Here is the first comprehensive and systematically ordered global survey of states in the world. Starting in the fourth millennium in Mesopotamia and Egypt and continuing to mediaeval and modern times, about 5,000 years of history are covered, presenting theocratic states ... military monarchies ... ancient city-states ... feudal states ... tribal kingdoms in Africa ... and even nomadic organizations with changing territorial bases.Each entry includes information on the particular state's designation and its dependencies, its period of existence, characteristics of its political constitution, the title of its head of state, its capital(s), and major events in its history. References to previous and subsequent designations are also provided.Structured on historical-geographical principles, the work is divided into two chronological sections: Antiquity and Mediaeval and Modern Times (A.D. 400 to date). An alphabetical index of state names provides an additional point of entry.Offering quick access to basic information about the complex development of universal political geography, the Historical Dictionary of States helps to explain the process of state formation and recalls past political orders and vanished empires.