Chapter 2 Envisioning Europe after Utrecht: Voltaire and the Historiography of the Balance of Power

In: The 1713 Peace of Utrecht and its Enduring Effects
Author:
Isaac Nakhimovsky
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Abstract

This chapter attempts to bring the historiography of the European balance of power in the eighteenth century into focus by examining the forms it took in the aftermath of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, above all in the hands of the eminent philosopher François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778). Voltaire envisioned a post-Utrecht Europe in which large monarchies like Britain and France were both locked into a system of diplomatic and commercial relations, thereby forming, in his words, “a kind of great republic divided into many states.” This vision of the balance of power and of the European states system proliferated widely and was discussed in many contexts. Though many challenges to this vision were expressed at the time, particularly in the wake of the Seven Years War, a version of it was also embedded into Emer de Vattel’s famous treatise on the law of nations, published in 1758. As Vattel’s status as a leading authority on international law throughout the nineteenth century suggests, this was a vision of the European balance of power with enduring appeal.

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