See also: Confederacy

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English confederacie, from Anglo-Norman confederacie, from Latin cōnfoederātiō. Doublet of confederation.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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confederacy (plural confederacies)

  1. An alliance.
  2. (politics) A state where the sovereign constituent units delegate their authority to the centre. As opposed to a federation, where the central and regional governments are each equal and sovereign in their own sphere.
  3. Specifically, an instance of a decentralized governing structure among the indigenous peoples of North America.
    The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Sioux peoples all were governed as confederacies. There were also multi-ethnic confederacies, such as the Iron Confederacy made up of the Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Saulteaux.

Translations

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