Editing World government (section)

==Pre-modern philosophy==
===Antiquity===
World government was an aspiration of ancient rulers as early as the [[Bronze Age]] (3300 to 1200 BCE); [[ancient Egypt]]ian kings aimed to rule "All That the Sun Encircles", [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Mesopotamian]] kings "All from the Sunrise to the Sunset", and [[Ancient China|ancient Chinese]] and [[Ancient Japan|Japanese]] emperors "All under Heaven".

The Chinese had a particularly well-developed notion of world government in the form of [[Great Unity]], or {{Lang|zh-latn|Da Yitong}} ({{Lang|zh|大同}}), a historical model for a united and just society bound by moral virtue and principles of [[good governance]]. The [[Han dynasty]], which successfully united much of China for over four centuries, evidently aspired to this vision by erecting an Altar of the Great Unity in 113 BCE.<ref>[[Sima Qian]] II:38–40</ref> According to [[Mencius]] (1:6) stability is in unity.<ref>[[Yuri Pines|Pines, Yuri]] & Moreno Garcia, Juan Carlos, (2020). "Maat and Tianxia: Building world orders in ancient Egypt and China," ''Journal of Egyptian History'', vol 13: p 246, http://yuri-pines-sinology.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Moreno-Pines-Maat-and-Tianxia-final.pdf</ref> Both Mencius (9:4) and Alexander the Great ([[Diodorus Siculus]] 30:21) claimed that there are neither two suns in cosmos, nor two monarchs on earth.<ref>[[Yuri Pines|Pines, Yuri]] & Moreno Garcia, Juan Carlos, (2020). "Maat and Tianxia: Building world orders in ancient Egypt and China," ''Journal of Egyptian History'', vol 13: p 246, http://yuri-pines-sinology.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Moreno-Pines-Maat-and-Tianxia-final.pdf</ref>

Contemporaneously, the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] historian [[Polybius]] described [[Roman Empire|Roman]] rule over much of [[Mediterranean World|the known world]] at the time as a "marvelous" achievement worthy of consideration by future historians.<ref>{{cite web |author=Polybius |author-link=Polybius |year=1889 |title=The Histories of Polybius |url=http://www.humanistictexts.org/polybius.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328103700/http://www.humanistictexts.org/polybius.htm |archive-date=2016-03-28 |access-date=March 24, 2016 |publisher=Macmillan and Co |volume=1 |translator=Evelyn S. Shuckburg from the text of F. Hultsch |location=London and New York}}</ref> The ''[[Pax Romana]]'', a roughly two-century period of stable Roman hegemony across three continents, reflected the positive aspirations of a world government, as it was deemed to have brought prosperity and security to what was once a politically and culturally fractious region. The [[Adamites]] were a Christian sect who desired to organize an early form of world government.<ref name="Navarro-Genie 2002 p. 144">{{cite book | last=Navarro-Genie | first=M.A. | title=Augusto "César" Sandino: Messiah of Light and Truth | publisher=Syracuse University Press | series=Religion and Politics | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-8156-2949-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PVmiyLUTVgYC&pg=PA144 | access-date=2023-06-12 | page=144}}</ref>

===Dante's Universal Monarchy===
The idea of world government outlived the [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|fall of Rome]] for centuries, particularly in its former heartland of Italy. Medieval peace movements such as the [[Waldensians]] gave impetus to utopian philosophers like [[Marsilius of Padua]] to envision a world without war.<ref name="Duffey 1995 p. 101">{{cite book | last=Duffey | first=M.K. | title=Peacemaking Christians: The Future of Just Wars, Pacifism, and Nonviolent Resistance | publisher=Sheed & Ward | series=G – Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series | year=1995 | isbn=978-1-55612-764-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOa1amxfMY0C&pg=PA101 | access-date=2023-05-04 | page=101}}</ref> In his fourteenth-century work ''[[De Monarchia]]'', Florentine poet and philosopher [[Dante Alighieri]] appealed for a [[universal monarchy]] that would work separate from<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkScBQAAQBAJ&dq=de+monarchia+church+separate+pope&pg=PA166 | isbn=9781317606307 | title=Europe: A Cultural History | date=27 November 2014 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref> and uninfluenced<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n77z4tabLXcC&dq=de+monarchia+church+separate+pope&pg=PA67 | isbn=9788126900732 | title=Comprehensive History of Political Thought | year=2001 | publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vGzDwAAQBAJ&dq=de+monarchia+church+separate&pg=PT17 | isbn=9783849653538 | title=De Monarchia: Of Monarchy | year=2019 | publisher=Jazzybee Verlag }}</ref> by the [[Catholic Church]] to establish peace in humanity's lifetime and the afterlife, respectively:

<blockquote>But what has been the condition of the world since that day the seamless robe [of Pax Romana] first suffered mutilation by the claws of avarice, we can read—would that we could not also see! O human race! what tempests must need toss thee, what treasure be thrown into the sea, what shipwrecks must be endured, so long as thou, like a beast of many heads, strivest after diverse ends! Thou art sick in either intellect, or sick likewise in thy affection. Thou healest not thy high understanding by argument irrefutable, nor thy lower by the countenance of experience. Nor dost thou heal thy affection by the sweetness of divine persuasion, when the voice of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] breathes upon thee, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!'<ref>''[[De Monarchia]]'', 16:1</ref></blockquote>

[[Mercurino di Gattinara|Di Gattinara]] was an Italian diplomat who widely promoted Dante's ''De Monarchia'' and its call for a universal monarchy. An advisor of [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]], and the chancellor of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], he conceived global government as uniting all [[Christendom|Christian nations]] under a [[Res publica Christiana|Respublica Christiana]], which was the only political entity able to establish [[world peace]].