THE PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE
OR
THE RACIAL BASIS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY
BY
MADISON GRANT
CHAIRMAN, NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY; TRUSTEE, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF
NATURAL HISTORY; COUNCILOR, AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
_FOURTH REVISED EDITION
WITH A DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT_
WITH PREFACES
BY
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1923
COPYRIGHT, 1916, 1918, 1921, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Printed in the United States of America
Published October, 1916
Reprinted December, 1916
NEW AND REVISED EDITION
Published March, 1918
Reprinted March, 1919
THIRD EDITION, REVISED
Published May, 1920
FOURTH EDITION, REVISED
Published August, 1921
Reprinted February, July, 1922
February, September, 1923
[Illustration]
To
MY FATHER
PREFACE
European history has been written in terms of nationality and of
language, but never before in terms of race; yet race has played a far
larger part than either language or nationality in moulding the
destinies of men; race implies heredity and heredity implies all the
moral, social and intellectual characteristics and traits which are the
springs of politics and government.
Quite independently and unconsciously the author, never before a
historian, has turned this historical sketch into the current of a great
biological movement, which may be traced back to the teachings of Galton
and Weismann, beginning in the last third of the nineteenth century.
This movement has compelled us to recognize the superior force and
stability of heredity, as being more enduring and potent than
environment. This movement is also a reaction from the teachings of
Hippolyte Taine among historians and of Herbert Spencer among
biologists, because it proves that environment and in the case of man,
education, have an immediate, apparent and temporary influence, while
heredity has a deep, subtle and permanent influence on the actions of
men.
Thus the racial history of Europe, which forms the author’s main outline
and subject and which is wholly original in treatment, might be
paraphrased as the heredity history of Europe. It is history as
influenced by the hereditary impulses, predispositions and tendencies
which, as highly distinctive racial traits, date back many thousands of
years and were originally formed when man was still in the tribal state,
long before the advent of civilization.
In the author’s opening chapters these traits and tendencies are
commented upon as they are observed to-day under the varying influences
of migration and changes of social and physical environment. In the
chapters relating to the racial history of Europe we enter a new and
fascinating field of study, which I trust the author himself may some
day expand into a longer story. There is no gainsaying that this is the
correct scientific method of approaching the problem of the past.
The moral tendency of the heredity interpretation of history is for our
day and generation and is in strong accord with the true spirit of the
modern eugenics movement in relation to patriotism, namely, the
conservation and multiplication for our country of the best spiritual,
moral, intellectual and physical forces of heredity; thus only will the
integrity of our institutions be maintained in the future. These divine
forces are more or less sporadically distributed in all races, some of
them are found in what we call the lowest races, some are scattered
widely throughout humanity, but they are certainly more widely and
uniformly distributed in some races than in others.
Thus conservation of that race which has given us the true spirit of
Americanism is not a matter either of racial pride or of racial
prejudice; it is a matter of love of country, of a true sentiment which
is based upon knowledge and the lessons of history rather than upon the
sentimentalism which is fostered by ignorance. If I were asked: What is
the greatest danger which threatens the American republic to-day? I
would certainly reply: The gradual dying out among our people of those
hereditary traits through which the principles of our religious,
political and social foundations were laid down and their insidious
replacement by traits of less noble character.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN.
July 13, 1916.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
History is repeating itself in America at the present time and
incidentally is giving a convincing demonstration of the central thought
in this volume, namely, that heredity and racial predisposition are
stronger and more stable than environment and education.
Whatever may be its intellectual, its literary, its artistic or its
musical aptitudes, as compared with other races, the Anglo-Saxon branch
of the Nordic race is again showing itself to be that upon which the
nation must chiefly depend for leadership, for courage, for loyalty, for
unity and harmony of action, for self-sacrifice and devotion to an
ideal. Not that members of other races are not doing their part, many of
them are, but in no other human stock which has come to this country is
there displayed the unanimity of heart, mind and action which is now
being displayed by the descendants of the blue eyed, fair-haired peoples
of the north of Europe. In a recent journey in northern California and
Oregon I noted that, in the faces of the regiments which were first to
leave for the city of New York and later that, in the wonderful array of
young men at Plattsburg, the Anglo-Saxon type was clearly dominant over
every other and the purest members of this type largely outnumbered the
others. In northern California I saw a great regiment detrain and with
one or two exceptions they were all native Americans, descendants of the
English, Scotch and north of Ireland men who founded the State of Oregon
in the first half of the nineteenth century. At Plattsburg fair hair and
blue eyes were very noticeable, much more so than in any ordinary crowds
of American collegians as seen assembled in our universities.
It should be remembered also that many of the dark-haired, dark-eyed
youths of Plattsburg and other volunteer training camps are often
three-fourths or seven-eighths Nordic, because it only requires a single
dark-eyed ancestor to lend the dark hair and eye color to an otherwise
pure Nordic strain. There is a clear differentiation between the
original Nordic, the Alpine and the Mediterranean strains; but where
physical characters and characteristics are partly combined in a mosaic,
and to a less degree are blended, it requires long experience to judge
which strain dominates.
With a race having these predispositions, extending back to the very
beginnings of European history, there is no hesitation or even waiting
for conscription and the sad thought was continually in my mind in
California, in Oregon and in Plattsburg that again this race was
passing, that this war will take a very heavy toll of this strain of
Anglo-Saxon life which has played so large a part in American history.
War is in the highest sense dysgenic rather than eugenic. It is
destructive of the best strains, spiritually, morally and physically.
For the world’s future the destruction of wealth is a small matter
compared with the destruction of the best human strains, for wealth can
be renewed while these strains of the real human aristocracy once lost
are lost forever. In the new world that we are working and fighting for,
the world of liberty, of justice and of humanity, we shall save
democracy only when democracy discovers its own aristocracy as in the
days when our Republic was founded.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN.
December, 1917.
CONTENTS
_PART I_
RACE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY
PAGE
I. RACE AND DEMOCRACY 3
II. THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF RACE 13
III. RACE AND HABITAT 37
IV. THE COMPETITION OF RACES 46
V. RACE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY 56
VI. RACE AND LANGUAGE 69
VII. THE EUROPEAN RACES IN COLONIES 76
_PART II_
EUROPEAN RACES IN HISTORY
I. EOLITHIC MAN 97
II. PALEOLITHIC MAN 104
III. THE NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES 119
IV. THE ALPINE RACE 134
V. THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE 148
VI. THE NORDIC RACE 167
VII. TEUTONIC EUROPE 179
VIII. THE EXPANSION OF THE NORDICS 188
IX. THE NORDIC FATHERLAND 213
X. THE NORDIC RACE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE 223
XI. RACIAL APTITUDES 226
XII. ARYA 233
XIII. ORIGIN OF THE ARYAN LANGUAGES 242
XIV. THE ARYAN LANGUAGE IN ASIA 253
APPENDIX WITH COLORED MAPS 265
DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT 275
BIBLIOGRAPHY 415
INDEX 445
CHARTS AND MAPS
CHARTS
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE _Pages_ 132–133
CLASSIFICATION OF THE RACES OF EUROPE _Facing page_ 123
PROVISIONAL OUTLINE OF NORDIC INVASIONS AND METAL
CULTURES _Facing page_ 191
MAPS
MAXIMUM EXPANSION OF ALPINES WITH BRONZE CULTURE,
3000–1800 B. C. _Facing page_ 266
EXPANSION OF THE PRE-TEUTONIC NORDICS, 1800–100 B. C. _Facing page_ 268
EXPANSION OF THE TEUTONIC NORDICS AND SLAVIC ALPINES,
100 B. C.–1100 A. D. _Facing page_ 270
PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF EUROPEAN RACES _Facing page_ 272
INTRODUCTION
The following pages are devoted to an attempt to elucidate the meaning
of history in terms of race; that is, by the physical and psychical
characters of the inhabitants of Europe instead of by their political
grouping or by their spoken language. Practically all historians, while
using the word race, have relied on tribal or national names as its sole
definition. The ancients, like the moderns, in determining ethnical
origin did not look beyond a man’s name, language or country and the
actual information furnished by classic literature on the subject of
physical characters is limited to a few scattered and often obscure
remarks.
Modern anthropology has demonstrated that racial lines are not only
absolutely independent of both national and linguistic groupings, but
that in many cases these racial lines cut through them at sharp angles
and correspond closely with the divisions of social cleavage. The great
lesson of the science of race is the immutability of somatological or
bodily characters, with which is closely associated the immutability of
psychical predispositions and impulses. This continuity of inheritance
has a most important bearing on the theory of democracy and still more
upon that of socialism, for it naturally tends to reduce the relative
importance of environment. Those engaged in social uplift and in
revolutionary movements are therefore usually very intolerant of the
limitations imposed by heredity. Discussion of these limitations is also
most offensive to the advocates of the obliteration, under the guise of
internationalism, of all existing distinctions based on nationality,
language, race, religion and class. Those individuals who have neither
country, nor flag, nor language, nor class, nor even surnames of their
own and who can only acquire them by gift or assumption, very naturally
decry and sneer at the value of these attributes of the higher types.
Democratic theories of government in their modern form are based on
dogmas of equality formulated some hundred and fifty years ago and rest
upon the assumption that environment and not heredity is the controlling
factor in human development. Philanthropy and noble purpose dictated the
doctrine expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the document
which to-day constitutes the actual basis of American institutions. The
men who wrote the words, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal,” were themselves the owners of slaves and
despised Indians as something less than human. Equality in their minds
meant merely that they were just as good Englishmen as their brothers
across the sea. The words “that all men are created equal” have since
been subtly falsified by adding the word “free,” although no such
expression is found in the original document and the teachings based on
these altered words in the American public schools of to-day would
startle and amaze the men who formulated the Declaration.
It will be necessary for the reader to divest his mind of all
preconceptions as to race, since modern anthropology, when applied to
history, involves an entire change of definition. We must, first of all,
realize that race pure and simple, the physical and psychical structure
of man, is something entirely distinct from either nationality or
language. Furthermore, race lies at the base of all the manifestation of
modern society, just as it has done throughout the unrecorded eons of
the past and the laws of nature operate with the same relentless and
unchanging force in human affairs as in the phenomena of inanimate
nature.
The antiquity of existing European populations, viewed in the light
thrown upon their origins by the discoveries of the last few decades,
enables us to carry back history and prehistory into periods so remote
that the classic world is but of yesterday. The living peoples of Europe
consist of layer upon layer of diverse racial elements in varying
proportions and historians and anthropologists, while studying these
populations, have been concerned chiefly with the recent strata and have
neglected the more ancient and submerged types.
Aboriginal populations from time immemorial have been again and again
swamped under floods of newcomers and have disappeared for a time from
historic view. In the course of centuries, however, these primitive
elements have slowly reasserted their physical type and have gradually
bred out their conquerors, so that the racial history of Europe has been
in the past, and is to-day, a story of the repression and resurgence of
ancient races.
Invasions of new races have ordinarily arrived in successive waves, the
earlier ones being quickly absorbed by the conquered, while the later
arrivals usually maintain longer the purity of their type. Consequently
the more recent elements are found in a less mixed state than the older
and the more primitive strata of the population always contain physical
traits derived from still more ancient predecessors.
Man has inhabited Europe in some form or other for hundreds of thousands
of years and during all this lapse of time the population has been as
dense as the food supply permitted. Tribes in the hunting stage are
necessarily of small size, no matter how abundant the game and in the
Paleolithic period man probably existed only in specially favorable
localities and in relatively small communities.
In the Neolithic and Bronze periods domesticated animals and the
knowledge of agriculture, although of primitive character, afforded an
enlarged food supply and the population in consequence greatly
increased. The lake dwellers of the Neolithic were, for example,
relatively numerous. With the clearing of the forests and the draining
of the swamps during the Middle Ages and, above all, with the industrial
expansion of the last century the population multiplied with great
rapidity. We can, of course, form little or no estimate of the numbers
of the Paleolithic population of Europe and not much more of those of
Neolithic times, but even the latter must have been very small in
comparison with the census of to-day.
Some conception of the growth of population in recent times may be based
on the increase in England. It has been computed that Saxon England at
the time of the Conquest contained about 1,500,000 inhabitants, at the
time of Queen Elizabeth the population was about 4,000,000, while in
1911 the census gave for the same area some 35,000,000.
The immense range of the subject of race in connection with history from
its nebulous dawn and the limitations of space, require that
generalizations must often be stated without mention of exceptions.
These sweeping statements may even appear to be too bold, but they rest,
to the best of the writer’s belief, upon solid foundations of facts or
else are legitimate conclusions from evidence now in hand. In a science
as recent as modern anthropology, new facts are constantly revealed and
require the modification of existing hypotheses. The more the subject is
studied, the more provisional even the best-sustained theory appears,
but modern research opens a vista of vast interest and significance to
man, now that we have discarded the shackles of former false viewpoints
and are able to discern, even though dimly, the solution of many of the
problems of race. In the future new data will inevitably expand and
perhaps change our ideas, but such facts as are now in hand and the
conclusions based thereupon are provisionally set forth in the following
chapters and necessarily often in a dogmatic form.
The statements relating to time have presented the greatest difficulty,
as the authorities differ widely, but the dates have been fixed with
extreme conservatism and the writer believes that whatever changes in
them are hereafter required by further investigation and study, will
result in pushing them back and not forward in prehistory. The dates
given in the chapter on “Paleolithic Man” are frankly taken from the
most recent authority on this subject, “The Men of the Old Stone Age,”
by Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn and the writer desires to take this
opportunity to acknowledge his great indebtedness to this source of
information, as well as to Mr. M. Taylor Pyne and to Mr. Charles Stewart
Davison for their assistance and many helpful suggestions.
The author also wishes to acknowledge his obligation to Prof. William Z.
Ripley’s “The Races of Europe,” which contains a large array of
anthropological measurements, maps and type portraits, providing
valuable data for the present distribution of the three primary races of
Europe.
The American Geographical Society and its staff, particularly Mr. Leon
Dominian, have also been of great help in the preparation of the maps
herein contained and this occasion is taken by the writer to express his
appreciation for their assistance.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH REVISED EDITION
The addition of a Documentary Supplement to the latest revision of this
book has been made in response to a persistent demand for “authorities.”
The author has endeavored to make the references and quotations in this
Supplement very full and, so far as possible, interesting in themselves
as well as entirely distinct from the text, which stands substantially
unchanged, and the authorities quoted are not necessarily the sources of
the views herein expressed but more often are given in support of them.
The contents of the book, since its first appearance, have had the
advantage of the criticism of virtually every anthropologist in America
and in England, France and Italy—many of whom have furnished the author
with valuable corroborative material. Some of this material appears in
the notes, but accessible authorities and the classical writers have
been given the more prominent place. The supplement covered, as first
prepared, substantially every statement in the book, but much was
afterward omitted because it would seem that some things could be taken
without proof.
“The Passing of the Great Race,” in its original form, was designed by
the author to rouse his fellow-Americans to the overwhelming importance
of race and to the folly of the “Melting Pot” theory, even at the
expense of bitter controversy. This purpose has been accomplished
thoroughly, and one of the most far-reaching effects of the doctrines
enunciated in this volume and in the discussions that followed its
publication was the decision of the Congress of the United States to
adopt discriminatory and restrictive measures against the immigration of
undesirable races and peoples.
Another of the results has been the publication in America and Europe of
a series of books and articles more or less anthropological in character
which have sustained or controverted its main theme. The new definition
of race and the controlling rôle played by race in all the
manifestations of what we call civilization are now generally accepted
even by those whose political position depends upon popular favor.
It was to be expected that there would be bitter opposition to those
definitions of race which are based on physical and psychical characters
that are immutable, rather than upon those derived from language or
political allegiance, that are easily altered.
To admit the unchangeable differentiation of race in its modern
scientific meaning is to admit inevitably the existence of superiority
in one race and of inferiority in another. Such an admission we can
hardly expect from those of inferior races. These inferior races and
classes are prompt to recognize in such an admission the very real
danger to themselves of being relegated again to their former obscurity
and subordinate position in society. The favorite defense of these
inferior classes is an unqualified denial of the existence of fixed
inherited qualities, either physical or spiritual, which cannot be
obliterated or greatly modified by a change of environment. Failing in
this, as they must necessarily fail, they point out the presence of
mixed or intermediate types, and claim that in these mixtures, or blends
as they choose to call them, the higher type tends to predominate. In
fact, of course, the exact opposite is the case and it is scarcely
necessary to cite the universal distrust, often contempt, that the
half-breed between two sharply contrasted races inspires the world over.
Belonging physically and spiritually to the lower race, but aspiring to
recognition as one of the higher race, the unfortunate mongrel, in
addition to a disharmonic physique, often inherits from one parent an
unstable brain which is stimulated and at times overexcited by flashes
of brilliancy from the other. The result is a total lack of continuity
of purpose, an intermittent intellect goaded into spasmodic outbursts of
energy. Physical and psychical disharmonies are common among crosses
between Indians, negroes and whites, but where the parents are more
closely related racially we often obtain individuals occupying the
border-land between genius and insanity.
The essential character of all these racial mixtures is a lack of
harmony—both physical and mental—in the first few generations. Then, if
the strain survives, it is by the slow reversion to one of the parent
types—almost inevitably the lower.
The temporary advantage of mere numbers enjoyed by the inferior classes
in modern democracies can only be made permanent by the destruction of
superior types—by massacre, as in Russia, or by taxation, as in England.
In the latter country the financial burdens of the war and the selfish
interests of labor have imposed such a load of taxation upon the upper
and middle classes that marriage and children are becoming increasingly
burdensome.
The best example of complete elimination of a dominant class is in Santo
Domingo. The horrors of the black revolt were followed by the slow death
of the culture of the white man. This history should be studied
carefully because it gives in prophetic form the sequence of events that
we may expect to find in Mexico and in parts of South America where the
replacement of the higher type by the resurgent native is taking place.
In the countries inhabited by a population more or less racially uniform
the phenomenon of the multiplication of the inferior classes fostered
and aided by the noble but fatuous philanthropy of the well-to-do
everywhere appears. Nature’s laws when unchecked maintain a relatively
fixed ratio between the classes, which is greatly impaired in modern
society by humanitarian and charitable activities. The resurgence of
inferior races and classes throughout not merely Europe but the world,
is evident in every despatch from Egypt, Ireland, Poland, Rumania, India
and Mexico. It is called nationalism, patriotism, freedom and other
high-sounding names, but it is everywhere the phenomenon of the
long-suppressed, conquered servile classes rising against the master
race. The late Peloponnesian War in the world at large, like the Civil
War in America, has shattered the prestige of the white race and it will
take several generations and perhaps wars to recover its former control,
if it ever does regain it. The danger is from within and not from
without. Neither the black, nor the brown, nor the yellow, nor the red
will conquer the white in battle. But if the valuable elements in the
Nordic race mix with inferior strains or die out through race suicide,
then the citadel of civilization will fall for mere lack of defenders.
One of the curious effects of democracy is the unquestionable fact that
there is less freedom of the press than under autocratic forms of
government. It is well-nigh impossible to publish in the American
newspapers any reflection upon certain religions or races which are
hysterically sensitive even when mentioned by name. The underlying idea
seems to be that if publication can be suppressed the facts themselves
will ultimately disappear. Abroad, conditions are fully as bad, and we
have the authority of one of the most eminent anthropologists in France
that the collection of anthropological measurements and data among
French recruits at the outbreak of the Great War was prevented by Jewish
influence, which aimed to suppress any suggestion of racial
differentiation in France. In the United States also, during the war, we
were unable to obtain complete measurements and data, in spite of the
self-devotion of certain scientists, like Drs. Davenport, Sullivan and
others. This failure was due to lack of time and equipment and not to
racial influences, but in the near future we may confidently expect in
this country strenuous opposition to any public discussion of race as
such.
The rapidly growing appreciation of the importance of race during the
last few years, the study of the influence of race on nationality as
shown by the after-war disputes over boundaries, the increasing
complexity of our own problems between the whites and blacks, between
the Americans and Japs, and between the native Americans and the
hyphenated aliens in our midst upon whom we have carelessly urged
citizenship, and, above all, the recognition that the leaders of labor
and their more zealous followers are almost all foreigners, have served
to arouse Americans to a realization of the menace of the impending
Migration of Peoples through unrestrained freedom of entry here. The
days of the Civil War and the provincial sentimentalism which governed
or misgoverned our public opinion are past, and this generation must
completely repudiate the proud boast of our fathers that they
acknowledged no distinction in “race, creed, or color,” or else the
native American must turn the page of history and write:
“FINIS AMERICÆ”
THE PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE
_PART I_
RACE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY
I
RACE AND DEMOCRACY
Failure to recognize the clear distinction between race and nationality
and the still greater distinction between race and language and the easy
assumption that the one is indicative of the other have been in the past
serious impediments to an understanding of racial values. Historians and
philologists have approached the subject from the viewpoint of
linguistics and as a result we are to-day burdened with a group of
mythical races, such as the Latin, the Aryan, the Indo-Germanic, the
Caucasian and, perhaps, most inconsistent of all, the Celtic race.
Man is an animal differing from his fellow inhabitants of the globe not
in kind but only in degree of development and an intelligent study of
the human species must be preceded by an extended knowledge of other
mammals, especially the primates. Instead of such essential training,
anthropologists often seek to qualify by research in linguistics,
religion or marriage customs or in designs of pottery or blanket
weaving, all of which relate to ethnology alone. As a result the
influence of environment is often overestimated and overstated at the
expense of heredity.
The question of race has been further complicated by the effort of
old-fashioned theologians to cramp all mankind into the scant six
thousand years of Hebrew chronology as expounded by Archbishop Ussher.
Religious teachers have also maintained the proposition not only that
man is something fundamentally distinct from other living creatures, but
that there are no inherited differences in humanity that cannot be
obliterated by education and environment.
It is, therefore, necessary at the outset for the reader to appreciate
thoroughly that race, language and nationality are three separate and
distinct things and that in Europe these three elements are found only
occasionally persisting in combination, as in the Scandinavian nations.
To realize the transitory nature of political boundaries one has but to
consider the changes which have occurred during the past century and as
to language, here in America we hear daily the English language spoken
by many men who possess not one drop of English blood and who, a few
years since, knew not one word of Saxon speech.
As a result of certain religious and social doctrines, now happily
becoming obsolete, race consciousness has been greatly impaired among
civilized nations but in the beginning all differences of class, of
caste and of color marked actual lines of race cleavage.
In many countries the existing classes represent races that were once
distinct. In the city of New York and elsewhere in the United States
there is a native American aristocracy resting upon layer after layer of
immigrants of lower races and these native Americans, while, of course,
disclaiming the distinction of a patrician class and lacking in class
consciousness and class dignity, have, nevertheless, up to this time
supplied the leaders in thought and in the control of capital as well as
of education and of the religious ideals and altruistic bias of the
community.
In the democratic forms of government the operation of universal
suffrage tends toward the selection of the average man for public office
rather than the man qualified by birth, education and integrity. How
this scheme of administration will ultimately work out remains to be
seen but from a racial point of view it will inevitably increase the
preponderance of the lower types and cause a corresponding loss of
efficiency in the community as a whole.
The tendency in a democracy is toward a standardization of type and a
diminution of the influence of genius. A majority must of necessity be
inferior to a picked minority and it always resents specializations in
which it cannot share. In the French Revolution the majority, calling
itself “the people,” deliberately endeavored to destroy the higher type
and something of the same sort was in a measure done after the American
Revolution by the expulsion of the Loyalists and the confiscation of
their lands, with a resultant loss to the growing nation of good race
strains, which were in the next century replaced by immigrants of far
lower type.
In America we have nearly succeeded in destroying the privilege of
birth; that is, the intellectual and moral advantage a man of good stock
brings into the world with him. We are now engaged in destroying the
privilege of wealth; that is, the reward of successful intelligence and
industry and in some quarters there is developing a tendency to attack
the privilege of intellect and to deprive a man of the advantage gained
from an early and thorough classical education. Simplified spelling is a
step in this direction. Ignorance of English grammar or classic learning
must not, forsooth, be held up as a reproach to the political or social
aspirant.
Mankind emerged from savagery and barbarism under the leadership of
selected individuals whose personal prowess, capacity or wisdom gave
them the right to lead and the power to compel obedience. Such leaders
have always been a minute fraction of the whole, but as long as the
tradition of their predominance persisted they were able to use the
brute strength of the unthinking herd as part of their own force and
were able to direct at will the blind dynamic impulse of the slaves,
peasants or lower classes. Such a despot had an enormous power at his
disposal which, if he were benevolent or even intelligent, could be used
and most frequently was used for the general uplift of the race. Even
those rulers who most abused this power put down with merciless rigor
the antisocial elements, such as pirates, brigands or anarchists, which
impair the progress of a community, as disease or wounds cripple an
individual.
True aristocracy or a true republic is government by the wisest and
best, always a small minority in any population. Human society is like a
serpent dragging its long body on the ground, but with the head always
thrust a little in advance and a little elevated above the earth. The
serpent’s tail, in human society represented by the antisocial forces,
was in the past dragged by sheer strength along the path of progress.
Such has been the organization of mankind from the beginning, and such
it still is in older communities than ours. What progress humanity can
make under the control of universal suffrage, or the rule of the
average, may find a further analogy in the habits of certain snakes
which wiggle sideways and disregard the head with its brains and eyes.
Such serpents, however, are not noted for their ability to make rapid
progress.
A true republic, the function of which is administration in the
interests of the whole community—in contrast to a pure democracy, which
in last analysis is the rule of the demos or a majority in its own
interests—should be, and often is, the medium of selection for the
technical task of government of those best qualified by antecedents,
character and education, in short, of experts.
To use another simile, in an aristocratic as distinguished from a
plutocratic or democratic organization the intellectual and talented
classes form the point of the lance while the massive shaft represents
the body of the population and adds by its bulk and weight to the
penetrative impact of the tip. In a democratic system this concentrated
force is dispersed throughout the mass. It supplies, to be sure, a
certain amount of leaven but in the long run the force and genius of the
small minority is dissipated, and its efficiency lost. _Vox populi_, so
far from being _Vox Dei_, thus becomes an unending wail for rights and
never a chant of duty.
Where a conquering race is imposed on another race the institution of
slavery often arises to compel the servient race to work and to
introduce it forcibly to a higher form of civilization. As soon as men
can be induced to labor to supply their own needs slavery becomes
wasteful and tends to vanish. From a material point of view slaves are
often more fortunate than freemen when treated with reasonable humanity
and when their elemental wants of food, clothing and shelter are
supplied.
The Indians around the fur posts in northern Canada were formerly the
virtual bond slaves of the Hudson Bay Company, each Indian and his squaw
and pappoose being adequately supplied with simple food and equipment.
He was protected as well against the white man’s rum as the red man’s
scalping parties and in return gave the Company all his peltries—the
whole product of his year’s work. From an Indian’s point of view this
was nearly an ideal condition but was to all intents serfdom or slavery.
When through the opening up of the country the continuance of such an
archaic system became an impossibility, the Indian sold his furs to the
highest bidder, received a large price in cash and then wasted the
proceeds in trinkets instead of blankets and in rum instead of flour,
with the result that he is now gloriously free but is on the highroad to
becoming a diseased outcast. In this case of the Hudson Bay Indian the
advantages of the upward step from serfdom to freedom are not altogether
clear. A very similar condition of vassalage existed until recently
among the peons of Mexico, but without the compensation of the control
of an intelligent and provident ruling class.
In the same way serfdom in mediæval Europe apparently was a device
through which the landowners repressed the nomadic instinct in their
tenantry which became marked when the fertility of the land declined
after the dissolution of the Roman Empire. Years are required to bring
land to its highest productivity and agriculture cannot be successfully
practised even in well-watered and fertile districts by farmers who
continually drift from one locality to another. The serf or villein was,
therefore, tied by law to the land and could not leave except with his
master’s consent. As soon as the nomadic instinct was eliminated serfdom
vanished. One has but to read the severe laws against vagrancy in
England just before the Reformation to realize how widespread and
serious was this nomadic instinct. Here in America we have not yet
forgotten the wandering instincts of our Western pioneers, which in that
case proved beneficial to every one except the migrants.
While democracy is fatal to progress when two races of unequal value
live side by side, an aristocracy may be equally injurious whenever, in
order to purchase a few generations of ease and luxury, slaves or
immigrants are imported to do the heavy work. It was a form of
aristocracy that brought slaves to the American colonies and the West
Indies and if there had been an aristocratic form of governmental
control in California, Chinese coolies and Japanese laborers would now
form the controlling element, so far as numbers are concerned, on the
Pacific coast.
It was the upper classes who encouraged the introduction of immigrant
labor to work American factories and mines and it is the native American
gentleman who builds a palace on the country side and who introduces as
servants all manner of foreigners into purely American districts. The
farming and artisan classes of America did not take alarm until it was
too late and they are now seriously threatened with extermination in
many parts of the country. In Rome, also, it was the plebeian, who first
went under in the competition with slaves but the patrician followed in
his turn a few generations later.
The West Indian sugar planters flourished in the eighteenth century and
produced some strong men; to-day from the same causes they have vanished
from the scene.
During the last century the New England manufacturer imported the Irish
and French Canadians and the resultant fall in the New England birth
rate at once became ominous. The refusal of the native American to work
with his hands when he can hire or import serfs to do manual labor for
him is the prelude to his extinction and the immigrant laborers are now
breeding out their masters and killing by filth and by crowding as
effectively as by the sword.
Thus the American sold his birthright in a continent to solve a labor
problem. Instead of retaining political control and making citizenship
an honorable and valued privilege, he intrusted the government of his
country and the maintenance of his ideals to races who have never yet
succeeded in governing themselves, much less any one else.
Associated with this advance of democracy and the transfer of power from
the higher to the lower races, from the intellectual to the plebeian
class, we find the spread of socialism and the recrudescence of obsolete
religious forms. Although these phenomena appear to be contradictory,
they are in reality closely related since both represent reactions from
the intense individualism which a century ago was eminently
characteristic of Americans.
II
THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF RACE
In the modern and scientific study of race we have long since discarded
the Adamic theory that man is descended from a single pair, created a
few thousand years ago in a mythical Garden of Eden somewhere in Asia,
to spread later over the earth in successive waves.
It is a fact, however, that Asia was the chief area of evolution and
differentiation of man and that the various groups had their main
development there and not on the peninsula we call Europe.
Many of the races of Europe, both living and extinct, did come from the
East through Asia Minor or by way of the African littoral, but most of
the direct ancestors of existing populations have inhabited Europe for
many thousands of years. During that time numerous races of men have
passed over the scene. Some undoubtedly have utterly vanished and some
have left their blood behind them in the Europeans of to-day.
We now know, since the elaboration of the Mendelian Laws of Inheritance,
that certain bodily characters, such as skull shape, stature, eye color,
hair color and nose form, some of which are so-called unit characters,
are transmitted in accordance with fixed laws, and, further, that
various characters which are normally correlated or linked together in
pure races may, after a prolonged admixture of races, pass down
separately and form what is known as disharmonic combinations. Such
disharmonic combinations are, for example, a tall brunet or a short
blond; blue eyes associated with brunet hair or brown eyes with blond
hair.
The process of intermixture of characters has gone far in existing
populations and through the ease of modern methods of transportation
this process is going much further in Europe and in America. The results
of such mixture are not blends or intermediate types, but rather mosaics
of contrasted characters. Such blends, if any, as ultimately occur are
too remote to concern us here.
The crossing of an individual of pure brunet race with an individual of
pure blond race produces in the first generation offspring which are
distinctly dark. In subsequent generations, brunets and blonds appear in
various proportions but the former tend to be much the more numerous.
The blond is consequently said to be recessive to the brunet because it
recedes from view in the first generation. This or any similar recessive
or suppressed trait is not lost to the germ plasm, but reappears in
later generations of the hybridized stock. A similar rule prevails with
other physical characters.
In defining race in Europe it is necessary not only to consider pure
groups or pure types but also the distribution of characters belonging
to each particular subspecies of man found there. The interbreeding of
these populations has progressed to such an extent that in many cases
such an analysis of physical characters is necessary to reconstruct the
elements which have entered into their ethnic composition. To rely on
averages alone leads to misunderstanding and to disregard of the
relative proportion of pure, as contrasted with mixed types.
Sometimes we find a character appearing here and there as the sole
remnant of a once numerous race, for example, the rare appearance in
European populations of a skull of the Neanderthal type, a race widely
spread over Europe 40,000 years ago, or of the Cro-Magnon type, the
predominant race 16,000 years ago. Before the fossil remains of the
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon races were studied and understood such
reversional specimens were considered pathological, instead of being
recognized as the reappearance of an ancient and submerged type.
These physical characters are to all intents and purposes immutable and
they do not change during the lifetime of a language or an empire. The
skull shape of the Egyptian fellaheen, in the unchanging environment of
the Nile Valley, is absolutely identical in measurements, proportions
and capacity with skulls found in the pre-dynastic tombs dating back
more than six thousand years.
There exists to-day a widespread and fatuous belief in the power of
environment, as well as of education and opportunity to alter heredity,
which arises from the dogma of the brotherhood of man, derived in its
turn from the loose thinkers of the French Revolution and their American
mimics. Such beliefs have done much damage in the past and if allowed to
go uncontradicted, may do even more serious damage in the future. Thus
the view that the Negro slave was an unfortunate cousin of the white
man, deeply tanned by the tropic sun and denied the blessings of
Christianity and civilization, played no small part with the
sentimentalists of the Civil War period and it has taken us fifty years
to learn that speaking English, wearing good clothes and going to school
and to church do not transform a Negro into a white man. Nor was a
Syrian or Egyptian freedman transformed into a Roman by wearing a toga
and applauding his favorite gladiator in the amphitheatre. Americans
will have a similar experience with the Polish Jew, whose dwarf stature,
peculiar mentality and ruthless concentration on self-interest are being
engrafted upon the stock of the nation.
Recent attempts have been made in the interest of inferior races among
our immigrants to show that the shape of the skull does change, not
merely in a century, but in a single generation. In 1910, the report of
the anthropological expert of the Congressional Immigration Commission
gravely declared that a round skull Jew on his way across the Atlantic
might and did have a round skull child; but a few years later, in
response to the subtle elixir of American institutions as exemplified in
an East Side tenement, might and did have a child whose skull was
appreciably longer; and that a long skull south Italian, breeding
freely, would have precisely the same experience in the reverse
direction. In other words the Melting Pot was acting instantly under the
influence of a changed environment.
What the Melting Pot actually does in practice can be seen in Mexico,
where the absorption of the blood of the original Spanish conquerors by
the native Indian population has produced the racial mixture which we
call Mexican and which is now engaged in demonstrating its incapacity
for self-government. The world has seen many such mixtures and the
character of a mongrel race is only just beginning to be understood at
its true value.
It must be borne in mind that the specializations which characterize the
higher races are of relatively recent development, are highly unstable
and when mixed with generalized or primitive characters tend to
disappear. Whether we like to admit it or not, the result of the mixture
of two races, in the long run, gives us a race reverting to the more
ancient, generalized and lower type. The cross between a white man and
an Indian is an Indian; the cross between a white man and a Negro is a
Negro; the cross between a white man and a Hindu is a Hindu; and the
cross between any of the three European races and a Jew is a Jew.
In the crossing of the blond and brunet elements of a population, the
more deeply rooted and ancient dark traits are prepotent or dominant.
This is matter of everyday observation and the working of this law of
nature is not influenced or affected by democratic institutions or by
religious beliefs. Nature cares not for the individual nor how he may be
modified by environment. She is concerned only with the perpetuation of
the species or type and heredity alone is the medium through which she
acts.
As measured in terms of centuries these characters are fixed and rigid
and the only benefit to be derived from a changed environment and better
food conditions is the opportunity afforded a race which has lived under
adverse conditions to achieve its maximum development but the limits of
that development are fixed for it by heredity and not by environment.
In dealing with European populations the best method of determining race
has been found to lie in a comparison of proportions of the skull, the
so-called cephalic index. This is the ratio of maximum _width_, taken at
the widest part of the skull above the ears, to maximum _length_. Skulls
with an index of 75 or less, that is, those with a width that is
three-fourths of the length or less, are considered dolichocephalic or
long skulls. Skulls of an index of 80 or over are round or
brachycephalic skulls. Intermediate indices, between 75 and 80, are
considered mesaticephalic. These are cranial indices. To allow for the
flesh on living specimens about two per cent is to be added to this
index and the result is the cephalic index. In the following pages only
long and round skulls are considered and the intermediate forms are
assigned to the dolichocephalic group.
This cephalic index, though an extremely important if not the
controlling character, is, nevertheless, but a single character and must
be checked up with other somatological traits. Normally, a long skull is
associated with a long face and a round skull with a round face.
The use of this test, the cephalic index, enables us to divide the great
bulk of the European populations into three distinct subspecies of man,
one northern and one southern, both dolichocephalic or characterized by
a long skull and a central subspecies which is brachycephalic or
characterized by a round skull.
The first is the Nordic or Baltic subspecies. This race is long skulled,
very tall, fair skinned with blond or brown hair and light colored eyes.
The Nordics inhabit the countries around the North and Baltic Seas and
include not only the great Scandinavian and Teutonic groups, but also
other early peoples who first appear in southern Europe and in Asia as
representatives of Aryan language and culture.
The second is the dark Mediterranean or Iberian subspecies, occupying
the shores of the inland sea and extending along the Atlantic coast
until it reaches the Nordic species. It also spreads far east into
southern Asia. It is long skulled like the Nordic race but the absolute
size of the skull is less. The eyes and hair are very dark or black and
the skin more or less swarthy. The stature is distinctly less than that
of the Nordic race and the musculature and bony framework weak.
The third is the Alpine subspecies occupying all central and eastern
Europe and extending through Asia Minor to the Hindu Kush and the
Pamirs. The Armenoids constitute an Alpine subdivision and may possibly
represent the ancestral type of this race which remained in the
mountains and high plateaux of Anatolia and western Asia.
The Alpines are round skulled, of medium height and sturdy build both as
to skeleton and muscles. The coloration of both hair and eyes was
originally very dark and still tends strongly in that direction but many
light colored eyes, especially gray, are now common among the Alpine
populations of western Europe.
While the inhabitants of Europe betray as a whole their mixed origin,
nevertheless, individuals of each of the three main subspecies are found
in large numbers and in great purity, as well as sparse remnants of
still more ancient races represented by small groups or by individuals
and even by single characters.
These three main groups have bodily characters which constitute them
distinct subspecies. Each group is a large one and includes several
well-marked varieties, which differ even more widely in cultural
development than in physical divergence so that when the Mediterranean
of England is compared with the Hindu, or the Alpine Savoyard with the
Rumanian or Turcoman, a wide gulf is found.
In zoology, related species when grouped together constitute subgenera
and genera and the term species implies the existence of a certain
definite amount of divergence from the most closely related type but
race does not require a similar amount of difference. In man, where all
groups are more or less fertile when crossed, so many intermediate or
mixed types occur that the word species has at the present day too
extended a meaning.
For the sake of clearness the word race and not the word species or
subspecies will be used in the following chapters as far as possible.
The old idea that fertility or infertility of races of animals was the
measure of species is now abandoned. One of the greatest difficulties in
classifying man is his perverse predisposition to mismate. This is a
matter of daily observation, especially among the women of the better
classes, probably because of their wider range of choice.
There must have existed many subspecies and species, if not genera, of
men since the Pliocene and new discoveries of their remains may be
expected at any time and in any part of the eastern hemisphere.
The cephalic index is of less value in the classification of Asiatic
populations but the distribution of round and long skulls is similar to
that in Europe. The vast central plateau of that continent is inhabited
by round skulls. In fact, Thibet and the western Himalayas were probably
the centre of radiation of all the round skulls of the world. In India
and Persia south of this central area occurs a long skull race related
to Mediterranean man in Europe.
Both skull types occur much intermixed among the American Indians and
the cephalic index is of little value in classifying the Amerinds. No
satisfactory explanation of the variability of the skull shape in the
western hemisphere has as yet been found, but the total range of
variation of physical characters among them, from northern Canada to
southern Patagonia, is less than the range of such variation from
Normandy to Provence in France.
In Africa the cephalic index is also of small classification value
because all of the populations are characterized by a long skull.
The distinction between a long skull and a round skull in mankind
probably goes back at least to early Paleolithic times, if not to a
period still more remote. It is of such great antiquity that when new
species or races appear in Europe at the close of the Paleolithic,
between 10,000 and 7,000 years B. C., the skull characters among them
are as clearly defined as they are to-day.
The fact that two distinct species of mankind have long skulls, as have
the north European and the African Negro, is no necessary indication of
relationship and in that instance is merely a case of parallel
specialization, but the fact, however, that the Swede has a long skull
and the Savoyard a round skull does prove them to be racially distinct.
The claim that the Nordic race is a mere variation of the Mediterranean
race and that the latter is in turn derived from the Ethiopian Negro
rests upon a mistaken idea that a dolichocephaly in common must mean
identity of origin, as well as upon a failure to take into consideration
many somatological characters of almost equal value with the cephalic
index. Indeed, the cephalic index, being merely a ratio, may be
identical for skulls differing in every other proportion and detail, as
well as in absolute size and capacity.
Eye color is of very great importance in race determination because all
blue, gray or green eyes in the world to-day came originally from the
same source, namely, the Nordic race of northern Europe. This light
colored eye has appeared nowhere else on earth, is a specialization of
this subspecies of man only and consequently is of extreme value in the
classification of European races. Dark colored eyes are all but
universal among wild mammals and entirely so among the primates, man’s
nearest relatives. It may be taken as an absolute certainty that all the
original races of man had dark eyes.
One subspecies of man and one alone specialized in light colored eyes.
This same subspecies also evolved light brown or blond hair, a character
far less deeply rooted than eye color, as blond children tend to grow
darker with advancing years and populations partly of Nordic extraction,
such as those of Lombardy, upon admixture with darker races lose their
blond hair more readily than their light colored eyes. In short, light
colored eyes are far more common than light colored hair. In crosses
between Alpines and Nordics, the Alpine stature and the Nordic eye
appear to prevail. Light color in eyes is largely due to a greater or
less absence of pigment but it is not associated with weak eyesight, as
in the case of Albinos. In fact, among marksmen, it has been noted that
nearly all the great rifle-shots in England or America have had light
colored eyes.
Blond hair also comes everywhere from the Nordic subspecies and from
nowhere else. Whenever we find blondness among the darker races of the
earth we may be sure some Nordic wanderer has passed that way. When
individuals of perfect blond type occur, as sometimes in Greek islands,
we may suspect a recent visit of sailors from a passing ship but when
only single characters remain spread thinly, but widely, over
considerable areas, like the blondness of the Atlas Berbers or of the
Albanian mountaineers, we must search in the dim past for the origin of
these blurred traits of early invaders.
The range of blond hair color in pure Nordic peoples runs from flaxen
and red to shades of chestnut and brown. The darker shades may indicate
crossing in some cases, but absolutely black hair certainly does mean an
ancestral cross with a dark race—in England with the Mediterranean race.
It must be clearly understood that blondness of hair and of eye is not a
final test of Nordic race. The Nordics include all the blonds, and also
those of darker hair or eye when possessed of a preponderance of other
Nordic characters. In this sense the word “blond” means those lighter
shades of hair or eye color in contrast to the very dark or black shades
which are termed brunet. The meaning of “blond” as now used is therefore
not limited to the lighter or flaxen shades as in colloquial speech.
In England among Nordic populations there are large numbers of
individuals with hazel brown eyes joined with the light brown or
chestnut hair which is the typical hair shade of the English and
Americans. This combination is also common in Holland and Westphalia and
is frequently associated with a very fair skin. These men are all of
“blond” aspect and constitution and consequently are to be classed as
members of the Nordic race.
In Nordic populations the women are, in general, lighter haired than the
men, a fact which points to a blond past and a darker future for those
populations. Women in all human races, as the females among all mammals,
tend to exhibit the older, more generalized and primitive traits of the
past of the race. The male in his individual development indicates the
direction in which the race is tending under the influence of variation
and selection.
It is interesting to note in connection with the more primitive physique
of the female, that in the spiritual sphere also women retain the
ancient and intuitive knowledge that the great mass of mankind is not
free and equal but bond and unequal.
The color of the skin is a character of importance but one that is
exceedingly hard to measure as the range of variation in Europe between
skins of extreme fairness and those that are exceedingly swarthy is
almost complete. The Nordic race in its purity has an absolutely fair
skin and is consequently the white man par excellence.
Many members of the Nordic race otherwise apparently pure have skins, as
well as hair, more or less dark, so that the determinative value of this
character is uncertain. There can be no doubt that the quality of the
skin and the extreme range of its variation in color from black, brown,
red, yellow to ivory-white are excellent measures of the specific or
subgeneric distinctions between the larger groups of mankind but in
dealing with European populations it is sometimes difficult to correlate
the shades of fairness with other physical characters.
In general, hair color and skin color are linked together, but it often
happens that an individual with all other Nordic characters in great
purity has a skin of an olive or dark tint. Even more frequently we find
individuals with absolutely pure brunet traits in possession of a skin
of almost ivory whiteness and of great clarity. This last combination is
very frequent among the brunets of the British Isles. That these are, to
some extent, disharmonic combinations we may be certain but beyond that
our knowledge does not lead. Women, however, of fair skin have always
been the objects of keen envy by those of the sex whose skins are black,
yellow or red.
Stature is another character of greater value than skin color and,
perhaps, than hair color and is one of much importance in European
classification for on that continent we have the most extreme variations
of human height.
Exceedingly adverse economic conditions may inhibit a race from
attaining the full measure of its growth and to this extent environment
plays its part in determining stature but fundamentally it is race,
always race, that sets the limit. The tall Scot and the dwarfed
Sardinian owe their respective sizes to race and not to oatmeal or olive
oil. It is probable, however, that the fact that the stature of the
Irish is, on the average, shorter than that of the Scotch is due partly
to economic conditions and partly to the depressive effect of a
considerable population of primitive short stock.
The Mediterranean race is everywhere marked by a relatively short
stature, sometimes greatly depressed, as in south Italy and in Sardinia,
and also by a comparatively light bony framework and feeble muscular
development.
The Alpine race is taller than the Mediterranean, although shorter than
the Nordic, and is characterized by a stocky and sturdy build. The
Alpines rarely, if ever, show the long necks and graceful figures so
often found in the other two races.
