Florence or early modern Britain . The concept of

6000-400: The Radicals of Great Britain and North America , where it was popularised via An Account of Corsica , by the Scottish essayist James Boswell . The Corsican Republic went on to influence the American revolutionaries ten years later: the Sons of Liberty , initiators of the American Revolution , would declare Pascal Paoli to be a direct inspiration for their own struggle against the British;

6120-486: The Renaissance, Europe was divided, such that those states controlled by a landed elite were monarchies, and those controlled by a commercial elite were republics. The latter included the Italian city-states of Florence , Genoa , and Venice and members of the Hanseatic League . One notable exception was Dithmarschen , a group of largely autonomous villages, which confederated in a peasants' republic. Building upon concepts of medieval feudalism , Renaissance scholars used

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6240-417: The Revolution in France , and Thomas Paine's response, Rights of Man , in February 1791. Theobald Wolfe Tone wrote later that, "This controversy, and the gigantic event which gave rise to it, changed in an instant the politics of Ireland." Paine himself was aware of this commenting on sales of Part I of Rights of Man in November 1791, only eight months after publication of the first edition, he informed

6360-399: The Roman Republic as an ideal system because it included features like a systematic separation of powers . Romans still called their state "Res Publica" in the era of the early emperors because, on the surface, the organization of the state had been preserved by the first emperors without significant alteration. Several offices from the Republican era, held by individuals, were combined under

6480-399: The Roman Republic constituted in such a manner that it applied the strengths of each system to offset the weaknesses of the others. In his view, the mixed system of the Roman Republic provided the Romans with a much greater level of domestic tranquillity than would have been experienced under another form of government. Furthermore, Polybius argued, the comparative level of domestic tranquillity

6600-404: The Romans enjoyed allowed them to conquer the Mediterranean. Polybius exerted a great influence on Cicero as he wrote his politico-philosophical works in the 1st century BCE. In one of these works, De re publica , Cicero linked the Roman concept of res publica to the Greek politeia . The modern term "republic", despite its derivation, is not synonymous with the Roman res publica . Among

6720-496: The approval of the national movement. Several proposals were made to reform the German Confederation, most notably in 1863 at the Frankfurter Fürstentag . At this moment, the networks of the political elites in Lesser Germany were already quite separate from the Austrian ones. In April and June 1866, Prussia proposed to convert the German Confederation into a federal state without Austria. Bavaria refused to become Prussia's junior partner in this project. But nevertheless Prussia sought

6840-440: The argument that the American founding fathers were more influenced by republicanism than they were by liberalism. Cornell University professor Isaac Kramnick , on the other hand, argues that Americans have always been highly individualistic and therefore Lockean. Joyce Appleby has argued similarly for the Lockean influence on America. In the decades before the American Revolution (1776), the intellectual and political leaders of

6960-464: The assembly, and Prussia in particular, promoted the Kleindeutsche Lösung , which excluded the whole Austrian Empire with its German and its non-German possessions. They argued that Prussia, as the only Great Power with a predominantly German-speaking population, was best qualified to lead the newly unified Germany. Yet, the drafted constitution provided for the possibility for Austria to join without its non-German possessions later. On March 30, 1849,

7080-546: The belief that Austrians were "better Germans"). Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg (1934–1938) called Austria the "better German state". Nevertheless, German nationalists ' desire for a unified nation-state incorporating all Germans into a Greater Germany persisted and, in time, Mussolini 's Italy became distracted by its 1936 invasion of Ethiopia , leading to a stretch of resources and less willingness to intervene in Austria. In 1938, Hitler's long-desired union between his birthplace, Austria, and Germany ( Anschluss )

7200-486: The change to Großdeutsches Reich became official in 1943. As well as Germany (pre-World War II borders), Austria, and Alsace-Lorraine , the Großdeutsches Reich included the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , Sudetenland , Bohemia and Moravia , the Memel Territory , the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany , the Free State of Danzig , and the "General Government" territories (territories of Poland under German military occupation). This unification lasted only until

