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... NATIONS AND STATES
A nation is a group of people bound together by language, culture, or some other common heritage and usually recognized as a political entity. Often the term nation is used synonymously with country or state, as in United Nations; however, nation implies more than the existence of boundaries or political institutions. When Poland was partitioned in the 18th century and ceased to exist as a state, the Poles continued to think of themselves as a nation. ... Modern European nation-states came into being with the decline of the feudal era, as people began to give their loyalty to kings rather than to local lords and at the same time to cease identifying themselves in terms of the universalism of the church and Holy Roman Empire. ...
In federal systems of government such as exist in the United States and Germany, the term state (Land, in German) also refers to each of the semiautonomous political entities that make up the federation. In the United States some powers belong exclusively to the national (or federal) government, some belong to the states, and others are shared by both. ... Constitution reserves all powers to the states that are not given by the Constitution to the federal government, nor denied by it to the states.
The term nation-state is used so commonly and yet defined so variously that it will be necessary to indicate its usage in this article with some precision and to give historical and contemporary examples of nation-states. ... Many states were formed at a point in time when a people sharing a common history, culture, and language discovered a sense of identity. This was true in the cases of England and France, for example, which were the first nation-states to emerge in the modern period, and of Italy and Germany, which were established as nation-states in the 19th century. In contrast, however, other states, such as India, the Soviet Union, and Switzerland, came into existence without a common basis in race, culture, or language. It must also be emphasized that contemporary nation-states are creations of different historical periods and of varied circumstances. Before the close of the 19th century, the effective mobilization of governmental powers on a national basis had occurred only in Europe, the United States, and Japan. ... In 1920 the League of Nations recognized seven nation-states as "Great Powers" (Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia) and eventually admitted more than 40 other states to membership; the United Nations had more than 175 member states in the late 20th century.
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Approximate Pages = 8.1
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