universal monarchy

A universal monarchy is a concept and political situation where one monarchy is deemed to have either sole rule over everywhere (or at least the predominant part of a geopolitical area or areas) or to have a special supremacy over all other states (or at least all the states in a geopolitical area or areas).

Concept

Universal monarchy is differentiated from ordinary monarchy in that a universal monarchy is beholden to no other state and asserts a sovereignty over all states of the contemporary geopolitical system. The concept is linked to that of universal empire, but combines the possession of ''imperium'' with the monarchic form of government.

The concept has arisen in Ancient Egypt, Europe, Asia and Peru, and is encapsulated in the Latin phrase (). Though in practice no universal monarchy, or indeed any state, has ever ruled over the whole world, it may have appeared to many people, particularly pre-modern, that it did.

Philosophers such as Nicole Oresme and Erasmus were critical of the concept in the Middle Ages, whereas the orientalist Guillaume Postel was more favourable, and Dante was a convinced adherent. Later, Protestants would seek to reject the concept, identifying it with Catholicism. Immanuel Kant anticipated that a universal monarchy would suffer from either a "soulless despotism",Kant, I., ''Perpetual Peace'', translated by Lewis White Beck (1795; Indianapolis, 1957), p. 31 or "frequent civil strife" occasioned by partisan attempts to break away.Rawls, J., (1993)
The Law of Peoples
in ''Critical Inquiry'', no. 20, p. 46, accessed on 12 April 2025 Kant did, however, acknowledge that some form of "federative union" might be viable. John Rawls also mentions David Hume, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Gibbon, as authors opposed to the idea of a universal monarchy,

History

Egypt and Mesopotamia

For the ancient Egyptians, four directions of the world were regarded as "united in one head" of king. Ramesses III was presented as the "commander of the whole land united in one." Except for the Amarna period, Egypt's official ideology did not recognize coexistence of two or more kings. "The monarchy in Egypt constituted a unity, a single fraction, with universal application." ''The Hymn of Victory'' of Thutmose III and the ''Stelae of Amenophis II'' proclaimed: "There is no one who makes a boundary with him ... There is no boundary for him towards all lands united, towards all lands together." Thutmose III was acknowledged: "None presents himself before thy majesty. The circuit of the Great Circle ceanis included in thy grasp." Asiatic kings recognized Tutankhamen: "There is none living in ignorance of thee."

The King was believed to be Son of the Sun and to rule all under the sun. The ascent of a king was associated with sunrise. The same verb "dawned" was used for the ascent of king and the rising of the sun. On ''Abydos Stelae'', Thutmose I claimed: "I made the boundaries of Egypt as far as the sun encircles ... Shining like Ra ... forever." The sun symbolized universality both in space and time. ''The Story of Sinuke'' expresses both: May all the gods "give you eternity without limits, infinity without bonds! May the fear of you resound in lowlands and highlands, for you have subdued all that the sun encircles."

The genre of king lists also illustrates the universality of monarchy. Introduced into the Egyptian tradition in the reign of Unas (2385–2355 BC) of the Fifth Dynasty, the ideological purpose of the genre was to stress the royal universality as the only legitimate king stretching back in an unbroken succession to the time of gods.

The contemporary Mesopotamian civilization had a much weaker tradition of universal monarchy, but it also developed a King list with the same ideological purpose to stress the royal universality as the only legitimate king stretching back in an unbroken succession to the time of gods. Mesopotamian kings did not claim to rule all that the sun encircles, but they did claim to be " King of the Four Corners" of the world and "King of the Inhabited World".

According to the King List, kingship descended from heaven twice, before and after the Flood. After the second attempt, city Kish received it. When Kish declined in power, the status “King of Kish” obtained the meaning of King of the Universe without geographic sense. The term was used by Mesopotamian dominant monarchs from Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334–2279 BC) to the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (281–261 BC).

Europe

In Europe, the expression of a universal monarchy as total ''imperium'' can be seen in the Roman Empire, and as the predominant sovereign state during its Byzantine period, where the emperor by virtue of being the head of Christendom claimed sovereignty over all other kings even though in practice this could not be enforced. The Byzantine conception went through two phases, initially as expounded by Eusebius that just as there was one God so there could only be one Emperor, which developed in the 10th century into the conception of the Emperor as the ''pater familias'' of a family of kings who were the other rulers in the world. Such concepts were a feature of the Roman Empire's successor state, the Ottoman Empire, particularly when military rule was augmented by the Caliphate.

The idea of a sole sovereign emperor would re-emerge in the West with Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. The idea of the Holy Roman Empire possessing special sovereignty as a universal monarchy was respected by the surrounding powers and subject states, even when the empire had undergone severe fragmentation. The symbolism of the "All the world is subject to Austria" ( A.E.I.O.U.) phrase of Frederick III can be seen as an expression of the idea of all states being subject to one monarchy. The medieval hierocrats, on the other hand, argued that the Pope was a universal monarch.