7320-399: The colonies studied history intently, looking for models of good government. They especially followed the development of republican ideas in England. Pocock explained the intellectual sources in America: The Whig canon and the neo-Harringtonians, John Milton , James Harrington and Sidney , Trenchard , Gordon and Bolingbroke , together with the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance masters of

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7440-466: The conditions necessary for a functional popular sovereignty, that " There is still one European country capable of making its own laws: the island of Corsica. valour and persistency with which that brave people has regained and defended its liberty well deserves that some wise man should teach it how to preserve what it has won. I have a feeling that some day that little island will astonish Europe ."; indeed Rousseau volunteered to do precisely that, offering

7560-433: The confrontation with Austria that was unwilling to accept Prussia as its equal within the confederation. The Austro-Prussian War of summer 1866 ended with a Prussian victory and the dissolution of the German Confederation. Prussia established a federal state in Northern Germany, called the North German Confederation, expanded through addition of the original Prussian nucleus (the East Prussia ), as well as annexing into it

7680-434: The consensus was that liberalism , especially that of John Locke , was paramount and that republicanism had a distinctly secondary role. The new interpretations were pioneered by J.G.A. Pocock , who argued in The Machiavellian Moment (1975) that, at least in the early 18th century, republican ideas were just as important as liberal ones. Pocock's view is now widely accepted. Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood pioneered

7800-509: The constraints of one nation. As Christopher N. Warren argues, Milton offers "a language to critique imperialism, to question the legitimacy of dictators, to defend free international discourse, to fight unjust property relations, and to forge new political bonds across national lines." This form of international Miltonic republicanism has been influential on later thinkers including 19th-century radicals Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , according to Warren and other historians. The collapse of

7920-420: The control of a single person. These changes became permanent, and gradually conferred sovereignty on the Emperor. Cicero's description of the ideal state, in De re Publica , does not equate to a modern-day "republic"; it is more like enlightened absolutism . His philosophical works were influential when Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire developed their political concepts. In its classical meaning,

8040-477: The corruption of the "court" party, producing a political theory that heavily influenced the American colonists. In general, the English ruling classes of the 18th century vehemently opposed republicanism, typified by the attacks on John Wilkes , and especially on the American Revolution and the French Revolution . French and Swiss Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire , Baron Charles de Montesquieu and later Jean-Jacques Rousseau , expanded upon and altered

8160-429: The day, notably the French philosophers Montesquieu and Voltaire and the Swiss theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Not only did it include a permanent national parliament with fixed-term legislatures and regular elections, but, more radically for the time, it introduced universal male suffrage , and it is thought to be the first constitution in the world to grant women the right to vote, female suffrage did exist for heads of

8280-404: The debate was settled in favor of the Kleindeutsche Lösung in 1871. Bismarck used the prestige gained from the victory to maintain the alliance with Bavaria and proclaimed the German Empire . Protestant Prussia became the dominant power of the new state, and Austria-Hungary was excluded, remaining a separate polity . The Lesser German solution prevailed. The idea of Austrian territories with

8400-466: The defects that affected them. Both Livy , a Roman historian, and Plutarch , who is noted for his biographies and moral essays, described how Rome had developed its legislation, notably the transition from a kingdom to a republic , by following the example of the Greeks. Some of this history, composed more than 500 years after the events, with scant written sources to rely on, may be fictitious reconstruction. The Greek historian Polybius , writing in

8520-490: The democratic ideals of the modern world. An important distinction is that, while republicanism stressed the importance of civic virtue and the common good , liberalism was based on economics and individualism . It is clearest in the matter of private property, which, according to some, can be maintained only under the protection of established positive law . Jules Ferry , Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1885, followed both these schools of thought. He eventually enacted

8640-525: The development of the more modern republicanism . Brazilian historiography generally identifies republican thought with the movement that was formally organized in the Empire of Brazil during the 1870s to 1880s, but republicanism was already present in the country since the First Reign (1822–1831) and the regency period (1831–1840). During Brazil's early years after its independence , the country saw

8760-627: The early 19th century. As a result, Catholics and Austria-friendly, mostly southern states usually favored Großdeutschland . A unification of Germany led by Prussia would mean the domination of the new state by the Protestant House of Hohenzollern , a more palatable option to Protestant , mostly northern German states. Another complicating factor was the Austrian Empire's inclusion of a large number of non-Germans, such as Hungarians , Czechs , South Slavs , Italians , Poles , Ruthenians , Romanians and Slovaks . Additional complication

