Custom «World System Of States» Essay Paper Sample

Introduction

The period 1815-1914 is referred to as post Napoleonic period or simply 19^th century and it was characterized by several significant changes  within the world system of sates that included increased nationalism, disharmony among the great powers, industrial revolution, other revolutions, imperialism, alliances like the Bismarck's Napoleonic wars and pax britanica. During this period the British Empire flourished as a dominant global power, Prussia defeated Austrian during the Austro-Prussian war as well as France during the Franco-Prussian war and also united the German empire while Russia continued to expand despite having lost the Crimean war and the Russo-Japanese war. During the Napoleonic wars France conquered of the western and the central Europe and following the defeat of napoleon the old five way balance of power was restored (Little, 2007).

Changes in the world system of states

One of the major influences that led to change sin the system of states during the 19^th century is the constant aggression resulting to wars and this is attributed to the increased nationalism among the sates. This led to the five way balance of power a notion which had been prevalent in most of the world politics after the peace of Westphalia in 1648. Such notion established that every state should be able to have a supreme sovereignty over her citizens within its borders and such change with in the system of states characterized the 19^th century which the notion practically referred to an inherent stabilization mechanism of states systems wherein no single country was allowed to gain any power advantage as compared to other states. The balance of power ensured that when a sates seemed to gain unequal amount of power as it regards to land, military or other resources other states would conscious or naturally react by attempting to halt such perceived expansion thus resulting to balancing of power between states. Such prevention of expansion of sates involved a lot of aggression and violence which scholars like Wilson in his analysis of powers terms as 'determined by sword' a thing that seemed appropriate at the time.

 One of the influences that led to the origin of the nation states that is dated back to 19^th century is attributed to the Treat of Westphalia established in 1648 and the treaty is responsible for the creation of the Westphalia states that recognized each other territory and their sovereignty. During the 10^th century there was arise in the nationalist movements that included some separatist that were directed against large empires while other sought to unify divided territories especially Italy and Germany. Such nationalistic movements served to promote national culture and identity and were very successful. Therefore the increased nationalistic behaviors played a great role in contributing to changes within the system during the 19^th century because by the end of the century most people had accepted that Europe had been divided into nations and many personally identified themselves with one of such states.

Such changes in the world states systems were even accelerated further when the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War. Nationalism was intimately connected with the imperialism which served to keeping nations diverse groups unified as well as keeping those groups from focusing on domestic divisions hence emphasized focus their efforts at foreign domination and conquest. More over-imperialism also served as factor that helped to increase industrialization as well as modernization and all these influenced the changes within the world system of sates during the 19^th century.

Another notable influences that led to changes within the world system of states in the 19^th century is the politics of the time including the widespread of revolutions for instance the French revolution that took place in 1789.  The French revolution played a critical role by opening an era of liberal revolution that served to establishing their rights of each an every citizen to move whenever and wherever one wished to. This resulted to growth of religious tolerance and the idea of nationality in a country developed casing nationalism. The idea of nationalism coupled with other ideologies led to the growth of new groups of refugees that is political refuges and thus government policies greatly influenced people in the regions.

Such influences resulted to many wars like the seven -year war of 1756-1763 the Austrian war of succession. During the mid of 19^th century many countries participated in revolutions and this made many governments to fear the socialism as well as the social unrest and this forced them to eliminate surplus of proletarians  a potential source of unrest. To achieve this goal many European governments stimulated migration of people towards former colonies as well as current colonies. Across the oceans revolution had also taken place resulting to creation of independent sates in those areas. Therefore the politics of 19^th century play a role in influencing the changes within the world system of states during the time (Black, 2008).

In addition to that another influence that changed the world system of states during the 19^th century is migration of citizens to colonies and former colonies as a result of revolution. The migration resulted to demographic revolution which had effect on the economy of the states as most governments saw it as solution to the possible social unrest. The departure of the people also decreased the costs that were incurred in social support thus saving more funds to be utilized their developments in the state. The migration of people was also fostered by the industrial revolution which means that labor was required in various rectors of economy like farming among others. Generally industrial revolution provided the migrants with a better means of transportation that enabled them to travel longer distance more easily (Nathan, 2002). 

In addition to that industrial revolution at the time provided working opportunities sin the rural industrial centers followed by the cities thus more and more migrants were prompted to settle in other places permanently. By late 19^th century the circle of migration was still an important form of migration bur career and chain migration became increasingly important as well. Therefore the migration and industrial revolution increased the economical power of the sates making them more effective and independent thus the formation of policies that ensured success of the states hence such changes due to increasing demand for more goods couple with invention of machines as wells adoption of factory system therefore influenced the world system of sates during the era because as it led to increased trade and commerce among other economic benefits like labor.

