CENSORSHIP
- 5thavenueartist
- Jan 13
- 2 min read
It's interesting. History records that in the wake of the development of the printing press, the Habsburgs who were the rulers of much of Europe for up to 700 years also wanted to censor anything that disagreed with their narrative.
The Swiss who were their arch enemies kicked the Habsburgs out of their castle in Aargau, which was initially located in a region that is now part of Switzerland, and roundly defeated them in battle several times.
The Habsburgs centred their empire in Austria and ended up ruling much of Europe, parts of South America and even some parts of Asia, often through marriages and alliances rather than open war, so that you didn't even know they had conquered you.
They heavily promoted censorship (and it is one of the subjects of my book Alliance. Of course as you know, the Swiss developed #DirectDemocracy and whilst the Habsburgs flourished elsewhere their influence waned to nothing in Switzerland. Here we go again via the European Union head. Here's a short quote from my book, proving that there is nothing new under the sun, same playbook, different era.
From my book Alliance
"The tide of censorship swelled again under Empress Maria Theresa, who, in the 1700s, instituted a centralized censorship office in Vienna. Every book had to pass through its doors, especially those with Enlightenment philosophies, nationalist themes, or critiques of the monarchy. Political, religious, scientific, and literary works were all scrutinized, and authors like Voltaire and Rousseau were outright banned. It was an Office of Censorship, purposed to prevent Enlightenment ideas from undermining the state’s authority. But as tightly as they tried to hold the reins, these ideas still crept through, slipping across borders, shared quietly and covertly, until they grew into undeniable currents of thought and change".
The Habsburg empire is no more! Click the link to find out more about the book, the third in the Thomas Mercer series - an exploration of Swiss Style Direct Democracy.
Within the Thomas Mercer series Alliance can be read as a stand-alone book or as part 3 in the series, which begins with Enlightened, followed by Grassroots. All three books are available from Amazon at £10:99 each
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