Dynasticism and Territorial Consolidation in Europe.

The democratic peace may be the most salient institutionally-driven peace, but it is not the first. This essay explores how dynasticism brought about a process of peaceful territorial aggregation in the midst of a world that was as violent as the twentieth century by changing the rules that governed inheritance and succession via the introduction of primogeniture and female inheritance. These innovations eliminated the problems created by partible inheritance by restricting the number of legitimate claimants upon property (which included political offices) and in the process dramatically reduced the uncertainty and potential for conflict that had surrounded the disposition of property upon the death of a feudal lord. As a result, the fragmentation of landholdings and political power that was on the verge of destroying the economic viability and security of Latin Europe was reversed in only a few decades and a process of nonviolent consolidation took place that was not to be rivaled until the creation of the EU in the late twentieth century. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]