Systematic War Follows Civilization 173 



war, of the hostility of nations erected into a 

 principle of public law, which exists in our day. 



Permanent and organized war has commenced 

 successively in different regions of the earth, in 

 accordance with the measure in which they have 

 been civilized. In Egypt, in Chaldea, in Assyria, 

 there existed military empires from the thirtieth 

 century before our era. But it is also necessary 

 to note that even in our day, there are peoples 

 which have not yet arrived at the stage of organized 

 war, precisely because they have remained in an 

 inferior state of social development. 



The process employed by the philosophy of 

 force to demonstrate that war has existed from the 

 origin of humanity is very simple. The name 

 primitive is given to some period of history chosen 

 in the most arbitrary fashion, e.g., Egypt in the 

 fortieth century before our era. Since war has 

 existed from this epoch, the deduction is made, 

 that it has existed from the origin of humanity. 

 But this process is as anti-scientific as it is simple. 

 The fortieth century before our era is an epoch 

 relatively recent in comparison with the age of 

 our species, which has probably existed, according 

 to specialists in geology, for at least five hundred 

 thousand years. The Egyptian civilization under 

 Mena was very far advanced; it had already a 

 written language, and its civilization was the 

 result of a very long evolution. Nothing could be 

 more deceptive than to call this period primitive. 

 But it would be still more naive to believe that 



