The text looks at the concepts of microbes and sovereignty, not only to reveal that there are any number of links between them, but also to problematize their respective categorization as ‘natural’ and ‘social’. By examining the historically contingent beginnings of contemporary notions of sovereignty, as well as the socio-historical context around the scientific ‘discovery’ of microbes, the thesis aims to show that the modern idea of sovereignty involves imposing two different frameworks of understanding onto the world: one for the social world (in which sovereignty applies), and the ‘natural’ world (beyond sovereignty). The ‘rediscovery’ of microbes in the second half of the 19th century was ostensibly the culmination of this dual framework of nature/society. However, more recent understandings of microbes have ended up disrupting this neat and familiar framework of nature/society. The disruption in turn requires the reconsideration not only of the strong division between the two, but a number of other concepts we have come to accept, such as individuality, positionality, sociality, agency, etc.