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2 Amassing State and Gathering Storm: “Brute Blood of the Air”
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Published:May 2003
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Abstract
Allegiance or obedience to political authority, which cannot practically be forced upon each individual, typically rests upon some constructed image of sameness. People are usually willing to sacrifice their money, lives, or liberty only to those with whom they feel a bond of similarity. Perhaps that bond is easier to imagine and forge in a small local community where similarities and mutuality of interest are more self-evident, although in such circumstances differences and distrust are also more immediately evident. But if the basis of cohesion and obedience is somewhat uncertain even in local settings, it becomes more so in larger contexts where supposed compatriots do not even know each other and where there is greater diversity. This is the quintessential political dilemma faced by every large-scale polity. Europe in the fifteenthh and early sixteenth centuries had not yet faced this dilemma. Strong states did not yet exist as larger scale, effective units requiring matching popular cohesion. Preindustrial economies were still largely based on localized agriculture. And power had long been held locally by nobles only loosely connected to monarchs, with central authority remaining weak. That authority was challenged by recurrent civil wars, pitting nobles against each other and against the crown, and by foreign powers. State bureaucracy was underdeveloped, with limited ability to draw taxes or to raise armies. Currency or legal systems had not yet fully developed.
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