The development of strong administrative structures, in particular those related to extraction of taxes, is closely associated with the intense warfare between predatory European states in the 17th and 18th centuries, or in Charles Tilly's famous formulation: "War made the state and the state made war".
Hironaka je statistično izmerila vpliv povečanega števila bivših kolonialnih držav kot povečanje incidence državljanskih vojn po drugi svetovni vojni.