On the warlight wiki it says to use Path>cut to create smaller countries out of one large one (such as dividing the US into states etc.), however, I am finding it easier to use the path>divide to make those changes. Granted I am only on my first map, and am still new to the program; I am not sure if what I am doing will damage my map in the long run.

I've always been a bit confused by the differences between some of those options. I usually just try each one until I find the one that did what I want :)

How precisely would one divide a large object into others, is this written somewhere currently? Sorry, very new to the software.

Once you have the large object, draw a line over it, representing the division path. Select both the object and the line and use the Path -> Division command from the menu - now you have two smaller objects (Path -> Cut is similar, but will remove the fills and won't preserve the cut line, which you do not want). Keep repeating if you want to divide any of them further.