Charles V's empire encompassing much of western Europe and the Americas "was the nearest the post-classical world would come to seeing a truly worldwide monarchy, and hence the closest approximation to universal imperium." It was envisaged by its supporters as a world empire that could be religiously inclusive.

Subsequently, the idea of a universal monarchy based on predominance rather than the actual total rule would become synonymous with France attempting to establish hegemony over western Europe, particularly under Louis XIV, exemplified by the concept of Louis XIV as the '' Sun King'' around which all the other monarchs became subordinate satellites. In 1755, during the reign of Louis XIV's successor Louis XV, Duke Adrien Maurice de Noailles, a member of the Council of State and formerly a key foreign policy advisor to the king, warned of a British challenge for "the first rank in Europe" through the domination of Atlantic commerce. Noailles wrote, "However chimerical the project of universal monarchy might be, that of a universal influence by means of wealth would cease to be a chimera if a nation succeeded in making itself sole mistress of the trade of America."

Monarchy was strong in Russia. The Russian monarchy was Orthodox, autocratic, and possessed a vast contiguous empire throughout Europe and Asia and can be seen to have similarities and differences with Byzantine rule. The British monarchy was "Protestant, commercial, maritime and free" and was not composed of contiguous territory. It had both similarities and differences with the Spanish Empire. Both were " Empire on which the sun never sets." While Catholicism provided ideological unity for the Spanish Empire, British Protestant diversity would lead to "disunity rather than unity". It was only later that federalism and economic control were seen as a means to provide unity where religious diversity could not, as with the idea of an Imperial Federation as promoted by Joseph Chamberlain.

Napoleon came close to creating something akin to a universal monarchy with his continental system and Napoleonic Code, but he failed to conquer all of Europe. Following the Battle of Jena when Napoleon overwhelmed Prussia, it seemed to Fichte that the universal monarchy was inevitable and close at hand. He found a "necessary tendency in every civilized state" to expand and traced this tendency to antiquity. An "invisible" historical spirit runs through all epochs and urges states onward. "As the States become stronger in themselves... the tendency towards a Universal Monarchy over the whole Christian World necessarily comes to light." The last attempt to create a European universal monarchy was that attempted by Imperial Germany in World War I. "If Germany is victorious", thought Woodrow Wilson in 1917, "the German Kaiser would have been suzerain over most of Europe".

Published after World War I, '' The Decline of the West'' by Oswald Spengler envisages global " Caesarism." The formation of the "battling society of nations" marks the beginning of every civilization. This society ends by contest "for the heritage of the whole world." The strongest race wins and seizes the management of the world. Synchronously occurs an "accelerating demolition of ancient oliticalforms that leaves the path clear to Caesarism." This phase began in China c. 600 BC, the Mediterranean c. 450 BC and the modern world c. 1700. Comparing these three ages, Spengler states that "Caesarism" is an inevitable product of such an age and it "suddenly outlines itself on the horizon." In China the culmination occurred with the First Emperor, in the Mediterranean with Sulla and Pompey and is forthcoming in our world. There now sets in the final battle in the struggle democracy vs "Caesarism" and the latter will prevail. The transition from "Napoleonism to Caesarism" is an evolutionary stage universal to every culture and taking two centuries. Hence global "Caesarism" is likely to appear in "one century."
The Spenglerian century ended in 2022 short of global "Caesarism".

East Asia

A similar phenomenon occurred in China. The title " Son of Heaven" emerged during the Zhou dynasty. The title denotes universalityruling all under Heaven. The '' Book of Odes'' says:

The title also denotes a higher, "heavenly" rule (" Celestial Empire"), in contrast to kings who rule between heaven and earth, and by extension today to presidents who are mere base earthly rulers. Imperial China, as well as Japan, was regarded by its citizens as a Universal Monarchy where all other monarchs were regarded as tributaries. In China this was exemplified in the Chinese name for the state which survives to this day, ''Zhongguo'', meaning "Middle/Central Kingdom". Since the title Son of Heaven originated during the Zhou dynasty, the Chinese perceived universal monarchy as the only correct rule. During the centuries-long period of independent states (771–221 BC), none of the known thinkers tried to develop a concept of separate national identity or independence:

The inscription of the First Emperor of China said: "Wherever life is found, all acknowledge his suzerainty." The Sinocentric paradigm survived until the 19th century. When George III (1780–1831) proposed them trading contacts, the Chinese declined, because "the Celestial Empire, ruling all within the four seas ... does not have the slightest need of your country's manufactures." They added that George III must act in conformity with their wishes, strengthen his loyalty and swear perpetual obedience.

