--- title: From band to nation: families, tribes, kingdoms, empires and countries — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «From band to nation: families, tribes, kingdoms, empires and countries», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Amir guesses the globe has like 300 countries. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / From band to nation: families, tribes,… # From band to nation: families, tribes, kingdoms, empires and countries Lesson 66 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 23 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/1/) — Amir guesses the globe has like 300 countries. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/2/) — Kofi thinks borders follow rivers and mountains. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/3/) — All three have it too simple. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/4/) — What really happened: real empires needed roads, messengers, governors, taxes and soldiers, many let local rulers stay, and most broke up when ruling got too hard. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/5/) — There are about 195 countries today, and many African borders were drawn by Europeans on maps, with little thought for the peoples living there. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/6/) — Think of how groups grow at school: a few friends, then a class, then the whole school with rules and a head teacher. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/7/) — Human groups grew the same way: small hunting bands of 20 to 50, then tribes and chiefdoms, then kingdoms once farming made extra food, then empires and countries. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/8/) — Leaders were not always takers. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/9/) — On the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada, chiefs won respect by giving huge gifts at feasts called potlatches. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/10/) — Darius's grandad from Iran says Cyrus the Great let peoples keep their own gods, «bro»; that helped a huge empire stay calm. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/11/) — Many countries are young: Giulia's nonna, Italian for grandma, jokes that Italy is younger than her favourite cathedral. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/12/) — And people belong to many groups at once. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/13/) — Jamal from Birmingham says he is English, British, Black and a Villa fan, and yes, that is allowed. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/14/) — The scientist Robin Dunbar suggested a person can keep about 150 close relationships; hunter-gatherer bands were often 20 to 50 people, and the number 150 is still argued about. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/15/) — Among peoples of the Pacific Northwest, chiefs held potlatch feasts where they gave away food, blankets and goods; Canada banned the potlatch from 1885 to 1951. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/16/) — Farming made extra food that could feed soldiers, priests and builders; kings promised protection and collected part of the harvest, and Egypt became one kingdom around 3100 BCE. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/17/) — The Persian Empire around 500 BCE stretched from Egypt to India, and its kings often let peoples keep their religions and local leaders if they paid tribute, a regular payment of money or goods to the king. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/18/) — Real empires needed roads, governors, taxes and soldiers to hold together, and most broke up when ruling far-off lands got too hard. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/19/) — Italy became one country in 1861 and Germany in 1871; the idea that each people should have its own country spread in the 1800s. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/21/) — In 1884 and 1885 European powers met in Berlin to set rules for claiming Africa, and many borders were later drawn by Europeans on maps. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/22/) — In many parts of Europe surnames became common only between about 1300 and 1800; Iceland still names people after a parent, so Erik's son ends his name in -son and Erik's daughter ends hers in -dóttir, «daughter», while China has used family names much longer. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/23/) — In a federation, states or regions run some things and the national government runs others; the US, Switzerland, Germany, India and Australia are federations. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/66-from-band-to-nation-families-tribes-kingdoms-empires-and-countries/24/) — People have always belonged to many groups at once: family, village, people, faith, country and the world. - ← previous: [Light, machines and medicine: how the last 250 years changed a normal day](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/65-light-machines-and-medicine-how-the-last-250-years-changed-a-normal-day/) - next →: [Who decides: kings, councils, republics and democracies](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/67-who-decides-kings-councils-republics-and-democracies/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)