Up to now, we have been dealing with the beginnings of nationhood. In each of the early nations and empires, we see development from a collection of tribes growing into a collection of city states. And from a collection of city states being merged into nation states, and full-fledge empires that eventually sow the seeds of their own collapse. But history is incomplete if it only deals in the conquest and expansion of nation states. It needs to deal with the development of ideologies, both religious and philosophical.