On Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:17:36 -0700, robert bowman
wrote:

Scout wrote:

1. * The Iroquois Confederacy - generally considered a constitutional
republic, in, IIRC, the 12th century.


About 400 yrs off..

What part of "prior to" do you think disallows the 12th Century?

As in "the 12th century was about 400 years prior to the formation of the
Iroquois Confederacy?"

Ayup.

Gunner

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the
means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not
making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of
it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different
countries, that the more public provisions were made for the
poor the less they provided for themselves, and of course became
poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the
more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Benjamin
Franklin, /The Encouragement of Idleness/, 1766