Title Mercenaries, pirates, and sovereigns : state-building and extraterritorial violence in early modern Europe / Janice E. Thomson

Published Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1994] ©1994

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Description x, 219 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm Series Princeton studies in international history and politics Princeton studies in international history and politics. Contents Ch. 1. The State, Violence, and Sovereignty. The State and Violence in Theory. The State and Violence in History. Sovereignty in Theory. The Institution of Sovereignty. The Argument -- Ch. 2. Nonstate Violence Unleashed. Privateering. Mercenaries. Mercantile Companies -- Ch. 3. Unintended Consequences. The Mediterranean Corsairs. Organized Piracy. Problems with Mercenarism. Problems with Mercantile Companies -- Ch. 4. Delegitimating State-Authorized Nonstate Violence. The Abolition of Privateering. The Delegitimation of Mercenarism. The Demise of the Mercantile Companies -- Ch. 5. Suppressing Unauthorized Nonstate Violence. Piracy. The Rise and Decline of Filibustering -- Ch. 6. Conclusion. Explaining the Transition. The State, Sovereignty, and World Politics. The Future Summary Thomson maintains that the contemporary monopolization of violence by sovereign states results from the collective practices of rulers, all seeking power and wealth for their states and themselves, and all competing to exploit extraterritorial nonstate violence to achieve those ends. She examines the unintended consequences of such acts, and shows how individual states eventually fell victim to nonstate violence. As rulers became increasingly aware of the problems created by non-state coercive tactics abroad, they worked together to curtail this violence, only to find it intertwined with nonstate violence on the national state level. Exploring the blurred boundaries between the domestic and international, the economic and political, and the state and nonstate realms of authority, this book addresses practical and theoretical issues underlying the reconciliation of violence with political legitimacy The contemporary organization of global violence is neither timeless nor natural, argues Janice Thomson. It is distinctively modern. In this book she examines how the present arrangement of the world into violence-monopolizing sovereign states evolved over the six preceding centuries. Tracing the activities of mercenaries, pirates, mercantile companies, and sovereigns from the Mediterranean to the Northwest Territories, the author addresses compelling questions: Why do we have centralized bureaucracies - states - which claim a monopoly on violence? Why is this monopoly based on territorial boundaries? Why is coercion not an international market commodity? Analysis Europe Mercenaries History Europe Mercenaries History Notes Bibliography: p201-214. - Includes index Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [201]-214) and index Subject Mercantile system -- Europe -- History. Mercenary troops -- Europe -- History. Pirates -- Europe -- History. Sovereignty. Mercenary troops -- Europe -- Uniforms -- History. Violence -- Europe -- History. SUBJECT Europe -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85045733 LC no. 93023880 ISBN 0691025711 (paperback) 0691086583 (cloth : alk. paper)

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