The Chinese concept of universal monarchy was taken up by the Mongol Empire, who under Genghis Khan were able to enforce this concept more widely than China. The Chinese Son of Heaven also contributed to a counterpart in Japan, but in some aspects, the Japanese made their monarchy more universal. The Chinese emperor was bound to the Mandate of Heaven. No such mandate existed for the Tenno. Descended from the Sun Goddess Amaterasu in the immemorial past, one Dynasty is supposed to rule Japan forever. The Chinese ended their dynastic cycle in 1911; the Japanese Dynasty continues until the present day and today is the oldest active dynasty in the world, albeit Douglas MacArthur un-deified it in 1945.

The Hindu/Buddhist/Jain concept of the Chakravartin is a perfect illustration of the ideal of a Universal Monarch.

Islamic world

In Sunni Islam, the concept of the Caliphate can be considered a universal monarchy. Crucially, the Caliph is not necessarily a spiritual leader; rather, he is the secular head of the Muslim community and is (theoretically) bound by and subject to Islamic law. The word ''Khalifah'' can be translated variously as ''successor, steward, deputy,'' or ''viceregent'', with the implication that the Caliph is the worldly successor to the Prophet Muhammad (and importantly is ''not'' his spiritual successor; as Muhammad is considered to be the last prophet, Sunni Muslims hold that he can have no spiritual successor). The duties of the Caliph, in theory, include the administration of Islamic law; the enactment of policies for the welfare of Muslims; the custodianship of Islamic holy sites and care of pilgrims; the custodianship of conquered non-Muslims and mediation of their interests relative to those of Muslims; the prosecution of holy wars (both offensive and defensive); and the representation of the diplomatic interests of the global Muslim community, even beyond the borders of the Caliphate's domains (a precedent set during Muhammad's life, with respect to the early Islamic community in Ethiopia).

In Shia Islam, the concept of the Imamate is comparable to the Sunni Caliphate, but it is not identical. The Shia Imam is considered to be both the spiritual and the secular leader of the global Muslim community; therefore, the Imam not only holds authority over policy and administration but is also the infallible final arbiter in the interpretation of law and theology. However, like the Sunni caliph, the Shia imam's authority as a monarch is considered universal. The Imamate is tied to the Ahl al-Bayt; dynasties that claim the Imamate also claim descent from Muhammad via Ali and Fatimah, and pass the title of Imam down from father to son, with different Shia denominations following different lineages. For example, the Twelver Shia Muslims follow the line of the Twelve Imams, of whom the last has supposedly been in occultation since the 9th century CE; however, the Nizari Shia Muslims follow a different and still-living line of Imams, of whom the Aga Khan V is the current head.

Inca

In the Americas, the Inca monarchy was universal in the sense of a sole rule over the whole contemporary geopolitical area, around which were only unsettled societies. The Inca people called their state the "realm of the four quarters of the world", a concept of universality in space analogous to the "four quarters" of other universal monarchies. As the Chinese called their country "Country in the middle", the Incas called their capital, Cusco, "the navel of the world". This civilization did not develop writing, but the Spanish reports and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega tell that the Inca monarchy was one of the most absolute and divine in history.

Inca "was respected as god". As the monarchs of Egypt and Japan, the Inca were Sons of the Sun, and as with the Egyptian kings, the Inca were mummified and worshipped as gods by subsequent generations. Their names, like that of Viracocha Inca, also imply their divinity. Burr Cartwright Brundage associated this name with the Near Eastern concept of King of Kings. The title of the Incas, Sapa Inca (lit. 'the only emperor'), implied that no other emperor could exist anywhere in the world. The Inca oral tradition preserved a King list, an ideological genre of universal monarchies implying this universality in time and space. The Inca were of divine origins. Like the founder of the Japanese Dynasty, the Inca founder, Manco Capac was the son of the Sun God Inti.

Features

Cosmopolitanism

Universal monarchies were the cradle of cosmopolitanism. The earliest in history concept that men of all colors are equal comes from ancient Egypt. The Great Hymn to the Aten dated during the reign of Akhenaten of the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1353–1336 BC) reads: The "tongues of peoples differ in speech, their characters likewise; their skins are distinct, for Aten distinguished the peoples." But Aten cares for all of them. "In all lands of the world, you set every man in his place, you supply their need, everyone has his food..."

Amy Chua emphasized cosmopolitanism and tolerance in her comparative research of hyperpowers. Most of the hyperpowers she selected happen to be universal monarchies. A book titled ''Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Universal Rulers... and Cultural Integration in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean'', concludes: The cosmopolitanisms which emerged in the concerned regions in the Axial Age were products of universal monarchies.

The Persian universal monarchs tolerated the cultures, languages, and religions of the subordinated peoples and supported local religious institutions. Local elites were integrated in the imperial administration. The Persians ceased the mass deportations practiced by the previous Assyrian and Babylonian empires, and allowed Jews to return from the Babylonian captivity to their land and restore their Temple. The attitude of the Hebrew Prophets changed from hatred to previous Empires (Assyria and Babylon) to glorification, titling Cyrus the Great "The God's Messiah."

