A state is a region with two characteristics:
(1) It has clear borders (grenzen) and (2) its own government (overheid).
It means no other state can tell you what to do.
There are clear borders between states, there are two kinds of borders:
1. In the past, states made their borders along lakes, rivers, mountains, coasts or maybe a forest. These borders were difficult to cross and easy to defend. We call this a ‘natural border’.
2. A border made by people, marked by signs, is called an ‘artificial border’. These borders are hard to see and are usually straight lines.
