The first unambiguously modern state, Mr Fukuyama believes, was the Qin dynasty in China, founded in 221BC.

ECONOMIST: Theories of history

Many of the control mechanisms perfected by the Qin had developed during the preceding 500 years or so of the Eastern Zhou dynasty when a host of small warring states across China began to coalesce.

ECONOMIST: Theories of history

The Qin's extremism was also its undoing and it was soon replaced by the more enduring Han dynasty, which sought compromise with aristocratic elites and legitimation through a revived Confucianism.

ECONOMIST: Theories of history