8880-477: The emergence of a republican discourse among the writings of figures such as Cipriano Barata , Frei Caneca and João Soares Lisboa, but republican ideology better developed as a political current after the emergence of the so-called radical liberal faction in the crisis of the final years of the First Reign. During the First Reign, three groups emerged on the country's political scene: the moderate liberals,

9000-558: The end of World War II . With the defeat of the Nazi regime in 1945, "Greater Germany" was separated into West Germany , East Germany , and Austria by the Allied Powers. Austria was also occupied but given full sovereignty by the 1955 Austrian State Treaty which among other things required Austria to renounce any designs on uniting with Germany. Austrian neutrality was affirmed in a separate but related act. Furthermore, Germany

9120-579: The episode resonated across Europe as an early example of Enlightened constitutional republicanism, with many of the most prominent political commentators of the day recognising it to be an experiment in a new type of popular and democratic government. Its influence was particularly notable among the French Enlightenment philosophers: Rousseau's famous work On the Social Contract (1762: chapter 10, book II) declared, in its discussion on

9240-691: The evolution and the creation of a Lesser Germany in December 1870. Republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue , political participation , harms of corruption , positives of mixed constitution , rule of law , and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self-governance and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or aristocracy to popular sovereignty . It has had different definitions and interpretations which vary significantly based on historical context and methodological approach. Republicanism may also refer to

9360-407: The family. It also extended Enlightened principles to other spheres, including administrative reform, the foundation of a national university at Corte , and the establishment of a popular standing army . The Corsican Republic lasted for fifteen years, from 1755 to 1769, eventually falling to a combination of Genoese and French forces and was incorporated as a province of the Kingdom of France. But

9480-467: The fashionable new ideas of the age. From the 1720s the island had been experiencing a series of short-lived but ongoing rebellions against its current sovereign, the Italian city-state of Genoa . During the initial period (1729–36) these merely sought to restore the control of the Spanish Empire; when this proved impossible, an independent Kingdom of Corsica (1736–40) was proclaimed, following

9600-471: The idea emerged that power should come from below.... These two principles are like two opposite poles, and it is the conflict between them that determines the course of the modern world. In Europe the conflict between them had not yet taken on concrete form; with the French Revolution it did. Republicanism, especially that of Rousseau , played a central role in the French Revolution and foreshadowed modern republicanism. The revolutionaries, after overthrowing

9720-484: The ideal of the militia), established churches (opposed to the Puritan and deist modes of American religion) and the promotion of a monied interest – though the formulation of this last concept was somewhat hindered by the keen desire for readily available paper credit common in colonies of settlement. A neoclassical politics provided both the ethos of the elites and the rhetoric of the upwardly mobile, and accounts for

9840-489: The ideas of the ancient world to advance their view of an ideal government. Thus the republicanism developed during the Renaissance is known as 'classical republicanism' because it relied on classical models. This terminology was developed by Zera Fink in the 1940s, but some modern scholars, such as Brugger, consider it confuses the "classical republic" with the system of government used in the ancient world. 'Early modern republicanism' has been proposed as an alternative term. It

9960-574: The ideas of what an ideal republic should be: some of their new ideas were scarcely traceable to antiquity or the Renaissance thinkers. Concepts they contributed, or heavily elaborated, were social contract , positive law , and mixed government . They also borrowed from, and distinguished republicanism from, the ideas of liberalism that were developing at the same time. Liberalism and republicanism were frequently conflated during this period, because they both opposed absolute monarchy. Modern scholars see them as two distinct streams that both contributed to

10080-507: The immediate aftermath with further steps to unify Germany, but on his own absolutist terms, initially through a project that was later called the ' Erfurt Union '. Austria was not invited to become part of this version of Lesser Germany. Joseph von Radowitz , adviser to the Prussian king and actual leader of the project, tried to bind Austria and the Union together in a confederation. Austria rejected these attempts and made Prussia give up for

