Von Ranke

1. Von Ranke Great Power

2. VR: GP • great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale • The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era

3. Other Historians • Early writings on the subject tended to judge states by the realist criterion, as expressed by the historian A. J. P. Taylor when he noted that "The test of a great power is the test of strength for war."[

4. Other historians • "A Great power is one which is capable of preserving its own independence against any other single power." Diplomacy in the Postwar Period', the French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle.

5. Leopold von Ranke… in his essay 'The Great Powers', written in 1833, von Ranke wrote: "If one could establish as a definition of a Great power that it must be able to maintain itself against all others, even when they are united, then Frederick has raised Prussia to that position.

6. VR and Nationalism • The term “nationalism” is generally used to describe two phenomena: (1) the attitude that the members of a nation have when they care about their national identity, and (2) the actions that the members of a nation take when seeking to achieve (or sustain) self-determination

7. VP and Prussian Nationalism • they enjoin the members of the community to promulgate recognizable ethno-cultural contents as central features of the cultural life within such a state. • Ranke as essayist: its primary purpose was to function as an organ for the policies of the Prussian government.

8. Zeitgeist • Ranke maintains that each state has its unique personality and Zeitgeist (a term popularized by but not originating with Ranke) and, consequently, reforms - no matter how attractive in theory - should never be arbitrarily imposed upon an existing state. Moreover, the individual citizen gains his full development as a human being only through his life within the state.

9. Hegemonic Power • Hegemony is the political, economic, ideological or cultural power exerted by a dominant group over other groups. • It requires the consent of the majority to keep the dominant group in power. • How do we get consent?

10. Hegemonic Power • Hegemony dictates the politics of the hegemony's constituent subordinate states via cultural imperialism — the imposition of its way of life, i.e. its language and bureaucracies, to make formal its dominance — thus transforming external domination into an abstraction, because power is in the status quo ("the way things are") not in any leader(s).

11. Hegemonic Power • In the event, rebellion (social, political, economic, armed) is eliminated — either by co-optation of the rebel(s) or by police and military suppression, all without the hegemon's direct intervention, e.g. the Spanish and the British empires, and the united Germany (extant 1871–1945).

12. VR and HP • Prussia held hegemonic power over the other German states.