monarchy, their rule once confined to the central region of present-day Rwanda, began to undertake a major territorial expansion. It was in the process of this expansion that ethnicity in Rwanda began to acquire a distinct rigidity, as well as to acquire the polarized quality that it still holds today. This expansion entailed not only the physical extension of the Tutsi monarchy's rule but also the gradual consolidation and centralization of its political and economic power. This was accomplished by changes in the manner in which chiefship were allocated by the monarchical administration, by the introduction of new structures of patron-client relations, and by the state- sponsored revision of traditional structures of land ownership As Catharine Newbury points out, the collective result of these changes was a pronounced increase in the social stratification between the increasingly oppressed Hutu peasantry and the cattle-owning Tutsi ruling class, and the rigidification of the once-flexible categories of Hutu and Tutsi. In sum, this process involved the "transformation of the tutsi nobility into a well defined social class, the increasing association of the category"Tutsi with proximity to power(even though it was only a small Tutsi minority with such access to power), and the institution of a markedly stratified and hierarchical society ruled by a small section of the Tutsi class. It is also important to note, however, that although the central monarchy was predominantly Tutsi Rwanda's nineteenth-century political structure included not only the central monarchical together served as a system of checks and balances against the monarchical state y that administration, but also a complex system of overlapping(and multi-ethnic)chiefdoms 2 The Tutsi monarchy in Rwanda, which can be traced to the 14th century, was, during of the 19thcentury led by the nyiginya clan, one of 12 Tutsi clans in 19 century Rwanda. For a fuller discussion of this topic see Rene Lemarchand, Rwanda and Burundi (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), 26-30, 499; Jan Vansina, L'evolution du royaume rwanda des origines a 1900 (Bruxelles: Academie Royales des Sciences d Outre-Mer, 1999) lan Linden, Church and Revolution in Rwanda(Oxford: Manchester University Press, 1977), 15-16 C Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 16-17, 38-40, 81-90: Vansina C. Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 12, 38-72 50 Linden, 17-18 C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression,11,51 Rene lemarchand, African Kingships in Perspective: Political Change and Modernization in Monarchical Settings(London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1977), 77-8: C. Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 95-1508 monarchy,27 their rule once confined to the central region of present-day Rwanda, began to undertake a major territorial expansion. It was in the process of this expansion that ethnicity in Rwanda began to acquire a distinct rigidity, as well as to acquire the polarized quality that it still holds today. This expansion entailed not only the physical extension of the Tutsi monarchy’s rule, but also the gradual consolidation and centralization of its political and economic power. This was accomplished by changes in the manner in which chiefships were allocated by the monarchical administration, by the introduction of new structures of patron-client relations, and by the state￾sponsored revision of traditional structures of land ownership.28 As Catharine Newbury points out, the collective result of these changes was a pronounced increase in the social stratification between the increasingly oppressed Hutu peasantry and the cattle-owning Tutsi ruling class, and the rigidification of the once-flexible categories of Hutu and Tutsi.29 In sum, this process involved the “transformation of the Tutsi nobility into a well defined social class,” the increasing association of the category “Tutsi” with proximity to power (even though it was only a small Tutsi minority with such access to power), and the institution of a markedly stratified and hierarchical society ruled by a small section of the Tutsi class.30 It is also important to note, however, that although the central monarchy was predominantly Tutsi, Rwanda’s nineteenth-century political structure included not only the central monarchical administration, but also a complex system of overlapping (and multi-ethnic) chiefdoms that together served as a system of checks and balances against the monarchical state.31 27 The Tutsi monarchy in Rwanda, which can be traced to the 14th century, was, during of the 19th century, led by the nyiginya clan, one of 12 Tutsi clans in 19th century Rwanda. For a fuller discussion of this topic, see René Lemarchand, Rwanda and Burundi (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), 26-30, 499; Jan Vansina, L’évolution du royaume rwanda des origines à 1900 (Bruxelles: Academie Royales des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, 1999). 28 Ian Linden, Church and Revolution in Rwanda (Oxford: Manchester University Press, 1977), 15-16; C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 16-17, 38-40, 81-90; Vansina. 29 C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 12, 38-72. 30 Linden, 17-18; C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 11, 51. 31 René Lemarchand, African Kingships in Perspective: Political Change and Modernization in Monarchical Settings (London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1977), 77-8; C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 95-150