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Mastery of strategic advantages, plus the illusion of mere bigness,
without any specification to quality, became keys to survival and
success.
Civilized man exploited natural advantages and augmented his power over
nature and society by increasing his wealth and multiplying the
population. At the outset of the struggle strategic geographical
advantages were occupied and utilized by local groups. Through survival
struggle, one of the groups, better organized, better led, more
determined and productive, succeeded in securing possession of one
strong point after another, until an entire region, like the Nile Valley
or the Mediterranean Basin had been conquered and occupied by a single
great power. The measure of success in the power struggle is the
occupation of strategic strong points. Natural resources, including land
and labor power, are among the chief spoils of victory.
Seven basic goals or principles were involved in the building of
civilizations: group survival; propitiating the gods; recognizing and
following aesthetic principles; achieving and stabilizing property and
class relations; expansion (bigness); individual conformity to the
collective pattern; and collective uniformity in a united world of human
brotherhood. At times and in places the basic propositions were
accepted, rejected, fought over. Each civilization which followed them
successfully was able to establish itself, maintain itself, and up to a
certain point add to its prestige, wealth and power.
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