William Penn and the peace of Europe

Abstract

The Quaker William Penn proposed a European Union to ensure peace in the continent in 1693. Penn was unusual among Quakers in being of the landed upper classes. When converted, he became a leader of the Quakers and other Dissenters. He had the two related ideals of peace and religious toleration, and dreamed of realizing both ideals in the New World. A practical idealist, he took advantage of four factors: friends at Court made through his social position; King Charles II's gratitude for services rendered by his father, Admiral Sir William Penn; the King's desire to conciliate the City merchants, who were ready to invest in Penn's scheme; and above all the King's concern to get North America settled by British colonists. Penn received a charter to found Pennsylvania in 1681. In England he worked hard, especially in collaboration with James II, for toleration for the cruelly persecuted Quakers and other Dissenters. In Pennsylvania he was able to establish complete toleration and his fair and friendly treatment gave the colony 70 years of peaceful co-existence with the Indians. In his essay on the peace of Europe, he virtually invented collective security and with amazing foresight planned in detail something very like the present European Union.