The Long Run of European State Formation

Instead of following a unilinear model, European states followed many different paths to the relatively uniform consolidated state that began to prevail in the 19th century. The relative concentration of coercion (as represented, e.g., by the presence of great landlords with private armies) and capital (as represented, e.g., by the importance of commercial cities) strongly affected the way rulers assembled the means for war, which in turn had powerful effects on the process and direction of state formation. A useful simplification distinguishes "capital-intensive", "coercion-intensive", and "capitalized coercion" paths toward the consolidated state.Tilly Charles. The Long Run of European State Formation. In: Visions sur le développement des États européens. Théories et historiographies de l'État moderne. Actes du colloque de Rome (18-31 mars 1990) Rome : École Française de Rome, 1993. pp. 137-150. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 171