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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Illustration: 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 of different temperatures has an invigorating effect, as shown
by the history of the American Southern States since 1865.
[Illustration: 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, owing to 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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 possible to 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration:
_Outward Voyage of Columbus shown thus_
_Homeward Voyage of Columbus shown thus_
_Periodical Winds_ (_Monsoons_) _shown thus_
_Prevailing & Constant Winds shown thus_
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.
]
[Illustration: 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 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]
[Sidenote: 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 time they 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Illustration: THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS--IV
Professor FREDERICK RATZEL]
THE SIZE AND POWER OF NATIONS
[Sidenote: The State and its Territory]
It is not without reason that so much importance is attached to extent
of surface in geography. Area and population represent to us the two
chief characteristics of a state; and to know them is the simplest
means--often too simple--for obtaining a conception of the size and
power of a nation. We cannot conceive of any man, much less a human
community, without thinking of surface or ground at the same time.
Political science may, through a number of clever conclusions, reduce
the area of a state to a mere national possession; but we all know that
territory is too tightly bound up with the very life of a state for
it to assume a position of so little importance. In a nation, people
and soil are organically united into one, and area and population
are the measure of this union. A state cannot exchange or alter its
area without suffering a complete transformation itself. What wonder,
then, that wars between nations are struggles for territory? Even in
war the object is to limit the opponent’s sphere of action; how much
more does the whole history of nations consist in a winning and losing
of territory. The Poles still exist as they did in former times; but
the ground upon which they dwell has ceased to belong to them in a
political sense, and thus their state has been annihilated.
[Sidenote: The Vast Modern Empires]