This article refers to a state in which a single nation is dominant. There is also an article on the Internet game NationStates. See also State (disambiguation).

The term nation state (or nation-state), while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to states in which a single nation is dominant, such as Portugal or Ireland or the Netherlands. A nation state may at the same time be a federal state, as for instance the Federal Republic of Germany.

Over the last few centuries (and particular over the last half-century, except in Africa), this form of state has become more common, so that now most states claim to be nation states in their claims upon the patriotism of their citizens. In the case of China, for example, this effort has manifested itself in the concept of "Zhonghua minzu," a Chinese people, though an ethnologist or linguist would identify many nations and languages within modern China.

Since the disaster produced by nation-states, 1914-1945, the concept of absolute sovereignty within state borders has met increasing criticism and competition from international blocs, from organizations like the United Nations and from the corporate view of populations as markets rather than nations. The dominance of nation-states has not always been so; and even today there are some states where it is questionable whether they contain a single dominant nation. This is made more difficult by the question of what is a nation, beyond the obvious linguistic and cultural cohesion of those born (Latin "nati") within a culturally-defined area, or "fatherland".

There are many states, such as Belgium and Switzerland, with multiple linguistic, religious or ethnic groups within them, without any one being clearly dominant. However, often (and especially in the case of Switzerland and the United States) a bridging national identity has been constructed despite these differences. A better example of a non-nation state would be the United Kingdom, which consists of four nations England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A somewhat similar example might be contemporary Spain, where Basques, Catalans, and Galicians claim to be nations distinct from the historically dominant Castile (the Spanish Constitution of 1978 hints at this by mentioning "regions and nationalities" within Spain, and recognizing implicitly their pre-existence).

Historically France was more successful at subsuming within a Gallic nation-state such culturally disparate elements as Brittany, Aquitaine, Languedoc and Burgundy, though less so in Corsica.

In many modern cases, such as Canada, Switzerland, the United States of America, Indonesia, the Soviet Union, efforts have been made to create a national identity that encompasses different groups within that country. In India, and China, former empires have been transformed.

Examples of non-nation states are empires and multinational states which embrace more than one nation, city-states which may be part of a larger nation, thalassocracies, the Roma ("Gypsies"), American Indian nations or tribes, which may or may not possess some autonomous territory, and sovereign corporations (as in the Hudson's Bay Company or the British East India Company). The Kurds and the Palestinians (although the Palestinians make up a majority in the Kingdom of Jordan) are sometimes referred to as nations without states, much as the world's Jews before the official creation of Israel in 1948.

The Rise of the nation-state

The rise of a nation-state, as opposed to the dynastic assemblage of territories held in the personal union of a single sovereign, which might be redistributed among his heirs, is chiefly due to diverging economic interests between central Scandinavia and southern Jutland, was expressed in nationalist language and first manifested in the Engelbrecht rebellion (1434–1436). The ultimate demise of the union in 1521–1523 led to the establishment of Sweden as a nation-state (that however had a neglected Finnish speaking peasant minority).

This sub-section is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.