>>43792
>They also may not have a choice, they may need to create a state in order to survive.
In those areas (the Sahel region of Eastern Niger, Chad, and Western Sudan), before the European colonizers arrived exactly that was the reason of state formation, in a circular logic, or "egg or chicken" fashion. The state's goal was to wage war, but created because of the pressure of war, and it is hard to pin the exact point when either of them came to existence and say which was first.
Conflicts exist without state, but war is something that needs state level organization (even in their most disorganized forms). States can rise for other reasons than war (the organization is needed to large project, like maintaining irrigation system or something) but in Chad and about that was the sole reason of its existence.
We know that southern states there - like Bagirmi and such - was created so they could withstand of northern pressure (like Wadai of Kanem), to became hunters instead of prey. But the northern ones? Some say they started to war because of Islam.