Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/213

 MOOT POINTS IN SOCIOLOGY 2OI

of that struggle the new military institution, the State, has become strong; it has replaced the old nobility of blood with a new nobility of service.

In England, similarly, " the Thanes deriving dignity and author- ity from the King absorb the older nobility of Earls."

Prolonged and unremunerative warfare conducted by levies of freeholders ruins the middle class. The exhausting duel between Israel and Damascus produced that evil state of affairs which roused the prophets Amos and Hosea. The small pro- prietors, who do most of the fighting but get least of the spoil, lost their lands during their absence in the field, and on their return debt brought them into slavery. The poor became dependent on the rich. Great estates took the place of small holdings. Palaces arose, and luxury, violence, and injustice filled the land. Likewise in early Rome

The burdensome and partly unfortunate wars, and the exorbitant taxes and task- works to which these gave rise, filled up the measure of calamity; so as either to deprive the possessor directly of his farm and to make him the bondman, if not the slave, of his creditor lord, or to reduce him through encumbrances practically to the condition of a temporary lessee of his creditor.

In the France of Napoleon the fortunes of war may be read in the changing position of classes. The victories of Jena and of Friedland " were followed by fresh attacks on the revolutionary manners and institutions." Austerlitz led Napoleon to the sys- tem of territorial privileges. Entail and primogeniture were restored in favor of noble families. Arbitrary restitutions of forests were illegally made to the emigres, and thus were recon- structed the fortunes of the old families.

Sometimes a defensive struggle elevates an oppressed class. In consequence of the necessity, imposed by a dangerous war, of releasing insolvent debtors in order to fill the ranks of the army with sturdy husbandmen, the Roman plebs was enabled to extort from the ruling class the institution of two tribunes to protect the rights of the plebeians. Frequently a military exigency has given arms and freedom to slaves or wiped out old inequalities of civil status between the ethnic components of a population. Remote military enterprises may waste and weaken the ruling caste. The Crusades, appealing to the military-religious type,