A Study On "Perpetual Peace Projects Of Europe"(from 14th To Early 18th)

Peace is a topic of common concern for humanity.For Europeans,peace refers to no war within some boundaries.At the end of the 9th century,the church launched the“God’s Peace” and “God’s Truce” movements to severely suppress those who violated peace and maintain social order.From the 11 th century to the 14 th century,the church launched the Crusades for many times to try to shift social contradictions and restore internal peace.Since the 14 th century,Europeans have conceived a kind of new peace,the “Perpetual Peace Projects of Europe”.Formally,the alliance becomes a necessary element of peace,and its members are limited to “sovereign states”.Geographically,the scope of peace is limited to within “Europe”.In terms of time,peace is “permanent” and lasts until the end of the world.In terms of content,peace is a state where the people can live and work in peace on earth,and will be redeemed after death.Due to the limitations of the times,these plans were not put into practice at that time,but they awakened people’s longing for European unity and had a profound impact.According to different times and themes,the development of “Perpetual Peace Projects of Europe” in the 14 th to early 18 th centuries mainly went through four stages,corresponding to the first four chapters of this study.The first chapter introduces the plans of the Crusades in the late Middle Ages.After the Crusades,the designers of the plans hoped to restart the work and restore peace among Christian countries.They generally view the contradiction between monarchy and religious power as the root cause of the European civil war,advocating for the independence of the two powers.The alliance designed by them takes the Holy Roman Empire or France as the leader,while respecting the identity of the spiritual leader of the Pope.In space,the coverage of the Alliance is based on Western European Christian countries,gradually expanding to Eastern Christianity countries such as Byzantium,and finally expanding to Spain and other regions occupied by pagans.The second chapter introduces the imperial hegemonic plan of the first half of the16 th century.The late medieval plans actually lifted the power of the Holy Roman Empire and the church,which was countered by the empire and the church.The empire,unwilling to lose its power,proposed a hegemonic peace plan.In 1495,Maximilian I,the Holy Roman Empire Emperor from the Habsburg,issued the Perpetual Peace of the Realm Proclaimed,declaring that private warfare was prohibited in the empire and the court was responsible for resolving disputes.Clergy are also required to comply with this law.Maximilian I took this opportunity to strengthen the empire’s management of the churches and vassals within the territory.In order to maintain a good relationship between the empire and the church,the emperor often invited priests to serve as judges and judged cases based on the Bible.The third chapter introduces the parliamentary plans from the second half of the16 th century to the first half of the 17 th century.The Empire’s dream of dominating Europe was broken by the Reformation and the ensuing Religious war.During the war,the peace plan designers temporarily gave up external expansion,turned their eyes to Europe’s interior,focused on curbing the Empire and calming religious disputes,and upgraded the original arbitration platform to parliament.The Protestant and Cathodic princes were equal in parliament,and practiced religious tolerance in their own countries.In space,Christian Spain and the overseas colonies of European countries,were included in the European category,while Eastern Christianity countries were excluded.In view of the fact that Türkiye’s involvement in European affairs has intensified the religious contradiction,the designers hope that Western Europe and Eastern Europe will live in peace or keep mutual noninterference with each other.The fourth chapter introduces the European peace plans during the reign of French King Louis XIV.After the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,large-scale religious conflicts almost disappeared,but religious intolerance and local wars still threatened European peace.In the shadow of the British Civil War and the French Wars for hegemony,peace throughout Europe became the primary goal of the peace plan.Scholars hope that monarchs of all countries can restore brotherhood and build a new international system of equality and justice on this basis to make up for the lack of balanced peace.In space,“Europe” now includes Russia,which is undergoing westernization reform,and Türkiye,which has shown signs of decline,but designers no longer invite non European countries joining Europe.The fifth chapter and conclusion discuss the position of the “Perpetual Peace Projects of Europe” in International relations.The project inherits the peace movements in the Middle Ages,opens up European integration,and effectively promotes the development of Human history.It has five main impacts on today.Firstly,it established a permanent arbitration institution with regular meetings to resolve disputes between countries.Secondly,it clarified the principle of national sovereign equality while paying attention to protecting the interests of small countries.Thirdly,it adopted a strategy of promoting peace through development.Development is not only conducive to easing domestic conflicts,but also deepens the degree of interdependence among countries and eradicates wars at the root.Fourthly,it respected for differences.After the Reformation,the designers hoped that Europeans would stop killing each other and treat foreigners and believers of other sects kindly.Fifth,it advocated for cooperation among countries and consistency among major powers.The plans initially advocated Anglo-French cooperation,and at the end of the17 th century,it also advocated that countries such as the Holy Roman Empire,Russia and Türkiye should check and balance each other to jointly maintain peace in Europe.The limitations of the project are mainly manifested in three aspects.Regionally,it advocates a narrow Pacifism.Its aims,such as peace,tolerance and equality pertain to“Europe” only.The rest of the world is the target of European conquest.In terms of status,although the peace plan endorses sovereignty and independence,most of the plans imply that countries need a leader.In terms of words,some of the opinions are too idealistic,and some of the introductions differ from historical fact,which weakens the feasibility of the plan.There are many reasons why these plans have not been successfully implemented.Conceptually,monarchs of various countries have insufficient understanding of peace.Before the two World Wars,the level of interdependence between countries was not high,and the countries could afford the losses caused by the war.They would face many obstacles if they reuse the designers.The two world wars changed everything,and European countries were greatly weakened in the war and had to unite in order to survive.In addition,under the deterrence of nuclear weapons,European countries dare not initiate a war lightly,because all countries cannot bear the responsibility for situation beyond control.In reality,the objective conditions for establishing alliances are insufficient.Firstly,the complex geographical conditions in Europe have constrained the development of the alliance,making regular meetings technically difficult to achieve.Second,in the era of Monarchy,many wars in Europe originated from inheritance.The complex alliances and conflicts of interests between countries have limited the choice of kings,making it difficult to select candidates that are satisfactory to all parties.Thirdly,before the Enlightenment,religious struggles in Europe were very intense.The contradictions and distrust between different religious positions are difficult to eliminate.Fourthly,the peace plan proposes political unity before expanding to the economic and cultural fields.This approach makes monarchs of various countries concerned about the infringement of their own freedom.The “Perpetual Peace Projects of Europe” is the reflection of European intellectuals on the international order in Europe,the spiritual ancestor of European integration,and its inherent connotation is also very rich.Studying the peace plan not only provides a better understanding of Europe,but also provides a deeper understanding of the international situation,providing reference for dealing with the unseen changes over a century.