A state is an organized community living under one government.[1] States may be sovereign. The denomination state is also employed to federated states that are members of a federal union, which is the sovereign state.[1] Some states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state.[2] The state can also be used to refer to the secular branches of government within a state, often as a manner of contrasting them with churches and civilian institutions.
Many human societies have been governed by states for millennia, however for most of pre-history people lived in stateless societies. The first states arose about 10,000 years ago at the same time as agriculture, patriarchy, slavery, and organized religion.[citation needed] Over time, a variety of different forms developed, employing a variety of justifications for their existence (such as divine right, the theory of the social contract, etc.). Today, however, the modern nation-state is the predominant form of state which people are subject to.