Non-sovereign monarchy
A non-sovereign monarchy is one in which the head of the monarchical polity, the polity itself, are subject to a temporal authority higher than their own. The constituent states of the German Empire provide a historical example; this situation can exist in a formal capacity, such as in the United Arab Emirates, or in a more informal one, in which theoretically independent territories are in feudal suzerainty to stronger neighbors or foreign powers, thus can be said to lack sovereignty in the sense that they cannot, for practical purposes, conduct their affairs of state unhampered. The most formalized arrangement is known as a federal monarchy, in which the relationship between smaller constituent monarchies and the central government parallels that of states to a federal government in republics, such as the United States of America. Like sovereign monarchies, there exist elective non-sovereigns. Systems of both formal and informal suzerainty were common before the 20th century, when monarchical systems were used by most states.
During the last century, many monarchies have become republics, those who remain are the formal sovereigns of their nations. Sub-national monarchies exist in a few states which are, in and of themselves, not monarchical; the degree to which the monarchs have control over their polities varies greatly—in some they may have a great degree of domestic authority, while others have little or no policy-making power. In some, the monarch's position might be purely traditional or cultural in nature, without any formal constitutional authority at all. Wallis and Futuna is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in Polynesia consisting of three main islands and a number of tiny islets; the collectivity is made up of three traditional kingdoms: Uvea, on the island of Wallis, Sigave, on the western part of the island of Futuna, Alo, on the island of Alofi and on the eastern part of the island of Futuna. The current co-claimant to the title King of Uvea are Felice Tominiko Halagahu and Patalione Kanimoa, the current King of Alo is Filipo Katoa and the current King of Sigave is Eufenio Takala.
They have been reigning since 2016. The territory was annexed by the French Republic in 1888, was placed under the authority of another French colony, New Caledonia; the inhabitants of the islands voted in a 1959 referendum to become an overseas collectivity of France, effective in 1961. The collectivity is governed as a parliamentary republic, the citizens elect a Territorial Assembly, the President of which becomes head of government, his cabinet, the Council of the Territory, is made up of the three Kings and three appointed ministers. In addition to this limited parliamentary role the Kings play, the individual kingdoms' customary legal systems have some jurisdiction in areas of civil law. A number of independent Muslim sultanates and tribal territories existed in the East Indies before the coming of colonial powers in the 16th century, the most prominent one in what is now Malaysia being Melaka; the first to establish colonies were the Portuguese, but they were displaced by the more powerful Dutch and British.
The 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty defined the borders between British possessions and the Dutch East Indies. The British controlled the Eastern half of modern Malaysia through a system of protectorates, in which native states had some domestic authority, checked by the British government; the eastern half of Malaysia was part of the independent Sultanate of Brunei until 1841, when it was granted independence as the Kingdom of Sarawak under the White Rajas. The kingdom would remain independent until 1888, when it accepted British protectorate status, which it retained until the last Raja, Charles Vyner Brooke ceded his rights to the United Kingdom; the two halves were united for the first time with the formation of Malaysia in 1963. Modern Malaysia is a federal monarchy, consisting of three federal territories. Of the Malay states, seven are sultanates, one is a kingdom, one an elective monarchy, while the remaining four states and the federal territories have non-monarchical systems of government.
The head of state of the entire federation is a constitutional monarch styled Yang di-Pertuan Agong. The Yang di-Pertuan is elected to a five-year term by the Conference of Rulers, made up of the nine state monarchs and the governors of the remaining states. A system of informal rotation exists between the nine state monarchs. On 12 July 2011, the Parliament of Montenegro passed the Law on the Status of the Descendants of the Petrović Njegoš Dynasty that rehabilitated the Royal House of Montenegro and recognized limited symbolical roles within the constitutional framework of the republic. See: Māori King Movement The Māori of New Zealand lived in the autonomous territories of numerous tribes, called iwi, before the arrival of British colonialists in the mid 19th cent
Nobility
Nobility is a social class ranked under royalty and found in some societies that have a formal aristocracy. Nobility possesses more acknowledged privileges and higher social status than most other classes in society; the privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be honorary, vary by country and era. As referred to in the Medieval chivalric motto "noblesse oblige", nobles can carry a lifelong duty to uphold various social responsibilities, such as honorable behavior, customary service, or leadership positions. Membership in the nobility, including rights and responsibilities, is hereditary. Membership in the nobility has been granted by a monarch or government, unlike other social classes where membership is determined by wealth, lifestyle, or affiliation. Nonetheless, acquisition of sufficient power, military prowess, or royal favour has enabled commoners to ascend into the nobility. There are a variety of ranks within the noble class.
