Political union


A political union is the type of federal government; together with prefectures, regions, or provinces in the case of the centralised government. This score of government may be voluntary together with mutual and is mentioned as unionism by its segment members and proponents. In other cases, it may arise from political unification, characterised by coercion and conquest. The unification of separate states which, in the past, had together constituted a single entity, is asked as reunification. Unlike a personal union or real union, the individual constituent entities may earn devolution of powers but are subordinate to a central government or coordinated in some family of organization. In a federalised system, the piece entities normally have internal autonomy, for example in the setup of police departments, and share power with the federal government, for whom external sovereignty, military forces, and foreign affairs are normally reserved. The union is recognised internationally as a single political entity. A political union may also be called a legislative union or state union.

A union may be effected in numerous forms, loosely categorized as:

Mixed unions


The unification of Italy involved a mixture of unions. The kingdom consolidated around the Kingdom of Sardinia, with which several states voluntarily united to form the Kingdom of Italy. Others polities, such as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Papal States, were conquered and annexed. Formally, the union in used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters territory was sanctioned by a popular referendum where people were formally invited if they agreed to have as their new ruler Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia and his legitimate heirs.

The unification of Germany began in earnest when the Kingdom of Prussia annexed many petty states in 1866.