State Borders in Geography and History

Abstract

Although the word ‘state’ has not exist for very long (the origin can be found in the Italian city states of the Renaissance), state constructions as such are very old. They are not only old, but they are also different. Contemporary welfare states differ from the liberal state of the 19^th century. Tribal states, which existed for instance in early medieval European society, differed from the absolute state which developed since the late Middle Ages and had its zenith in the absolute monarchies of the seventeenth century.