 Kant’s view of historical progress is tied to his view of international relations. He actually presents several versions of his argument for the progress of humanity toward the ideal condition in which states, each governed by a republican civil constitution and thus each providing maximal consistent freedom for its citizens, all cooperate in a republican federation of states. In his essay “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View” (8:15–31), he takes the basis of his claims for historical progress to be the culmination of the human ability to reason, which, as a natural property of human beings, must be worked out to perfection in the species. He argues that incessant wars will eventually lead rulers to recognize the benefits of peaceful negotiation. They will gradually increase the freedoms of their citizens, because freer citizens are economically more productive and hence make the state stronger in its international dealings. Importantly in this essay he relies on the self-interest of presumably unelected rulers as a significant force in the movement toward international peace. In “Toward Perpetual Peace” Kant suggests that some particular state may, through “good fortune”, become a republic and then act as a focal point for other states to join in peaceful relations, and that gradually such cooperation can spread to all states (8:356). These positions certainly reveal that Kant considered world peace impossible without both individual republican states and an international federation among them.