The Economic Origins of the Territorial State
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5792005 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Scott F Abramson (0009-0003-1932-307X, Princeton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 97-130 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020818316000308 |
| OpenAlex | W2247233429 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 51 |
| References cited | 97 |
This paper challenges the long-standing belief that changes in patterns of war and war making caused the emergence of large territorial states. Using new data describing the universe of European states between 1100 and 1790, I find that small political units continued to thrive well into the "age of the territorial state." Some scholars have argued that changes in the production of violence led to the dominance of geographically large political units during this era. In contrast, I find evidence that variation in patterns of economic development and urban growth caused fragmented political authority in some places and the construction of geographically large territorial states in others. Exploiting random climatic deviations in the propensity of certain geographical areas to support large populations, I show via an instrumental-variables approach that the emergence of towns and cities caused the formation of small and independent states
Dominance (genetics · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Religion and Society Interactions
How States Die
History’s Masters
You reap what you know
Medieval cities through the lens of urban economics
The State and the Monopolization of Violence
Weakening of the state by occupying more lands
Trilateral politics in hierarchy, war, and state formation
Representants and international orders
When Is Old Too Old? The Problem of Leaning on Outdated Historical Work and a Simple Distinction between Two Kinds of Evidence to Address This
The global spread of national universities
State/Nation Histories, Structural Inequalities and Racialised Crises
From Territorial Consolidation to Bureaucratic Dominance
Family matters in racial logics
Rulers on the road
The scope of political jurisdictions and violence
Does War Make States? Military Spending and the Italian State‐Building, 1861–1945
The supply side determinants of territory
A Precolonial Paradox? Rethinking Political Centralization and Its Legacies
Early State Formation
Nationalism and the transformation of the state
War Did Make States
Endogenous Parliaments
The Future Is History
State-building and the European Union
Muslim Trade and City Growth Before the Nineteenth Century
Beyond War and Contracts
Tilly Goes to Church
Historical Border Changes, State Building, and Contemporary Trust in Europe
Trade and the rise of ancient Greek city-states
The Strategic Foundations of Political Sovereignty
Places to Hide
Courts and State-Building
Survivorship Bias in Comparative Politics
Access to justice in revenue-seeking legal institutions
Understanding public support for EU polity building in hard times
The anachronism of bellicist state-building
Maintaining the EU’s compound polity during the long crisis decade
Mapping the International System, 1886-2019
Conflict Events Worldwide Since 1468BC
State Disengagement
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in International Relations
Wisdom Is Welcome Wherever It Comes From
Systemic Instability and the Emergence of Border Disputes
Endogenous State Capacity
Shaping states into nations
Trade and Political Fragmentation on the Silk Roads
Political Institutions, Economic Liberty, and the Great Divergence
The Historical Origins of Territorial Disputes
The Colonial Origins of Modern Territoriality
Weak, Despotic, or Inclusive? How State Type Emerges from State versus Civil Society Competition
Information foundations of state capacity
Principles of public international law
Before the Industrial Revolution
The Formation of national States in Western Europe
Centre and Periphery
The military revolution
The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350
The Size of Nations
States of Credit
Emergent Actors in World Politics
The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe
The Rise of the Western World
Stochastic Volatility
On the Number and Size of Nations
The Breakup of Nations
Experimental Designs for Identifying Causal Mechanisms
Global Signatures and Dynamical Origins of the Little Ice Age and Medieval Climate Anomaly
Reversal of Fortune
A general approach to causal mediation analysis.
An Analysis of Transformations
Economy and Society
Lineages of the Absolutist State
The standard of "civilization" in international society
European Urbanization, 1500-1800
Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade
Quasi-States
The Sovereign State and Its Competitors
State Death
Birth of the Leviathan
The States System of Europe, 1640–1990
Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe
The Correlates of War (Cow) Project Direct Contiguity Data, Version 3.0
The Growth of the Medieval City
Cities and the Rise of States in Europe, A.D. 1000 to 1800
The Military Revolution Debate
Protecting Soldiers and Mothers
Power and Plenty
Sovereignty
Democracy and Redistribution
A Military Revolution? Military Change and European Society, 1550-1800
Plausibly Exogenous
Economy and Society
European urbanization 1500–1800
Cities and the rise of states in Europe, AD 1000 to 1800
Negative sovereignty in sub-Saharan Africa
Coordination, Commitment, and Enforcement
A Theory of the Size and Shape of Nations
Comparing Optima
The politics of territorial identity
The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War
The Evolution of the English Corn Market from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century
The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages from the Eighth Century to 1340
The evolution of markets in early modern Europe, 1350-1800
The Early Growth of the European Economy
Feudal Europe, 800–1300
The Feudal Revolution and Europe's Rise
When Distance Mattered
Structural Change in U.S. Presidents' Use of Force
Politics as Vocation
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Economic origins of dictatorship and democracy
Quasi-states, dual regimes, and neoclassical theory
State Death in the International System
Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth
Testing Clausewitz
Institutional selection in international relations
A Unified Method for Dynamic and Cross‐Sectional Heterogeneity
Technology and the Era of the Mass Army
War and the Birth of the Nation State
Ideas and Foreign Policy
The "Military Revolution," 1560-1660--a Myth
Unpacking the Black Box of Causality
Building States and Nations
Regional Prices and Market Regions
Cities and Economic Development from the Dawn of History to the Present
Ideas & Foreign Policy
Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development
The Pursuit of Power
On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State
Blood and Debt
Voracious states and obstructing cities
| Unique citing works | 51 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,1 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 51 |