A nation is not yet, as such, a state, and the transition of a family, horde, tribe, multitude, and so forth, into the condition of a state constitutes the formal realization of the Idea within it as such. Without this form, the nation — as the ethical substance which it is in itself — lacks the objectivity of having, in laws as thought determinations, a universal and universally valid existence for itself and for others, and is therefore not recognized; its independence, being merely formal since it lacks objective legality and a rationality fixed for itself, is not sovereignty.

Even in ordinary conception, one does not call a patriarchal condition a constitution, nor does one call a nation in this condition a state, nor its independence sovereignty. Prior to the beginning of actual history there falls, accordingly, on the one hand, the disinterested, dull innocence [of that condition], and on the other, the valor of the formal struggle for recognition and revenge (cf. § 331 and § 57 Anm.).