Established states resort to fairly small amounts of internal violence precisely because they already killed, burned, and pillaged enough to make their point one or two centuries ago. This is what is called “legitimacy.”

Joseph Stromberg, in an article on the British Mandate control of Iraq. Other essays by Stromberg can be found at Mises.org and LewRockwell.com. Also he has a number of lectures on YouTube, which are worth checking out.