Mauryan Emperor Ashoka did not favour Buddhism at the expenses of other religions, nor differentiated various social and ethnic groups. Ashoka's Rock Edicts 6, 7 and 12, emphasise tolerance of all sects. With dissolution of the universal monarchy in India, Buddhism with its universalist appeal was replaced by the Brahmanical particularism ( svadharma) but in the universal monarchies of China and Japan Buddhism was widely accepted.

Following the rise of Alexander the Great to the universal monarch, Stoicism became the dominant school of Hellenistic philosophy. The Stoics articulated a form of Greek citizenship that disrespected the walls of the polis hitherto thought to constrain human communities. Its founder, Zeno of Citium (c. 334 – c. 262 BC), advised that inhabitants of all poleis should form "one way of life and one order." Stoics were radically cosmopolitan by contemporary standards and preached to accept even slaves as "equals of other men because all men alike are products of nature." Later Stoic thinker Seneca in his Letter exhorted, "Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies." The Stoics held that external differences, such as rank and wealth, are of no importance in social relationships. Instead, they advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings. According to the Stoics, all people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should live in brotherly love and readily help one another. Stoicism became the foremost and most influential philosophy under the Hellenistic and Roman universal monarchs and often is called an official philosophy of the monarchy. Edward Gibbon concluded on the Roman universal spirit of toleration: “The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrates, as equally useful.” The Edict of Caracalla in 212 AD extended the Roman citicenship to all inhabitants of the Empire.

Through Paul the Apostle, Stoicism influenced the cosmopolitan revolution in Christianity. Paul decisively broke with the Judaist xenophobia and opened the new religion to all humanity. The chosen people were no longer ethnically defined. Combining the Stoic ideal with Christ, Paul called Christ-followers to embrace the ideal of a single humanity living in harmony with a divinely ordered cosmos. Hitherto reserved to the Jews, salvation became available to the Gentiles. The Muslim universal monarchy accomplished a cosmopolitan transformation in the Abbasid revolution. Under the Abbasids, the Caliphate no longer belonged to the Arabs but to all peoples who would share in Islam. The Arab Empire turned into a cosmopolitan society.

Under the universal monarchy on the other side of Tibet, cosmopolitanism flourished too. Buddhism was introduced into China under the Han dynasty. The Tang dynasty saw the influx of thousands of foreigners who came to live in Chinese commercial hub cities. Expatriates spilled in from all over Asia and beyond, with a bounty of people from Persia, Arabia, India, Korea, and Southeast and Central Asia. Chinese cities became bustling epicenters of commerce and trade, abundant in foreign residents and the plethora of cultural riches that they brought with them. A census taken in 742 AD showed that the foreign proportion of the registered population had massively increased from nearly a quarter in the early seventh century to nearly half by the mid seventh century, with an estimated 200,000 foreigners in residence in Canton alone. Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism were practiced undisturbed in China, as well as in Japan, where the three coexisted with Shinto. The Mongols were famous for their religious pluralism, often denoted as tolerance. The Mongol administration was multi-ethnic and multi-confessional.

Universal peace

''Universal peace'' is a term given by Dante to Pax Romana. Not until the time of Divus Augustus, he says, was there a complete and single universal monarch who pacified the world. Then, "mankind enjoyed the blessings of universal peace," the greatest “of all things that have been ordained for our happiness."

The view of Dante has been popular in world history. Universal monarchies dominate the lists of periods of regional peace and Pax imperia. The Roman universal monarchy is known for Pax Romana and Ara Pacis Augustae; the Chinese for Pax Sinica and Twelve Metal Colossi. Res Gestae, Edicts of Ashoka and Steles of Qin Shi huang glorify peace or non-violence. Pacifist creeds, such as Buddhism, Stoicism and Christianity, were products of universal monarchies. Having smashed all their rivals, universal monarchs preached peace, advanced pacifist creeds, and on one occasion (Ashoka) expressed a regret that achieving his universal peace required mass slaughter.

In the earliest in history universal monarchy, Egypt, “when the gods inclined to peace,” they decided to “established their son... to be ruler of every land.” Having become universal, Egyptian kings expressed less militarism and more pacifism. The royal names in the Second Dynasty (c. 2890 – 2663 BC) abandoned the element of fighting — Horus the fighter, Horus the strong, or arm-raising Horus —and introduced pacifist names — Horus: the two powers are at peace ( Hotepsekhemwy) and Horus and Seth: the two powers have arisen; the two lords are at peace in him ( Khasekhemwy-nebwy-hetep-imef). The concepts of pacifying and calming the Two Lands of Egypt and of the imperial periphery “craving for peace” and "bearing peace” may be found passim in all forms of ancient Egyptian literature.

