In accordance with overseas advance of western powerful countries, western powerful countries created a new term "civilized nation" as a concept of a state based on international law for building relations with countries which did not share Christian values, to be recognized as a state, it was necessary to be recognized as a "civilized nation" rather than being a Christian country, therefore the conditions to be protected by international law became abstract and generalized.
しかし西欧列強の海外進出と共に、キリスト教的価値観を共有しない諸国家との関係を探るうち、「文明国」という国際法的な意味での国家概念を捻出し、キリスト教的か否かよりも「文明国」か否かが国家承認の要件と見なされるようになり、次第にキリスト教色を薄め、国際法被適用資格は抽象化・一般化していった。