Overview of Politics in the Renaissance

The single most important aspect of political history during this period is the transition from Christendom to Europe; that is, from a civilization in which the ideal was a culture united under a Christian Empire, to a civilization based on nation-states in open competition with one another.

In the essays that follow, you will see examples of how all the topics of this section -- diplomacy, representative institutions, political theory, warfare -- relate directly to this theme. As you read the texts, work on the questions and objectives, and discuss the issues on-line, keep this general theme in mind.

A word is perhaps in order here about that term "nation-state". We tend to confuse "nation" with "state", which in itself shows how thoroughly different modern society is from medieval. The word natio is Latin and it means something like "people" or "tribe". A good example of this is how the phrase "the German nation" was used in earlier times. That phrase meant all those who spoke German and who shared in the common Germanic culture. It included some Swiss, the Austrians, Germans living in Bohemia, and so on. The German nation was larger than the German state. A nation is a cultural entity, a state is a political entity. The invention of the nation-state was the identification of the cultural with the political entity, an identification that is never complete as modern arguments over multi-culturalism demonstrate.

Course: Electric Renaissance
Teacher: Dr. E. L. Skip Knox

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