10200-441: The interests of the nation. Now the idea spread that the nation should govern itself. But only after a state had actually been formed on the basis of the theory of representation did the full significance of this idea become clear. All later revolutionary movements have this same goal... This was the complete reversal of a principle. Until then, a king who ruled by the grace of God had been the center around which everything turned. Now

10320-463: The islands becoming republics, particularly Bermuda . Julien Fédon and Joachim Philip led the republican Fédon's rebellion between 2 March 1795 and 19 June 1796, an uprising against British rule in Grenada . The first of the Enlightenment republics established in Europe during the 18th century occurred in the small Mediterranean island of Corsica . Although perhaps an unlikely place to act as

10440-705: The mid-2nd century BCE, emphasized (in Book 6) the role played by the Roman Republic as an institutional form in the dramatic rise of Rome's hegemony over the Mediterranean. In his writing on the constitution of the Roman Republic, Polybius described the system as being a "mixed" form of government. Specifically, Polybius described the Roman system as a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy with

10560-617: The non-ideological scientific approach to politics and governance. As the republican thinker and second president of the United States John Adams stated in the introduction to his famous A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America , the "science of politics is the science of social happiness" and a republic is the form of government arrived at when the science of politics

10680-490: The only organ of the German Confederation, elected a National Assembly to work out a constitution for a German federal state. The German National Assembly also installed a provisional head of state (the uncle of the Austrian Emperor) and government. Initially, it was universally accepted that the federal territory of Austria should be a part of the new German state. During the course of 1848, it became evident that

10800-540: The other hand, expressed a clear opinion. Thomas More , writing before the Age of Enlightenment, was too outspoken for the reigning king's taste, even though he coded his political preferences in a utopian allegory. In England a type of republicanism evolved that was not wholly opposed to monarchy; thinkers such as Thomas More, John Fisher and Sir Thomas Smith saw a monarchy, firmly constrained by law, as compatible with republicanism. Anti- monarchism became more strident in

10920-519: The political spectrum, along Jacobin lines, and defended broad reforms such as the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic, federalism, the extinction of the Moderating Power , the end of life tenure in the Senate , the separation between Church and State, relative social equality, the extension of political and civil rights to all free segments of society, including women,

11040-556: The position of Stadholder from evolving into a monarchy, than with attacking their former rulers. Dutch republicanism also influenced French Huguenots during the Wars of Religion . In the other states of early modern Europe republicanism was more moderate. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , republicanism was the influential ideology. After the establishment of the Commonwealth of Two Nations, republicans supported

11160-459: The predominantly Polish-speaking Prussian-held share of Poland, namely the territories of Province of Posen , West Prussia and the Lauenburg and Bütow Land which were not included in its predecessor, the German Confederation. Although hailed as a German success at the time, the annexations were in fact a Pyrrhic victory , because along with the ensuing Germanisation , the Kulturkampf and

11280-461: The radical liberals and the caramurus . The moderates defended political-institutional reforms such as decentralization, without, however, giving up the monarchical system. Their main doctrinal references were Locke, Montesquieu, Guizot and Benjamin Constant . The radicals, in turn, formed a heterogeneous group with almost no representation within the imperial bureaucracy. They were on the left of

11400-426: The republican form of government. While in his theoretical works he defended monarchy, or at least a mixed monarchy/oligarchy, in his own political life, he generally opposed men, like Julius Caesar , Mark Antony , and Octavian , who were trying to realise such ideals. Eventually, that opposition led to his death and Cicero can be seen as a victim of his own Republican ideals. Tacitus , a contemporary of Plutarch,

11520-501: The rulers, there can be no civic peace or happiness. A number of Ancient Greek city-states such as Athens and Sparta have been classified as " classical republics ", because they featured extensive participation by the citizens in legislation and political decision-making. Aristotle considered Carthage to have been a republic as it had a political system similar to that of some of the Greek cities, notably Sparta, but avoided some of

11640-561: The several meanings of the term res publica , it is most often translated "republic" where the Latin expression refers to the Roman state, and its form of government, between the era of the Kings and the era of the Emperors. This Roman Republic would, by a modern understanding of the word, still be defined as a true republic, even if not coinciding entirely. Thus, Enlightenment philosophers saw

