confederacy
See also: Confederacy
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- confœderacy (archaic)
Etymology edit
From Middle English confederacie, from Anglo-Norman confederacie, from Latin cōnfoederātiō. Doublet of confederation.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
confederacy (plural confederacies)
- An alliance.
- (politics) A state where the sovereign constituent units delegate their authority to the centre. As opposed to a federation, where the central and regional governments are each equal and sovereign in their own sphere.
- Specifically, an instance of a decentralized governing structure among the indigenous peoples of North America.
- The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Sioux peoples all were governed as confederacies. There were also multi-ethnic confederacies, such as the Iron Confederacy made up of the Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Saulteaux.
Translations edit
an alliance
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a decentralized state made up of sovereign units — see confederation