The Nordic race is nearly everywhere distinguished by great stature.
Almost the tallest stature in the world is found among the pure Nordic
populations of the Scottish and English borders while the native British
of Pre-Nordic brunet blood are for the most part relatively short. No
one can question the race value of stature who observes on the streets
of London the contrast between the Piccadilly gentleman of Nordic race
and the cockney costermonger of the old Neolithic type.
In some cases where these three European races have become mixed stature
seems to be one of the first Nordic characters to vanish, but wherever
in Europe we find great stature in a population otherwise lacking in
Nordic characters we may suspect a Nordic crossing, as in the case of a
large proportion of the inhabitants of Burgundy, of the Tyrol and of the
Dalmatian Alps south to Albania.
These four characters, skull shape, eye color, hair color and stature,
are sufficient to enable us to differentiate clearly between the three
main subspecies of Europe, but if we wish to discuss the minor
variations in each race and mixtures between them, we must go much
further and take up other proportions of the skull than the cephalic
index, as well as the shape and position of the eyes, the proportions
and shape of the jaws, the chin and other features.
The nose is an exceedingly important character. The original human nose
was, of course, broad and bridgeless. This trait is shown clearly in
new-born infants who recapitulate in their development the various
stages of the evolution of the human genus. A bridgeless nose with wide,
flaring nostrils is a very primitive character and is still retained by
some of the larger divisions of mankind throughout the world. It appears
occasionally in white populations of European origin but is everywhere a
very ancient, generalized and low character.
The high bridge and long, narrow nose, the so-called Roman, Norman or
aquiline nose, is characteristic of the most highly specialized races of
mankind. While an apparently unimportant character, this feature is one
of the very best clews to racial origin and in the details of its form,
and especially in the lateral shape of the nostrils, is a race
determinant of the greatest value.
The lips, whether thin or fleshy or whether clean-cut or everted, are
race characters. Thick, protruding, everted lips are very ancient traits
and are characteristic of many primitive races. A high instep also has
long been esteemed an indication of patrician type while the flat foot
is often the test of lowly origin.
The absence or abundance of hair and beard and the relative absence or
abundance of body hair are characters of no little value in
classification. Abundant body hair is, to a large extent, peculiar to
populations of the very highest as well as the very lowest species,
being characteristic of the north European as well as of the Australian
savages. It merely means the retention in both these groups of a very
early and primitive trait which has been lost by the Negroes, Mongols
and Amerinds.
The Nordic and Alpine races are far better equipped with head and body
hair than the Mediterranean, which is throughout its range a glabrous or
relatively naked race but among the Nordics the extreme blond types are
less equipped with body hair or down than are darker members of the
race. A contrast in color between head hair and beard, the latter always
being lighter than the former, may be one of the results of an ancient
crossing of races.
The so-called red-haired branch of the Nordic race has special
characters in addition to red hair, such as a greenish cast of eye, a
skin of delicate texture tending either to great clarity or to freckles
and certain peculiar temperamental traits. This was probably a variety
closely related to the blonds and it first appears in history in
association with them.
While the three main European races are the subject of this book and
while it is not the intention of the author to deal with the other human
types, it is desirable in connection with the discussion of this
character, hair, to state that the three European subspecies are
subdivisions of one of the primary groups or species of the genus _Homo_
which, taken together, we may call the Caucasian for lack of a better
name.
The existing classification of man must be radically revised, as the
differences between the most divergent human types are far greater than
are usually deemed sufficient to constitute separate species and even
subgenera in the animal kingdom at large. Outside of the three European
subspecies the greater portion of the genus _Homo_ can be roughly
divided into the Negroes and Negroids, and the Mongols and Mongoloids.
The former apparently originated in south Asia and entered Africa by way
of the northeastern corner of that continent. Africa south of the Sahara
is now the chief home of this race, though remnants of Negroid
aborigines are found throughout south Asia from India to the
Philippines, while the very distinct black Melanesians and the
Australoids lie farther to the east and south.
The Mongoloids include the round skulled Mongols and their derivatives,
the Amerinds or American Indians. This group is essentially Asiatic and
occupies the centre and the eastern half of that continent.
A description of these Negroids and Mongoloids and their derivatives, as
well as of certain aberrant species of man, lies outside the scope of
this work.
In the structure of the head hair of all races of mankind we find a
regular progression from extreme kinkiness to lanky straightness and
this straightness or curliness depends on the shape of the cross section
of the hair itself. This cross section has three distinct forms,
corresponding with the most extreme divergences among human species.
The cross section of the hair of the Negroes is a flat ellipse with the
result that they all have kinky hair. This kinkiness of the Negroes’
hair is also due somewhat to the acute angle at which the hair is set
into the skin and the peppercorn form of hair probably represents an
extreme specialization.
The cross section of the hair of the Mongols and their derivatives, the
Amerinds, is a complete circle and their hair is perfectly straight and
lank.
The cross section of the hair of the so-called Caucasians, including the
Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic subspecies, is an oval ellipse and
consequently is intermediate between the cross-sections of the Negroes
and Mongoloids. Hair of this structure is wavy or curly, never either
kinky or absolutely straight and is characteristic of all the European
populations almost without exception.
Of these three hair types the straighter forms most closely represent
the earliest human form of hair.
We have confined the discussion to the most important characters but
there are many other valuable aids to classification to be found in the
proportions of the body and the relative length of the limbs. In this
latter respect, it is a matter of common knowledge that there occur two
distinct types, the one long legged and short bodied, the other long
bodied and short legged.
Without going into further physical details, it is probable that all
relative proportions in the body, the features, the skeleton and the
skull which are fixed and constant and lie outside of the range of
individual variation represent dim inheritances from the past. Every
generation of human beings carries the blood of thousands of ancestors,
stretching back through thousands of years, superimposed upon a prehuman
inheritance of still greater antiquity and the face and body of every
living man offer an intricate mass of hieroglyphs that science will some
day learn to read and interpret.
Only the foregoing main characters will be used as the basis for
determining race and attention will be called later to such
temperamental and spiritual traits as seem to be associated with
distinct physical types.
We shall discuss only European populations and, as said, shall not deal
with exotic and alien races scattered among them nor with those quarters
of the globe where the races of man are such that other physical
characters must be called upon to provide clear definitions.
A fascinating subject would open up if we were to dwell upon the effect
of racial combinations and disharmonies, as, for instance, where the
mixed Nordic and Alpine populations of Lombardy usually retain the skull
shape, hair color and stature of the Alpine race, with the light eye
color of the Nordic race, or where the mountain populations along the
east coast of the Adriatic from the Tyrol to Albania have the stature of
the Nordic race and an Alpine skull and coloration.
III
RACE AND HABITAT
The laws which govern the distribution of the various races of man and
their evolution through selection are substantially the same as those
controlling the evolution and distribution of the larger mammals.
Man, however, with his superior mentality has freed himself from many of
the conditions which impose restraint upon the expansion of animals. In
his case selection through disease and social and economic competition
has largely replaced selection through adjustment to the limitations of
food supply.
Man is the most cosmopolitan of animals and in one form or another
thrives in the tropics and in the arctics, at sea level and on high
plateaux, in the desert and in the reeking forests of the equator.
Nevertheless, the various races of Europe have each a certain natural
habitat in which it achieves its highest development.
THE NORDIC HABITAT
The Nordics appear in their present centre of distribution, the basin of
the Baltic, at the close of the Paleolithic, as soon as the retreating
glaciers left habitable land. This race was probably at that time in
possession of its fundamental characters, and its extension from the
plains of Russia to Scandinavia was not in the nature of a radical
change of environment. The race in consequence is now, always has been
and probably always will be, adjusted to certain environmental
conditions, chief of which is protection from a tropical sun. The
actinic rays of the sun at the same latitude are uniform in strength the
world over and continuous sunlight affects adversely the delicate
nervous organization of the Nordics. The fogs and long winter nights of
the North serve as a protection from too much sun and from its too
direct rays.
Scarcely less important is the presence of a large amount of moisture
but above all a constant variety of temperature is needed. Sharp
contrast between night and day temperature and between summer and winter
are necessary to maintain the vigor of the Nordic race at a high pitch.
Uniform weather, if long continued, lessens its energy. Too great
extremes as in midwinter or midsummer in parts of New England are
injurious. Limited but constant alternations of heat and cold, of
moisture and dryness, of sun and clouds, of calm and cyclonic storms
offer the ideal surroundings.
Where the environment is too soft and luxurious and no strife is
required for survival, not only are weak strains and individuals allowed
to survive and encouraged to breed but the strong types also grow fat
mentally and physically, like overfed Indians on reservations or
wingless birds on oceanic islands, which have lost the power of flight
as a result of prolonged protective conditions.
Men of the Nordic race may not enjoy the fogs and snows of the North,
the endless changes of weather and the violent fluctuations of the
thermometer and they may seek the sunny southern isles, but under the
former conditions they flourish, do their work and raise their families.
In the south they grow listless and cease to breed.
In the lower classes in the Southern States of America the increasing
proportion of “poor whites” and “crackers” are symptoms of lack of
climatic adjustment. The whites in Georgia, in the Bahamas and, above
all, in Barbadoes are excellent examples of the deleterious effects of
residence outside the natural habitat of the Nordic race.
The poor whites of the Cumberland Mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee
present a more difficult problem, because here the altitude, even though
moderate, should modify the effects of latitude and the climate of these
mountains cannot be particularly unfavorable to men of Nordic breed.
There are probably other hereditary forces at work there as yet little
understood.
No doubt bad food and economic conditions, prolonged inbreeding and the
loss through emigration of the best elements have played a large part in
the degeneration of these mountaineers. They represent to a large extent
the offspring of indentured servants brought over by the rich planters
in early Colonial times and their names indicate that many of them are
the descendants of the old borderers along the Scotch and English
frontier. The persistence with which family feuds are maintained
certainly points to such an origin. The physical type is typically
Nordic, for the most part pure Saxon or Anglian, and the whole mountain
population show somewhat aberrant but very pronounced physical, moral
and mental characteristics which would repay scientific investigation.
The problem is too complex to be disposed of by reference to the
hookworm, illiteracy or competition with Negroes.
This type played a large part in the settlement of the Middle West, by
way of Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. Thence they passed both up the
Missouri River and down the Santa Fé trail and contributed rather more
than their share of the train robbers, horse thieves and bad men of the
West.
Scotland and the Bahamas are inhabited by men of precisely the same
race, but the vigor of the English in the Bahamas is gone and the beauty
of their women has faded. The fact that they were not in competition
with an autochthonous race better adjusted to climatic conditions has
enabled them to survive, but the type could not have persisted, even
during the last two hundred years, if they had been compelled to compete
on terms of equality with a native and acclimated population.
Another element entering into racial degeneration on many other islands
and for that matter in many New England villages, is the loss through
emigration of the more vigorous and energetic individuals, leaving
behind the less efficient to continue the race at home.
In subtropical countries where the energy of the Nordics is at a low ebb
it would appear that the racial inheritance of physical strength and
mental vigor was suppressed and recessive rather than destroyed. Many
individuals born in unfavorable climatic surroundings, who move back to
the original habitat of their race in the north, recover their full
quota of energy and vigor. New York and other Northern cities have many
Southerners who are fully as efficient as pure Northerners.
This Nordic race can exist outside of its native environment as land
owning aristocrats who are not required to do manual labor in the fields
under a blazing sun. As such an aristocracy it continues to exist under
Italian skies, but as a field laborer the man of Nordic blood cannot
compete with his Alpine or Mediterranean rival. It is not to be supposed
that the various Nordic tribes and armies, which for a thousand years
after the fall of Rome poured down from the Alps like the glaciers to
melt in the southern sun, were composed solely of knights and gentlemen
who became the landed nobility of Italy. The man in the ranks also took
up his land and work in Italy, but he had to compete directly with the
native under climatic conditions which were unfavorable to his race. In
this competition the blue eyed Nordic giant died and the native
survived. His officer, however, lived in the castle and directed the
labor of his bondsmen without other preoccupation than the chase and war
and he long maintained his vigor.
The same thing happened in our South before the Civil War. There the
white men did not work in the fields or in the factory. The heavy work
under the blazing sun was carried on by Negro slaves and the planter was
spared exposure to an unfavorable environment. Under these conditions he
was able to retain much of his vigor. When slavery was abolished and the
white man had to plough his own fields or work in the factory
deterioration began.
The change in type of the men who are now sent by the Southern States to
represent them in the Federal Government from their predecessors in
ante-bellum times is partly due to these causes, but in greater degree
it is to be attributed to the fact that a large portion of the best
racial strains in the South were killed off during the Civil War. In
addition the war shattered the aristocratic traditions which formerly
secured the selection of the best men as rulers. The new democratic
ideals, with universal suffrage in free operation among the whites,
result in the choice of representatives who lack the distinction and
ability of the leaders of the Old South.
A race may be thoroughly adjusted to a certain country at one stage of
its development and be at a disadvantage when an economic change occurs,
such as was experienced in England a century ago when the nation changed
from an agricultural to a manufacturing community. The type of man that
flourishes in the fields is not the type of man that thrives in the
factory, just as the type of man required for the crew of a sailing ship
is not the type useful as stokers on a modern steamer.
THE HABITAT OF THE ALPINES AND MEDITERRANEANS
The environment of the Alpine race seems to have always been the
mountainous country of central and eastern Europe, as well as western
Asia, but they are now spreading into the plains, notably in Poland and
Russia. This type has never flourished in the deserts of Arabia or the
Sahara, nor has it succeeded well in maintaining its early colonies in
the northwest of Europe within the domain of the Nordic long heads. It
is, however, a sturdy and persistent stock and, while much of it may not
be overrefined or cultured, undoubtedly possesses great potentialities
for future development.
The Alpines in the west of Europe, especially in Switzerland and the
districts immediately surrounding, have been so thoroughly Nordicized
and so saturated with the culture of the adjoining nations that they
stand in sharp contrast to backward Alpines of Slavic speech in the
Balkans and east of Europe.
The Mediterranean race, on the other hand, is clearly a southern type
with eastern affinities. It is a type that did not endure in the north
of Europe under former agricultural conditions nor is it suitable to the
farming districts and frontiers of America and Canada. It is adjusted to
subtropical and tropical countries better than any other European type
and will flourish in our Southern States and around the coasts of the
Spanish Main. In France it is well known that members of the
Mediterranean race are better adapted for colonization in Algeria than
are French Alpines or Nordics. This subspecies of man is notoriously
intolerant of extreme cold, owing to its susceptibility to diseases of
the lungs and it shrinks from the blasts of the northern winter in which
the Nordics revel.
The brunet Mediterranean element in the native American seems to be
increasing at the expense of the blond Nordic element generally
throughout the Southern States and probably also in the large cities.
This type of man, however, is scarce on our frontiers. In the Northwest
and in Alaska in the days of the gold rush it was in the mining camps a
matter of comment if a man turned up with dark eyes, so universal were
blue and gray eyes among the American pioneers.
IV
THE COMPETITION OF RACES
Where two races occupy a country side by side, it is not correct to
speak of one type as changing into the other. Even if present in equal
numbers one of the two contrasted types will have some small advantage
or capacity which the other lacks toward a perfect adjustment to
surroundings. Those possessing these favorable variations will flourish
at the expense of their rivals and their offspring will not only be more
numerous, but will also tend to inherit such variations. In this way one
type gradually breeds the other out. In this sense, and in this sense
only, do races change.
Man continuously undergoes selection through the operation of the forces
of social environment. Among native Americans of the Colonial period a
large family was an asset and social pressure and economic advantage
counselled both early marriage and numerous children. Two hundred years
of continuous political expansion and material prosperity changed these
conditions and children, instead of being an asset to till the fields
and guard the cattle, became an expensive liability. They now require
support, education and endowment from their parents and a large family
is regarded by some as a serious handicap in the social struggle.
These conditions do not obtain at first among immigrants, and large
families among the newly arrived population are still the rule,
precisely as they were in Colonial America and are to-day in French
Canada where backwoods conditions still prevail.
The result is that one class or type in a population expands more
rapidly than another and ultimately replaces it. This process of
replacement of one type by another does not mean that the race changes
or is transformed into another. It is a replacement pure and simple and
not a transformation.
The lowering of the birth rate among the most valuable classes, while
the birth rate of the lower classes remains unaffected, is a frequent
phenomenon of prosperity. Such a change becomes extremely injurious to
the race if unchecked, unless nature is allowed to maintain by her own
cruel devices the relative numbers of the different classes in their due
proportions. To attack race suicide by encouraging indiscriminate
reproduction is not only futile but is dangerous if it leads to an
increase in the undesirable elements. What is needed in the community
most of all is an increase in the desirable classes, which are of
superior type physically, intellectually and morally and not merely an
increase in the absolute numbers of the population.
The value and efficiency of a population are not numbered by what the
newspapers call souls, but by the proportion of men of physical and
intellectual vigor. The small Colonial population of America was, on an
average and man for man, far superior to the present inhabitants,
although the latter are twenty-five times more numerous. The ideal in
eugenics toward which statesmanship should be directed is, of course,
improvement in quality rather than quantity. This, however, is at
present a counsel of perfection and we must face conditions as they are.
The small birth rate in the upper classes is to some extent offset by
the care received by such children as are born and the better chance
they have to become adult and breed in their turn. The large birth rate
of the lower classes is under normal conditions offset by a heavy infant
mortality, which eliminates the weaker children.
Where altruism, philanthropy or sentimentalism intervene with the
noblest purpose and forbid nature to penalize the unfortunate victims of
reckless breeding, the multiplication of inferior types is encouraged
and fostered. Indiscriminate efforts to preserve babies among the lower
classes often result in serious injury to the race. At the existing
stage of civilization, the legalizing of birth control would probably be
of benefit by reducing the number of offspring in the undesirable
classes. Regulation of the number of children is, for good or evil, in
full operation among the better classes and its recognition by the state
would result in no further harm among them.
Mistaken regard for what are believed to be divine laws and a
sentimental belief in the sanctity of human life tend to prevent both
the elimination of defective infants and the sterilization of such
adults as are themselves of no value to the community. The laws of
nature require the obliteration of the unfit and human life is valuable
only when it is of use to the community or race.
It is highly unjust that a minute minority should be called upon to
supply brains for the unthinking mass of the community, but it is even
worse to burden the responsible and larger but still overworked elements
in the community with an ever increasing number of moral perverts,
mental defectives and hereditary cripples. As the percentage of
incompetents increases, the burden of their support will become ever
more onerous until, at no distant date, society will in self-defense put
a stop to the supply of feebleminded and criminal children of weaklings.
The church assumes a serious responsibility toward the future of the
race whenever it steps in and preserves a defective strain. The marriage
of deaf mutes was hailed a generation ago as a triumph of humanity. Now
it is recognized as an absolute crime against the race. A great injury
is done to the community by the perpetuation of worthless types. These
strains are apt to be meek and lowly and as such make a strong appeal to
the sympathies of the successful. Before eugenics were understood much
could be said from a Christian and humane viewpoint in favor of
indiscriminate charity for the benefit of the individual. The societies
for charity, altruism or extension of rights, should have in these days,
however, in their management some small modicum of brains, otherwise
they may continue to do, as they have sometimes done in the past, more
injury to the race than black death or smallpox.
As long as such charitable organizations confine themselves to the
relief of suffering individuals, no matter how criminal or diseased they
may be, no harm is done except to our own generation and if modern
society recognizes a duty to the humblest malefactors or imbeciles that
duty can be harmlessly performed in full, provided they be deprived of
the capacity to procreate their defective strain.
Those who read these pages will feel that there is little hope for
humanity, but the remedy has been found, and can be quickly and
mercifully applied. A rigid system of selection through the elimination
of those who are weak or unfit—in other words, social failures—would
solve the whole question in a century, as well as enable us to get rid
of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals and insane asylums.
The individual himself can be nourished, educated and protected by the
community during his lifetime, but the state through sterilization must
see to it that his line stops with him or else future generations will
be cursed with an ever increasing load of victims of misguided
sentimentalism. This is a practical, merciful and inevitable solution of
the whole problem and can be applied to an ever widening circle of
social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased and
the insane and extending gradually to types which may be called
weaklings rather than defectives and perhaps ultimately to worthless
race types.
Efforts to increase the birth rate of the genius producing classes of
the community, while most desirable, encounter great difficulties. In
such efforts we encounter social conditions over which we have as yet no
control. It was tried two thousand years ago by Augustus and his efforts
to avert race suicide and the extinction of the old Roman stock were
singularly prophetic of what some far seeing men are attempting in order
to preserve the race of native Americans of Colonial descent.
Man has the choice of two methods of race improvement. He can breed from
the best or he can eliminate the worst by segregation or sterilization.
The first method was adopted by the Spartans, who had for their national
ideals military efficiency and the virtues of self-control, and along
these lines the results were completely successful. Under modern social
conditions it would be extremely difficult in the first instance to
determine which were the most desirable types, except in the most
general way and even if a satisfactory selection were finally made, it
would be in a democracy a virtual impossibility to limit by law the
right to breed to a privileged and chosen few.
Interesting efforts to improve the quality as well as the quantity of
the population, however, will probably be made in more than one country
after the war has ended.
Experiments in limiting reproduction to the undesirable classes were
unconsciously made in mediæval Europe under the guidance of the church.
After the fall of Rome social conditions were such that all those who
loved a studious and quiet life were compelled to seek refuge from the
violence of the times in monastic institutions and upon such the church
imposed the obligation of celibacy and thus deprived the world of
offspring from these desirable classes.
In the Middle Ages, through persecution resulting in actual death, life
imprisonment and banishment, the free thinking, progressive and
intellectual elements were persistently eliminated over large areas,
leaving the perpetuation of the race to be carried on by the brutal, the
servile and the stupid. It is now impossible to say to what extent the
Roman Church by these methods has impaired the brain capacity of Europe,
but in Spain alone, for a period of over three centuries from the years
1471 to 1781, the Inquisition condemned to the stake or imprisonment an
average of 1,000 persons annually. During these three centuries no less
than 32,000 were burned alive and 291,000 were condemned to various
terms of imprisonment and other penalties and 17,000 persons were burned
in effigy, representing men who had died in prison or had fled the
country.
No better method of eliminating the genius producing strains of a nation
could be devised and if such were its purpose the result was eminently
satisfactory, as is demonstrated by the superstitious and unintelligent
Spaniard of to-day. A similar elimination of brains and ability took
place in northern Italy, in France and in the Low Countries, where
hundreds of thousands of Huguenots were murdered or driven into exile.
Under existing conditions the most practical and hopeful method of race
improvement is through the elimination of the least desirable elements
in the nation by depriving them of the power to contribute to future
generations. It is well known to stock breeders that the color of a herd
of cattle can be modified by continuous destruction of worthless shades
and of course this is true of other characters. Black sheep, for
instance, have been practically obliterated by cutting out generation
after generation all animals that show this color phase, until in
carefully maintained flocks a black individual only appears as a rare
sport.
In mankind it would not be a matter of great difficulty to secure a
general consensus of public opinion as to the least desirable, let us
say, ten per cent of the community. When this unemployed and
unemployable human residuum has been eliminated together with the great
mass of crime, poverty, alcoholism and feeblemindedness associated
therewith it would be easy to consider the advisability of further
restricting the perpetuation of the then remaining least valuable types.
By this method mankind might ultimately become sufficiently intelligent
to choose deliberately the most vital and intellectual strains to carry
on the race.
In addition to selection by climatic environment man is now, and has
been for ages, undergoing selection through disease. He has been
decimated throughout the centuries by pestilences such as the black
death and bubonic plague. In our fathers’ days yellow fever and smallpox
cursed humanity. These plagues are now under control, but similar
diseases now regarded as mere nuisances to childhood, such as measles,
mumps and scarlatina, are terrible scourges to native populations
without previous experience with them. Add to these smallpox and other
white men’s diseases and one has the great empire builders of yesterday.
It was not the swords in the hands of Columbus and his followers that
decimated the American Indians, it was the germs that his men and their
successors brought over, implanting the white man’s maladies in the red
man’s world. Long before the arrival of the Puritans in New England,
smallpox had flickered up and down the coast until the natives were but
a broken remnant of their former numbers.
At the present time the Nordic race is undergoing selection through
alcoholism, a peculiarly Nordic vice, and through consumption. Both
these dread scourges unfortunately attack those members of the race that
are otherwise most desirable, differing in this respect from filth
diseases like typhus, typhoid or smallpox. One has only to look among
the more desirable classes for the victims of rum and tubercule to
realize that death or mental and physical impairment through these two
causes have cost the race many of its most brilliant and attractive
members.
V
RACE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY
Nationality is an artificial political grouping of population usually
centring around a single language as an expression of traditions and
aspirations. Nationality can, however, exist independently of language
but states thus formed, such as Belgium or Austria, are far less stable
than those where a uniform language is prevalent, as, for example,
France or England.
States without a single national language are constantly exposed to
disintegration, especially where a substantial minority of the
inhabitants speak a tongue which is predominant in an adjoining state
and, as a consequence, tend to gravitate toward such state.
The history of the last century in Europe has been the record of a long
series of struggles to unite in one political unit all those speaking
the same or closely allied dialects. With the exception of internal and
social revolutions, every European war since the Napoleonic period has
been caused by the effort to bring about the unification either of Italy
or of Germany or by the desperate attempts of the Balkan States to
struggle out of Turkish chaos into modern European nations on a basis of
community of language. The unification of both Italy and Germany is as
yet incomplete according to the views held by their more advanced
patriots and the solution of the Balkan question is still in the future.
Men are keenly aware of their nationality and are very sensitive about
their language, but only in a few cases, notably in Sweden and Germany,
does any large section of the population possess anything analogous to
true race consciousness, although the term “race” is everywhere misused
to designate linguistic or political groups.
The unifying power of a common language works subtly and unceasingly. In
the long run it forms a bond which draws peoples together—as the
English-speaking peoples of the British Empire with those of America. In
the same manner this linguistic sympathy will bring the German-speaking
Austrians into a closer political community with the rest of Germany and
will hold together all the German-speaking provinces.
It sometimes happens that a section of the population of a large nation
gathers around language, reinforced by religion, as an expression of
individuality. The struggle between the French-speaking Alpine Walloons
and the Nordic Flemings of Low Dutch tongue in Belgium is an example of
two competing languages in an artificial nation which was formed
originally around religion. On the other hand, the Irish National
movement centres chiefly around religion reinforced by myths of ancient
grandeur. The French Canadians and the Poles use both religion and
language to hold together what they consider a political unit. None of
these so-called nationalities are founded on race.
During the past century side by side with the tendency to form imperial
or large national groups, such as the Pan-Germanic, Pan-Slavic,
Pan-Rumanian or Italia Irredenta movements, there has appeared a counter
movement on the part of small disintegrating “nationalities” to reassert
themselves, such as the Bohemian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Irish, and
Egyptian national revivals. The upheaval is usually caused, as in the
cases of the Irish and the Serbians, by delusions of former greatness
now become national obsessions, but sometimes it means the resistance of
a small group of higher culture to absorption by a lower civilization.
The reassertion of these small nationalities is associated with the
resurgence of the lower races at the expense of the Nordics.
Examples of a high type threatened by a lower culture are afforded by
the Finlanders, who are trying to escape the dire fate of their
neighbors across the Gulf of Finland—the Russification of the Germans
and Swedes of the Baltic Provinces—and by the struggle of the Danes of
Schleswig to escape Germanization. The Armenians, too, have resisted
stoutly the pressure of Islam to force them away from their ancient
Christian faith. This people really represents the last outpost of
Europe toward the Mohammedan East and constitutes the best remaining
medium through which Western ideals and culture can be introduced into
Asia.
In these as in other cases, the process of absorption from the viewpoint
of the world at large is good or evil exactly in proportion to the
relative value of the culture and race of the two groups. The world
would be no richer in civilization with an independent Bohemia or an
enlarged Rumania; but, on the contrary, an independent Hungarian nation
strong enough to stand alone, a Finland self-governing or reunited to
Sweden, or an enlarged Greece would add greatly to the forces that make
for good government and progress. An independent Ireland worked out on a
Tammany model is not a pleasing prospect. A free Poland, apart from its
value as a buffer state, might be actually a step backward. Poland was
once great, but the elements that made it so are scattered and gone and
the Poland of to-day is a geographical expression and nothing more.
The prevailing lack of true race consciousness is probably due to the
fact that every important nation in Europe as at present organized, with
the sole exception of the Iberian and Scandinavian states, possesses in
large proportions representatives of at least two of the fundamental
European subspecies of man and of all manner of crosses between them. In
France to-day, as in Cæsar’s Gaul, the three races divide the nation in
unequal proportions.
In the future, however, with an increased knowledge of the correct
definition of true human races and types and with a recognition of the
immutability of fundamental racial characters and of the results of
mixed breeding, far more value will be attached to racial in contrast to
national or linguistic affinities. In marital relations the
consciousness of race will also play a much larger part than at present,
although in the social sphere we shall have to contend with a certain
strange attraction for contrasted types. When it becomes thoroughly
understood that the children of mixed marriages between contrasted races
belong to the lower type, the importance of transmitting in unimpaired
purity the blood inheritance of ages will be appreciated at its full
value and to bring half-breeds into the world will be regarded as a
social and racial crime of the first magnitude. The laws against
miscegenation must be greatly extended if the higher races are to be
maintained.
The language that a man speaks may be nothing more than evidence that at
some time in the past his race has been in contact, either as conqueror
or as conquered, with its original possessors. Postulating the Nordic
origin and dissemination of the Proto-Aryan language, then in Asia and
elsewhere existing Aryan speech on the lips of populations showing no
sign of Nordic characters is to be considered evidence of a former
dominance of Nordics now long vanished.
One has only to consider the spread of the language of Rome over the
vast extent of her Empire to realize how few of those who speak to-day
Romance tongues derive any portion of their blood from the pure Latin
stock and the error of talking about a “Latin race” becomes evident.
There is, however, such a thing as a large group of nations which have a
mutual understanding and sympathy based on the possession of a common or
closely related group of languages and on the culture of which it is the
medium. This assemblage maybe called the “Latin nations,” but never the
“Latin race.”
“Latin America” is a still greater misnomer as the great mass of the
populations of South and Central America is not even European and still
less “Latin,” being overwhelmingly of Amerindian blood.
In the Teutonic group a large majority of those who speak Teutonic
languages, as the English, Flemings, Dutch, North Germans and
Scandinavians, are descendants of the Nordic race while the dominant
class in Europe is everywhere of that blood.
As to the so-called “Celtic race,” the fantastic inapplicability of the
term is at once apparent when we consider that those populations on the
borders of the Atlantic Ocean, who to-day speak Celtic dialects, are
divided into three groups, each one showing in great purity the
characters of one of the three entirely distinct human subspecies found
in Europe. To class together the Breton peasant with his round Alpine
skull; the little, long skulled, brunet Welshman of Mediterranean race,
and the tall, blond, light-eyed Scottish Highlander of pure Nordic
blood, in a single group labelled Celtic is obviously impossible. These
peoples have neither physical, mental nor cultural characteristics in
common. If one be of “Celtic” blood then the other two are clearly of
different origin.
There was once a people who used the original Celtic language and they
formed the western vanguard of the Nordic race. This people was spread
all over central and western Europe prior to the irruption of the
Teutonic tribes and were, no doubt, much mixed with Alpines among the
lower classes. The descendants of these Celts must be sought to-day
among those having the characters of the Nordic race and not elsewhere.
In England the short, dark Mediterranean Welshman talks about being
“Celtic,” quite unconscious that he is the residuum of Pre-Nordic races
of immense antiquity. If the Celts are Mediterranean in race then they
are absent from central Europe and we must regard as Celts all the
Berbers and Egyptians, as well as many Persians and Hindus.
In France many anthropologists regard the Breton of Alpine blood in the
same light and ignore his remote Asiatic origin. If these Alpine Bretons
are Celts then there is no substantial trace of their blood, in the
British Isles, as round skulls are practically absent there and all the
blond elements in England, Scotland and Ireland must be attributed to
the historic Teutonic invasions. Furthermore, we must call all the
continental Alpines “Celts,” and must also include all Slavs, Armenians
and other brachycephs of western Asia within that designation, which
would be obviously grotesque. The fact that the original Celts left
their speech on the tongues of Mediterraneans in Wales and of Alpines in
Brittany must not mislead us, as it indicates nothing more than that
Celtic speech antedates the Anglo-Saxons in England and the Romans in
France. We must once and for all time discard the name “Celt” for any
existing race whatever and speak only of “Celtic” language and culture.
In Ireland the big, blond Nordic Danes claim the honor of the name of
“Celt,” if honor it be, but they are fully as Nordic as the English and
the great mass of the Irish are of Danish, Norse and Anglo-Norman blood
in addition to earlier and Pre-Nordic elements. We are all familiar with
the blond and the brunet type of Irishman. These represent precisely the
same racial elements as those which enter into the composition of the
English, namely, the tall Nordic blond and the little Mediterranean
brunet pure or combined with Paleolithic remnants. The Irish are
consequently not entitled to independent national existence on the
ground of race, but if there be any ground for political separation from
England it must rest like that of Belgium on religion, a basis for
political combinations now happily obsolete in communities well advanced
in culture.
In the case of the so-called “Slavic race,” there is much more unity
between racial type and language. It is true that in most
Slavic-speaking countries the predominant race is clearly Alpine, except
perhaps in Russia where there is a very large substratum of Nordic
type—which may be considered as Proto-Nordic. The objection which is
made to the identification of the Slavic race with the Alpine type rests
chiefly on the fact that a very large portion of the Alpine race is
German-speaking in Germany, Italian-speaking in Italy and
French-speaking in central France. Moreover, large portions of Rumania
are of exactly the same racial complexion.
Many of the modern Greeks are also Alpines; in fact, are little more
than Byzantinized Slavs. It was through the Byzantine Empire that the
Slavs first came in contact with the Mediterranean world and through
this Greek medium the Russians, the Serbians, the Rumanians and the
Bulgarians received their Christianity.
Situated on the eastern marches of Europe, the Slavs were submerged
during long periods in the Middle Ages by Mongolian hordes and were
checked in development and warped in culture. Definite traces remain of
the blood of the Mongols both in isolated and compact groups in south
Russia and also scattered throughout the whole country as far west as
the German boundary. The high tide of the Mongol invasion was during the
thirteenth century. Three hundred years later the great Muscovite
expansion began, first over the steppes to the Urals and then across
Siberian tundras and forests to the waters of the Pacific, taking up in
its course much Mongolian blood, especially during the early stages of
its advance.
The term “Caucasian race” has ceased to have any meaning except where it
is used, in the United States, to contrast white populations with
Negroes or Indians or in the Old World with Mongols. It is, however, a
convenient term to include the three European subspecies when considered
as divisions of one of the primary branches or species of mankind but it
is, at best, a cumbersome and archaic designation. The name “Caucasian”
arose a century ago from a false assumption that the cradle of the blond
Europeans was in the Caucasus where no traces are now found of any such
race, except a small and decreasing minority of blond traits among the
Ossetes, a tribe whose Aryan speech is related to that of the Armenians,
and who while mainly brachycephalic still retain some blond and
dolichocephalic elements which apparently are fading fast. The Ossetes
now have about thirty per cent fair eyes and ten per cent fair hair.
They are supposed to be to some extent a remnant of the Alans, the
easternmost Teutonic tribe and closely related to the Goths. Both Alans
and Goths very early in the Christian era occupied southern Russia, and
were the latest known Nordics in the vicinity of the Caucasus Mountains.
If these Ossetes are not partly of Alan origin they may possibly
represent the last lingering trace of ancient Scythian dolichocephalic
blondness.
The phrase “Indo-European or Indo-Germanic race” is also of little use.
If it has any meaning at all it must include all the three European
races as well as members of the Mediterranean race in Persia and India.
The use of this name also involves a false assumption of blood
relationship between the north European populations and the Hindus,
because of their possession in common of Aryan speech.
The name “Aryan race” must also be frankly discarded as a term of racial
significance. It is to-day purely linguistic, although there was at one
time, of course, an identity between the original Proto-Aryan mother
tongue and the race that first spoke and developed it. In short, there
is not nor has there ever been either a Caucasian or an Indo-European
race, but there was once, thousands of years ago, an original Aryan race
long since vanished into dim memories of the past. If used in a racial
sense other than as above, it should be limited to the Nordic invaders
of Hindustan now long extinct. The great lapse of time since the
disappearance of the ancient Aryan race as such is measured by the
extreme disintegration of the various groups of Aryan languages. These
linguistic divergences are chiefly due to the imposition by conquest of
Aryan speech upon several distinct subspecies of man throughout western
Asia and Europe.
It may be pertinent before leaving this subject to point out that, as a
whole, “Germans,” “French,” and “English,” as certain populations are
now called, are but little more entitled to be considered the direct
descendants, or even the exclusive modern representatives, of the
ancient Germans, Franks or Anglo-Saxons, than are the living Italians or
Greeks to be regarded as the offspring of the Romans of the days of the
Republic or the Hellenes of the classic period. There are, of course,
many individuals and groups, perhaps even classes, in each of these
nations, who do accurately represent the race from which the national
name was derived. The Scandinavians, on the other hand, are racially
what they were two thousand years ago, though diminished somewhat in
race vigor by the loss through the emigration of some of their more
enterprising members. Meanwhile, at the other end of Europe, the modern
Spaniard probably more closely represents the Iberians before the
arrival of the Gauls than did the Spaniard of five hundred years ago.
VI
RACE AND LANGUAGE
When a country is invaded and conquered by a race speaking a foreign
language, one of several things may happen: replacement of both
population and language, as in the case of eastern England when
conquered by the Saxons or adoption of the language of the victors by
the natives, as happened in Roman Gaul, where the invaders imposed their
Latin tongue throughout the land without substantially altering the
race.
The Romans probably modified the race in Gaul by killing a much larger
proportion of the Nordic fighting classes than of the more submissive
Alpines and Mediterraneans. This is confirmed by the fact that when the
prolonged and brilliant resistance to Cæsar’s legions was finally
broken, no serious attempt was ever again made to throw off the Roman
yoke and a few centuries later the Teutonic invaders encountered no
determined opposition from the inhabitants when they entered and
occupied the land.
In England and Scotland later conquerors, Norsemen, Danes and Normans,
failed to change radically the Saxon speech of the country and in Gaul
the Teutonic tongues of the Franks, Burgundians and Northmen could not
displace the language of Rome.
Autochthonous inhabitants frequently impose upon their invaders their
own language and customs. In Normandy the conquering Norse pirates
accepted the language, religion and customs of the natives and in a
century they vanish from history as Scandinavian heathen and appear as
the foremost representatives of the speech and religion of Rome.
In Hindustan the blond Nordic invaders forced their Aryan language on
the aborigines, but their blood was quickly and utterly absorbed in the
darker strains of the original owners of the land. A record of the
desperate efforts of the conqueror classes in India to preserve the
purity of their blood persists until this very day in their carefully
regulated system of castes. In our Southern States Jim Crow cars and
social discriminations have exactly the same purpose and justification.
The Hindu to-day speaks a very ancient form of Aryan language, but there
remains not one recognizable trace of the blood of the white conquerors
who poured in through the passes of the Northwest. The boast of the
modern Indian that he is of the same race as his English ruler is
entirely without basis in fact and the little swarthy native lives amid
the monuments of a departed grandeur, professing the religion and
speaking the tongue of his long-forgotten Nordic conquerors, without the
slightest claim to blood kinship. The dim and uncertain traces of Nordic
blood in northern India only serve to emphasize the utter swamping of
the white man in the burning South.
The power of racial resistance of a dense and thoroughly acclimated
population to an incoming army is very great. No ethnic conquest can be
complete unless the natives are exterminated and the invaders bring
their own women with them. If the conquerors are obliged to depend upon
the women of the vanquished to carry on the race, the intrusive blood
strain of the invaders in a short time becomes diluted beyond
recognition.
It sometimes happens that an infiltration of population takes place
either in the guise of unwilling slaves or of willing immigrants, who
fill up waste places and take to the lowly tasks which the lords of the
land despise, thus gradually occupying the country and literally
breeding out their masters.
The former catastrophe happened in the declining days of the Roman
Republic and the south Italians of to-day are very largely descendants
of the nondescript slaves of all races, chiefly from the southern and
eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, who were imported by the Romans
under the Empire to work their vast estates. The latter is occurring
to-day in many parts of America, especially in New England.
The eastern half of Germany has a Slavic Alpine substratum which
represents the descendants of the Wends, who first appear about the
commencement of the Christian era and who by the sixth century had
penetrated as far west as the Elbe, occupying the lands left vacant by
the Teutonic tribes which had migrated southward. These Wends in turn
were Teutonized by a return wave of military conquest from the tenth
century onward, and to-day their descendants are considered Germans in
good standing. Having adopted the German as their sole tongue they are
now in religious, political and cultural sympathy with the pure Teutons;
in fact, they are quite unconscious of any racial distinction.
This historic fact underlies the ferocious controversy which has been
raised over the ethnic origin of the Prussians, the issue being whether
the populations in Brandenburg, Silesia, Posen, West Prussia, and other
districts in eastern Germany, are Alpine Wends or true Nordics. The
truth is that the dominant half of the population is purely Teutonic and
the remainder of the population are merely Teutonized Wends and Poles of
Alpine affinities. Of course, these territories must also retain some of
their early Teutonic population and the blood of the Goth, Burgund,
Vandal and Lombard, who at the commencement of the Christian era were
located there, as well as of the later Saxon element, must enter largely
into the composition of the Prussian of to-day.
Some anthropologists regard the Teutonized round heads of south Germany
as a distinct subdivision of the Alpines because of the large percentage
of blond hair and still larger percentage of light colored eyes.
The most important communities in continental Europe of pure German type
are to be found in old Saxony, the country around Hanover, and this
element prevails generally in the northwestern part of the German Empire
among the Low German-speaking population, while the High German-speaking
population is largely composed of Teutonized Alpines.
The coasts of the North Sea extending from Schleswig and Holstein into
Holland are inhabited by a very pure Nordic type known as the Frisians.
They are the handsomest and in many respects the finest of the
continental Nordics and are closely related to the English, as many of
the Post-Roman invaders of England either came from Frisia or from
adjoining districts.
All the states involved in the present world war have sent to the front
their fighting Nordic element and the loss of life now going on in
Europe will fall much more heavily on the blond giant than on the little
brunet.
As in all wars since Roman times from a breeding point of view the
little dark man is the final winner. No one who saw one of our regiments
march on its way to the Spanish War could fail to be impressed with the
size and blondness of the men in the ranks as contrasted with the
complacent citizen, who from his safe stand on the gutter curb gave his
applause to the fighting man and then stayed behind to perpetuate his
own brunet type. In the present war one has merely to study the type of
officer and of the man in the ranks to realize that, in spite of the
draft net, the Nordic race is contributing an enormous majority of the
fighting men, out of all proportion to their relative numbers in the
nation at large.
This same Nordic element, everywhere the type of the sailor, the
soldier, the adventurer and the pioneer, was ever the type to migrate to
new countries, until the ease of transportation and the desire to escape
military service in the last forty years reversed the immigrant tide. In
consequence of this change our immigrants now largely represent lowly
refugees from “persecution,” and other social discards.
In most cases the blood of pioneers has been lost to their race. They
did not take their women with them. They either died childless or left
half-breeds behind them. The virile blood of the Spanish conquistadores,
who are now little more than a memory in Central and South America, died
out from these causes.
This was also true in the early days of our Western frontiersmen, who
individually were a far finer type than the settlers who followed them.
In fact, it is said that practically every one of the Forty-Niners in
California was of Nordic type.
VII
THE EUROPEAN RACES IN COLONIES
For reasons already set forth there are few communities outside of
Europe of pure European blood. The racial destiny of Mexico and of the
islands and coasts of the Spanish Main is clear. The white man is being
rapidly bred out by Negroes on the islands and by Indians on the
mainland. It is quite evident that the West Indies, the coast region of
our Gulf States, perhaps, also the black belt of the lower Mississippi
Valley must be abandoned to Negroes. This transformation is already
complete in Haiti and is going rapidly forward in Cuba and Jamaica.
Mexico and the northern part of South America must also be given over to
native Indians with an ever thinning veneer of white culture of the
“Latin” type.
In Venezuela the pure whites number about one per cent of the whole
population, the balance being Indians and various crosses between
Indians, Negroes and whites. In Jamaica the whites number not more than
two per cent, while the remainder are Negroes or mulattoes. In Mexico
the proportion is larger, but the unmixed whites number less than twenty
per cent of the whole, the others being Indians pure or mixed. These
latter are the “greasers” of the American frontiersman.
Whenever the incentive to imitate the dominant race is removed the Negro
or, for that matter, the Indian, reverts shortly to his ancestral grade
of culture. In other words, it is the individual and not the race that
is affected by religion, education and example. Negroes have
demonstrated throughout recorded time that they are a stationary species
and that they do not possess the potentiality of progress or initiative
from within. Progress from self-impulse must not be confounded with
mimicry or with progress imposed from without by social pressure or by
the slaver’s lash.
When the impulse of an inferior race to imitate or mimic the dress,
manners or morals of the dominant race is destroyed by the acquisition
of political or social independence, the servient race tends to revert
to its original status as in Haiti.
Where two distinct species are located side by side history and biology
teach that but one of two things can happen; either one race drives the
other out, as the Americans exterminated the Indians and as the Negroes
are now replacing the whites in various parts of the South; or else they
amalgamate and form a population of race bastards in which the lower
type ultimately preponderates. This is a disagreeable alternative with
which to confront sentimentalists but nature is only concerned with
results and neither makes nor takes excuses. The chief failing of the
day with some of our well meaning philanthropists is their absolute
refusal to face inevitable facts, if such facts appear cruel.
In the Argentine white blood of the various European races is pouring in
so rapidly that a community preponderantly white, but of the
Mediterranean race, may develop, but the type is suspiciously swarthy.
In Brazil, Negro blood together with that of the native inhabitants is
rapidly overwhelming the white Europeans, although in the southern
provinces German immigration has played an important rôle and the influx
of Italians has also been considerable.
