pretentious, and less encumbered. In every war that has taken place in
a mountain land, the greater mobility of untrained militia has often
led to victories over regular troops. Races of inferior culture are
invariably more mobile than those of a higher grade of civilisation;
and they are able to equalise the advantages of the superior modes of
locomotion with which culture has supplied the latter. Mobility also
indicates a weaker hold upon the ground, and thus uncivilised peoples
are more easily dislodged from their territories than are nations
capable of becoming, as it were, more deeply rooted. In nomadic races,
mobility bound up with the necessity for an extensive territory assumes
a definite form, and, owing to a constant preparedness for wandering
and to the possession of an organised marching system, such peoples
have been among the greatest forces in Old World history.
Movements of nations are often spoken of as if certain definite
directions were forced upon them by some mysterious power. This view
not only wraps itself in the garment of prophecy--for example, when
announcing that the direction in which the sun travels must also be
that of history--but it formally presupposes a necessary east-to-west
progression of historical movements, endeavouring to substantiate
its doctrine by citation of examples, from Julius Cæsar to the
gold-seekers of California. But this necessity remains always in
obscurity. Not only is it contradicted by frequently confirmed reflex
movements in historical times, but it is also disproved still more by
the great migrations which have taken place on the same continent in
contrary directions. In Asia the Chinese have spread over the entire
area of interior plain and desert, westward to the nation-dividing
barriers of the Pamir Mountains; other Asiatic races have overflowed
into Europe--also from east to west. Contrariwise, ever since the
sixteenth century we have seen the Russians at work conquering the
entire northern part of the continent, constantly pressing on towards
the east. Even the sea proved no obstacle, for they both discovered and
acquired Alaska during the course of this same movement.
[Illustration: HOW CIVILISATION SPREAD THROUGH EUROPE
The inexorable influence of physical conditions on the life of
the peoples is well illustrated by the influence of the Alps in
deflecting the path of Mediterranean culture. These mountains
hemmed in the north of the Roman Empire and forced the Romans,
in their expansion, to the west. Hence Mediterranean culture and
Christianity were carried to Central Europe from the west instead
of from the south, and the civilisation of Germany depends on that
of France. The map shows the route followed by the stream of Roman
civilisation.
]
We shall not attach any universal significance to such fashionable
terms employed in historical works as political or historical
attraction, elective affinity or balance; least of all shall we presume
to discover occult, mysterious sources for them. It is obvious that a
powerful nation will overflow in the direction of least resistance; and
in the case of a strong Power confronting one that is weak there is a
constant movement toward the latter. Thus, from the earliest times,
Egypt has pressed on toward the south; and everywhere in the Sudan
we find traces of similar movements to the south as far as Adamawa,
where they are still to-day in energetic continuance. The history of
colonisation in America shows a turning of the streams of immigration,
in the south as well as in the north, towards the more thinly settled
regions; the more thickly populated are avoided. The migrations of
nations, which took place during periods of history when a surplus of
unoccupied land existed, were determined to a great extent by natural
causes. The more numerous nations become, the greater the obstacles
to migration, for most of these obstacles arise from the very nations
themselves.
Nations increase with their populations; lands with enlargement of
territory. So long as a country has sufficient area, the second form
of growth need not of necessity follow the first--the race spreads
out over the gaps which are open in the interior, and thus internal
colonisation takes place. If there is need for emigration, occupiable
districts may be found in the lands of another people--for centuries
Germans have thus found accommodation in Austria, Hungary, Poland, and
America.
[Sidenote: How New States are Born]
Of course, such colonists gradually become absorbed into the people
among whom they have settled. This is simple emigration, which is
therefore connected with the internal colonisation of a foreign land.
External colonisation first comes into being when a state acquires
territory under its control, into which territory, if it be suitable, a
portion of the inhabitants of the state move and settle. Colonisation
is not necessarily a State affair from the first. If a race inhabit
a country so sparsely as the Indians did America in the sixteenth
century, a foreign people, having the power of spreading out, may press
into the gaps with such success that this initial internal colonisation
may also be advantageous from a political standpoint. The State then
intervenes and appropriates the territory over which groups of its
inhabitants have previously acquired economic control.
The emigrants formed a social aggregate in the new country, and from
this aggregate a state, or the germ of a state, develops. Since such
an economic-social preparatory growth greatly assists in the political
acquirement of land, it is obvious that this form of colonisation
is especially sound and effectual. The opposite method follows when
a state first conquers a territory which it occupies later with its
own forces; this is colonisation by conquest. It can be capable of
development only when subsequent immigration permanently acquires the
land as a dwelling-place.
