Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BALANCE OF POWER

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 235 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BALANCE OF See also:POWER , a phrase in See also:international See also:law for such a " just See also:equilibrium " between the members of the See also:family of nations as should prevent any one of them from becoming sufficiently strong to enforce its will upon the See also:rest. The principle involved in this, as See also:Hume pointed out in his See also:Essay on the Balance of Power, is as old as See also:history, and was perfectly See also:familiar to the ancients both as See also:political theorists and as See also:practical statesmen. In its essence it is no more than a See also:precept of commonsense See also:born of experience and the See also:instinct of self-preservation; for, as Polyhius very clearly puts it (See also:lib. i. cap: 83): " Nor is such a principle to be despised, nbr should so See also:great a power be allowed to any one as to make it impossible for you afterwards to dispute with him on equal terms concerning your See also:manifest rights." It was not, however, till the beginning of the 17th See also:century, when the See also:science of international law took shape at the hands of See also:Grotius and his successors, that the theory of the balance of power was formulated as a fundamental principle of See also:diplomacy. According to this the See also:European states formed a sort of federal community, the fundamental See also:condition of which was the preservation of the balance of power, i.e. such a disposition of things that no one See also:state or potentate should be able absolutely to pre-dominate and prescribe See also:laws to the rest; and, since all were equally interested in this See also:settlement, it was held to be the See also:interest, the right and the See also:duty of every power to interfere, even by force of arms, when any of the conditions of this settlement were infringed or assailed by any other member of the community.) This principle, once formulated, became an See also:axiom of political science. It was impressed as such by See also:Fenelon, in his Instructions, on the See also:young See also:duke of See also:Burgundy; it was proclaimed to the See also:world by See also:Frederick the Great in his See also:Anti-Machiavel; it was re-stated with admirable clearness in 18o6 by See also:Friedrich von See also:Gentz in his Fragments on the Balance of Power. It formed the basis of the coalitions against See also:Louis XIV. and See also:Napoleon, and the occasion, or the excuse, for most of the See also:wars which desolated See also:Europe between the See also:congress of See also:Munster in 1648 and that of See also:Vienna in 1814. During the greater See also:part of the 1.9th century it was obscured by the See also:series of See also:national upheavals which have re-modelled the See also:map of Europe; yet it underlay all the efforts of diplomacy to stay or to See also:direct the elemental forces let loose by the Revolution, and with the restoration of See also:comparative See also:calm it has once more emerged as the See also:motive for the various political alliances of which the ostensible See also:object is the preservation of See also:peace (see EUROPE: History). An equilibrium between the various See also:powers which See also:form the family of nations is, in fact,—as See also:Professor L. See also:Oppenheim (Internat. Law, i. 73) justly points out—essential to the very existence of any international law. In the See also:absence of any central authority, the only See also:sanction behind the See also:code of rules established by See also:custom or defined in See also:treaties, known as " inter-national law," is the capacity of the powers to hold each other in check.

Were this to fail, nothing could prevent any state sufficiently powerful from ignoring the law and acting solely according to its convenience and its interests. See, besides the See also:

works quoted in the See also:article, the See also:standard books on International Law (q.v.). (W. A.

End of Article: BALANCE OF POWER

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BALANCE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat.... 		[next]
BALANCE OF TRADE

Site © 2006 - Net Industries