See also:CONFEDERATION (Fr. confederation, See also:Lat. confoederatio, from foedus, a See also:league, foederare, to See also:form a league)
, primarily any See also:league, or See also:union of See also:people, or bodies of people
.
The See also:term in See also:modern See also:political use is generally confined to a permanent union of See also:sovereign states, for certain See also:common purposes, e.g. the See also:German See also:Confederation (Bund), established by the See also:congress of See also:Vienna in 1815, and the Confederation of the See also:Rhine (Rheinbund), a league of certain German states under the See also:protection of See also:Napoleon (1806-1813)
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The See also:alliance of the See also:Great See also:Powers by which See also:Europe was governed after 1815 was sometimes, especially by the See also:emperor See also:Alexander I., called the " Confederation of Europe "; but this expressed rather a pious aspiration than the actual See also:state of affairs
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The distinction between Confederation and Federation (see FEDERAL See also:GOVERNMENT), synonymous in their origin, has been See also:developed in the political terminology of the See also:United States
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Up to 1789 these were a Confederation; then the word Federation, or Federal See also:Republic, was introduced as implying closer union
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This distinction was emphasized during the See also:Civil See also:War between See also:North and See also:South, the seceding states forming a Confederation (Confederate States of See also:America) in opposition to the Federal Union
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Confederation thus comes to mean a union of sovereign states in which the stress if laid on the sovereign See also:independence of each constituent See also:body (cf. the German Staatenbund); Federation implies a union of states in which the stress is laid on the supremacy of the common government (Ger
.
Bundesstaat)
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The distinction is, however, by no means universally observed
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The variant " Confederacy," derived through the Anglo-See also:French confederacie, and meaning generally a league or union, whether of states or individuals, was applied in America in the sense of Confederation to the seceding See also:southern states (see above)
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In its political sense, however, confederacy has generally come to mean rather a temporary league of See also:independent states for certain purposes
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As applied to individuals, while " confederation " is used of certain open unions of people for political or other purposes (e.g. the Miners' Confederation), " confederacy " —from its obsolete legal sense of See also:conspiracy—has come frequently to imply a See also:secret See also:bond, a See also:combination for illicit purposes, or of persons whose identity is not disclosed
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