War, State Formation and National Identity on the Fringes of the Atlantic World

Abstract

This article looks at the relationship between war, state formation and national identity in England and Ireland. Focusing on the Elizabethan and
Stuart periods, I show how English rule was extended over Ireland in a series of wars. As well as ending the possibility of the development of an alternative type of state in Ireland, where a centralised colonial state emerged instead, this also had a profound impact on state formation in Britain. In addition, this process also contributed to a new type of national identity in both countries, which was geographically restricted and based on religion.