And even in China, where nationalism ran up against a dynastic system that had lasted more than 2,000 years. And then of course there are these guys, who in many ways represent the worst of nationalism, the nationalism that tries to deny or eliminate difference in the efforts to create a homogenous, mythologized, unitary polity. We'll get to them later, but it's helpful to bring them up now, just so we don't get too excited about nationalism. Okay, so before we launch into the history, let's define the modern nation-state. Definitions are slippery, but for our purposes, a nation-state involves a centralized government that can claim and exercise authority over a distinctive territory. That's the state part. It also involves a certain degree of linguistic and cultural homogeneity.