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2. What are traditional societies?

Before we can understand the world-wide revolution that has led to the development of modern nation-states, it is necessary to have some understanding of the kinds of social organization that were used before this massive revolution began. It is possible to distinguish three kinds of traditional societies that existed prior to the development of the modern world. These are aristocrat peasant society, tribal society, and a form of mixed tribal and aristocratic society that used to be common in lands that were not very fertile. It is also necessary to briefly describe colonial society, which spread across much of the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Aristocrat Peasant Society

The defining element for all aristocrat peasant societies is the use of a command economy mechanism to distribute food. After the development of agriculture, a need arose for some highly reliable system to distribute the surplus food to non-food-producers. This was six thousand years ago. A market system could not possibly do the job. Instead agricultural societies came to be divided into at least two separate classes: aristocrats and peasants. Peasants grew the food, and every year they delivered a substantial amount to their aristocratic lords. This gave the aristocrats a large supply of food, which was distributed in many different ways to specialized workers—including soldiers, servants, masons, priests, artisans, and many others.

There were many different variations of the aristocrat peasant theme, but most of them had many things in common. Aristocrat peasant societies were class-based societies. They had a very small ruling class and a much larger subordinate class, which was mostly deprived of political rights. In aristocratic society a person’s birth, family, and marriage were all-important. The position of being an aristocrat was usually hereditary. The top aristocrat was normally a monarch. Ruling families were dynasties. The monarchs and aristocrats had a monopoly on political power. It was very common for aristocrats to fight each other for control of land and peasants.

Markets existed in most aristocratic societies, but they were not nearly as important as today. Relatively few people relied on markets to provide their daily food requirements. If the market system suffered a near fatal collapse, the aristocrat peasant food distribution system could still continue to operate. Even in normal times most people went for weeks or months without purchasing anything at a market.

The end of aristocratic society is often difficult to pin down. The market system gradually grows stronger and slowly becomes the primary method of food distribution. This change began in parts of Western Europe as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, but it was not completed until the 19th century. After markets take over the food distribution task, aristocrats become redundant. In fact, they get in the way. As the markets increase in size and power, a new group of wealthy merchants and lawyers slowly become part of the ruling class. In most countries the old nobility gradually merge with this new group of wealthy families to form a larger oligarchic ruling class. It is a very slow process. When the United States became independent two hundred and twenty-five years ago, most of the world was still ruled by aristocratic dynasties.

Tribal Societies

Modern nation-states use markets to distribute food to non-food producers. Aristocrat peasant societies use a command economy mechanism to collect and distribute food. The most important characteristic of tribal societies is that they do not have a strong and reliable mechanism for food distribution. This makes it difficult or impossible for tribal societies to have cities and higher levels of civilization based on literacy.

There have been many variations of tribal society. They range from the primitive hunting and gathering bands of our earliest ancestors to relatively sophisticated tribal nations like the Iroquois Confederation that confronted the American colonists. Some tribal societies retain a primarily hunting and gathering economy, but many have also developed agriculture and animal husbandry. Quite often, members of the tribe share food with each other. This is certainly a form of food distribution, but it is not reliable enough for the development of large numbers of specialized workers and non-food producers.

Most tribes have a political structure based on chiefs, elders, and councils. The religion is often shamanism. In most tribes the young men are expected to be warriors. Tribal warfare usually takes the form of raids, but sometimes large groups leave their homeland and go looking for a new place to live. This has caused a number of major upheavals in history. Some tribes are docile, some are dangerous when disturbed, and some have been downright aggressive. Many tribes are relatively sedentary, while others are highly mobile.

When colonial empires evaporated in the decades following World War II, many tribal societies found that legally and constitutionally they had suddenly become nation-states. Unfortunately, the transition to a successful, market economy nation-state is not that easy, and tribal societies seem to have a particularly difficult time. There will be a great deal more discussion about this transition in the coming pages.

Aristocrat Tribal Societies

The change from tribal society to aristocrat peasant society probably happened quite slowly in a long evolutionary process that is not very well understood by historians. It is not necessary to speculate about the details of that transition, but it is important to note that in many areas of the world, the change was never fully completed.

Aristocrat peasant society is specifically designed to distribute substantial agricultural surpluses from peasant-farmers to specialized workers and non-food producers of the society. There are many parts of the world where agriculture and animal husbandry can be used, but the land is not fertile enough to produce a large surplus. This is especially common in mountainous and semi-arid environments. In many of these areas tribal leaders evolved to acquire the titles and status of aristocrats, but they could not hope to accumulate large agricultural surpluses from the people they ruled.

This kind of society sometimes has the outward appearance of being an aristocrat peasant society, but in reality the common people have not been reduced to peasant status and are not compelled to deliver large amounts of food to their political leaders. This means that the common people retain a great deal of personal freedom and independence. These people fully realize that they have much more freedom than the peasants in neighboring societies and are determined to defend it. Most of the men carry weapons most of the time. This group contains quite a large number of different people. It includes Albanians, Kurds, Chechens, Berbers, Druse, many of the Arab countries, Afghans, a number of groups in Central Asia, Tibetans, Mongols, Gurkhas, and a number of Hill Tribes in Southeast Asia. The Scottish Highlanders were a member of this group before they were destroyed in the 18th century.

Most of these people lived in mountains, deserts, and difficult hill country where it was just not possible to produce a reliable food surplus. They were tough, well armed, and sometimes envious of the wealth that was produced by their more prosperous neighbors. It used to be common for many of them to raid their neighbors for food, women, and moveable wealth. It was a very macho form of society that admired physical toughness and ability with weapons. These aristocrat tribal societies seem to have a high level of resistance to the transition into modern nation-states.

Colonial Societies

Colonial society is not a traditional form of society, but in this section we are looking at the starting point for societies around the world before they began the transition to modern nation-states. This makes it impossible to ignore colonial society. At the peak of imperial expansion during World War II, more than half the world’s land and people were part of some large empire. In the great implosion of empires that occurred after the war, these colonies quickly became independent.

In the more productive colonies that had a large native population, the imperialists functioned much like aristocrats. They were a small ruling class with a monopoly of political power. Many of the native people were essentially much like peasants. They produced agricultural commodities such as sugar, tea, spices, and rubber—which the imperialists took and shipped to foreign markets. There were also many colonial areas that produced little of value. In these areas, imperialism was a thin veneer that overlaid a native society, which at heart retained most of its traditional tribal or aristocratic character.

After World War II when the imperial age ended, most of the colonists returned home, and the native people suddenly found themselves to be citizens of brand new nations. In Europe most nation-states arose through a long, violent revolutionary process. In the colonial world statehood came relatively quickly. Unfortunately, the modern revolution from traditional society to a market economy nation-state does not happen that easily. In many cases, the newly independent countries were modern nations in name only. In reality they were still predominantly tribal or aristocratic societies. These countries are now squarely in the middle of the very long and difficult revolutionary process that will eventually convert them into modern nation-states.