Legal recognition of nobility has been more common in monarchies, but nobility existed in such regimes as the Dutch Republic, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, the Old Swiss Confederacy, remains part of the legal social structure of some non-hereditary regimes, e.g. Channel Islands, San Marino, the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles and styles added to names, as well as honorifics distinguish nobles from non-nobles in conversation and written speech. In many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some hereditary titles do not indicate nobility; some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil or life peers in the United Kingdom. The term derives from the abstract noun of the adjective nobilis. In ancient Roman society, nobiles originated as an informal designation for the political governing class who had allied interests, including both patricians and plebeian families with an ancestor who had risen to the consulship through his own merit.
In modern usage, "nobility" is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies, excepting the ruling dynasty. In the feudal system, the nobility were those who held a fief land or office, under vassalage, i.e. in exchange for allegiance and various military, services to a suzerain, who might be a higher-ranking nobleman or a monarch. It came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. While noble status conferred significant privileges in most jurisdictions, by the 21st century it had become a honorary dignity in most societies, although a few, residual privileges may still be preserved and some Asian and African cultures continue to attach considerable significance to formal hereditary rank or titles. Nobility is a historical and legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income, possessions or lifestyle.
Being wealthy or influential cannot ipso facto make one noble, nor are all nobles wealthy or influential. Various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens; this is distinct from countries which have not abolished the right to inherit titles, but which do not grant legal recognition or protection to them, such as Germany and Italy, although Germany recognizes their use as part of the legal surname. Still other countries and authorities allow their use, but forbid attachment of any privilege thereto, e.g. Finland and the European Union, while French law protects lawful titles against usurpation. Although many societies have a privileged upper class with substantial wealth and power, the status is not hereditary and does not entail a distinct legal status, nor differentiated forms of address. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se. Privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate.
Most nobles' wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small, that might include fields, orchards, hunting grounds, etc. It included infrastructure such as castle and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although at a price. Nobles were expected to live "nobly", that is, from the proceeds of these possessions. Work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. On the other hand, membership in the nobility was a prerequisite for holding offices of trust in the realm and for career promotion in the military, at court and the higher functions in the government and church. Prior to the French Revolution, European nobles commanded tribute in the form of entitlement to cash rents or usage taxes, labour or a portion of the annual crop yield from commoners or no
Xinhai Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution known as the Chinese Revolution or the Revolution of 1911, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty and established the Republic of China. The revolution was named Xinhai because it occurred in 1911, the year of the Xinhai stem-branch in the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar; the revolution consisted of many uprisings. The turning point was the Wuchang uprising on 10 October 1911, the result of the mishandling of the Railway Protection Movement; the revolution ended with the abdication of the six-year-old Last Emperor, Puyi, on 12 February 1912, that marked the end of 2,000 years of imperial rule and the beginning of China's early republican era. The revolution arose in response to the decline of the Qing state, which had proven ineffective in its efforts to modernize China and confront foreign aggression. Many underground anti-Qing groups, with the support of Chinese revolutionaries in exile, tried to overthrow the Qing; the brief civil war that ensued was ended through a political compromise between Yuan Shikai, the late Qing military strongman, Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Tongmenghui.
After the Qing court transferred power to the newly founded republic, a provisional coalition government was created along with the National Assembly. However, political power of the new national government in Beijing was soon thereafter monopolized by Yuan and led to decades of political division and warlordism, including several attempts at imperial restoration; the Republic of China in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China on the mainland both consider themselves the legitimate successors to the Xinhai Revolution and honor the ideals of the revolution including nationalism, modernization of China and national unity. 10 October is commemorated in Taiwan as Double Ten Day, the National Day of the ROC. In mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, the day is celebrated as the Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. After suffering its first defeat to the West in the First Opium War in 1842, the Qing imperial court struggled to contain foreign intrusions into China. Efforts to adjust and reform the traditional methods of governance were constrained by a conservative court culture that did not want to give away too much authority to reform.
