THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS—IIIThe Making of the Nations, IIIProfessor FREDERICK RATZEL
THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS—III
The Making of the Nations, III
Professor FREDERICK RATZEL
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UPON the earth, with its varied configuration and formation of land and sea, are many kinds of hindrances and limits to life.
The most obvious effect of natural region and natural boundary lies in the counteracting forces opposed by the earth through them to a formless and unlimited diffusion of life. Isolated territory furthers political independence, which, indeed, is of itself isolation. The development of a nation upon a fixed territory consists in a striving to make use of all the natural advantages of that territory. The superiority of a naturally isolated region lies in the fact that seclusion itself brings with it the greatest of all advantages. Hence the precocious economic and political development of races that dwell on islands or on peninsulas, in mountain valleys and on island-like deltas.
The Rise and Death of Isolated States
Often enough growth that originates under such favourable conditions leads to ruin. A young nation deems itself possessed of all so long as it has the isolation that ensures independence; it sees too late that the latter has been purchased at the price of a suffocating lack of space; and it dies of a hypertrophy of development—a death common to minor states. This was the cause of the swift rise and decline of Athens and of Venice, and of all powers that restricted themselves to islands and to narrow strips of coast.
Natural Boundaries of a StateA State must Forsake its Boundaries
The more natural boundaries a state possesses, the more definite are the political questions raised by its development. The consolidation of England, Scotland, and Wales was simple and obvious, as patent as if it had been decreed beforehand, as was also the expansion of France over the region that lies between the Alps and the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, what a fumbling, groping development was that of Germany, with her lack of natural boundary in the east! Thus in the great geographical features of lands lie pre-ordained movements, constrained by the highest necessity—a higher necessity in the case of some than of others. The frontier of the Pyrenees was more necessary to France than that of the Rhine; an advance to the Indian Ocean is more necessary to Russia than a movement into Central Europe. Growth is soundest when a state expands so as to fill out a naturally bounded region—as, for example, the United States, that symmetrically occupy the southern half of the continent of North America, or Switzerland, extending to the Rhine and Lake of Constance. There are often adjustments of frontiers which force the territory of a nation back into a natural region, as shown in the case of Chili, which gave up the attempt to extend its boundaries beyond the Andes, in spite of its having authorisation to do so, founded on the right of discovery, the original Spanish division of provinces, and wars of independence. A favourable external form is often coincident with a favourable internal configuration which is quite as furthering to internal continuity as is the external form to isolated development. The Roman Empire, externally uniform as an empire of Mediterranean states, was particularly qualified for holding fast to its most distant provinces, by reason of the Mediterranean Sea that occupied its very centre. Everything that furthers traffic is also favourable to cohesion. Hence the significance of waterways for ancient states, and of canals and railways for modern nations. Egypt was the empire of the Nile, and the Rhine was at one time the life-vein of the empire of Charles the Great. A state does not always remain fixed in the same natural region. However advantageous they may have been, it must, on increasing, forsake the best of boundaries. Since one region is exchanged for another, the law of increasing areas comes into force. Every land, sea, river region, or valley should always be conceived of as an area that must be discovered,inhabited, and politically realised before it may exert any influence beyond its limits. Thus the Mediterranean district had first to complete its internal development before it could produce any external effect.
First Continent State
This internal development first took possession of the small territories, and, mastering them, turned to the greater. Thus we may see history progress from clearings in forests, oases, islands, small peninsulas, such as Greece; and strips of coast, to great peninsulas, such as Italy; isthmian situations of continental size, such as Gaul; only to come to a halt in half continents such as the United States and Canada, and continents. Europe—next to the smallest continent—has had the richest history of all, but with the greatest breaking up of its area into small divisions. Australia, the smallest continent, is the earliest to unite its parts into a continental state. Development expends all its power in bringing the areas of the three greatest land-divisions into play, and in opposing their one hundred and five million square miles to the ten and a half million of the smaller divisions; their economic action is already felt to a considerable degree. Thus there arises an alternation of isolation and expansion, which was clearly shown in the history of Rome, whose territory grew from the single city, out over the valley of the Tiber, into Apennine Italy, into the peninsula, across the islands and peninsulas of the Mediterranean, and finally into the two adjacent continents.
