Territorial Division

Ever since, there has been prevalence of territorial disputes, which most of the time end up in violence. Distinguishing territorial borders is one of the essentials of a state. If a state doesn't have a specific territory, how can it practice its sovereignty properly? Who are its people? Just like a residency; you specifically state the borders of your house, which is your territory, so that people will know where your area of responsibility is and who to find or who talk to when there is an issue on that particular area. So, in that analogy, are you willing to just let anyone go in your residency? Are you comfortable to let a total stranger come in your residency or house? I'm sure you are not. This is exactly the same in the world's division of territory. In a deeper sense, countries have established their territory in order to exercise their sovereignty and identify its people, which exactly are essentials to a state. Expansion of territory is another thing. Now, regarding this matter, people literally fight for their territory, either for expansion or for protection. Violence is usually the medium of states to fight for territory. Why? Territorial claims are not just about expanding their area of responsibility, but also the resources of a particular area. Way back in time, territorial expansions are prevalent. One of the largest empires, the Roman Empire, expanded their territory through force. They have to wage wars in order to acquire more lands and eventually possessing such empire and territory. With an empire size like that, all its political units' power goes back to the emperor, which is the head of the empire. In a relatively more recent time, the different conquests of the European powers started for them to find more resources which eventually led to colonizing different parts of the world. One of which that we are very familiar with is the Spanish colonization here in the Philippines which lasted for more than three hundred years. At that time, the Philippines were part of the Spanish territory. In present day, everyone knows about the issue about the Spratly Islands. Various Asian states are claiming that these group of islands are part of their territory; namely Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Fortunately, these states have decided to tackle this issue in a diplomatic way. If this way of diplomacy fails, all these states will wage war for territorial claims on Spratly islands because of the rumors that these islands have rich commodity resources mostly oil and gas. As much as possible, the Philippines tries its very best to maintain a very good relationship with these states and let our diplomats do their jobs to successfully clear this issue fairly, not our country's soldiers. Hopefully, after the dispute on this group of island, these different states will maintain a good relationship with each other.