In Asia, with the sole exception of the Russian settlements in Siberia,
there can be and will be no ethnic conquest and all the white men in
India, the East Indies, the Philippines and China will leave not the
slightest trace behind them in the blood of the native population. After
several centuries of contact and settlement the pure Spanish in the
Philippines are about half of one per cent. The Dutch in their East
Indian islands are even less, while the resident whites in Hindustan
amount to about one-tenth of one per cent. Such numbers are
infinitesimal and of no force in a democracy, but in a monarchy, if kept
free from contamination, they suffice for a ruling caste or a military
aristocracy. Throughout history it is only the race of the leaders that
has counted and the most vigorous have been in control and will remain
in mastery in one form or another until such time as democracy and its
illegitimate offspring, socialism, definitely establish cacocracy and
the rule of the worst and put an end to progress. The salvation of
humanity will then lie in the chance survival of some sane barbarians
who may retain the basic truth that inequality and not equality is the
law of nature.
Australia and New Zealand, where the natives have been virtually
exterminated by the whites, are developing into communities of pure
Nordic blood and will for that reason play a large part in the future
history of the Pacific. The bitter opposition of the Australians and
Californians to the admission of Chinese coolies and Japanese farmers is
due primarily to a blind but absolutely justified determination to keep
those lands as white man’s countries.
In Africa, south of the Sahara, the density of the native population
will prevent the establishment of any purely white communities, except
at the southern extremity of the continent and possibly on portions of
the plateaux of eastern Africa. The stoppage of famines and wars and the
abolition of the slave trade, while dictated by the noblest impulses of
humanity, are suicidal to the white man. Upon the removal of these
natural checks Negroes multiply so rapidly that there will not be
standing room on the continent for white men, unless, perchance, the
lethal sleeping sickness, which attacks the natives far more frequently
than the whites, should run its course unchecked.
In South Africa a community of mixed Dutch and English extraction is
developing. Here the only difference is one of language. English, being
a world tongue, will inevitably prevail over the Dutch patois called
“Taal.” This Frisian dialect, as a matter of fact, is closer to old
Saxon or rather Kentish than any living continental tongue and the blood
of the North Hollander is extremely close to that of the Anglo-Saxon of
England. The English and the Dutch will merge in a common type just as
they have in the past two hundred years in the Colony and State of New
York. They must stand together if they are to maintain any part of
Africa as a white man’s country, because they are confronted with the
menace of an enormous black Bantu population which will drive out the
whites unless the problem is bravely faced.
The only possible solution is to establish large colonies for the
Negroes and to allow them outside of them only as laborers and not as
settlers. There must be ultimately a black South Africa and a white
South Africa side by side or else a pure black Africa from the Cape to
the cataracts of the Nile.
In upper Canada, as in the United States up to the time of our Civil
War, the white population was purely Nordic. The Dominion is, as a
whole, handicapped by the presence of an indigestible mass of French
Canadians, largely from Brittany and of Alpine origin, although the
habitant patois is an archaic Norman of the time of Louis XIV. These
Frenchmen were granted freedom of language and religion by their
conquerors and are now using those privileges to form separatist groups
in antagonism to the English population. The Quebec Frenchmen will
succeed in seriously impeding the progress of Canada and will succeed
even better in keeping themselves a poor and ignorant community of
little more importance to the world at large than are the Negroes in the
South. The selfishness of the Quebec Frenchmen is measured by the fact
that in the present war they will not fight for the British Empire or
for France or even for clerical Belgium and they are now endeavoring to
make use of the military crisis to secure a further extension of their
“nationalistic ideals.”
Personally the writer believes that the finest and purest type of a
Nordic community outside of Europe will develop in northwest Canada and
on the Pacific coast of the United States. Most of the other countries
in which the Nordic race is now settling lie outside the special
environment in which alone it can flourish.
The Negroes of the United States while stationary, were not a serious
drag on civilization until in the last century they were given the
rights of citizenship and were incorporated in the body politic. These
Negroes brought with them no language or religion or customs of their
own which persisted but adopted all these elements of environment from
the dominant race, taking the names of their masters just as to-day the
German and Polish Jews are assuming American names. They came for the
most part from the coasts of the Bight of Benin, but some of the later
ones came from the southeast coast of Africa by way of Zanzibar. They
were of various black tribes but have been from the beginning saturated
with white blood.
Looking at any group of Negroes in America, especially in the North, it
is easy to see that while they are all essentially Negroes, whether
coal-black, brown or yellow, a great many of them have varying amounts
of Nordic blood in them, which has in some respects modified their
physical structure without transforming them in any way into white men.
This miscegenation was, of course, a frightful disgrace to the dominant
race but its effect on the Nordics has been negligible, for the simple
reason that it was confined to white men crossing with Negro women and
did not involve the reverse process, which would, of course, have
resulted in the infusion of Negro blood into the American stock.
The United States of America must be regarded racially as a European
colony and owing to current ignorance of the physical bases of race, one
often hears the statement made that native Americans of Colonial
ancestry are of mixed ethnic origin.
This is not true.
At the time of the Revolutionary War the settlers in the thirteen
Colonies were overwhelmingly Nordic, a very large majority being
Anglo-Saxon in the most limited meaning of that term. The New England
settlers in particular came from those counties of England where the
blood was almost purely Saxon, Anglian, Norse and Dane. The date of
their migration was earlier than the resurgence of the Mediterranean
type that has so greatly expanded in England during the last century
with the growth of manufacturing towns.
New England during Colonial times and long afterward was far more Nordic
than old England; that is, it contained a smaller percentage of small,
Pre-Nordic brunets. Any one familiar with the native New Englander knows
the clean cut face, the high stature and the prevalence of gray and blue
eyes and light brown hair and recognizes that the brunet element is less
noticeable there than in the South.
The Southern States were populated also by Englishmen of the purest
Nordic type but there is to-day, except among the mountains, an
appreciably larger amount of brunet types than in the North. Virginia is
in the same latitude as North Africa and south of this line no blonds
have ever been able to survive in full vigor, chiefly because the
actinic rays of the sun are the same regardless of other climatic
conditions. These rays beat heavily on the Nordic race and disturb their
nervous system, wherever the white man ventures too far from the cold
and foggy North.
The remaining Colonial elements, the Holland Dutch and the Palatine
Germans, who came over in small numbers to New York and Pennsylvania,
were also largely Nordic, while many of the French Huguenots who escaped
to America were drawn from the same racial element in France. The
Scotch-Irish, who were numerous on the frontier of the middle Colonies
were, of course, of pure Scotch and English blood, although they had
resided in Ireland for two or three generations. They were quite free
from admixture with the earlier Irish, from whom they were cut off
socially by bitter religious antagonism and they are not to be
considered as “Irish” in any sense.
There was no important immigration of other elements until the middle of
the nineteenth century when Irish Catholic and German immigrants appear
for the first time upon the scene.
The Nordic blood was kept pure in the Colonies because at that time
among Protestant peoples there was a strong race feeling, as a result of
which half-breeds between the white man and any native type were
regarded as natives and not as white men.
There was plenty of mixture with the Negroes as the light color of many
Negroes abundantly testifies, but these mulattoes, quadroons or
octoroons were then and are now universally regarded as Negroes.
There was also abundant cross breeding along the frontiers between the
white frontiersman and the Indian squaw but the half-breed was
everywhere regarded as a member of the inferior race.
In the Catholic colonies, however, of New France and New Spain, if the
half-breed were a good Catholic he was regarded as a Frenchman or a
Spaniard, as the case might be. This fact alone gives the clew to many
of our Colonial wars where the Indians, other than the Iroquois, were
persuaded to join the French against the Americans by half-breeds who
considered themselves Frenchmen. The Church of Rome has everywhere used
its influence to break down racial distinctions. It disregards origins
and only requires obedience to the mandates of the universal church. In
that lies the secret of the opposition of Rome to all national
movements. It maintains the imperial as contrasted with the
nationalistic ideal and in that respect its inheritance is direct from
the Empire.
Race consciousness in the Colonies and in the United States, down to and
including the Mexican War, seems to have been very strongly developed
among native Americans and it still remains in full vigor to-day in the
South, where the presence of a large Negro population forces this
question upon the daily attention of the whites.
In New England, however, whether through the decline of Calvinism or the
growth of altruism, there appeared early in the last century a wave of
sentimentalism, which at that time took up the cause of the Negro and in
so doing apparently destroyed, to a large extent, pride and
consciousness of race in the North. The agitation over slavery was
inimical to the Nordic race, because it thrust aside all national
opposition to the intrusion of hordes of immigrants of inferior racial
value and prevented the fixing of a definite American type.
The Civil War was fought almost entirely by unalloyed native Americans.
The Irish immigrants were, at the middle of the last century, confined
to a few States and, being chiefly domestic servants or day laborers,
were of no social importance. They gathered in the large cities and by
voting as a solid block for their own collective benefit quickly
demoralized the governments of the municipalities in which they secured
ascendancy. The German immigrants who came to America about the same
time were chiefly enthusiasts who had taken part in the German
Revolution of ’48. In spite of the handicap of a strange language they
formed a more docile and educated element than the Irish and were more
prone to scatter into the rural districts. Neither the Irish nor the
Germans played an important part in the development or policies of the
nation as a whole, although in the Civil War they each contributed a
relatively large number of soldiers to the Northern army. These Irish
and German elements were for the most part of the Nordic race and while
they did not in the least strengthen the nation either morally or
intellectually they did not impair its physique.
There has been little or no Indian blood taken into the veins of the
native American, except in States like Oklahoma and in some isolated
families scattered here and there in the Northwest. This particular
mixture will play no very important role in future combinations of race
on this continent, except in the north of Canada.
The native American has always found and finds now in the black men
willing followers who ask only to obey and to further the ideals and
wishes of the master race, without trying to inject into the body
politic their own views, whether racial, religious or social. Negroes
are never socialists or labor unionists and as long as the dominant
imposes its will on the servient race and as long as they remain in the
same relation to the whites as in the past, the Negroes will be a
valuable element in the community but once raised to social equality
their influence will be destructive to themselves and to the whites. If
the purity of the two races is to be maintained they cannot continue to
live side by side and this is a problem from which there can be no
escape.
The native American by the middle of the nineteenth century was rapidly
acquiring distinct characteristics. Derived from the Saxon and Danish
parts of the British Isles and being almost purely Nordic he was by
reason of a differential selection due to a new environment beginning to
show physical peculiarities of his own slightly variant from those of
his English forefathers and corresponding rather with the idealistic
Elizabethan than with the materialistic Hanoverian Englishman. The Civil
War, however, put a severe, perhaps fatal, check to the development and
expansion of this splendid type by destroying great numbers of the best
breeding stock on both sides and by breaking up the home ties of many
more. If the war had not occurred these same men with their descendants
would have populated the Western States instead of the racial
nondescripts who are now flocking there.
There is every reason to believe that the native stock would have
continued to maintain a high rate of increase if there had been no
immigration of foreign laborers in the middle of the nineteenth century
and that the actual population of the United States would be fully as
large as it is now but would have been almost exclusively native
American and Nordic.
The prosperity that followed the war attracted hordes of newcomers who
were welcomed by the native Americans to operate factories, build
railroads and fill up the waste spaces—“developing the country” it was
called.
These new immigrants were no longer exclusively members of the Nordic
race as were the earlier ones who came of their own impulse to improve
their social conditions. The transportation lines advertised America as
a land flowing with milk and honey and the European governments took the
opportunity to unload upon careless, wealthy and hospitable America the
sweepings of their jails and asylums. The result was that the new
immigration, while it still included many strong elements from the north
of Europe, contained a large and increasing number of the weak, the
broken and the mentally crippled of all races drawn from the lowest
stratum of the Mediterranean basin and the Balkans, together with hordes
of the wretched, submerged populations of the Polish Ghettos. Our jails,
insane asylums and almshouses are filled with this human flotsam and the
whole tone of American life, social, moral and political has been
lowered and vulgarized by them.
With a pathetic and fatuous belief in the efficacy of American
institutions and environment to reverse or obliterate immemorial
hereditary tendencies, these newcomers were welcomed and given a share
in our land and prosperity. The American taxed himself to sanitate and
educate these poor helots and as soon as they could speak English,
encouraged them to enter into the political life, first of
municipalities and then of the nation.
The native Americans are splendid raw material, but have as yet only an
imperfectly developed national consciousness. They lack the instinct of
self-preservation in a racial sense. Unless such an instinct develops
their race will perish, as do all organisms which disregard this primary
law of nature. Nature had granted to the Americans of a century ago the
greatest opportunity in recorded history to produce in the isolation of
a continent a powerful and racially homogeneous people and had provided
for the experiment a pure race of one of the most gifted and vigorous
stocks on earth, a stock free from the diseases, physical and moral,
which have again and again sapped the vigor of the older lands. Our
grandfathers threw away this opportunity in the blissful ignorance of
national childhood and inexperience.
The result of unlimited immigration is showing plainly in the rapid
decline in the birth rate of native Americans because the poorer classes
of Colonial stock, where they still exist, will not bring children into
the world to compete in the labor market with the Slovak, the Italian,
the Syrian and the Jew. The native American is too proud to mix socially
with them and is gradually withdrawing from the scene, abandoning to
these aliens the land which he conquered and developed. The man of the
old stock is being crowded out of many country districts by these
foreigners just as he is to-day being literally driven off the streets
of New York City by the swarms of Polish Jews. These immigrants adopt
the language of the native American, they wear his clothes, they steal
his name and they are beginning to take his women, but they seldom adopt
his religion or understand his ideals and while he is being elbowed out
of his own home the American looks calmly abroad and urges on others the
suicidal ethics which are exterminating his own race.
When the test of actual battle comes, it will, of course, be the native
American who will do the fighting and suffer the losses. With him will
stand the immigrants of Nordic blood, but there will be numbers of these
foreigners in the large cities who will prove to be physically unfit for
military duty.
As to what the future mixture will be it is evident that in large
sections of the country the native American will entirely disappear. He
will not intermarry with inferior races and he cannot compete in the
sweat shop and in the street trench with the newcomers. Large cities
from the days of Rome, Alexandria, and Byzantium have always been
gathering points of diverse races, but New York is becoming a _cloaca
gentium_ which will produce many amazing racial hybrids and some ethnic
horrors that will be beyond the powers of future anthropologists to
unravel.
One thing is certain: in any such mixture, the surviving traits will be
determined by competition between the lowest and most primitive elements
and the specialized traits of Nordic man; his stature, his light colored
eyes, his fair skin and light colored hair, his straight nose and his
splendid fighting and moral qualities, will have little part in the
resultant mixture.
The “survival of the fittest” means the survival of the type best
adapted to existing conditions of environment, which to-day are the
tenement and factory, as in Colonial times they were the clearing of
forests, fighting Indians, farming the fields and sailing the Seven
Seas. From the point of view of race it were better described as the
“survival of the unfit.”
This review of the colonies of Europe would be discouraging were it not
for the fact that thus far little attention has been paid to the
suitability of a new country for the particular colonists who migrate
there. The process of sending out colonists is as old as mankind itself
and probably in the last analysis most of the chief races of the world,
certainly most of the inhabitants of Europe, represent the descendants
of successful colonists.
Success in colonization depends on the selection of new lands and
climatic conditions in harmony with the immemorial requirements of the
incoming race. The adjustment of each race to its own peculiar habitat
is based on thousands of years of rigid selection which cannot be safely
ignored. A certain isolation and freedom from competition with other
races, for some centuries at least, is also important, so that the
colonists may become habituated to their new surroundings.
The Americans have not been on the continent long enough to acquire this
adjustment and consequently do not present as effective a resistance to
competition with immigrants as did, let us say, the Italians when
overrun by northern barbarians. As soon as a group of men migrate to new
surroundings, climatic, social or industrial, a new form of selection
arises and those not fitted to the new conditions die off at a greater
rate than in their original home. This form of differential selection
plays a large part in modern industrial centres and in large cities,
where unsanitary conditions bear more heavily on the children of Nordics
than on those of Alpines or Mediterraneans.
_PART II_
EUROPEAN RACES IN HISTORY
I
EOLITHIC MAN
Before considering the living populations of Europe we must give
consideration to the extinct peoples that preceded them.
The science of anthropology is very recent—in its present form less than
fifty years old—but it has already revolutionized our knowledge of the
past and extended prehistory so that it is now measured not by thousands
but by tens of thousands of years.
The history of man prior to the period of metals has been divided into
ten or more subdivisions, many of them longer than the time covered by
written records. Man has struggled up through the ages, to revert again
and again into savagery and barbarism but apparently retaining each time
something gained by the travail of his ancestors.
So long as there is in the world a freely breeding stock or race that
has in it an inherent capacity for development and growth, mankind will
continue to ascend until, possibly through the selection and regulation
of breeding as intelligently applied as in the case of domestic animals,
it will control its own destiny and attain moral heights as yet
unimagined.
The impulse upward, however, is supplied by a very small number of
nations and by a very small proportion of the population in such
nations. The section of any community that produces leaders or genius of
any sort is only a minute percentage. To utilize and adapt to human
needs the forces and the raw materials of nature, to invent new
processes, to establish new principles, and to elucidate and unravel the
laws that control the universe call for genius. To imitate or to adopt
what others have invented is not genius but mimicry.
This something which we call “genius” is not a matter of family, but of
stock or strain, and is inherited in precisely the same manner as are
the purely physical characters. It may be latent through several
generations of obscurity and then flare up when the opportunity comes.
Of this we have many examples in America. This is what education or
opportunity does for a community; it permits in these rare cases fair
play for development, but it is race, always race, that produces genius.
An individual of inferior type or race may profit greatly by good
environment. On the other hand, a member of a superior race in bad
surroundings may, and very often does, sink to an extremely low level.
While emphasizing the importance of race, it must not be forgotten that
environment, while it does not alter the potential capacity of the
stock, can perform miracles in the development of the individual.
This genius producing type is slow breeding and there is real danger of
its loss to mankind. Some idea of the value of these small strains can
be gained from the recent statistics which demonstrate that
Massachusetts produces more than fifty times as much genius per hundred
thousand whites as does Georgia, Alabama or Mississippi, although
apparently the race, religion and environment, other than climatic
conditions, are much the same, except for the numbing presence in the
South of a large stationary Negro population.
The more thorough the study of European prehistory becomes, the more we
realize how many advances of culture have been made and then lost. Our
parents were accustomed to regard the overthrow of ancient civilization
in the Dark Ages as the greatest catastrophe of mankind, but we now know
that the classic period of Greece was preceded by similar dark ages
caused by the Dorian invasions, that had overthrown the Homeric-Mycenæan
culture, which in its turn had flourished after the destruction of its
parent, the brilliant Minoan culture of Crete. Still earlier, some
twelve thousand years ago, the Azilian Period of poverty and
retrogression succeeded the wonderful achievements of the hunter-artists
of the Upper Paleolithic.
The progress of civilization becomes evident only when immense periods
are studied and compared, but the lesson is always the same, namely,
that race is everything. Without race there can be nothing except the
slave wearing his master’s clothes, stealing his master’s proud name,
adopting his master’s tongue and living in the crumbling ruins of his
master’s palace. Everywhere on the sites of ancient civilizations the
Turk, the Kurd and the Bedouin camp; and Americans may well pause and
consider the fate of this country which they, and they alone, founded
and nourished with their blood. The immigrant ditch diggers and the
railroad navvies were to our fathers what their slaves were to the
Romans and the same transfer of political power from master to servant
is taking place to-day.
Man’s place of origin was undoubtedly Asia. Europe is only a peninsula
of the Eurasiatic continent and although the extent of its land area
during the Pleistocene was much greater than at present, it is certain
from the distribution of the various species of man, that the main races
evolved in Asia, probably north of the great Himalayan range long before
the centre of that continent was reduced to a series of deserts by
progressive desiccation.
The evidence based on man’s relatively large bulk, on the lack of the
development of his fore limbs and particularly on his highly specialized
foot structure all indicate that he has not been arboreal for a vast
period of time, probably not since the end of the Miocene. The change of
habitat from the trees to the ground may have been caused by a profound
modification of climate, from moist to dry or from warm to cold, which
in turn may have affected the food supply and compelled a more
carnivorous diet.
Evidence of the location of the early evolution of man in Asia and in
the geologically recent submerged area toward the southeast is afforded
by the fossil deposits in the Siwalik hills of northern India; where the
remains of primates have been found which were either ancestral or
closely related to the four genera of living anthropoids and where we
may confidently look for remains of the earliest human forms; and by the
discovery in Java, which in Pliocene times was connected with the
mainland over what is now the South China Sea, of the earliest known
form of erect primate, the _Pithecanthropus_. This ape-like man is
practically the “missing link,” being intermediate between man and the
anthropoids and is generally believed to have been contemporary with the
Günz glaciation of some 500,000 years ago, the first of the four great
glacial advances in Europe.
One or two species of anthropoid apes have been discovered in the
Miocene of Europe which may possibly have been remotely related to the
ancestors of man but when the archæological exploration of Asia shall be
as complete and intensive as that of Europe it is probable that more
forms of fossil anthropoids and new species of man will be found there.
Man existed in Europe during the second and third interglacial periods,
if not earlier. We have his artifacts in the form of eoliths, at least
as early as the second interglacial stage, the Mindel-Riss, of some
300,000 years ago. A single jaw found near Heidelberg is referred to
this period and is the earliest skeletal evidence of man in Europe. From
certain remarkable characters in this jaw, it has been assigned to a new
species, _Homo heidelbergensis_.
Then follows a long period showing only scanty industrial relics and no
known skeletal remains. Man was slowly and painfully struggling up from
a culture phase where chance flints served his temporary purpose. This
period, known as the Eolithic, was succeeded by a stage of human
development where slight chipping and retouching of flints for his
increasing needs led, after vast intervals of time, to the deliberate
manufacture of tools. This Eolithic Period is necessarily extremely hazy
and uncertain. Whether or not certain chipped or broken flints, called
eoliths or dawn stones, were actually human artifacts or were the
products of natural forces is, however, immaterial for man must have
passed through such an eolithic stage.
The further back we go toward the commencement of this Eolithic culture,
the more unrecognizable the flints necessarily become until they finally
cannot be distinguished from natural stone fragments. At the beginning,
the earliest man merely picked up a convenient stone, used it once and
flung it away, precisely as an anthropoid ape would act to-day if he
wanted to break the shell of a tortoise or crack an ostrich egg.
Man must have experienced the following phases of development in the
transition from the prehuman to the human stage: first, the utilization
of chance stones and sticks; second, the casual adaptation of flints by
a minimum amount of chipping; third, the deliberate manufacture of the
simplest implements from flint nodules; and fourth, the invention of new
forms of weapons and tools in ever increasing variety.
Of the last two stages we have an extensive and clear record. Of the
second stage we have in the eoliths intermediate forms ranging from
flints that are evidently results of natural causes to flints that are
clearly artifacts. The first and earliest stage, of course, could leave
behind it no definite record and must in the present state of our
knowledge rest on hypothesis.
II
PALEOLITHIC MAN
With the deliberate manufacture of implements from flint nodules, we
enter the beginning of Paleolithic time and from here on our way is
relatively clear. The successive stages of the Paleolithic were of great
length but are each characterized by some improvement in the manufacture
of tools. During long ages man was merely a tool making and tool using
animal and, after all is said, that is about as good a definition as we
can find to-day for the primate we call human.
The Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age lasted from the somewhat
indefinite termination of the Eolithic, some 150,000 years ago, to the
Neolithic or New Stone Age, which began about 7000 B. C.
The Paleolithic falls naturally into three great subdivisions. The Lower
Paleolithic includes the whole of the last interglacial stage with the
subdivisions of the Pre-Chellean, Chellean and Acheulean; the Middle
Paleolithic covers the whole of the last glaciation and is co-extensive
with the Mousterian Period and the dominance of the Neanderthal species
of man.[1] The Upper Paleolithic embraces all the postglacial stages
down to the Neolithic and includes the subdivisions of the Aurignacian,
Solutrean, Magdalenian and Azilian. During the entire Upper Paleolithic,
except the short closing phase, the Cro-Magnon race flourished.
Footnote 1:
The Middle Paleolithic Period is suggested here for the first
time.—EDITOR’S NOTE.
It is not until after the third severe period of great cold, known as
the Riss glaciation, nor until we enter, some 150,000 years ago, the
third and last interglacial stage of temperate climate, known as the
Riss-Würm, that we find a definite and ascending series of culture. The
Pre-Chellean, Chellean and Acheulean divisions of the Lower Paleolithic
occupied the whole of this warm or rather temperate interglacial phase,
which lasted nearly 100,000 years.
A shattered skull, a jaw and some teeth have been discovered recently in
Sussex, England. These remains were attributed to the same individual,
who was named the Piltdown Man. Owing to the extraordinary thickness of
the skull and the simian character of the jaw, a new genus,
_Eoanthropus_, the “dawn man,” was created and assigned to Pre-Chellean
times. Some of the tentative restorations of the fragmentary bones make
this skull altogether too modern and too capacious for a Pre-Chellean or
even a Chellean.
Further study and comparison with the jaws of other primates also
indicate that the jaw belonged to a chimpanzee so that the genus
_Eoanthropus_ must now be abandoned and the Piltdown Man must be
included in the genus _Homo_ as at present constituted.
In any event the Piltdown Man is highly aberrant and, so far as our
present knowledge goes, does not appear to be related to any other
species of man found during the Lower Paleolithic. Future discoveries of
the Piltdown type and for that matter of Heidelberg Man may, however,
raise either or both of them to generic rank.
In later Acheulean times a new human species, very likely descended from
the early Heidelberg Man of Eolithic times, appears on the scene and is
known as the Neanderthal race. Many fossil remains of this type have
been found.
The Neanderthaloids occupied the European stage exclusively, with the
possible exception of the Piltdown Man, from the first appearance of man
in Europe to the end of the Middle Paleolithic. The Neanderthals
flourished throughout the entire duration of the last glacial advance
known as the Würm glaciation. This period, known as the Mousterian,
began about 50,000 years ago and lasted some 25,000 years.
The Neanderthal species disappears suddenly and completely with the
advent of postglacial times, when, about 25,000 years ago, it was
apparently supplanted or exterminated by a new and far higher race, the
famous Cro-Magnons.
There may well have been during Mousterian times races of man in Europe
other than the Neanderthaloids, but of them we have no record. Among the
numerous remains of Neanderthals, however, we do find traces of distinct
types showing that this race in Europe was undergoing evolution and was
developing marked variations in characters.
Neanderthal Man was an almost purely meat eating hunter, living in caves
or rather in their entrances. He was dolichocephalic and not unlike
existing Australoids, although not necessarily of black skin and was, of
course, in no sense a Negro.
The skull was characterized by heavy superorbital ridges, a low and
receding forehead, protruding and chinless under jaw and the posture was
imperfectly erect. This race was widely spread and rather numerous. Some
of its blood may have trickled down to the present time and occasionally
one sees a skull apparently of the Neanderthal type. The best skull of
this type ever seen by the writer belonged to a very intellectual
professor in London, who was quite unconscious of his value as a museum
specimen. In the old black breed of Scotland the overhanging brows and
deep-set eyes are suggestive of this race.
Along with other ancient and primitive racial remnants, ferocious
gorilla-like living specimens of Paleolithic man are found not
infrequently on the west coast of Ireland and are easily recognized by
the great upper lip, bridgeless nose, beetling brow with low growing
hair and wild and savage aspect. The proportions of the skull which give
rise to this large upper lip, the low forehead and the superorbital
ridges are certainly Neanderthal characters. The other traits of this
Irish type are common to many primitive races. This is the Irishman of
caricature and the type was very frequent in America when the first
Irish immigrants came in 1846 and the following years. It seems,
however, to have almost disappeared in this country. If, as it is
claimed, the Neanderthals have left no trace of their blood in living
populations, these Firbolgs are derived from some very ancient and
primitive race as yet undescribed.
In the Upper Paleolithic, which began after the close of the fourth and
last glaciation, about 25,000 years ago, the Neanderthal race was
succeeded by men of very modern aspect, known as Cro-Magnons. The date
of the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic is the first we can fix with
accuracy and its correctness can be relied on within narrow limits. The
Cro-Magnon race first appears in the Aurignacian subdivision of the
Upper Paleolithic. Like the Neanderthals, they were dolichocephalic but
with a cranial capacity superior to the average in existing European
populations and a stature of very remarkable size.
It is quite astonishing to find that the predominant race in Europe
25,000 years ago, or more, was not only much taller, but had an absolute
cranial capacity in excess of the average of the present population. The
low cranial average of existing populations in Europe can be best
explained by the presence of large numbers of individuals of inferior
mentality. These defectives have been carefully preserved by modern
charity, whereas in the savage state of society the backward members
were allowed to perish and the race was carried on by the vigorous and
not by the weaklings.
The high brain capacity of the Cro-Magnons is paralleled by that of the
ancient Greeks, who in a single century gave to the world out of their
small population much more genius than all the other races of mankind
have since succeeded in producing in a similar length of time. Attica
between 530 and 430 B. C. had an average population of about 90,000
freemen, and yet from this number were born no less than fourteen
geniuses of the very highest rank. This would indicate a general
intellectual status as much above that of the Anglo-Saxons as the latter
are above the Negroes. The existence at these early dates of a very high
cranial capacity and its later decline shows that there is no upward
tendency inherent in mankind of sufficient strength to overcome
obstacles placed in its way by stupid social customs.
All historians are familiar with the phenomenon of a rise and decline in
civilization such as has occurred time and again in the history of the
world but we have here in the disappearance of the Cro-Magnon race the
earliest example of the replacement of a very superior race by an
inferior one. There is great danger of a similar replacement of a higher
by a lower type here in America unless the native American uses his
superior intelligence to protect himself and his children from
competition with intrusive peoples drained from the lowest races of
eastern Europe and western Asia.
While the skull of the Cro-Magnon was long, the cheek bones were very
broad and this combination of broad face with long skull constitutes a
peculiar disharmonic type which occurs to-day only among the very highly
specialized Esquimaux and one or two other unimportant groups.
Skulls of this particular type, however, are found in small numbers
among existing populations in central France, precisely in the district
where the fossil remains of this race were first discovered. These
isolated Frenchmen probably represent the last lingering remnant of this
splendid race of hunting savages.
The Cro-Magnon culture is found around the basin of the Mediterranean,
and this fact, together with the conspicuous absence in eastern Europe
of its earliest phases, the lower Aurignacian, indicates that it entered
Europe by way of north Africa, as its successors, the Mediterranean
race, probably did in Neolithic times. There is little doubt that the
Cro-Magnons originally developed in Asia and were in their highest stage
of physical development at the time of their first appearance in Europe.
Whatever change took place in their stature during their residence there
seems to have been in the nature of a decline rather than of a further
development.
There is nothing whatever of the Negroid in the Cro-Magnons and they are
not in any way related to the Neanderthals, who represent a distinct
and, save for the suggestions made above, an extinct species of man.
The Cro-Magnon race persisted through the entire Upper Paleolithic,
during the periods known as the Aurignacian, Solutrean and Magdalenian,
from 25,000 to 10,000 B. C. While it is possible that the blood of this
race enters somewhat into the composition of the peoples of western
Europe, its influence cannot be great and the Cro-Magnons—the Nordics of
their day—disappear from view with the advent of the warmer climate of
recent times.
It has been suggested that, following the fading ice edge north and
eastward through Asia into North America, they became the ancestors of
the Esquimaux but certain anatomical objections are fatal to this
interesting theory. No one, however, who is familiar with the culture of
the Esquimaux and especially with their wonderful skill in bone and
ivory carving, can fail to be struck with the similarity of their
technique to that of the Cro-Magnons.
To the Cro-Magnon race the world owes the birth of art. Caverns and
shelters are constantly unearthed in France and Spain, where the walls
and ceilings are covered with polychrome paintings or with incised
bas-reliefs of animals of the chase. A few clay models, sometimes of the
human form, are also found, together with abundant remains of their
chipped but unpolished stone weapons and tools. Certain facts stand out
clearly, namely, that they were purely hunters and clothed themselves in
furs and skins. They knew nothing of agriculture or of domestic animals,
even the dog being probably as yet untamed and the horse regarded merely
as an object of chase.
The question of their knowledge of the principle of the bow and arrow
during the Aurignacian and Solutrean is an open one but there are
definite indications of the use of the arrow, or at least the barbed
dart, in early Magdalenian times and this weapon was well known in the
succeeding Azilian Period.
The presence toward the end of this last period of quantities of very
small flints called microliths has given rise to much controversy. It is
possible that some of these microliths represent the tips of small
poisoned arrows such as are now in very general use among primitive
hunting tribes the world over. Certain grooves in some of the flint
weapons of the Upper Paleolithic may also have been used for the
reception of poison. It is highly probable that the immediate
predecessors of the Azilians, the Cro-Magnons, perhaps the greatest
hunters that ever lived, not only used poisoned darts but were adepts in
trapping game by means of pitfalls and snares, precisely as do some of
the hunting tribes of Africa to-day. Barbed arrowheads of flint or bone,
such as were commonly used by the North American Indians, have not been
found in Paleolithic deposits.
In the Solutrean Period the Cro-Magnons shared Europe with a new race
known as the Brünn-Předmost, found in central Europe. This race is
characterized by a long face as well as a long skull, and was,
therefore, harmonic. This Brünn-Předmost race appears to have been well
settled in the Danubian and Hungarian plains and this location indicates
an eastern rather than a southern origin.
Good anatomists have seen in this race the last lingering traces of the
Neanderthaloids but it is more probable that we have here the first
advance wave of the primitive forerunners of one of the modern European
dolichocephalic races.
This new race was not artistic, but had great skill in fashioning
weapons and possibly is associated with the peculiarities of Solutrean
culture and the decline of art which characterizes that period. The
artistic impulse of the Cro-Magnons which flourished so vigorously
during the Aurignacian seems to be quite suspended during this Solutrean
Period, but reappears in the succeeding Magdalenian times. This
Magdalenian art is clearly the direct descendant of Aurignacian models
and in this closing age of the Cro-Magnons all forms of Paleolithic art,
carving, engraving, painting and the manufacture of weapons, reach their
highest and final culmination.
Nine or ten thousand years may be assigned to the Aurignacian and
Solutrean Periods and we may with considerable certainty give the
minimum date of 16,000 B. C. as the beginning of Magdalenian time. Its
entire duration can be safely set down at 6,000 years, thus bringing the
final termination of the Magdalenian to 10,000 B. C. All these dates are
extremely conservative and the error, if any, is in assigning too late
and not too early a period to the end of Magdalenian times.
At the close of the Magdalenian we enter upon the last period of
Paleolithic times, the Azilian, which lasted from about 10,000 to 7,000
B. C., when the Upper Paleolithic, the age of chipped flints, definitely
and finally ends in Europe. This period takes its name from the Mas
d’Azil, or “House of Refuge,” a huge cavern in the eastern Pyrenees
where the local Protestants took shelter during the persecutions. The
extensive deposits in this cave are typical of the Azilian epoch and
here certain marked pebbles may be the earliest known traces of symbolic
writing, but true writing was probably not developed until the late
Neolithic.
With the advent of this Azilian Period art entirely disappears and the
splendid physical type of the Cro-Magnons is succeeded by what appear to
have been degraded savages, who had lost the force and vigor necessary
for the strenuous chase of large game and had turned to the easier life
of fishermen.
In the Azilian the bow and arrow are in common use in Spain and it is
well within the possibilities that the introduction and development of
this new weapon from the South may have played its part in the
destruction of the Cro-Magnons; otherwise it is hard to account for the
disappearance of this race of large stature and great brain power.
The Azilian, also called the Tardenoisian in the north of France, was
evidently a period of racial disturbance and at its close the beginnings
of the existing races are found.
From the first appearance of man in Europe and for many tens of
thousands of years down to some ten or twelve thousand years ago all
known human remains are of dolichocephalic type.
In the Azilian Period appears the first round skull race. It comes
clearly from the East. Later we shall find that this invasion of the
forerunners of the existing Alpine race came from southwestern Asia by
way of the Iranian plateau, Asia Minor, the Balkans and the valley of
the Danube, and spread over nearly all of Europe. The earlier round
skull invasions may as well have been infiltrations as armed conquests
since apparently from that day to this the round skulls have occupied
the poorer mountain districts and have seldom ventured down to the rich
and fertile plains.
This new brachycephalic race is known as the Furfooz or Grenelle race,
so called from the localities in Belgium and France where it was first
discovered. Members of this round skull race have also been found at
Ofnet in Bavaria where they occur in association with a dolichocephalic
race, our first historic evidence of the mixture of contrasted races.
The descendants of this Furfooz-Grenelle race and of the succeeding
waves of invaders of the same brachycephalic type now occupy central
Europe as Alpines and form the predominant peasant type in central and
eastern Europe.
In this same Azilian Period there appear, coming this time from the
South, the first forerunners of the Mediterranean race. The descendants
of this earliest wave of Mediterraneans and their later reinforcements
occupy all the coast and islands of the Mediterranean and are spread
widely over western Europe. They can everywhere be identified by their
short stature, slight build, long skull and brunet hair and eyes.
While during this Azilian-Tardenoisian Period these ancestors of two of
the existing European races are appearing in central and southern
Europe, a new culture phase, also distinctly Pre-Neolithic, was
developing along the shores of the Baltic. It is known as Maglemose from
its type locality in Denmark. It is believed to be the work of the first
wave of the Nordic race which had followed the retreating glaciers
northward over the old land connections between Denmark and Sweden to
occupy the Scandinavian Peninsula. In the remains of this culture we
find definite evidence of the domesticated dog.
With the appearance of the Mediterranean race the Azilian-Tardenoisian
draws to its close and with it the entire Paleolithic Period. It is safe
to assign for the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of the
Neolithic or Polished Stone Age, the date of 7,000 or 8,000 B. C.
The races of the Paleolithic Period, so far as we can judge from their
remains, appear successively on the scene with all their characters
fully developed. The evolution of all these subspecies and races took
place somewhere in Asia or eastern Europe. None of these races appear to
be ancestral one to another, although the scanty remains of the
Heidelberg Man would indicate that he may have given rise to the later
Neanderthals. Other than this possible affinity, the various races of
Paleolithic times are not related one to another.
III
THE NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES
About 7,000 B.C. we enter an entirely new period in the history of man,
the Neolithic or New Stone Age, when the flint implements were polished
and not merely chipped. Early as is this date in European culture, we
are not far from the beginnings of an elaborate civilization in parts of
Asia and Egypt. The earliest organized governments, so far as our
present knowledge goes, were Egypt and Sumer. Chinese civilization at
the other end of Asia is later, but mystery still shrouds its origin and
its connection, if any, with the Mesopotamian city-states. The solution
probably lies in the central region of the Syr Darya and future
excavations in those regions may uncover very early cultures. Balkh, the
ancient Bactra, the mother of cities, is located where the trade routes
between China, India and Mesopotamia converged and it is in this
neighborhood that careful and thorough excavations will probably find
their greatest reward.
However, we are not dealing with Asia but with Europe only and our
knowledge is confined to the fact that the various cultural advances at
the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic correspond
with the arrival of new races.
The transition from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic was formerly
considered as revolutionary, an abrupt change of both race and culture,
but a period more or less transitory, known as the Campignian, now
appears to bridge over this gap. This is only what should be expected,
since in human archæology as in geology the more detailed our knowledge
becomes the more gradually we find one period or horizon merges into its
successor.
For a long time after the opening of the Neolithic the old-fashioned
chipped weapons and implements remain the predominant type and the
polished flints so characteristic of the Neolithic appear at first only
sporadically, then increase in number until finally they entirely
replace the rougher designs of the preceding Old Stone Age.
So in their turn these Neolithic polished stone implements, which
ultimately became both varied and effective as weapons and tools,
continued in use long after metallurgy developed. In the Bronze Period
metal armor and weapons were for ages of the greatest value. So they
were necessarily in the possession of the military and ruling classes
only, while the unfortunate serf or common soldier who followed his
master to war did the best he could with leather shield and stone
weapons. In the ring that clustered around Harold for the last stand on
Senlac Hill many of the English thanes died with their Saxon king, armed
solely with the stone battle-axes of their ancestors.
In Italy also there was a long period known to the Italian archæologists
as the Eneolithic Period when good flint tools existed side by side with
very poor copper and bronze implements; so that, while the Neolithic
lasted in western Europe four or five thousand years, it is, at its
commencement, without clear definition from the preceding Paleolithic
and at its end it merges gradually into the succeeding ages of metals.
After the opening Campignian phase there followed a long period typical
of the Neolithic, known as the Robenhausian or Age of the Swiss Lake
Dwellers, which reached its height after 5000 B. C. The lake dwellings
seem to have been the work chiefly of the round skull Alpine races and
are found in numbers throughout the region of the Alps and their
foothills and along the valley of the Danube.
These Robenhausian pile built villages were the earliest known form of
fixed habitation in Europe and the culture found in association with
them was a great advance over that of the preceding Paleolithic. This
type of permanent habitation flourished through the entire Upper
Neolithic and the succeeding Bronze Age. Pile villages end in
Switzerland with the first appearance of iron but elsewhere, as on the
upper Danube, they still existed in the days of Herodotus.
Pottery is found together with domesticated animals and agriculture,
which appear during the Robenhausian for the first time. The chase,
supplemented by trapping and fishing, was still common but it probably
was more for clothing than for food. A permanent site is not alone the
basis of an agricultural community, but it also involves at least a
partial abandonment of the chase, because only nomads can follow the
game in its seasonal migrations and hunted animals soon leave the
neighborhood of settlements.
The Terramara Period of northern Italy was a later phase of culture
contemporaneous with the Upper Robenhausian and was typical of the
Bronze Age. During the Terramara Period fortified and moated stations in
swamps or close to the banks of rivers became the favorite resorts
instead of pile villages built in lakes. The first traces of copper are
found during this period. The earliest human remains in the Terramara
deposits are long skulled, but round skulls soon appear in association
with bronze implements. This indicates an original population of
Mediterranean affinities overwhelmed later by Alpines.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE RACES OF EUROPE
THEIR CHARACTERS AND DISTRIBUTION
┌────────────────────────┬───────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│ EUROPEAN RACES │ MODERN PEOPLES │ ANCIENT PEOPLES │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│_Nordic._ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens nordicus, │All Norse, Swedes, │Sacæ, Massagetæ, │
│ Homo sapiens europeus,│ Danes, Letts, │ Scythians, │
│ Baltic, Indo-Germanic,│ many Finlanders, │ Cimmerians, │
│ Indo-European, │ many Russians and│ Persians, │
│ Scandinavian, │ Poles, North │ Phrygians, │
│ Teutonic, Germanic, │ Germans, many │ Achæans, │
│ Dolicho-lepto, │ French, Dutch, │ Dorians, │
│ Reihengraber, Finnic. │ Flemings, │ Thracians, │
│ │ English, Scotch, │ Umbrians, │
│ │ most Irish, │ Oscans, Gauls, │
│ │ Native Americans,│ Galatians, │
│ │ Canadians, │ Cymry, Belgæ, │
│ │ Australians, │ many Romans, │
│ │ Africanders. │ Goths, Lombards,│
│ │ │ Vandals, │
│ │ │ Burgunds, │
│ │ │ Franks, Danes, │
│ │ │ Saxons, Angles, │
│ │ │ Norse, Normans, │
│ │ │ Varangians. │
│ │ │ Reihengräber. │
│ │ │ Kurgans. │
│ │ │ Maglemose │
│ │ │ culture. │
│ │ │ │
│_Alpine._ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens alpinus │Bretons, Walloons, │Sumerians, │
│ (Eurasiatic), │ Central French, │ Hittites, Medes,│
│ Celto-Slav or Kelts of│ some Basques, │ Khosars, │
│ the French, Sarmatian,│ Savoyards, Swiss,│ Sarmatians, │
│ Arvernian, Auvergnat, │ Tyrolese, most │ Wends, Sorbs. │
│ Slavic, Savoyard, │ South Germans, │ Furfooz-Grenelle│
│ Lappanoid, Armenoid. │ North Italians, │ race, Swiss Lake│
│ │ German-Austrians,│ Dwellers, Gizeh │
│ │ Bohemians, │ skulls. │
│ │ Slovaks, Magyars,│ Robenhausen. │
│ │ many Poles, most │ Round Barrows. │
│ │ Russians, Serbs, │ Bronze culture. │
│ │ Bulgars, most │ │
│ │ Rumanians, most │ │
│ │ Greeks, Turks, │ │
│ │ Armenians, most │ │
│ │ Persians and │ │
│ │ Afghans. │ │
│ │ │ │
│_Mediterranean._ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens │Many English, │Egyptians, many │
│ mediterraneus │ Portuguese, │ Babylonians, │
│ (Eurafrican), Iberian,│ Spaniards, some │ Pelasgians, │
│ Ligurian, │ Basques, │ Etruscans, │
│ Atlanto-Mediterranean.│ Provençals, South│ Ligurians, │
│ │ Italians, │ Phœnicians, most│
│ │ Sicilians, many │ Greeks, many │
│ │ Greeks and │ Romans, Cretans,│
│ │ Rumanians, Moors,│ Iberians. Long │
│ │ Berbers, │ Barrows. │
│ │ Egyptians, many │ Neolithic │
│ │ Persians and │ culture. │
│ │ Afghans, Hindus. │ Megalithic │
│ │ │ monuments. │
│ │ │ │
│_Upper Paleolithic._ │ │ │
│_Extinct races._ │ │ │
│Furfooz-Grenelle. │ │Proto-Alpines. │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│Brünn Předmost. │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens │A few Dordognois. │Cro-Magnons. │
│ cromagnonensis. │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│_Middle Paleolithic._ │ │ │
│Homo neanderthalensis, │Doubtful traces │Neanderthals. │
│ Homo primigenius. │ among west Irish │ Neanderthaloids.│
│ │ and among the old│ │
│ │ black breed of │ │
│ │ Scotland and │ │
│ │ Wales. │ │
└────────────────────────┴───────────────────┴──────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬───────────┐
│ EUROPEAN RACES │ SKULL │ FACE │ NOSE │
│ │ CEPHALIC │ │ │
│ │ INDEX │ │ │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
│_Nordic._ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens nordicus, │Long. 79 and │High. │Narrow. │
│ Homo sapiens europeus,│ less. │ Narrow.│ Straight.│
│ Baltic, Indo-Germanic,│ │ Long. │ Aquiline.│
│ Indo-European, │ │ │ │
│ Scandinavian, │ │ │ │
│ Teutonic, Germanic, │ │ │ │
│ Dolicho-lepto, │ │ │ │
│ Reihengraber, Finnic. │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│_Alpine._ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens alpinus │Round. │Broad. │Variable. │
│ (Eurasiatic), │ 80 and │ │ Rather │
│ Celto-Slav or Kelts of│ over. │ │ broad. │
│ the French, Sarmatian,│ │ │ Coarse. │
│ Arvernian, Auvergnat, │ │ │ │
│ Slavic, Savoyard, │ │ │ │
│ Lappanoid, Armenoid. │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│_Mediterranean._ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens │Long. 79 and │High. │Rather │
│ mediterraneus │ less. │ Narrow.│ broad. │
│ (Eurafrican), Iberian,│ │ Long. │ │
│ Ligurian, │ │ │ │
│ Atlanto-Mediterranean.│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│_Upper Paleolithic._ │ │ │ │
│_Extinct races._ │ │ │ │
│Furfooz-Grenelle. │Round, 79–85.│Medium. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│Brünn Předmost. │Long, 66–68. │Low and │ │
│ │ │ medium.│ │
│Homo sapiens │Long, with │Low and │Narrow and │
│ cromagnonensis. │ disharmonic│ broad. │ aquiline.│
│ │ broad face,│ │ │
│ │ 63–76. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│_Middle Paleolithic._ │ │ │ │
│Homo neanderthalensis, │Long. │Long. │Broad. │
│ Homo primigenius. │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
└────────────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴───────────┘
┌────────────────────────┬───────────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────────┐
│ EUROPEAN RACES │ STATURE │HAIR COLOR │EYE COLOR│ LANGUAGE │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├────────────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────────┤
│_Nordic._ │ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens nordicus, │Tall. │Flaxen. │Blue. │All Aryan │
│ Homo sapiens europeus,│ │ Fair. │ Gray. │ except │
│ Baltic, Indo-Germanic,│ │ Red. │ Green. │ Tchouds, │
│ Indo-European, │ │ Light │ Light │ Esths, many│
│ Scandinavian, │ │ brown to │ brown │ Finlanders,│
│ Teutonic, Germanic, │ │ chestnut.│ or │ and a few │
│ Dolicho-lepto, │ │ Never │ hazel. │ tribes in │
│ Reihengraber, Finnic. │ │ black. │ │ Siberia. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│_Alpine._ │ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens alpinus │Medium. │Dark brown.│Black or │In Europe all│
│ (Eurasiatic), │ Stocky. │ Black. │ dark │ Aryan │
│ Celto-Slav or Kelts of│ Heavy. │ │ brown. │ except │
│ the French, Sarmatian,│ │ │ Often │ Magyars, │
│ Arvernian, Auvergnat, │ │ │ hazel │ some │
│ Slavic, Savoyard, │ │ │ or │ Basques, │
│ Lappanoid, Armenoid. │ │ │ gray, │ and some │
│ │ │ │ in │ Finlanders.│
│ │ │ │ western│ In Asia │
│ │ │ │ Europe.│ mostly │
│ │ │ │ │ Aryan, │
│ │ │ │ │ except │
│ │ │ │ │ Turcomans, │
│ │ │ │ │ Kirghizes, │
│ │ │ │ │ and other │
│ │ │ │ │ nomad │
│ │ │ │ │ tribes. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│_Mediterranean._ │ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens │Short. │Dark brown.│Black. │In Europe all│
│ mediterraneus │ Slender. │ Black. │ Dark │ Aryan, │
│ (Eurafrican), Iberian,│ │ │ brown. │ except some│
│ Ligurian, │ │ │ │ Basques. In│
│ Atlanto-Mediterranean.│ │ │ │ Africa all │
│ │ │ │ │ Non-Aryan. │
│ │ │ │ │ In Asia │
│ │ │ │ │ nearly all │
│ │ │ │ │ Aryan. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│_Upper Paleolithic._ │ │ │ │ │
│_Extinct races._ │ │ │ │ │
│Furfooz-Grenelle. │ │Probably │Probably │Probably │
│ │ │ very │ very │ non-Aryan. │
│ │ │ dark. │ dark. │ │
│Brünn Předmost. │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│Homo sapiens │Very tall │Probably │Probably │Probably │
│ cromagnonensis. │ and │ very │ very │ non-Aryan. │
│ │ medium. │ dark. │ dark. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│_Middle Paleolithic._ │ │ │ │ │
│Homo neanderthalensis, │Short and │Probably │Probably │Probably │
│ Homo primigenius. │ powerful.│ very │ very │ non-Aryan. │
│ │ │ dark. │ dark. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
└────────────────────────┴───────────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────────┘
Neolithic culture also flourished in the north of Europe and
particularly in Scandinavia now free from ice. The coasts of the Baltic
were apparently occupied for the first time at the very beginning of
this period, as no trace of Paleolithic industry has been found there,
other than the Maglemose, which represents only the very latest phase of
the Old Stone Age. The kitchen middens, or refuse heaps, of Sweden and
more particularly of Denmark date from the early Neolithic and thus are
somewhat earlier than the lake dwellers. Rough pottery occurs in them
for the first time, but no traces of agriculture have been found and, as
said, the dog seems to have been the only domesticated animal.
