Editing World government (section)

===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>