Now the struggle area has become regional.
At the outset the peoples were amateurs in the science and art of
expansion, occupation, consolidation, exploitation. Through the hard
school of struggle they became professionals. From victory to victory
they gained in territory, in wealth, in administrative skill. One by
one, rivals were eliminated, annexed or associated with the nascent
empire which was by way of becoming the central empire of a maturing
civilization.
Generations of effort and centuries of time have gone into the empire
building process. The farther the civilization has expanded, the greater
the necessary input of manpower, wealth, enterprise and administrative
talent needed to keep the enterprise strong, solvent, masterful.
Eventually the expanding civilization reaches a point at which the costs
of further expansion are greater than the income derived from further
extension of its authority. Up to this point expansion had paid its own
way. Beyond this point it is a losing proposition--politically,
economically, sociologically. At this point begin times of troubles; bad
harvests; colonial or provincial revolts; power struggles between
individuals or classes in the homeland; new rivals moving in to share in
the prospective plunder of the mother-city.
From this time of troubles the civilization enters a new phase of its
lifecycle. Up to this point victory has brought plunder and prosperity
which have financed new foreign adventures and led to new victories.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185