Following defeat in the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861. In the wars against the Taiping, the Muslims of Yunnan and the Northwest, the traditional imperial troops proved themselves incompetent and the court came to rely on local armies. In 1895, China suffered another defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War; this demonstrated that traditional Chinese feudal society needed to be modernized if the technological and commercial advancements were to succeed. In 1898 the Guangxu Emperor was guided by reformers like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao for a drastic reform in education and economy under the Hundred Days' Reform; the reform was abruptly cancelled by a conservative coup led by Empress Dowager Cixi. The Guangxu Emperor, who had always been a puppet dependent on Cixi, was put under house arrest in June 1898. Reformers Kang and Liang would be exiled. While in Canada, in June 1899, they tried to form the Emperor Protection Society in an attempt to restore the emperor.
Empress Dowager Cixi controlled the Qing dynasty from this point on. The Boxer Rebellion prompted another foreign invasion of Beijing in 1900 and the imposition of unequal treaty terms, which carved away territories, created extraterritorial concessions and gave away trade privileges. Under internal and external pressure, the Qing court began to adopt some of the reforms; the Qing managed to maintain its monopoly on political power by suppressing with great brutality, all domestic rebellions. Dissidents could operate only in secret societies and underground organizations, in foreign concessions or in exile overseas. There were many revolutionaries and groups that wanted to overthrow the Qing government to re-establish Han led government; the earliest revolutionary organizations were founded outside of China, such as Yeung Ku-wan's Furen Literary Society, created in Hong Kong in 1890. There were 15 members, including Tse Tsan-tai, who did political satire such as "The Situation in the Far East", one of the first Chinese manhua, who became one of the core founders of the South China Morning Post.
Sun Yat-sen's Xingzhonghui was established in Honolulu in 1894 with the main purpose of raising funds for revolutions. The two organizations were merged in 1894; the Huaxinghui was founded in 1904 with notables like Huang Xing, Zhang Shizhao, Chen Tianhua and Song Jiaoren, along with 100 others. Their motto was "Take one province by force, inspire the other provinces to rise up"; the Guangfuhui was founded in 1904, in Shanghai with Cai Yuanpei. Other notable members include Tao Chengzhang. Despite professing the anti-Qing cause, the Guangfuhui was critical of Sun Yat-sen. One of the most famous female revolutionaries was Qiu Jin, who fought for women's rights and was from Guangfuhui. There were many other minor revolutionary organizations, such as Lizhi Xuehui in Jiangsu, Gongqianghui in Sichuan and Hanzudulihui in Fujian, Yizhishe in Jiangxi, Yuewanghui in Anhui and Qunzhihui in Guangzhou. There were criminal organizations that were anti-Manchu, including the Green Gang and Hongmen Zhigongtang.
Sun Yat-sen himself came in cont
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as the Transition, or the Spanish transition is a period of modern Spanish history, that started on 20 November 1975, the date of death of Francisco Franco, who had established a military dictatorship after the victory of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. However, historians disagree on the exact date the transition was completed: some say it ended after the 1977 general election. Others suggest. At its latest, the Transition is said to have ended with the first peaceful transfer of executive power, after the victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in the 1982 general election. Francisco Franco came to power in 1939, following the Spanish Civil War, ruled as a dictator until his death in 1975. In 1969, he designated Prince Juan Carlos, grandson of Spain's most recent king, Alfonso XIII, as his official successor. For the next six years, Prince Juan Carlos remained in the background during public appearances and seemed ready to follow in Franco's footsteps.
Once in power as King of Spain, however, he facilitated the development of a constitutional monarchy as his father, Don Juan de Borbón, had advocated since 1946. The transition was an ambitious plan that counted on ample support both outside of Spain. Western governments, headed by the United States, now favoured a Spanish constitutional monarchy, as did many Spanish and international liberal capitalists; the transition proved challenging, as the spectre of the Civil War still haunted Spain. Francoists on the far right enjoyed considerable support within the Spanish Army, people of the left distrusted a king who owed his position to Franco; the realisation of the democratic project required that the leftist opposition restrain its own most radical elements from provocation, that the army refrain from intervening in the political process on behalf of Francoist elements within the existing government. King Juan Carlos I began his reign as head of state without leaving the confines of Franco's legal system.
