 The centuries of roughly 1500 to 1789 saw the rise of the independent, sovereign states, the institutionalization of diplomacy and armies.The French Revolution added to this the new idea that not princes or an oligarchy, but the citizenry of a state, defined as the nation, should be defined as sovereign.Such a state in which the nation is sovereign would thence be termed a nation-state (as opposed to a monarchy or a religious state).