THE HOTTEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IS INHABITED BY MANNo climate has triumphed over the endurance of man. Massowah, the most important town in the Italian Colony of Eritrea, in North Africa, is the hottest place in the world, but, like the coldest known place, it is inhabited.
THE HOTTEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IS INHABITED BY MAN
No climate has triumphed over the endurance of man. Massowah, the most important town in the Italian Colony of Eritrea, in North Africa, is the hottest place in the world, but, like the coldest known place, it is inhabited.
Nature and National Destiny
The boundaries of natural regions are always natural boundaries. Although this delicate subject may be left to political geography, it is by no means to be neglected by those who are interested in history, boundary questions being among the most frequent causes of wars. In addition, boundaries are the necessary result of historical movements. In case two states strive against each other in expanding, the motion of both is impeded, and the boundary lies where the movement comes to a halt. It is in the nature of things that growing states are very frequently contiguous to uninhabited regions, not to other states. This contiguity is always a source of natural boundaries. The most natural of all arise from adjacency to uninhabitable regions: first the uninhabitable lands, then the sea. The boundary at the edge of the uninhabitable world is the safest; for there is nothing beyond. The broad Arctic frontiers of Russia are a great source of power. A high mountain range, also, may separate inhabited regions—which are always State territory—by an uninhabited strip of land. After all, the sea, marshes, rivers even, are uninhabitable zones. But traffic brings connection with it, and the Rhine, which to the Romans was a moat, especially well adapted as a defence, is now, with its thirty railway bridges and thousands of vessels plying up and down and across, far more of a highway and a means of communication than a dividing line.
The position, form, and movements of the earth seem far enough removed from the deeds and destinies of peoples, yet the more we contemplate the latter, the more we are led to consider the earth’s inclination to its axis, its approximately spherical form, and its motion, which, combined,are the cause of the recurrence in fixed order of day and night, summer and winter.
INHABITANTS OF THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLDMan is the most adaptable of living creatures. There is no climate in the world in which he cannot live. The lowest temperatures taken have been at Verkhoyansk, in Siberia, but the place is inhabited by people, of whom we give a group.
INHABITANTS OF THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLD
Man is the most adaptable of living creatures. There is no climate in the world in which he cannot live. The lowest temperatures taken have been at Verkhoyansk, in Siberia, but the place is inhabited by people, of whom we give a group.
The effects of these great earthly phenomena are differently felt in every country; for they vary according to geographical location. Practically, that which most conforms to any given situation north or south of the equator is the climate of a land. Day and night are of more even length at the equator than in our country; but beyond the Polar circles there are days that last for months, and nights equally long. Scarcely any annual variation in temperature is known to the inhabitants of Java, while in Eastern Siberia Januarys of fifty degrees below freezing-point and Julys of twenty degrees above zero of Centigrade, winters during which the mercury freezes, and summers of oppressive sultriness, are contrasted with one another.
MAN’S TRIUMPH OVER CLIMATE: THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLDJust as man has established himself in the torrid heat of Massowah, so he can endure the highest degree of cold. The coldest place in the world, Verkhoyansk, of which this is a photograph, is the capital of a Siberian province.
MAN’S TRIUMPH OVER CLIMATE: THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLD
Just as man has established himself in the torrid heat of Massowah, so he can endure the highest degree of cold. The coldest place in the world, Verkhoyansk, of which this is a photograph, is the capital of a Siberian province.
In our temperate region there is rain, as a rule, during all months, but as far north as Italy and Greece the year is divided into a dry and a wet season. Great effects are produced over the entire earth and upon all living creatures by the thus conditioned climatic differences. They must be considered at the very beginning of every investigation into history. Since we know that a fluctuating distribution of heat is caused by the 23½° inclination of the earth’s axis, investigation also leads us to a knowledge of further phenomena, to a consideration of the dependence of thewinds and of the precipitation of heat upon this very same condition.
The First Question about a Country
And thus we come into contact with the thousand connecting threads by which man’s economic activity, health, distribution over the earth, even his spiritual and his political life, are inseparably bound up with the climate. Hence the first question that should be asked concerning a country is: What is its geographical situation? A land may be interesting for many other reasons besides nearness or remoteness from the equator; but that which is of the greatest interest of all to the historian is a consideration of the manifold and far-reaching effects of climate.
