England and Social Thought
The English revolution and puritanism
In 1603 Isabel I dies without leaving descendants, therefore Jacobo and son of Maria I of Scotland assumed. This is how the Stuardo dynasty began in England. The Stuardo dynasty stood out for supporting his government in the theory of divine law, which legitimized the king as a supreme sovereign who, apart from the fact that he held all the power of the State, could denounce all rebel action as a crime and as a sin against God.
According to Krebs, “in France. The people were convinced that the kings were endowed with the miraculous power of healing the scrófulas ”. However, in England things worked differently and this began to cause friction between Parliament and its representatives, the conflict leads to great problems between the crown and parliament since they had different ideas and this situation made worse with the rise ofCarlos I to power and his marriage to Enriqueta de France.
This ascent caused the creation of the Protestant Movement. Carlos I tried to carry out the absolutist logic who were gaining strength in Western Europe, also tried. Then it could be said that the whole problem began given the insistence of the King in imposing his Catholic-Abitist ideologies and the insistence of the Parliament in which he did not do so.
This tension situation caused that in 1642 the conflict exploded leaving the parliament divided into 2: the loyal to the king and those who were not, this in turn originated a civil war. For historian James Casey, the real importance of this first civil war was that:
- Broke the mold of the unanimity in the policy and religion that men from 1640 as ideal as ideal. He began the open debate on the right to, to disagree with most of his fellow citizens without being labeled as heresy or rebellion;
- He established the State Hacienda, thanks to the parliamentary experience, on a firm basis (sisas, land tax that had to pay the name as the commoner).
During this civil war Oliver Cromwell, who would be one of the most important characters in English history, asserted himself of a cavalry regiment to fight for the parliamentary cause. Cromwell was retired from active political life until two years before.
At the end of this civil war and thanks to Oliver Cromwell, the parliamentarians won and dictated a series of anti -absolutist laws that would moderate the king and his policies, although this would only last a moment. In this regard, Casey mentions that at the beginning of the seventeenth century England had a more monarchy in the continental style in which “the question of sovereignty was confusing, […] subordinated to the concept of law as an expression of Christian principles more than the will of the prince".
Even after the civil war ended, the disputes between the loyal to the king and the parliamentarians were maintained, since Carlos I was arrested. In 1648 a Second Civil War occurs that begins from King Carlos managedlater to defeat the Scots.
Once defeated they recaptured Carlos I, judged him for betrayal and condemned him to death in the guillotine. After this Second War, which culminated in the guillotine death of Carlos I, the first and only republic that has existed in England began. Jenaro Lara mentions that “the English Republic was the result of the aspirations of the bourgeoisie that laid the guidelines of this period” Jenaro Lara (December 5, 20017) as the articulation of a Puritan mercantilist society where religious interests will not play a roleimportant in between.
However, the disputes continued between those who supported the legitimate secess of Carlos I and Parliament, these disputes caused a third civil war between 1653 – 1659. Carlos II achieved the support of the Scots and their armies and Cromwell again began a campaign to contain and submit the revolts as well as the raised armies, which reduced Power to Carlos II.
Subsequently to the third civil war, the decline and final phase of the Republic began to which they called Protectorate, which was nothing more than a dictatorship. Cromwell had great military and political powers with which he achieved internationally recognized military alliances and successes. He had good acceptance among the English population since he allowed free religious belief.
During this period the Chamber of Lords was abolished and navigation laws that generated reforms in Parliament were promoted. Once Cromwell was dead, his successor was his son, however he did not know.
When Carlos II assumed, the power reinstated the absolutist monarchy, he managed to maintain order in society. However and on the contrary to Carlos II, his brother Jacobo Eduardo Estuardo had ideas such as Carlos I, to impose Catholicism in society, this generated problems with Parliament to the degree that the Chamber of the Commons tried to make an exile.
When Carlos II died, Jacobo II happened, who had an heir and this opened the possibility of perpetuating a Catholic dynasty in England but in 1688 the opponents of the possibility joined the status of Holland, Guillermo de Orange, to stay withThe throne of England, this triggered the glorious revolution that culminated in the overthrow of Jacobo and with the term of the English revolution.
Thomas Hobbes and Leviathan.
Thomas Hobbes de Malmesbury (1588 – 1679) was an English materialistic philosopher, in his work the Leviathan "laid the basis of contractualist theory, of great influence on the development of Western political philosophy.”(Wikipedia, 2020) Hobbes part of radical individualism and then talk about the social contract and finally land in the construction of the State.
Before Thomas Hobbes wrote the Leviathan, the philosophers had considered human nature as if it were a political animal that is designed to live in society;However, Hobbes does not complete.
Some men are stronger than others and yet none have any security or property, but they have conservation instinct and this will generate among them competition and distrust that would eventually take them to a state of permanent war. For Hobbes "war does not only consist of battle, in the act of fighting, but occurs during the time in which the will to fight is sufficiently manifested".
In the state of war there are robberies, murders and one lives in an anarchy, according to the author the three main causes of discord that are in the nature of man are competition, distrust and glory;With the first he seeks a benefit, with the second security and with the third reputation.
Within this nature there are laws, natural is worth redundancy, under which human beings are governed, these laws allow them to relate to each other, for example;That man tends to seek peace, the renunciation of his rights (which in turn allows him, the consequences for breach of these (justice), possess gratitude, be complacent (which allows it to be sociable), among others. For hobbes these laws are eternal and immutable and go against the natural passions of man.
Since men need to feel safe, safeguard their lives and live in a more harmonious life, they must give in the natural law of freedom. Hobbes mentions that the only way to safeguard his life, live satisfied, defend them against foreigners, etc., It is from a pact, which consists in transferring freedom and power to an individual who will be the sovereign or an assembly through which they can reduce their wills to a single.
For Hobbes, the pact to achieve civil society will be based on fear. Fear is going to be used to submit society, either to a society formed through the pact or if it is a society formed from violence. Hobbes considers that the only way to submit to someone who is in the state of nature is from fear of force and violence that can impose and/or represent that pact.
Once this has happened, Hobbes affirms that “the crowd thus united in a person is called the State, in Latin, Civitas. This is the generation of that great Leviathan, […] of that mortal God, to which we owe, under the immortal God, our peace and our defense ”.
The State is then a product of man’s reasoning, it is not a natural body but rather artificial and is the result of a contract between peers, where men agree to renounce freedom, in order to obtain security in the state ofwar and the search for the preservation of life. Both sovereign and civil society are the result of this.
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