By 1500, three nation states had emerged in Europe: Scotland, England, and France. Scotland had clear ethnic and linguistic borders and transitioned from a nation state to part of the UK. England struggled with internal divisions but stabilized under the Tudors. France expanded its borders through war and marriage while curbing the power of nobles and establishing a standing army and centralized leadership. Spain unified through the marriage of Isabelle and Ferdinand and remained a federal state while gaining power over the church.

1. AP European
History5
Nation or Monarchs

2. What is a Nation?
1. People with shared ethnic identity, with geographical ties to
a specific location. – ethnic is from the Greek word “ethnos”
for clan. Ethnicity is non hereditary characteristics
• Religion
• Language
• Food
• Dress
• Art…..

3. So where are the nations?
Europe 1400

4. Here they are…..sort of
Europe 2000

5. So where were the nations in
1400?
• Who were the Papal States?
• The Ottomans – did they call themselves that
• What about the Italians – I can see the boot. So where are the
Italians???
• My goodness. No Germans, Greeks,
• Greeks, for goodness sake, no Greeks???
• Shuirley shome mishtake.

6. Reality….
• They were always there…
• However, so was their king/prince/bishop/psychotic hard-case
who was given the land by a king or violently deposed the last
one. (delete where appropriate)
• Countries more often titled by dynasty that ruled them, rather
then the people they ruled over. E.G. Ottomans ruling over
Turks (and lots of others)
• Gradually, groups of people, with ethnic commonalities and
historical ties to geographic spaces become nations
• This is ongoing, and has caused MILLIONS of deaths.

7. 1500
• By 1500 three “nation” states have emerged from the chaos
and change that occurred after the fall of Rome (476 C.E.).
• Still most of Europe was heavily fragmented.
• Modern historical review states this as one of the long-term
advantages of western Eurasia over East Asia….

8. Scotland
• One of the first nation
states to emerge. Small,
isolated, but interesting.
• Borders matched
ethnicity for a longtime
• Language – Gaelic or
Scotts English
• Union of crowns 1603
• Union (into UK of GB)
1707
• starts as a nation state,
ends up part of a larger
multi-nation state

9. England
• Not so tidy on the
borders – overlaps into
distinctly different
nations like Wales,
Ireland and a bit of
France
• Germanic/French
hybrid
• Path to nationhood
was tricky….but helped
by the geographic
isolation

10. England
• Nobles ran the
show….from magna
carta in 1215
• Wars of Roses
Lancaster Vs. York
• Ultimate Tudor victory
• Adroit Henry VII – ran
things really well
(shame about his son
and heir)
• Star Chamber
• Centralized

11. France
• A cohesive shape in the
west side of Europe.
Some scattered, non-
ethnically French places
elsewhere.
• Enlarged and secured
through war, marriage,
and treaty.
• Nobles bought under
control
• Army established – one
of the first standing
armies under a head of
state

12. France cont….
• Taxes – The Gabelle (Salt
which is a regressive tax that
is harder on the poor)
• Francis I & Concordat of
Bologna: Choose your own
bishop…….a great example
of symbiosis between
church and state.
• France becomes a
powerhouse of Europe by
the 1500s with a very well
controlled, centralized
leadership

13. Spain

14. Spain cont…
• Unified by Marriage : Isabelle of Castile & Ferdinand of
Aragon
• System of regional autonomy remained (Cortes). Foreign
policy though was united
• Spain remains Federal to this day!
• Curbed aristocratic power
• Gaines the right to appoint bishops at home and in colonies
• 1492 (hmm) makes the Reconquista
• Inquisition – mainly anti-Semetic