was very different from that which we have noted in Britain.
Where the river valleys leave the hills for the northern plain are
old cities of great dignity and fame, and though they were
somewhat decadent after the decay of the Hanse, they were strong
enough to keep their common lands and their tradition of city
government from the Middle Ages. Coal was found along this
zone, and it became industrialized, but the new movement had
to respect the cities, which grew often on public land. The old
city of Nürnberg developed industrial refinements on the basis
of craftsmanship, which owed a great deal to the old business of
distributing goods from the East brought up from Venice to its
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mart. There was thus neither on the one hand the same general
growth of slums as in Britain, nor on the other the accumulation
of immense profits from slum development to be used as liquid
capital for speculative purposes. Moreover, the industrial effort
in Germany was contemporaneous with the effort to make Germany
a real nation-state, and each movement influenced the other.
Much thought was given to the question of the national balance-sheet,
and industry was made to help agriculture by conversion
of waste products into fertilizers. Thus, though Germany was
experiencing the same cityward drift of people as Britain, her
agriculture remained in a far stronger position than ours, and with
that went the probability of better maintenance of the quality of
the people. The wasting of resources on war, the distrust created
by aggressive intrigues, the loss of territory and minerals, and the
loss of health of the people through the blockade, all imply
changes in the situation of the German people, the consequences
of which it is difficult to foresee.
German industry utilized Polish labour in large quantities, and
was much concerned with the westward-flowing Slavonic stream
which was said to be altering the character of the German people.
On the other hand, a German stream of organization flowed
eastward and south-eastward, and the industrial fever made great
strides in the latter half of the nineteenth century in Bohemia,
in Austria proper, in Upper Silesia, and in Poland. In Bohemia it
emphasized the differences between German and Slavonic elements
of the people; in Upper Silesia and in Poland the Germans were
mainly found in the towns, especially in the leader class, and often
difference of language and sentiment between masters and men
was a very undesirable feature.
Polish industrial centres were correspondingly notorious for
their bad social conditions before the war.
The industrial fever spread to Russia, and of its entry into that
country we get a useful sketch in Kropotkin's _Fields, Factories,
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and Workshops_. Here was a country with marked seasonal cycles,
and often at first manufacture was made a winter occupation,
and was hoped by some to offer a means of rescuing many of the
people from some of the evils of the severe Russian winter. In
the Ukraine Poles seem to have done a good deal of the industrial
organization, and it was natural that German experience should
carry great influence. It was said that the co-operative,
even communist, traditions of the people accounted for much
in the form of organization of industry, the guilds or artels being
a distinctive feature. Needless to say that, with transport ill
developed, education neglected, and self-government impossible
under the Tsar, Russian industry was of doubtful efficiency and
social conditions bad. One must, however, remember that
industry was only beginning.
In addition to the main zone of industry which we have now
followed along the coal zone from Britain to Russia, the attempt
was made near small coalfields elsewhere, and even at times away
from coal, to glean some of the wealth industry brought. About
1895, however, hydro-electric power became transmissible over
long distances and thus much more applicable. This change
created new regions of industry in Scandinavia and around the
Alps. Both Sweden and Norway use this power, and it has
made an immense difference, especially to Norway. In the case
of Norway the weakness of class distinctions has led to the careful
organization of good social conditions, in spite of serious
difficulties because of the very limited sites available. In Switzerland,
South Germany, and Italy, up to 1914, the use of hydro-electric
power was creating a valuable community of interest and problems
that was drawing the whole region together, while Switzerland
was becoming strong economically in a way undreamed of before.
Post-war developments will need to be watched with care and
breadth of view. Hydro-electric power was being developed in
pre-war France, and will probably be a great help to that country
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if greater care is taken on the social side than was taken in the
early stages of the movement. It has been claimed that a
hydro-electric power system could be developed all around the Iberian
plateau, and something is said to have been done recently towards
its development. In the British Isles only a few spots can give
enough power to make an installation an economic success in the
present state of knowledge, so that in a water-power age Britain
would have a minor position. It seems doubtful at present
whether this form of power will become anything more than
an accessory. It is noteworthy that in the Alpine region it helps
a population fundamentally inclined to patient detailed work to
build up an industry in fine electrical machinery partly developed
from an old watchmaking tradition.
The utilization of tidal power has been debated, and a scheme
for the Severn estuary, as well as one for the north coast of Brittany,
has been elaborated. Should this line of development be followed
in the future, Britain's position and the power of the tides at
several points would assist greatly.
