The Holy Roman Empire and European State Formation

• In Event: Identity and Politics in International History

Abstract

Why did states consolidate between 1400 and 1800 in western, southern, and eastern Europe, while present-day Germany remained fragmented? We theorize this puzzle is explained by focusing on the important role of the Holy Roman Empire as an international institution. We illustrate that early modern European history followed a trend towards consolidation of territorial dynastic states outside of the empire and continuity of imperial institutions and fragmented polities within the empire. Often characterized as a weak artifact of a past era, we instead demonstrate that the Holy Roman Empire remained a dynamic institution that ultimately secured important investment from rising great powers on its borders. Actors within and outside the empire became central stakeholders in retaining the empire and its legal frameworks as an institutional centerpiece of the balance of power in Europe. In this way, the empire represented an international institution uniquely tailored to its time, proving remarkably resilient to centuries of warfare.

We employ new data of polities within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, treaty settlements, and institutional membership to demonstrate that the legal protections and collective security guarantees within the empire played a decisive role in explaining the persistence of a divided Germany into the late 19th century. This occurred primarily through the survival of small polities within imperial borders. We further exploit crises of the empire around the Reformation, Thirty Years War, and Napoleonic Wars to explain sudden periods of territorial consolidation within Germany through event-study analysis and synthetic controls. Early modern Europe presents a hard test for theories of international organizations and their ability to persist and support cooperation in a period of competitive politics between great powers. The persistence of the Holy Roman Empire and weak polities within its borders provides evidence of the ability of institutions to support cooperation in a competitive environment and important lessons for resilient and dynamic international institutions. We further fill in an important gap in understanding the process of state formation and territorial consolidation in Europe.

Authors

• Jason Hartwig, University of Pennyslvania

• Nicolas Idrobo, University of Pennsylvania