Mercantile republics
Giovan Battista Tiepolo,
Neptune offers the wealth of the sea to Venice, 1748–50. This painting is an allegory of the power of the Republic of Venice.
In Europe new republics appeared in the late
Middle Ages when a number of small states embraced republican systems of government. These were generally small, but wealthy, trading states, like the
Italian city-states and the
Hanseatic League, in which the merchant class had risen to prominence. Knud Haakonssen has noted that, by the
Renaissance, Europe was divided with those states controlled by a landed elite being monarchies and those controlled by a commercial elite being republics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Haakonssen_12-1">
[13]</sup>
Across Europe a wealthy merchant class developed in the important trading cities. Despite their wealth they had little power in the
feudal system dominated by the rural land owners, and across Europe began to advocate for their own privileges and powers. The more centralized states, such as
France and
England, granted limited city charters.
In the more loosely governed
Holy Roman Empire, 51 of the largest towns became
free imperial cities. While still under the dominion of the
Holy Roman Emperor most power was held locally and many adopted republican forms of government.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Finer_1999._pg._950-955_26-0">
[27]</sup> The same rights to imperial immediacy were secured by the major trading cities of
Switzerland. The towns and villages of alpine
Switzerland had, courtesy of geography, also been largely excluded from central control. Unlike
Italy and
Germany, much of the rural area was thus not controlled by feudal barons, but by independent farmers who also used communal forms of government. When the
Habsburgs tried to reassert control over the region both rural farmers and town merchants joined the rebellion. The
Swiss were victorious, and the
Swiss Confederacy was proclaimed, and Switzerland has retained a republican form of government to the present.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27">
[28]</sup>
Italy was the most densely populated area of Europe, and also one with the weakest central government. Many of the towns thus gained considerable independence and adopted
commune forms of government. Completely free of feudal control, the Italian city-states expanded, gaining control of the rural hinterland.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Finer_1999._pg._950-955_26-1">
[27]</sup> The two most powerful were the
Republic of Venice and its rival the
Republic of Genoa. Each were large trading ports, and further expanded by using naval power to control large parts of the
Mediterranean. It was in Italy that an ideology advocating for republics first developed. Writers such as
Bartholomew of Lucca,
Brunetto Latini,
Marsilius of Padua, and
Leonardo Bruni saw the medieval city-states as heirs to the legacy of Greece and Rome.
Two
Northern Russian cities with powerful merchant class —
Novgorod and
Pskov — also adopted republican forms of government in 12th and 13th centuries, respectively, which ended when the republics were conquered by
Moscow at the end 15th - beginning of 16th century.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28">
[29]</sup>
The dominant form of government for these early republics was control by a limited council of elite
patricians. In those areas that held elections, property qualifications or guild membership limited both who could vote and who could run. In many states no direct elections were held and council members were hereditary or appointed by the existing council. This left the great majority of the population without political power, and riots and revolts by the lower classes were common. The late Middle Ages saw more than 200 such risings in the towns of the Holy Roman Empire.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29">
[30]</sup> Similar revolts occurred in Italy, notably the
Ciompi Revolt in Florence.
[edit] Protestant republics
While the classical writers had been the primary ideological source for the republics of Italy, in Northern Europe, the
Protestant Reformation would be used as justification for establishing new republics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30">
[31]</sup> Most important was
Calvinist theology, which developed in the Swiss Confederacy, one of the largest and most powerful of the medieval republics.
John Calvin did not call for the abolition of monarchy, but he advanced the doctrine that the faithful had the right to overthrow irreligious monarchs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31">
[32]</sup> Calvinism also espoused a fierce
egalitarianism and an opposition to hierarchy. Advocacy for republics appeared in the writings of the
Huguenots during the
French Wars of Religion.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32">
[33]</sup>
Calvinism played an important role in the republican revolts in
England and the
Netherlands. Like the city-states of Italy and the
Hanseatic League, both were important trading centres, with a large merchant class prospering from the trade with the New World. Large parts of the population of both areas also embraced Calvinism. The
Dutch Revolt, beginning in 1568, saw the
Dutch Republic reject the rule of
Habsburg Spain in a conflict that lasted until 1648.
In 1641 the
English Civil War began. Spearheaded by the
Puritans and funded by the merchants of
London, the revolt was a success, and
King Charles I was executed. In England
James Harrington,
Algernon Sydney, and
John Milton became some of the first writers to argue for rejecting monarchy and embracing a republican form of government. The
English Commonwealth was short lived, and the monarchy soon restored. The
Dutch Republic continued in name until 1795, but by the mid-18th century the
stadholder had become a
de facto monarch. Calvinists were also some of the earliest settlers of the British and Dutch colonies of
North America.
[edit] Liberal republics
An allegory of the Republic in Paris
Along with these initial republican revolts,
early modern Europe also saw a great increase in monarchial power. The era of
absolute monarchy replaced the limited and decentralized monarchies that had existed in most of the Middle Ages. It also saw a reaction against the total control of the monarch as a series of writers created the ideology known as
liberalism.