Another significant influence that enhanced changes in within the world system of states is globalization. This phenomenon had dramatic defect on the way it influence the happening experienced during the united sates and the French revolutions. Globalization was characterized by physical expansion of the sates geographical domains leading to an increased scale and volume of the global flows thus increasing the impact of global forces of all types on the local life. Globalization was promoted by the industrial revolution that promoted easy and fast modes of transport steam engines, use of more effective modes of communication like the telegraph first and the increasing use of more complicated and highly connective technologies that enhanced massive movement of both people goods and services around the globe. For example the British imperial strength was obtained from telegraph and steamship with other new technologies that were invented during the mid of 19^th century and these allowed it to control as well as defend the empire and this is attributed to the fact that the empire was linked together by network of telegraph cables that was referred to as the All Red Line (Gill, 2003).

Globalization served as a mark of the creation of the modern sates form that is based on alliances especially between military and the business interests as well as on the popular representation in the aggressively nationalist governments. Globalization in the19th century led to a new imperialism that expanded under the napoleon and in the Americas as it affected the economic interest of the people driving them to acquires as well as consolidate assets that were essential for economic growth. In addition to that it also led to a more militarized British, Dutch and French revolution within the existing national states subsequently creating similar effects in their empires as well. Moreover globalization also significantly influenced the treaties of Berlin that marked a diplomatic watershed in the age  that witnessed modern imperial expansion of the European a s well as the American overseas thus serving as the beginning of high imperialism characterized with the legalization of the partition of Africa which marked the foundation point that promoted the creation of the international law and by the end of the 19^th century the global 'Whiteman's burden had become a contentious subject of discussion.

During the 19^th century the industrial revolution led to technological advancement that influenced the world system of states significantly. For instance advancement in weaponry made mass production of firms possible and with the effect resulting from globalization massive transfer of weapons like the fire arms was fostered. The availability of fire arms further complicated and accelerated the inter states conflict that resulted to chain of unending wars that characterized the 19^th century. Firearms were used as a protection tool against aggression against sovereign states and the expansion of military power. One of the influences that military power had on sates system in 19^th century is when the European imperialism expanded to Asia where use of military power by European national states was witnessed and it was intended to protecting their national interests and this became a new force in the process accumulation of capital.

The chartered companies became a states supported monopolies for the English east India Company and was involved in the selling of all commodities that were imported into England from East Indies. This early version of multinational cooperation was then able to expand its power base in India with the help of the government without having any official persimmon to do so. Therefore the use of firearms and militarized expansion influenced the world system of states in the 19^th century because the British empire was able to expand without any official policy sanction through out most of the century and this is attributed to the fact that the British troops went in these sates simply to protect the operations of the British nationals who were operating as merchants in overseas states.

During the 19^th centuries formation of the national economies also served a great deal in influencing the world system of states and the this is attributed to the effect of industrial revolution that saw the introduction of steam ships and railway which lowered transportation costs significantly thus creating new circuits off capital accumulation focusing on sites of industrial production in united states and Europe and thus fostering changes within the states that were intended to ensuring that nationalistic interests were attained. First the imperialistic control of Europe of Americas was broken in the north then in the south. Such changes accelerated the rise of capitalists and capital force in the reorganization of the nationally defined states who professed political representation of interests of their constituent owners of property as well as entrepreneurs.

These are exemplified by the independence movements that were seen in Americas and in France and Haitian revolutions that produced new kinds of national territoriality with in the segments of the World's economy as well as within the states the struggled to gain greater control of resources that existed between their boundaries that they had done before. This influence resulting from formation of national economies led to the great transformation of world system of sates as it shifted it from the age of emperors and kings towards the era that was ruled by people and nations.

These influence that occurred with the world system of sates during the 19^th century consequently resulted to increased aggression between sates as each battled out to defending its sovereignty while at sane time targeting at expanding its borders in terms of military power, economic and capital accumulation. Nations engaged in wars that saw the winning side amass a lot of economic, political and resource power enabling then acquire colonies across the world. During the time great powers struggled to maintain the stability of their states in order to maintain their status quo at home and diplomacy was utilized to keeping conflict at minimum levels thus ensuring survival of their powers. On the other hand the great powers strived at preventing the rise of overly strong or the revolution powers in the worlds like the Napoleonic I France and in most case succeeded in doing so.

In addition to that the serious conflict of the century like the revolutions in Italy changed their status quo and Bismarck manages to unite the German sates and Prussia defeated Austria changed their status quo also. Finally the attempt by the great powers to keep the declining Ottoman Empire from disintegrating resulted to disastrous results. Regular crises that existed between the Austria and Prussia concerning the weakening Ottoman Empire as well as the rise of the Balkan states regularly threatened the states system and these problems grew even worse when great powers were solidified into blocks of alliances especially witnessed towards the end of the century. Such conflicts consequently failed to be solved and eventually resulted to the World War I (Craig, 2008).