During wars, enemy territory (or even liberated allied territory) is often occupied without annexation. This is usually a temporary measure. I consider that occupied territory belongs to the occupier until withdrawal or local administration is restored. It is common for an independent country to have foreign troops as occupiers become allies. Today, the US maintains…

In a colony, the colonial power controls territory without integrating into hegemon’s nation. The colony may have its own administration and military, but they under the control of the colonial power. This can be significant. For example the Wikipedia shows for 1870 (using the work of Angus Maddison) 1870  China189,470  India134,882[q]  UK100,180[r]  U.S.98,374  Russian Empire83,646…

In some recent cases, the client state had the iconography an independent state, but the actual control lay with the hegemon. The Warsaw Pact duing the Cold War was an example of this, even though nominally independent, their rulers where chosen in Moscow and their military was subordinated to the Soviets. A similar system existed…

A very common arrangement in the past was to have a somewhat independent kingdom paying tribute to an empire. I judge these arrangements based upon the actual power relationships. For example, Wallachia paid tribute to the Ottoman Empire from 1420’s on, but there were frequent refusals of tribute and wars with the Ottomans until the…

Sometimes different polities exert control over the same territory, both viewing each other as legitimate. Federations are a common form of government today. The United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, India, Germany & the United Kingdom are all federations of a sort. (Notably, the Russian Federation is a unitary state, not a federation). In all these…

In a hegemonic relationship, two polities have an unequal relationship with each other. Should the client state be considered a part of the hegemonic state. There are number of tests I use to determine whether client state is considered indepedent or part of the hegemon. These tests are problematic in practice (you don’t know if…

I am following Geacron by starting in 3000 BCE and using control on January 1. This means that many historical events are not reflected until after the year where the occur. The data goes to 2022. For more recent data search for the World Economic Outlook database.

The definition I use for a state is “a polity, controlled by a single leader or group, that has primary access to the military and fiscal resources of a geographical area.” This is quite distinct from sovereignty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereignty I am concerned with the actual practice of power military and fiscal power, not the current framework…

I enjoy looking at maps and watching the rise and fall of nations. This dataset will allow that to be done graphically. In addition, I play board & computer wargames, which require tha production values and the like be assigned. The data here is useful for that.

The second dataset (State-Year) I am creating will have the annual GDP and population information by state. which I define as a polity, controlled by a single leader or group, that has primary access to the military and fiscal resources of a geographical area. This will involve tracking control of geography. For each country defined…