Throughout the life-cycle of western civilization minor and major
alterations have been made in its structure and its function. Some of
the earlier political changes were part and parcel of the bourgeois
revolution. They included:
1. The abolition of absolute monarchies and hereditary aristocracies and
their replacement by limited monarchies and republics with various types
of representative and popular governments selected by ballot.
2. The replacement of personal tyrannies and autocracies by written
constitutions and laws passed by elected parliaments.
3. Replacement of war as the sport of kings and the chief instrument of
policy makers, by negotiation, diplomacy, and treaties which became the
core of existing "international law."
4. Arbitrary national sovereignty was supplemented by more or less
permanent alliances and by the formal international organizations such
as the Universal Postal Union, the World Court and the League of
Nations.
5. Regional Associations were organized; the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization; the Organization of American States and the Organization
for European Unity.
6. Disarmament conferences were held. General peace treaties were signed
like the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928 and the United Nations
Charter.
7. Two major efforts were made to establish a general confederation of
nations and empires--the League of Nations in 1919 and the United
Nations a quarter of a century later.
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