When the old monarchical regimes were still around, one of the main ways that emerging nation-states differentiated themselves was by displaying a strong opposition to national pluralism — which is to say creating states composed of many different ethnic or religious groups. The wars of the reformation in large part created the backlash against pluralism — England expelled or harried its papists, France eventually eliminated their Huguenots, and the counter-Reformation purged non-Catholics from Catholic countries. All of this happened after some extended experiments in pluralism and toleration, most of which resulted in too many elite power struggles for the outlook […]