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Good point -- by the end of the 1700s, you had firmly developed STATEs, not just kingdoms -- the cohesive states were the ones that developed first: England had been united since King John lost Western France, Spain had been united since Francis and Isabella in 1491, Portugal since the 12th century and these were the first major colonial powers and, I must'nt forget the Russians who since the defeat of Kazan had been expanding their empire east. Then the netherlands came and so did the Belgians. The Italians and Germans were johnny come latelies who were eager to grab a piece of the pie but found that most of the good bits were taken, so they fought.

The same thing is happening now with China -- China is really envious of the way the US had tied up most of the world economically (I say "had" because we're losing our grip on Africa and S. America)