The Origins of the British Colonies

Modern political science is based upon the fundamental proposition that the state is an organic entity. Consequently its history, like that of any other organism, is two­fold in nature, - internal and external. Its internal development finds expression in the constitutional, economic, and social systems, and in ultimate analysis is merely a succession of compromises securing a temporary equilibrium between the claims of the individual to complete freedom of action, and the opposing efforts of society to force the individual to subordinate his own particular interests to those of the commonwealth. The state, however, is not an isolated unit, but lives in an environment of other political organisms, and its external activity is conditioned by this fact. Internal development and external growth react mutually upon each other, and a period of marked successful readjustment of the social forces within the body politic is usually followed by years of quiet in internal affairs, and of corresponding activity in outward expansion, and so on in a regular series. Though at all times profoundly influenced by the course of internal development, the colonizing activities of the state are naturally primarily a part of its international history...