Rousseau and the "Government of Poland"

Throughout Poland during the late eighteenth century, many disputes over land and politics were occurring. During the years of 1771 until 1792, Poland had been partitioned three times. By 1792, Poland didn't even exist due to a poor army and no governmental structure. Finally, Poland was split up between Russia, Poland, and Austria. Rousseau sees the Poles at this time as rather selfish people. Rousseau has many thoughts on how Poland could be saved and all Poles to be happy and free.

Rousseau thought that Poland could in fact be saved but it would take some time and effort. Rousseau didn't suggest to the Polish government to build armies because he believed that national armies were only good for obtaining more land, thus taking land would create more self interest in the people of Poland. Once Poland started obtaining land, they would most likely become hungry for more, and finally doing whatever they had to do in order to get the land.

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House of Rousseau

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However, instead of having armies, Militias would be more realistic in case of invasion from neighboring countries. With a militia, the country could have many people scattered about and ready to fight in order to save their country and land. Rousseau didn't see fighting as an importance, rather he thought that if Poland was taken from neighboring countries, Poland would still live on in its people. So instead of always fighting, the people should spend more time together and helping one another out.

Rousseau believed that smaller states in general ran better than larger states. Some advantages to having a smaller state include the fact that it is easier to keep order. With a smaller state, government would be easier to control and more of the people would be represented because it would be easier to let...