13/11/2025 | 12:45

Daniel Wainstock

( University of Oxford)

will give a presentation on 

Five Millennia of Nation-Building

Abstract

The relationship between states and collective identities is not straightforward. Nation-building has often failed, backfired, or produced enduring divisions, and in other settings high polarization or entrenched segregation led states to adopt power-sharing or federal arrangements. This paper investigates the long-run role of states in constructing shared identities by moving beyond isolated historical episodes and assembling systematic global evidence over the long run. I construct a grid-cell level dataset that links ethnic homelands and linguistic boundaries to five millennia of recorded state history. Leveraging an instrumental-variables strategy, the analysis establishes that grid cells with deeper historical exposure to centralized polities display substantially lower ethnic fragmentation today, with linguistic homogenization as a mediating channel. Together, the results show that states have left a durable imprint on the cultural landscape, socially constructing identities through a cumulative process unfolding over millennia rather than a phenomenon confined to the modern era.