The study of human geography teaches us that climate affects mankind in two ways. First, it produces a direct effect upon individuals, races, indeed the inhabitants of entire zones, influencing their bodily conditions, their characters, and their minds; in the second place, it produces an indirect effect by its influence on conditions necessary to life. This is due to the fact that the plants and animals with which man stands in so varied a relationship, which supply him with nourishment, clothing, and shelter, which, when domesticated and cultivated, enter his service, as it were, and become most valuable and influential assistants and instruments for his development and culture, are also dependent upon climate. Important properties of the soil, the existence of plains, deserts, and forests, also depend upon climate. Effects of climate, both direct and indirect, are united in political-geographical phenomena, and are especially manifest in the growth of states and in their permanence and strength.
Man can Bear all Climates
There is no climate that cannot be borne by man; of all organic beings he is one of the most capable of adapting himself to circumstances. Men dwell even in the very coldest regions. The place where the lowest temperatures have been measured, Verkhoyansk, with a mean January temperature of -54° F., is the capital of a Siberian province; and a district where the temperature is of the very hottest, Massowah, is the most important town in the Italian colony of Eritrea.
However, both heat and cold, when excessive, tend to lessen population, the size of settlements, and economic activity. The great issues of the world’s history have been decided on ground situated between the tropic of Cancer and the Polar circle. The question as to whether the northern half of North America should be English or French was decided between the parallels of 44° and 48° north latitude; and in the same manner the settlement as to whether Sweden or Russia should be supreme in Northern Europe took place a little south of 60° north. Holland did not lose and regain her Indian possessions in the neighbourhood of the equator, but in Europe; and Spain fell from the high estate of sovereign over South and Central America because her power as a European nation had decayed.
Strange Divergence of a Race
The coldest countries in the world are either entirely uninhabited—as Spitzbergen and Franz Josef’s Land—or very thinly populated. Some are politically without a master—the two territories just mentioned, for example; some are politically occupied, as is Greenland, but are of very little value. History teaches that traffic between such colonies and the mother country may cease entirely without the mother country suffering any loss thereby. The hottest regions in the world are for the most part colonies or dependencies of European Powers. This applies to the whole of tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania, and partly to tropical America.
The exclusion of European nations from grasping for possessions in America was not determined upon in the compromised territory of tropical America, but in the United States, a short distance south of 39° north latitude. What a difference in the parts played in history by the two branches of the Tunguse race, the one held in subjection in the cold latitude of Russia, the other conquering China, and now the sovereign power in the more temperate climate of that country; or between the Turks who, as Yakuts, lead a nomadic life in the Lena valley, and the Turks who govern Western Asia! Latham called the region extending from the Elbe to the Amoor—within which dwell Germans, Sarmatians, Ugrian Finns, Turks, Mongolians, and Manchurians, peoples who strike with a two-edged sword—a “Zone of Conquest.” Farther to the north nations are poor and weak; toward the equator, luxurious and enervated. The inhabitants of this centralzone have over-run their neighbours both to the north and to the south, while never, either from the north or from the south, have they themselves suffered any lasting injury. The Germans have advanced from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean; the Slavs inhabit a territory that extends from the Arctic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea; the Turks and Mongolians have penetrated as far south as India; and there have been times when Mongolians ruled from the Arctic Ocean to Southern India. Finally, the Manchurians have extended their sphere of influence over Northern Asia as far south as the tropic of Cancer.
EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE COURSE OF HISTORYA map on which the isothermal lines are drawn is rich in historical instruction. Where the lines diverge we have regions of equal temperature; where they crowd together, districts of different mean annual temperatures lie close together. The crowding of climatic variations in any region enlivens and hastens the course of history.
EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE COURSE OF HISTORY
A map on which the isothermal lines are drawn is rich in historical instruction. Where the lines diverge we have regions of equal temperature; where they crowd together, districts of different mean annual temperatures lie close together. The crowding of climatic variations in any region enlivens and hastens the course of history.
These differences occur over again in more restricted areas, even within the temperate zone itself. The inhabitants of the colder portions of a country have often shown their superiority to the men who dwell in the warmer districts. The causes of the contrast between the Northerners and the Southerners, which has dominated in the development of the United States, may for the most part be clearly traced: the South was weakened by the plantation method of cultivation, and slavery; its white population increased slowly, and shared to a lesser degree than did the Northerners in the strengthening, educating influences of agriculture and manufacturing industries. Thus after a long struggle that finally developed into a war, the North won the place of authority.