From these two centres, the Alps and the North, an elaborate and
variegated Neolithic culture spread through western Europe and an
autochthonous development took place, comparatively little influenced by
trade intercourse with Asia after the first immigrations of the new
races.
We may assume that the distribution of races in Europe during the
Neolithic was roughly as follows.
The Mediterranean basin and western Europe, including Spain, Italy,
Gaul, Britain and parts of western Germany, were populated by
Mediterranean long heads. In Britain the Paleolithic population must
have been very small and the Neolithic Mediterraneans were the first
effectively to open up the country. Even they kept to the open moorlands
and avoided the heavily wooded and swampy valleys which to-day are the
main centres of population. Before metal and especially iron tools were
in use forests were an almost complete barrier to the expansion of an
agricultural population.
The Alps and the territories immediately adjacent, with Central Gaul and
much of the Balkans, were inhabited by Alpine types. These Alpines
extended northward until they came in touch in eastern Germany and
Poland with the southernmost Nordics, but as the Carpathians at a much
later date, namely, from the fourth to the eighth century A. D., were
the centre of radiation of the Alpine Slavs, it is very possible that
during the Neolithic the early Nordics lay farther north and east.
North of the Alpines and occupying the shores of the Baltic and
Scandinavia, together with eastern Germany, Poland and Russia, were
located the Nordics. At the very base of the Neolithic and perhaps still
earlier, this race occupied Scandinavia, and Sweden became the nursery
of what has been generally called the Teutonic subdivision of the Nordic
race. It was in that country that the peculiar characters of stature and
blondness became most accentuated and it is there that we find them
to-day in their greatest purity.
During the Neolithic the remnants of early Paleolithic man must have
been numerous, but later they were either exterminated or absorbed by
the existing European races.
During all this Neolithic Period Mesopotamia and Egypt were thousands of
years in advance of Europe, but only a small amount of culture from
these sources seems to have trickled westward up the valley of the
Danube, then and long afterward the main route of intercourse between
western Asia and the heart of Europe. Some trade also passed from the
Black Sea up the Russian rivers to the Baltic coasts. Along these latter
routes there came from the north to the Mediterranean world the amber of
the Baltic, a fossil resin greatly prized by early man for its magic
electrical qualities.
Gold was probably the first metal to attract the attention of primitive
man, but could only be used for purposes of ornamentation. Copper, which
is often found in a pure state, was also one of the earliest metals
known and probably came first either from the mines of Cyprus or of the
Sinai Peninsula. These latter mines are known to have been worked before
3400 B. C. by systematic mining operations and much earlier “the metal
must have been obtained by primitive methods from surface ore.” It is,
therefore, probable that copper was known and used, at first for
ornament and later for implements, in Egypt before 4000 B. C. and
possibly even earlier in the Mesopotamian regions.
We now reach the confines of recorded history and the first absolutely
fixed date, 4241 B. C., is established for lower Egypt by the oldest
known calendar. The earliest date as yet for Mesopotamia is somewhat
later, but these two countries supply the basis of the chronology of the
ancient world until a few centuries before Christ.
With the use of copper the Neolithic fades to its end and the Bronze Age
commences soon thereafter. This next step in advance was made apparently
before 3000 B. C. when some unknown genius discovered that an amalgam of
nine parts of copper to one part of tin would produce the metal we now
call bronze, which has a texture and hardness suitable for weapons and
tools. The discovery revolutionized the world. The new knowledge was a
long time spreading and weapons of this material were of fabulous value,
especially in countries where there were no native mines and where
spears and swords could only be obtained through trade or conquest. The
esteem in which these bronze weapons, and still more the later weapons
of iron, were held, is indicated by the innumerable legends and myths
concerning magic swords and armor, the possession of which made the
owner well-nigh invulnerable and invincible.
The necessity of obtaining tin for this amalgam led to the early voyages
of the Phœnicians, who from the cities of Tyre and Sidon and their
daughter Carthage traversed the entire length of the Mediterranean,
founded colonies in Spain to work the Spanish tin mines, passed the
Pillars of Hercules and finally voyaged through the stormy Atlantic to
the Cassiterides, the Tin Isles of Ultima Thule. There, on the coasts of
Cornwall, they traded with the native British of kindred Mediterranean
race for the precious tin. These dangerous and costly voyages become
explicable only if the value of this metal for the composition of bronze
be taken into consideration.
After these bronze weapons were elaborated in Egypt the knowledge of
their manufacture and use was extended through conquest into Palestine,
and northward into Asia Minor.
The effect of the possession of these new weapons on the Alpine
populations of western Asia was magical and resulted in an intensive and
final expansion of round skulls into Europe. This invasion came through
Asia Minor, the Balkans and the valley of the Danube, poured into Italy
from the north, introduced bronze among the earlier Alpine lake dwellers
of Switzerland and among the Mediterraneans of the Terramara stations of
the valley of the Po and at a later date reached as far west as Britain
and as far north as Holland and Norway, where its traces are still to be
found among the living population.
The simultaneous appearance of bronze about 3000 or 2800 B. C. in the
south as well as in the north of Italy may possibly be attributed to a
lateral wave of this same invasion which, passing through Egypt, where
it left behind the so-called Gizeh round skulls, reached Tunis and
Sicily. In southern Italy bronze may have been introduced from Crete.
With the first knowledge of metals begins the Eneolithic Period of the
Italians.
The close resemblance in design and technique among the implements of
the Bronze Age in widely separated localities is so great that we can
infer a relatively simultaneous introduction.
With the introduction of bronze the custom of incineration of the dead
also appears and replaces the typical Neolithic custom of inhumation.
The introduction of bronze into England and into Scandinavia may be
safely dated about one thousand years later, after 1800 B. C. The fact
that the Alpines only barely reached Ireland indicates that at this time
that island was severed from England and that the land connection
between England and France had been broken. The computation of the
foregoing dates, of course, is somewhat hypothetical, but the fixed fact
remains that this last expansion of the Alpines brought the knowledge of
bronze to western and northern Europe and to the Mediterranean and
Nordic peoples living there.
The effect of the introduction of bronze in the areas occupied chiefly
by the Mediterranean race along the Atlantic coast and in Britain, as
well as in north Africa from Tunis to Morocco, is seen in the
construction and in the wide distribution of the megalithic funeral
monuments, which appear to have been erected, not by Alpines but by the
dolichocephs. The occurrence of bronze tools and weapons in the
interments shows clearly that the megaliths of the south of France date
from the beginning of the Bronze Age. The absence of bronze from the
dolmens of Brittany may indicate an earlier age. It is, however, more
likely that the opening Bronze Age in the South was contemporary with
the late Neolithic in the North. The construction and use of these
monuments continued at least until the very earliest trace of iron
appears and in fact mound burials among the Vikings were common until
the introduction of Christianity.
Although there is evidence of very early use of iron in Egypt the
knowledge of this metal as well as of bronze in Europe centres around
the area occupied by the Alpines in the eastern Alps and its earliest
phase is known as the Hallstatt culture, from a little town in the Tyrol
where it was first discovered. This Hallstatt iron culture appeared
about 1500 B. C. The Alpine Hittites in northeast Asia Minor were
probably the first to mine and smelt iron and they introduced it to the
Alpines of eastern Europe, but it was the Nordics who benefited by its
use. Bronze weapons and the later iron ones proved in the hands of these
Northern barbarians to be of terrible effectiveness. With these metal
swords in their grasp, the Nordics conquered the Alpines of central
Europe and then suddenly entered the ancient world as raiders and
destroyers of cities. The classic civilizations of the northern coasts
of the Mediterranean Sea fell, one after another, before the “Furor
Normanorum,” just as two thousand years later the provinces of Rome were
devastated by the last great flood of the Nordics from beyond the Alps.
The first Nordics to appear in European history are tribes speaking
Aryan tongues in the form of the various Celtic and related dialects in
the West, of Umbrian in Italy and of Thracian in the Balkans. These
barbarians, pouring down from the North, swept with them large numbers
of Alpines whom they had already thoroughly Nordicized. The process of
conquering and assimilating the Alpines must have gone on for long
centuries before our first historic records and the work was so
thoroughly done that the very existence of this Alpine race as a
separate subspecies of man was actually forgotten for many centuries by
themselves and by the world at large until it was revealed in our own
day by the science of skull measurements.
The Hallstatt iron culture did not extend into western Europe and the
smelting and extensive use of this metal in southern Britain and
northwestern Europe are of much later date and occur in what is called
the La Tène Period, usually assigned to the fifth and fourth century B.
C.
Iron weapons were, however, known sporadically in England much earlier,
perhaps as far back as 800 B. C., but were very rare and were probably
importations from the Continent.
“Hallstatt relics have only been found in the northeast or centre of
France and it appears that the Bronze Age continued in the remainder of
that country until about 700 B. C.”
The spread of this La Tène culture is associated with the Nordic Cymry,
who constituted the last wave of Celtic-speaking invaders into western
Europe, while the earlier Nordic Gauls and Goidels had arrived in Gaul
and Britain equipped with bronze only.
In Roman times, following the La Tène Period, the main races of Europe
occupied the relative positions which they had held during the whole
Neolithic Period and which they hold to-day, with the exception that the
Nordic subspecies was less extensively represented in western Europe
than when, a few hundred years later, the so-called Teutonic tribes
overran these countries; but on the other hand, the Nordics occupied
large areas in eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland and Russia now mainly
occupied by the Slavs of Alpine race.
Many countries in central Europe were in Roman times inhabited by
fair-haired, blue eyed barbarians, where now the population is
preponderantly brunet and becoming yearly more so.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE[2]
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ METALS │
│LATER IRON │
│ La Tène Culture Europe 500 B. C.—Roman times│
│ │
│EARLY IRON │
│ Hallstatt Culture Europe 1500–500 B. C. │
│ Orient 1800–1000 B. C. │
│ │
│BRONZE Western and northern Europe 1800–500 B. C. │
│ Orient 3000–2000 B. C. │
│ │
│ │
│ NEOLITHIC │
│LATE NEOLITHIC │
│ COPPER, 3000–2000 B. C. │
│ ENEOLITHIC │
│ │
│TYPICAL NEOLITHIC Swiss lake dwellings, 5000 B. C. │
│ Robenhausian culture │
│ │
│EARLY NEOLITHIC Campignian culture 7000 B. C. │
│ │
│ │
│ UPPER PALEOLITHIC │
│POSTGLACIAL Caves and shelters: │
│ Azilian-Tardenoisian │
│ Nordic-Maglemose 10,000–7000 B. C. │
│ Furfooz-Grenelle race │
│ Proto-Mediterranean race │
│ Magdalenian Cro-Magnon race 16,000–10,000 B. C. │
│ Solutrean Brünn-Předmost 25,000–16,000 B. C. │
│ race Cro-Magnon race │
│ Aurignacian Cro-Magnon race │
│ │
│ │
│ MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC │
│IV. GLACIATION │
│ Würm Mousterian Neanderthal race 50,000–25,000 B. C. │
│ Caves and shelters │
│ │
│ │
│ LOWER PALEOLITHIC │
│III. INTERGLACIAL │
│ Riss-Würm Acheulean, river terraces 75,000 B. C. │
│ Chellean, river terraces 100,000 B. C. │
│ Pre-Chellean and Mesvinian, 125,000 B. C. │
│ river terraces 150,000 B. C. │
│ │
│ │
│ EOLITHIC │
│III. GLACIATION │
│ Riss 200,000–150,000 B. C.│
│ │
│II. INTERGLACIAL │
│ Mindel-Riss Heidelberg Man 350,000–200,000 B. C.│
│ │
│II. GLACIATION │
│ Mindel 400,000–350,000 B. C.│
│ │
│I. INTERGLACIAL │
│ Günz-Mindel 475,000–400,000 B. C.│
│ │
│GLACIATION │
│ Günz _Pithecanthropus_ 500,000–475,000 B. C.│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Footnote 2:
After Henry Fairfield Osborn, 1915.
IV
THE ALPINE RACE
The Alpine race is clearly of Eastern and Asiatic origin. It forms the
westernmost extension of a widespread subspecies which, outside of
Europe, occupies Asia Minor, Iran, the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush. In
fact the western Himalayas were probably its original centre of
evolution and radiation and among its Asiatic members is a distinct
subdivision, the Armenoids.
The Alpine race is distinguished by a round face and correspondingly
round skull which in the true Armenians has a peculiar sugarloaf shape,
a character which can be easily recognized. The Alpines must not be
confounded with the slit-eyed Mongols who centre around Thibet and the
steppes of north Asia. The fact that both these races are round skulled
does not involve identity of origin any more than the long skulls of the
Nordics and of the Mediterraneans require that they be both considered
of the same subspecies, although good anthropologists have been misled
by this parallelism. The Alpines are of stocky build and moderately
short stature, except sometimes where they have been crossed with Nordic
elements. This race is also characterized by dark hair, except where
there has been a strong Nordic admixture as in south Germany and
Switzerland. In Europe at the present time the eye, also, is usually
dark but sometimes grayish. The ancestral Proto-Alpines from the
highlands of western Asia must, of course, have had brunet eyes and very
dark, probably black, hair. Whether we are justified in considering gray
eyes as peculiar to populations of mixed Alpine and Nordic blood is
difficult to determine, but one thing is certain, the combination of
blue eyes and flaxen hair is never Alpine.
The European Alpines retain very little evidence of their Asiatic origin
except the skull shape and have been in contact with the Nordic race so
long that in central and western Europe they are everywhere saturated
with the blood of that race. Many populations now considered good
Germans, such as the majority of the Würtembergers, Bavarians,
Austrians, Swiss and Tyrolese are merely Nordicized Alpines.
While the Swiss are to-day neither tall nor long-headed, their country
was thoroughly conquered early in the Christian era by the Nordic
Alemanni who entered from the Rhine Valley. The exodus of soldiers from
the forest cantons throughout the Middle Ages to fight as mercenaries in
France and Italy gradually drained off this Nordic element until the
chief evidence of its former existence lies to-day in the large amount
of blondness among the Swiss. With the loss of this type the nation has
ceased to be a military community.
The first appearance in Europe of the Alpines dates from the Azilian
Period when it is represented by the Furfooz-Grenelle race. There were
later several invasions of this race which entered Europe from the Asia
Minor plateaux, by way of the Balkans and the valley of the Danube,
during Neolithic times and, also, at the beginning of the Bronze Age. It
appears also to have passed north of the Black Sea, as some slight
traces have been discovered there of round skulls which long antedate
the existing population but the Russian brachycephaly of to-day is of
much later origin and is due mainly to the eastward spread of Alpines
from the regions of the Carpathians since the first centuries of our
era.
This race in its final expansion far to the northwest ultimately reached
Norway, Denmark and Holland and planted among the dolichocephalic
natives small colonies of round skulls, which still exist. These
colonies are found along the coast and while of small extent are clearly
marked. On the southwestern seaboard of Norway these round heads are
dark and relatively short.
When this invasion reached the extreme northwest of Europe its energy
was spent and the invaders were soon forced back into central Europe by
the Nordics. The Alpines at this time of maximum extension about 1800 B.
C. crossed into Britain and a few reached Ireland and introduced bronze
into both these islands. As the metal appears about the same time in
Sweden it is safe to assume that it was introduced by this invasion.
The men of the Round Barrows in England were Alpines, but their numbers
were so scanty that they have left behind them in the skulls of the
living population but little demonstrable evidence of their former
presence. If we are ever able accurately to analyze the various strains
that enter in more or less minute quantities into the blood of the
British nation, we shall find many traces of these Round Barrow men as
well as other interesting and ancient remnants especially in the western
isles and peninsulas.
In the study of European populations the great and fundamental fact
about the British Isles is the almost total absence there to-day of true
Alpine round skulls. It is the only important state in Europe in which
the round skulls play no part and the only nation of any rank composed
solely of Nordic and Mediterranean races in approximately equal numbers.
To this fact are undoubtedly due many of the individualities and much of
the greatness of the English people.
The cephalic index in England is rather low, about 78, but there is a
type of tall men, with a tendency to roundheadedness allied to a very
marked intellectual capacity, known as the “Beaker Maker” type. They are
probably descended from the men of the Round Barrows, who while
brachycephalic were tall and presumably dark and entered England on the
east and northeast. The Beaker Makers appear at the very end of the
Neolithic and, at least in the case of the last of them to arrive, are
identified with the Bronze Age.
Before this tall, round-headed type reached Britain, they had absorbed
many Nordic elements and they have nothing except the skull shape in
common with the Alpines living closest, those of Belgium and France.
However, they do suggest strongly the Dinaric race of the Tyrol and
Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic. In addition to the Beaker Makers
remains of short, thick-set brachycephs have also been found in small
numbers. These last appear to have been true Alpines.
The invasion of central Europe by Alpines, which occurred in the
Neolithic, following in the wake of the Azilian forerunners of the same
type—the Furfooz-Grenelle race—represented a very great advance in
culture. They brought with them from Asia the art of domesticating
animals and the first knowledge of the cereals and of pottery and were
an agricultural race in sharp contrast to the flesh eating hunters who
preceded them.
The Neolithic populations of the lake dwellings in Switzerland and the
extreme north of Italy, which flourished about 5000 B. C., all belonged
to this Alpine race. A comparison of the scanty physical remains of
these lake dwellers with the inhabitants of the existing villages on the
lake shores demonstrates that the skull shape has changed little or not
at all during the last seven thousand years and affords us another proof
of the persistency of physical characters.
This Alpine race in Europe is now so thoroughly acclimated that it is no
longer Asiatic in any respect and has nothing in common with the Mongols
except its round skulls. Such Mongolian elements as exist to-day in
scattered groups throughout eastern Europe are remnants of the later
invasions of Tatar hordes which, beginning with Attila in the fifth
century, ravaged eastern Europe for hundreds of years.
In western and central Europe the present distribution of the Alpine
race is a substantial recession from its earlier extent and it has been
everywhere conquered and subordinated by Celtic- and Teutonic-speaking
Nordics. Beginning with the first appearance of the Celtic-speaking
Nordics in western Europe, the Alpine race has been obliged to give
ground but has mingled its blood everywhere with the conquerors and now
after centuries of obscurity it appears to be increasing again at the
expense of the master race.
The Alpines reached Spain, as they reached Britain, in small numbers and
with spent force but they still persist along the Cantabrian Alps as
well as among the French Basques on the northern side of the Pyrenees.
The Anaryan Basque or Euskarian language may be a derivative of the
original speech of these Alpines, as its affinities point eastward and
toward Asia rather than southward and toward the littoral of Africa and
the Hamitic speech of the Mediterranean Berbers. Basque was probably
related to the extinct Aquitanian. The Ligurian language, also seemingly
Anaryan, if ever closely deciphered may throw some light on the subject.
There are dim traces all along the north African coast of a round skull
invasion about 3000 B. C. through Syria, Egypt, Tripoli and Tunis and
from there through Sicily to southern Italy.
The Alpine race forms to-day, as in Cæsar’s time, the great bulk of the
population of central France with a Nordic aristocracy resting upon it.
They occupy as the lower classes the uplands of Belgium, where, known as
Walloons, they speak an archaic French dialect closely related to the
ancient _langue d’oïl_. They form a majority of the upland population of
Alsace, Lorraine, Baden, Würtemberg, Bavaria, Tyrol, Switzerland and
northern Italy; in short, of the entire central _massif_ of Europe. In
Bavaria and the Tyrol the Alpines are so thoroughly Nordicized that
their true racial affinities are betrayed by their round skulls alone.
When we reach Austria we come in contact with the Slavic-speaking
nations which form a subdivision of the Alpine race appearing relatively
late in history and radiating from the Carpathian Mountains. In western
and central Europe in relation to the Nordic race the Alpine is
everywhere the ancient, underlying and submerged type. The fertile
lands, river valleys and cities are here in the hands of the Nordics but
in eastern Germany and Poland we find conditions reversed. That is an
old Nordic broodland with a Nordic substratum underlying the bulk of the
peasantry, which now consists of round skulled Alpine Slavs. On top of
these again we have an aristocratic upper class of comparatively recent
introduction and of Saxon origin in eastern Germany. In Austria this
upper class is Swabian and Bavarian.
The introduction of Slavs into eastern Germany is believed to have been
by infiltration and not by conquest. In the fourth century these Wends
were called Venethi, Antes and Sclaveni, and were described as strong in
numbers but despised in war. Through the neglect of the Teutons they had
been allowed to range far and wide from their homes near the
northeastern Carpathians and to occupy the lands formerly belonging to
the Nordic nations, who had abandoned their country and flocked into the
Roman Empire. Goth, Burgund, Lombard and Vandal were replaced by the
lowly Wend and Sorb, whose descendants to-day form the privates in the
east German regiments, while the officers are everywhere recruited from
the Nordic upper class. The mediæval relation of these Slavic tribes to
the dominant Teuton is well expressed in the meaning—slave—which has
been attached to their name in western languages.
The occupation of eastern Germany and Poland by the Slavs probably
occurred from 400 A. D. to 700 A. D. but these Alpine elements were
reinforced from the east and south from time to time during the
succeeding centuries. Beginning early in the tenth century, the Saxons
under their Emperors, especially Henry the Fowler, turned their
attention eastward and during the next two centuries they reconquered
and thoroughly Germanized all this section of Europe.
A similar series of changes in racial predominance took place in Russia
where in addition to a nobility largely Nordic a section of the
population is of ancient Nordic type, although the bulk of the peasantry
consists of Alpine Slavs.
The Alpines in eastern Europe are represented by various branches of the
“Slavic” nations. Their area of distribution was split into two sections
by the occupation of the great Dacian plain first by the Avars about 600
A. D. and later by the Hungarians about 900 A. D. These Avars and
Magyars came from somewhere in eastern Russia beyond the sphere of Aryan
speech and their invasions separated the northern Slavs, known as Wends,
Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles, from the southern Slavs, known as Serbs and
Croats. These southern Slavs entered the Balkan Peninsula in the sixth
century from the northeast and to-day form the great mass of the
population there.
The centre of radiation of all these Slavic-speaking Alpines was located
in the Carpathians, especially the Ruthenian districts of Galicia and
eastward to the neighborhood of the Pripet swamps and the head-waters of
the Dnieper in Polesia, where the Slavic dialects are believed to have
developed and whence they spread throughout Russia about the eighth
century. These early Slavs were probably the Sarmatians of the Greek and
Roman writers. Their name “Venethi” seems to have been a later
designation. The original Proto-Slavic language being Aryan must have
been at some distant date imposed by Nordics upon the Alpines, but its
development into the present Slavic tongues was chiefly the work of
Alpines.
In other words, the expansion of the Alpines of the Slavic-speaking
group seems to have occurred after the Fourth Century and they have
spread in the East over areas which were originally Nordic, very much as
the Teutons had previously overrun and submerged the earlier Alpines in
the West. The Mongol, Tatar and Turk who invaded Europe much later
reinforced the brachycephalic element in these countries. To some extent
the round skulled Alpines in Russia have been reinforced by way of the
Caucasus and the route north of the Black Sea by their kindred in
western Asia. The greater part of the purely Asiatic types has been
thoroughly absorbed and Europeanized except in certain localities in
Russia more especially in the east and south, where Mongoloid tribes
such as the Mordvins, Bashkirs and Kalmucks have maintained their type
either in isolated and relatively large groups or side by side with
their Slavic neighbors. In both cases the isolation is maintained
through religious and social differences.
The Avars preceded the Magyars in Hungary, but they have merged with the
latter without leaving traces that can be identified. Certain Mongoloid
characters found in Bulgaria are believed, however, to be of Avar
origin.
The original physical type of the Magyars and the European Turks has now
practically vanished as a result of prolonged intermarriage with the
original inhabitants of Hungary and the Balkans. These tribes have left
little behind but their language and, in the case of the Turks, their
religion. The brachycephalic Hungarians to-day resemble the Austrian
Germans much more than they do the Slavic-speaking populations adjoining
them on the north and south or the Rumanians on the east.
Driven onward by the Avars, the Bulgars appeared south of the Danube
about the end of the seventh century, coming originally from eastern
Russia where the remnants of their kindred still persist along the
Volga. To-day they conform physically in the western half of the country
to the Alpine Serbs and in the eastern half to the Mediterranean race,
as do also the Rumanians of the Black Sea coast.
Little or nothing remains of the ancestral Bulgars except their name.
Language, religion and nearly, but not quite all, of the physical type
have disappeared.
The early members of the Nordic race in order to reach the Mediterranean
world had to pass through the Alpine populations and must have absorbed
a certain amount of Alpine blood. Therefore the Umbrians in Italy and
the Gauls of western Europe, while predominantly Nordic, were more mixed
especially in the lower classes with Alpine blood than were the Belgæ or
Cymry or their successors, the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Alemanni,
Saxons, Franks, Lombards, Danes and Northmen, all of whom appear in
history as Nordics of the so-called Teutonic group.
In some portions of their range notably Savoy and central France the
Alpine race is much less affected by Nordic influence than elsewhere but
on the contrary it shows signs of a very ancient admixture with
Mediterranean and even earlier elements. Brachycephalic Alpine
populations in comparative purity still exist in the interior of
Brittany as in Auvergne, although nearly surrounded by Nordic
populations.
While the Alpines were everywhere overwhelmed and driven to the
fastnesses of the mountains, the warlike and restless nature of the
Nordics has enabled the more stable Alpine population to reassert itself
slowly, and Europe is probably much less Nordic to-day than it was
fifteen hundred years ago.
The early Alpines made very large contributions to the civilization of
the world and were the medium through which many advances in culture
were introduced from Asia into Europe. This race at the time of its
first appearance in the west brought to the nomad hunters a knowledge of
agriculture and of primitive pottery and of domestication of animals and
thus made possible a great increase in population and the establishment
of permanent settlements. Still later its final expansion was the means
through which the knowledge of metals reached the Mediterranean and
Nordic populations of the west and north. Upon the appearance on the
scene of the Nordics the Alpine race temporarily lost its identity and
sank to the subordinate and obscure position which it still largely
occupies.
In western Asia members of this race seemingly are entitled to the honor
of the earliest Mesopotamian civilization of which we have knowledge,
namely, that of Sumer and its northerly neighbor Accad in Mesopotamia.
It is also the race of early Elam and Media. In fact, the basis of
Mesopotamian civilization belongs to this race. Later Babylonia and
Assyria were Arabic and Semitic while Persia was Nordic and Aryan.
In classic, mediæval and modern times the Alpines have played an
unimportant part in European culture and in western Europe they have
been so thoroughly Nordicized that they exist rather as an element in
Nordic race development than as an independent type. There are, however,
many indications in current history which point to an impending
development of civilization in the Slavic branches of this race and the
world must be prepared to face changes in the Russias which will, for
good or for evil, bring them more closely into touch with western
Europe.
V
THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE
The Mediterranean subspecies formerly called the Iberian is a relatively
small, light boned, long skulled race, of brunet coloring, becoming even
swarthy in certain portions of its range. Throughout Neolithic times and
possibly still earlier it seems to have occupied, as it does to-day, all
the shores of the Mediterranean including the coast of Africa from
Morocco on the west to Egypt on the east. The Mediterraneans are the
western members of a subspecies of man which forms a substantial part of
the population of Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Hindustan with
perhaps a southward extension into Ceylon.
The Aryanized Afghan and Hindu of northern India speak languages derived
from Old Sanskrit and are distantly related to the Mediterranean race.
Aside from a common dolichocephaly these peoples are entirely distinct
from the Dravidians of south India whose speech is agglutinative and who
show strong evidence of profound mixture with the ancient Negrito
substratum of southern Asia.
Everywhere throughout the Asiatic portion of its range the Mediterranean
race overlies an even more ancient Negroid race. These Negroids still
have representatives among the Pre-Dravidians of India, the Veddahs of
Ceylon, the Sakai of the Malay Peninsula and the natives of the Andaman
Islands.
This Mediterranean subspecies at the close of the Paleolithic spread
from the basin of the Inland Sea northward by way of Spain throughout
westernmost Europe including the British Isles and, before the final
expansion of the Alpines, was widely distributed up to and, possibly,
touching the domain of the Nordic dolichocephs. The Mediterraneans did
not cross the Alps from the south but spread around the mountains. In
attaining to Britain from Spain by way of Central France it is probable
that they swept with them Paleolithic remnants from the ancient centre
of population in the Auvergne district.
In all this vast range from the British Isles to Hindustan, it is not to
be supposed that there is absolute identity of race. Certain portions,
however, of the populations of the countries throughout this long
stretch do show in their physique clear indications of descent from a
Neolithic race of a common original type, which we may call
Proto-Mediterranean.
Quite apart from inevitable admixture with late Nordic and early
Paleolithic elements, the brunet type of Englishman has had perhaps ten
thousand years of independent evolution during which he has undergone
selection due to the climatic and physical conditions of his northern
habitat. The result is that he has specialized far away from the
Proto-Mediterranean race which contributed his blood originally to
Britain while it was, probably, still part of continental Europe.
At the other end of their range in India this race, the Mediterraneans,
have been crossed with Dravidians and with Pre-Dravidian Negroids. They
have also had imposed upon them other ethnic elements which came over
through the Afghan passes from the northwest. The resultant racial
mixture in India has had its own line of specialization. Residence in
the fertile but unhealthy river bottoms, the direct rays of a tropic sun
and competition with the immemorial autochthones have unsparingly weeded
generation after generation until the existing Hindu has little in
common with the ancestral Proto-Mediterranean.
It is to the Mediterranean race in the British Isles that the English,
Scotch and Americans owe whatever brunet characters they possess. In
western Europe, wherever it exists, it appears to underlie the Alpine
race and, in fact, wherever this race is in contact with either the
Alpines or the Nordics it would seem to represent the more ancient
stratum of the population.
So far as we know this Mediterranean type never existed in Scandinavia
and all brunet elements found there can be attributed to introductions
in the Bronze Age or in historic times. Nor did the Mediterranean race
ever enter or cross the high Alps as did the Nordics at a much later
date on their way to the Mediterranean basin from the Baltic coasts.
The Mediterranean race with its Asiatic extensions is bordered
everywhere on the north of its enormous range from Spain to India by
round skulls but there does not seem to be as much evidence of mixture
between these two subspecies of man as there is between the Alpines and
the Nordics.
Along its southern boundary the Mediterraneans are in contact with
either the long skulled Negroes of Africa or the ancient Negrito
population of southern Asia. In Africa this race has drifted southward
over the Sahara and up the Nile Valley and has modified the blood of the
Negroes in both the Senegambian and equatorial regions.
Beyond these mixtures of blood, there is absolutely no relationship
between the Mediterranean race and the Negroes. The fact that the
Mediterranean race is long skulled as well as the Negro does not
indicate relationship as has been suggested. An overemphasis of the
importance of the skull shape as a somatological character can easily
mislead and characters other than skull proportions must be carefully
considered in determining race.
From a zoological point of view Africa north of the Sahara is now and
has been since early Tertiary times a part of Europe. This is true both
of animals and of the races of man. The Berbers of north Africa to-day
are racially identical with the Spaniards and south Italians while the
ancient Egyptians and their modern descendants, the fellaheen, are
merely well-marked varieties of this Mediterranean race.
The Egyptians fade off toward the west into the so-called Hamitic
peoples (to use an obsolete name) of Libya, and toward the south the
infusion of Negro blood becomes increasingly great until we finally
reach the pure Negro. On the east in Arabia we find an ancient and
highly specialized subdivision of the Mediterranean race, which has from
time out of mind crossed the Red Sea and infused its blood into the
Negroes of east Africa.
To-day the Mediterranean race forms in Europe a substantial part of the
population of the British Isles, the great bulk of the population of the
Iberian Peninsula, nearly one-third of the population of France,
Liguria, Italy south of the Apennines and all the Mediterranean coasts
and islands, in some of which like Sardinia it exists in great purity.
It forms the substratum of the population of Greece and of the eastern
coast of the Balkan Peninsula. Everywhere in the interior of the Balkan
Peninsula, except in eastern Bulgaria and parts of Rumania, it has been
replaced by the South Slavs and by the Albanians, the latter a mixture
of the ancient Illyrians and the Slavs.
In the British Isles the Mediterranean race represents the Pre-Nordic
population and exists in considerable numbers in Wales and in certain
portions of England, notably in the Fen districts to the northeast of
London. In Scotland it is far less marked, but has left its brunetness
as an indication of its former prevalence and this dark hair and eye
color is very often associated with tall stature.
This is the race that gave the world the great civilizations of Egypt,
of Crete, of Phœnicia including Carthage, of Etruria, of Mycenæan
Greece, of Assyria and much of Babylonia. It gave us, when mixed and
invigorated with Nordic elements, which probably predominated in the
upper and ruling classes and imposed their guidance upon the masses, the
most splendid of all civilizations, that of ancient Hellas, and the most
enduring of political organizations, the Roman state.
To what extent the Mediterranean race entered into the blood and
civilization of Rome, it is now difficult to say, but the traditions of
the Eternal City, its love of organization, of law and military
efficiency, as well as the Roman ideals of family life, of loyalty and
truth, point clearly to a northern rather than to a Mediterranean
origin, although there must have been some Alpine strains mixed in with
the Nordic element.
The struggles in early Rome between Latin and Etruscan and the endless
quarrels between patrician and plebeian may have arisen from this
existence in Rome, side by side, of two distinct and clashing races,
probably Nordic and Mediterranean respectively. The Roman busts that
have come down to us often show features of a very Anglo-Saxon cast but
with a somewhat round head. The Romans were short in stature in
comparison with the nations north of the Alps and in the recently
discovered battlefield of the Teutoburgian Forest where Varus and his
legions perished in the reign of Augustus the skeletons of the Romans,
identified by their armor, were notably smaller and slighter than were
those of the German victors. The indications on the whole point to a
Nordic aristocracy in Rome with some Alpine elements. The Plebs, on the
other hand, was largely Mediterranean and Oriental and finally in the
last days of the Republic ceased to contain any purely Roman blood.
The northern qualities of Rome are in sharp contrast to the less
European traits of the classic Greeks, whose volatile and analytical
spirit, lack of cohesion, political incapacity and ready resort to
treason all point clearly to southern and eastern affinities.
While very ancient, located for probably ten thousand years in western
and southern Europe, and even longer on the south shore of the
Mediterranean, nevertheless this subspecies cannot be called purely
European. Its occupation of the north coast of Africa and the west coast
of Europe can be traced everywhere by its beautifully polished stone
weapons and tools. The megalithic monuments also, which are found in
association with this race, may mark its line of advance in western
Europe, although they extend beyond the range of the Mediterraneans into
the domain of the Scandinavian Nordics. These huge stone structures were
chiefly sepulchral memorials and are very suggestive of the Egyptian
funeral monuments. They date back to the first knowledge of the
manufacture and use of bronze tools by the Mediterranean race. They
occur in great numbers, size and variety along the north coast of Africa
and up the Atlantic seaboard through Spain, Brittany and England to
Scandinavia.
It is admitted that the various groups of the Mediterranean race did not
speak in the first instance any form of Aryan tongue and we know that
these languages were introduced into the Mediterranean world by invaders
from the north.
In Spain the language of the Nordic invaders was Celtic and is believed
to have nearly died out by Roman times. Its remnants and the ancient
speech of the natives were in turn superseded, along with the Phœnician
spoken in some of the southern coast towns, by the Latin of the
conquering Roman. Latin mixed with some small elements of Gothic
construction and Arabic vocabulary forms to-day the basis of modern
Portuguese, Castilian and Catalan.
The native Mediterranean race of the Iberian Peninsula quickly absorbed
the blood of these Celtic-speaking Nordic Gauls, just as it later
diluted beyond recognition the vigorous physical characters of the
Nordic Vandals, Suevi and Visigoths. A certain amount of Nordic blood
still persists to-day in northern Spain, especially in Galicia and along
the Pyrenees, as well as generally among the upper classes. According to
classic writers there were light and dark types in Spain in Roman times.
The Romans left no evidence of their domination except in their language
and religion; while the earlier Phœnicians on the coasts and the later
swarms of Moors and Arabs all over the peninsula, but chiefly in the
south, were closely related by race to the native Iberians.
That portion of the Mediterranean race which inhabits southern France
occupies most of the territory of ancient Languedoc and Provence and it
was these Provençals who developed and preserved during the Middle Ages
the romantic civilization of the Albigensians, a survival of classic
culture which was drowned in blood by a crusade from the north in the
thirteenth century.
In northern Italy only the coast of Liguria is occupied by the
Mediterranean race. In the valley of the Po the Mediterraneans
predominated during the early Neolithic but with the introduction of
bronze the Alpines appear and round skulls to this day prevail north of
the Apennines. About 1100 B. C. the Nordic Umbrians and Oscans swept
over the Alps from the northeast, conquered northern Italy and
introduced their Aryan speech, which gradually spread southward. The
Umbrian state was afterward overwhelmed by the Tyrrhenians or Etruscans,
who were of Mediterranean race and who, by 800 B. C. had extended their
empire northward to the Alps and temporarily checked the advance of the
Nordics. In the sixth century B. C. new swarms of Nordics, coming this
time from Gaul and speaking Celtic dialects, seized the valley of the Po
and in 382 B. C. these Gauls, heavily reinforced from the north and
under the leadership of Brennus, stormed Rome and completely destroyed
the Etruscan power. From that time onward the valley of the Po became
known as Cisalpine Gaul. Mixed with other Nordic elements, chiefly
Gothic and Lombard, this population persists to this day, and is the
backbone of modern Italy.
A continuation of this movement of these Gauls, or Galatians as the
Greek world called them, starting from northern Italy occurred a century
later when these Nordics suddenly appeared before Delphi in Greece in
279 B. C. and then crossed into Asia Minor and founded the state called
Galatia, which endured until Christian times.
South Italy until its conquest by Rome was Magna Græcia and the
population to-day retains many Pelasgian Greek elements. It is among
these classic remnants that artists search for the handsomest specimens
of the Mediterranean race. In Sicily also the race is purely
Mediterranean in spite of the admixture of types coming from the
neighboring coasts of Tunis. These intrusive elements, however, were all
of kindred race. Traces of Alpines in these regions and on the adjoining
African coast are very scarce and wherever found may be referred to the
final wave of round skull invasion which introduced bronze into Europe.
In Greece the Mediterranean Pelasgians speaking a Non-Aryan tongue were
conquered by the Nordic Achæans, who entered from the northeast
according to tradition prior to 1250 B. C. probably between 1400 and
1300 B. C. Doubtless there were still earlier waves of these same Nordic
invaders as far back as 1700 B. C., which was a period of general unrest
and migration throughout the ancient world.
The Nordic Achæans and Mediterranean Pelasgians as yet unmixed stand out
in clear contrast in the Homeric account of the ten year siege of Troy,
which is generally assigned to the date of 1194 to 1184 B. C.
The same invasion that brought the Achæans into Greece brought a related
Nordic people to the coast of Asia Minor, known as Phrygians. Of this
race were the Trojan leaders.
Both the Trojans and the Greeks were commanded by huge blond princes,
the heroes of Homer—in fact, even the Gods were fair-haired—while the
bulk of the armies on both sides was composed of little brunet
Pelasgians, imperfectly armed and remorselessly butchered by the leaders
on either side. The only common soldiers mentioned by Homer as of the
same race as the heroes were the Myrmidons of Achilles.
About the time that the Achæans and the Pelasgians began to amalgamate,
new hordes of Nordic barbarians collectively called Hellenes entered
from the northern mountains and destroyed this old Homeric-Mycenæan
civilization. This Dorian invasion took place a little before 1100 B. C.
and brought in the three main Nordic strains of Greece, the Dorian, the
Æolian and the Ionian groups, which remain more or less distinct and
separate throughout Greek history. Among these Nordics the Dorians may
have included some Alpine elements. It is more than probable that this
invasion or swarming of Nordics into Greece was part of the same general
racial upheaval that brought the Umbrians and Oscans into Italy.
Long years of intense and bitter conflict follow between the old
population and the newcomers and when the turmoil of this revolution
settled down classic Greece appears. What was left of the Achæans
retired to the northern Peloponnesus and the survivors of the early
Pelasgian population remained in Messenia serving as helots their
Spartan masters. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor were founded largely
by refugees fleeing from these Dorian invaders.
The Pelasgian strain seems to have persisted best in Attica and the
Ionian states. The Dorian Spartans appear to have retained more of the
character of the northern barbarians than the Ionian Greeks but the
splendid civilization of Hellas was due to a fusion of the two elements,
the Achæan and Hellene of Nordic and the Pelasgian of Mediterranean
race.
The contrast between Dorian Sparta and Ionian Athens, between the
military efficiency, thorough organization and sacrifice of the citizen
for the welfare of the state, which constituted the basis of
Lacedæmonian power, and the Attic brilliancy, instability and extreme
development of individualism, is strikingly like the contrast between
Prussia with its Spartan-like culture and France with its Athenian
versatility.
To this mixture of races in classic Greece the Mediterranean Pelasgians
contributed their Mycenæan culture and the Nordic Achæans and Hellenes
contributed their Aryan language, fighting efficiency and the European
aspect of Greek life.
The first result of a crossing of two such contrasted subspecies as the
Nordic and Mediterranean races has repeatedly been a new outburst of
civilization. This occurs as soon as the older race has imparted to the
conquerors its culture and before the victors have allowed their blood
to be attenuated by mixture. This process seems to have happened several
times in Greece.
