How did European monarchies become nation states?

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A number of concurrent technical and organizational developments contributed. During true feudal times the loyalty/fealty chain ran from serf to his local lord (nobility) who, in turn, pledged fealty to the sovereign. This arrangement started to crack with the revolution in communication (printing) that enabled a more or less erudite serfdom to become an aware and skill bourgeois craftsman/tradesman. Louis IV took advantage of the situation to entice his nobility to Versailles while replacing the local government with skilled commoners and ad hoc nobility. As a result nationalism displaced more fragmented local governance. France became a nation state. A nation state that a few years later saw no need for royalty.

Nationalism presented problems for the royal empire. Areas of Influence became nationalistic and sought autonomy. Royalty and colonialists sought to hold onto their old territories. Think Serbia and the Kaiser. Nationalism is the result of and the driving force for a nation state.

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