[Sidenote: Why Rome’s Empire Endured Long]
Conquest that neither can nor will take permanent possession of the
soil is characteristic of a low stage of culture; thus the Zulu states
in Africa, surrounded by broad strips of conquered yet uncontrolled
territory, and the old “world-empires” of Western Asia, exhausted
themselves in vain efforts to obtain lasting increase of area through
aggressive expeditions. That the Roman Empire lasted a longer time than
any of the preceding universal empires was due to the single fact that
agricultural colonisation invariably followed in the footsteps of its
political conquests.
The enlargement of a nation’s area is associated with soil and
inhabitants. If the increase of territory--for example, through
conquest--is much more rapid than the increase of population, an
inorganic, loosely connected expansion results, which, as a rule,
is soon lost again. If, on the contrary, population increases at a
proportionately greater rate than area, a crowding together, checks to
internal movements, and over-population follow. In consequence, great
discrepancies between growth of territory and increase of population
lead to the most varied results. The conquering nation expands over
extensive regions for which there are no inhabitants. Passive races in
India and in China become so crowded together that it is impossible for
their soil to support them any longer; hence a continuous degradation
and recurrent periods of famine, which may bring with them a relatively
feeble and unorganised emigration.
[Sidenote: The Modern Nations as Colonisers]
There are nations with whom conquest and colonisation seem to follow
in most profitable alternation: this appears to have been the case
with all colonising countries of modern history that have followed the
example of the Roman Empire. But there are great contrasts presented
even by these nations. Germany, Austria, and Russia, in immediate
connection with their conquered provinces, have colonised and expanded
toward the east. In spite of a rapid increase of population, Germany
has been backward in establishing trans-marine colonies, while France,
with a proportionately smaller increase of population, began by
colonising in all directions, but occupied more land than she was able
to master; for which reason colonization in the history of France has
taken more or less the character of conquest. England, on the contrary,
with a vigorous emigration and an expansive movement in all directions,
presents an example of the soundest and strongest method of founding
colonies which has been seen since early times.
[Illustration:
ABBREVIATIONS
BR. BRITISH
FR. FRENCH
SP. SPANISH
RU. RUSSIAN
GER. GERMAN
DU. DUTCH
PORT. PORTUGUESE
G. F. MORRELL 1907.
THE EXPANSION OF THE WHITE RACES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
This map illustrates the extent to which the white races have
spread into other than their native lands. The pale tint, as on
the British Isles, indicates the native land of the whites; the
darker tint shows where whites have settled down; while the black
portions represent those parts of the earth where the coloured
races predominate.
]
[Sidenote: Some New National Problems]
Through the entire course of history an ever-increasing value attached
to land may be traced; and in the expansion of nations we may also
see that mere conquest is growing less and less frequent, while the
economic acquisition of territory, piece by piece, is becoming the
rule. The getting of land assumes more and more the character of a
peaceful insinuation. The taking possession of distant countries
without consideration for the original inhabitants, who are either
driven away, or murdered--speedily with the aid of bullets, or slowly
with the assistance of gin or contagious diseases or by being robbed of
their best land--is to-day no longer possible. Colonisation has become
a well-ordered administration combined with instruction of the natives
in useful employments. The old method has left scarcely a single
pure-blooded Indian east of the Mississippi in the United States, and
not one native in Tasmania; the new method has before it the problem
how to share the land with negroes--in the Transvaal with 74 per cent.
and in Natal with 82 per cent. Climatic conditions are also to be taken
into consideration, for Caucasians are able to develop all their powers
in temperate regions only; a hot climate impels them to ensure the
co-operation of black labour through coercion.
[Sidenote: Mankind Ages with Civilisation]
During the course of centuries a motley collection of countries has
developed, all of which are called colonies, although they stand in
most striking contrast with one another. Several are nations in embryo,
to which only the outward form of independence is lacking; not a few
have once been independent; and many give the impression that they will
never be fit for self-government. There are some in which the native
population has become entirely extinct, such as Tasmania, Cuba, and
San Domingo; others in which the original inhabitants, still keeping
to their old customs and institutions, are guided and exploited by a
few white men only; and, finally, colonies in which the rulers and the
natives have assimilated with one another, as in Siberia. Once upon
a time such tokens of the youth of races as may be seen in rude but
remunerative labour on unlimited territory were widespread in many
colonies. But the new countries fill up visibly, and even they show
that mankind, as a whole, ages the more rapidly the more the so-called
progress of civilisation is hastened. However, an examination of the
peoples of the present day shows that the differences in age between
mother-countries and colonies will, indeed, continue for a long time
yet. Such differences exist between west and east Germans as well as
between New Englanders and Californians; they are even to be detected
in Australia, between the inhabitants of Queensland and of New South
Wales. Such differences are shown not only in the characteristics of
individuals, but also in the division of land and in methods of labour.
