If capitalism became the dominant economic system in the colonial period, nation-states became the dominant political form. Explain how this process took place.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and organised to accumulate profits within a market system.
Features of capitalism: its dynamic, it has potential to grow, expand, innovate, use technology and labour in a way best assured to ensure the greatest profit.

1. If capitalism became the dominant economic system, nation-states became the dominant political form. That we all live in nation states and that we all have a nationality or a national citizenship may appear natural to us today.
2. Before the First World War passports were not widely used for international travel, and in most areas, few people had one. Societies were, however, not always organised on these lines.
3. Nation-state pertains to a particular type of state, characteristic of the modern world. A government has a sovereign power within a defined territorial area, and the people are citizens of a single nation.
4. Nation states are closely associated with the rise of nationalism. The principle of nationalism assumes that any set of people have a right to be free and exercise sovereign power.