Continental Union

A continental union is an inter-governmental, supra-national, or a federation of member states located in the same continent, or close to it. Continental unions are a relatively new type of political entity in the history of human government. Throughout most of human history, political organization has been at the local level (i.e. tribal, city state) and in more recent centuries, the sub-regional ("regional")/sub-continental level (i.e. river system/basin empires, the modern "nation-state"); however, starting with the advent of better transportation, weapons and communication there was for the first time the ability for a union of member states to organize at the continental level. After the devastation of the first and second world wars in the middle of the 1900s Europe slowly evolved from its founding as the "Coal and Steel Community" to become a political union covering much of the European Continent (27 member states as of 2009). Seeking to follow in the foot steps of the European Union, in 2002 and 2008 the African Union and Union of South American Nations respectively, set down similar blueprints for integration into political and economic unions at the continental level. Contintental unions may eventually evolve into nations or empires as has happened in the case of the United States.