The American Congress, the official legislative branch of the government, has two sections, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Every US state has two elected senators in the Senate.
Regardless of the size, population, or economic power of the states the two senators come from, they will have equal power to initiate legislation, vote, and approve political appointees or refuse them. These senators determine national policy as well as foreign policy, not only policies that effect their respective states.
What that means is that a senator elected from a tiny state like, for instance, Rhode Island, will have an equivalent degree of influnce over policy as a senator elected from a much larger state, like say, California, even though the former senator represents a much smaller number of people.
OK, leave aside that this is blatantly undemocratic; I want to focus on what this means in terms of strategies for consolidating control. Because the dynamic reveals a lot about why corporate power prefers fragmentation of large countries into smaller states.
Currently there are 46 senators from the Democratic Party and 54 from the Republican party; that means the Republican Party controls the Senate. Because of the dynamic I explained above, the Republicans were able to gain control of the Senate although fewer people voted for their senators than voted for senators from the Democratic Party. 68 million people voted for the Democrats and only 47 million voted for Republicans, yet the Republicans control the Senate. They won by getting almost 50% less popular backing!
By focusing on getting senators elected from smaller states (senators who will ultimately have the same ability to influence policy as those from larger states), the Republicans were able to achieve control of the Senate without having to spend as much money on campaigning, on buying air time on television, and without having to even earn as many votes.
Re-organizing countries like Syria and Iraq, Libya and so on, into smaller states, is an ideal method for reducing the cost of domination, and multiplying the return on investment.