most-favored-nation clause (MFN), provision in a commercial treaty binding the signatories to extend trading benefits equal to those accorded any third state. The clause ensures equal commercial opportunities, especially concerning import duties and freedom of investment. Generally reciprocal, in the late 19th and early 20th cent. unilateral MFN clauses were imposed on Asian nations by the more powerful Western countries (see Open Door). In the late 20th cent. tariff and trade agreements were negotiated simultaneously by all interested parties through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which ultimately resulted in the World Trade Organization. Such a wide exchange of concessions is intended to promote free trade, although there has been criticism of the principle of equal trading opportunities on the grounds that freer trade benefits the economically strongest countries. GATT members recognized in principle that the MFN rule should be relaxed to accommodate the needs of developing countries, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (est. 1964) has sought to extend preferential treatment to the exports of the developing countries. Another challenge to the MFN principle has been posed by regional trading groups such as the European Union, which have lowered or eliminated tariffs among the members while maintaining tariff walls between member nations and the rest of the world. In the 1990s continued MFN status for China sparked U.S. controversy because of its sales of sensitive military technology and its use of prison labor, and its MFN status was only made permanent in 2000. All of the former Soviet states, including Russia, were granted MFN status in 1992.

Tobacco Nation or Tionontati, Native North Americans of the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In 1616, when visited by the French, they were living S of Nottawasaga Bay, in Ontario. The French called them the Tobacco Nation for their large fields of the crop. After the dispersion (1648-49) of the Huron by the Iroquois, many Huron refugees fled to the Tobacco Nation, and later in 1649 the wrathful Iroquois attacked. The remnants of the Tobacco Nation, with the Huron, were forced to flee to a region SW of Lake Superior. About 1670 the two tribes were at Mackinac; soon after they assimilated into one tribe, known to history as the Wyandot (see under Huron). In 1990 there were some 2,500 Wyandot in the United States.

Neutral Nation, group of Native North American tribes of the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the early 17th cent. they occupied the territory along the northern shore of Lake Erie. They then numbered some 12,000. Their culture was substantially that of the Eastern Woodlands area (see under Natives, North American). Father Joseph Daillon visited them in 1626 and reported that their customs were very similar to those of the Huron. The French gave the Neutral Nation its name because of its neutrality in the Iroquois-Huron wars. This neutrality, however, was short-lived, for when the remnants of the Huron joined (1649) them, the Iroquois Confederacy practically destroyed the Neutral Nation. A few survivors assimilated with the Seneca.

Nation, Carry Moore, 1846-1911, American temperance advocate, b. Garrard co., Ky. During her childhood her family moved a great deal, finally settling at Belton, Mo., where she married (1867) Charles Gloyd, a physician. She abandoned Gloyd when he became a hopeless alcoholic, and in 1877 she married David Nation, an itinerant minister and lawyer. A proponent of temperance (see temperance movements) for many years and convinced of her divine appointment to destroy the saloon, Carry Nation gained fame in 1900 while living in Kansas when she began to supplement public prayers and denunciation with the personal destruction of saloon liquor and property. From Kansas she traveled to New York and soon became a national figure in the temperance cause. She presented a formidable obstacle to anyone attempting to stop her; her size (6 ft, 175 lb) and her use of the hatchet to smash saloons became legendary. Nevertheless, she was often attacked and beaten badly and was arrested 30 times in her life. Because of her unorthodox tactics, most temperance organizations were hesitant to support her. She did, however, focus public attention on the cause of prohibition and helped to create a public mood favorable to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. She was also a forceful advocate of woman suffrage, although she received little support from suffrage organizations.

Nation of Islam: see Black Muslims.

People whose common identity creates a psychological bond and a political community. Their political identity usually comprises such characteristics as a common language, culture, ethnicity, and history. More than one nation may comprise a state, but the terms nation, state, and country are often used interchangeably. A nation-state is a state populated primarily by the people of one nationality.

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Guarantee of same trading opportunities (i.e., tariff concessions) already granted to the most favoured nation (MFN). It is a method of establishing equal trading opportunities among states by making originally bilateral agreements multilateral. Attempts to guarantee equal trading opportunities were incorporated into commercial treaties as far back as the early 17th century. The Anglo-French treaty signed in 1860 became the model for many later trade agreements, establishing a set of interlocking tariff concessions (see tariff) later extended worldwide by most-favoured-nation treatment. MFN treatment has always applied primarily to the duties charged on imports, but specific provisions have extended the principle to other areas of economic contact, including property rights, patents, and copyrights. Seealso General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; reciprocity; World Trade Organization.

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or Black Muslims

African American religious movement that mingles elements of Islam and black nationalism. It was founded in 1931 by Wallace D. Fard, who established its first mosque in Detroit, Mich. Fard retired into obscurity and his assistant Elijah Muhammad, who founded a second temple in Chicago, took over in 1934. He asserted the moral and cultural superiority of Africans over whites and urged African Americans to renounce Christianity as a tool of the oppressors. His teachings also included the traditional Islamic tenets of monotheism, submission to God, and strong family life. The Nation of Islam grew quickly after World War II, and in the early 1960s it achieved national prominence through the work of Malcolm X. Leadership disputes led Malcolm to form a separate organization and finally to his assassination in 1965. In the 1970s Elijah Muhammad was succeeded by his son, Wallace D. Muhammad (b. 1933), who renamed the organization the American Muslim Mission. In 1985 he dissolved the Mission, urging its members to become orthodox Muslims. A splinter group headed by Louis Farrakhan retains the movement's original name and principles. In the early 21st century there were approximately 10,000 members of the Nation of Islam.

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