The Neo-Assyrian visual program broadcast forceful annexation. This changes under the Persian level of universality. Besides the Behistun Inscription, the Achaemenid art is devoid of scenes of might and aggression. It does not depict particular historical moments or events but rather features of timeless, universal monarchy. The Achaemenid carvings reflect the visual program of Persepolis illustrating "the cooperative, harmonious and voluntary support of the empire by its constituents." Peoples were warring, explains Darius the Great, "one smote the other." He cared "that one does not smite the other any more."

In China, the first universal monarch of the post-Warring States period "confiscated the weapons of the world, collected them together... and t a great banquetsmelt them into bells and bell-racks, as well as twelve bronze statues." Complementing the destruction of arms was the empire-wide leveling of city walls and other obstructions of military importance. Mount Chieh-shih inscription from 215 BC described the historic mission of the First Emperor: “He has been the first to achieve a single great peace. He has demolished the inner and outer walls of cities." The whole world, explained the First Emperor, had suffered from endless wars and battles, because there were numerous independent kings. "They celebrated a great bacchanal... Thanks to my ancestors, the Empire has been pacified for the first time." The "black-haired live at peace, with no use for the weapons and armor." The world has attained "harmony and peace." Restore independent kings, however, and war returns. Seventy scholars praised the achievement: Now "everything within the seas has been pacified... and all men are at peace and suffer none of the disasters of warfare."

Ammianus Marcellinus (circa 330-400 AD) in one of the earliest external accounts on the Seres (Chinese) described: “The Seres themselves live a peaceful life, forever unacquainted with arms and warfare; and since to gentle and quite folk ease is pleasurable, they are troublesome to none of their neighbors.” No heroic epic is known from the universal monarchies of Egypt and China, no Egyptian equivalent of the Epic of Gilgames, nor Chinese of Mahabharata. The absence of Chinese heroic epic was noted by Hegel ('' Lectures on Aesthetics'') and ever since. Egyptian and Chinese heroes were sages and inventors. Herodotus notes that the Egyptians "are not accustomed to pay any honors to heroes." Universal monarchs preferred prosaic narrative. "No epic narrative spanned past generations, no tale of destiny urged a moral on the living."

The Chinese expression ''Ping Tianxia'', meaning "to pacify All under Heaven," was pacifist euphemism for conquest. Since 221 BC, each reunification of China was defined as "pacification." In 207 BC, Qin was "completely exterminated. Five years later, the world was pacified by Han.” Similarly, the Romans derived from the noun ''pax'' (peace) the verb ''pacare'' (to pacify) to avoid saying conquest. The Romans fought to “pacify” Greece and Spain.

The rise of the Roman universal monarchy was celebrated with the ''Ara Pacis Augustae'', Altar of Peace, instead of the traditional triumphal arch. The final scene on Vergil’s Shield of Aeneas, which shows representatives of the conquered oikumene within the walls of Rome, is at the same time an image of a city at peace. The major prophecy of the ''Aeneid'' (6:853) charts the expansion of Roman military power through military conquests to fill the universe and establish a completely new era of peace: “This will be your genius—to impose the way of peace.”

The Roman Legate, Quintus Petillius Cerialis, preached peace to the Gauls: “Struggle for power and feuds ravaged Gallia until you accepted our laws... War of all against all—that is what waiting for you if—gods save—the Romans would be expelled from Gallia. . . So love peace and guard it.” To “keep our arms constantly in hand” was regarded by the Romans as “the only way to preserve peace.” The Sassanian King, Chosroes I (531-579 AD), wrote in a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice (539-602): "There are two eyes to which Divinity confined the task of illuminating the world: these are the powerful monarchy of the Romans and the wisely governed Commonwealth of the Persians. By these two great empires the barbarous and war-loving nations are kept in check; and mankind given better and safer government throughout."

The Pax Romana was lamented by Dante millennium after it had disappeared. The contemporary plurality of warring governments crazed him: “But the condition of the world since the day when the nail of greed tore that seamless garment f Pax Romanais something we can all read about, if only we did not have to see it, too!” (''De Monarchia'', 1:16). The contemporary conditions, indeed, were getting worse, as the European governments went more warring. In 1637, Jesuit Giulio Alenio reported that he was often asked by his Chinese friends: "If there are so many kings, how can you avoid wars?" It was a good question in the middle of the frightful Thirty Years' War.

A more pacifist nature of universal monarchies appears from the difference between the two main monarchies in Americas. The Inca monarchy was universal while the Aztec regional and warring with other monarchies of its world. Inca were defeated by the Spaniards within "scarcely three hours," by a force outnumbered 1 to 45 and without a single Spaniard killed. The Aztec defeat stands in sharp contrast despite the same disadvantage in military technology. The last independent Aztec tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc, held a fierce defense of Tenochtitlan for 80 days, forced Hernán Cortés to mobilize tens of thousands of Indian allies, and impressed him with valor.