As such, he swore fidelity to the Principles of the Movimiento Nacional, the political system of the Franco era. Only in his speech before the Cortes did he indicate his support for a transformation of the Spanish political system; the King did not appoint a new prime minister, leaving in place the incumbent head of government under Franco, Carlos Arias Navarro. Arias Navarro had not planned a reform of the Francoist regime, he believed political changes should be limited: he would give the parliament, the Cortes Españolas, the task of "updating our laws and institutions the way Franco would have wanted."The reform programme adopted by the government was the one proposed by Manuel Fraga, rejecting Antonio Garrigues' plan to elect a constituent assembly. Fraga's programme aimed to achieve a "liberal democracy", "comparable to rest of Western European countries" through a "gradual and controlled process", through a series of reforms of the pseudo-constitutional Fundamental Laws of the Realm; this is why his proposal was dubbed as a "reform in the continuity", his support came from those who defended a Francoist sociological model.
In order for reform to succeed, it had to earn the support of the hardcore Francoist faction known as the Búnker, which had a major presence in the Cortes and the National Council of the Movement, the two institutions that would have to approve the reforms of the Fundamental Laws. It had to garner support within the Armed Forces and in the Spanish Labour Organisation. Besides, it needed to please the democratic opposition to Francoism; the approach towards the dissenters was that they would not be part of the reform process, but would be allowed to participate in politics more with the exception of the Communist Party. This conservative reform was inspired by the historical period of the semi-democratic Bourbonic Restoration, it was criticised for not taking into account the social and political circumstances of the time; the project coalesced into a proposal to reform three of the Fundamental Laws, but the exact changes would be determined by a mixed commission of the Government and the National Council of the Movement, as proposed by Torcuato Fernández-Miranda and Adolfo Suárez.
The creation of the commission meant that Fraga and the reformists lost control of much of the legislative direction of the country. So, the new Law of Assembly was passed by the Francoist Cortes on 25 May 1976, allowing public demonstration with government authorization. On the same day the Law of Political Associations was approved, supported by Suárez, who affirmed in parliamentary session that "if Spain is plural, the Cortes cannot afford to deny it". Suárez's intervention in favor of this reform shocked many, including J
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French political faction supporting a constitutional monarchy for France led by the House of Orléans as opposed to Legitimists who supported the main line of the House of Bourbon. The Orléanist faction governed France from 1830 to 1848 in the July Monarchy of King Louis Philippe I; the faction took its name from the Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon. The faction comprised many liberals and intellectuals who wanted to restore the monarchy as a constitutional monarchy with limited powers for the king and most power in the hands of parliament, their base of support came from liberal monarchists. Over time, the July Monarchy alienated the population with its increasing conservatism and repression as represented in the figure of Prime Minister François Guizot. Many Orléanists went into exile during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. Following the Third Republic in 1870, they were a sizable force on the right wing, but they failed to secure a resumption of the Orléanist succession and their support dwindled over time as republicanism became more accepted.
During the early period of the French Revolution, Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orléans, who disliked King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette assumed the position of a spokesman of the liberal royalists. It was a short step from this position to the attitude of liberal candidates for the throne, which Philippe's son Louis Philippe would achieve; the Orléanists aimed politically to find a common measure for the monarchical principle and the rights of man as set forth by the revolutionary leaders in 1789 and the princes of the branch of Orléans became the advocates of this attempted compromise. The elder Bourbon branch was prepared to grant a charter of liberties or constitution, but he insisted that they ruled by divine right and conferred these liberties on their subjects of their own free will; the Bourbons' feudal language offended many Frenchmen, who concluded that rights granted as a favour were always subject to revocation as a punishment. Therefore, those of them who considered a monarchical government as more beneficial to France than a republic, but who were not disposed to hold their freedom subject to the pleasure of one man became either Bonapartists, who professed to rule by the choice of the nation, or supporters of the Orléans princes, who were ready to reign by an original compact and by the will of the people.
The difference between the supporters of the elder line and the Orléanists became profound, for it went down to the foundations of government. The first generation of Orléanists were swamped in the turmoil of the French Revolution. Philippe himself, who under the Republic had assumed the name Philippe Égalité and voted for the king's execution, was nonetheless guillotined himself in 1793. Despite this setback, according to Albert Sorel the Orléanists subsisted under the First French Empire and resurfaced when the revival of liberalism overthrew the restored legitimate monarchy of Louis XVIII and Charles X. After the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, the liberals were identified with the Orléanists, who rejected the Legitimism of the elder branch as well as Bonapartism, which in their view was democratic Caesarism, i.e. an equal submission of all men to one despotic ruler. As equality before the law and in social life, far dearer to Frenchmen of the revolutionary epoch than political freedom, seemed secured, the next step was aiming as political freedom.
