How shall we get to a universal confederation?

Which should be the future world organisation? Of course, a voluntary federation of free peoples, within which all of them will have the same rank and, therefore, the same authority or importance.

How can we get there? Of course, by natural evolution, which is already taking place by two different ways:

• 1^st Through the disintegration of the empires and the ensuing liberation of the submitted nationalities, which will become members of a partial federation. This is the case of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which had as a consequence the freedom of the Czech, the Slovakian and of Hungary. The first two united to create a republic, within which each of the two peoples are fully free. The Russian revolution gave birth to the Federation of Soviet Republics. Other peoples, such as Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, became fully independent, but at present it is easy to foresee a future federation of the Baltic peoples. In the meantime, Hungary, Poland and Austria remain fully independent.
• 2^nd The submitted peoples attain an autonomous regime within the empire, which slowly evolves towards a federal regime until the predominance of the people which up to then had exerted hegemony is completely cancelled out. Spain is an example, as we observe that, when the king was overthrown, a federable republic was established where, in the first place Catalonia declared its autonomous government.

Nowadays, nobody ignores the Basque nationalistic movement, which will end up with an autonomous, self-governing regime for the Basque Country and Navarre. The same will happen with Galicia, Valencia, Majorca, probably with Aragon, and perhaps with other peoples in Spain. This evolution only needs time to come true.

As soon as the autonomous peoples reach their prime, they will create a federation of Hispanic republics, made up by the Catalan, Castilian, Galician, Valencian, Majorcan, Portuguese republics, or by sub federations, such as the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic federation, in due time federated with the Galician-Portuguese, Castilian-Leonese, Basque-Navarrese ones, etc. These Sub federations, within which the republics will have a freedom limited only by their own will, will appoint their own representatives for setting up a general Parliament, which will come together alternatively in the different capital cities of the republics, and which will deal with the international matters the partial federations will confer on them.

Probably the same will be true for the British Isles with Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, and for France with the federation of the Occitan republics and the republics of Brittany, Normandy, Île-de-France, etc. These federations, following the S.S.R.U., will have a law article stating that: The federated republics have the right to separate at will from the confederation. The old-fashioned notion of Spanish, French, etc., patriotism will have disappeared. Spain and France, and other decadent powers will be substituted by groups of federated peoples. Since there will be no chauvinistic prejudices, logically the peoples will tend to abolish customs regulations, and of course the Iberian federation, together with the federations of other countries, will tend to establish a common Parliament, where each of the federated peoples will be represented.

The enlargement of the confederation will take us to the highest ideal, which will be made up of a multitude of free peoples, each with its own government and parliament, and with a super-parliament, which will be made up by a representative of each of the small European republics, whose basic scope will be to maintain peace among the confederated republics.

How will it be possible to avoid an armed conflict? Very easily. Each republic will have a law and order service which will be under the authority of the general parliament whenever it will be needed. It is understood, however, that this will never come to pass, for the simple reason that its power will be enormous with respect to any of the federated peoples. Any disagreement between two states will be submitted to the parliament and will be settled in a democratic way following the decision of the majority. It is understood that the decision will be accepted immediately out of a democratic feeling, and also because there will be no single head of state strong enough to go against the whole international army.

Inevitably an international language will have to be adopted. In face of the existence of over two hundred official languages, it will be absolutely essential to use one single language in the general parliament’s debates, which will be Esperanto, or any other language not belonging to any of the federated peoples, in order to avoid mistrust.

Europe is rushing towards a political regime similar to the one shown in the graph for the years from 350 to 100 B.C., in the Ancient Age, and from year 800 to 1500 in the Middle Ages. The difference is that in these periods there were many partial federations and small nationalities which were completely free, without a superior centre to settle their disputes, in future Europe there will be a true Society of Nations, which will make international armed conflicts impossible.