and powerful become richer and more
powerful. The poor and dependent grow in numbers--protest, demonstrate,
riot, revolt.

This class struggle dominates public life in the urban centers of every
civilization. The rich offer petty reforms and minor benefits to the
impoverished, semi-employed city masses. At the same time the urban
oligarchy breaks up into rival factions: the Ins and the Outs. The Ins
hold public jobs, spend public money, award contracts and pass around
favors. The Outs wait and maneuver for their turn at the public
pie-counter. Both Ins and Outs appeal for mass support.

Oppositions and confrontations lead to conflicts which have studded the
life of every civilization. Conflicts include wars which may be divided
into six groups: (1) Wars of expansion, conquest, colonization directed
toward the enlargement of the territories included in the civilization.
(2) Wars of survival among adjacent nations and empires. (3) Wars fought
to suppress unrest and revolt in the colonies and dependencies of an
empire or civilization. (4) Wars fought to repel the invasion of
migrating peoples attempting to occupy territory over which an empire or
a civilization claims jurisdiction. (5) Peasant, serf and slave revolts
and rebellions against the authority of empires or civilizations. (6)
Civil wars to determine the leadership of particular empires; wars of
leadership succession; conflicts and power seizures within particular
oligarchies.

In every civilization final decisions regarding domestic and foreign
issues have been made by an appeal to arms. There were laws and legal
institutions in many civilizations under which confrontations might have
been prevented and armed conflict avoided. Where these legal means
failed to provide solutions, contestants turned to armed force as the
final arbiter.

Competitive survival struggle has played a prominent role in the life of
every civilization known to history. Competition at its highest level
employs armed force as its instrument of policy. War, domestic and
foreign has, therefore, dominated the history of every civilization.
Walter Bagehot called war a state maker. In the same context, war may be
referred to as a civilization maker.

Conflict, including war, has played a major role, often a determining
role in building and maintaining civilizations. It has also been a major
and perhaps _the_ major factor in undermining and destroying
civilizations. Arnold Toynbee contends t