Federation Quotes
Coping with the French and their Indian allies was a problem for all the American colonies and Franklin was the strongest voice for some kind of union or federation for not only mutual defense, but to facilitate commerce by having some uniform currency and basic laws of trade to promote the mutual economy. The 6 Iroquois tribes had years ago formed the Iroquois nation complete with a formal constitution that maintained tribal identity but also enabled unified action if any were attacked and provided mutual assistance on a number of economic areas. They became the strongest, wealthiest, healthiest and most sophisticated nation of North America before European colonization and unlike many other Indians with a few exceptions–see {21747} for an example–got along very well with the English colonists. Franklin was a great admirer and wanted to use some of their Constitutional provisions in the American Constitution 36 years later, but at the time tried to embarrass many American's into forming a union with language like this quote. Actually, he did not think of them as savages at all, but most Americans who knew little about them did, and Franklin was never above using people's prejudices to get them to buy into one of his political ideas.
This principle was at odds with the European scramble for Africa and other colonies which followed. When the colonial empires fell apart, Mill’s principle was considered valid by most. However, when Hawaii and Alaska became States of the United States, the counterexample to the principle was born. With modern communications and transportation distance becomes a less important factor. What are now contiguous trade blocks and federations may well develop into noncontiguous sets of land affiliated as a single state.
The French were at the time much more aggressive traders and the Iroquois Nation had fixed agrarian communities and were very involved in trading. And the French King controlled the military in North America and had ordered the construction of a series of forts to protect their trading interests from the British. However, military affairs in British Colonial America were left to the colonies, all of whom were very parochial and didn't want to raise taxes for much. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Colonial delegates at the conference, had been urging some kind of a federation of the American colonies–{583422} & {35007}. He had used the Iroquois as a model as the 6 tribes had a unified military among other common governmental aspects. However, no colony wanted to give up any of its sovereignty to others or a Federation. Under the prodding of Franklin and the Iroquois, 7 Colonial Delegations agreed to a plan, mostly devised by Franklin�the Albany Plan�for a centralized governmental structure. The Albany Plan was never implemented but it started the process of unification discussion of the Colonies which would stimulate the Articles of Confederation and the Continental Congress.
This was an incredibly prescient and visionary statement regarding the EEC. It would be years after his death that his vision was finally turned into reality.
Great Britain however did join the European Common Market although it did not give up its own currency and adopt the Euro as most of the other European nations did.
unions and federations of two countries
Very few constitutions provide for the extensive labor rights that the South African Constitution does. Most other countries that create labor rights, do so via legislation as in the United States.
Throughout history Lithuania has been a football fought over by Poland and Russia both of which claimed a unity of peoples but in actuality discriminated against Lithuania in resource allocation and social and intellectual relations. Throughout, many Lithuanians insisted that they have a separate language and culture and fought for independence which finally arrived after the Cold War. See {640106} for another quotation in this so called union. The fusion of the two territories made great sense to the King, but little to the Poles and Lithuanians who each saw themselves as a very different people and wanted little to so with the other.
Many wonder why Bolivar did not attempt to unify much of South America into a single federated state once they had thrown off the yoke of Spanish colonialism. This was his reason.
This was written after the war when Germany was divided into four parts, later to become East and West Germany. German historical and cultural aggression and militarism, most policy makers feared, would cause more war if Germany was unified and allowed to become a strong state. NATO and The European Union became the federations that Kennan was seeking. And Germany underwent a radical cultural and political change.
Given the time, Mill’s view on the colonies were appreciated by few Englishmen, but turned out to be exactly predict the British reality a century later.
