User:Nick Gardner /Sandbox

The concept of the state as a country's supreme legal entity has become an indispensible component of political analysis. Although originally created by governments, the state has acquired a notional existence that is independent of the government, country and nation with which it is associated. It has the characteristics of a corporation in its ability to enter into every form of legal and commercial transaction in the same way as an individual. There have been a number of different interpretations of the term and attitudes to the concept. For Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century, and for many since then, it was seen as a means to an end - as the means of avoiding the chaos of a "war of all against all" . But, according to the Israeli historian, Martin Van Creveld; after the French revolution it became a prized possession "for which they were often prepared to make every sacrifice including, where necessary, rivers of blood".