Divinity

Generally, comparative historical research on monarchies finds that universal monarchs were more absolute and divine than the modern European absolute kings. The ideologies of modern absolute monarchies claimed the monarch to be subject to divine, not human, law. "But he was no ancient emperor; he was not the sole source of law; of coinage, weights and measures; of economic monopolies... He owned only his own estates." Caesar is the republic, proclaimed Ovid ( Tristia 4:4-15). And modern historians find him right. "In his person Augustus accumulated the pillars of power: armed forces, control of the elite, wealth and patronage of the public clientelae. That is why Augustus, perhaps more than Louis XIV, would have been entitled to say: L'etat, c'est moi."

The Egyptian and Inca kings were "god incarnate." They were mummified and worshiped for generations as gods (chapters on Egypt and Inca above). The Chinese monarch was not god incarnate. His status was above gods, approximating certain features of the God Almighty of the Abrahamic religions. Resembling the Jewish God, Chinese monarch's name was tabooed. He was invisible for the vast majority of his subjects, generally enclosed behind the walls of the Forbidden City. Normally, no statues were erected, no paintings drawn and no image was reproduced on coins.

The Japanese, having established their universal monarchy, borrowed these features from China. Since the beginning in the Third century AD, the Japanese monarch never revealed himself to people. While walking outside the Palace, he was covered by curtains. For this, he too was associated with the Hebrew God. But the Japanese outperformed the Chinese in several aspects. A founder of Chinese dynasty could be a mortal man of very simple social origins and Chinese dynasties needed the Mandate of Heaven. Otherwise they could be, and were, replaced. The Chinese tradition counts 36 Dynasties. The Japanese Dynasty, by contrast, has been permanent and is said to be of divine origins, the founder being the direct descendant of goddess Amaterasu. The Chinese ended their dynastic cycle in 1911, while the Japanese Dynasty continues as the oldest active dynasty in the world, though un-deified by Douglas MacArthur in 1945.

In India, the function of the East Asian Heaven performed Dhamma (cosmic eternal law). The Chinese and Japanese universal monarchs were inferior to Heaven. They were its Sons and the Chinese required its mandate to rule. The Chakravarti, by contrast, did not display any inferiority related to Dhamma. He "turned the wheel" of Dhamma which otherwise would not be enacted. Hence is the literal meaning of Chakravarti, a "wheel turner," adopted by the first univresal monarch in India, Asoka, and hence onward meaning "universal monarch."

The Egyptian royal tombs – pyramids – is perhaps the best expression of the level of veneration. 700,000 workers worked on the Epang Palace and the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (Sima Qian I:148, 155), containing Terracotta Army. The foundation platform of Epang sized 1270 × 426 m. Some estimates make the mausoleum the largest burial complex of a single ruler ever to have been constructed anywhere in the world. With the rise of universal monarchs in Japan, impressive megalithic tombs covered their land and gave name to the Kofun period, meaning the era of burial mounds.

A divinity threshold was crossed the moment of universal conquest. Following the Qin universal conquest in 221 BC, the First Emperor of the universal realm was titled "Huang" meaning 'august', and "Di", meaning 'Divine'. Sima Qian explicitly states the causal link between the universal conquest and divinity. The Inca ruler, with the establishment of his universal monarchy, changed his royal "Capac" title, somewhat equivalent of "Duke," for the divine name by which he was thereafter known to history, "Viracocha Inca."

Following another universal conquest, Alexander the Great broke with much of the Macedonian royal tradition, where kings were mortal like the rest of humans. Alexander and his successors became divine and some added to their names ''Epiphanes'', meaning 'divine'. By 323 BC, several Greek states were worshipping Alexander as a living god. Cults were offered to his successors with greater frequencies and magnificence. Julius Caesar, having crossed the Rubicon toward the universal monarchy, became "Divus" and traced his origins to Venus. Another word for "Divine" is Augustus. Michael J. Puett finds that universal empire and deification of monarch developed together. He compares Macedonia with China, where universal empire coincided with a new type of theomorphic claim.

The most striking link between universal conquest and rise of a divine monarchy is Rome. Rome is the only case in world history of universal empire established by a non-monarchical state. The Roman Republic was born in a violent rejection of monarchy. The Roman ideal of ''libertas'' rivals that of the modern West. Its acceptance was never disputed in the republican Rome. The opposite of libertas was ''regnum'' - in proper sense, absolute monarchy which could not be tolerated under any condition.

Despite all, when Rome conquered the Mediterraean world, the Republic turned into universal monarchy common for other universal empires. In 23 BC, Augustus received “greater proconsular command unlimited in time" (''imperium proconsulare maius infinitum''). With him, the ancient triumphant Republic and the unshakable ideal of libertas gave up to an absolute divine monarchy and the cult of emperor, “the degradation of the high tradition of human freedom.” Henceforth, universal monarchs defined the history of the Roman world. Their images and monuments filled the public space of their cities, their words were heard in silent awe by their subjects, their names provided the framework for the measurement of time.

Augustus' image reminds that of Jesus. The Calendar Inscription of Priene (9 BC) uses the term "gospel" referring to him and describes him as "Savior" and "God manifest." Augustus "had wiped away our sins" shortly before Jesus did it again.

