<P> 336 BCE saw the rise of Alexander the Great, who forged an empire from various vassal states stretching from modern Greece to the Indian subcontinent, bringing Mediterranean nations into contact with those of central and southern Asia, much as the Persian Empire had before him . The boundaries of this empire extended hundreds of kilometers . </P> <P> The Roman Empire (27 BCE - 476 CE) was the first western civilization known to accurately define their borders, although these borders could be more accurately described as frontiers; instead of the Empire defining its borders with precision, the borders were allowed to trail off and were, in many cases, part of territory indirectly ruled by others . </P> <P> Roman and Greek ideals of nationhood can be seen to have strongly influenced Western views on the subject, with the basis of many governmental systems being on authority or ideas borrowed from Rome or the Greek city - states . Notably, the European states of the Dark Ages and Middle Ages gained their authority from the Roman Catholic religion, and modern democracies are based in part on the example of Ancient Athens . </P> <P> When China entered the Sui Dynasty, the government changed and expanded in its borders as the many separate bureaucracies unified under one banner . This evolved into the Tang Dynasty when Li Yuan took control of China in 626 . By now, the Chinese borders had expanded from eastern China, up north into the Tang Empire . The Tang Empire fell apart in 907 and split into ten regional kingdoms and five dynasties with vague borders . Fifty - three years after the separation of the Tang Empire, China entered the Song Dynasty under the rule of Chao K'uang, although the borders of this country expanded, they were never as large as those of the Tang dynasty and were constantly being redefined due to attacks from the neighboring Tartar (Mongol) people known as the Khitan tribes . </P>

When was the first government formed in the world