11760-537: The singular cultural and intellectual homogeneity of the Founding Fathers and their generation. The commitment of most Americans to these republican values made the American Revolution inevitable. Britain was increasingly seen as corrupt and hostile to republicanism, and as a threat to the established liberties the Americans enjoyed. Leopold von Ranke in 1848 claimed that American republicanism played

11880-703: The son of Ebenezer Mackintosh was named Pascal Paoli Mackintosh in his honour, and no fewer than five American counties are named Paoli for the same reason. Oliver Cromwell set up a Christian republic called the Commonwealth of England (1649–1660) which he ruled after the overthrow of King Charles I . James Harrington was then a leading philosopher of republicanism. John Milton was another important Republican thinker at this time, expressing his views in political tracts as well as through poetry and prose. In his epic poem Paradise Lost , for instance, Milton uses Satan's fall to suggest that unfit monarchs should be brought to justice, and that such issues extend beyond

12000-561: The start of the Imperial form of government in Rome). By this time, too many principles defining some powers as "untouchable" had been implemented. In Europe, republicanism was revived in the late Middle Ages when a number of states, which arose from medieval communes , embraced a republican system of government. These were generally small but wealthy trading states in which the merchant class had risen to prominence. Haakonssen notes that by

12120-531: The state, freeing it from civil wars and disorder. Tacitus was one of the first to ask whether such powers were given to the head of state because the citizens wanted to give them, or whether they were given for other reasons (for example, because one had a deified ancestor ). The latter case led more easily to abuses of power. In Tacitus' opinion, the trend away from a true republic was irreversible only when Tiberius established power, shortly after Augustus' death in 14 CE (much later than most historians place

12240-494: The status quo, of having a very weak monarch, and opposed those who thought a stronger monarchy was needed. These mostly Polish republicans, such as Łukasz Górnicki , Andrzej Wolan , and Stanisław Konarski , were well read in classical and Renaissance texts and firmly believed that their state was a republic on the Roman model, and started to call their state the Rzeczpospolita . Atypically, Polish–Lithuanian republicanism

12360-539: The staunch opposition to slavery , displaying a nationalist , xenophobic and anti-Portuguese discourse. In 1870 a group of radical liberals, convinced of the impossibility of achieving their desired reforms within the Brazilian monarchical system, met and founded the Republican Party. From its founding until 1889, the party operated in an erratic and geographically diverse manner. The republican movement

12480-468: The term lost its significance because since then 'Germany' is usually identified as this Lesser Germany. The other term, Greater Germany, remained in use for those who sought to incorporate Austria or the German-speaking parts of Austria into Germany. This became a political issue in the aftermath of World War One and then again in 1938–1945. During the Cold War, when Germany was divided, a unified Germany

12600-543: The territories populated with Poles were based on an assessment that future successful Germanisation of these lands would be feasible, in contrast to the Hungarian lands. The planned annexations elicited an immediate armed response of the Poles in the form of the Greater Poland uprising (1848) and were as a result abandoned for the time being. In spite of their failure at the time, the assembly did succeed, however, in demoting

12720-465: The time being its union plans in late 1850. Except for Hungary, the Austrian Empire remained a part of the re-established German Confederation, while Prussia still tried to improve its position within the confederation and even cherished its union plans. Around 1860, the German question became dynamic again. Austria came out weakened by the Italian War of the previous year while Prussia sought to gain

12840-464: The tradition as far as Montesquieu , formed the authoritative literature of this culture; and its values and concepts were those with which we have grown familiar: a civic and patriot ideal in which the personality was founded in property, perfected in citizenship but perpetually threatened by corruption; government figuring paradoxically as the principal source of corruption and operating through such means as patronage, faction, standing armies (opposed to

12960-487: The works of Plato , Aristotle and Polybius . These include theories of mixed government and of civic virtue . For example, in The Republic , Plato places great emphasis on the importance of civic virtue (aiming for the good) together with personal virtue ('just man') on the part of the ideal rulers. Indeed, in Book V, Plato asserts that until rulers have the nature of philosophers (Socrates) or philosophers become

