Reading 4: States have a long history. In the ancient world clearly defined political
institutions exerted control over city-states. In The Peloponnesian Wars, for example,
Thucydides describes the conflicts that took place between the ancient Greek cit
states of Athens and Sparta. However, these types of ancient structures differ from the
modern state. They were generally confined to the city and had no clearly defined
territory, and lacked the highly institutionalized bureaucracies of the modern state.
Indeed, the citizen-territory-state nexus of the modern state system, defined by both
its internal authority vis-a-vis the population and its external authority, defined by
states' mutual recognition, is a creation of the seventeenth century and emerged within
a European context.
Medieval Europe was characterized by feudalism, which in its most basic form
can be understood as the granting of land in return for military service. The land-
owning nobility would provide land and property rights to people in exchange for
allegiance and security. In this context, different monarchs or aristocrats would
control different areas of land and society. Within the Holy Roman Empire, religion
played an important role in maintaining these structures. Each prince or nobleman
would have the right to determine the religion of his own domain, defining its own
religious denomination, and often basing its alliances with other territories mainly
upon commonality of this denomination.
Over time, the rise of powerful monarchies with central bureaucracies gave a
number of countries the characteristics of the modern state. The monarchies of
England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain, for example, grew powerful enough to
raise armies and to exercise internal authority through the nobility that they
controlled. In 1555, the Peace of Augsburg allowed the monarchies in different areas
to define themselves as Catholic, Lutheran, or Calvinist. This laid the groundwork for
the subsequent Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which is commonly regarded as
heralding the birth of the modern sovereign state. The Peace of Westphalia initiated a
new order in Europe based on the concept of national sovereignty. For the first time, it
created clearly defined internal political boundaries within Europe and brought about
the mutual recognition of different monarchies' right to define their own religious and
political choices within their territory, superseding the feudal society of the Middle
Ages.
Gradually, the idea of the nation-state evolved. In a European context,
centralized states began to develop the bureaucratic mechanisms for identifying their
populations, raising taxation, raising armies through conscription, and holding the
monopoly of violence on their territories. Ideologically, nationalism began to emerge
as a means to legitimate the modern nation-state. The emergence of inventions such as
the flag and the printing press raised awareness of the nation-state, enabling people to
develop a sense of shared identity and allegiance. With the rise of nationalism, new
states were created through the process of unification that took place in states such as
Germany and Italy.
【題組】39. Here are three statements concerning the Ancient Greek city-states:
I. There were precise delineations of the areas of land controlled by the city- states.
II. Compared to the modern state system, the city-states possessed highly institutionalized bureaucracies. Ⅲ. The record of the conflicts between Athens and Sparta in The Peloponnesian Wars indicated that the city-states were controlled by well- established political institutions.
Based on the passage we read,
(A) Both I and Ill are true
(B) Both II and III are true
(C) Only I is true
(D) Only II is true
(E) Only III is true