Sunbeams and Rainfall in History
In Italy and in France the superiority of the north over the south is partially comprehensible; and in Germany the advantages possessed by Prussia, at least in area and in sea coast, are obvious. But when in English history also the north is found to have been victorious over the south, conditions other than climatic must have been the cause. In this case elements have been present that are more deeply-rooted than in sunbeams and rainfall alone.
We must call to mind the zone-like territories of early times, occupied by peoples from which the nations of to-day are descended; the boundary lines have disappeared, but the northern elements have remained in the north, and the southern elements in the south. It is well known that Aristotle adjudged political superiority and the sphere of world-empire to the Hellenes because they surpassed the courageous tribes of the north in intelligence and in mechanical instinct, and were superior to the both intelligent and skilful inhabitants of Asia in courage. “As the Hellenic race occupies a central geographical position, so does it stand between both intellectually.” The thought that this union of extreme intellectuality and power in arms on Hellenic soil could be the result of ethnical infiltration did not seem to have occurred to the philosopher. The fundamental idea of Aristotle, the aristocratic state, in which the talented Hellene alone was to rule over bondmen of various origins, who were, above all, to labour for him, could not have been possible had his views been otherwise. And yet he had clearly seen that the two talents—for war and for industry—were unequally distributed among the different Hellenic stocks, and that they were also variable according to time.
HOW THE SAME PEOPLES DIFFERThe Yakuts, who lead a nomad life in the valley of the Lena, and the Turks who govern Western Asia, are of the same stock, but the genial climate has enabled the Turks to flourish while the cold has kept the Yakuts poor. These groups represent both branches of the stock.
HOW THE SAME PEOPLES DIFFER
The Yakuts, who lead a nomad life in the valley of the Lena, and the Turks who govern Western Asia, are of the same stock, but the genial climate has enabled the Turks to flourish while the cold has kept the Yakuts poor. These groups represent both branches of the stock.
Considering the influence even of slighter differences in climate, the locations of regions of similar mean annual temperature, and the distances which separate them from one another, cannot be otherwise than important. A map on which the isothermal lines are drawn is rich in historical instruction. Where the lines diverge we have regions of equal temperature; where they crowd together, districts of different mean annual temperatures lie close to one another. The crowding of climatic variations in any region enlivens and hastens the course of history in that region. If the variations occur only at long intervals, all parts of a large territory having approximately equal mean annual temperatures, then climatic contrasts, which act as a ferment, as it were, are not present to any appreciable extent, and their effects lose in intensity and are dispelled.
Where are greater combinations of contrasting climatic elements to be found than in Greece and in the Alps? The joining together of the natives of rich, fruitful Zürich with the poor shepherds of the forests and mountains was of the utmost importance to the development of the Swiss Confederation. It was also a union of regions of mild and cold temperatures. The possession of Central European and Mediterranean climates, that shade into one another without any sharp line of demarcation, is a great advantage to France. If climatic differences approach one another in too great a contrast, clefts in development are likely to occur, such as the gap between the Northern and the Southern States in America, and that between North and South Queensland. If it be possible to adjust the political differences, then the union of areas ofdifferent temperatures has an invigorating effect, as shown by the history of the American Southern States since 1865.
THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON THE POWER OF PEOPLESThere is a world of difference between the two branches of the Tunguse race: the one is a poor people living in cold regions and subject to Russia; the other is the ruling race of the Chinese Empire, flourishing in a temperate climate. The upper group is composed of ruling Tunguses in China and the lower group represents Tunguses subject to Russia.
THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON THE POWER OF PEOPLES
There is a world of difference between the two branches of the Tunguse race: the one is a poor people living in cold regions and subject to Russia; the other is the ruling race of the Chinese Empire, flourishing in a temperate climate. The upper group is composed of ruling Tunguses in China and the lower group represents Tunguses subject to Russia.
Winds blowing in a constant direction for many months at a time were of great assistance to navigation during the days of sailing vessels, which, indeed, have not yet been entirely supplanted by steamships. Before the time of steam vessels all traffic on the Indian Ocean was closely connected with the change of the monsoons; and important political expansions have followed in the track of the same winds—for example, the diffusion of the Arabs along the east coast of Africa and in Madagascar. The influence of the trade winds on the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries along the Atlantic coast of America is well known. The south-eastern trade winds have been a cause of both voluntary and involuntary emigrations of Polynesian races. It may be clearly seen from the history of Greece what advantage was obtained by the race that won the alliance of the coast of Thrace and the wind that blows south from it with constancy during the entire fair season, often eight months long.
