Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/216

 204 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

separateness fades and each people becomes less jealous of its political individuality. From generation to generation there is an increase in the number of matters with which the confederation is permitted to deal. A written instrument can retard, but cannot arrest, the decay of local institutions in favor of common insti- tutions. After a civil war or two the confederation becomes a true nation within which the process of assimilation may proceed until the old local groupings and feelings have quite disappeared.

If merging comes through conquest, the process is by no means the same. The bond being not community of interest, but coercion, feelings are aroused which interrupt the assimilation that naturally takes place between societies in peaceful contact. If the mass and culture of one society is not clearly superior to that of the other, the two dissimilar streams of social life may for a long time flow side by side without mingling, the con- querors unyielding from disdain, the conquered from resentment. Still, however prudently the former may refrain from disturbing the customs and institutions of the latter, the coercive union of two societies inevitably modifies the structure of both. In general, the constrained society is deformed by pressure upon the apex. The upper classes are crushed down toward the lower and sometimes, following out the principle of Parcere subjectis, debellare superbos, the lower are deliberately exalted above their quondam superiors in order to create an interest loyal to the dominant society. Moreover, new groupings may be formed, intended to dissolve the spirit and usages of the ancient social order. Thus in Gaul " the Romans systematically suppressed the old divisions into peoples, tribes, or nations, and replaced them by the distribution of the country into urban districts."

In the constraining society, on the other hand, the structural alterations are in the direction of greater inequality. Says Mommsen :

The new provincial system necessitated the appointment of governors whose position was absolutely incompatible .... with the Roman Consti- tution It was not practicable for any length of time to be at once

republican and king. Playing the part of governors demoralized the Roman

ruling class with fearful rapidity The man, moreover, who had just

conducted a legalized military tyranny abroad could with difficulty find his