This happened under the guidance of men who were Orléanists because the Orléans princes seemed to them to offer the best guarantee for such a government. The liberals who were Orléanists found their leaders in men eminent in letters and in practical affairs—François Guizot, Adolphe Thiers, Victor de Broglie and his son Albert, Duke of Broglie, the banker Jacques Laffitte and many others; when the July Revolution of 1830 resulted in the downfall of the elder Bourbon branch, the Orléanists stepped in. Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who became king, marked a profound change by assuming the title of a King of the French instead of the traditional King of France and Navarre; that king appeared as the chief of the people by compact with the people and not by divine right. In their dislike of divine right on the one hand and their fear of democracy, which they were convinced would result in Caesarism or a return to Bonapartism, the Orléanists turned for examples of a free government to Britain, a monarchy governing constitutionally based on parliamentary representation of the middle classes.
They endeavoured to establish the like in France under the name of a juste-milieu, a via media between absolutism and democracy. The French equivalent for the English middle-class constituencies was to be a pays legal of about a quarter of a million of voters by whom all the rest of the country was to be represented. Guizot carried out this doctrine with uncompromising rigour; the Orléanist monarchy became so middle-class that the nation outside of the pays legal ended by regarding the government as a privileged class less offensive, but a great deal less brilliant than the aristocracy of the old monarchy. The Revolution of 1848 due to errors of conduct in individual princes and politicians but to the resentment of those excluded from the pays legal, swept the Orléanist party from power after eighteen years; the Orléanists indeed continued throughout the Second Republic and the Empire to enjoy a marked social and literary prestige, on the strength of the wealth and capacity of some of their members, their influence in the Académie française and
Augustus
Augustus was a Roman statesman and military leader, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. His status as the founder of the Roman Principate has consolidated an enduring legacy as one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history; the reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana. The Roman world was free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession. Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia, his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Octavius was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir. Along with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, he formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators.
The Triumvirate was torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium by Octavian in 31 BC. After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward façade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates, the legislative assemblies. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, those of tribune and censor, it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, instead called himself Princeps Civitatis; the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. Augustus enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Pannonia and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, completing the conquest of Hispania, but suffered a major setback in Germania.
Beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at the age of 75 from natural causes. However, there were unconfirmed rumors, he was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son Tiberius. As a consequence of Roman customs and personal preference, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life: Gaius Octavius Thurinus: He received his birth name, after his biological father, in 63 BC. "Gaius" was his praenomen, "Octavius" was his nomen, "Thurinus" was his cognomen. His rival Mark Antony used the name "Thurinus" as an insult, to which Augustus replied, surprised that "using his old name was thought to be an insult".
Gaius Julius Caesar: After he was adopted by Julius Caesar, he adopted Caesar's name in accordance with Roman naming conventions. While he dropped all references to the gens Octavia, people colloquially added the epithet Octavianus to his legal name, either to differentiate him from his adoptive father or to highlight his more modest origins. Modern historians refer to him using the anglicized form "Octavian" between 44 BC and 27 BC. Gaius Julius Caesar Divi Filius: Two years after his adoption, he founded the Temple of Caesar additionally adding the title Divi Filius to his name in attempt to strengthen his political ties to Caesar's former soldiers, following the deification of Caesar. Imperator Caesar Divi Filius: From 38 BC, Octavian opted to use Imperator, the title by which troops hailed their leader after military success, his name is translated as "Commander Caesar, Son of the Divine". Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus: Following his 31 BC defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra on his own insistence, the Roman Senate granted him the additional name, "Augustus", which he added to his previous names thereafter.
Historians use this name to refer to him from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri 40 kilometres from Rome, Augustus was born in the city of Rome on 23 September 63 BC, he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen commemorating his father's victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves. Suetonius wrote: "There are many indications that the Octavian family was in days of old a distinguished one at Velitrae; this man was leader in a war with a neighbouring town..." Due to the crowded nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his father's home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius mentions his father's equestrian family only in his memoirs, his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War. His grandfather had served in several lo
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