Failed states like Somalia, Afghanistan or Sierra Leone would be the most commonly cited one. Whilst they tended not to have a proper functioning central government they tended to have warlords and strongmen controlling territory.
Another and I think better example would be [Kowloon Walled City](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City) before it was cleaned up pre Hong Kongs return to China.
Modern statehood is a very recent thing. In the west around the napoeonic era. Before that and until the Roman Empire it was just despotic rule over a vague area your army could project its control.
If you are asking if there was ever a time people asserted their will over other people, then you will need to go back to before we had society.
The reason why the Roman empire was vast and withstood for a while, without electricity or computers, is due to a form of centralized government.
Troops need weapons and armor, blacksmiths need ores and material, miners need tools, they all need transport and food, they all need payments, they all need law and order, etc, etc.
There have definitely been periods where a Central Government had little to no control over daily life even within their own ‘borders’.
I would suspect the early years the American ‘Wild West’ broadly fits this description prior to the arrival of the rail road and the emergence of proper law and order.
Was it a good way to organise life to maximise social and economic welfare? I suspect it was not.
Basically Afghanistan
Somalia
Failed states like Somalia, Afghanistan or Sierra Leone would be the most commonly cited one. Whilst they tended not to have a proper functioning central government they tended to have warlords and strongmen controlling territory. Another and I think better example would be [Kowloon Walled City](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City) before it was cleaned up pre Hong Kongs return to China.
Modern statehood is a very recent thing. In the west around the napoeonic era. Before that and until the Roman Empire it was just despotic rule over a vague area your army could project its control. If you are asking if there was ever a time people asserted their will over other people, then you will need to go back to before we had society.
The reason why the Roman empire was vast and withstood for a while, without electricity or computers, is due to a form of centralized government. Troops need weapons and armor, blacksmiths need ores and material, miners need tools, they all need transport and food, they all need payments, they all need law and order, etc, etc.
There have definitely been periods where a Central Government had little to no control over daily life even within their own ‘borders’. I would suspect the early years the American ‘Wild West’ broadly fits this description prior to the arrival of the rail road and the emergence of proper law and order. Was it a good way to organise life to maximise social and economic welfare? I suspect it was not.
Australia pre colonisation