An Additional Warfare Element in Territorial Expansion

Abstract

Otterbein has found that a major cultural element in the tendency of a society to expand its territory appears to be its level of military so phistication. However, this is evidently not the only warfare charac teristic related to territorial expansion. A further examination of his data indicates that the psychocultural element of aggressiveness or "ferocity," as measured by a tencency of the society to attack, is even more strongly related to territorial expansion than is military sophis tication. A high level of ferocity in a culture may also lead to internal fighting and the disintegration of a society, however. This internal fight ing must be controlled by strong authoritarian measures before the society's aggressiveness will produce territorial expansion.