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1. Concept and theoryThe term non-simultaneity and the formula of the “simultaneity of the non-simultaneous” are based on a historical assumption that is also of key importance to the analysis of European history from the late 18th century on [19]; [23]; [18]. Non-simultaneity describes the fact that structures and processes taking place at the same time may depend on quite different strata of experience and may reveal historical sediments that cannot readily be reduced to a single, unified concept of Europe. Taken in a diachronous se…

1. Europe 1.1. Definition and main lines of development 1.1.1. TerminologyScholars generally agree that the first centuries of the early modern period were an especially important time for the process of state formation [70]. There is no unanimity, however, regarding what the word  state actually means. While some historians are wont to call even relatively decentralized structures of governance like the Old Empire states, others prefer to be guided by the concept of the state developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This concep…

1. Types of monarchical ruleMonarchy, as in government by a king or other sovereign ruler with kinglike powers and dignities (Sovereignty), whether as the hereditary representative of a dynasty or wearer of a crown bestowed for life by election, was the normal mode of authority in early modern Europe, at least for larger polities and territorial states of all kinds. With some justification, it has been asserted that “in Europe at least, the way to the modern state holding a monopoly of violence passed through monarchy.” [74. 36]. Principalities, which in the Middle Ages origin…