"William Black" wrote in message ...
"Vince Brannigan" wrote in message
...


William Black wrote:

In reality the idea of the 'nation state' emerged in Western Europe in
the
fifteenth century, a good illustration being the Hundred Years War
which
started as a fight between feudal magnates and ended as a war between
England and France.

nation states had of course emerged elsewhere at earlier times. Nations
, the latin "gens "had a long-standing albeit complex development
process.

Those tended to be city states that got big or were the product of a single
man driven to build an empire.

The nation state, with the co-incident 'national identity' is later, and
still with us.

The nation state is almost as old as the hills, look at Egypt,
Assyria, Israel, and Babylon of biblical times. These were established
nation states with national identities, dynastic rulers over long
periods, and are even reflected in modern states.

I would agree that the principle of Greco Roman states were city
based, although in later years the Roman state changed from the city
based concept to that of the true nation state.

Even in Europe many of the modern states were well established as
nation states by the end of the first millenia.

Peter