Abstract
This chapter seeks to open a new perspective on Leibniz and his political philosophy. Leibniz lived in the last period of the early European expansion when Europe had already begun to spread its political and economical influence all around the globe but was not yet as dominant as in the later period of European imperialism in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although Leibniz was not himself a very influential political thinker or counsellor, his observations and opinions can be interpreted as an interesting example of an intellectual view of worldwide politics and economics in this early phase of European-dominated “globalization”.
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Notes
- 1.
See the different texts of the “Consilium Aegyptiacum” (1671–2) in A IV 1, 217–410.
- 2.
A IV 1, 408–10.
- 3.
“Is anything known about a strait between Asia and North America, and about the end of the land of Yezo on the other side of Japan, and about the improvement of geographical charts of those regions?” Leibniz to Claudio Filippo Grimaldi, 19 July 1689, in Leibniz, Der Briefwechsel mit den Jesuiten in China, 13.
- 4.
Witsen, Niewe Lantkaarte, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Sig. Ktr 118. For more details see Kempe, “In 80 Texten um die Welt”.
- 5.
A I 17, 490–6, here 493.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
A IV 6, 375–9.
- 8.
See with further references Kempe, “In 80 Texten”, especially 262–5.
- 9.
To early modern worldwide silver cycles and their significance for the development of a global economy see Flynn and Giráldez, “Born with a ‘Silver Spoon’”; and Flynn and Giráldez, “Cycles of Silver”.
- 10.
A I 14, 869.
- 11.
See also with further references Friedrich, “Heidenmission”.
- 12.
See Nesselrath and Reinbothe (eds.), Novissima Sinica, 17, 91–2; see also Friedrich, “Heidenmission”, 646–8.
- 13.
See for instance Leibniz to Joachim Bouvet, 18 April 1703, A I 22, 348–9.
- 14.
See for instance Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, “Concept einer Denkschrift von Leibniz (für den Czaaren Peter), Dezember 1708”. In Guerrier, Russland, 95–100, here 95.
- 15.
See with references Kempe, “Rußland”, 284.
- 16.
Leibniz to Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, 14 January 1712, in Horner, Sechszehn, 18.
- 17.
See Palumbo, Leibniz, 73, 75.
- 18.
A III 8, 431–3, here 433.
- 19.
Ibid., 432–3.
- 20.
See A VIII 1, Introduction, XXV.
- 21.
See A I 5 No. 247, 455.
- 22.
See Martin Elers to Leibniz, Berlin, 28 January (7 February) 1682, A III 3, No. 319, 558–61, here 559. See also Kempe, “Dr. Leibniz”.
- 23.
See the correspondence of Leibniz with Hans Sloane and John Wallis in A III 8.
- 24.
Guerrier, Russland, 208.
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Kempe, M. (2017). In the “Hinterland” of Globalization? Leibniz and the European Expansion. In: Strickland, L., Vynckier, E., Weckend, J. (eds) Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38830-4_14
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