Later, in 338 B. C., when the original Nordic blood had been hopelessly
diluted by mixture with the ancient Mediterranean elements, Hellas fell
an easy prey to Macedon. The troops of Philip and Alexander were Nordic
and represented the uncultured but unmixed ancestral type of the Achæans
and Hellenes. Their unimpaired fighting strength was irresistible as
soon as it was organized into the Macedonian phalanx, whether directed
against their degenerate brother Greeks or against the Persians, whose
original Nordic elements had also by this time practically disappeared.
When in its turn the pure Macedonian blood was impaired by intermixture
with Asiatics, they, too, vanished and even the royal Macedonian
dynasties in Asia and Egypt soon ceased to be Nordic or Greek except in
language and customs.
It is interesting to note that the Greek states in which the Nordic
element most predominated outlived the other states. Athens fell before
Sparta and Thebes outlived them both. Macedon in classic times was
considered quite the most barbarous state in Hellas and was scarcely
recognized as forming part of Greece, but it was through the military
power of its armies and the genius of Alexander that the Levant and
western Asia became Hellenized. Alexander with his Nordic features,
aquiline nose, fair skin, gently curling light hair and mixed eyes, the
left blue and the right very black, typifies this Nordic conquest of the
Near East.
It is scarcely possible to-day to find in purity the physical traits of
the ancient race in the Greek-speaking lands and islands and it is
chiefly among the pure Nordics of Anglo-Norman type that there occur
those smooth and regular classic features, especially the brow and nose
lines, that were the delight of the sculptors of Hellas.
To what extent any of the blood of the ancient Hellenes flows in the
veins of the Greeks of to-day is difficult to determine but it should be
found, if anywhere, in Crete and in the Ægean Islands. The modern Greek
is trying to purify his language back to classic Ionian and to
appropriate the traditions of the mighty Past, but to do this something
more is needed than the naming of children after Agamemnon and Hecuba.
Even in Roman times, the ancient Greek of the classic period was little
more than a tradition and the term Græculus given to the contemporary
Hellenes was one of contempt.
Concerning the physical type of classic in contrast to Homeric Greece,
we know that the Greeks were predominantly long-headed and of relatively
short stature in comparison with the northern barbarians. The modern
Greeks are also relatively short in stature, but are moderately
round-headed. As to color these modern Greeks are substantially all dark
as to eye and hair, with a somewhat swarthy skin.
Among Albanians and such Greeks as show blond traits light eyes are more
than ten times as numerous as light hair. The Albanians are members of
the tall, round-headed Dinaric race and have distant relationship with
the Nordics. They may possibly represent an ancient cross between
Nordics and Alpines and they constitute to-day a marked subdivision of
the latter. They resemble the Round Barrow brachycephs who entered
Britain just before or at the opening of the Bronze Age and who are
still scantily represented among the living English and Welsh. This type
called the Beaker Maker or Borreby type is characterized by a moderately
round head and great stature, strength and considerable intellectual
force. The Albanian or Dinaric type was not, so far as we know,
represented in ancient Greece although some modern archæologists have
suggested that the Spartans were of this type. We have as yet no
evidence of the color, size and skull shape of the Spartans, but we do
know that their Dorian ancestors claimed to have come from or through
the mountains of northern Epirus (Albania). The Dorian dialects are also
said to be more closely related to modern Albanian—which is derived from
the ancient Illyrian—than are the Ionian dialects. The Spartan
character, if that be any test of race, was heavy, slow and steady, and
would indicate northern rather than Mediterranean antecedents.
Concerning modern Europe north of the Alps, culture came from the south
and not from the east and to the Mediterranean subspecies is due the
foundation of our civilization. The ancient Mediterranean world was for
the most part of this race; the long-sustained civilization of Egypt,
which endured for thousands of years in almost uninterrupted sequence;
the brilliant Minoan Empire of Crete, which flourished between 3000 and
1200 B. C. and was the ancestor of the Mycenæan cultures of Greece,
Cyprus, Italy and Sardinia; the mysterious Empire of Etruria, the
predecessor and teacher of Rome; the Hellenic states and colonies
throughout the Mediterranean and Black Seas; the maritime and mercantile
power of Phœnicia and its mighty colony, imperial Carthage; all were the
creation of this race. The sea empire of Crete, when its royal palace at
Cnossos was burned by the ‘sea peoples’ of the north, passed to Tyre,
Sidon and Carthage and from them to the Greeks. The early development of
the art of navigation is to be attributed to this race and from them the
North centuries later learned its maritime architecture.
Even though the Mediterranean race has no claim to the invention of the
synthetic languages and though it played a relatively small part in the
development of the civilization of the Middle Ages or of modern times,
nevertheless to it belongs the chief credit of the classic civilization
of Europe in the sciences, art, poetry, literature and philosophy, as
well as the major part of the civilization of Greece and a very large
share in the Empire of Rome.
In the Eastern Empire the Mediterraneans were the predominant factor
under the guise of Byzantine Greeks. Owing to the fact that our
histories have been written under the influence of Roman orthodoxy and
because in the eyes of the Frankish Crusaders the Byzantine Greeks were
heretics, they have been regarded by us as degenerate cowards.
But throughout the Middle Ages Byzantium represented in unbroken
sequence the Empire of Rome in the East and as the capital of that
Empire it held Mohammedan Asia in check for nearly a thousand years.
When at last in 1453 the imperial city deserted by western Christendom
was stormed by the Ottoman Turks and Constantine, last of Roman
Emperors, fell sword in hand there was enacted one of the greatest
tragedies of all time.
With the fall of Constantinople the Empire of Rome passes finally from
the scene of history and the development of civilization is transferred
from Mediterranean lands and from the Mediterranean race to the North
Sea and to the Nordic race.
VI
THE NORDIC RACE
We have shown that the Mediterranean race entered Europe from the south
and forms part of a great group of peoples extending into southern Asia,
that the Alpine race came from the east through Asia Minor and the
valley of the Danube and that its present European distribution is
merely the westernmost point of an ethnic pyramid, the base of which
rests solidly on the round skulled peoples of the great plateaux of
central Asia. Both of these races are, therefore, western extensions of
Asiatic subspecies and neither of them can be considered as exclusively
European.
With the remaining race, the Nordic, however, the case is different.
This is a purely European type, in the sense that it has developed its
physical characters and its civilization within the confines of that
continent. It is, therefore, the _Homo europæus_, the white man par
excellence. It is everywhere characterized by certain unique
specializations, namely, wavy brown or blond hair and blue, gray or
light brown eyes, fair skin, high, narrow and straight nose, which are
associated with great stature and a long skull, as well as with abundant
head and body hair.
A composite picture of this Nordic race and remarkable examples of its
best contemporary types can be found in the English illustrated
weeklies, which are publishing during this great war the lists and
portraits of their officers who have fallen in battle. No nation, not
even England although richly endowed with a Nordic gentry, can stand the
loss of so much good blood. Here is the evidence, if such be needed, of
the actual Passing of the Great Race.
Abundance of hair is an ancient and generalized character which the
Nordics share with the Alpines of both Europe and Asia, but the light
colored eyes and light colored hair are characters of relatively recent
specialization and consequently highly unstable.
The pure Nordic race is at present clustered around the shores of the
Baltic and North Seas from which it has spread west and south and east
fading off gradually into the two preceding races.
The centre of its greatest purity is now in Sweden and there is no doubt
that at first the Scandinavian Peninsula and later, also, the
immediately adjoining shores of the Baltic were the centres of radiation
of the Teutonic or Scandinavian branch of this race.
The population of Scandinavia has been composed of this Nordic
subspecies from the commencement of Neolithic times and Sweden to-day
represents one of the few countries which has never been overwhelmed by
foreign conquest and in which there has been but a single racial type
from the beginning. This nation is unique in its unity of race,
language, religion and social ideals.
Southern Scandinavia only became fit for human habitation on the retreat
of the glaciers about twelve thousand years ago and apparently was
immediately occupied by the Nordic race. This is one of the few
geological dates which is absolute and not relative. It rests on a most
interesting series of computations made by Baron DeGeer, based on an
actual count of the laminated deposits of clay laid down annually by the
retreating glaciers, each layer representing the summer deposit of the
subglacial stream.
The Nordics first appear at the close of the Paleolithic along the
coasts of the Baltic. The earliest industry discovered in this region,
named the Maglemose and found in Denmark and elsewhere around the
Baltic, is probably the culture of the Proto-Teutonic branch of the
Nordic race. No human remains in connection therewith have been found.
The vigor and power of the Nordic race as a whole is such that it could
not have been evolved in so restricted an area as southern Sweden
although its Teutonic or Scandinavian section did develop there in
comparative isolation. The Nordics must have had a larger field for
their specialization and a longer period for their evolution than is
afforded by the limited time which has elapsed since Sweden became
habitable. For the development of so marked a type there is required a
continental area isolated and protected for long ages from the intrusion
of other races. The climatic conditions must have been such as to impose
a rigid elimination of defectives through the agency of hard winters and
the necessity of industry and foresight in providing the year’s food,
clothing and shelter during the short summer. Such demands on energy if
long continued would produce a strong, virile and self-contained race
which would inevitably overwhelm in battle nations whose weaker elements
had not been purged by the conditions of an equally severe environment.
An area conforming to these requirements is offered by the forests and
plains of eastern Germany, Poland and Russia. It was here that the
Proto-Nordic type evolved and here their remnants are found. They were
protected from Asia on the east by the then almost continuous water
connections across eastern Russia between the White Sea and the old
Caspian-Aral Sea.
During the last glacial advance (known as the Würm) which, like the
preceding glaciations, is believed to have been a period of land
depression, the White Sea extended far to the south of its present
limits, while the enlarged Caspian Sea, then and long afterward
connected with the Sea of Aral, extended northward to the great bend of
the Volga. The intermediate area was studded with large lakes and
morasses. Thus an almost complete water barrier of shallow sea located
just west of the low Ural Mountains, separated Europe from Asia during
the Würm glaciation and the following period of glacial retreat. The
broken connection was restored just before the dawn of history by a
slight elevation of the land and the shrinking of the Caspian-Aral Sea
through the increasing desiccation which has left its present surface
below sea level.
An important element in the maintenance of the isolation of this Nordic
cradle on the south is the fact that from earliest times down to this
day the pressure of population has been unchangeably from the bleak and
sterile north, southward and eastward, into the sunny but enervating
lands of France, Italy, Greece, Persia and India.
In these forests and steppes of the north, the Nordic race gradually
evolved in isolation and at an early date spread north over the
Scandinavian Peninsula together with much of the land now submerged
under the Baltic and North Seas.
Nordic strains form everywhere a substratum of population throughout
Russia and underlie the round skulled Slavs who first appear a little
over a thousand years ago as coming not from the direction of Asia but
from south Poland. Burial mounds called kurgans are widely scattered
throughout Russia from the Carpathians to the Urals and contain numerous
remains of a dolichocephalic race,—in fact, more than three-fourths of
the skulls are of this type. Round skulls first become numerous in
ancient Russian graveyards about 900 A. D. and soon increase to such an
extent that in the Slavic period from the ninth to the thirteenth
centuries one-half of the skulls were brachycephalic, while in modern
cemeteries the proportion of round skulls is still greater. The ancient
Nordic element, however, still forms a very considerable portion of the
population of northern Russia and contributes the blondness and the
red-headedness so characteristic of the Russian of to-day. As we leave
the Baltic coasts the Nordic characters fade out both toward the south
and east. The blond element in the nobility of Russia is of later
Scandinavian and Teutonic origin.
When the seas which separated Russia from Asia dried, when the isolation
and exacting climate of the north had done their work and produced the
vigorous Nordic type, and when in the fulness of time bronze for their
weapons reached them these men burst upon the southern races, conquering
east, south and west. They brought with them from the north the
hardihood and vigor acquired under the rigorous selection of a long
winter season and vanquished in battle the inhabitants of older and
feebler civilizations, but only to succumb in their turn to the
softening influences of a life of ease and plenty in their new homes.
The earliest recorded appearance of Aryan-speaking Nordics is our first
dim vision of the Sacæ introducing Sanskrit into India, the Cimmerians
pouring through the passes of the Caucasus from the grasslands of South
Russia to invade the Empire of the Medes and the Achæans and Phrygians
conquering Greece and the Ægean coast of Asia Minor. About 1100 B. C.
Nordics enter Italy as Umbrians and Oscans and soon after other Nordics
cross the Rhine into Gaul. The latter were the western vanguard of the
Celtic-speaking tribes which had long occupied those districts in
Germany which lay south and west of the Teutonic Nordics. These Teutons
at this early date were confined probably to Scandinavia and the
immediate shores of the Baltic and were just beginning to press
southward.
This first Celtic wave of Nordics seems to have swept westward along the
sandy plains of northern Europe, and entered France through the Low
Countries. From this point as Goidels they spread north into Britain,
reaching there about 800 B. C. As Gauls they conquered all France and
pushed on southward and westward into Spain and over the Maritime Alps
into northern Italy, where they encountered the kindred Nordic Umbrians,
who at an earlier date had crossed the Alps from the northeast. Other
Celtic-speaking Nordics apparently migrated up the Rhine and down the
Danube and by the time the Romans came on the scene the Alpines of
central Europe had been thoroughly Celticized. These tribes pushed
eastward into southern Russia and reached the Crimea as early as the
fourth century B. C. Mixed with the natives, they were called by the
Greeks the Celto-Scyths. This swarming out of what is now called Germany
of the first Nordics was during the closing phases of the Bronze Period
and was contemporary with and probably caused by the first great
expansion of the Teutons from Scandinavia by way both of Denmark and the
Baltic coasts.
These invaders were succeeded by a second wave of Celtic-speaking
peoples, the Cymry or Brythons, who drove their Goidelic predecessors
still farther westward and exterminated and absorbed them over large
areas. These Cymric invasions occurred about 300–100 B. C. and were
probably the result of the growing development of the Teutons and their
final expulsion of the Celtic-speaking tribes from Germany. These Cymry
occupied northern France under the name of Belgæ and invaded England as
Brythons in several waves, the last being the true Belgæ. The conquests
of these Cymric tribes in both Gaul and Britain were only checked by the
legions of Rome.
These migrations are exceedingly hard to trace because of the confusion
caused by the fact that Celtic speech is now found on the lips of
populations in nowise related to the Nordics who first introduced it.
But one fact stands out clearly, all the original Celtic-speaking tribes
were Nordic.
What were the special physical characters of these tribes in which they
differed from their Teutonic successors is now impossible to say, beyond
the possible suggestion that in the British Isles the Scottish and Irish
populations in which red hair and gray or green eyes are abundant have
rather more of this Celtic strain in them than have the flaxen haired
Teutons, whose china-blue eyes are clearly not Celtic.
When the peoples called Gauls or Celts by the Romans and Galatians by
the Greeks first appear in history they are described in exactly the
same terms as were later the Teutons. They were all gigantic barbarians
with fair and very often red hair, then more frequent than to-day, with
gray or fiercely blue eyes and were thus clearly members of the Nordic
subspecies.
The first Celtic-speaking nations with whom the Romans came in contact
were Gaulish and had probably incorporated much Alpine blood by the time
they crossed the mountains into the domain of classic history. The
Nordic element had become still weaker by absorption from the conquered
populations when at a later date the Romans broke through the ring of
Celtic nations and came into contact with the Nordic Cymry and Teutons.
After these early expansions of Gauls and Cymry the Teutons appear upon
the scene. Of the pure Teutons within the ken of history, it is not
necessary to mention more than the most important of the long series of
conquering tribes.
The greatest of them all were perhaps the Goths, who came originally
from the south of Sweden and were long located on the opposite German
coast at the mouth of the Vistula. From here they crossed Poland to the
Crimea where they were known in the first century. Three hundred years
later they were driven westward by the Huns and forced into the Dacian
plain and over the Danube into the Roman Empire. There they split up;
the Ostrogoths after a period of subjection to the Huns on the Danube,
ravaged the European provinces of the Eastern Empire, conquered Italy
and founded there a great but shortlived nation. The Visigoths occupied
much of Gaul and then entered Spain driving the Nordic Vandals before
them into Africa. The Teutons and Cimbri, destroyed by Marius in
southern Gaul about 100 B. C., the Gepidæ, the Alans, the Suevi, the
Vandals, the Alemanni of the upper Rhine, the Marcomanni, the Saxons,
the Batavians, the Frisians, the Angles, the Jutes, the Lombards and the
Heruli of Italy, the Burgundians of the east of France, the Franks of
the lower Rhine, the Danes, and, latest of all, the Norse Vikings emerge
from the northern forests and seas one after another and sweep through
history. Less well known but of great importance are the Varangians, who
coming from Sweden in the ninth and tenth centuries, conquered the coast
of the Gulf of Finland and much of White Russia and left there a dynasty
and aristocracy of Nordic blood. In the tenth and eleventh centuries
they were the rulers of Russia.
The traditions of Goths, Vandals, Lombards and Burgundians all point to
Sweden as their earliest homeland and probably all the pure Teutonic
tribes came originally from Scandinavia and were closely related.
When these Teutonic tribes poured down from the Baltic coasts, their
Celtic-speaking Nordic predecessors were already much mixed with the
underlying populations, Mediterranean in the west and Alpine in the
south. These “Celts” were not recognized by the Teutons as kin in any
sense and were all called, Welsh, or foreigners. From this word are
derived the names “Wales,” “Cornwales” or “Cornwall,” “Valais,”
“Walloons,” and “Vlach” or “Wallachian.”
VII
TEUTONIC EUROPE
No proper understanding is possible of the meaning of the history of
Christendom or full appreciation of the place in it of the Teutonic
Nordics without a brief review of the events in Europe of the last two
thousand years.
When Rome fell and changed trade conditions necessitated the transfer of
power from its historic capital in Italy to a strategic situation on the
Bosporus, western Europe was definitely and finally abandoned to its
Teutonic invaders. These same barbarians swept up again and again to the
Propontis, only to recoil before the organized strength of the Byzantine
Empire and the walls of Mikklegard. The final line of cleavage between
the western and eastern Empires corresponded closely to the boundaries
of Latin and Greek speech and differences of language no doubt were the
chief cause of the political and later of the religious divergence
between them.
Until the coming of the Alpine Slavs the Eastern Empire still held in
Europe the Balkan Peninsula and much of the eastern Mediterranean. The
Western Empire, however, collapsed utterly under the impact of hordes of
Nordic Teutons at a much earlier date. In the fourth and fifth centuries
of our era north Africa, once the empire of Carthage, had become the
seat of the kingdom of Nordic Vandals. Spain fell under the control of
the Visigoths and Lusitania, now Portugal, under that of the Suevi. Gaul
was Visigothic in the south and Burgundian in the east, while the
Frankish kingdom dominated the north until it finally absorbed and
incorporated all the territories of ancient Gaul and made it the land of
the Franks. Strictly speaking, the northern half of France and the
adjoining districts, the country of Langued’oil, is the true land of the
Franks while the southern Languedoc was never Frankish except by
conquest, and was never as thoroughly Nordicized as the north. Whatever
Nordic elements are still to be found there are Gothic and Burgundian
but not Frankish.
Italy fell under the control first of the Ostrogoths and then of the
Lombards. The purely Nordic Saxons with kindred tribes conquered the
British Isles and meanwhile the Norse and Danish Scandinavians
contributed a large element to all the coast populations as far south as
Spain and the Swedes organized in the eastern Baltic what is now Russia.
Thus when Rome passed all Europe had become superficially Teutonic. At
first these Teutons were isolated and independent tribes bearing some
shadowy relation to the one organized state they knew, the Empire of
Rome. Then came the Mohammedan invasion, which reached western Europe
from Africa and destroyed the Visigothic kingdom. The Moslems swept on
unchecked until their light horsemen dashed themselves to pieces against
the heavy armed cavalry of Charles Martel and his Franks at Tours in 732
A. D.
The destruction of the Vandal kingdom by the armies of the Byzantine
Empire, the conquest of Spain by the Moors and finally the overthrow of
the Lombards by the Franks were all greatly facilitated by the fact that
these barbarians, Vandals, Goths, Suevi and Lombards, with the sole
exception of the Franks, were originally Christians of the Arian or
Unitarian confession and as such were regarded as heretics by their
orthodox Christian subjects. The Franks alone were converted from
heathenism directly to the Trinitarian faith to which the old
populations of the Roman Empire adhered. From this orthodoxy of the
Franks arose the close relation between France, “the eldest daughter of
the church,” and the papacy, a connection which lasted for more than a
thousand years—in fact nearly to our own day.
With the Goths eliminated western Christendom became Frankish. In the
year 800 A. D. Charlemagne was crowned at Rome and re-established the
Roman Empire in the west, which included all Christendom outside of the
Byzantine Empire. In some form or shape this Roman Empire endured until
the beginning of the nineteenth century and during all that time it
formed the basis of the political concept of European man.
This same concept lies to-day at the root of the imperial idea. Kaiser,
Tsar and Emperor each takes his name and in some way undertakes to trace
his title from Cæsar and the Empire. Charlemagne and his successors
claimed and often exercised overlordship as to all the other continental
Christian nations and when the Crusades began it was the German Emperor
who led the Frankish hosts against the Saracens. Charlemagne was a
German Emperor, his capital was at Aachen within the present limits of
the German Empire and the language of his court was German. For several
centuries after the conquest of Gaul by the Franks their Teutonic tongue
held its own against the Latin speech of the Romanized Gauls.
The history of all Christian Europe is in some degree interwoven with
this Holy Roman Empire. Though the Empire was neither holy nor Roman but
altogether secular and Teutonic, it was, nevertheless, the heart of
Europe for ages. Holland and Flanders, Lorraine and Alsace, Burgundy and
Luxemburg, Lombardy and the Veneto, Switzerland and Austria, Bohemia and
Styria are states which were originally component parts of the Empire
although many of them have since been torn away by rival nations or have
become independent, while much of northern Italy remained under the sway
of Austria within the memory of living men.
The Empire wasted its strength in imperial ambitions and foreign
conquests instead of consolidating, organizing and unifying its own
territories and the fact that the imperial crown was elective for many
generations before it became hereditary in the House of Hapsburg checked
the unification of Germany during the Middle Ages.
A strong hereditary monarchy, such as arose in England and in France,
would have anticipated the Germany of to-day by a thousand years and
made it the predominant state in Christendom, but disruptive elements in
the persons of great territorial dukes were successful throughout its
history in preventing an effective concentration of power in the hands
of the Emperor.
That the German Emperor was regarded, though vaguely, as the overlord of
all Christian monarchs was clearly indicated when Henry VIII of England
and Francis I of France appeared as candidates for the imperial crown
against Charles of Spain, afterward the Emperor Charles V.
Europe was the Holy Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire was Europe
predominantly until the Thirty Years’ War. This war was perhaps the
greatest catastrophe of all the ghastly crimes committed in the name of
religion. It destroyed an entire generation, taking each year for thirty
years the finest manhood of the nations.
Two-thirds of the population of Germany was destroyed, in some states
such as Bohemia three-fourths of the inhabitants were killed or exiled,
while out of 500,000 inhabitants in Würtemberg there were only 48,000
left at the end of the war. Terrible as this loss was, the destruction
did not fall equally on the various races and classes in the community.
It bore, of course, most heavily upon the big blond fighting man and at
the end of the war the German states contained a greatly lessened
proportion of Nordic blood. In fact, from that time on the purely
Teutonic race in Germany has been largely replaced by the Alpine types
in the south and by the Wendish and the Polish types in the east. This
change of race in Germany has gone so far that it has been computed that
out of the 70,000,000 inhabitants of the German Empire, only 9,000,000
are purely Teutonic in coloration, stature and skull characters. The
rarity of pure Teutonic and Nordic types among the German immigrants to
America in contrast to its almost universal prevalence among those from
Scandinavia is traceable to the same cause.
In addition, the Thirty Years’ War virtually destroyed the land owning
yeomanry and lesser gentry formerly found in mediæval Germany as
numerously as in France or in England. The religious wars of France,
while not as devasting to the nation as a whole as was the Thirty Years’
War in Germany, nevertheless greatly weakened the French cavalier type,
the “petite noblesse de province.” In Germany this class had flourished
and throughout the Middle Ages contributed great numbers of knights,
poets, thinkers, artists and artisans who gave charm and variety to the
society of central Europe. But, as said, this section of the population
was practically exterminated in the Thirty Years’ War and this class of
gentlemen practically vanishes from German history from that time on.
When the Thirty Years’ War was over there remained in Germany nothing
except the brutalized peasantry, largely of Alpine derivation in the
south and east, and the high nobility which turned from the toils of
endless warfare to mimic on a small scale the court of Versailles. After
this long struggle the boundaries in central Europe between the
Protestant North and the Catholic South follow in a marked degree the
frontier between the northern plain inhabited chiefly by Nordics and the
more mountainous countries in the south populated almost entirely by
Alpines.
It has taken Germany two centuries to recover her vigor, her wealth and
her aspirations to a place in the sun.
During these years Germany was a political nonentity, a mere congeries
of petty states bickering and fighting with each other, claiming and
owning only the Empire of the Air as Napoleon happily phrased it.
Meantime France and England founded their colonial empires beyond the
seas.
When in the last generation Germany became unified and organized, she
found herself not only too late to share in these colonial enterprises,
but also lacking in much of the racial element and still more lacking in
the very classes which were her greatest strength and glory before the
Thirty Years’ War. To-day the ghastly rarity in the German armies of
chivalry and generosity toward women and of knightly protection and
courtesy toward the prisoners or wounded can be largely attributed to
this annihilation of the gentle classes. The Germans of to-day, whether
they live on the farms or in the cities, are for the most part
descendants of the peasants who survived, not of the brilliant knights
and sturdy foot soldiers who fell in that mighty conflict. Knowledge of
this great past when Europe was Teutonic and memories of the shadowy
grandeur of the Hohenstaufen Emperors, who, generation after generation,
led Teutonic armies over the Alps to assert their title to Italian
provinces, have played no small part in modern German consciousness.
These traditions and the knowledge that their own religious dissensions
swept them from the leadership of the European world lie at the base of
the German imperial ideal of to-day and it is for this ideal that the
German armies are dying, just as did their ancestors for a thousand
years under their Fredericks, Henrys, Conrads and Ottos.
But the Empire of Rome and the Empire of Charlemagne are no more and the
Teutonic type is divided almost equally between the contending forces in
this world war. With the United States in the field the balance of pure
Nordic blood will be heavily against the Central Powers, which pride
themselves on being “the Teutonic powers.”
Germany is too late and is limited to a destiny fixed and ordained for
her on the fatal day in 1618 when the Hapsburg Ferdinand forced the
Protestants of Bohemia into revolt.
Although as a result of the Thirty Years’ War the German Empire is far
less Nordic than in the Middle Ages, the north and northwest of Germany
are still Teutonic throughout and in the east and south the Alpines have
been thoroughly Germanized with an aristocracy and upper class very
largely of pure Teutonic blood.
VIII
THE EXPANSION OF THE NORDICS
The men of Nordic blood to-day form practically all the population of
Scandinavian countries, as also a majority of the population of the
British Isles and are almost pure in type in Scotland and eastern and
northern England. The Nordic realm includes nearly all the northern
third of France with extensions into the fertile southwest; all the rich
lowlands of Flanders; all Holland; the northern half of Germany with
extensions up the Rhine and down the Danube; and the north of Poland and
of Russia. Recent calculations indicate that there are about 90,000,000
of purely Nordic physical type in Europe out of a total population of
420,000,000.
Throughout southern Europe a Nordic nobility of Teutonic type everywhere
forms the old aristocratic and military classes or what now remains of
them. These aristocrats, by as much as their blood is pure, are taller
and blonder than the native populations, whether these be Alpine in
central Europe or Mediterranean in Spain or in the south of France and
Italy.
The countries speaking Low German dialects are almost purely Nordic but
the populations of High German speech are very largely Teutonized
Alpines and occupy lands once Celtic-speaking. The main distinction
between the two dialects is the presence of a large number of Celtic
elements in High German.
In northern Italy there is a large amount of Nordic blood. In Lombardy,
Venice and elsewhere throughout the country the aristocracy is blonder
and taller than the peasantry, but the Nordic element in Italy has
declined noticeably since the Middle Ages. From Roman times onward for a
thousand years the Teutons swarmed into northern Italy, through the Alps
and chiefly by way of the Brenner Pass. With the stoppage of these
Nordic reinforcements this strain seems to have grown less all through
Italy.[3]
Footnote 3:
Procopius tells a significant story which illustrates the contrast in
racial character between the natives and the barbarians. He relates
that, at the surrender of Ravenna in 540 A. D. by the Goths to the
army of the Byzantines, “when the Gothic women saw how swarthy, small
men of mean aspect had conquered their tall, robust, fair-skinned
barbarians, they were furious and spat in their husbands’ faces and
cursed them for cowards.”
In the Balkan Peninsula there is little to show for the floods of Nordic
blood that have poured in for the last 3,500 years, beginning with the
Achæans of Homer, who first appeared _en masse_ about 1400 B. C. and
were followed successively by the Dorians, Cimmerians and Gauls, down to
the Goths and the Varangians of Byzantine times.
The tall stature of the population along the Illyrian Alps from the
Tyrol to Albania on the south is undoubtedly of Nordic origin and dates
from some of these early invasions, but these Illyrians have been so
crossed with Slavs that all other blond elements have been lost and the
existing population is essentially of brachycephalic Alpine type. They
are known as the Dinaric race. What few remnants of blondness occur in
this district, more particularly in Albania, as well as the so-called
Frankish elements in Bosnia, may probably be attributed to later
infiltrations.
The Tyrolese seem to be largely Nordic except in respect to their round
skull.
In Russia and in Poland the Nordic stature, blondness and long skull
grow less and less pronounced as one proceeds south and east from the
Gulf of Finland.
It would appear that in all those parts of Europe outside of its natural
habitat, the Nordic blood is on the wane from England to Italy and that
the ancient, acclimated and primitive populations of Alpine and
Mediterranean race are subtly reasserting their long lost political
power through a high breeding rate and democratic institutions.
In western Europe the first wave of the Nordic tribes appeared about
three thousand years ago and was followed by other invasions with the
Nordic element becoming stronger until after the fall of Rome whole
tribes moved into its provinces, Teutonizing them more or less for
varying lengths of time.
PROVISIONAL OUTLINE OF NORDIC INVASIONS AND METAL CULTURES
┌───┬───────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────┐
│ │ B. C. │ GREAT BRITAIN │ SCANDINAVIA │ GERMANY AND │
│ │ │ │ │ AUSTRIA │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Neolithic. │ │
│ │ │ │ Rough │ │
│ 1.│Before 3000│Neolithic │ pottery. │Neolithic. │
│ │ │ │ Domesticated│ │
│ │ │ │ dog. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Copper. │
│ │ │ │ │ Great │
│ │ │ │ │ expansion of │
│ │ │ │ │ Alpines, │
│ 2.│3000–2500 │ │ │ introducing │
│ │ │ │ │ bronze into │
│ │ │ │ │ Austria and │
│ │ │ │ │ later into │
│ │ │ │ │ Germany. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ Neolithic. │ Neolithic. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ 3.│2500–1800 │Copper. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┴───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ Transition from stone to │
│ │ │ │ bronze. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Alpine │ │
│ │ │ │ invasion │ │
│ │ │Alpine invasion │ with bronze │ │
│ │ │ with bronze │ culture │ │
│ 4.│1800–1600 │ culture. │ reaches │ │
│ │ │ Round Barrows. │ Denmark and │ │
│ │ │ Megaliths. │ southwest │ │
│ │ │ │ Norway. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Hallstatt iron │
│ │ │ │ │ culture in │
│ │ │ │ │ Austrian │
│ 5.│1600–1400 │ │ │ Tyrol has │
│ │ │ │ │ first │
│ │ │ │ │ beginning. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ Full Bronze Age. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ 6.│1400–1200 │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Hallstatt iron │
│ │ │ │ │ culture │
│ │ │ │ │ flourishes. │
│ │ │ │ │ Mixed │
│ 7.│1200–1000 │ │Beginning of │ inhumation │
│ │ │ │ cremation. │ and │
│ │ │ │ │ incineration.│
│ │ │ │ │ Goidels │
│ │ │ │ │ occupy │
│ │ │ │ │ Germany. │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │Nordic Teutons│ │
│ │ │ │ cross from │ │
│ │ │ │Scandinavia to│ │
│ │ │ │ south coasts │ │
│ │ │ │of Baltic and │ │
│ │ │ │ to Denmark. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │First invasion │
│ │ │ │ │ of Nordic │
│ │ │ │ │ Teutons from │
│ │ │ │ │ Scandinavia. │
│ │ │First │ │ Other Celtic │
│ 8.│1000–800 │ Nordics—Goidels.│ │ Nordics on │
│ │ │ │ │ Rhine and │
│ │ │ │ │ Danube, who │
│ │ │ │ │ Celticized │
│ │ │ │ │ the Alpines. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ 800 │First iron swords,│ │ │
│ │ │ 800. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │The Goidels are│
│ │ │ │ │ driven south │
│ │ │ │ │ and west by │
│ │ │ │ │ the Cymry. │
│ │ │ │ │ Expansion of │
│ │ │ │ │ the Cymry. │
│ │ │First Aryan │ │ Pressure of │
│ 9.│800–600 │ speech. │ │ Teutons in │
│ │ │ │ │ north. │
│ │ │ │ │ Last Goidels │
│ │ │ │ │ expelled from│
│ │ │ │ │ Germany. Iron│
│ │ │ │ │ swords in │
│ │ │ │ │ Central │
│ │ │ │ │ Europe. │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │La Tène iron │
│ │ │ │ │ culture. │
│ │ │First Goidels in │ │ Cymric Belgæ │
│10.│600–400 │ Ireland, 600. │ │ driven │
│ │ │ │ │ westward by │
│ │ │ │ │ Teutons. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ La Tène iron. │La Tène Iron. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│11.│400–300 │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ Great │ Expansion of │
│ │ │ │ expansion of │ Teutons and │
│ │ │ │Nordic Teutons│ expulsion of │
│ │ │ │ out of │ Cymry as far │
│ │ │ │ Scandinavia. │ west as the │
│ │ │ │ │ Weser. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │_c._ 250. First│
│ │ │Cymric │ │ Teutons in │
│12.│300–200 │ Belgæ—invasion, │ │ Austria. │
│ │ │ _c._ 300. Known │ │ Gold, silver,│
│ │ │ as Brythons. │ │ and bronze │
│ │ │ │ │ money. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Teutons drive │
│ │ │Few Cymry or │ │ Cymry out of │
│13.│200–100 │ Brythons in │ │ Germany. │
│ │ │ Ireland. │ │ Teutons cross│
│ │ │ │ │ the Rhine. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │55. Julius Cæsar. │ │ │
│ │100 to │ Copper and iron │ │ │
│14.│ Christian│ money as │ │ │
│ │ Era │ currency. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │Defeat of Varus│
│ │ │ │ │ and Roman │
│15.│ │ │ │ legions in │
│ │ │ │ │ old Saxony, 9│
│ │ │ │ │ A. D. │
└───┴───────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────┴───────────────┘
┌───┬───────────┬─────────────┬───────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│ │ B. C. │ FRANCE AND │ ITALY │ RUSSIA, GREECE, AND │
│ │ │ SPAIN │ │ BALKANS │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │3000 B. C. Commencement │
│ │ │ │Terramara │ of early Minoan in │
│ 1.│Before 3000│Neolithic. │ culture. │ Crete. │
│ │ │ │ │ Copper. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │Copper. │ │
│ │ │ │ Great │ │
│ │ │ │ expansion of │ │
│ │ │ │ Alpines, │ │
│ │ │ │ introducing │ │
│ 2.│3000–2500 │Copper. │ bronze into │ │
│ │ │ │ north Italy. │ │
│ │ │ │ Bronze │ │
│ │ │ │ introduced in│ │
│ │ │ │ South from │ │
│ │ │ │ Crete. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ Eneolithic │ Great expansion of │
│ │ │ │ culture. │ Alpines, introducing │
│ │ │ │ │ bronze from │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Asia Minor. │
│ │ │ │ │ Middle Minoan in │
│ 3.│2500–1800 │ │ │ Crete, 2000–1800. │
│ │ │ │ │ Second city of │
│ │ │ │ │ Hissarlik—2000. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Alpine │ │ │
│ │ │ invasion │ │ │
│ │ │ with bronze│ │ │
│ │ │ culture in │ │ │
│ │ │ France. │ │Early Nordic invasions. │
│ 4.│1800–1600 │ Later, same│ │ Cnossos. │
│ │ │ wave of │ │ Mycenæan culture. │
│ │ │ invasion │ │ │
│ │ │ enters │ │ │
│ │ │ Spain. │ │ │
│ │ │ Megaliths. │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Late Minoan in Crete, │
│ 5.│1600–1400 │ │ │ 1600–1450. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ Last Minoan, │ │
│ │ │ │ 1450–1200. │ │
│ │ │ │ │Mycenæan culture. │
│ │ │ │ │ Bronze. │
│ │ │ │ │ Nordic Achæans from │
│ │ │ │ │ south Russia introduce│
│ 6.│1400–1200 │ │Villanova │ Aryan speech, │
│ │ │ │ culture. │ 1400–1300. Have iron │
│ │ │ │ │ swords. │
│ │ │ │ │ 1200. Transition from │
│ │ │ │ │ bronze to iron in │
│ │ │ │ │ Crete. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │_c._ 1100. │ │
│ │ │ │ Umbrians and │Hallstatt iron. │
│ │ │Cadiz founded│ Oscans │ Trojan war, 1194–1184.│
│ │ │ in Spain, │ introduce │ Nordic │
│ 7.│1200–1000 │ _c._ 1100, │ first Aryan │ Hellenes—Dorians—enter│
│ │ │ by │ speech from │ Greece, 1100. │
│ │ │ Phœnicians.│ northeast. │ Iron in full │
│ │ │ │ Iron in │ development. │
│ │ │ │ Etruria, │ │
│ │ │ │ 1100. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │1000. Nordic │ │ │
│ │ │Goidels cross│ │ │
│ │ │ Rhine and │ │ │
│ │ │ introduce │ │ │
│ │ │Aryan speech │ │ │
│ │ │ (Gaulish). │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Hallstatt │ │ │
│ │ │ iron │ │ │
│ │ │ culture. │First │ │
│ │ │ Before 950 │ settlements │ │
│ 8.│1000–800 │ Phœnicians │ on the site │Iron common in Greece. │
│ │ │ masters of │ of Rome. │ │
│ │ │ more than │ │ │
│ │ │ half of │ │ │
│ │ │ Spain. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ 800 │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Expansion of │ │
│ │ │ │ Mediterranean│ │
│ │ │ │ Etruscans │ │
│ │ │ │ over Umbrians│Iron Age in Russia. │
│ │ │ │ to Alps. │ Megarian colonization,│
│ │ │Gauls in │ Legendary │ 700. │
│ 9.│800–600 │ France. │ founding of │ Greek colonies in │
│ │ │ │ Rome, 753. │ Italy and Sicily. │
│ │ │ │ First Greek │ Appearance of │
│ │ │ │ colonies in │ Cimmerians. │
│ │ │ │ south │ │
│ │ │ │ Italy—Magna │ │
│ │ │ │ Græcia. │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │La Tène iron │ │ │
│ │ │ culture in │ │ │
│ │ │ France. │ │ │
│ │ │ Nordic │ │ │
│ │ │ Goidels │ │ │
│ │ │ cross │ │ │
│ │ │ Pyrenees │Nordic Gauls in│500. End of non-Aryan │
│ │ │ and │ valley of │ speech in Crete. │
│10.│600–400 │ introduce │ Po—Cisalpine │ Invasion of Scythia by│
│ │ │ Aryan │ Gaul. │ Darius, 512 B. C. │
│ │ │ speech in │ │ Persian wars, 500–449.│
│ │ │ Spain. │ │ │
│ │ │ First │ │ │
│ │ │ Gallic │ │ │
│ │ │ money of │ │ │
│ │ │ Marseilles,│ │ │
│ │ │ silver. │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │La Tène iron │ │ │
│ │ │ in Spain. │Gauls under │ │
│ │ │ Cymric │ Brennus sack │Macedon conquers Greece,│
│ │ │ Belgæ │ Rome, 382, │ 338. │
│ │ │ conquer │ and destroy │ Celto-Scyths in │
│11.│400–300 │ northern │ Etruria. New │ Crimea, 4th century B.│
│ │ │ France. │ invasion of │ C. │
│ │ │ Bronze │ Nordics into │ Alexander the Great, │
│ │ │ money in │ Cisalpine │ 356–323. │
│ │ │ western │ Gaul. │ │
│ │ │ France. │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Gold coinage │ │ │
│ │ │ in │ │Decline of Scythians in │
│ │ │ northeast │ │ Russia, and appearance│
│ │ │ France. │ │ in Russia of Alpine │
│ │ │ Bronze │ │ Sarmatians. │
│12.│300–200 │ coinage in │Expansion of │ Nordic Galatians enter│
│ │ │ the │ Rome. │ Thrace and │
│ │ │ southwest. │ │ Greece—Delphi, 279; │
│ │ │ Gaul │ │ cross into Asia Minor │
│ │ │ fertile and│ │ and found Galatia. │
│ │ │ well │ │ │
│ │ │ cultivated.│ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ Punic Wars, │ │
│ │ │ │ 264–146. │ │
│ │ │Teutons enter│ │ │
│ │ │ France. │Slaves imported│ │
│ │ │ Marius │ in Rome to │ │
│13.│200–100 │ destroys │ work the │ │
│ │ │ Teutones │ latifundia. │ │
│ │ │ and Cimbri,│ │ │
│ │ │ 100 B. C. │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │Augustus and │ │
│ │ │Cæsar │ the │ │
│ │100 to │ conquers │ organization │ │
│14.│ Christian│ Gaul, │ of the Roman │ │
│ │ Era │ 59–51. │ Empire. │ │
│ │ │ │ Extinction of│ │
│ │ │ │ old Romans. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │Sarmatians appear in │
│15.│ │ │ │ Danube valley, 50 A. │
│ │ │ │ │ D. │
│ │ │ │ │ │
└───┴───────────┴─────────────┴───────────────┴────────────────────────┘
┌───┬───────────┬─────────────────────┬────────────────┐
│ │ B. C. │ ASIA MINOR │NORTH AFRICA AND│
│ │ │ │ EGYPT │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │Copper for │
│ │ │ │ ornaments, │
│ │ │ │ 4000. │
│ │ │Alpines (Hissarlik). │ Copper │
│ │ │ Founding of Troy. │ systematically│
│ 1.│Before 3000│ Copper in Cyprus. │ mined, 3400. │
│ │ │ Introduction of │ Pieces of iron│
│ │ │ bronze from Egypt. │ from interior │
│ │ │ │ of Great │
│ │ │ │ Pyramid of │
│ │ │ │ Gizeh, 3733. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Gizeh skulls; │
│ │ │ │ Alpine. │
│ │ │ │ First │
│ 2.│3000–2500 │Bronze smelting. │ illustration │
│ │ │ │ of ship in │
│ │ │ │ Egypt, 2800. │
│ │ │ │ Pyramids, │
│ │ │ │ Memphis. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Period of │
│ │ │ │ agricultural │
│ │ │ │ depression │
│ │ │Destruction of │ with invasions│
│ 3.│2500–1800 │ Hissarlik II. │ from the │
│ │ │ │ desert. │
│ │ │ │ Feudal Age in │
│ │ │ │ Egypt. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Beginnings of Hittite│Hyksos in Egypt,│
│ 4.│1800–1600 │ Empire. │ 1700. │
│ │ │ │ First horses. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Egyptian Empire │
│ │ │First Aryan names of │ at Thebes, │
│ │ │ deities—Cappadocia.│ 1600–1150. │
│ 5.│1600–1400 │ Hittite Empire with│ Egyptian │
│ │ │ iron. │ campaigns in │
│ │ │ │ Asia. Conquest│
│ │ │ │ of Syria. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Hittites invade │
│ │ │ │ Syria. │
│ │ │ │ Rameses II. │
│ 6.│1400–1200 │Nordic Phrygians. │ 1230. Sea │
│ │ │ (Trojan leaders.) │ peoples │
│ │ │ │ (Achæans) │
│ │ │ │ attack Egypt. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ Hittites Alpines │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ 7.│1200–1000 │Armenians acquire │Phœnicia supreme│
│ │ │ Aryan tongue. │ at sea. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Greek colonies in │Carthage │
│ 8.│1000–800 │ Asia Minor. │ founded, 813. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ 800 │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Early Nordic raids. │ │
│ 9.│800–600 │ Cimmerians, 650. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Persian │
│ │ │Tyre under Babylonian│ conquest, 525.│
│10.│600–400 │ yoke. │ The last of │
│ │ │ │ the native │
│ │ │ │ Pharaohs. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Alexander │
│11.│400–300 │ │ conquers │
│ │ │ │ Egypt, 332. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│12.│300–200 │Nordic Galatians, │ │
│ │ │ 279. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│13.│200–100 │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │100 to │ │ │
│14.│ Christian│ │ │
│ │ Era │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────────────┼────────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│15.│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
└───┴───────────┴─────────────────────┴────────────────┘
┌───┬───────────┬─────────────┬────────────┐
│ │ B. C. │ MESOPOTAMIA │ INDIA AND │
│ │ │ AND PERSIA │ CHINA │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │Copper for │ │
│ │ │ ornaments. │ │
│ │ │ Early │Mongolian │
│ │ │ Babylonian │ bands come│
│ │ │ graves. │ from west │
│ 1.│Before 3000│ Cylinder │ into the │
│ │ │ seals at │ Yellow │
│ │ │ Fara about │ River │
│ │ │ 3400. │ Valley. │
│ │ │ Cuneiform │ │
│ │ │ writing. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │Ur in Sumer. │ │
│ │ │ Nippur, │ │
│ │ │ 3000–2500. │ │
│ │ │ Beginning │Chinese │
│ │ │ of │ claim │
│ 2.│3000–2500 │ greatness │ first │
│ │ │ of │ empire, │
│ │ │ Babylonia. │ 2850–2730.│
│ │ │ Sargon of │ │
│ │ │ Accad │ │
│ │ │ (Semitic), │ │
│ │ │ 2750. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Sumer and │ │
│ │ │ Accad │ │
│ │ │ unite, │ │
│ │ │ 2500. │Phonetic │
│ │ │ Babylon │ writing in│
│ │ │ under │ China, │
│ 3.│2500–1800 │ Hammurapi │ probably │
│ │ │ supreme, │ at 2000 B.│
│ │ │ 2100. │ C. │
│ │ │ First │ │
│ │ │ horses from│ │
│ │ │ Kassites in│ │
│ │ │ Elam. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Kassite │ │
│ │ │ dynasty of │ │
│ 4.│1800–1600 │ Babylon │ │
│ │ │ begins. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ Kassitites │ │
│ │ │and Mitanni, │ │
│ │ │ 1700–1400. │ │
│ │ │ │First │
│ │ │ │ Nordics │
│ │ │First Nordics│ enter │
│ 5.│1600–1400 │ in Persia. │ India. │
│ │ │ │ Nordic │
│ │ │ │ states in │
│ │ │ │ Punjab. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ Nordic │ │
│ │ │ invasions. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Semitic │ │
│ 6.│1400–1200 │ Babylonians│ │
│ │ │ overrun │ │
│ │ │ Sumer. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Nordic Sacæ │
│ │ │ │ introduce │
│ 7.│1200–1000 │ │ Sanskrit │
│ │ │ │ into │
│ │ │ │ India. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Zoroaster. │ │
│ │ │ Nordic │ │
│ │ │ Persians │ │
│ │ │ recorded at│ │
│ │ │ Lake Urmia,│ │
│ │ │ 900. │ │
│ 8.│1000–800 │ Iron mines │ │
│ │ │ at │ │
│ │ │ Carchemish.│ │
│ │ │ Assyrian │ │
│ │ │ chronology │ │
│ │ │ begins, 911│ │
│ │ │ B. C. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ 800 │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Invasion of │ │
│ │ │ Scythians. │ │
│ │ │ Assyrian │ │
│ │ │ Empire, │ │
│ │ │ 750–606, │Nordic │
│ │ │ with armies│ Hiung-nu │
│ │ │ equipped │ in western│
│ 9.│800–600 │ with iron │ China │
│ │ │ borrowed │ become │
│ │ │ from the │ restless. │
│ │ │ Hittites. │ │
│ │ │ Semitic │ │
│ │ │ Chaldeans │ │
│ │ │ rebuild │ │
│ │ │ Babylon. │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │Nordic │ │
│ │ │ Persians │Confucius, │
│ │ │ overthrow │ 551–479. │
│10.│600–400 │ Medes, 550.│ Buddha, │
│ │ │ Reign of │ _c._ │
│ │ │ Darius, │ 557–477. │
│ │ │ 525–485. │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Conquests of│
│ │ │Conquests of │ Alexander │
│11.│400–300 │ Alexander. │ in India, │
│ │ │ │ 327. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Nordic │
│ │ │ │ Wu-Suns in│
│ │ │ │ Chinese │
│ │ │ │ Turkestan │
│ │ │ │ and │
│ │ │ │ Ting-Ling │
│ │ │ │ in │
│ │ │ │ Siberia. │
│ │ │ │ Ts’in │
│12.│300–200 │ │ dynasty │
│ │ │ │ (255–209) │
│ │ │ │ resist │
│ │ │ │ Nomads and│
│ │ │ │ secure │
│ │ │ │ China │
│ │ │ │ against │
│ │ │ │ them by │
│ │ │ │ building │
│ │ │ │ the Great │
│ │ │ │ Wall. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│13.│200–100 │Nordic Alans in Sogdiana. │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │Kian-Kuan in│
│ │ │ │ Turkestan.│
│ │ │ │ Hiung-nu, │
│ │ │ │ turned │
│ │ │ │ westward, │
│ │ │ │ drove the │
│ │ │ │ Wu-sun │
│ │ │ │ into the │
│ │ │ │ mountains │
│ │ │ │ about Ili │
│ │ │ │ and the │
│ │ │ │ great │
│ │ │ │ Yue-chih │
│ │ │ │ into the │
│ │ │ │ Tarim │
│ │ │ │ basin. │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │100 to │ │ │
│14.│ Christian│ │ │
│ │ Era │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├───┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│15.│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
└───┴───────────┴─────────────┴────────────┘
These incoming Nordics intermarried with the native populations and were
gradually bred out and the resurgence of the old native stock, chiefly
Alpine, has proceeded steadily since the Frankish Charlemagne destroyed
the Lombard kingdom and is proceeding with unabated vigor to-day. This
process was greatly accelerated in western Europe by the Crusades, which
were extremely destructive to the Nordic feudal lords, especially the
Frankish and Norman nobility and was continued by the wars of the
Reformation and by those of the Revolution. The world war now in full
swing with its toll of millions will leave Europe much poorer in Nordic
blood. One of its most certain results will be the partial destruction
of the aristocratic classes everywhere in northern Europe. In England
the nobility has already suffered in battle more than in any century
since the Wars of the Roses. This will tend to realize the
standardization of type so dear to democratic ideals. If equality cannot
be obtained by lengthening and uplifting the stunted of body and of
mind, it can be at least realized by the destruction of the exalted of
stature and of soul. The bed of Procrustes operates with the same fatal
exactness when it shortens the long as when it stretches the undersized.