[Sidenote: Nations Hold fast to Nature]
Divergence and differentiation are the great factors of organic
growth. They govern the increase of nations and states from their
very beginnings. Since, however, these organisms are composed of
independent units, differentiation does not consist in an amalgamation
and transformation of individuals, but in their diffusion and grouping.
Therefore the differentiation of nations becomes eminently an affair
of geography. Never yet has a daughter people left its mother-country
to become an independent state without a previous disjunction having
taken place. All growth is alteration in area, and, at the same time,
change in position. The further growth extends away from the original
situation, the sooner dismemberment follows. In Australia, New South
Wales spreads out towards the north, and at the new central point,
Brisbane, a new colony, Queensland, is formed, which already differs
materially from New South Wales. And Queensland itself expands towards
the north, beyond the tropic of Capricorn into the torrid zone; and a
younger, tropical North Queensland develops.
[Illustration: LANDMARKS OF PAST AGES: FAMOUS FORTRESSES THAT HAVE
CEASED TO BE OF USE
With the changing conditions of politics, places once of enormous
importance have often become mere curiosities. There are in Europe
to-day hundreds of useless castles, fortresses, and harbours.
Even Dover Castle is of little strategic value. The fortresses
illustrated are (1) Mantua, (2) Dover, (3) Chillon, (4) Calais, (5)
Verona.
Photographs by Frith and Neurdein
]
[Sidenote: The Genius of the Coloniser]
The fact that nations hold fast to their natural conditions of
existence, even when growth impels them towards expansion in various
directions, is a great controlling force in historical movement. Russia
expands in its northern zone to the Pacific ocean; England continues
its growth on American soil, across the Atlantic, in almost the same
latitude. The Phœnicians, as a coast-dwelling people, remained on
the coasts and on the islands; the colonising Greeks ever sought out
similar situations to those of their native land; the Netherlanders
are found everywhere in Northern Germany as colonists of the moors
and marshes. All German colonies beyond the Alps and the Vosges have
disappeared; and the few Germans that remain are Latinised. Nations
that are accustomed to a limited territory, as were the Greeks,
always search for a similar limited area; on the other hand, the
Romans discovered a main factor of empire-building in their judicious
agricultural colonisation of broad plains; and the Russians sought
and found in Siberia the endless forests, steppes, and vast rivers
of their native land. Every nation, in expanding, seeks to include
within its area that which is of the greatest value to it. The
victorious state acquires the best positions and drives the conquered
race into the poorest districts. For this reason competition between
the colonizing nations has become very keen; they all judge of the
character of territory according to the same standard. Therefore,
wherever England has colonised, only a gleaning remains for the rest of
the Northern and Central European Powers.
Differentiation, arising from the valuation of land, is the cause of
a constant creation of new political values and of a constant lapsing
of old. Every portion of the world has its political value, which,
however, may become dormant, and must then be either discovered or
awakened. Such a discovery was the selection of the Piræus as the
harbour for Athens from among a number of bights and bays.
[Sidenote: The World is Being Centralised]
Every settlement and every founding of a city is at bottom an awakening
of dormant political value. Capacity for recognizing this value is
a part of the genius of a statesman, whose policy may be called
far-seeing partly because he is able to discern the dormant value while
yet on the most distant horizon. It is obvious that political values
vary; each is determined by the point of view from which it is looked
upon. The French and the German valuations of the Rhine borderland
are very different. Every nation endeavours to realise the political
value which it recognises; and in respect to political growth, ends are
set up in the shape of the portions of the earth to which that growth
aspires. Peculiarities in the conformation of states may be traced
back to an appreciation of the value of coasts, passes, estuaries, and
the like. With the spreading out and the concentration of nations,
such portions of the world as are important from a political point of
view have marvellously increased both in number and in value. But for
this very reason a choice of selection has become necessary, and this
we see in the use of fewer Alpine passes during the age of railways
than before, and in the concentration of a great commerce into fewer
seaports--into such as are capable of accommodating vessels of the
deepest draught. Others must withdraw from competition. To-day there
are hundreds of worthless harbours, passes, and fortresses in Europe
that were once situated on the highways of historical movement; now
however, they are avoided, deserted by the current of traffic.
[Sidenote: All the Rubbish of Civilisation]
There are more things necessary to an understanding of the dependence
of history on natural conditions than a mere knowledge of the land
upon which the development has taken place, particularly than a mere
knowledge of the ground as it was when history found it. Although each
country is in itself an independent whole, it is at the same time
a link in a chain of actions. It is an organism in itself, and, in
respect to a succession or a group of lands forming a whole, of which
it is a member, it is also an organ. Sometimes it is more organism than
organ; sometimes the opposite is true; and an eternal struggle goes
on between organism and organ. If the latter be a subjected province,
a tributary state, a daughter country, a colony, or member of a
confederation, the striving for independence is always a struggle for
existence.