Monotheism

The rise of extremely absolute and divine personality on earth triggered a similar process in Heaven. Main gods rose to more universal and transcendent status and on several occasions universal monarchies generated monotheism. Akhenaten undertook the earliest know attempt, albeit short-lived. The Great Hymn to the Aten is the earliest record in world history to proclaim God as "sole" beside whom there is "none". Beginning with Sargon II, Assyrian scribes began to write the name of Ashur with the ideogram for "whole heaven." According to Simo Parpola, the Neo-Assyrian empire developed a complete monotheism. The earliest recorded in history Son of God "sent for the salvation of mankind" was the king of Assyria.

The Assyrian case is crucial regarding Judaism — the only ancient monotheism which is not a product of universal monarchy. Notably, the Jewish religion became monotheist in the Babylonian captivity. One hypothesis maintains that the Jewish priests adopted the local monotheism and replaced Ashur with Yahweh. The Assyrian monotheist concept of "(all) the gods" was translated into Hebrew as Elohim, literally "(all) the gods." This explains the puzzle of Psalm 46:4–5 with God dwelling in his City on the river. There is no river in Jerusalem. The City of Assur was on the river. "Yahweh's emergence as a major player on the divine scene mirrored those of... Marduk and Assur." The former, as Yahweh, had a temple without an image to express his monotheist nature. Some scholars also supposed the influence of the Egyptian universal monarchy, particularly of the Great Hymn to the Aten on Psalm 104.

Synchronously with Judaism, the Persian universal monarchy elaborated Zoroastrianism considered by most as monotheistic. It has been supposed that Darius elevated Ahura Mazda to monotheist status to associate the sole king with the sole god. Cleanthes (330-230 BC) and Aratus (c.315/310–240 BC) equate Zeus with "Mind" or "Nature"—as the soul that animates the material universe. With them, Stoicism "turned the god into something like God."

Alternatively, other universal monarchies preserved polytheism but following the rise of a universal monarchy a kind of monistic substance took on itself qualities of the monotheist god, such as Heaven in China and Japan or Dhamma in Buddhism. The Axial Age, characterized by universal kingship, saw what is called "transcendental breakthrough" named as the only common underlying impulse in all these "axial" movements. Max Weber stressed the synchronism between political and theological universalizations in the period his compatriot, Karl Jaspers, would later term ''Axial''. Weber's observation motivated Shmuel Eisenstadt to research the synchronous transcedental breakthroughs in a volume devoted to the Axial Age.

Universal monarchs in China and Japan were Sons of Heaven and in China they ruled by the mandate of Heaven. On a heterogenous religious landscape, the Chinese superimposed the worship of Heaven. Buddhism spread under the universal monarchy of Ashoka. Whoever sees me, says Buddha, sees Dhamma; whoever sees Dhamma, sees me. While Christians see Jesus as God-become-human, Buddhists see the Buddha as human-become-Dhamma. Heaven and Dhamma propelled East Asian and Indian respectively monarchs to their universal triumphs.

Eventually, two most popular monotheist legacies of universal monarchies became Christianity and Islam. One God, one Emperor, one empire, proclaimed Eusebius (AD 290–330). One study names Islam as the clearest example of convergence between monotheist religion and universal monarchy. The edict of Chinggis Khan stated: "This is the order of the everlasting God. In heaven there is only one eternal God; on earth there is only one lord..." Similar proclamations by him and his heirs were issued, alternatively embellished with Quranic, Confucian, or Biblical verses, depending on their prospective audiences.

With the dissolution of universal monarchies, cosmopolitanism and pacifism give way to nationalism and militarism. By contrast, monotheism does not dissolve back to polytheism. One legacy of the universal monarchies is over half of humanity remaining monotheists.

Vision of history

For ancient Egypt, China, Japan and Inca, the beginning of history was marked by the emergence of universal monarchy. This event in terms of their traditions originated during the time these people saw as what we would call prehistory. And vice versa, from their perspective, we have not ended our prehistory and still live in the pre-dynastic period of our civilization with plural sovereigns. Civilizations which performed their universal conquest and established universal monarchy viewed those who did not as a primeval savage who "fights since the time of Horus, neither conquering, nor being conquered."

Universal monarchies lacked linear, teleological, utopian or progressive vision of history of the Western kind. For them, the ideal state is not in an utopian future but a historic past and no further progress was even theoretically possible. All what was needed ever since the rise of universal monarchy was to maintain it, and if lost, restore it as soon as possible. Thus history acquired cyclical pattern with long phases of universal monarchy and evanescent falls.

German Sociologist Friedrich Tenbruck, criticizing the Western idea of progress, emphasized that China and Egypt remained at one particular stage of development for millennia. This stage was universal monarchy. The development of Egypt and China came to a halt once their empires "reached the limits of their natural habitat," that is, became universal.

