Abstract
TheWestphalianstate system, premised on the existence of territorially defined nation states,enjoying monopoly of violence over people and institutions within theirboundaries, is a relativelyrecent phenomenon. Its emergence can be formally traced to the rise of the modern state system in 16thcentury Europe. The modern state system’s formal emergence inEurope came with the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648, which ended the Thirty Years war and also the Medieval system of feudalism1in the continent. It was the harbinger of the rise of sovereign and independent states with defined territories in Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia sanctioned Europe’s division into territorially organized states,by recognizing the principleof state sovereignty and of non-interference in the territorial space of other states.