confederation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of forming into or becoming part of a confederacy.
• noun The state of being confederated.
• noun A group of confederates, especially of states or nations, united for a common purpose; a league.
• noun The union of the British North American colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada, brought about July 1, 1867, under the name Dominion of Canada.
• noun Federal union of all the Canadian provinces and territories.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of confederating, or the state of being confederated; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance.
• noun An aggregate or body of confederates, or of confederated states; the persons or states united by a league.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of confederating; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance, particularly of princes, nations, or states.
• noun The parties that are confederated, considered as a unit; a confederacy.
• noun See under Article.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A union or alliance of states or political organizations.
• noun The act of forming an alliance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a union of political organizations
• noun the state of being allied or confederated
• noun the act of forming an alliance or confederation