FUNDAMENTAL FORCES IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION 209 



All through history the story is the same. The 

 stimuli which have led most powerfully toward cen- 

 tralization must be regarded, in general, as selfish 

 desires. Greed has been the potent influence. This 

 has elevated the leaders of men above their fellows, 

 and has also clustered the people around the leaders, 

 inclining or forcing them to yield to their authority. 

 The desire for personal glory and power has built 

 tribes out of families, kingdoms out of tribes, and 

 nations out of kingdoms. Nations have almost 

 always been built by war. Persian and Assyrian 

 nations were founded upon war, as well as other 

 ancient nations. The warfares inaugurated by the 

 Crusades started the tendency toward union which 

 began in the Middle Ages and out of which our 

 modern nations emerged. Warfare against foreign 

 enemies has always been a stimulus to bring about 

 closer unions. Instances of this sort are so familiar 

 to all students of history as to require no further 

 illustration. Universal peace has commonly meant 

 stagnation. Organization in general has sprung 

 from that class of motives included under the terms 

 selfishness, egoism, greed, love of glory, ambition, 

 etc. They are all among the lower classes of motives 

 influencing human action. But they are powerful 

 motives nevertheless, and have been the primary 

 forces producing centralization of authority in the 

 hands of a few individuals. 



The Forces Which Produce Disintegration. — Organiza- 

 tions fall as well as rise. Centralization of power 

 has ever been followed by decentralization. How 

 striking it is to see the ease with which compact 

 Rome overcame the many enemies which surrounded 

 her on all sides ! But more curious still is the fact 



