Universal monarchy
sovereign predominant over other states
A universal monarchy is a concept in which one monarchy is deemed to have sole rule over the entire world. Though a theoretical concept, many monarchs aspired to obtain large empires over vast territories.
Overview
The concept of universal monarchy was pioneered by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri, who argued that all wars and conflict would be ended if the world were ruled by a monarch that held sway over the entire world. He would expand on this idea in his political work, De Monarchia, in which he states that peace cannot exist where there is division in society. In De Monarchia he also praises the Holy Roman Empire, and promotes the monarchy as a guarantor of "universal peace". Giovanni Botero leaned positively on the idea of universal monarchy, stating that "the human bloodline would be very content" if the world lived under a "single prince", because his power would be similar to God’s.
Immanuel Kant argued against a world monarchy on the grounds that it would be prone to tyranny. He stated that a "universal despotism" would end "in the graveyard of freedom". He instead advocated for league of independent republican states akin to the intergovernmental organizations that would emerge over a century and a half later. However his views on a world regime were complex
Politics
Many states have been seen as attempting to aspire to universal monarchy.
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This entry incorporates text from “Universal monarchy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.