For the present, however, the fashionable power is oil, of which,
so far as is known, Britain has only a very little, and in which the
whole of Western Europe is also poor. But oil is rather easily
transportable, and Western Europe's powers of transport are being
used to exploit sources of oil in such places as are not already in
the sphere of influence of the United States of America. However
this may be disguised, it is none the less an indication of Europe's
increasing dependence on other regions for what her industry
needs. Large amounts of raw products now come from outside
Europe, and if power also comes from afar, Europe's advantages
will be restricted to her climate in its relation to efficiency, her
capital, her tradition of skill which she has endangered by the
enormous amount of specialization developed among her workers,
and her ownership and control of transport by sea. On this last
point it is noteworthy that the great advance made by the
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United States of America does not seem to be fully maintaining
itself.
For the immediate future the incalculable water-power available
in the monsoon lands, the immense and easily workable deposits
of coal in Shansi (North China), the coal and oil available in and
near the United States of America, the huge water-power that
might be utilized in several parts of America, the possibilities of
tidal power in many regions, and the production of power-alcohol
from equatorial vegetation, are all interesting factors of a situation
the precariousness of which for the thickly populated areas of
Western Europe is obvious to all. With their organization based
upon skill and patience, the peoples of Central Europe may well
go on developing, perhaps even exploiting, the Russian and
Turanian lands on their eastern flank, as these latter do not seem
likely to become industrial for some time. On the other hand,
a Sino-Japanese development of industry on a large scale is always
possible, and, if wisely managed, should have the benefit of the
skill, taste, and honesty of the Chinese merchant as well as of the
skilful industry of the Chinese workman, whose frugality and
cheerfulness would make him a formidable competitor. The
signs of the times are thus in favour of the departure of industrial
primacy from Europe, however much political effort may contrive
to delay the change.
Before following out this thought it will be best to mention
some of the collateral developments in European and other lands
more indirectly affected by industrialism. The huge factory
populations need food, and the imported food supply of Europe
is an enormous problem. Cereals and some fruits may be carried
with ease, but the factory hands and especially the miners and
furnacemen need meat, and though meat can be carried in
refrigerators or alive, yet imported meat suffers through transport.
While therefore Australia, Argentina, and other regions are very
busy supplying stock products, there is a good deal of stock-raising
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and dairy work to be done in Europe. Holland and Denmark
have specialized in this matter, and the latter made herself a centre
for dairy produce from Holland and Lithuania and even Russia
before 1914. With political and social peace Ireland would
undoubtedly develop in this way. Several hill regions, like Central
France and parts of Switzerland, were also busy stock-raising, and
are likely to prosper in this direction if European industry
maintains itself.
In Switzerland the high ledge-pastures or alps have a remarkable
growth of hay in spring after the snow melts, and this gives
advantages over our British high lands. For their better utilization
it would be necessary to improve the breeds of grasses, and
important experiments for this purpose are in progress in Wales.
In the Highlands of Scotland the population is decreasing fast,
and thus Britain is losing a most valuable element in her
population, an element trained to endure hardness and traditionally
interested in serious thought.
The large financial resources of industrial populations and the
thriftlessness so inevitably developed under the circumstances of
their life in its present anarchic phase, further lead to a demand
for luxury foods, flowers, and so on, and Holland and the Channel
Islands are notable providers of these extras. The increase of
fine machinery and other factors make it fairly certain that olive
oil will have a good market for a long time, even if pea-nut oil
is used alongside of it. Olive oil and fruits offer opportunities
for the Mediterranean.
Thus practically every part of Europe is directly or indirectly
brought into the process of industrial development, and all are
increasingly dependent on the world outside, however much the
German people may have tried to maintain their agriculture.
This dependence and the precariousness of Europe's industrial
position, added to the fact that with an effort and some amount
of goodwill the peoples of Europe could grow to understand one
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another, especially in view of their common debt to the Roman
heritage, make it unthinkable that what is practically civil war
can be tolerated much longer in Europe. Before 1914 the Labour
Movement was clearly working towards the weakening of the
idea of the nation-state and its sovereignty, but the events of
1914 showed that the movement had not yet gained a real hold
on men's imagination. The new League of Nations movement
is an evidence of development of the same line of thought among
the thinkers of the Continent, and is slowly gathering momentum
through the creation of institutions with laws for their guidance,
and the promise of the growth of a body of lawyers as interested to
maintain those institutions as the lawyers of the nation-states have
been to maintain that form of organization. The League has had
to take up the question of the relations of Europe to distant lands,
and has stood for a principle of trusteeship, the fate of which is
trembling in the balance. The more hopeful Europeans see signs
of the growth of co-operation, and find indications of it even as
between France and Germany. Britain is torn between the
attitudes of solidarity with Europe and of aloofness from Europe
and association with distant lands of English speech. Perhaps
the improvement of the League of Nations scheme or its
transformation after discussions with the leaders of the United States
of America will give a means to put an end to this dilemma by
reconciling both aims.