13080-504: Was a central aspect of the origins of the Cold War. The legal and diplomatic intercourse between the Allies regarding the treatment of the German question brought forward the elements of intervention and coexistence which formed the basis for a relatively peaceful postwar international order. The division of Germany started with the creation of four occupation zones, continued with establishing two German states (West Germany and East Germany),

13200-709: Was an uprising against British rule in Ireland lasting from May to September 1798 – the Irish Rebellion of 1798 – with military support from revolutionary France in August and again October 1798. After the failure of the rising of 1798 the United Irishman, John Daly Burk, an émigré in the United States in his The History of the Late War in Ireland written in 1799, was most emphatic in its identification of

13320-548: Was best suited to lead the unified nation. However, Austria posed a problem because the Habsburgs ruled large chunks of non-German-speaking territory. The largest such area was the Kingdom of Hungary , which also included large Slovak, Romanian and Croat populations. Austria further comprised numerous possessions with predominantly non-German populations, including Czechs in the Bohemian lands, Poles, Rusyns and Ukrainians in

13440-422: Was called ' Gesamtdeutschland '. Since 1815, the German states had belonged to the German Confederation. Its territory was defined essentially after the Holy Roman Empire . As a consequence, the two dominant member states belonged to the confederation only partially, leaving their vast territories such as the original Prussia (renamed East Prussia ), the Prussian and Austrian shares of the partitioned Poland, or

13560-595: Was completed, which violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles; the League of Nations was unable to enforce the ban on such a union. The Anschluss was met with overwhelming approval of the German-Austrian people, and was confirmed by a referendum shortly after. The unification process was reinforced one month later by a referendum, supported by an overwhelming majority. In contrast to the political situation in

13680-629: Was deepened in the period of Cold War with the Berlin Wall from 1961 and existed until 1989/1990. After the East German uprising of 1953 , the official holiday in the Federal Republic of Germany was set on 17 June and was named " Day of German Unity ", in order to remind all Germans of the “open” (unanswered) German Question ( die offene Deutsche Frage ), which meant the call for reunification. Modern Germany's territory, after

13800-410: Was founded in 1791 in Belfast and Dublin. The inaugural meeting of the United Irishmen in Belfast on 18 October 1791 approved a declaration of the society's objectives. It identified the central grievance that Ireland had no national government: "...we are ruled by Englishmen, and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength

13920-458: Was not concerned with whether a form of government could be analysed as a "republic" or a "monarchy". He analysed how the powers accumulated by the early Julio-Claudian dynasty were all given by a State that was still notionally a republic. Nor was the Roman Republic "forced" to give away these powers: it did so freely and reasonably, certainly in Augustus ' case, because of his many services to

14040-474: Was not the ideology of the commercial class, but rather of the landed nobility, which would lose power if the monarchy were expanded. This resulted in an oligarchy of the great landed magnates. Victor Hugues , Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse and Nicolas Xavier de Ricard were prominent supporters of republicanism for various Caribbean islands. Edwin Sandys , William Sayle and George Tucker all supported

14160-692: Was prohibited by the terms of both the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Versailles , though Austrian political parties such as the Greater German People's Party and the Social Democrats pursued this idea regardless. In 1931, there was an attempt to create a customs union between the Weimar Republic and Austria. The move was protested by France, and bankers such as Henry Strakosch of Austria, who later became

14280-655: Was stripped of much of historic eastern Germany (i.e. the bulk of Prussia), most of which was annexed to Poland , with a small portion annexed to the Soviet Union (today's Kaliningrad Oblast ). Luxembourg, the Czech (via Czechoslovakia ), and the Slovenian lands (via Yugoslavia ) regained their independence from German control. Germans in Eastern Europe were also expelled after the war . The German question

14400-532: Was that the Austrians were reluctant to enter a unified Germany if it meant giving up their non-German speaking territories. In 1848, German liberals and nationalists united in revolution , forming the Frankfurt Parliament . The Greater German movement within this National Assembly demanded the unification of all German-populated lands into one nation. In general or to an extent, the left favored

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