Conclusion: Transnational Histories of the ‘Royal Nation’

Abstract

The Conclusion summarily analyses the ‘Royal Nation’ as an autonomous historical category. It draws on arguments presented in different chapters of the book, and brings out commonalities between the viewpoints of the authors of these chapters, to demonstrate as to why the interdependence between monarchies and nation-state formation gathered momentous practical significance as well as conceptual plausibility in different parts of the modern world, from the nineteenth century onwards. The Conclusion emphasizes the intellectual, aesthetic and performative, juridical, social, and political underpinnings of this interdependency; it suggests that this mutual imbrication of the royal and the national did not just erupt separately in different modern societies, but was actually mediated through exchanges of conceptual models and political frameworks across spatial borders. The Conclusion takes a cue from recent discussions in transnational and global history methodology, in order to bring out the wider global ramifications of the royalty–nation nexus (or even, symbiosis). It shows how the varying case studies in the volume demonstrate suggestive parallels and correlations, revealing the significance of the monarchy–nation relation beyond national particularities and localizations.