Where the wind is most variable, visiting entire countries with storms, to the great destruction of lives and property, the result is a stirring up of the survivors to exertions that cannot fail to be strengthening both to body and to mind, and of direct benefit to life in general. At the same time that the people of Holland were engaged in forcing back the ocean, they won their political liberty. In another part of the North Sea coast the Frisians receded farther and farther south, owingto the invasions of the sea and the attacks of the natives of Holstein. The tempest that scattered the armada of Philip II. was one of the most important political events of the time; and it is not to be denied that the snowstorm in Prussian Eylau, at the beginning of the battle in which Napoleon suffered his first defeat, contributed not a little to the result.
One of the Greatest Problems
Acclimatisation is one of the greatest of human problems. In order that a nation shall expand from one zone into another, it must be capable of adapting itself to new climates. The human race is, as a whole, one of the most adaptable of all animal species to different conditions of life; it is diffused through all zones and all altitudes up to about thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. But single nations are accustomed to fixed zones and portions of zones; and long residence in foreign climates leads to illness and loss of life.
Climate and Will-Power
In some races the individuals are of a more rigid constitution than in others, and are thus less capable of adaptation. Chinamen and Jews adapt themselves to different climates far more easily than do Germans, upon whom residence in the southern part of Spain even, and to a still greater degree in Northern Africa, is followed by injurious effects. The constant outbreaks of destructive disease before which the German troops withered away are to be counted amongst the greatest obstacles opposed to the absorption of Italy into the German Empire. During the Spanish discoveries and conquests in America in the sixteenth century, whole armies wasted away to mere handfuls. The greatest hindrances to German colonisation in Venezuela are climatic diseases. Medical science has, to be sure, pointed out such deleterious influences as may be traced to unsuitable dwelling-places, nutrition, clothing, etc.; and the losses to Europe of soldiers and officials in the tropics have been greatly reduced. But even to-day deaths, illnesses, and furloughs make up the chief items in the reports sent in from every colony in the tropics. British India can only be governed from the hills, where the officials dwell during the greater part of the year.
Climatic influence is not limited to bodily diseases. One of the first effects of life in warm climates upon men accustomed to cold regions is relaxation of what is known as will-power. Even the Piedmontese soldier loses his erect carriage in a Neapolitan or Sicilian garrison. Englishmen in India count on an ability to perform only half the amount of work they would be capable of at home. Many inhabitants of northern countries escape the bodily diseases of the tropics; but scarcely one man of an entire nation is able to resist the more subtle alterations in spirit.
The Peoples of North and South
Their historical influence extends only the deeper for it. The conquering nations that advance from north to south have invariably forfeited their power, determination, and activity. The original character of the Aryans who descended into the lowlands of India has been lost. A foreign spirit rings through the Vedic hymns. West Goths and Vandals alike lost their nationalities in Northern Africa and Spain, as the Lombards lost theirs in Italy. In spite of all emigration, immigration, and wandering hither and thither, there always remains a certain fixed difference between the inhabitants of colder and those of warmer countries; it is the nature of the land, moulding the more ductile character of a people into its own form. There are differences also between the northern and the southern stocks of the same race, and thus climate exerts here greater and there lesser influence upon nations and their destinies.
Since it lies in the nature of climatic influences to produce homogeneity among those peoples who inhabit extensive regions of similar mean annual temperatures, it follows that a unifying effect is also produced on political divisions that might otherwise be inclined to separate from one another. In the first place, a similar climate creates similar conditions of life, and thus the northern and southern races of each hemisphere, with their temperate and their hot climates, differ widely. Climate is also the cause of similar conditions of production over large territories. Leroy-Beaulieu rightly mentioned climate—above all, the winter, during which almost every year the whole land from north to south is covered with snow—as next in importance to the configuration of the country in its unifying, cohesive effects on the Russian Empire. Winters are not rare during which it is possibleto journey from Astrachan to Archangel in sledges; and both the Sea of Azov and the northern part of the Caspian Sea are frozen over during the cold months, as well as the Bay of Finland, the Dnieper as well as the Dwina.