Most of these
Enlightenment thinkers were far more interested in ideas of
constitutional monarchy than in republics. The Cromwell regime had discredited republicanism, and most thinkers felt that republics ended in either
anarchy or
tyranny.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33">
[34]</sup> Thus philosophers like
Voltaire opposed absolutism while at the same time being strongly pro-monarchy.
Septinsular Republic flag from the early 1800s
A revolutionary Republican hand-written bill from the Stockholm riots during the
Revolutions of 1848, reading: "Dethrone
Oscar he is not fit to be a king rather the Republic! The Reform! down with the Royal house, long live
Aftonbladet! death to the king / Republic Republic the people.
Brunkeberg this evening". The writer's identity is unknown.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Montesquieu praised republics, and looked on the city-states of Greece as a model. However, both also felt that a nation-state like France, with 20 million people, would be impossible to govern as a republic. Rousseau described his ideal political structure of small self-governing
communes. Montesquieu felt that a city-state should ideally be a republic, but maintained that a limited monarchy was better suited to a large nation.
The
American Revolution began as a rejection only of the authority of
British parliament over the colonies, not of the monarchy. The failure of the British monarch to protect the colonies from what they considered the infringement of
their rights to representative government, the monarch's branding of those requesting redress as traitors, and his support for sending combat troops to demonstrate authority resulted in widespread perception of the British monarchy as
tyrannical. With the
Declaration of Independence the leaders of the revolt firmly rejected the monarchy and embraced republicanism. The leaders of the revolution were well versed in the writings of the French liberal thinkers, and also in history of the classical republics.
John Adams had notably written a book on republics throughout history. In addition, the widely distributed and popularly read-aloud tract
Common Sense, by
Thomas Paine, succinctly and eloquently laid out the case for republican ideals and independence to the larger public. The
Constitution of the United States ratified in 1789 created a relatively strong
federal republic to replace the relatively weak
confederation under the first attempt at a national government with the
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union ratified in 1783. The first ten amendments to the Constitution, called the
United States Bill of Rights, guaranteed certain
natural rights fundamental to republican ideals that justified the Revolution.
The
French Revolution was also not republican at its outset. Only after the
Flight to Varennes removed most of the remaining sympathy for the king was a republic declared and
Louis XVI sent to the guillotine. The stunning success of France in the
French Revolutionary Wars saw republics spread by force of arms across much of Europe as a series of
client republics were set up across the continent. The rise of
Napoleon saw the end of the
First French Republic, and his eventual defeat allowed the victorious monarchies to put an end to many of the oldest republics on the continent, including
Venice,
Genoa, and the Dutch.
Outside of Europe another group of republics was created as the
Napoleonic Wars allowed the states of
Latin America to gain their independence. Liberal ideology had only a limited impact on these new republics. The main impetus was the local European descended
Creole population in conflict with the
Peninsulares governors sent from overseas. The majority of the population in most of Latin America was of either
African or
Amerindian decent, and the Creole elite had little interest in giving these groups power and broad-based
popular sovereignty.
Simón Bolívar was both the main instigator of the revolts and one of its most important theorists was sympathetic to liberal ideals, but felt that Latin America lacked the social cohesion for such a system to function and advocated autocracy as necessary.
In
Mexico this
autocracy briefly took the form of a monarchy in the
First Mexican Empire. Due to the
Peninsular War, the
Portuguese court was relocated to
Brazil in 1808. Brazil gained
independence as a
monarchy on September 7, 1822, and the
Empire of Brazil lasted until 1889. In the other states various forms of autocratic republic existed until most were liberalized at the end of the 20th century.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-34">
[35]</sup>
The
Second French Republic was created in 1848, and the
Third French Republic in 1871. Spain briefly became the
First Spanish Republic, but the monarchy was soon restored. By the start of the 20th century France and Switzerland remained the only republics in Europe. Before
World War I, the Portuguese Republic, established by the revolution of October 5, 1910, was the first of the 20th century. This would encourage new republics in the aftermath of the war, when several of the largest European empires collapsed. The
German Empire,
Austro-Hungarian Empire,
Russian Empire, and
Ottoman Empire were then replaced by republics. New states gained independence during this turmoil, and many of these, such as
Ireland,
Poland,
Finland and
Czechoslovakia, chose republican forms of government. In 1931, the
Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939) turned into a
civil war would be the prelude of
World War II.
Republican ideas were spreading, especially in
Asia. The United States began to have considerable influence in
East Asia in the later part of the 19th century, with
Protestant missionaries playing a central role. The liberal and republican writers of the west also exerted influence. These combined with native
Confucian inspired political philosophy that had long argued that the populace had the right to reject unjust government that had lost the
Mandate of Heaven.
Two short lived republics were proclaimed in East Asia, the
Republic of Formosa and the
First Philippine Republic.
China had seen considerable
anti-Qing sentiment, and a number of protest movements developed calling for
constitutional monarchy. The most important leader of these efforts was
Sun Yat-sen, whose
Three Principles of the People combined American, European, and Chinese ideas. The
Republic of China was proclaimed on January 1, 1912.
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