200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the occupied area, and by facilities of escape from it. But, as we 

 now see, not only is political integration under its primary aspect of 

 increasing mass hindered by these last-named physical conditions, but 

 there is hindrance to the development of a more integrated form of 

 government. That which impedes social consolidation also impedes 

 the concentration of political power. 



The truth here chiefly concerning us, however, is that the contin- 

 ued j^resence of the one or the other set of conditions fosters a char- 

 acter to which either the centralized or the diffused kind of political 

 organization is appropriate. Existence, generation after generation, 

 in a region where despotic control has arisen, produces an adapted 

 type of nature ; partly by daily habit and partly by survival of those 

 most fit for living under such control. Contrariwise, in a region 

 favoring maintenance of their independence by small groups, there is 

 a strengthening, through successive ages, of sentiments averse to re- 

 straint ; since not only are these sentiments exercised in all by resist- 

 ing the efforts from time to time made to subordinate them, but, on 

 the average, those who most pertinaciously resist are those who, re- 

 maining unsubdued, and transmitting their characters to posterity, 

 determine the tribal character. 



Having thus glanced at the effects of the factors, external and in- 

 ternal, as displayed in simple tribes, we shall understand how they 

 cooperate when, by migration or otherwise, such tribes fall into cir- 

 cumstances which favor the growth of large societies. 



The case of an uncivilized people of the nature described, who 

 have in recent times shown what occurs when union of small groups 

 into great ones is prompted, will best initiate the interpretation. 



The Iroquois nations, each made up of many tribes previously 

 hostile, had to defend themselves against European invaders. Com- 

 bination for this purpose among these five (and finally six) nations 

 necessitated a recognition of equality of power among them ; since 

 agreement to join would not have been arrived at had it been required 

 that some divisions should be subject to others. The groups had to 

 cooperate on the understanding that their " rights, privileges, and 

 obligations " should be the same. Though the numbers of permanent 

 and hereditary sachems appointed by the respective nations to form 

 the Great Council, differed, yet the voices of the several nations were 

 equal. Omitting details of the organization, we have to note first, 

 tliat for many generations, notwithstanding the wars which this 

 league carried on, its constitution remained stable no supreme indi- 

 vidual arose ; and, second, that this equality of power among the 

 groups coexisted with inequality within each group : the people had 

 no share in its government. 



A clew is thus furnished to the genesis of those compound head- 

 ships with which ancient history familiarizes us. We are enabled to 