Therein lies one of the greatest hopes for the salvaging of
civilization, though Britain's other problem of rescuing her
population from degenerative tendencies due to industrialism is
as clamant for solution if the world's peace is to develop. That
industry should spread, that every people should maintain an
agricultural background, and that the peoples of Europe should
find means to co-operate in matters of imports from the tropics,
transport arrangements, and labour conditions, must be the hope
of all who think of the future seriously, even if this means the
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discarding of ambitions of power which in less critical times
disguised themselves under the cloak of patriotism. This does
not mean the destruction of patriotism, but rather its ennoblement
into a passion for the well-being and the health of future
generations of the people, for the enrichment of each heritage
of language, literature, tradition, and art by active effort, and for
the growth of that toleration which is the accompaniment of
self-control and its attendant liberty and peace.
[NOTE.--The writer wishes to express his most sincere thanks to
his friends and fellow workers in the fields of research concerned,
especially to Miss R. M. Fleming and Mr. H. J. E. Peake, and
the late Professor V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri.]
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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Among the most important general reference works one must mention the
chief encyclopaedias, Reclus's _Géographie universelle_
(also in English), the
_International Geography_,
the _Dictionnaire de Géographie universelle_ (V. de
S. Martin). Ratzel's _Anthropogeographie_
and Brunhes's _La Géographie humaine_
and _Géographie humaine de la France_
should also be mentioned here. Bowman,
_The New World_, has a fine collection of maps
relating to the political
resettlement of Europe.
On Race Questions the standard book is
W. Z. Ripley's famous work, _The
Races of Europe_, supplemented by
G. Sergi's _Europa_ in Italian and by a
number of papers by Keith, Parsons, Peake, Fleure,
and others in the _Journal
of the Royal Anthropological Institute_
during the last ten years. Dr. Haddon
and Mrs. Quiggin have issued a valuable
revision of Keane's _Man, Past and
Present_. Déchelette's _Archéologie_
is the standard work in its field and may
be supplemented from Burkitt's _Prehistory_
and Macalister's _Archaeology_.
On Languages and their Distribution the student may begin by consulting
A. Meillet's _Les Langues dans l'Europe nouvelle_
and L. Dominian on _Frontiers
of Language and Nationality in Europe_.
From these books a bibliography can
be compiled to suit the student's purpose.
The evolution of social conditions in Europe
is so complex that it has not
as yet received synthetic treatment,
but some tentative efforts are useful if
read critically. Among them one may note
the files of _La Science sociale_ and
Demolins's _Comment la route crée le type social_,
Guizot's _Histoire de la
Civilisation en Europe_, Kropotkin's _Mutual Aid_,
his _Fields, Factories, and Workshops_,
and his _Memoirs of a Revolutionist_,
as well as Jenks's works, such as the little
_History of Politics_, and Geddes's _Cities in Evolution_.
It is impossible to give an adequate list of books
on special regions, but the
following will be found of value for various parts
of the Continent involved in
the recent treaties:
P. Vidal de la Blache, _Tableau de la Géographie
de la France_; P. Vidal de
la Blache, _La France de l'Est_; R. Blanchard,
_La Flandre_; H. J. Mackinder,
_The Rhine_; _Atlas de Finlande_; P. Leroy Beaulieu,
_The Empire of the Tsars_;
A. B. Boswell, _Poland and the Poles_; J. Cvijic,
_La Péninsule balkanique_;
M. I. Newbigin, _Geographical Aspects
of Balkan Problems_; M. E. Durham,
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_The Burden of the Balkans_; E. de Martonne,
_La Valachie_; A. Philippson,
_Das Mittelmeergebiet_; D. G. Hogarth, _The Nearer East_.
Further guidance to books on regions of Europe will be found in the
valuable handbooks issued by the British Government in two series,
i.e. the handbooks issued by the Intelligence Department
of the Admiralty, and
the handbooks issued by the Historical Section of the Foreign Office.
The reader interested in some of the problems may wish to consult
J. Fairgrieve's _Geography and World-Power_,
H. J. Mackinder's _Democratic Ideals and
Reality_, H. J. Fleure's _Human Geography in Western Europe_,
and C. B. Fawcett's
_Frontiers_.
The standard journals have issued important articles by Hinks, Lyde,
Newbigin, and others on the rearranged
boundaries of European states, and
among books concerned with the new Europe one may mention J. M. Keynes,
_Economic Consequences of the Peace_; I. Bowman, _The New World_;
M. I. Newbigin, _Aftermath_; and H. J. Fleure,
_The Treaty Settlement in Europe_.
The new _Times Atlas_ is invaluable, and may be supplemented on the
historical side by use of the well-known
historical atlases of F. Schrader, Poole,
Ramsay Muir, Diercke, and others.
Several valuable maps occur only in Vidal
de la Blache, _Atlas général_.
PRINTED IN ENGLAND
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
[Illustration: Rear end paper]