Front cover image for A union for empire : political thought and the British Union of 1707

A union for empire : political thought and the British Union of 1707

This volume of essays explores for the first time the intellectual context of the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707. Challenging the received view of the Union as a simple political job, it argues instead that the Union was a landmark in the history of political thought. The opening contributions investigate the ideas of union, universal monarchy and empire current in Europe and Britain before 1707. There follow chapters devoted to intellectual and religious developments in Scotland between the Restoration and the Union, before attention is focused on the issues of sovereignty at the centre of the Union debate itself. The volume concludes by studying the aftermath of the debate in eighteenth-century discussions of Britain's relations to Ireland and the North American colonies
Print Book, English, 1995
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1995
Aufsatzsammlung
xx, 368 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521431132, 0521431131
30543787
Notes on contributors; Preface; Part I. Unions, Universal Monarchy and Empire: 1. Empire and union: two concepts of the early modern European political order John Robertson; 2. The English debate over universal monarchy Steven Pincus; 3. Power, commerce and natural law in Daniel Defoe's political writings 1698–1707 Laurence Dickey; 4. The Scottish vision of empire: intellectual origins of the Darien venture David Armitage; Part II. The Scottish Setting: 5. Scottish cultural change 1660–1710 and the Union of 1707 Roger L. Emerson; 6. Religious realignment between the Restoration and Union Colin Kidd; Part III. The Issues of Sovereignty: 7. Protestant theologies, limited sovereignties: natural law and conditions of union in the German Empire, the Netherlands and Great Britain James Moore and Michael Silverthorne; 8. An elusive sovereignty. The course of the Union debate in Scotland 1698–1707 John Robertson; 9. From 'Revolution principles' to Union: Daniel Defoe's intervention in the Scottish debate Katherine R. Penovich; 10. Scottish Law, Scottish lawyers and the status of the Union John W. Cairns; Part IV. Union and Empire in the Eighteenth-Century British World: 11. Ireland without Union: Molyneux and his legacy Jacqueline Hill; 12. The legacy of British Union for the North American colonies: provincial elites and the problem of Imperial Union Ned Landsman; 13. Empire, state and confederation: the War of American Independence as a crisis in multiple monarchy J. G. A. Pocock; Index.