The first Nordics in Spain were the Gauls who crossed the western
Pyrenees about the end of the sixth century before our era and
introduced Aryan speech into the Iberian Peninsula. They quickly mixed
with Mediterranean natives and the composite Spaniards were called
Celtiberians by the Romans.
In Portugal and Spain there are in the physical structure of the
population few traces of these early Celtic-speaking Nordic invaders but
the Suevi, who a thousand years later occupied parts of Portugal, and
the Vandals and Visigoths, who conquered and held Spain for 300 years,
have left some small evidence of their blood. In the provinces of
northern Spain a considerable percentage of light colored eyes reveals
these Nordic elements in the population.
Deep seated Castilian traditions associate aristocracy with blondness
and the _sangre azul_, or blue blood of Spain, probably refers to the
blue eye of the Goth, whose traditional claim to lordship is also shown
in the Spanish name for gentleman, “hidalgo,” said to mean “the son of
the Goth.” The fact that the blood shows as “blue” through the fair
Nordic skin is also to be taken into account.
As long as this Gothic nobility controlled the Spanish states during the
endless crusades against the Moors, Spain belonged to the Nordic
kingdoms, but when their blood became impaired by losses in wars waged
outside of Spain and in the conquest of the Americas, the sceptre fell
from this noble race into the hands of the native Iberian, who had not
the physical vigor or the intellectual strength to maintain the world
empire built up by the stronger race. For 200 years the Spanish infantry
had no equal in Europe but this distinction disappeared with the opening
decades of the seventeenth century.
The splendid conquistadores of the New World were of Nordic type, but
their pure stock did not long survive their new surroundings and to-day
they have vanished utterly, leaving behind them only their language and
their religion. After considering well these facts we shall not have to
search further for the causes of the collapse of Spain.
Gaul at the time of Cæsar’s conquest was under the rule of the Nordic
race, which furnished the bulk of the population of the north as well as
the military classes elsewhere and, while the Romans killed off an undue
proportion of this fighting element, the power and vigor of the French
nation have been based on this blood and its later reinforcements. In
fact, in the Europe of to-day the amount of Nordic blood in each nation
is a very fair measure of its strength in war and standing in
civilization. The proportion of men of pure type of each constituent
race to the mixed type is also a powerful factor.
When, about 1000 B. C., the first Nordics crossed the lower Rhine they
found the Mediterranean race in France everywhere overwhelmed by an
Alpine population except in the south. Long before the time of Cæsar the
Celtic language of these invaders had been imposed upon the entire
population and the country had been saturated with Nordic blood, except
in Aquitaine which seems to have retained until at least that date its
Anaryan Iberian speech. These earliest Nordics in the west were known to
the ancient world as Gauls. These Gauls, or “Celts,” as they were called
by Cæsar, occupied in his day the centre of France. The actual racial
complexion of this part of France was overwhelmingly Alpine then and is
so now, but this population had been Celticized thoroughly by the Gauls,
just as it was Latinized as completely at a later date by the Romans.
The northern third of France, that is above Paris, was inhabited in
Cæsar’s time by the Belgæ, a Nordic people of the Cymric division of
Celtic speech. They were largely of Teutonic blood and in fact should be
regarded as the immediate forerunners of the Germans. They probably
represent the early Teutons who had crossed from Sweden and adopted the
Celtic speech of their Nordic kindred whom they found on the mainland.
These Belgæ had followed the earlier Goidels across Germany into Britain
and Gaul and were rapidly displacing their Nordic predecessors, who by
this time were much weakened by mixture with the autochthones, when Rome
appeared upon the scene and set a limit to their conquests by the Pax
Romana.
The Belgæ of the north of France and the Low Countries were the bravest
of the peoples of Gaul, according to Cæsar’s oft-quoted remark, but the
claim of the modern Belgians to descent from this race is without basis
and rests solely on the fact that the present kingdom of Belgium, which
only became independent and assumed its proud name in 1831, occupies a
small and relatively unimportant corner of the land of the Belgæ. The
Flemings of Belgium are Nordic Franks speaking a Low German tongue and
the Walloons are Alpines whose language is an archaic French.
The Belgæ and the Goidelic remnants of Nordic blood in the centre of
Gaul taken together probably constituted only a small minority in blood
of the population, but were everywhere the military and ruling classes.
These Nordic elements were later reinforced by powerful Teutonic tribes,
namely, Vandals, Visigoths, Alans, Saxons, Burgundians and, most
important of all, the Franks of the lower Rhine, who founded modern
France and made it for long centuries “_la grande nation_” of
Christendom.
The Frankish dynasties long after Charlemagne were of purely Teutonic
blood and the aristocratic land owning and military classes down to the
great Revolution were very largely of this type, which by the time of
the creation of the Frankish kingdom had incorporated all the other
Nordic elements of old Roman Gaul, both Gaulish and Belgic.
The last invasion of Teutonic-speaking barbarians was that of the Danish
Northmen, who were, of course, of unmixed Nordic blood and who conquered
and settled Normandy in 911 A. D. No sooner had the barbarian invasions
ceased than the ancient aboriginal blood strains, Mediterranean, Alpine
and elements derived from Paleolithic times, began a slow and steady
recovery. Step by step with the reappearance of these primitive and deep
rooted stocks the Nordic element in France declined and with it the
vigor of the nation. Even in Normandy the Alpines now tend to
predominate and the French blonds are becoming more and more limited to
the northeastern and eastern provinces.
The chief historic events of the last thousand years have hastened this
process and the fact that the Nordic element everywhere forms the
fighting section of the community caused the loss in war to fall
disproportionately as among the three races in France. The religious
wars greatly weakened the Nordic provincial nobility, which was before
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew largely Protestant and the extermination
of the upper classes was hastened by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
wars. These last wars are said to have shortened the stature of the
French by four inches; in other words, the tall Nordic strain was killed
off in greater proportions than the little brunet.
When by universal suffrage the transfer of power was completed from a
Nordic aristocracy to lower classes predominantly of Alpine and
Mediterranean extraction, the decline of France in international power
set in. In the country as a whole, the long skulled Mediterraneans are
also yielding rapidly to the round skulled Alpines and the average of
the cephalic index in France has steadily risen since the Middle Ages
and is still rising.
The survivors of the aristocracy, being stripped of political power and
to a large extent of wealth, quickly lost their caste pride and
committed class suicide by mixing their blood with inferior breeds. One
of the most conspicuous features of some of the French nobility of
to-day is the strength of Oriental and Mediterranean strains in them.
Being for political reasons ardently clerical the nobility welcomes
recruits of any racial origin as long as they bring with them money and
devotion to the Church.
The loss in war of the best stock through death, wounds or absence from
home has been clearly shown in France. The conscripts who were examined
for military duty in 1890–2 were those descended in a large measure from
the military rejects and other stay-at-homes during the Franco-Prussian
War. In Dordogne this contingent showed seven per cent more deficient
statures than the normal rate. In some cantons this unfortunate
generation was in height an inch below the recruits of preceding years
and in it the exemptions for defective physique rose from the normal six
per cent to sixteen per cent.
When each generation is decimated or destroyed in turn a race can be
injured beyond recovery but it more frequently happens that the result
is the annihilation of an entire class, as in the case of the German
gentry in the Thirty Years’ War. Desolation of wide districts often
resulted from the plagues and famines which followed the armies in old
days but deaths from these causes fall most heavily on the weaker part
of the population. The loss of valuable breeding stock is far more
serious when wars are fought with volunteer armies of picked men than
with conscript armies, because in the latter cases the loss is more
evenly spread over the whole nation. Before England resorted in the
present war to universal conscription the injury to her more desirable
and patriotic classes was much more pronounced than in Germany where all
types and ranks were called to arms.
In the British Isles we find, before the appearance of the Nordic race,
a Mediterranean population and no important element of Alpine blood, so
that at the present day we have to deal with only two of the main races
instead of all three as in France. In Britain there were, as elsewhere,
representatives of earlier races but the preponderant strain of blood
was Mediterranean before the first arrival of the Aryan-speaking
Nordics.
Ireland was connected with Britain and Britain with the continent until
times very recent in a geological sense. The depression of the Channel
coasts is progressing rapidly to-day and is known to have been
substantial during historic times. The close parallel in blood and
culture between England and the opposite coasts of France also indicates
a very recent land connection, possibly in early Neolithic times. Men
either walked from the continent to England and from England to Ireland,
or they paddled across in primitive boats or coracles. The art of
ship-building or even archaic navigation cannot go much further back
than late Neolithic times.
The Nordic tribes of Celtic speech came to the British Isles in two
distinct waves. The earlier invasion of the Goidels, who were still in
the Bronze culture, arrived in England about 800 B. C. and in Ireland
two centuries later. It was part of the same movement which brought the
Gauls into France. The later conquest was by the Cymric-speaking Belgæ
who were equipped with iron weapons. It began in the third century B. C.
and was still going on in Cæsar’s time. These Cymric Brythons found the
early Goidels, with the exception of the aristocracy, much weakened by
intermixture with the Mediterranean natives and would probably have
destroyed all trace of Goidelic speech in Ireland and Scotland, as they
actually did in England, if the Romans had not intervened. The Brythons
reached Ireland in small numbers only in the second century B. C.
These Nordic elements in Britain, both Goidelic and Brythonic, were in a
minority during Roman times and the ethnic complexion of the island was
not much affected by the Roman occupation, as the legions stationed
there represented the varied racial stocks of the Empire.
After the Romans abandoned Britain and about 400 A. D., floods of pure
Nordics poured into the islands for nearly six centuries, arriving in
the north as the Norse pirates, who made Scotland Scandinavian, and in
the east as Saxons and Angles, who founded England.
The Angles came from somewhere in central Jutland and the Saxons came
from coast lands immediately at the base of the Danish Peninsula. All
these districts were then and are now almost purely Teutonic; in fact,
this is part of old Saxony and is to-day the core of Teutonic Germany.
These Saxon districts sent out at that time swarms of invaders not only
into England but into France and over the Alps into Italy, just as at a
much later period the same land sent swarming colonies into Hungary and
Russia.
The same Saxon invaders passed down the Channel coasts and traces of
their settlement on the mainland remain to this day in the Cotentin
district around Cherbourg. Scandinavian sea peoples called Danes or
Northmen swarmed over as late as 900 A. D. and conquered all eastern
England. This Danish invasion of England was the same that brought the
Northmen or Normans into France. In fact the occupation of Normandy was
probably by Danes and the conquest of England was largely the work of
Norsemen, as Norway at that time was under Danish kings.
Both of these invasions, especially the later, swept around the greater
island and inundated Ireland, driving both the Neolithic aborigines and
their Celtic-speaking masters into the bogs and islands of the west.
The blond Nordic element to-day is very marked in Ireland as in England.
It is derived, to some extent, from the early invaders of Celtic speech,
but the Goidelic element has been very largely absorbed in Ireland as in
western England and in Scotland by the Iberian substratum of the
population and is found to-day rather in the form of Nordic characters
in brunets than in the entirely blond individuals who represent later
and purer Nordic strains.
The figures for recruits taken some decades ago in the two countries
would indicate that the Irish as a whole are considerably lighter in eye
and darker in hair color than are the English. The combination of black
Iberian hair with blue or gray Nordic eyes is frequently found in
Ireland and also in Spain and in both these countries is justly admired
for its beauty, but it is by no means an exclusively Irish type.
The tall, blond Irishmen are to-day chiefly Danish with the addition of
English, Norman and Scotch elements, which have poured into the lesser
island for a thousand years and have imposed the English speech upon it.
The more primitive and ancient elements in Ireland have always shown
great ability to absorb newcomers and during the Middle Ages it was
notorious that the Norman and English colonists quickly sank to the
cultural level of the natives.
In spite of the fact that Paleoliths have not been found there some
indications of Paleolithic man appear in Ireland both as single
characters and as individuals. Being, like Brittany, situated on the
extreme western outposts of Eurasia, it has more than its share of
generalized and low types surviving in the living populations and these
types, the Firbolgs, have imparted a distinct and very undesirable
aspect to a large portion of the inhabitants of the west and south and
have greatly lowered the intellectual status of the population as a
whole. The cross between these elements and the Nordics appears to be a
bad one and the mental and cultural traits of the aborigines have proved
to be exceedingly persistent and appear especially in the unstable
temperament and the lack of coordinating and reasoning power, so often
found among the Irish. To the dominance of the Mediterraneans mixed with
Pre-Neolithic survivals in the south and west are to be attributed the
aloofness of the island from the general trend of European civilization
and its long adherence to ancient forms of religion and even to
Pre-Christian superstitions.
In England, the same two ethnic elements are present, namely the Nordic
and the Mediterranean. There is, especially in Wales and in the west
central counties of England, a large substratum of ancient Mediterranean
blood but the later Nordic elements are everywhere superimposed upon it.
Scotland is by race Anglian in the Lowlands and Norse in the Highlands
with underlying Goidelic and Brythonic elements, which are exceedingly
hard to identify. The Mediterranean strain is marked in the Highlands
and is frequently associated with tall stature.
This brunetness in Scotland is, of course, derived from the same
underlying Mediterranean stock which we have found elsewhere in the
British Islands.
The inhabitants of Scotland before the arrival of the Celtic-speaking
Nordics seem to have been the Picts, whose language was almost surely
Non-Aryan. Judging from the remnants of Anaryan syntax in the Goidelic
and to a lesser degree in the Cymric languages, Pictish was related to
the Anaryan Berber tongues still spoken in North Africa. No trace of
this Pre-Aryan syntax is found in English.
Where one race imposes a new language on another, the change is most
marked in the vocabulary while the ancient usage in syntax or the
construction of sentences is the more apt to survive and these ancient
forms often give us a valuable clew to the aboriginal speech. This same
Anaryan syntax is particularly marked in the Irish language, a condition
which fits in with the other Pre-Aryan usages and types found there.
This divergence between the new vocabulary and the ancient habits of
syntax is probably one of the causes of the extreme splitting up of the
various branches of the Aryan mother tongue.
Wales, like western Ireland, is a museum of racial antiquities and being
an unattractive and poor country has exported men rather than received
immigration, while such invasions as did arrive came with spent force.
The mass of the population of Wales especially in the upland or moorland
districts is Mediterranean, with a considerable addition of Paleolithic
remnants. With changing social and industrial conditions these Neolithic
Mediterraneans are pushing into the valleys or towns with a resultant
replacement of the Nordic types.
Recent and intensive investigations reveal everywhere in Wales distinct
physical types living side by side or in adjoining villages unchanged
and unchangeable throughout the centuries. Extensive blending has not
taken place though much crossing has occurred and the persistence of the
skull shape has been particularly marked. Such individuals as are of
pure Nordic type are generally members of the old county families and
land owning class.
As to language in Wales, the Cymric is everywhere spoken in various
dialects, but there are indications of the ancient underlying Goidelic.
In fact, Brythonic or Cymric may not have reached Wales much before the
Roman conquest of Britain. The earlier Goidelic survived in parts of
Wales as late as the seventh century but by the eleventh century all
consciousness of race and linguistic distinctions had disappeared in the
common name of Cymry. This name should perhaps be limited to the
Brythons of England and not used for their kindred on the Continent.
In Cornwall and along the Welsh border racial types are often grouped in
separate villages and the intellectual and moral distinctions between
them are well recognized.
The Nordic species of man in its various branches made Gaul the land of
the Franks and made Britain the land of the Angles and the Englishmen
who built the British Empire and founded America were of the Nordic and
not of the Mediterranean type.
One of the most vigorous Nordic elements in France, England and America
was contributed by the Normans and their influence on the development of
these countries cannot be ignored. The descendants of the Danish and
Norse Vikings who settled in Normandy as Teutonic-speaking heathen and
who as Normans crossed over to Saxon England and conquered it in 1066
are among the finest and noblest examples of the Nordic race. Their only
rivals in these characters were the early Goths.
This Norman strain, while purely Nordic, seems to have been radically
different in its mental makeup, and to some extent in its physical
detail from the Saxons of England and also from their kindred in
Scandinavia.
The Normans appear to have been “_fine race_” to use a French idiom and
their descendants are often characterized by a tall, slender figure,
much less bulky than the typical Teuton, of proud bearing and with
clearly marked features of classic Greek regularity. The type is seldom
extremely blond and is often dark. These Latinized Vikings were and are
animated by a restless and nomadic energy and by a fierce
aggressiveness. They played a brilliant role during the twelfth and
following centuries but later, on the continent, this strain ran out,
though leaving here and there traces of its former presence, notably in
Sicily where the grayish blue Sicilian eye called “the Norman eye” is
still found among the old noble families.
The Norman type is still very common among the English of good family
and especially among hunters, explorers, navigators, adventurers and
officers in the British army. These latter-day Normans are natural
rulers and administrators and it is to this type that England largely
owes her extraordinary ability to govern justly and firmly the lower
races. This Norman blood occurs often among the native Americans but
with the changing social conditions and the filling up of the waste
places of the earth it is doomed to a speedy extinction.
The Normans were Nordics with a dash of brunet blood and their conquest
of England strengthened the Nordic and not the Mediterranean elements in
the British Isles, but the connection once established with France
especially with Aquitaine later introduced from southern France certain
brunet elements of Mediterranean affinities.
The upper class Normans on their arrival in England were probably purely
Scandinavian, but in the lower classes there were some dark strains.
They brought with them large numbers of ecclesiastics who were, for the
most part drawn from the more ancient types throughout France. Careful
investigation of the graveyards and vaults in which these churchmen were
buried revealed a large percentage of round skulls among them.
In both Normandy and in the lowlands of Scotland there was much the same
mixture of blood between Scandinavian and Saxon but with a smaller
amount of Saxon blood in France. The result in both cases was the
production of an extraordinarily forceful race.
The Nordics in England are in these days apparently receding before the
Neolithic Mediterranean type. The causes of this decline are the same as
in France and the chief loss is through the wastage of blood by war and
through emigration.
The typical British soldier is blond or red bearded and the typical
sailor is always a blond. The migrating type from England is also
chiefly Nordic. These facts would indicate that nomadism as well as love
of war and adventure are Nordic characteristics.
An extremely potent influence, however, is the transformation of the
nation from an agricultural to a manufacturing community. Heavy,
healthful work in the fields of northern Europe enables the Nordic type
to thrive, but the cramped factory and crowded city quickly weed him
out, while the little brunet Mediterranean can work a spindle, set type,
sell ribbons or push a clerk’s pen far better than the big, clumsy and
somewhat heavy Nordic blond, who needs exercise, meat and air and cannot
live under Ghetto conditions.
The increase of urban communities at the expense of the countryside is
also an important element in the fading of the Nordic type, because the
energetic countryman of this blood is more apt to improve his fortunes
by moving to the city than the less ambitious Mediterranean.
The country villages and the farms are the nurseries of nations, while
cities are consumers and seldom producers of men. The effort now being
made in America to settle undesirable immigrants on farms may, from the
viewpoint of race replacement, be more dangerous than allowing them to
remain in crowded Ghettos or tenements.
If England has deteriorated and there are those who think they see
indications of such decline, it is due to the lowering proportion of the
Nordic blood and the transfer of political power from the vigorous
Nordic aristocracy and middle classes to the radical and labor elements,
both largely recruited from the Mediterranean type.
Only in Scandinavia and northwestern Germany does the Nordic race seem
to maintain its full vigor in spite of the enormous wastage of three
thousand years of the swarming forth of its best fighting men. Norway,
however, after the Viking outburst has never exhibited military power
and Sweden, in the centuries between the Varangian period and the rise
of Gustavus Adolphus, did not enjoy a reputation for fighting
efficiency. All the three Scandinavian countries after vigorously
attacking Christendom a thousand years ago disappear from history as a
nursery for soldiers until the Reformation when Sweden suddenly
reappears just in time to save Protestantism on the Continent. To-day
all three seem to be intellectually anæmic.
Upper and Lower Austria, the Tyrol and Styria have a very considerable
Nordic element which is in political control but the Alpine races are
slowly replacing the Nordics both there and in Hungary.
Holland and Flanders are purely Teutonic, the Flemings being the
descendants of those Franks who did not adopt Latin speech as did their
Teutonic kin across the border in Artois and Picardy; and Holland is the
ancient Batavia with the Frisian coast lands eastward to old Saxony.
Denmark, Norway and Sweden are purely Nordic and yearly contribute
swarms of a splendid type of immigrants to America and are now, as they
have been for thousands of years, the chief nursery and broodland of the
master race.
In southwestern Norway and in Denmark, there is a substantial number of
short, dark round heads of Alpine affinities. These dark Norwegians are
regarded as somewhat inferior socially by their Nordic countrymen.
Perhaps as a result of this disability, a disproportionately large
number of Norwegian immigrants to America are of this type. Apparently
America is doomed to receive in these later days the least desirable
classes and types from each European nation now exporting men.
In mediæval times the Norse and Danish Vikings sailed not only the
waters of the known Atlantic, but ventured westward through the fogs and
frozen seas to Iceland, Greenland and America.
Sweden, after sending forth her Goths and other early Teutonic tribes,
turned her attention to the shores of the eastern Baltic, colonized the
coast of Finland and the Baltic provinces and supplied also a strong
Scandinavian element to the aristocracy of Russia.
The coast of Finland is as a result Swedish and the natives of the
interior have distinctly Nordic characters with the exception of the
skull, which in its roundness shows an Alpine cross.
The population of the so-called Baltic provinces of Russia is everywhere
Nordic and their affinities are with Scandinavia and Germany rather than
with Slavic Moscovy. The most primitive Aryan languages, namely,
Lettish, Lithuanian and the recently extinct Old Prussian, are found in
this neighborhood and here we are not far from the original Nordic
homeland.
IX
THE NORDIC FATHERLAND
The area in Europe where the Nordic race developed and in which the
Aryan languages originated probably included the forest region of
eastern Germany, Poland and Russia, together with the grasslands which
stretched from the Ukraine eastward into the steppes south of the Ural.
From causes already mentioned this area was long isolated from the rest
of the world and especially from Asia. When the unity of the Aryan race
and of the Aryan language was broken up at the end of the Neolithic and
the beginning of the Bronze Age, wave after wave of the early Nordics
pushed westward along the sandy plains of the north and pressed against
and through the Alpine populations of central Europe. Usually these
early Nordics, as indeed many of the later ones, constituted only a thin
layer of ruling classes and there must have been many countries
conquered by them in which we have no historic evidence of their
existence, linguistic or otherwise. This must have certainly been the
case in those numerous instances where only the leaders were Nordics and
the great mass of their followers slaves or serfs of inferior races.
The Nordics also swept down through Thrace into Greece and Asia Minor,
while other large and important groups entered Asia partly through the
Caucasus Mountains, but in greater strength they migrated around the
northern and eastern sides of the Caspian-Aral Sea.
That portion of the Nordic race which continued to inhabit south Russia
and grazed their flocks of sheep and herds of horses on the grasslands
were the Scythians of the Greeks and from these nomad shepherds came the
Cimmerians, Persians, Sacæ, Massagetæ and perhaps the leaders of the
Kassites, Mitanni and other early Aryan-speaking Nordic invaders of
Asia. The descendants of these Nordics are scattered throughout Russia
but are now submerged by the later Slavs.
Well marked characters of the Nordic race, which were established in
Neolithic times if not earlier, enable us to distinguish it definitely
wherever it appears in history and we know that all the blondness in the
world is derived from this source. As blondness is easily observed and
recorded we are apt to lay too much emphasis on this single character.
The brown shades of hair are equally Nordic.
When the Nordics first enter the Mediterranean world their arrival is
everywhere marked by a new and higher civilization. In most cases the
contact of the vigorous barbarians with the ancient civilizations
created a sudden impulse of life and an outburst of culture as soon as
the first destruction wrought by the conquest was repaired.
In addition to the long continued selection exercised by severe climatic
conditions and the consequent elimination of ineffectives, both of which
affects a race, there is another force at work which concerns the
individual as well. The energy developed in the north is not lost
immediately when transferred to the softer conditions of existence in
the Mediterranean and Indian countries. This energy endures for several
generations and only dies away slowly as the northern blood becomes
diluted and the impulse to strive fades.
The contact of Hellene and Pelasgian caused the blossoming of the
ancient civilization of Hellas, just as two thousand years later when
the Nordic invaders of Italy had absorbed the science, art and
literature of Rome, they produced that splendid century we call the
Renaissance.
The chief men of the Cinque Cento and the preceding century were of
Nordic blood, largely Gothic and Lombard, which is recognized easily by
a close inspection of busts or portraits in northern Italy. Dante,
Raphael, Titian, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci were all of Nordic
type, just as in classic times many of the chief men and of the upper
classes were Nordic.
Similar expansions of civilization and organization of empire followed
the incursion of the Nordic Persians into the land of the round skulled
Medes and the introduction of Sanskrit into India by the Nordic Sacæ who
conquered that peninsula. These outbursts of progress due to the first
contact and mixture of two contrasted races are, however, only
transitory and pass with the last lingering trace of Nordic blood.
In India the blood of these Aryan-speaking invaders has been absorbed by
the dark Hindu and in the final event only their synthetic speech
survives.
The marvellous organization of the Roman state made use of the services
of Nordic mercenaries and kept the Western Empire alive for three
centuries after the ancient Roman stock had virtually ceased to exist.
The date when the population of the Empire had become predominantly of
Mediterranean and Oriental blood, due to the introduction of slaves from
the east and the wastage of Italian blood in war, coincides with the
establishment of the Empire under Augustus and the last Republican
patriots represent the final protest of the old patrician Nordic strain.
For the most part they refused to abdicate their right to rule in favor
of manumitted slaves and imperial favorites and they fell in battle and
sword in hand. The Romans died out but the slaves survived and their
descendants form the great majority of the south Italians of to-day.
In the last days of the Republic, Cæsar was the leader of the mob, the
Plebs, which by that time had ceased to be of Roman blood. Pompey’s
party represented the remnants of the old native Roman aristocracy and
was defeated at Pharsalia not by Cæsar’s plebeian clients but by his
Nordic legionaries from Gaul. Cassius and Brutus were the last
successors of Pompey and their overthrow at Philippi was the final death
blow to the Republican party; with them the native Roman families
disappear almost entirely.
The decline of the Romans and for that matter of the native Italians
began with the Punic Wars when in addition to the Romans who fell in
battle a large portion of the country population of Italy was destroyed
by Hannibal. Native Romans suffered greatly in the Social and Servile
Wars as well as in the civil conflicts between the factions of Sylla,
who led the Patricians, and Marius who represented the Plebs. Bloody
proscriptions of the rival parties followed alternately the victory of
one side and then of the other and under the tyranny of the Emperors of
the first century also the old Roman stock was the greatest sufferer
until it practically vanished from the scene.
Voluntary childlessness was the most potent cause of the decline under
the Empire and when we read of the abject servility of bearers of proud
names in the days of Nero and Caligula, we must remember that they could
not rally to their standard followers among the Plebs. They had only the
choice of submission or suicide and many chose the latter alternative.
The abjectness of the Roman spirit under the Empire is thus to be
explained by a change in race.
With the expanding dominion of Rome the native elements of vigor were
drawn year after year into the legions and spent their active years in
wars or in garrisons, while the slaves and those unfit for military duty
stayed home and bred. In the present great war while the native
Americans are at the front fighting the aliens and immigrants are
allowed to increase without check and the parallel is a close one.
Slaves began to be imported into Italy in numbers in the second century
B. C. to work the large plantations—latifundia—of the wealthy Romans.
This importation of slaves and the ultimate extension of the Roman
citizenship to their manumitted descendants and to inferior races
throughout the growing Empire and the losses in internal and foreign
wars, ruined the state. In America we find another close parallel in the
Civil War and the subsequent granting of citizenship to Negroes and to
ever increasing numbers of immigrants of plebeian, servile or Oriental
races, who throughout history have shown little capacity to create,
organize or even to comprehend Republican institutions.
In Rome, when this change in blood was substantially complete, the state
could no longer be operated under Republican forms of government and the
Empire arose to take its place. At the beginning the Empire was clothed
in the garb of republicanism in deference to such Roman elements as
still persisted in the Senate and among the Patricians but ultimately
these external forms were discarded and the state became virtually a
pure despotism.
The new population understood little and cared less for the institutions
of the ancient Republic but they were jealous of their own rights of
“Bread and the Circus”—“panem et circenses”—and there began to appear in
place of the old Roman religion the mystic rites of Eastern countries so
welcome to the plebeian and uneducated soul. The Emperors to please the
vulgar erected from time to time new shrines to strange gods utterly
unknown to the Romans of the early Republic. In America, also, strange
temples, which would have been abhorrent to our Colonial ancestors, are
multiplying and our streets and parks are turned over to monuments to
foreign “patriots,” designed not to please the artistic sense of the
passer-by but to gratify the national preference of some alien element
in the electorate.
These comments on the change of race in Rome at the beginning of our era
are not mere speculation. An examination of many thousands of Roman
columbaria or funeral urns and the names inscribed thereon show quite
clearly that as early as the first century of our era eighty to ninety
per cent of the urban population of the Roman Empire was of servile
extraction and that about seven-eighths of this slave population was
drawn from districts within the boundaries of the Empire and very
largely from the countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean. Few
names are found which indicate that their bearers came from Gaul or the
countries beyond the Alps. These Nordic barbarians were of more use in
the legions than as household servants.
At the beginning of the Christian era the entire Levant and countries
adjoining it in Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt had been so thoroughly
hellenized that many of their inhabitants bore Greek names. It was from
these countries and from northern Africa that the slave population of
Rome was drawn. Their descendants were the most important element in the
Roman melting pot and even to-day form the predominant element in the
population of Italy south of the Apennines. When the Nordic barbarians a
few centuries later poured in, these Romanized Orientals disappeared
temporarily from view under the rule of the vigorous northerners but
they have steadily absorbed the latter until the Nordic elements in
Italy now are to be found chiefly in the Lombard plains and the region
of the Alps.
The Byzantine Empire from much the same causes as the Roman became in
its turn gradually less and less European and more and more Oriental
until it, too, withered and expired.
Regarded in the light of the facts the fall of Rome ceases to be a
mystery. The wonder is that the State lived on after the Romans were
extinct and that the Eastern Empire survived so long with an ever fading
Greek population. In Rome and in Greece only the language of the
dominant race survived.
So entirely had the blood of the Romans vanished in the last days of the
Empire that sorry bands of barbarians wandered at will through the
desolated provinces. Cæsar and his legions would have made short work of
these unorganized banditti but Cæsar’s legions were a memory, though one
great enough to inspire in the intruders somewhat of awe and desire to
imitate. Against invaders, however, brains and brawn are more effective
than tradition and culture, however noble these last may be.
Early ascetic Christianity played a large part in this decline of the
Roman Empire as it was at the outset the religion of the slave, the meek
and the lowly while Stoicism was the religion of the strong men of the
time. This bias in favor of the weaker elements greatly interfered with
their elimination by natural processes and the fighting force of the
Empire was gradually undermined. Christianity was in sharp contrast to
the worship of tribal deities which preceded it and it tended then as
now to break down class and race distinctions.
The maintenance of such distinctions is absolutely essential to race
purity in any community when two or more races live side by side.
Race feeling may be called prejudice by those whose careers are cramped
by it but it is a natural antipathy which serves to maintain the purity
of type. The unfortunate fact that nearly all species of men interbreed
freely leaves us no choice in the matter. Races must be kept apart by
artificial devices of this sort or they ultimately amalgamate and in the
offspring the more generalized or lower type prevails.
X
THE NORDIC RACE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE
We find few traces of Nordic characters outside of Europe. When Egypt
was invaded by the Libyans from the west in 1230 B. C. they were
accompanied by “sea peoples,” probably the Achæan Greeks. There is some
evidence of blondness among the people of the south shore of the
Mediterranean down to Greek times and the Tamahu or fair Libyans are
constantly mentioned in Egyptian records. The reddish blond or partly
blond Berbers found to-day on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains
may well be their descendants. That this blondness of the Berbers,
though small in amount, is of Nordic origin we may with safety assume,
but through what channels it came we have no means of knowing. There is
no historic invasion of north Africa by Nordics except the Vandal
conquests but there seems to be little probability that this small
Teutonic tribe left behind any physical trace in the native population.
There seem to have been traces of Nordic blood among the Philistines and
still more among the Amorites. Certain references to the size of the
sons of Anak and to the fairness of David, whose mother was an Amoritish
woman, point vaguely in this direction.
References in Chinese annals to the green eyes of the Wu-suns or to the
Hiung-Nu in central Asia are almost the only evidence we have of the
Nordic race in contact with the peoples of eastern Asia, though there
are statements in ancient Chinese or Mongolian records as to the
existence of blond and tall tribes and nations in those parts of
northern Asia where Mongols are now found exclusively. We may expect to
acquire much new light on this subject during the next few decades.
The so-called blondness of the hairy Ainus of the northern islands of
Japan seems to be due to a trace of what might be called Proto-Nordic
blood. In hairiness these people are in sharp contrast with their
Mongoloid neighbors but this is a generalized character common to the
highest and the lowest races of man. The primitive Australoids and the
highly specialized Scandinavians are among the most hairy populations in
the world. So in the Ainus this somatological peculiarity is merely the
retention of a primitive trait. The occasional brown or greenish eye and
the sometimes fair complexion of the Ainus are, however, suggestive of
Nordic affinities and of an extreme easterly extension of Proto-Nordics
at a very early period.
The skull shape of the Ainus is dolichocephalic or mesaticephalic, while
the broad cheek bones indicate a Mongolian cross as among the Esquimaux.
The Ainus, like many other small, mysterious peoples, are probably
merely the remnants of one of the early races that are fast fading into
extinction. The division of man into species and subspecies is very
ancient and the chief races of the earth are the successful survivors of
a long and fierce competition. Many species, subspecies and races have
vanished utterly, except for reversional characters occasionally found
in the larger races.
The only Nordics in Asia Minor, so far as we know, were the Phrygians
who crossed the Hellespont about 1400 B. C. as part of the same
migration which brought the Achæans into Greece, the Cimmerians who
entered by the same route and also through the Caucasus about 650 B. C.
and still later, in 270 B. C., the Gauls who, coming from northern Italy
through Thrace, founded Galatia. So far as our present information goes
little or no trace of these invasions remains in the existing
populations of Anatolia. The expansions of the Persians and the
Aryanization of their empire and the conquests of the Nordics east and
south of the Caspian-Aral Sea, will be discussed in connection with the
spread of Aryan languages.
XI
RACIAL APTITUDES
Such are the three races, the Alpine, the Mediterranean and the Nordic,
which enter into the composition of European populations of to-day and
in various combinations comprise the great bulk of white men all over
the world. These races vary intellectually and morally just as they do
physically. Moral, intellectual and spiritual attributes are as
persistent as physical characters and are transmitted substantially
unchanged from generation to generation. These moral and physical
characters are not limited to one race but given traits do occur with
more frequency in one race than in another. Each race differs in the
relative proportion of what we may term good and bad strains, just as
nations do, or, for that matter, sections and classes of the same
nation.
In considering skull characters we must remember that, while indicative
of independent descent, the size and shape of the head are not closely
related to brain power. Aristotle was a Mediterranean if we may trust
the authenticity of his busts and had a small, long skull, while
Humboldt’s large and characteristically Nordic skull was equally
dolichocephalic. Socrates and Diogenes were apparently quite un-Greek
and represent remnants of some early race, perhaps of Paleolithic man.
The history of their lives indicates that each was recognized by his
fellow countrymen as in some degree alien, just as the Jews apparently
regarded Christ as, in some indefinite way, non-Jewish.
Mental, spiritual and moral traits are closely associated with the
physical distinctions among the different European races, although like
somatological characters, these spiritual attributes have in many cases
gone astray. Enough remain, however, to show that certain races have
special aptitudes for certain pursuits.
The Alpine race is always and everywhere a race of peasants, an
agricultural and never a maritime race. In fact they only extend to salt
water at the head of the Adriatic and, like all purely agricultural
communities throughout Europe, tend toward democracy, although they are
submissive to authority both political and religious being usually Roman
Catholics in western Europe. This race is essentially of the soil and in
towns the type is mediocre and bourgeois.
The coastal and seafaring populations of northern Europe are everywhere
Nordic as far as the shores of Spain and among Europeans this race is
pre-eminently fitted for maritime pursuits. Enterprise at sea during the
Middle Ages was in the hands of Mediterraneans just as it was originally
developed by Cretans, Phœnicians and Carthaginians but after the
Reformation the Nordics seized and occupied this field almost
exclusively.
The Nordics are, all over the world, a race of soldiers, sailors,
adventurers and explorers, but above all, of rulers, organizers and
aristocrats in sharp contrast to the essentially peasant and democratic
character of the Alpines. The Nordic race is domineering,
individualistic, self-reliant and jealous of their personal freedom both
in political and religious systems and as a result they are usually
Protestants. Chivalry and knighthood and their still surviving but
greatly impaired counterparts are peculiarly Nordic traits, and
feudalism, class distinctions and race pride among Europeans are
traceable for the most part to the north.
The social status of woman varies largely with race but here religion
plays a part. In the Roman Republic and in ancient Germany women were
held in high esteem. In the Nordic countries of to-day women’s rights
have received much more recognition than among the southern nations with
their traditions of Latin culture. To this general statement modern
Germany is a marked exception. The contrast is great between the mental
attitude toward woman of the ancient Teutons and that of the modern
Germans.
The pure Nordic peoples are characterized by a greater stability and
steadiness than are mixed peoples such as the Irish, the ancient Gauls
and the Athenians among all of whom the lack of these qualities was
balanced by a correspondingly greater versatility.
The mental characteristics of the Mediterranean race are well known and
this race, while inferior in bodily stamina to both the Nordic and the
Alpine, is probably the superior of both, certainly of the Alpines, in
intellectual attainments. In the field of art its superiority to both
the other European races is unquestioned, although in literature and in
scientific research and discovery the Nordics far excel it.
Before leaving this interesting subject of the correlation of spiritual
and moral traits with physical characters we may note that these
influences are so deeply rooted in everyday consciousness that the
modern novelist or playwright does not fail to make his hero a tall,
blond, honest and somewhat stupid youth and his villain a small, dark
and exceptionally intelligent individual of warped moral character. So
in Celtic legend as in the Græco-Roman and mediæval romances, prince and
princess are always fair, a fact rather indicating that the mass of the
people were brunet at the time when the legends were taking shape. In
fact, “fair” is a synonym for beauty. Most ancient tapestries show a
blond earl on horseback and a dark-haired churl holding the bridle.
The gods of Olympus were almost all described as blond, and it would be
difficult to imagine a Greek artist painting a brunet Venus. In church
pictures all angels are blond, while the denizens of the lower regions
revel in deep brunetness. “Non Angli sed angeli,” remarked Pope Gregory
when he first saw Saxon children exposed for sale in the Roman
slave-mart.
In depicting the crucifixion no artist hesitates to make the two thieves
brunet in contrast to the blond Saviour. This is something more than a
convention, as such quasi-authentic traditions as we have of our Lord
strongly suggest his Nordic, possibly Greek, physical and moral
attributes.
These and similar traditions clearly point to the relations of the one
race to the other in classic, mediæval and modern times. How far they
may be modified by democratic institutions and the rule of the majority
remains to be seen.
The wars of the past two thousand years in Europe have been almost
exclusively wars between the various nations of this race or between
rulers of Nordic blood.
From a race point of view the present European conflict is essentially a
civil war and nearly all the officers and a large proportion of the men
on both sides are members of this race. It is the same old tragedy of
mutual butchery and mutual destruction between Nordics, just as the
Nordic nobility of Renaissance Italy seems to have been possessed with a
blood mania to murder one another. It is the modern edition of the old
Berserker blood rage and is class suicide on a gigantic scale.
At the beginning of the war it was difficult to say on which side there
was the preponderance of Nordic blood. Flanders and northern France are
more Nordic than south Germany, while the backbone of the armies that
England put into the field as well as of those of her colonies was
almost purely Nordic and a large proportion of the Russian army was of
the same race. As heretofore stated, with America in the war, the
greater part of the Nordics of the world are fighting against Germany.
Although the writer has limited carefully the use of the word “Teutonic”
to that section of the Nordic race which originated in Scandinavia and
which later spread over northern Europe, nevertheless this term is
unfortunate because it is currently given a national and not a racial
meaning and is used to denote the populations of the central empires.
This popular use includes millions who are un-Teutonic and excludes
millions of pure Teutonic blood who are outside of the political borders
of Austria and Germany and who are bitterly hostile to the very name
itself.
The present inhabitants of the German Empire, to say nothing of Austria,
are only to a limited extent descendants of the ancient Teutonic tribes,
being very largely Alpines, especially in the east and south. To abandon
to the Germans and Austrians the exclusive right to the name Teuton or
Teutonic would be to acquiesce in one of their most grandiose
pretensions.
XII
ARYA
Having shown the existence in Europe of three distinct subspecies of man
and a single predominant group of languages called the Aryan or
synthetic group, it remains to inquire to which of the three races can
be assigned the honor of inventing, elaborating and introducing this
most highly developed form of human speech. Our investigations will show
that the facts point indubitably to an original unity between the Nordic
or rather the Proto-Nordic race and the Proto-Aryan language or the
generalized, ancestral, Aryan mother tongue.
Of the three claimants to the honor of being the original creator of the
Aryan group of languages, we can at once dismiss the Mediterranean race.
