Editing Federation (section)

==History==
Several ancient chiefdoms and kingdoms, such as the 4th-century-BCE [[League of Corinth]], [[Noricum]] in [[Central Europe]], and the [[Iroquois|Iroquois Confederacy]] in [[pre-Columbian North America]], could be described as federations or [[confederation]]s. The [[Old Swiss Confederacy]] was an early example of formal non-unitary statehood.{{cn|date=August 2023}}

Several colonies and dominions in the [[New World]] consisted of autonomous provinces, transformed into federal states upon independence such as the [[United States]], and various countries in [[Latin America]] (see [[Spanish American wars of independence]]). Some of the New World federations failed; the [[Federal Republic of Central America]] broke up into independent states less than 20 years after its founding. Others, such as [[Argentina]], have shifted between federal, [[Confederation|confederal]], and unitary systems, before settling into federalism. [[Brazil]] became a federation only after the fall of [[Brazilian Empire|the monarchy]], and [[Venezuela]] became a federation after the [[Federal War]]. 

[[Australia]] and [[Canada]] are also federations. They became federations while still part of the British Empire, and gradually evolved towards full independence.

[[Germany]] is another [[nation-state]] that has switched between confederal, federal and unitary rules, since the [[German Confederation]] was founded in 1815. The [[North German Confederation]], the succeeding [[German Empire]] and the [[Weimar Republic]] were federations.

Founded in 1922, the [[Soviet Union]] was formally a federation of [[republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]], [[Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union|autonomous republics]] and other federal subjects, though in practice highly centralized under the [[government of the Soviet Union]]. The [[Russia|Russian Federation]] has inherited a similar system.

[[India]], [[Pakistan]], [[Nigeria]] and [[Malaysia]] (then [[Federation of Malaya]]) became federations on or shortly before becoming independent from the [[British Empire]].

In some recent cases, federations have been instituted as a measure to handle [[ethnic conflict]] within a state, such as [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], and [[Federalism in Iraq|Iraq since 2005]] as well as [[Somalia|Somalia since 2012]].

With the [[United States Constitution]] having become effective on 4 March 1789, the [[United States]] is the oldest surviving federation, while the newest federation is [[Nepal]], after its [[Constitution of Nepal 2015|constitution]] went into effect on 20th September 2015.