This may seem really dumb but bear with me. In Ye Old European History there are often states around which the larger state evolves from. Now I know these examples are all different, but they are generally formed due to the will and ambition of the mini states: Castile to Spain, England to Great Britain, Savoy/Piedmont-Sardinia to Italy, Prussia to Germany, Muscovy to Russia. I was wondering if a similar thing happened to countries like France, Sweden, Portugal etc. I have found nothing a la the previous examples but I'm just wondering if I'm missing something.
Please excuse me if this sounds stupid, has been asked before, and for the lack of eloquence.