The members of this subspecies on the south shores of the Mediterranean,
the Berbers and the Egyptians, and many peoples in western Asia speak
now and have always spoken Anaryan tongues. We also know that the speech
of the original Pelasgians was not Aryan, that in Crete remnants of
Pre-Aryan speech persisted until about 500 B. C. and that the Hellenic
language was introduced into Ægean countries from the north. In Italy
the Etruscan in the north and the Messapian in the south were Anaryan
languages and the ancestral form of Latin speech in the guise of Umbrian
and Oscan came through the Alps from the countries beyond.
In Spain a Celtic language was introduced from the north about 500 B. C.
but with so little force behind it that it was unable to replace
entirely the Anaryan Basque language of at least a portion of the
aborigines.
In Britain, Aryan speech was introduced about 800 B. C. and in France
somewhat earlier. In central and northern Europe no certain trace of the
Anaryan languages at one time spoken there persists, except among the
Lapps and in the neighborhood of the Gulf of Finland, where Non-Aryan
Finnic dialects are spoken to-day by the Finlanders and the Esthonians.
We thus know the approximate dates of the introduction of Aryan speech
into western and southern Europe and that it came in through the medium
of the Nordic race.
In Spain and in the adjoining parts of France nearly half a million
people continue to speak an agglutinative language, called Basque or
Euskarian. In skull shape these Basques correspond closely with the
Aryan-speaking populations around them, being dolichocephalic in Spain
and brachycephalic or pseudo-brachycephalic in France. In the case of
both the long skulled and the round skulled Basques the lower part of
the face is long and thin, with a peculiar and pointed chin and among
the French Basques the skull is broadened in the temporal region. In
other words, their faces show certain secondary racial characters which
have been imposed by selection upon a people composed originally of two
races of independent origin, but long isolated by the limitations of
language.
The Euskarian language is believed to have been related to the ancient
Iberian but has affinities which point to Asia as its place of origin
and make possible the hypothesis that it may have been derived from the
ancient language of the Proto-Alpines in the west.
The problem of the extinct Ligurian language must be considered in this
connection. It seems to have been Anaryan, but we do not know whether it
was the speech originally of Alpines or of Mediterraneans either of whom
could be reasonably considered as a claimant.
Other than the Basque language there are in western Europe but few
remains of Pre-Aryan speech, and these are found chiefly in place names
and in a few obscure words.
Remnants of Anaryan speech exist here and there throughout European
Russia, but many of them can be traced to historic invasions. Until we
reach the main body of Ural-Altaic speech in the east of Russia, the
Esthonians, with kindred tribes of Livonians and Tchouds, and the Finns
are the only peoples who speak Non-Aryan tongues, but the physical type
with the exception of the skull shape of all these tribes is distinctly
Nordic. In this connection the Lapps and related groups in the far north
can be disregarded.
The problem of the Finns is a difficult one. The coast of Finland, of
course, is purely Swedish, but the great bulk of the population in the
interior is brachycephalic, though otherwise thoroughly Nordic in type.
The Anaryan Finnish, Esthonian and Livonian languages were probably
introduced at the same time as were round skulls into Finland. The
shores of the Gulf of Finland were originally inhabited by Nordics and
the intrusion of round skulled Finns probably came soon after the
Christian era. This immigration and that of the Livonians and Esthonians
may possibly have been part of the same movement which brought the
Alpine Wends into eastern Germany. The earliest references to the Finns
that we have locate them in central Russia.
The most important Anaryan language in Europe is the Magyar of Hungary,
but this we know was introduced from the eastward at the end of the
ninth century, as was the earlier but now extinct Avar.
In the Balkans the language of the Turks has never been a vernacular as
it is in Asia Minor. In Europe it was spoken only by the soldiers and
the civil administrators and by very sparse colonies of Turkish
settlers. The mania of the Turks for white women, which is said to have
been one of the motives that led to the conquest of the Byzantine
Empire, has unconsciously resulted in the obliteration of the Mongoloid
type of the original Asiatic invaders. Persistent crossing with
Circassian and Georgian women, as well as with slaves of every race in
Asia Minor and in Europe with whom they came in contact, has made the
European Turk of to-day indistinguishable in physical characters from
his Christian neighbors. At the same time, polygamy has greatly
strengthened the hold of the dominant Turk. In fact, among the upper
classes of the higher races monogamy and the resultant limitation in
number of offspring has been a source of weakness from the viewpoint of
race expansion. The Turks of Seljukian and Osmanli origin were never
numerous and the Sultan’s armies were largely composed of Islamized
Anatolians and Europeans.
In Persia and India, also, the Aryan languages were introduced from the
north at known periods, so in view of all these facts the Mediterranean
race cannot claim the honor of either the invention or dissemination of
the synthetic languages.
The chief claim of the Alpine race of central Europe and western Asia to
the invention and introduction into Europe of the Proto-Aryan form of
speech rests on the fact that nearly all the members of this race in
Europe speak well developed Aryan languages, chiefly in some form of
Slavic. This fact taken by itself may have no more significance than the
fact that the Mediterranean race in Spain, Italy and France speaks
Romance languages, but it is, nevertheless, an argument of some weight.
Outside of Europe the Armenians and other Armenoid brachycephalic
peoples of Asia Minor and the Iranian Highlands, all of Alpine race,
together with a few isolated tribes of the Caucasus, speak Aryan
languages and these peoples lie on the highroad along which knowledge of
the metals and other cultural developments entered Europe.
If the Aryan language were invented and developed by these Armenoid
Alpines we should be obliged to assume that they introduced it along
with bronze culture into Europe about 3000 B. C. and taught the Nordics
both their language and their metal culture. There are, however, in
western Asia many Alpine peoples who do not speak Aryan languages and
yet are Alpine in type, such as the Turcomans and in Asia Minor the
so-called Turks are also largely Islamized Alpines of the Armenoid
subspecies who speak Turki. There is no trace of Aryan speech south of
the Caucasus until after 1700 B. C. and the Hittite language spoken
before that date in central and eastern Asia Minor, although not yet
clearly deciphered, was Anaryan to the best of our present knowledge.
The Hittites themselves were probably ancestral to the living Armenians.
We are sufficiently acquainted with the languages of the ancient
Mesopotamian countries to know that the speech of Accad and Sumer, of
Susa and Media was agglutinative and that the languages of Assyria and
of Palestine were Semitic. The speech of the Kassites was Anaryan, but
they seem to have been in contact with the horse-using Nordics and some
of their leaders bore Aryan names. The language of the shortlived empire
of the Mitanni in the foothills south of Armenia is the only one about
the character of which there can be serious doubt. There is, therefore,
much negative evidence against the existence of Aryan speech in that
part of the world earlier than its known introduction by Nordics.
If, then, the last great expansion into Europe of the Alpine race
brought from Asia the Aryan mother tongue, as well as the knowledge of
metals, we must assume that all the members of the Nordic race thereupon
adopted synthetic speech from the Alpines.
We know that these Alpines reached Britain about 1800 B. C. and probably
they had previously occupied much of Gaul, so that if they are to be
credited with the introduction of the synthetic languages into western
Europe, it is difficult to understand why we have no known trace of any
form of Aryan speech in central Europe or west of the Rhine prior to
1000 B. C. while we have some, though scanty, evidence of Non-Aryan
languages.
It may be said in favor of this claim of the Alpine race to be the
original inventor of synthetic speech, that language is ever a measure
of culture and the higher forms of civilization are greatly hampered by
the limitations of speech imposed by the less highly evolved languages,
namely, the monosyllabic and the agglutinative, which include nearly all
the Non-Aryan languages of the world. It does not seem probable that
barbarians, however fine in physical type and however well endowed with
the potentiality of intellectual and moral development, dwelling as
hunters in the bleak and barren north along the edge of the retreating
glaciers and as nomad shepherds in the Russian grasslands, could have
evolved a more complicated and higher form of articulate speech than the
inhabitants of southwestern Asia, who many thousand years earlier were
highly civilized and are known to have invented the arts of agriculture,
metal working and domestication of animals, as well as of writing and
pottery. Nevertheless, such seems to be the fact.
To summarize, it appears that a study of the Mediterranean race shows
that so far from being purely European, it is equally African and
Asiatic and that in the narrow coastal fringe of southern Persia, in
India and even farther east the last strains of this race gradually fade
into the Negroids through prolonged cross breeding. A similar inquiry
into the origin and distribution of the Alpine subspecies shows clearly
the fundamentally Asiatic origin of the type and that on its easternmost
borders in central Asia it marches with the round skulled Mongols, and
that neither the one nor the other was the inventor of Aryan speech.
XIII
ORIGIN OF THE ARYAN LANGUAGES
By the process of elimination set forth in the preceding chapter we are
competed to acknowledge that the strongest claimant for the honor of
being the race of the original Aryans, is the tall, blond Nordic. An
analysis of the various languages of the Aryan group reveals an extreme
diversity which can be best explained by the hypothesis that the
existing languages are now spoken by people upon whom Aryan speech has
been forced from without. This theory corresponds exactly with the known
historic fact that the Aryan languages, during the last three or four
thousand years at least have, again and again, been imposed by Nordics
upon populations of Alpine and Mediterranean blood.
Within the present distributional area of the Nordic race on the Gulf of
Riga and in the very middle of a typical area of isolation, are the most
generalized members of the Aryan group, namely Lettish and Lithuanian,
both almost Proto-Aryan in character. Close at hand existed the closely
related Old Prussian or Borussian, very recently extinct. These archaic
languages are relatively close to Sanskrit and exist in actual contact
with the Anaryan speech of the Esthonians and Finns.
The Anaryan languages in eastern Russia are Ugrian, a form of speech
which extends far into Asia and which appears to contain elements which
unite it with synthetic speech and may be dimly transitory in character.
In the opinion of many philologists, a primitive form of Ugrian might
have given birth to the Proto-Aryan ancestor of existing synthetic
languages.
This hypothesis, if sustained by further study, will provide additional
evidence that the site of the development of the Aryan languages and of
the Nordic subspecies was in eastern Europe, in a region which is close
to the meeting place between the most archaic synthetic languages and
the most nearly related Anaryan tongue, the agglutinative Ugrian.
The Aryan tongue was introduced into Greece by the Achæans about 1400 B.
C. and later, about 1100 B. C. by the true Hellenes, who brought in the
classic dialects of Dorian, Ionian and Æolian.
These Aryan languages superseded their Anaryan predecessor, the
Pelasgian. From the language of these early invaders came the Illyrian,
Thracian, Albanian, classic Greek and the debased modern Romaic, a
descendant of the Ionian dialect.
Aryan speech was introduced among the Anaryan-speaking Etruscans of the
Italian Peninsula by the Umbrians and Oscans about 1100 B. C. and from
the language of these conquerors was derived Latin which later spread to
the uttermost confines of the Roman Empire. Its descendants to-day are
the Romance tongues spoken within the ancient imperial boundaries,
Portuguese on the west, Castilian, Catalan, Provençal, French, the
Langue d’oïl of the Walloons, Romansch, Ladin, Friulian, Tuscan,
Calabrian and Rumanian.
The problem of the existence of a language clearly descended from Latin,
the Rumanian, in the eastern Carpathians cut off by Slavic and Magyar
tongues from the nearest Romance tongues presents difficulties. The
Rumanians themselves make two claims; the first, which can be safely
disregarded, is an unbroken linguistic descent from a group of Aryan
languages which occupied this whole section of Europe, from which Latin
was derived and of which Albanian is also a remnant.
The more serious claim, however, made by the Rumanians is to linguistic
and racial descent from the military colonists planted by the Emperor
Trajan in the great Dacian plain north of the Danube. This may be
possible, so far as the language is concerned, but there are some
weighty objections to it.
We have little evidence for, and much against, the existence of Rumanian
speech north of the Danube for nearly a thousand years after Rome
abandoned this outlying region. Dacia was one of the last provinces to
be occupied by Rome and was the first from which the legions were
withdrawn upon the decline of the Empire. The northern Carpathians,
furthermore, where the Rumanians claim to have taken refuge during the
barbarian invasions formed part of the Slavic homeland and it was in
these same mountains and in the Ruthenian districts of eastern Galicia
that the Slavic languages were developed, probably by the Sarmatians and
Venethi, from whence they spread in all directions in the centuries that
immediately followed the fall of Rome. So it is almost impossible to
credit the survival of a frontier community of Romanized natives
situated not only in the path of the great invasions of Europe from the
east, but also in the very spot where Slavic tongues were at the time
evolving.
Rumanian speech occupies large areas outside of the present kingdom of
Rumania, in Russian Bessarabia, Austrian Bukowina and above all in
Hungarian Transylvania.
The linguistic problem is further complicated by the existence in the
Pindus Mountains of Thessaly of another large community of Vlachs of
Rumanian speech. How this later community could have survived from Roman
times until to-day, untouched either by the Greek language of the
Byzantine Empire or by the Turkish conquest is another difficult
problem.
The evidence, on the whole, points to the descent of the Vlachs from the
early inhabitants of Thrace, who adopted Latin speech in the first
centuries of the Christian era and clung to it during the domination of
the Bulgarians from the seventh century onward in the lands south of the
Danube. In the thirteenth century the mass of these Vlachs, leaving
scattered remnants behind them, crossed the Danube and founded Little
and Great Wallachia. From there they spread into Transylvania and a
century later into Moldavia.
The solution of this problem receives no assistance from anthropology,
as these Rumanian-speaking populations both on the Danube and in the
Pindus Mountains in no way differ physically from their neighbors on all
sides. But through whatever channel they acquired their Latin speech the
Rumanians of to-day can lay no valid claim to blood descent even in a
remote degree from the true Romans.
The first Aryan languages known in western Europe were the Celtic group
which first appears west of the Rhine about 1000 B. C.
Only a few dim traces of Pre-Aryan speech have been found in the British
Isles, and these largely in place names. The Pre-Aryan language of the
Pre-Nordic population of Britain may have survived down to historic
times as Pictish.
In Britain, Celtic speech was introduced in two successive waves, first
by the Goidels or “Q” Celts, who apparently appeared about 800 B. C. and
this form exists to this day as Erse in western Ireland, as Manx of the
Isle of Man and as Gaelic in the Scottish Highlands.
The Goidels were still in a state of bronze culture. When they reached
Britain they must have found there a population preponderantly of
Mediterranean type with numerous remains of still earlier races of
Paleolithic times and also some round skulled Alpines of the Round
Barrows, who have since largely faded from the living population. When
the next invasion, the Cymric or Brythonic, occurred the Goidels had
been absorbed very largely by the underlying Mediterranean aborigines
who had meanwhile accepted the Goidelic form of Celtic speech, just as
on the continent the Gauls had mixed with Alpine and Mediterranean
natives and had imposed upon the conquered their own tongue. In fact, in
Britain, Gaul and Spain the Goidels and Gauls were chiefly a ruling,
military class, while the great bulk of the population remained
unchanged although Aryanized in speech.
These Brythonic or Cymric tribes or “P” Celts followed the “Q” Celts
four or five hundred years later, and drove the Goidels westward through
Germany, Gaul and Britain and this movement of population was still
going on when Cæsar crossed the Channel. The Brythonic group gave rise
to the modern Cornish, extinct within a century, the Cymric of Wales and
the Armorican of Brittany.
In central Europe we find traces of these same two forms of Celtic
speech with the Goidelic everywhere the older and the Cymric the more
recent arrival. The cleavage between the dialects of the “Q” Celts and
the “P” Celts was probably less marked two thousand years ago than at
present, since in their modern form they are both Neo-Celtic languages.
What vestiges of Celtic languages remain in France belong to Brythonic.
Celtic was not generally spoken in Aquitaine in Cæsar’s time.
When the two Celtic-speaking races came into conflict in Britain their
original relationship had been greatly obscured by the crossing of the
Goidels with the underlying dark Mediterranean race of Neolithic culture
and by the mixture of the Belgæ with Teutonic tribes. The result was
that the Brythons did not distinguish between the blond Goidels and the
brunet but Celticized Mediterraneans as they all spoke Goidelic
dialects.
In the same way when the Saxons and the Angles entered Britain they
found there a population speaking Celtic of some form, either Goidelic
or Cymric and promptly called them all Welsh (foreigners). These Welsh
were preponderantly of Mediterranean type with some mixture of a blond
Goidel strain and a much stronger blond strain of Cymric origin and
these same elements exist to-day in England. The Mediterranean race is
easily distinguished, but the physical types derived from Goidel and
Brython alike are merged and lost in the later floods of pure Nordic
blood, Angle, Saxon, Dane, Norse and Norman. In this primitive, dark
population with successive layers of blond Nordics imposed upon it, each
one more purely Nordic and in the relative absence of round heads lie
the secret and the solution of the anthropology of the British Isles.
This Iberian substratum was able to absorb to a large extent the earlier
Celtic-speaking invaders, both Goidels and Brythons, but it is only just
beginning to seriously threaten the later Nordics and to reassert its
ancient brunet characters after three thousand years of submergence.
In northwest Scotland there is a Gaelic-speaking area where the place
names are all Scandinavian and the physical types purely Nordic. This is
the only spot in the British Isles where Celtic speech has reconquered a
district from the Teutonic languages and it was the site of one of the
conquests of the Norse Vikings, probably in the early centuries of the
Christian era. In Caithness in north Scotland, as well as in some
isolated spots on the Irish coasts, the language of these same Norse
pirates persisted within a century. In the fifth century of our era and
after the break-up of Roman domination in Britain there was much racial
unrest and a back wave of Goidels crossed from Ireland and either
reintroduced or reinforced the Gaelic speech in the highlands. Later,
Goidelic speech was gradually driven northward and westward by the
intrusive English of the lowlands and was ultimately forced over this
originally Norse-speaking area. We have elsewhere in Europe evidence of
similar shiftings of speech without any corresponding change in the
blood of the population.
Except in the British Isles and in Brittany Celtic languages have left
no modern descendants, but have everywhere been replaced by languages of
Neo-Latin or of Teutonic origin. Outside of Brittany one of the last, if
not quite the last, reference to Celtic speech in Gaul is the historic
statement that “Celtic” tribes, as well as “Armoricans,” took part at
Châlons in the great victory in 451 A. D. over Attila the Hun and his
confederacy of subject nations.
On the continent the only existing populations of Celtic speech are the
primitive inhabitants of central Brittany, a population noted for their
religious fanaticism and for other characteristics of a backward people.
This Celtic speech is claimed to have been introduced about 450–500 A.
D. by Britons fleeing from the Saxons. These refugees, if there were any
substantial number of them, must have been dolichocephs of either
Mediterranean or Nordic race or both. We are asked by this tradition to
believe that their long skull was lost, but that their language was
adopted by the round skulled Alpine population of Armorica. It is much
more probable that the Cymric-speaking Alpines of Brittany have merely
retained in this isolated corner of France a form of Celtic speech which
was prevalent throughout northern Gaul and Britain before these
provinces were conquered by Rome and Latinized and which, perhaps, was
reinforced later by British Cymry. Cæsar remarked that there was little
difference between the speech of the Belgæ in northern Gaul and in
Britain. In both cases the speech was Cymric.
Long after the conquest of Gaul by the Goths and Franks Teutonic speech
remained predominant among the ruling classes and, by the time it
succumbed to the Latin tongue of the Romanized natives, the old Celtic
languages had been entirely forgotten outside of Brittany.
An example of similar changes of language is to be found in Normandy
where the country was inhabited by the Nordic Belgæ speaking a Cymric
language before that tongue was replaced by Latin. This coast was
ravaged about 300 or 400 A. D. by Saxons who formed settlements along
both sides of the Channel and the coasts of Brittany which were later
known as the Litus Saxonicum. Their progress can best be traced by place
names as our historic record of these raids is scanty.
The Normans landed in Normandy in the year 911 A. D. They were heathen,
Danish barbarians, speaking a Teutonic tongue. The religion, culture and
language of the old Romanized populations worked a miracle in the
transformation of everything except blood in one short century. So quick
was the change that 155 years later the descendants of the same Normans
landed in England as Christian Frenchmen armed with all the culture of
their period. The change was startling, but the Norman blood remained
unchanged and entered England as a substantially Nordic type.
XIV
THE ARYAN LANGUAGE IN ASIA
In the Ægean region and south of the Caucasus Nordics appear after 1700
B. C. but there were unquestionably invasions and raids from the north
for many centuries previous to our first records. These early migrations
were probably not in sufficient force to modify the blood of the
autochthonous races or to substitute Aryan languages for the ancient
Mediterranean and Asiatic tongues.
These men of the North came from the grasslands of Russia in successive
waves and among the first of whom we have fairly clear knowledge were
the Achæans and Phrygians. Aryan names are mentioned in the dim
chronicles of the Mesopotamian empires about 1700 B. C. among the
Kassites and later, Mitanni. Aryan names of prisoners captured beyond
the mountains in the north and of Aryan deities before whom oaths were
taken are recorded about 1400 B. C. but one of the first definite
accounts of Nordics south of the Caucasus describes the presence of
Nordic Persians at Lake Urmia about 900 B. C. There were many incursions
from that time on, the Cimmerians raiding across the Caucasus as early
as 650 B. C. and shortly afterward overrunning all Asia Minor.
The easterly extension of the Russian steppes or Kiptchak north of the
Caspian-Aral Sea in Turkestan as far as the foothills of the Pamirs was
occupied by the Sacæ or Massagetæ, who were also Nordics and akin to the
Cimmerians and Persians, as were, perhaps, the Ephtalites or White Huns
in Sogdiana north of Persia, destroyed by the Turks in the sixth
century.
For several centuries groups of Nordics drifted as nomad shepherds
across the Caucasus into the empire of the Medes, introducing little by
little the Aryan tongue which later developed into Old Persian. By 550
B. C. these Persians had become sufficiently numerous to overthrow their
rulers and under the leadership of the great Cyrus they organized the
Persian Empire, one of the most enduring of Oriental states. The base of
the population of the Persian Empire rested on the round skulled Medes
who belonged to the Armenoid subdivision of the Alpines. Under the
leadership of their priestly caste of Magi these Medes rebelled again
and again against their Nordic masters before the two peoples became
fused.
From 525 to 485 B. C. during the reign of Darius, whose sculptured
portraits show a man of pure Nordic type, the tall, blond Persians had
become almost exclusively a class of great ruling nobles and had
forgotten the simplicity of their shepherd ancestors. Their language
belonged to the Eastern or Iranian division of Aryan speech and was
known as Old Persian, which continued to be spoken until the fourth
century before the Christian era. From it were derived Pehlevi, or
Parthian as well as modern Persian. The great book of the old Persians,
the Avesta, which was written in Zendic, also an Iranian language, does
not go back to the reign of Darius and was remodelled after the
Christian era, but the Old Persian of Darius was closely related to the
Zendic of Bactria and to the Sanskrit of Hindustan. From Zendic, also
called Medic, are derived Ghalcha, Balochi, Kurdish and other dialects.
The rise to imperial power of the dolichocephalic Aryan-speaking
Persians was largely due to the genius of their leaders but the
Aryanization of western Asia by them is one of the most amazing events
in history. The whole region became completely transformed so far as the
acceptance by the conquered of the language and religion of the Persians
was concerned, but the blood of the Nordic race quickly became diluted
and a few centuries later disappears from history.
During the great wars with Greece the pure Persian blood was still
unimpaired and in control. In the literature of the time there is little
evidence of race antagonism between the Greek and the Persian leaders
although their rival cultures were sharply contrasted. In the time of
Alexander the Great the pure Persian blood was obviously confined to the
nobles and it was the policy of Alexander to Hellenize the Persians and
to amalgamate his Greeks with them. The amount of pure Macedonian blood
was not sufficient to reinforce the Nordic strain of the Persians and
the net result was the entire loss of the Greek stock.
It is a question whether the Armenians of Asia Minor derived their Aryan
speech from this invasion of the Nordic Persians, or whether they
received it at an earlier date from the Phrygians and from the west.
These Phrygians entered Asia Minor by way of the Dardanelles and broke
up the Hittite Empire. Their language was Aryan and probably was related
to Thracian. In favor of the theory of the introduction of the Armenian
language by the Phrygians from the west, rather than by the Persians
from the east, is the highly significant fact that the basic structure
of that tongue shows its relationship to be with the western or Centum
rather than with the eastern or Satem group of Aryan languages and this,
too, in spite of a very large Persian vocabulary.
The Armenians themselves, like all the other natives of the plateaux and
highlands as far east as the Hindu Kush Mountains, while of Aryan
speech, are of the Armenoid subdivision, in sharp contrast to the
predominant types south of the mountains in Persia, Afghanistan and
Hindustan, all of which are dolichocephalic and of Mediterranean
affinity but generally betraying traces of admixture with still more
ancient races of Negroid origin, especially in India.
We now come to the last and easternmost extension of Aryan languages in
Asia. As mentioned above, the grasslands and steppes of Russia extend
north of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea to ancient Bactria,
now Turkestan. This whole country was occupied by the Nordic Sacæ and
the closely related Massagetæ. These Sacæ may be identical with the
later Scythians.
Soon after the opening of the second millennium B. C. and perhaps even
earlier, the first Nordics crossed over the Afghan passes, entered the
plains of India and organized a state in the Punjab, “the land of the
five rivers,” bringing with them Aryan speech to a population probably
of Mediterranean type and represented to-day by the Dravidians. The
Nordic Sacæ arrived later in India and introduced the Vedas, religious
poems, which were at first transmitted orally but which were reduced to
written form in Old Sanskrit by the Brahmans at the comparatively late
date of 300 A. D. From this classic Sanskrit are derived all the modern
Aryan languages of Hindustan, as well as the Singalese of Ceylon and the
chief dialects of Assam.
There is great diversity among scholars as to the date of the first
entry of these Aryan-speaking tribes into the Punjab but the consensus
of opinion seems to indicate a period between 1600 and 1700 B. C. or
even somewhat earlier. However, the very close affinity of Sanskrit to
the Old Persian of Darius and to the Zendavesta would strongly indicate
that the final introduction of Aryan languages in the form of Sanskrit
occurred at a much later time. The most recent tendency is to bring
these dates somewhat forward.
If close relationship between languages indicates correlation in time
then the entry of the Sacæ into India would appear to have been nearly
simultaneous with the crossing of the Caucasus by the Nordic Cimmerians
and their Persian successors.
The relationship between the Zendavesta and the Sanskrit Vedas is as
near as that between High and Low German and consequently such close
affinity prevents our thrusting back the date of the separation of the
Persians and the Sacæ more than a few centuries.
A simultaneous migration of nomad shepherds on both sides of the
Caspian-Aral Sea would naturally occur in a general movement southward
and such migrations may have taken place several times. In all
probability these Nordic invasions occurred one after another for a
thousand years or more, the later ones obscuring and blurring the memory
of their predecessors.
When shepherd tribes leave their grasslands and attack their
agricultural neighbors, the reason is nearly always a famine due to
prolonged drought and causes such as these have again and again in
history put the nomad tribes in motion over large areas. During many
centuries fresh tribes composed of Nordics or under the leadership of
Nordics but all Aryan-speaking, poured over the Afghan passes from the
northwest and pushed before them the earlier arrivals. Clear traces of
these successive floods of conquerors are to be found in the Vedas
themselves.
The Zendic form of the Iranian group of Aryan languages was spoken by
those Sacæ who remained in old Bactria and from it is derived a whole
group of closely related dialects still used in the Pamirs of which
Ghalcha is the best known.
The Sacæ and Massagetæ were, like the Persians, tall, blond dolichocephs
and they have left behind them dim traces of their blood among the
living Mongolized nomads of Turkestan, the Kirghizes. Ancient Bactria
maintained its Nordic and Aryan aspect long after Alexander’s time and
did not become Mongolized and receive the sinister name of Turkestan
until the seventh century, when it was the first victim of the series of
ferocious invasions from the north and east, which under various Mongol
leaders destroyed civilization in Asia and threatened its existence in
Europe. These conquests culminated in 1241 A. D. at Wahlstatt in Silesia
where the Germans, though themselves badly defeated, put a final limit
to this westward rush of Asiatics.
The Sacæ were the most easterly members of the Nordic race of whom we
have definite record. The Chinese knew well these “green eyed devils,”
whom they called by their Tatar name, the “Wu-suns,”—the tall ones—and
with whom they came into contact about 200 B. C. in what is now Chinese
Turkestan. Other Nordic tribes are recorded in this region. Evidence is
accumulating that central Asia had a large Nordic population in the
centuries preceding the Christian era. The discovery of the Aryan
Tokharian language in Chinese Turkestan considered in connection with
other facts indicates intensive occupation by Nordics of territories in
central Asia now wholly Mongol, just as in Europe dark-haired Alpines
occupy large territories where in Roman times fair-haired Nordics were
preponderant. In short we find both in Europe and in western and central
Asia the same record of Nordic decline during the last two thousand
years and their replacement by races of inferior value and civilization.
This Tokharian is undoubtedly a pure Aryan language related, curiously
enough, to the western group rather than to the Indo-Iranian. It has
been deciphered from inscriptions recently found in northeast Turkestan
and was a living language prior to the ninth century A. D.
Of all the wonderful conquests of the Sacæ there remain as evidence of
their invasions only these Indian and Afghan languages. Dim traces of
their blood have been found in the Pamirs and in Afghanistan, but in the
south their blond traits have vanished, even from the Punjab. It may be
that the stature of some of the Afghan hill tribes and of the Sikhs and
some of the facial characters of the latter are derived from this
source, but all blondness of skin, hair or eye of the original Sacæ has
utterly vanished.
The long skulls all through India are to be attributed to the
Mediterranean race rather than to this Nordic invasion, while the
Pre-Dravidians and Negroids of south India, with which the former are
largely mixed, are also dolichocephs.
In short, the introduction in Iran and India of Aryan languages,
Iranian, Ghalchic and Sanskrit, represents a linguistic and not an
ethnic conquest.
In concluding this revision of the racial foundations upon which the
history of Europe has been based it is scarcely necessary to point out
that the actual results of the spectacular conquests and invasions of
history have been far less permanent than those of the more insidious
victories arising from the crossing of two diverse races and that in
such mixtures the relative prepotency of the various human subspecies in
Europe appears to be in inverse ratio to their social value.
The continuity of physical traits and the limitation of the effects of
environment to the individual only are now so thoroughly recognized by
scientists that it is at most a question of time when the social
consequences which result from such crossings will be generally
understood by the public at large. As soon as the true bearing and
import of the facts are appreciated by lawmakers a complete change in
our political structure will inevitably occur and our present reliance
on the influence of education will be superseded by a readjustment based
on racial values.
Bearing in mind the extreme antiquity of physical and spiritual
characters and the persistency with which they outlive those elements of
environment termed language, nationality and forms of government, we
must consider the relation of these facts to the development of the race
in America. We may be certain that the progress of evolution is in full
operation to-day under those laws of nature which control it and that
the only sure guide to the future lies in the study of the operation of
these laws in the past.
We Americans must realize that the altruistic ideals which have
controlled our social development during the past century and the
maudlin sentimentalism that has made America “an asylum for the
oppressed,” are sweeping the nation toward a racial abyss. If the
Melting Pot is allowed to boil without control and we continue to follow
our national motto and deliberately blind ourselves to all “distinctions
of race, creed or color,” the type of native American of Colonial
descent will become as extinct as the Athenian of the age of Pericles,
and the Viking of the days of Rollo.
APPENDIX
The maps shown facing pages 266, 268, 270, and 272 of this book attempt
in broad and somewhat hypothetical lines to represent by means of color
diagrams the original distribution and the subsequent expansion and
migration of the three main European races, the Mediterranean, the
Alpine and the Nordic, as outlined in this book.
THE MAXIMUM EXPANSION OF THE ALPINES WITH BRONZE CULTURE, 3000–1800 B.
C.
The first map (Pl. I) shows the distribution of these races at the close
of the Neolithic, as well as their later expansion. It also indicates
the sites of earlier cultures. The distribution of megaliths in Asia
Minor on the north coast of Africa and up the Atlantic seaboard through
Spain, France and Britain to Scandinavia is set forth. These great stone
monuments were seemingly the work of the Mediterranean race using,
however, a culture of bronze acquired from the Alpines. The map also
shows the sites throughout Russia of the kurgans, or ancient artificial
mounds, distribution of which seems to correspond closely with the
original habitat of the Nordics.
In southwestern France there is indicated the area where the Cro-Magnon
race persisted longest and where traces of it are still to be found. The
site is shown of the type station of the latest phase of the Paleolithic
known as the Mas d’Azil—a great cavern in the eastern Pyrenees from
which that period took its name of Azilian.
At the entrance of the Baltic Sea is also shown the type station of the
Maglemose culture which flourished at the close of the Paleolithic and
was probably the work of early Nordics.
In the centre of the district occupied by the Alpines is located
Robenhausen, the most characteristic of the Neolithic lake dwelling
stations and also the Terramara stations in which a culture transitional
between the Neolithic and the bronze existed. In the Tyrol the site is
indicated of the village of Hallstatt, which gave its name to the first
iron culture.
The site of La Tène at the north end of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland is
also shown. From this village the La Tène Iron Age takes its name.
The difficulty of depicting the shifting of races during twelve
centuries is not easily overcome, but the map attempts to show that at
the close of the Neolithic all the coast lands of the Mediterranean and
of the Atlantic seaboard up to Germany and including the British Isles
were populated by the Mediterranean race, in addition, of course, to
remnants of earlier Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, who probably, at that
date, still formed an appreciable portion of the population.
The yellow arrows indicate the route of the migrations of Mediterranean
man, who appears to have entered Europe from the east along the African
littoral. But the main invasions passed up through Spain and Gaul into
the British Isles, where from that time to this they have formed the
substratum of the population. In the central portion of their range
these Mediterraneans were swamped by the Alpines, as shown by the
spreading green, while in northern Gaul and Britain the Mediterraneans
were submerged afterward by Nordics, as appears on the later maps.
The arrows and routes of migration shown on the yellow area of this map
indicate changes which occurred during the Neolithic and perhaps
earlier, but the pink and red arrows in the northern and southeastern
portions represent migrations which were in full swing and in fact were
steadily increasing during the entire period involved. The next map
shows these Nordics bursting out of their original homeland in every
direction and in their turn conquering Europe.
[Illustration: MAXIMUM EXPANSION of ALPINES with BRONZE
CULTURE—3000–1800 B.C. (generalized scheme) by Madison Grant]
Between these two races, the Mediterranean and the Nordic, there entered
a great intrusion of Alpines, flowing from the highlands of western Asia
through Asia Minor and up the valley of the Danube throughout central
Europe and thence expanding in every direction. Forerunners of these
same Alpines were found in western Europe as far back as the closing
Azilian phase of the Paleolithic, where they are known as the
Furfooz-Grenelle race and are thus contemporary in western Europe with
the earliest Mediterraneans.
During all the Neolithic the Alpines occupied the mountainous core of
Europe, but their great and final expansion occurred at the close of the
Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Period, when a new and
extensive Alpine invasion from the region of the Armenian highlands
brought in the Bronze culture. This last migration apparently followed
the routes of the earlier invasions and, in the extreme southwest, it
even reached Spain in small numbers, where its remnants can still be
found in the Cantabrian Alps. The Alpines occupied all Savoy and central
France, where from that day to this they constitute the bulk of the
peasant population. They reached Brittany and to-day that peninsula is
their westernmost outpost. They crossed over in small numbers to Britain
and some even reached Ireland. In England they were the men of the Round
Barrows, but nearly all trace of this invasion has vanished from the
living population.
The Alpines also reached Holland, Denmark and southwestern Norway and
traces of their colonization in these countries are still found.
The author has attempted to indicate the lines of this Alpine expansion
by means of the solid green spreading over central Europe and Asia
Minor, with outlying dots showing the outer limits of the invasion.
Black arrows proceeding from the east denote its main lines and routes.
Those Alpines who crossed the Caucasus passed through southern Russia
and a side wave of the same migration passed down the Syrian coast to
Egypt and along the north coast of Africa, entering Italy by way of
Sicily. The last African invasion left behind it the Giza round skulls
of Egypt. This final Alpine expansion taught the other races of Europe,
both Mediterranean and Nordic, the art of metallurgy.
The Nordics apparently originated in southern Russia, but long before
the Bronze Period they had spread northward across the Baltic into
Scandinavia, where they specialized into the race now known as the
Scandinavian or Teutonic. On the map the continental Nordics are
indicated by pink and the Nordics of Scandinavia are shown in red. At
the very end of the period covered by this map, these Scandinavian
Nordics were beginning to return to the continent. The routes of these
migrations and their extent are indicated by red arrows and circles
respectively.
To sum up, this map shows the expansion from central Asia of the round
skull Alpines across central Europe, submerging, in the south and west,
the little, dark, long skulled Mediterraneans of Neolithic culture,
while at the same time they pressed heavily upon the Nordics in the
north and introduced Bronze culture among them.
This development of the Alpines at the expense of the Mediterraneans had
a permanent influence in western Europe, but in the north their impress
was of a more temporary character. It is probable that in the first
instance they were able to conquer the Nordics by reason of the
superiority of bronze weapons to stone hatchets. But no sooner had they
imparted the knowledge of the manufacture and use of metal weapons and
tools to the Nordics than the latter turned on their conquerors and
completely mastered them, as appears on the next map.
THE EXPANSION OF THE PRE-TEUTONIC NORDICS, 1800–100 B. C.
The second map (Pl. II) of the series shows the shattering and
submergence of the green Alpine area by the pink Nordic area. It will be
noted that in Italy, Spain, France and Britain the solid green and the
green dots have steadily declined and in central Europe the green has
been torn apart and riddled in every direction by pink arrows and pink
dots, leaving solid green only in mountainous and infertile districts.
This submergence of the Alpines by the Nordics was so complete that
their very existence was forgotten until in our own day it was
discovered that the central core of Europe was inhabited by a short,
stocky, round skulled race originally from Asia. To-day these Alpines
are gradually recovering their influence in the world by sheer weight of
numbers. On this map the green Alpine area is shown to be everywhere
shrinking except in the countries around the Carpathians and the Dnieper
River, where the Sarmatians and Wends are located. It was in this
district that the Slavic-speaking Alpines were developing.
Simultaneously with this expansion toward the west, south and east of
the continental Nordics, the Scandinavian or Teutonic tribes appear on
the scene in increasing numbers, as shown by the red area and red
arrows, pressing upon and forcing ahead of them their kinsmen on the
mainland.
[Illustration: EXPANSION OF THE PRE-TEUTONIC NORDICS 1800–100 B.C.
(generalized scheme) by Madison Grant]
The pink arrows in Spain show the invasion of Celtic-speaking Nordics,
closely related to the Nordic Gauls who a little earlier had conquered
France. This same wave of Nordic invasion crossed the Channel and
appears in the pink dots of Britain and Ireland, where the intruders are
known as Goidels. These early Nordics were followed some centuries later
by another wave of kindred peoples who were known as Brythons or Cymry
in Britain and as Belgæ on the continent. These Cymric Belgæ or Brythons
probably represented the mixed descendants of the earliest Teutons who
crossed from Scandinavia and had adopted and modified the Celtic
languages spoken by the continental Nordics. These Cymric-speaking
Nordics drove before them the earlier Gauls in France and the Goidels in
Britain, but their impulse westward was very likely caused by the
oncoming rush of pure Teutons from Scandinavia and the Baltic coasts.
In Italy the pink arrows entering from the west show the route of the
invading Gauls, who occupied the country north of the Apennines and made
it Cisalpine Gaul, while the arrows entering Italy from the northeast
show the earlier invasions of the Nordic Umbrians and Oscans, who
introduced Aryan speech into Italy. Farther east in Greece and the
Balkans, the pink arrows show the routes of invasion of the Achæans and
the kindred Phrygians of Homer as well as the later Dorians and
Cimmerians. In the region of the Caucasus, the routes of the invading
Persians are shown and, north of the Caspian Sea, the line of migration
of the Sacæ from the grasslands of southern Russia toward the east. In
the inset map in the upper right corner is shown the expansion of these
Nordics into Asia, where the Sacæ and closely related Massagetæ occupied
what is now Turkestan and from this centre swarmed over the mountains of
Afghanistan into India and introduced Aryan speech among the swarming
millions of that peninsula.
In the northern part of the main map the expansion of the Teutonic
Nordics is shown, with the Goths in the east and Saxons in the west of
the red area, but the salient feature is the expansion of the pink at
the expense of the green and the ominous growth of the red area centring
around Scandinavia in the north.
THE EXPANSION OF THE TEUTONIC NORDICS AND SLAVIC ALPINES, 100 B. C. TO
1100 A. D.
This map (Pl. III) shows the yellow area greatly diminished in central
and northern Europe, while it retains its supremacy in Spain and Italy
as well as on the north coast of Africa. In the latter areas the green
dots have nearly vanished and have been replaced by pink and red dots.
In central Europe the green area is still more broken up and reduced to
a minimum. In the Balkans and eastern Europe, however, two large centres
of green, north and south of the Danube respectively, represent the
expanding power of the Slavic-speaking Alpines. The pink area of the
continental Nordics is everywhere fading and is on the point of
vanishing as a distinctive type and of merging in the red. The expansion
of the Teutonic Nordics from Scandinavia and from the north of Germany
is now at its maximum and they are everywhere pressing through the
Empire of Rome and laying the foundations of the modern nations of
Europe. The Vandals have migrated from the coasts of the Baltic to what
is now Hungary, then westward into France and finally, after occupying
for a while southern Spain, under pressure of the kindred Visigoths to
northern Africa, where they established a kingdom which is the sole
example we have of a Teutonic state on that continent. The Visigoths and
Suevi laid the foundations of Spain and Portugal, while the Franks,
Burgundians and Normans transformed Gaul into France.
[Illustration: EXPANSION OF THE TEUTONIC NORDICS AND SLAVIC ALPINES 100
BC–1100 AD (generalized scheme) by Madison Grant]
Into Italy for a thousand years floods of Nordic Teutons crossed the
Alps and settled along the Po Valley. While many tribes participated in
these invasions, the most important migration was that of the Lombards,
who, coming from the basin of the Baltic by way of the Danubian plains,
occupied the Po Valley in force and scattered a Teutonic nobility
throughout the peninsula. The Lombard and kindred strains in the north
give to that portion of the peninsula its present predominance over the
provinces south of the Apennines.
The conquest of the British Isles by the Teutonic and Scandinavian
Nordics was far more complete than was their conquest of Spain, Italy or
even northern France. When these Teutons arrived upon the scene, the
ancient, dark Neolithics had very largely absorbed the early Nordic
invaders, Goidels and Cymry alike. Floods of Saxons, of Angles and later
of Danes, crossed the Channel and the North Sea and displaced the old
population in Scotland and the eastern half of England, while Norse
Vikings following in their wake occupied nearly all of the outlying
islands and much of the coast. Both these later invasions, Danish and
Norse, passed around the greater island and inundated Ireland, so that
the big, blond or red-haired Irishman of to-day is to a large extent a
Dane in a state of culture analogous to that of Scotland before the
Reformation.
This map shows that the vitality of Scandinavia was far from exhausted
after sending for upward of two thousand years tribe after tribe across
to the continent and that it was now producing an extraordinarily
vigorous type, the Vikings in the west and the equally warlike and
energetic Varangians in the east, who migrated back to the motherland of
the Nordics and laid the foundations of modern Russia.
While all these splendid conquests were in full swing a little known
group of tribes was growing and spreading in eastern and southern
Germany and in Austria-Hungary and occupying the lands left vacant by
the Teutonic nations, which had invaded the Roman Empire. From this
centre in the neighborhood of the Carpathians and in Galicia eastward to
the head of the Dnieper River, the Wends and Sarmatians expanded in all
directions. They were the ancestors of those Alpines who are to-day
Slavic-speaking. From this obscure beginning came the bulk of the
Russians and the South Slavs. The expansion of the Slavs is one of the
most significant features of the Dark Ages and the author has attempted
to indicate the centre of expansion of these tribes by green dots and
green arrows, radiating in all directions from the solid green area in
Europe. To sum up this map, the yellow area has steadily declined
everywhere, while in western Europe the green area is now limited to the
infertile and backward mountain regions. In eastern Europe, however,
this same green Alpine area is showing a marvellous capacity for
recovery, as will appear from the map of the races of to-day.
The red area is widely spread and occupies the river valleys and the
fertile lands and represents everywhere the ruling, military aristocracy
more or less thinly scattered over a conquered peasantry of
Mediterranean and Alpine blood. One phenomenon of dire import is shown
on the map, where, coming from the districts north and east of the
Caspian Sea, certain black arrows are seen shooting westward into
Europe, reaching in one extreme instance as far as Châlons in France,
where Attila nearly succeeded in destroying what remained of western
civilization. These arrows mark respectively Huns, Cumans, Avars,
Magyars, Bulgars and other Asiatic hordes, probably for the most part of
Mongoloid origin and coming originally from central Asia far beyond the
range of Aryan speech. These hordes of Mongoloids destroyed the budding
culture of Russia, while at a later date kindred tribes under the name
of Turks or Tatars flooded the Balkans and the valley of the Danube but
these later invasions entered Europe from Asia Minor.
[Illustration:
PRESENT DISTRIBUTION
OF
EUROPEAN RACES
(generalized scheme)
by
Madison Grant
]
THE PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF EUROPEAN RACES
The preparation of the last map (Pl. IV), showing the present
distribution of European races, was in some respects a more intricate
task than that of the earlier maps. The main difficulty is that, as a
result of successive migrations and expansions, the different races of
Europe are now often represented by distinct classes. Numerically one
type may be in a majority, as are the Rumanians in eastern Hungary,
where they constitute nearly two-thirds of the population. At the same
time this majority is of no intellectual or social importance, since all
the professional and military classes in Transylvania are either Magyar
or Saxon. Under the existing scheme of showing majorities by color these
ruling minorities do not appear at all. In this last map the yellow is
beginning to expand, especially in the British Isles. The green also is
recovering somewhat in central and western Europe, but in the Balkans,
eastern Germany, Austria and above all in Poland and Russia, it has
largely replaced the former Nordic color. The pink, _i. e._, the
continental Nordics as a distinct type, has entirely vanished and has
been everywhere replaced by the Teutonic red. This does not mean that
there are no existing remnants of the continental Nordics, but it does
mean that these remnants cannot now be distinguished from the
all-pervading and masterful type of the Teutonic Nordics.
