How was Europe divided before becoming Nation States ??

Dear Student,

Mid-eighteenth-century Europe shows a different map.

• Germany, Italy and Switzerland in those days were divided into kingdoms, duchies and cantons whose rulers had their autonomous territories.
• Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within which lived the people from different regions. They did not share a collective identity or a common culture, spoke different language, and belonged to different ethnic groups.
• The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for instance , was a collective of the many different regions and peoples. It included the Alpine regions, Bohemia, where the people was majorly German-speaking and also included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia.
• In Hungary, half the population spoke Magyar while the half spoke a spread of dialects. In Galicia, the high ranking people spoke Polish.
• Besides these three dominant groups, alongside the boundaries of the empire lived a mass of peasant peoples –
• to the North - Bohemians and Slovaks,  in Carniola - Slovenes, to the south - Croats , and to the east - Roumans  in Transylvania.

Such differences didn't easily promote a way of political unity. The only tie binding these diverse groups together was their allegiance to the emperor.

Hope this answers your question.
Regards,