Periods when monarchies were more universal – Shang, Zhou, Han and Tang dynasties in China, Maurya, Gupta and Mughal dynasties in India, the Heian Japan, the Augustan and Antonine Rome – were remembered by posterity as " Golden Ages." Edward Gibbon described the Antonine age as best in human history. The Islamic Golden Age also begins during the universal Abbasid dynasty. The Spanish, Portuguese and British Golden Ages similarly coincide with periods when their monarchies came closest to universal.

Golden ages in multipolar civilizations, by contrast, such as Hesiod's "Race of Gold," Satya Yuga, "Gullaldr" of Gylfaginning, usually parallel the Biblical Garden of Eden as a legendary period following the creation of the world with affairs going from bad to worse ever since and not expected to improve before the Apocalypse or, its Hindu version, Kali Yuga. In the Graeko-Roman world, the Augustan poets, the first generation of the Roman universal monarchy, were the first to transfer the "golden" period from the time of gods to the present. Aelius Aristides decided that Hesiod was wrong in his timing and identified Hesiod's golden age with the age of Rome. The idea appears also in Virgil’s '' Fourth Eclogue''. The legacy of the Roman golden concept is still strongly with us. Transferred from the legendary to the historical, it has become a commonplace to describe as "golden age" any outstanding period of history, literature, or porn.

Seeing the ideal model in the past, most universal monarchies had a greater concern with history than their non-universal colleagues did. The difference is striking comparing the volumes of historical records of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, China and India, or Rome and the post-Roman Europe. Not always, but as a rule, the more monarchy is universal in space and lasting in time, the more history it writes.

Regarding future, universal monarchies are prominent in their optimism. They did not expect apocalypse or cosmic recycling, nor even lesser disasters like destructive warfare or imperial fall characteristic for Mesopotamian, Hindu eschatological, Hebrew prophetic, and classical Greek literature. Instead, they believed in eternal orderly existence. Karl Jaspers, who coined the term Axial Age, generalized that the universal monarchies which came into being at the end of his Age considered themselves founded for eternity. Those monarchies were deemed universal in both space and time. Gods provided the Egyptian kings with "eternity without limits, infinity without bounds." In ''Aeneid'' (1.278–79), Jupiter promised ''imperium sine fine'', empire without limit either temporal or geographical.Price, Jonathan J. & Berthelot, Katell. (2020). ''The Future of Rome: Roman, Greek, Jewish and Christian Visions''. (Cambridge University Press), p 5. In Japan even dynasties were not supposed to rise and fall. One dynasty was believed to ever last. The First Emperor of China proclaimed the universal monarchy he established to last for ten-thousand generations. A great culture of eternity evolved. The pyramids, mummies and Terracotta Army were designed to last forever.

Until the 2nd century BC, Roman and Greek classics expressed an endless cycle of imperial rise and fall. The tradition originated in the East where its later version was the Four kingdoms of Daniel. Earlier, through Herodotes, it had migrated to Rome. Following the rise of Rome to primacy, Greek and Roman classics counted five empires in history with Rome being the fifth and to be followed by next empires. A century later, the concept changes with Rome becoming the fifth and the last empire. Fortune, says Plutarchus (c.AD 40 – 120s), had flitted lightly and quickly over numerous empires but when she arrived to Rome, "she took off her wings, stepped out of her sandals, and abandoned her untrustworthy and unstable globe." The history of imperial successions ends in the Roman version of the End of History, as Michael Weissenberger associated. Eastern traditions, such as Daniel 2 and the Book of Revelation, adopted the new concept replacing Rome with the Kingdom of God as the “fifth empire,” the ultimate and eternal. The idea of Rome's eternity became coterminous with Christianity's eternity. The concept of the “fifth empire” echoed centuries later with the Fifth Empire and Fifth Monarchists. Beginning with Cicero, appears the idea of ''Roma Aeterna'' and becomes paradigm under Augustus. His
years are witness to the radical increase of references to aeternitas (eternity) especially in Augustan poetry (Virgil, Tibullus, Propertius, Horace and Ovid). The change reflected a new mentality towards the permanence and stability of the state.Balbuza, Katarzyna (June 11, 2014). "The idea of aeternitas of state, city and Emperor in Augustan poetry," ''Klio'', vol 96 (1), https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2014-0003 The Augustan poets proclaimed Rome “Urbs Aeterna,” which translates from Latin as the “Eternal City,” and Rome is known as such until today.

See also

* King of All Peoples
* King of the Four Corners
* King of the Universe
* King of Kings
* Dominium mundi
* Universal power
* Katechon
* Last Roman Emperor
* Chakravarti (Sanskrit term)
* Buddhist kingship
* Maitreya
* Fifth Empire
* Fifth Monarchists
* World domination
* World government
* Emperor at home, king abroad

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Universal Monarchy
Political ideologies
Political culture
World government
Monarchy