ABSTRACT
The universal and ultimate cause of progress and the driving force of culture as of all social happenings is evidently man himself, man with his social instincts which make him to join with his fellows in the highest and most complex organizations. Progress is also favoured by the succession of generations which prevents customs from becoming rigid from long use and allows new generations to form new habits. The deeper the authors go into the history of progress the more evident it becomes that this idea, which Sociology owes to L. Gumplowicz, is the real key to the understanding of the progress of culture. The progress of culture is brought about by group contact, whether the reciprocal action between the groups consists in rape, oppression, slavery, incorporation or exploitation. A progressive organization drives the backward ones out of the field, and either destroys them or incorporates them into its own social body.
