Small and partly independent communities had combined one with another only on compulsion.

The necessities of joint defense might occasionally drive them into temporary union, but they would not stay united.

They preferred a precarious and tumultuous independence to a combination with neighboring communities, which brought security at the price of partial subordination and loyal cooeperation.

Even the provinces which composed the United Netherlands never submitted to an effective political union during the active and vital period of their history.

The small American states had apparently quite as many reasons for separation as the small Grecian and Italian states.