hunter-gathering tribes: the basic unit and the believed origin of social groups as men began to develop primitive technology
small towns and nomadic groups: the discovery of agriculture set an end to nomadic behaviour, and settlements first came into regions close to rivers, and large groups of water,
city-states and small kingdoms examples: Sumerian cities: Uruk ,Ur; Ancient city-states in Egypt, Thebes Memphis; Phoenician cities Tyre Sidon;Greece, Athens, Sparta, and Corinth; cities in other regions of the world like South America such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, and Monte Albán, among many others...
empires Persian,Roman, British, Empire, ,Chinese dinasties (later became with Emperor Yuang, )etc..
nation-states ( current -present system) the modern system of states, dates back from the Treaty of Westphalia. with the French Revolution, naturally France leads the modern notion of nation(s) within a state: Some of the latest nation states in European context are Germany and Italy, during the 19th century