The perpetual peace that Kant envisions in his essay can be interpreted as an ideal form of geopolitical organization. In Section II of the essay, Kant insists that the law of nations will be an attribute of a federation of free states (5). All of these states will be (1) republican rather than monarchical, (2) governed by the rule of law rather than factional strength and/or despotism, and mediated by a supersovereign "league of peace" to see that nations "adjust themselves to the constraints of public law" (Kant 6-7).
It is inconceivable that Kant was not affected by knowledge of the American and French revolutions, though the Terror in the latter had degenerated into "despotism of the people" (4), which Kant deplores. The full effect of Napoleon's career was not yet felt. By 1818, when Frankenstein was published, Napoleon was in exile, but the Europe he had tried and failed to conquer had been successfully and permanently changed.
The ideal governance structure Kant posits marks civilization off from a hopelessly savage natural state, though he also cites the "inhospitable actions of the civilized and especially of the commercial states of our part of the world" (7) toward the "savages" of Africa and the Americas. In other words, his hopeful cosmopolitan vision is qualified by knowledge of how supposedly civilized nations have historically behaved.
Shelley's Frankenstein both authorizes and undercuts Kant's cosmopolitan ideal because the narrative and characterization amplify and personalize the impact of grand ideas as enacted. The novel appeared at a time when the consequences of bold and strong actions on the part of the nation states of Europe were in their post-Napoleonic stage--Napoleon's certainty and strength having fostered war and misery. Meanwhile, the early Industrial Revolution was introducing moral ambiguities about the benefits of progress. The fact that the novel's subtitle is The Modern Prometheus is instru...