A confederation (or confederacy) is a voluntary alliance of sovereign, independent states established to manage matters of common concern to the member states, such as defense. The verb confederate has traditionally meant to form an alliance that carries out the will of a coalition of interests, none of which surrenders sovereignty to the confederation. Leading historical examples of political associations called confederations include the Swiss confederations of 1291–1798 and 1814–48, the Dutch Republic (1589–1795), the Articles of Confederation of the United States (1781–1789), the Germanic Confederation (1815–1866), and the southern Confederate States of America (1861–1865).

Prior to the invention of modern federalism by the framers of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and 1788, the word "confederal" was interchangeable with the word "federal", as in The Federalist, where use of the word "federal" by Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), James Madison (1751–1836), and John Jay (1745–1829) actually means what is today called confederal or confederation. The U.S. Constitution, however, transformed...