A STORM THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY: THE WRECK OF THE ARMADAThe weather has greatly influenced the course of history and helped to mould the fate of nations. The tempest that scattered the Spanish Armada in 1588 was one of the most important political events of the time. This picture, from the painting by J. W. Carey, illustrates the wreck of the galleon “Girona,” at Giant’s Causeway.
A STORM THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY: THE WRECK OF THE ARMADA
The weather has greatly influenced the course of history and helped to mould the fate of nations. The tempest that scattered the Spanish Armada in 1588 was one of the most important political events of the time. This picture, from the painting by J. W. Carey, illustrates the wreck of the galleon “Girona,” at Giant’s Causeway.
Situation determines the affinities and relations of peoples and states, and is for this reason the most important of all geographical considerations. Situation is always the first thing to be investigated; it is the frame by which all other characteristics are encircled. Of what use were descriptions of the influence of the geographical configuration of Greece on Grecian history, in which the decisive point that Greece occupies a medial position between Europe and Asia, and between Europe and Africa, was not insisted upon above all? Everything else is subordinate to the fact that Greece stands upon the threshold of the Orient. However varied and rich its development may have been, it must always have been determined by conditions arising from its contiguity with the lands of Western Asia and Northern Africa. Area in particular, often over-valued, must be subordinated to location. The site may be only a point, but from this point the most powerful effects may be radiated in all directions. Who thinks of area when Jerusalem, Athens, or Gibraltar is mentioned? When it is found that the Fanning Islands or Palmyra Island is indispensable to the carrying out of England’s plans in respect to telegraphic connection of all parts of the empire with one another, merely because these islands are adapted for cable stations on the line between Queensland and Vancouver, is it not owing to their location alone, without consideration as to area, configuration, or climate?
Every portion of the earth lends its own peculiar qualities to the nations and races that dwell upon it, and so does each of its subdivisions in turn. Germany, as a first-class Power, is thinkable only in Europe. There cannot be either a New York or a St. Petersburg in Africa. Our organic conception of nations and states renders it impossible for us to look upon situation as something lifeless and passive; far rather must it signify active relations of giving and receiving. Two states cannot exist side by side without influencing each other. It is much more likely that such close relationships result from their contiguity; that, for example,we must conceive of China, Korea, and Japan as divisions of a single sphere of civilisation, their history consisting in a transference, transplanting, action, and reaction, leading to results of the greatest moment. Some situations are, indeed, more independent and isolated than others; but what would be the history of England, the most isolated country in Europe, if all relations with France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia were omitted? It would be incomprehensible.
The more self-dependent a situation is, the more is it a natural location; the more dependent, the more artificial, and the more it is a part of a neighbourhood. Connection with a hemisphere or grand division, identity with a peninsula or archipelago, location with respect to oceans, seas, rivers, deserts, and mountains, determine the histories of countries. It is precisely in the natural locality that we must recognise the strongest bonds of dependence on Nature. Apart from all other features peculiar to Italy, her central position in the Mediterranean alone determines her existence as a Mediterranean Power. However highly we may value the good qualities of the German people, the best of these qualities will never reach so high a development in the constrained, wedged-in, continental situation of their native land as they would in an island nation; for Germany’s location is more that of a state in a neighbourhood of states than a natural location, and for this reason more unfavourable than that of France.
POLITICAL EXPANSION HAS FOLLOWED IN THE TRACK OF THE WINDSThis map illustrating the trade winds and prevailing winds shows how important were these winds before the days of steam vessels. It shows that the outward voyage of Columbus was entirely along the track of the north-east trade winds. Where the arrows cross, as off the North-west of Scotland, we have regions of wind disturbances.
POLITICAL EXPANSION HAS FOLLOWED IN THE TRACK OF THE WINDS
This map illustrating the trade winds and prevailing winds shows how important were these winds before the days of steam vessels. It shows that the outward voyage of Columbus was entirely along the track of the north-east trade winds. Where the arrows cross, as off the North-west of Scotland, we have regions of wind disturbances.
THE RIVERS OF TWO CONTINENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN CIVILISATIONThe influence of riverways in furthering political development may be best seen in the contrast between South America and Africa; the colonising movement came to Africa three hundred years later than to South America.
THE RIVERS OF TWO CONTINENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN CIVILISATION
The influence of riverways in furthering political development may be best seen in the contrast between South America and Africa; the colonising movement came to Africa three hundred years later than to South America.
