 over the acquisition of millions of acres of land in the Peace Treaty of 1783, we obtained all of the land from the Appalachian Mountains all the way to the Mississippi River, doubling the size of the country. Who was going to get that land? So they needed, once again, to have a government to resolve those questions peaceably rather than without a central government. If we know anything about human nature and history, it is that men primarily fight wars over land.