Natural right and imperialism
Natural right had been used by western imperialism as ideological weapon in order to conquer territories and to dismember old empires in Europe( Spansih and Ottoman empires) and in Asia (Chinese and Persian empires). Broadly defined, the concept of natural right is that of a pretended right conferred by the « Nature » from which is deduced a whole system named « natural law » existing prior to or independently of political society. The idea of « natural rights » originated in natural law, used as well by the Greek and Roman and Stoicism as by different schools of politico-legal thought of Middle age onwards, in order to justify rights of property, civil liberties and the rise of democratic thought rights of popular sovereignty. Philosophers of the eighteenth century brought the concept of natural right into the center of political thought used then by the bourgeoisie and the rising classes as ideological weapon against the monarchies and the system of privileges.
