Abstract
The problem of where to place the German Empire (1871-1918) in a typology of European states has long troubled historians. Was it a nation-state, a colonial empire, or a continental empire? This article uses the example of the German Empire, in comparative context, to question the usefulness of such typologies for any of the European states before the First World War. They rest, it suggests, in part on reifications of terms like nation, empire, language, culture and even Europe that are not historically justifiable. A survey of the recent literature on European states before the First World War suggests that decoupling these terms from each other (for example nation, language, culture) can help generate a new and potentially fruitful trans-national (or trans-imperial) perspective on European history in the long nineteenth century.
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