In general, this last map, as compared with the earlier ones, although
showing a steady shrinkage of the Nordic area, brings out clearly the
manner in which it centres around the basins of the Baltic and the North
Sea, radiating thence in every direction and in decreasing numbers. The
menace of the continued expansion of the green area westward and
northward into the red area of the Nordics is undoubtedly one of the
causes of the present world war. This expansion began as far back as the
fall of Rome, but only in our day and generation has this backward race
even claimed a parity of strength and culture with the Master Race.
DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT
The purpose of these notes is to meet an insistent demand for
authorities for the statements made in the body of the book. As was
mentioned in the Introduction, in a work of this compass and aim, mere
lack of space forbade all but the barest outlines, so that often an
appearance of dogmatism was the result.
There is a vast literature on the subjects discussed and to give all the
references would be almost a physical impossibility. It is particularly
difficult to name all that has appeared in periodicals, since they have
become so numerous, especially during the last few years.
The author has in mind to refer only to those works which bear directly
on the most essential statements made and, necessarily, to but a part of
these. In many cases only books which are most easily available have
been used. The author has intentionally quoted chiefly works in English,
where these exist, and when using foreign authorities has translated the
statements.
It must be clearly understood that the references are given for the
facts rather than the theories they contain. In no case, unless
specifically stated, is the author committed to the conclusions drawn in
the works cited. In order to present all sides, authorities who differ
in viewpoint are sometimes listed, the reader being left to make his own
decision of the case.
It is hoped that the references will be of assistance to students of
anthropology and to those who care to inquire further into the subjects
under discussion.
Where an author is quoted frequently or for more than one book, he is
referred to merely by name; the book is given by number immediately
following. Its full title may be ascertained in the bibliography.
DOCUMENTARY SUPPLEMENT
_PART I_
INTRODUCTION
Page xix : line 22. Immutability of somatological or bodily characters.
Charles B. Davenport, pp. 225 _seq._ and 252 _seq._: William E. Castle,
1, pp. 125 _seq._; Frederick Adams Woods, 3, p. 107; and Edwin G.
Conklin, 1, pp. 191 _seq._ See the note to p. 226, 7 for a quotation
from Conklin bearing on this point.
xix : 23. Immutability of psychical predispositions and impulses. See
note above. Professor Irving Fisher said, on p. 627 of _National
Vitality_, speaking of laws relating to eugenics: “What such laws might
accomplish may be judged from the history of two criminal families, the
‘Jukes’ and the ‘Tribe of Ishmael.’ Out of 1,200 descendants from the
founder of the ‘Jukes’ through 75 years, 310 were professional
paupers ... 50 were prostitutes, 7 murderers, 60 habitual thieves, and
130 common criminals.” Certainly these facts were not all due entirely
to identity or similarity of environment. On p. 675 we read: “Similarly,
the ‘Tribe of Ishmael,’ numbering 1,692 individuals in six generations,
has produced 121 known prostitutes and has bred hundreds of petty
thieves, vagrants and murderers. The history of the tribe is a swiftly
moving picture of social degeneration and gross parasitism extending
from its seventeenth century convict ancestry to the present day horde
of wandering and criminal descendants.” See R. L. Dugdale and Oscar C.
McCulloch, pp. 154–159. For transmission of opposite tendencies see pp.
675–676, Fisher. The Jukes were a family of Dutch descent, living in an
isolated valley in the mountains of northern New York. The Ishmaels were
a family of central Indiana which came from Maryland through Kentucky.
The Kalikak family is another striking instance. See also Davenport, 1,
and the note to p. 226: 7.
xxi : 5. Professor Charles B. Davenport says in correspondence: “By the
way, it was Judge John Lowell who added ‘free and’ to the words of the
Declaration in writing the Constitution of Massachusetts in the latter
part of the eighteenth century.”
xxiii : 20–25. _A Statistical Account of the British Empire._ J. R.
McCulloch, vol. I, pp. 400 seq.
CHAPTER I. RACE AND DEMOCRACY
4 : 6. Archbishop Ussher, 1581–1656. See the _New Schaff-Herzog
Religious Encyclopedia_; also other religious encyclopedias. Taylor,
_Origin of the Aryans_, p. 8.
5 : 15. See Émile Faguet, _Le Culte de l’Incompétence_.
6 : 3. _Cf._ _The Loyalists of Massachusetts_, by James H. Stark.
9 : 7. A good description of conditions is to be found in Bryce’s _The
Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company_, p. 73, all of chapter
XLII and elsewhere.
10 : 3 _seq._ Charles B. Davenport, _passim_, has discussed migratory
instincts, see especially 1.
10 : 16–17. These conditions are quaintly described in what is known as
the _Italian Relation_, translated by Charlotte Augusta Sneyd. See
especially pp. 34 and 36. The resulting laws may be found in Sir James
Fitzjames Stephen’s _History of the Criminal Law of England_, vol. III,
pp. 267 seq.; Pollard’s Political History of England, vol. VI, pp.
29–30; Green’s _History of the English People_, vol. II, pp. 20; and
elsewhere.
11 : 3. See the note to p. 79: 15.
11 : 17. See Notes to p. 218: 16.
11 : 20. For a very interesting series of letters written from Santo
Domingo in 1808 concerning conditions among the whites as the negro
slaves were gaining the ascendancy, consult the anonymous _Secret
History, or The Horrors of Santo Domingo_, in a series of letters
written by a lady at Cape François to Colonel Burr (late Vice-President
of the United States), principally during the command of General
Rochambeau. Lothrop Stoddard, in his _French Revolution in San Domingo_,
pp. 25 _seq._, gives a vivid picture of these times and conditions.
11 : 24. _Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics_, Prescott Hall,
pp. 125–127.
CHAPTER II. THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF RACE
13 : 7. See W. D. Matthew, _Climate and Evolution_; John C. Merriam,
_The Beginnings of Human History, Read from the Geological Record: The
Emergence of Man_, especially pp. 208–209 of the first part; and Madison
Grant, _The Origin and Relationships of North American Mammals_, pp.
5–7.
13 : 20. Mendelism. See Edwin G. Conklin, 1, chap. III, C, pp. 224
_seq._, or 2, vol. X, no. 2, pp. 170 _seq._ Also Punnett’s _Mendelism_,
or the appendix to Castle’s _Genetics and Eugenics_, which is a
translation of Mendel’s paper. Practically all late writers on heredity
give Mendel’s principles.
13 : 22–14 : 10 For these and other statements on heredity see the
writings of Charles B. Davenport, Frederic Adams Woods, G. Archdall
Reid, Edwin G. Conklin, Thomas Hunt Morgan, E. B. Wilson, J. Arthur
Thomson, William E. Castle, and Henry Fairfield Osborn, 2.
14 : 10 _seq._ Blends. E. G. Conklin remarks in correspondence: “In so
far as races interbreed, their characters mingle but do not blend or
fuse, and come out again in all their purity in descendants.” See also
the same authority, 1, pp. 208, 280, 282–287.
Every now and then an observation is met with which corroborates this
statement. The inheritance from one parent or the other of the shape of
the skull, in a fairly pure form, has been noted a number of times.
Fleure and James in their study of the _Anthropological Types in Wales_,
p. 39, make the following observation: “It may be said that certain
component features of head form, in many cases, seem to segregate more
or less in Mendelian fashion, but this is a matter for further
investigation; we are on safer ground in saying that the children of
parents of different head form very frequently show a fairly complete
resemblance to one or other parent, _i. e._, that head form is
frequently inherited in a fairly pure fashion.”
Von Luschan found still more striking evidence of this in his study of
modern Greeks, which he describes in his _Early Inhabitants of Western
Asia_. He has found that the children of parents of different head form
inherit in quite strict fashion the shape of skull of one or the other
parent, and that the population, instead of being mesaticephalic, is
to-day as distinctly divided into two groups, dolichol- and
brachycephalic, as in prehistoric times, in spite of the constant
intermixture that has occurred.
14 : 18. See notes to p. 13. This is a statement made by Dr. Davenport,
in correspondence.
15 : 17. On the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon types consult Professor
Arthur Keith, 1, pp. 101–120, and 2; also Henry Fairfield Osborn, 1, the
table on p. 23, pp. 214 _seq._, 289 _seq._, 291–305 and elsewhere, and
the authorities given.
On the resurgence of types, see Beddoe, 4; Fleure and James;
Giuffrida-Ruggeri; Parsons; and numerous other recent anthropologists.
15 : 25. See the notes to p. xix of the Introduction to this book, and
Keith, 2.
15 : 29 _seq._ Professor G. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, chap.
IV, and pp. 41 _seq._ On p. 43 we read: “If we want to add to such
sources of information and complete the picture of the early
Egyptian ... he can be found reincarnated in his modern descendants with
surprisingly little change, either in physical characteristics or mode
of life, to show for the passage of six thousand years.” On p. 44:
“Although alien elements from north and south have been coming into
Upper Egypt for fifty centuries, it has been a process of percolation,
and not an overwhelming rush; the population has been able to assimilate
the alien minority and retain its own distinctive features and customs
with only slight change; and however large a proportion of the
population has taken on hybrid traits resulting from Negro, Arab, or
Armenoid admixture, there still remain in the Thebaid large numbers of
its people who present features and bodily conformation precisely
similar to those of their remote ancestors, the Proto-Egyptians.” See
also G. Sergi, 1, p. 65, and 4, p. 200.
17 : 5. See Franz Boas, _Changes in the Bodily Form of the Descendants
of Immigrants_, pp. 9, 27, etc.
17 : 28–18 : 7. See the notes to p. 13.
18 : 13. See notes to p. 14. Also Ripley, pp. 465–466 for a statement as
to brunetness.
18 : 24–19 : 2. E. G. Conklin, 1, pp. 454–455, and 2, especially vol. X,
no. 1, pp. 55–58.
19 : 3. Anders Retzius was the first to make use of the head form in
anthropological study, and to give the impetus to the index measurement
system in _The Form of the Skulls of the Northern Peoples of Europe_.
See also A. C. Haddon, 1, chap. I, in which he discusses these traits in
full, and Ripley, chap. III, especially pp. 55 _seq._ Modern physical
anthropologists still agree that the skull form is a most stable and
reliable character.
19 : 25. Ripley, p. 39.
19 : 27–pp. 20 and 21. Beddoe, Broca, Collignon, Livi, Topinard and a
host of other anthropologists all affirm the existence of three European
racial types, which Ripley has discussed exhaustively. Deniker alone
differs from them in classifying the populations of Europe, from the
same data, into six principal races and four or more sub-races. See
Appendix D, in Ripley’s _Races of Europe_.
The three terms, Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean, have now become quite
generally accepted designations for the three European races. The term
Nord, rather than Nordic, has been chosen, perhaps more wisely, by some
authors. In the present book these names are applied with quite
different connotations from those usually understood.
It cannot be too clearly stated that in speaking of Nordics, the
proto-type was probably quite generalized, with hair shades including
the browns and reds. In the author’s opinion the blond Scandinavian
represents an extreme specialization of Nordic characters. (See p. 167
of this book.)
20 : 5–24. The term Nordic was first used by Deniker. The authorities
for the descriptions of these races may all be found in Ripley. The
Mediterranean race was first defined by Sergi, who also calls it
Eurafrican. The term Alpine, proposed by Linnæus, was revived by
DeLapouge, and later adopted by Ripley, since when it has come into
general use. Sergi and Zaborowski prefer that of Eurasian. While this
latter name does cover the requirements, since it correctly signifies
not only the European and Asiatic range of the people under discussion,
but also their actual relationship to Asiatics, it is objectionable
because it implies the adoption of the similarly constructed term
Eurafrican, which, as defined by Sergi, is misleading. Correct as
Eurafrican may be for signifying the European and African range of the
Mediterranean race, it involves an acceptance of the theory put forward
by its sponsor, that the Mediterranean race originated in Africa and is
closely related to the negro, both being long skulled peoples, descended
from a common stock, the Eurafrican.
The chief objection to the term Mediterranean is that the race extends
in habitat beyond the Mediterranean region, but the name is now so
generally accepted and this fact so well known that misunderstandings
are unlikely. The term Alpine, also, is not as inappropriate as it might
seem, since the word Alps is frequently not confined to the Swiss ranges
but extended to many other mountain chains, and Alpine, like the term
Mediterranean, is not, at this late date, apt to be misunderstood.
20 : 24–21: 9. Von Luschan, _The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia_, pp.
221–244, and G. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_.
22 : 10. Thomson, _Heredity_, p. 387; Darwin, _Descent of Man_; Boas,
_Modern Populations of America_, p. 571.
22: 25. Haddon, 1, pp. 15 _seq._
22 : 29. The same, pp. 12–14.
23 : 8. Clark Wissler, in _The American Indian_, makes clear the general
uniformity of American Indian types in chap. XVIII. See also Haddon, 1,
p. 8, and Hrdlička, _The Genesis of the American Indian_, pp. 559 _seq._
23 : 13. Haddon, 1, pp. 10 and 11. There are numerous other references
to this fact, especially in articles in various anthropological
journals, and general works on anthropology, such as those of Deniker,
Collignon, Martin and Ratzel.
23 : 16. For the differentiation of skull types in Europe during the
Paleolithic period, see Keith, 2, the chapters on Pre-Neolithic,
Mousterian and Neanderthal man; and 1, pp. 74 _seq._; as well as Osborn,
1, who also gives the dates of the Paleolithic in the table on p. 18.
24 : 3–5. This claim was put forth by Sergi, in his _Mediterranean
Race_, pp. 252, 258–259, and was followed by Ripley in his _Races of
Europe_.
24 : 14. Deniker, _Races of Man_, pp. 48–49; Ripley, p. 465.
25 : 5. Topinard, 1, 4; Collignon, 1; and Virchow, 1, p. 325; Ripley, p.
64. Ripley says: “If the hair be light, one can generally be sure that
the eyes will be of a corresponding shade. Bassanovitch, ... p. 29,
strikingly confirms this rule even for so dark a population as the
Bulgarian.”
25 : 6. See p. 163 of this book on the Albanians.
25 : 8. Ripley, pp. 75–76 and the footnote on p. 76.
25 : 11. Deniker, 2, p. 51. Also Davenport, _passim_.
25 : 13. Sir Edmund Loder, in correspondence, February, 1917, asks: “Has
it been noticed at Creedmore and elsewhere in America that nearly all
noted shots have blue eyes? It has been very noticeable at Wimbledon and
Bisby, where it was quite exceptional to find a man in the front rank of
marksmen with dark colored eyes. There was, however, one man who shot in
my team who had very dark eyes and was one of the best shots of the
day.”
25 : 16. There are said to be blue eyes occasionally in other races,
where traces of Nordic blood cannot be discovered. Green and blue eyes
have been found among the Rendeli (Desert Masai), although they are
otherwise normal negroes.
25 : 19. The following quotation is from Von Luschan, 1, p. 224: “In
Marmaritza near Halikarnassos, where a British squadron had a winter
station for many years, a very great proportion of the children is said
to be ‘flaxen-haired.’” According to a statement made to the author by
Professor G. Elliot Smith on May 4, 1920, a similar nest of blondness is
found in the Egyptian delta near Aboukir and is due to the fact that
after the battle of the Nile the Seaforth Highlanders were long
stationed there. At one time this blondness was supposed to bear some
relation to the ancient Lybian blondness depicted on the monuments.
25 : 25 _seq._ On the Berbers see Sergi, 4, pp. 59 _seq._, and Topinard,
3. In regard to the Albanians, Ripley refers to their blondness, on p.
414, as follows: “The Albanian colonists, studied by Livi and Zampa in
Calabria, still, after four centuries of Italian residence and
intermixture, cling to many of their primitive characteristics, notably
their brachycephaly and their relative blondness.” See also Zampa, 1,
and Deniker, 1, for scientific discussions of their physical characters.
Giuffrida-Ruggeri gives a summary of the most recent literature on
Albania.
25 : 29–26: 6. See Beddoe, _The Races of Britain_, pp. 14, 15 and
_passim_.
26 : 18. Beddoe, 4, p. 147.
27 : 1 _seq._ See Ripley, pp. 399–400 for a summary of observations on
this point. See also Darwin, _Descent of Man_, pp. 340–341 and 344
_seq._; and Fleure and James, p. 49.
27 : 14–28: 19. Haddon, 1, p. 2; also 2; Deniker, 2, chap. II and
_passim_.
28 : 19. Davenport, _passim_; Ripley, _passim_; and any general book on
anthropology.
28 : 24–29: 17. Ripley, pp. 80, 81, 84, 108–109, 131, 132, 252, 271,
307. Also see Davenport and Conklin, _passim_, and the notes to p. 18 of
this book.
30 : 18–31: 8. For a very interesting discussion of this question see
Conklin, 2, vol. IX, no. 6, pp. 492–6; Deniker, 2, p. 18; Haddon, 2,
chap. IV; and Louis R. Sullivan, _The Growth of the Nasal Bridge in
Children_, are other authorities. Some special studies of the nose have
been made by Majer and Koperniki, Weisbach, and Olechnowicz, for which
see Ripley, pp. 39 4–395. Jacobs, pp. 23–62, is particularly good on
nostrility.
31 : 9. Deniker, 2, p. 83.
31 : 13. On the shape of the foot as a racial character see Rudolf
Martin, _Lehrbuch der Anthropologie_, pp. 317 _seq._; and Beddoe, 4, pp.
245 _seq._; W. K. Gregory, 2, p. 14, and John C. Merriam, vol. IX, pp.
202 _seq._, have both discussed the evolution of the foot and the hand,
and the anatomical differences which distinguish those of man from those
of the apes.
31 : 16. P. Topinard, 2, chap. X, and Rudolf Martin, pp. 367 _seq._
32 : 4. Beard lighter than head hair. Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 850.
32 : 8. The red-haired branch of the Nordics. On red hair see Beddoe, 4,
pp. 3, 151–156; Fleure and James, _Anthropological Types in Wales_, pp.
118 _seq._; Ripley, pp. 205–207, based on Arbo; T. Rice Holmes, _Cæsar’s
Conquest of Gaul_, p. 337; and F. G. Parsons, _Anthropological
Observations on German Prisoners of War_, pp. 32 _seq._
32 : 21. See notes to p. 66.
33 : 7. Haddon, 1, p. 9 _seq._; Deniker, _Races of Man_; Ratzel,
_History of Mankind_; etc.
33 : 13. Haddon, 1, p. 16 _seq._; Deniker; Ratzel; etc.
33 : 23–34: 21. Haddon, 1, pp. 2 and 3, and Deniker, 2, pp. 42 _seq._
While this classification is substantially sound, and sufficient for our
purpose, recent investigations have shown that other factors also
contribute to straightness or kinkiness, such as coarseness of texture,
as opposed to fineness. Probably these will be determined by Mr. Louis
R. Sullivan, of the American Museum of Natural History, who is working
on the subject. It has been found that the Japanese and Eskimo are
exceptions to the rule of “straight hair, round cross section,” for they
show an ellipse. There is also a wide range of variation in the
cross-sections of hair for individuals of any race, who are classified
according to the preponderance of cross-sections of a single type. For a
fine series of plates which are photographs of the magnified hair of
individuals of various races, see _Das Haupthaar und seiner
Bildungsstatte bei den Rassen des Menschen_, Gustave Fritsch. Another
recent paper is the study by Leon Augustus Hausmann of Cornell, “The
Microscopic Structure of the Hair as an Aid in Race Determination.”
35 : 27. Livi, _Antropometria Militare_, and Ripley, pp. 115, 255 and
258.
36. Deniker, 1; Zampa, 1,2; Weisbach, 1, 2, 3; and others given by
Ripley, pp. 411–415.
CHAPTER III. RACE AND HABITAT
37 : 6. Sir G. Archdall Reid, _The Principles of Heredity_, chaps. VII,
VIII, IX.
37 : 17. Ripley discusses them in full in chap. VI.
37 : 20–38 : 2. W. Boyd Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, p. 233; Keane,
_Ethnology_, pp. 110 _seq._; Osborn, _Men of the Old Stone Age_, pp.
220, 479–486 _seq._; Keith, _Antiquity of Man_, p. 16.
38 : 10. Ellsworth Huntington, 1, p. 83; Charles E. Woodruff, 1, pp.
85–86; also the Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1891, which
contains an article on “Isothermal Zones.”
38 : 17 _seq._ Ellsworth Huntington, 1, pp. 86 _seq._
40 : 27. Ellsworth Huntington, 1, pp. 14, 27.
41 : 25–42. G. Retzius, _On the So-called North European Race of
Mankind_, p. 300; and many other authorities.
43 : 23. Ripley, pp. 352 _seq._ and 470.
44 : 17. G. Elliot Smith, 1, p. 61; G. Sergi, 4.
44 : 26. Ripley, pp. 443 and 582–583.
45 : 2. Beddoe, 4, p. 270.
CHAPTER IV. THE COMPETITION OF RACES
47 : 17. Prescott F. Hall, _Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics_.
49 : 15–51. See the _Eugenics Record Office Bulletins_, 10A and 10B, by
Harry H. Laughlin, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Part I is “The Scope
of the Committee’s Work”; Part II, “The Legal, Legislative and
Administrative Aspects of Sterilization.” See also H. H. Hart,
_Sterilization as a Practical Measure_; and Raymond Pearl, _The
Sterilization of Degenerates_; as well as _The Eugenical News_ for
April, May and August, 1918.
52 : 17. Sir Francis Galton, _Hereditary Genius_, pp. 351–359; Darwin,
_The Descent of Man_, p. 218.
53 : 6. Galton, _Hereditary Genius_, pp. 345–346.
55 : 3 _seq._ Sir G. Archdall Reid, 2, p. 182; _The Handbook of the
American Indian_, under _Health and Disease_; Payne, _A History of the
New World Called America_; and elsewhere in early accounts. Also, Paul
Popenoe, _One Phase of Man’s Modern Evolution_, p. 618.
CHAPTER V. RACE, LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY
60 : 18. See the note to p. 18.
62 : 2. Ripley, _passim_; and the notes to pp. 142 : 23, 172 : 22, 187 :
23, 188 : 15, 195 : 18, 213 and 247 of this book.
63 : 13. This absence of round skulls was universally accepted, but
recent studies show an appreciable Alpine element which is increasing.
64 : 2 _seq._ See pp. 201 and 203.
64 : 18. Ripley discusses the Slavs in full in chap. XIII, and gives the
original sources for all of his information.
65 : 1. Ripley, pp. 422–428.
65 : 3. Von Luschan, 1; Ripley, pp. 406–411.
65 : 14. Ripley, pp. 361 _seq._
66 : 4. Blumenbach was the first to divide the races into Caucasian,
Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malayan, in his _De Generis Humani
Varietate Nativa_, in 1775.
66 : 8–23. Ossetes. For a full description of these people see
Zaborowski, _Les peuples aryens d’Asie et d’Europe_, pp. 246–272.
Deniker likewise treats of them in _Races of Man_, p. 356. Minns,
_Scythians and Greeks_, p. 37, says: “Klaproth first proved in 1822 that
the Ossetes are the same as the Caucasian Alans, and this is supported
by the testimony of the chroniclers, Russian, Georgian, Greek and Arab.
From Ammianus Marcellinus (XXXI, II, 16–25) we know that at the time of
the Huns’ invasion these Alans pastured their herds over the plains to
the north of the Caucasus, and made raids upon the coast of the Mæotis
and the peninsula of Taman. The Huns passed through their land,
plundering Ermanrich, the king of the Goths.... Ammianus means by Alans
all the nomadic tribes about the Tanais (Don) and gives a description of
their habits, borrowed from the account of the Scythians in Herodotus.
For the first three centuries of our era we find these Alans mentioned
(Pliny, _N. H._, IV, 80; Dionysius Perigetes, 305, 306; Fl. Josephus,
Bell. Jud., VII, VII, 4; Ptolemy, etc.), as neighbors of the Sarmatians
on this side or the other of the Don, living the same life and counting
as one of their tribes. That is, that the Ossetes, Jasy, Alans,
Sarmatians[4] are all of one stock, once nomad, now confined to the
valleys of the central chain of the Caucasus. The Ossetes are tall,
well-made, and inclined to be fair, corresponding to the description of
the Alans in Ammianus (XXXI, II, 21) and their Iranian language answers
to the accounts of the Sarmatians, of whom Pliny says ‘Medorum ut ferunt
soboles’ (_N. H._, VI, 19).”
Footnote 4:
The author agrees with Zaborowski and differs from Minns in his belief
that the Ossetes are of Nordic stock while the Sarmatians were
Alpines.
Chantre found among the Ossetes 30 per cent of blonds. See Chantre, 2.
66 : 16. Alans. See Jordanes, _History of the Goths_, Mierow
translation. Procopius, writing about 550 A. D., says: “At this time the
Alani and the Absagi were Christians and friends of the Romans of old
and lived in the neighborhood of the Caucasus.” In his vol. III, chap.
II, 2–8, we read of the period from 395–425 A. D. “There were many
Gothic nations in earlier times just as also at the present, but the
greatest and most important of all are the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths and
Gepædes. In ancient times, however, they were named Sauromatæ and
Melanchlæni, and there were some too who called these nations Getic. All
these, while they are distinguished from one another by their names, as
has been said, do not differ in anything else at all. For they all have
white bodies and fair hair and are tall and handsome to look upon, and
they use the same laws, and practise a common religion. For they are all
of the Arian faith and have one language called ‘Gothic.’” (Procopius
thinks they all came originally from one tribe, and were distinguished
later by the names of those who led each group of old. They dwelt north
of the Danube and later the Gepædes took possession of the portion south
of the river. In regard to the derivation of the Goths and other tribes
from the Sauromatæ, compare the note on Sarmatians, for p. 143 : 21.) As
to the Goths in the Crimea see Zeuss, _Die Deutschen_, pp. 432 seq.; F.
Kluge, _Geschichte der götischen Sprache_, pp. 515 _seq._ Crim-götisch
existed as a language in southern Russia up to the 16th century.
66 : 23. Scythians. See the note to p. 214 : 10.
66: 24. Indo-European. The earliest known occurrence of this term is in
an article in _The Quarterly Review_ for 1813, written by Doctor Thomas
Young (no. XIX, p. 225).
Indo-Germanic. This term, although said not to have been invented by
Klaproth, was used by him as early as 1823. See Leo Meyer, in _Über den
Ursprung der Namen Indo-Germanen, Semiten und Ugro-finner,
Göttingergelehrte Nachrichten, philologisch-historische Klasse_, 1901,
pp. 454 _seq._
67 : 4. The idea of an Aryan race was first promulgated by Oscar
Schrader in his _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_. That there was an
original Aryan tongue but no Aryan race was the idea of Broca. Pösche
identified the Aryans with the Reihengraber type. Consult also Penka,
_Herkunft der Arier_ and _Origines Ariacæ_.
67 : 12. See Zaborowski, 1, pp. 1–10.
67 : 15. See the notes to p. 70: 22 _seq._
67 : 19. See the notes to p. 242: 5.
68 : 11. See pp. 192–193 and elsewhere, in this book.
CHAPTER VI. RACE AND LANGUAGE
69 : 10. See T. Rice Holmes, 2, pp. 185–199. The same thing may have
happened in Britain at Cæsar’s conquest, and still more in the Saxon
conquest.
70 : 4 _seq._ See p. 206 : 13 and note.
70 : 12–71: 6. These paragraphs elicited a very interesting letter from
a British officer in Howrah, Bengal, India, in October, 1919. He says:
“May I offer one or two remarks on points of detail? On p. 70 it is
stated ‘The Hindu to-day speaks a very ancient form of Aryan language
but there remains not one recognizable trace of the blood of the white
conquerors who poured in through the passes of the Northwest,’ and again
at p. 261, ‘Of all the wonderful conquests of the Sacæ there remain as
evidence of their invasions only these Indian and Afghan languages. Dim
traces of their blood, as stated before, have been found in the Pamirs
and in Afghanistan, but in the South their blond traits have vanished,
even from the Punjab. It may be that the stature of some of the Afghan
hill tribes and of the Sikhs, and some of the facial characters of the
latter, are derived from this source, but all blondness of skin, hair
and eye of the original Sacæ have utterly vanished.’
“This hardly agrees with my own observations during two years’ service
in the Punjab and Northwest Frontier Province. I should say that among
the Pathans living in British territory about Peshawar, blond
traits,—fair skin, the color of old ivory, red or brown hair, grey,
green, or blue eyes,—are as common as really black hair is in Scotland;
while among Panjabi Mussulmans living about Jhelum these traits are, if
not common, at least not extremely rare. Judging from the experience of
one squadron of cavalry, I should put the proportion of men with blond
traits at not less than one per cent. The women, whom one does not see,
must be fairer than the men, as elsewhere. I have seen a small Panjabi
Mahommedan girl, from about Dera Ismail Khan with _yellow_ hair. I have
also seen a _Sikh_ with _red_ hair, but that was certainly exceptional.
“These remarks are based on what I have seen myself, though no
statistics are kept and it is possible that I am generalizing from
insufficient data. It would not, however, I think, be too much to say
that ‘Blond traits are not uncommon in Afghanistan, and are even to be
found among Mussulmans in the Northwestern Panjab.’ (Afghans and Indian
Mussulmans of course sometimes dye their beards red, but this artificial
blondness has not been confused with the real thing.)”
The following quotation is from _The Outlook_ for March 10, 1920, which
contains an article entitled “The Present Situation in India,” by
Major-General Thomas D. Pilcher, of the British Army.
“Beside these castes there are tribes, and the Brahmin from the Punjab
has very little indeed in common with the Brahmin from Bengal or Madras.
Many Pathans and Punjabi Mohammedans have blue eyes and are no darker
than a southern European, whereas some of the depressed tribes are as
black as Negroes. Many of the northern peoples are at least as tall as
men of our own race, whereas other tribes do not average five feet.”
70 : 16. Castes. Deniker, 2, p. 403: “About 2,000 castes may be
enumerated at the present day, but year by year new ones are being
called into existence as a certain number disappear.” In his footnote
Deniker says: “The so-called primitive division into four castes:
Brahmans (priests), Kshatriya (soldiers), Vaisyas (husbandmen and
merchants), and Sudra (common people, outcasts, subject peoples?),
mentioned in the later texts of the Vedas, is rather an indication of
the division into three principal classes of the ruling race as opposed,
in a homogeneous whole, to the conquered aboriginal race (fourth
caste).” He continues: “The essential characteristics of all castes,
persisting amid every change of form, are endogamy within themselves and
the regulation forbidding them to come into contact one with another and
partake of food together.”
See also Zaborowski, _Les peuples aryens_, p. 65. There is, of course,
an enormous number of books which deal with the caste system of India.
71 : 7. Sir G. Archdall Reid, 2, p. 186: “If history teaches any lesson
with clearness, it is this, that conquest, to be permanent, must be
accompanied with extermination; otherwise, in the fulness of time, the
natives expel or absorb the conquerors. The Saxon conquest of England
was permanent; of the Norman conquest there remains scarcely a trace.”
71 : 24. See pp. 217–222 and notes.
72 : 4. See the notes to p. 141 : 4 _seq._
72 : 19. Ripley, pp. 219–220, says: “The race question in Germany came
to the front some years ago under rather peculiar circumstances. Shortly
after the Franco-Prussian War, De Quatrefages promulgated the theory ...
that the dominant people in Germany were not Teutons at all, but were
directly descended from the Finns. Being nothing but Finns, they were to
be classed with the Lapps and other peoples of western Russia.... Coming
at a time of profound national humiliation in France ... the book
created a profound sensation.... A champion of the Germans was not hard
to find. Professor Virchow of Berlin set himself to work to disprove the
theory which thus damned the dominant people of the empire. The
controversy, half political and half scientific, waxed hot at times....
One great benefit flowed indirectly from it all, however. The German
government was induced to authorize the official census of the color of
hair and eyes of the six million school children of the empire.... It
established beyond question the differences in pigmentation between the
North and the South of Germany. At the same time it showed the
similarity in blondness between all the peoples along the Baltic. The
Hohenzollern territory was as Teutonic in this respect as the
Hanoverian.”
73 : 6. Deniker is one of these. See his _Races of Man_, p. 334.
Collignon is another. See the _Bulletin de la Société d’anthropologie_,
Paris, 1883, p. 463; and _L’Anthropologie_, no. 2, for 1890.
73 : 11. See Keith, 3, p. 19; Beddoe, 4, p. 39; and Ripley, section on
Germany.
73 : 19. Beddoe, 4, pp. 39–40; Deniker, 2, p. 339; Ripley, p. 294.
74 : 12. See the note to p. 198 : 22.
CHAPTER VII. THE EUROPEAN RACES IN COLONIES
76 : 16. An old edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ states: “The
pure white population [of Venezuela] is estimated at only one per cent
of the whole, the remainder of the inhabitants being Negroes (originally
slaves, now all free), Indians and mixed races (Mulattoes and Zambos).”
The 11th edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ estimates the
percentage of whites, the creole element (whites of European descent),
at 10 per cent, as in Colombia, and the mixed races at 70 per cent, the
remainder consisting of Africans, Indians and resident foreigners.
76 : 19. Jamaica. _The New International Encyclopedia_, 1915 edition,
gives as follows figures which agree with the 1915 _Statesman’s
Yearbook_:
┌─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ YEAR │ WHITE │ COLORED │ BLACK │ OTHERS │ TOTAL │
├─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│ 1861│ 13,816│ 81,065│ 346,374│ │ 441,255│
│ 1871│ 13,101│ 100,346│ 392,707│ │ 506,154│
│ 1881│ 14,432│ 109,946│ 444,186│ 12,240│ 580,804│
│ 1891│ 14,692│ 121,955│ 488,624│ 14,220│ 639,491│
│ 1911│ 15,605│ 163,201│ 630,181│[5]22,396│ 831,383│
└─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘
Footnote 5:
East Indians, 17,380; Chinese, 2,111; not stated, 2,905.
76 : 21. The 11th edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ gives the
entire population of Mexico as 13,607,259, of which less than one-fifth
(19 per cent) were classed as whites, 38 per cent as Indians, and 43 per
cent as mixed bloods. There were 57,507 foreign residents, including a
few Chinese and Filipinos.
78 : 5. The Argentine Republic. In 1810 the population was approximately
250,000; in 1895, 3,955,110; in 1914, 7,885,237. For a total of
fifty-nine years in which the statistics have been kept, the number of
immigrants from Montevideo is 4,711,013. They were divided by
nationality as follows:
Italians 2,259,933
Spaniards 1,492,848
French 225,049
English 56,448
Austrians 81,186
Swiss 33,326
Germans 62,329
Belgians 23,091
Russians 135,962
Ottomans 121,177
Other nationalities 189,664
For added information on the Argentine, see the _Statistical Book of the
Argentine Republic_, 1915; _Argentine Geography_, published by Urien &
Colombo; and Juan Alsina’s _European Immigration to the Argentine_.
78 : 22. Philippines. The following figures were taken from the _New
International Encyclopedia_ and the _Statesman’s Yearbook_ for 1915. The
size of the population was established in June, 1914.
Total population 8,650,937
Native-born 6,931,548 or 99.2%
Chinese 41,035 or 0.6%
Americans and Europeans 20,000 or 0.3%
The natives are mostly of the Malayan race with the exception of 25,000
Negrito tribesmen.
78 : 24. Dutch East Indies. The figures are taken from the census of
1905.
Total population is approximately 38,000,000
Europeans 80,910
Chinese 563,000
Arabs 29,000
Other Orientals 23,000
78 : 25. British India. The figures are from the census of 1911:
Total population 315,156,396
(Of these 650,502 were not
born in India.)
The remainder are divided according to the languages spoken:
East Asiatics 4,410,000
Tibeto-Chinese 12,970,000
Dravidian 62,720,000
Aryan 232,820,000
European 320,000
81 : 5. See Francis Parkman, _The Old Régime in Canada_, vol. II, pp. 12
and 13.
82 : 10. See Sir Harry Johnston, _The Negro in the New World_, p. 343.
83 : 8. See the _Genealogical Records of the Society of the Colonial
Wars_.
84 : 6. See the notes to p. 38.
84 : 11 _seq._ A letter from Abraham C. Strite, a lawyer of Hagerstown,
Maryland, contains additional information on the so-called Pennsylvania
Dutch. Mr. Strite says: “They are not Palatine Germans, but largely
Swiss who speak a dialect of German. The writer happens to be of this
stock. Its characteristics are round head, black hair, dark brown eyes,
stocky stature, brunet type, all clearly indicating, according to your
analysis, an Alpine origin. This description fairly well averages up the
prevailing Pennsylvania Dutch type of this section although there are
some red heads and some blonds which would indicate a Nordic admixture,
again meeting your argument. There are many other varieties of Teutons
in this section, but I am confining my remarks to the class known as the
Pennsylvania Dutch. I have never made any head measurements among them
but I am of the opinion that the round-headed type vastly predominates.
The ancestors of these people emigrated from southern Europe, mostly
Switzerland, in quite some numbers between the years 1700 and 1775, and
settled in Lancaster County, Pa.; from thence they have spread out over
the adjoining sections of Pennsylvania, down through the Cumberland
valley and into the valley of Virginia, and to-day they form an
important element of the population. They are the organizers in America
of the religious sect known as the Mennonites.
“The early settlers of Germantown who were Mennonites, were of Palatine
stock. Of this there can be no doubt. Later immigration to Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, which constituted the bulk of the Pennsylvania
Dutch stock will be found, I think, largely to have come from
Switzerland, although not exclusively. Rupp’s _30,000 Names of
Immigrants to America_ gives the names, dates and sailings of this
Mennonite stock. Your conclusions are correct enough for all practical
purposes but it seemed to me that the immigrants from Switzerland and
from the Palatinate might be distinguished.”
Doctor C. P. Noble, of Radnor, Pa., writes concerning the Pennsylvania
Dutch: “I have seen much of them as patients and as I have observed them
they have the medium stature and stocky build of the Alpines, also they
have, usually, broad, round faces which are associated with
brachycephaly and certainly they have always exhibited peasant traits.
Moreover, it is unusual to find a blond among them.”
Doctor Jordan, of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, furnished Doctor
Noble with some data concerning them. That there were some Alpine
elements among them will appear from what follows. Doctor Jordan agreed
that the present day Pennsylvania Germans are almost exclusively brunet,
with stocky bodies of moderate height. Existing portraits of various
leaders among them when they arrived in Pennsylvania showed the same
types. Furthermore, Doctor Jordan’s extensive reading of early documents
relating to them tends to confirm the belief that the present day
descendants represent the original types. Tall blonds are very rare
among them.
Doctor Noble knows some individuals with Nordic traits, but these were
acquired by intermarriage with Anglo-Saxons. Most of these groups came
from southern Germany, from Silesia on the east to the Palatinate on the
west.
The following are Doctor Jordan’s notes:
Moravians. They were located in Pennsylvania, at first in Bethlehem and
later in Nazareth. The land in Nazareth was purchased of Whitfield, the
predestinarian Methodist.
The Moravian immigration was carefully supervised. The church either
owned or chartered the vessels which brought over the immigrants.
Frequently it was definitely arranged as to how many artisans of each
trade should come over so that they would prosper on arrival.
The Moravian immigration was small—about 500 up to 1750. Until about
1840 the Moravian settlements were closed towns—no non-Moravians could
buy property.
Not one quarter of the present Moravians are descendants of the early
settlers. The rest are converts or descendants of converts. A connection
exists between the Moravians, Huss and his Protestant followers, and the
Waldenses. A short résumé of this will be found in the _Encyclopædia
Britannica_—under Huss and Moravians—from the world standpoint.
Moravians migrated from Bohemia to Saxony and were protected by Count
Zinzendorf—a liberal Lutheran—and lived on his estates. He assisted in
their migration to Pennsylvania. Some went to Georgia and later to
Pennsylvania.
Schwenkfelders. These were the followers of Kaspar Schwenkenfeld
(1490–1561). See the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ for a short account. They
formed a sect in Silesia which has persisted. In 1720 a commission of
Jesuits was sent to convert them by force. Most of them fled into Saxony
and were protected by Count Zinzendorf. From thence they migrated to
Holland, England and Pennsylvania. Frederick the Great, when he seized
Silesia, protected those remaining there.
Ursinus College, Collegeville, is Schwenkfelder. The sect is not large
and was located in or around Montgomery County. Their migration to
Saxony and also to Pennsylvania antedated that of the Moravians.
Generally speaking, they have been much more aggressive and vigorous
than the Moravians.
The Dunkards, Mennonites, Amish, and Seventh Day Baptists (Wissahickon
and Ephrata, Pennsylvania), came from south Germany and the Palatinate.
The Harmony Society, small in numbers, the Lutherans and German
Reformed, came largely from south Germany and the Palatinate, but also
from other parts of Germany. The Lutherans and the Reformed were the
large sects in Pennsylvania.
Germans from the Hudson valley migrated to Berks County around Reading.
The Swedes in New Jersey were almost exclusively below Philadelphia—from
Gloucester down the Delaware River. Before the Revolution there were
about 30,000 Germans in Pennsylvania, out of a total estimated
population of 100,000 to 120,000.
84 : 16. Scotch-Irish. See _The Scotch-Irish in America_, by Henry Jones
Ford; and also Sir George Trevelyan on the Irish Protestants in chap.
XI, vol. II, of _George III and Charles Fox_.
87 : 24. In this connection it is interesting to note that an early
Egyptian king said almost the same concerning the negroes of his time.
The quotation is taken from Hall’s _Ancient History of the Near East_,
pp. 161–162, and is a translation of a portion of the manifesto of
Senusert III, of the XIIth dynasty, which he caused to be set up at the
time of the Nubian wars: “Vigor is valiant, but cowardice is vile. He is
a coward who is vanquished on his own frontier, since the negro will
fall prostrate at a word; answer him, and he retreats; if one is
vigorous, he turns his back, retiring even when on the way to attack.
Behold, these people have nothing terrible about them; they are feeble
and insignificant; they have buttocks for hearts. I have seen it, even
I, the majesty; it is no lie....”
88 : 9. Barrett Wendell, _A Literary History of America_, chap. III.
88 : 28. The belief in the approximation of the Anglo-Saxon in America
to the Amerindian is widespread, but is entirely without justification,
scientific or otherwise.
89 : 1. Hall, _Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics_, and
especially his _Immigration_, pp. 107–112.
91 : 1. Hall, 2.
94 : 1. Beddoe, 5, p. 416. For similar conclusions see DeLapouge,
_passim_; G. Retzius, 3; and Roese, _Beiträge zur Europäischen
Rassenkunde_. Fleure and James, pp. 125 and 151–152 make similar
observations.
_PART II_
EUROPEAN RACES IN HISTORY
CHAPTER I. EOLITHIC MAN
97 : 10. Osborn, 1, the tables on pp. 18 and 41.
98 : 15. Galton, pp. 309–310; Woods, 1, chap. XVIII.
99 : 5–10. _A Statistical Study of American Men of Science_, J. McKeen
Cattell, especially _Science_, vol. XXXII, no. 828, pp. 553–555.
99 : 22. The authorities quoted by J. B. Bury in his _History of Greece_
are complete and concise. In chap. I he discusses the Dorian conquest
from p. 57 forward, and the Homeric-Mycenæan period (1600–1100 B. C.)
from p. 20. A very interesting instance of the truth of the picture of
Mycenæan culture as drawn by Homer occurs on p. 50, where it is stated
that much described by the poet, even to small articles, has been
unearthed during archæological investigations. “Although the poets who
composed the Iliad and Odyssey probably did not live before the ninth
century, they derived their matter from older lays.”
99 : 27. Crete. For systems of Cretan writing see Sir Arthur J. Evans,
_Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phœnician Script_, _Further Discoveries of
Cretan and Ægean Script_, _Reports of Excavations at Cnossus_,
_Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos_, and _Scripta Minoa_. That the aboriginal
“Eteocretan” language existed until historic times is attested by the
discoveries of later inscriptions belonging to the fifth and succeeding
centuries B. C., which were written in Greek letters at this time but in
the indigenous, undecipherable tongue. They are described by Comparetti,
_Mon. Ant._, III, pp. 451 _seq._, and by R. S. Conway, 2, 3, especially
pp. 125 _seq._, in vol. VIII. In 1908 another discovery was made by the
Italian Mission at Phæstus, of a clay disk with printed hieroglyphics
which did not belong to the Cretan system of writing. It is supposed to
have come from Asia Minor.
For other discoveries in Crete and other authorities see R. M. Burrowes,
C. H. and H. B. Dawes. On Cretan pottery see Sir Duncan Mackenzie, 2,
and Sir Arthur Evans, 2. Sir Duncan Mackenzie also has a book on the
Cretan palaces. Bury, in his _History of Greece_, pp. 9 _seq._, gives a
brief description of Crete as revealed by archæologists. According to
them, the palaces of Cnossus and Phæstus were erected before 2100 B. C.,
when Cretan civilization was well advanced. See also the note to p.
119 : 1 of this book.
99 : 28. Azilian period. See p. 115 of this book.
100 : 20 _seq._ Osborn, 1, p. 49 _seq._, and the note VII of the
appendix. See also the notes to p. 13 of this book.
100 : 28. Progressive dessication. Ellsworth Huntington, 2.
101 : 5. Arboreal Man. See the work of W. K. Gregory, especially 3, p.
277; and John C. Merriam, pp. 203 and 206–207.
101 : 12. Osborn, 1, note VII, p. 511, of the appendix; and Merriam, pp.
205–208.
101 : 15. J. Pilgrim, _The Correlation of the Siwaliks with Mammal
Horizons of Europe_.
101 : 21. Java and the Pithecanthropus erectus. Dubois, E. Fischer, and
particularly G. Schwalbe. For the land connection of Java with the
mainland see Alfred Russel Wallace’s _Island Life_, and _The Geography
of Mammals_, by W. L. and P. L. Sclater.
101 : 27. Gunz glaciation. See Osborn’s table of Geologic Time, in 1, p.
41. The date given here is that made by Penck.
102 : 1. W. D. Matthew, _Revision of the Lower Eocene Primates_, and W.
K. Gregory, _The Evolution of the Primates_.
102 : 13. Schoetensack, _Der Unterkiefer des Homo Heidelbergensis aus
den Sanden von Mauer bei Heidelberg im Beitrag zur Paläontologie des
Menschen_.
102 : 21. At the beginning of this Eolithic period wood was used for
clubs and probably as levers along with the chance flints. Perhaps it
was employed even earlier, but of course no remains would come down to
us.