Quote:
Originally posted by mini jr@Jul 15 2003, 10:34 AM
are there more countries or less countries today... than 500 years ago? 1000 years ago? more governments or less goverments?
|
Comes down to definition I think. You get a different answer depending on how you define government. A century ago there were less independent governments in the world today because of the age of empire. Africa was almost completely colonized by European powers.
Some countries are so fractured politically that they don't operate as a country. Consider all the tribal conflicts in Africa, for example.
It's definitely been up and down over recorded history. Some very large empires decreased the number of political systems in the world however there were many area of the world that were ruled tribally (Americas Africa) rather than by large-scale government until relatively recently.