OCR Text |
Show 2i4 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 a necessity. The pressure on the food supply brought about a system of organized plunder from tribes which had been conquered and were held in subjugation by the efficiency of the confederation. The collection of this tribute and its equable distribution demanded an executive, and it was provided by increased dignity and authority vested in the war- chief, who was gxadually assuming civil as well as military functions. Coincident with this growth of the chief executive, which must be considered the most significant phase of the Aztec government, came an increase in the number of subordinate civil officers and consequent differentiation in their functions. It is not unlikely that with time the two war- chiefships of the Iroquois, 1 created for special military operations, would have been consolidated and a more permanent executive with civil functions have been developed. In other words, the Iroquois were probably following the very course of civil evolution through which the Aztec had already passed, though the progress was necessarily slower, by reason of the local dispersion of the former as compared with the compact village communities of the latter. See above, chap. x. |