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND THEIR NEARNESS TO THE SEAA country’s prosperity depends greatly upon its relation to the sea. This map shows the boundaries of European countries, and the black lines indicate those countries that lie within 250 and 500 miles from the sea-coast.THE RELATION OF RIVERS AND THE SEA TO THE CIVILISATION OF COUNTRIES
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND THEIR NEARNESS TO THE SEA
A country’s prosperity depends greatly upon its relation to the sea. This map shows the boundaries of European countries, and the black lines indicate those countries that lie within 250 and 500 miles from the sea-coast.
THE RELATION OF RIVERS AND THE SEA TO THE CIVILISATION OF COUNTRIES
The Ideal Situation for a State
Natural localities of the greatest importance result from the configuration and situation of divisions of the earth’s surface. The extremities of continents—such as the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn, Singapore, Ceylon, Tasmania, and Key West—are points from which sea power radiates; and at the same timethey are the summits of triangular territories that extend inland and are governed from the apex. In the same way all narrowings of parts of continents are of importance. France occupies an isthmian position between ocean and sea; Germany and Austria between the North Sea, the Baltic, and the Adriatic. Some states are situated on the coast, occupying a bordering position; others occupy an intermediate location. And the more isolated situations are all fundamentally different, according to whether they are insular, peninsular, or continental. Situations in respect to the oceans are even more various. How different are Atlantic locations in Europe from those on the Mediterranean, the Baltic, or the Black Sea! Only a few nations occupy a position fronting on two great oceans. The ideal natural situation for a state may be said to be the embracing of a whole continent within one political system. This is the deeper source of the Monroe Doctrine.
Contrasts and Comparisons
Similar locations give rise to similar political models. Since there are several types of location, it follows that the histories of such locations assume typical characters. The contrast between Rome and Carthage, their association with each other, exhibiting the reciprocal action of the characters of the northern and southern Mediterranean coasts, is repeated in similarly formed situations in Spain and Morocco, in Thrace and Asia Minor, and on a smaller scale in the Italian and Barbary ports. In all these places events similar to those in Roman and Punic history have taken place. Japan and England are unlike in many respects; yet not only the peoples, but also the political systems, of the two island nations have insular characteristics. Germany and Bornu are as different from each other as Europe is from Africa, but central location has produced the same peculiarity in each—a source of power to the strong nation, of ruin to the weak.
Contiguity with neighbouring states brings with it important relationships. The most striking examples of such contiguity are to be seen in nations that are cut off from the coast of their continent and completely surrounded by other countries. Owing to the constant reaching out for more territory, such a situation in Europe, as well as in other continents, signifies unconditional loss of independence. Only connection with a great river can prevent the dissolution of a nation so situated. The instinctive impulse to extend its boundaries to the sea, shown by all nations, arises from the desire to escape an insulated continental position. Only the very smallest of states, such as Andorra and Liechtenstein—which, moreover, do not aspire to absolute independence—could have existed for centuries in the positions that they occupy. A medial situation held by one country between two others is also, in point of risk, comparable to a completely encompassed position. France was so situated when Germany and Spain were under the same ruler. The alliance of two neighbouring lands may place a third state in a similar position.
What is National Progress?
Whatever the individual locations of neighbouring states may be, their number is a matter of great importance. It is better to have a multitude of weak neighbours than a few strong ones. The development of the United States that gradually ousted France from the south, Mexico from the west, and Spain from both south and west, in order to be in touch with the sea on three sides, has, with the decrease in neighbouring Powers, resulted in an enviable simplification of political problems.
A nation covering various dispersed and scattered situations is to be seen at the present day only in regions of active colonisation and in the interiors of federal states. Powerful nations are consolidated into a single territory. We may see everywhere that when the area of distribution of a form of life diminishes in extent, it does not simply shrink up, but transforms itself into a number of island-like sites, giving the appearance that the form, of life is proceeding from a centre of the conquest of new territory. In what does the difference lie between islands of progress and of recession? With nations and states progress lies in the occupation of the most advantageous sites; retrogression lies in their loss and sacrifice. The American Indians, forced back from oceans, rivers, and fertile regions, form detached groups of retrogression; the Europeans who took these sites from them formed isles of progress as, one after another, they seized the islands, promontories, harbours, river-mouths, and passes.