  The 1/N_c expansion of QCD provides a valuable semiquantitative tool to study
baryon scattering amplitudes and the short-lived baryon resonances embedded
within them. A generalization of methods originally applied in chiral soliton
models in the 1980's provides the key to deriving a rigorous 1/N_c expansion.
One obtains model-independent relations among amplitudes that impose mass and
width degeneracies among resonances of various quantum numbers.
Phenomenological evidence confirms that patterns of resonant decay predicted by
1/N_c agree with data. One may extend the analysis to subleading orders in
1/N_c, where again agreement with data is evident, in both meson-baryon
scattering and pion photoproduction.
