Territorial state

The term territorial state (German: Territorialstaat) has been used since the High Middle Ages to refer to a state, typically in the Holy Roman Empire, in which the sovereignty or 'claim to power' (Herrschaftsanspruch) of the territorial prince, extended over a specific territory and its people. The constitution of such a state is referred to as the territorial constitution (Territorialverfassung).

Unlike the old stem duchies or lordships organised as a personal union, the sovereignty of a territorial state was based on its land or territory and not on membership of a dynastic family or other personally-related rights. Until the 16th century and, in some cases, beyond that, territorial states were characterised by a certain dualism, in that the territorial lords (the princes) held power jointly with the estates or Landstände and both sides often had rights with respect to the other as well as separate institutions and administrations. This was especially true of the Holy Roman Empire, whose 300 individual territories gradually acquired territorial sovereignty.

The princely territorial state shares many characteristics with the institutional, geographically-defined state typical of the modern era.

Predecessors of the territorial state

As early as about 3,000 BC the first features of a territorial state may be recognised in the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The lower level princely states of the Holy Roman Empire embodied symbolically the structures and types of lordship of a territorial state.

Emergence

The territorial state emerged in the 12th century as a consequence of the transfer of royal sovereign rights for a particular region to a feudal lord. The territorial state arose from the personal union state (Personenverbandsstaat) which depended not on lordship of a defined area, but on the sovereign rights of individuals. Nevertheless, the territorial state and personal union state are not mutually exclusive; both forms of government could be found in one and the same political entity.

Laws and decrees within a territorial state

Laws authorised by the territorial prince were only valid within the defined region of his associated territorial state. These laws, which applied to the whole sovereign territory of the state, were also applicable to everyone living with the state, not just to its own citizens. This was based on the principle of territoriality which stated that all people were subject to the sovereignty and laws of the state on whose soil they were located.

As a result of agreements between territorial states, legal regulations could also apply abroad. In the European Union it can be seen that this principle has survived in the long run, even to the present day.

Rulers of territorial states

The aim of the respective territorial princes was to incorporate all the legal rights of a territory into their personal government and thus impose their personal claim to power over it. An early attempt at this was made by Henry the Lion of the House of Welf in the Stem Duchy of Saxony, but his plans foundered due to resistance of competing rulers who had opposing rights within the same territory. An early successful example of the creation of a territorial lordship is the Archduchy of Austria, which was able to be turned into a state lordship in 1359 through the forged privilegium maius.

Features

See also

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