|
CONFEDERATION (Fr. confederation, See also: league, or union of See also: people, or bodies of people
.
The See also: term in See also: modern See also: political use is generally confined to a permanent union of See also: sovereign states, for certain See also: common purposes, e.g. the See also: German Confederation (Bund), established by the congress of Vienna in 1815, and the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund), a league of certain German states under the See also: protection of See also: Napoleon (1806-1813)
.
The See also: alliance of the See also: Great See also: Powers by which See also: Europe was governed after 1815 was sometimes, especially by the emperor See also: Alexander I., called the " Confederation of Europe "; but this expressed rather a pious aspiration than the actual
See also: state of affairs
.
The distinction between Confederation and Federation (see FEDERAL See also: GOVERNMENT), synonymous in their origin, has been See also: developed in the political terminology of the See also: United States
.
Up to 1789 these were a Confederation; then the word Federation, or Federal Republic, was introduced as implying closer union
.
This distinction was emphasized during the See also: Civil War between See also: North and See also: South, the seceding states forming a Confederation (Confederate States of See also: America) in opposition to the Federal Union
.
Confederation thus comes to mean a union of sovereign states in which the stress if laid on the sovereign independence of each constituent See also: body (cf. the German Staatenbund); Federation implies a union of states in which the stress is laid on the supremacy of the common government (Ger
.
Bundesstaat)
.
The distinction is, however, by no means universally observed
.
The variant " Confederacy," derived through the Anglo-French confederacie, and meaning generally a league or union, whether of states or individuals, was applied in America in the sense of Confederation to the seceding See also: southern states (see above)
.
In its political sense, however, confederacy has generally come to mean rather a temporary league of See also: independent states for certain purposes
.
As applied to individuals, while " confederation " is used of certain open unions of people for political or other purposes (e.g. the Miners' Confederation), " confederacy " —from its obsolete legal sense of conspiracy—has come frequently to imply a secret bond, a combination for illicit purposes, or of persons whose identity is not disclosed
.
|
|
|
[back] CONFEDERATE STATES |
[next] CONFERENCE |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.