Acquisition of civil authority by war

It is not at all strange if he who can subject individuals to himself in personal servitude is able to subject to himself an aggregation of men – whether they formed a state, or a part of a state – in a subjection which may be purely civil, or purely personal, or mixed.

Sovereignty, furthermore, may be acquired for the victor; either such sovereignty merely as is vested in a king or other ruler; and in that case, the victor succeeds to the right of the ruler only, and nothing beyond; or such as is vested in a people, in which case the victor holds sovereignty in such a way that he can even alienate it, just as the people could. We have elsewhere said that thus it has come about that certain kingdoms were held as a patrimony.

The loss of statehood

Even a more fundamental change may be accomplished, so that, for instance, what was a state may cease to be a state. In such cases, the state that was may become an accession of another state, as the Roman provinces did; or it may not be attached to a state, as when a king waging war at his own expense so subjects a people to himself that he wishes it to be governed not for the good of the people but above all else for that of the ruler, and this is the rule of a master, not of civil authority.