States Make Wars, but Wars Make States - Essay Example

Hobbes conceived the hypothetical notion of the natural condition of mankind from axiomatic proposition of human nature. Hobbes's state of nature is exemplified by the famous motto "bellum ominum contra omnes" (war of every man against every man) where every person has a right and a need to do anything to preserve their own liberty and safety. To escape this state of chaos and also the satisfy the needs for a comfortable life, people form social contract, ceding their individual rights to create sovereignty ruled under absolute monarch, which was the preferred type of rule by Hobbes, or other types of rule, such as democracy.

A unified definition would claim that a state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern the people in one or more societies, having internal and external, sovereignty over a definite territory. The existing historical evidence only supports the theory of Hobbes concerning the creation of states. Although the creation of the city of Rome is shrouded in myth, archaeological evidence point to the conclusion that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill and surrounding hills approximately eighteen miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea and the south side of the Tiber.

This location the Tiber forms a Z-shape curve that contains an island where the river can be forded. Because of the river and the ford, Rome was at a crossroads of traffic following the river valley and of traders travelling north and south on the west side of the peninsula. These trade and agricultural conditions as well as the fear of destruction by the surrounding people gave rise to the city that later created the Roman statehood. Another example is the ancient Greek city-states, which had excellent climate for agricultural products, economic strength and a strategic position attributed to the crossroad between Asia and Europe.

Greece prospered in the rural economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new agricultural land being brought into production. This, like in the case of Rome, was the progenitor of the Greek city-states. The first cities in the world, founded on the territory of Mesopotamia which include Uruk, Nippur, Nineveh and Babylon, were created much like the Rome and the Greek city-states. Thus, the driving force of creation of the first city-states is the socio-economic conditions that united a large group of people on a certain territory.

Early armies were not used as a tool of aggression, but as tool of defence, such as the early Roman and Greek armies. As more nations and states were created, however, more and more natural resources were divided amongst more and more states. War appeared within the human civilization and it can only be seen as a result of an outgrowth of economic competition in a chaotic and competitive international system. The desire of the population to improve their quality of life could only be satisfied by acquiring new sources of income.

Therefore, wars begun as a pursuit of new markets, natural resources and wealth. As certain powerful states expanded their territory, more and more sta