ABSTRACT
We have noted in previous chapters that some states must fight to gain their independence and then fight again to acquire new areas or to hold onto existing territorial possessions. Even after a territorial change occurs, however, the basis for dispute between the gaining and losing states does not necessarily terminate. Sometimes, a territorial change initiates a recurring cycle of violence between the same pair of states. The division of India and Pakistan in 1947 sets the stage for two more wars in the next quarter century. Similarly, conflict in the Middle East has not dissipated (some would say it has intensified) by changes in territorial boundaries by the principal protagonists. Yet, in other cases, a territorial change has ushered in a relatively peaceful era of relations between states. The purchase of Louisiana from the French in the early nineteenth century was followed by years of amicable Franco-American relations.
