<P> Primary states are defined by anthropologists Spencer & Redmond as those states that developed in a context with no contact or prior development of a state in the area . These are those situations where states developed for the first time in that social environment . The exact number of cases which qualify as primary states is not clearly known because of limited information about political organization before the development of writing in many places; However, the list typically includes the first states to develop in Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus river valley, North China, Peru, and Mesoamerica . Cohen identifies six zones of independent state development: 1) a zone stretching from Europe and North Africa through the Middle East to East and South Asia, 2) Mesoamerica, 3) Peru, 4) West Africa, 5) East Africa, 6) Polynesia . </P> <P> Studies on the formation of early states tend to focus on processes that create and institutionalize a state in a situation where a state did not exist before . Examples of early states which developed in interaction with other states include the Aegean Bronze Age Greek civilizations and the Malagasy civilization in Madagascar . Unlike primary state formation, early state formation does not require the creation of the first state in that cultural context or development autonomously, independently from state development nearby . Early state formation causation can thus include borrowing, imposition, and other forms of interaction with already existing states . </P> <P> Theories on the formation of modern states focus on the processes that support the development of modern states, particularly those that formed in late - medieval Europe and then spread around the world with colonialism . Starting in the 1940s and 1950s, with decolonization processes underway, attention began to focus on the formation and construction of modern states with significant bureaucracies, ability to tax, and territorial sovereignty around the world . However, some scholars hold that the modern state model formed in other parts of the world prior to colonialism, but that colonial structures replaced it . </P> <P> The Westphalian settlement of 1648 legitimised a commonwealth of sovereign states . It marked the break up of the universal church and independence of states with no obedience to the institution outside the state . Today, it is a recognised notion that states have sovereign power and exclusive authority within their territory . In essence, the general settlement negotiated in Westphalia was the charted of a Europe permanently organised on an anti-hegemonial principle . It also affected the growth of national consciousness . The new order, followed by Treaties of Westphalia, allowed each state to take place in the wider international society of Europe . They all participated independently in the diplomatic dialogue . The permanent congress of the United Nations has evolved from the Westphalian settlement and bears an inherited resembles to it . </P>

Those who believe that agricultural economies led to the origin of the state argue that