This by no means presupposes a state of war. Not only war, but the
outwardly peaceful economic development of the world’s industries
reduces organisms to organs. When the wholesale importation of bad but
cheap products of European industries into Polynesia or Central Asia
causes decay in the production of native arts and crafts, it is a loss
to the life of the whole people; henceforth the race will be placed
in the same category with tribes that must gather rubber, prepare
palm-oil, or hunt elephants to supply European demand, and who in
turn must purchase threadbare fabrics, spirits that contain sulphuric
acid, worn-out muskets, and old clothes--in a word, all the rubbish of
civilisation.
Their economic organisation dies; and in many cases this is also
the beginning of the decline and extinction of a people. The
weaker organism has succumbed to the more powerful. Is the case so
different--that of Athens, unable to live without the corn, wood, and
hemp of the lands on the Northern Mediterranean coast?--or of England,
whose inhabitants would starve were it not for the importation of meat
and grain from North America, Eastern Europe, and Australia?
In vain have men sought for characteristics in the rocks of the
earth and in the composition of the air by which one land might be
distinguished from another.
[Illustration:
Underwood and Underwood.
MAN’S WONDERFUL TRIUMPH OVER NATURE
By irrigation the arid desert of California has been made to
blossom as the rose in the luxurious orange groves of Riverside.
These views show the desert, the method of irrigation, and the
result of man’s labour.
]
[Sidenote: How Man is Levelling the Earth]
The idea of great, lasting, conclusive qualitative variations in
different parts of the earth is mythical. Neither the Garden of Eden
nor the land of Eldorado belongs to reality. There is no country
whose soil bestows wondrous strength upon man or an exuberance of
fruitfulness upon woman. In India precious stones are as little apt
to grow out of the cliffs as silver and gold are likely to exude
from fissures in the earth. Nor is there any basis for the slighter
differences between the Old World and the New which the philosophers
of history of the eighteenth century believed they had discovered.
The opinion that the New World produces smaller plants, less powerful
animals, and finally a feebler humanity, was not unconditionally
rejected by even Alexander von Humboldt. The degeneration and wasting
away of the American Indians would certainly be a less disgraceful
phenomenon could it be attributed to some great natural law instead
of to the injustice, greed, and vices of the white men. In the
course of development of the European daughter-nations in America
we cannot recognise any such great and universal distinction. The
course of history in America, just as in corresponding periods of
time in Northern Asia, in Africa, and in Australia, only confirms the
belief that lands, no matter how distant from one another they may
be, whenever their climates are similar, are destined to be scenes of
analogous historical developments.
It is certain that, so far, one of the greatest results of the labour
of man has been the levelling and overcoming of natural differences.
Steppes are made fertile through irrigation and manuring; the
contrast between open and forest land becomes less and less--indeed
the destruction of forests is being far too rapidly and widely
carried out--the acclimatisation of men, animals, and plants causes
variations to disappear more and more as time passes. We can look
forward to a time when only such extremes as mountains and deserts will
remain--everywhere else the actions of the earth will be equalised. The
process by which this is carried out may be described shortly. Man, in
spite of all racial and national differences, is fundamentally quite as
much of a unity as the soil upon which he dwells; through his labour
more and more of this character of unity is transmitted to the earth,
which, as a result, also becomes more and more uniform.
[Sidenote: History from Heaven to Earth]
One of the most powerful of the ties by which history is bound to
Nature is that of its dependence on the ground. At the first glance
any given historical development is involved with the earth only--the
earth upon which the development takes place. But if we search deeper
we shall find that the roots of the development extend even to the
fundamental principles of the planetary system. By this it is not meant
that every history must be founded on a cosmological basis, that it
must begin with the creation, or, at least, with the destruction of
Troy, as was once thought necessary; but it is certainly safe to say
that a philosophy of the history of the human race, worthy of its name,
must begin with the heavens and then descend to the earth, filled with
the conviction that all existence is fundamentally one--an indivisible
conception founded from beginning to end on an identical law.
The 316,250,000 square miles of the earth’s surface is the first area
with which history has to do. Within it all other surface dimensions
are included; it is the standard for measurement of all other areas,
and also comprehends the absolute limits of all bodily life. This area
is fixed and immutable so far as the history of mankind is related to
it, although in respect to the history of the world it is not to be
looked upon as having been unalterable in the past, or as being likely
to remain unchanged in the future.
[Sidenote: 316,250,000 Miles of History]