more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Too much land makes its defence is onerous, its cultivation inadequate, and its yield surplus, which causes defensive wars. If there is not enough land, the state is at the discretion of its neighbours for what it needs as surplus, causing offensive wars.
Gist of Idea
Too much land is a struggle, producing defensive war; too little makes dependence, and offensive war
Source
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.10)
Book Ref
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Basic Political Writings', ed/tr. Cress,Donald A. [Hackett 1987], p.168
A Reaction
This sounds much too simplistic, like the causes of squabbles in a kindergarten. Certainly inequalities between nations (such as the USA and Mexico) produces frictions. Advances in agriculture technology have transformed this problem.
| 22581 | The size of a city is decided by the maximum self-sufficient community that can be surveyed [Aristotle] |
| 19993 | In small republics citizens identify with the public good, and abuses are fewer [Montesquieu] |
| 19992 | In a large republic there is too much wealth for individuals to manage it [Montesquieu] |
| 19814 | A state must be big enough to preserve itself, but small enough to be governable [Rousseau] |
| 19815 | Too much land is a struggle, producing defensive war; too little makes dependence, and offensive war [Rousseau] |
| 19822 | If the state enlarges, the creators of the general will become less individually powerful [Rousseau] |
| 19823 | If the population is larger, the government needs to be more powerful [Rousseau] |
| 22679 | Vast empires are bad for well-being and freedom, though they may promote glory [Tocqueville] |
| 22680 | People would be much happier and freer in small nations [Tocqueville] |
| 23156 | The economic and political advantages of great size seem to have no upper limit [Russell] |