The Conception and Realization of Neutrality

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Excerpt from The Conception and Realization of Neutrality: A Paper Read Before the American Social Science Association at Washington on April 23, 1902 So long as the Roman Empire continued to regulate the affairs of Europe, the idea of indifference to the con¿icts in which it was engaged was impossible, for imperial unity involved all parts of the empire in active support of the wars by which Roman domin ion was maintained and extended. When, in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, the imperial system began to go to pieces and the barbaric kingdoms were formed upon its ruins, no inter national system developed before the Frankish kingdom, extend ing its conquests in every direction and uniting its interests with those of papal Rome by the coronation of Charles the Great as Emperor of the West, had reconstituted the imperial power in Western Europe. The weakness and subdivision of that empire after the death of Charles the Great left the local barons to the chances of a general struggle for supremacy during the long period in which the process of feudalization was creating the beginnings of local territorial authority, destined at last to develop, in the heat of a bitter and protracted con¿ict, into the modern state system, in which the rights of local sovereignty were affirmed and the great nationalities became consolidated in the form of inde pendent monarchies. Then followed the struggle for a system of equilibrium by which the newly formed nations could maintain their independence, and prevent the revival of that imperial supremacy from which they had all escaped, a struggle in which all were compelled to participate as a means of preserving their existence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.