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200 not restricted to the "historical" peoples. In speaking of the feudal states of India, Ratzel states : "Even beyond Radshistan, the nobles often enjoyed a great measure of independ- ence, so that even in Haiderabad, after the Nizam had acquired the sole rule over the country, the Umara or Nabobs maintained troops of their own, independently of the army of the Nizam. These smaller feudatories did not comply with the increased demands of modern times as regards the administration of Indian states as often as did the greater princes." "^ In Africa finally, great feudal states come and pass away, as do bubbles arising and burst- ing from the stream of eternally similar phenomena. The powerful Ashanti empire, within one and a half centuries, has shriveled to less than one-fifth of its territory; *^® and many of the empires that the Portuguese en- countered have since disappeared without leaving a trace of their existence. And yet these were strong feudal powers: "Stately and cruel negro empires, such as Benin,