794 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
11 Conquest has played so large a part in social evolution, .... that certain sociologists [here reference is made in a footnote to Gumplowicz] have refused to admit that a community may become highly organized in any other way," 1 he acknowledges " that the great historical peoples were created by the super- position of races or sub-races." 2 To be sure,, many factors cooperate in the formation of a complex social group. But does not Giddings grant that the truly complex social groups those that have produced civilizations have their origin in conquest, when he says :
Nevertheless .... it must be also admitted as one of the most certain facts of history that the most highly organized existing societies are com- posed in part of elements that have survived successive waves of conquest, in part of those that were once conquering forces but were afterwards sub- jugated, and in part of elements that won and maintained supremacy. In fact, for many generations the principle of ethnical subordination was seen in every part of the purposive organization. 3
Perhaps not until types were somewhat set, custom somewhat fixed, authority somewhat defined, the tie of kinship somewhat realized, in other words, not until the group was firmly enough knit together to have attained some degree of self-consciousness, perhaps not until then did man invariably regard his fellow-man of another group as an enemy. Then began the struggle. Then Carlyle's question, "Can I kill thee, or canst thou kill me?" as between group and group, had to be answered.
At first extermination was the policy of the victorious host. Wars of extermination naturally left little impress on social development. But when the victors, instead of annihilating the weaker race and marching on to new conquests, spare them and settle down upon their land, the conditions for a step upward in human progress are laid. Political development resulting in the historical state begins when one group is able to make use of another in some other way than by eating them.
^Principles, p. 316. a Ibid., p. 310.
- Ibid., p. 316. Woodrow Wilson's views seem to coincide with those of
Gumplowicz : " Absolute isolation for any of these early groups would of course have meant stagnation ; just as surely as contact with other groups meant war" ( The State p. 24.)
