Influences of Geographic Environment | Page 3

geographic conditions--Island way stations on maritime routes--Scattered location of primitive peoples--Ethnic islands of expansion and decline--Discontinuous distribution--Contrasted location--Geographical polarity--Geographical marks of growth and decline--Interpretation of scattered and marginal location--Contrast between ethnic islands of growth and decline.
CHAPTER VI.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
The size of the earth--Relation of area to life--Area and differentiation--The struggle for space--National area an index of social and political development--The Oikoumene--The unity of the human species in relation to the earth--Isolation and differentiation--Monotonous race type of small area--Wide race distribution and inner diversities--Large area a guarantee of racial or national permanence--Weakness of small states--Protection of large area to primitive peoples--Contrast of large and small areas in bio-geography--Political domination of large areas--Area and literature--Small geographic base of primitive societies--Influence of small, confined areas--The process of territorial growth--Historical advance from small to large areas--Gradations in area and in development--Preliminaries to ethnic and political expansion--Significance of sphere of influence or activity--Nature of expansion in new and old countries--Relation of ethnic to political expansion--Relation of people and state to political boundary--Expansion of civilization--Cultural advantages of large political area--Politico-economic advantages--Political area and the national horizon--National estimates of area--Limitations of small tribal conceptions--Evolution of territorial policies--Colonial expansion--The mind of colonials.
CHAPTER VII.
GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES
The boundary zone in Nature--Oscillating boundaries of the habitable area of the earth--Wallace's Line a typical boundary zone--Boundaries as limits of expansion--Boundary zone as index of growth or decline--Breadth of boundary zone--Broad frontier zones of active expansion--Value of barrier boundaries--The sea as the absolute boundary--Natural boundaries as bases of ethnic and political boundaries--Primitive waste boundaries--Alien intrusions into border wastes--Politico-economic significance of the waste boundary--Common boundary districts--Tariff free zones--Boundary zones of mingled race elements--Assimilation of civilization in boundary zones--Relation of ethnic and cultural assimilation--The border zone of assimilation in political expansion--Tendency toward defection along political frontiers--The spirit of colonial frontiers--Free border states as political survivals--Guardians of the marches--Lawless citizens deported to political frontiers--Drift of lawless elements to the frontiers--Asylums beyond the border.
CHAPTER VIII.
COAST PEOPLES
The coast a zone of transition--The inner edge--Shifting of the inner edge--Outer edge in original settlement--In early navigation--In colonization--Inland advance of colonies--Interpenetration of land and sea--Ratio of shore-line to area--Criticism of the formula--Accessibility of coasts from hinterland--Accessibility of coasts from the sea--Embayed coasts--Contrasted coastal belts--Evolution of ports--Influence of offshore islands--Previous habitat of coast-dwellers--Habitability of coasts as a factor in maritime development--Geographic conditions for brilliant maritime development--Scope and importance of seaward expansion--Ethnic contrast between coast and interior peoples--Ethnic amalgamations of coastlands--Lingua franca a product of coasts--Coast-dwellers as middlemen--Differentiation of coast from inland people--Early civilization of coasts--Progress from thalassic to oceanic coasts--Importance of geographic location of coasts--Historical decline of certain coasts--Complex interplay of geographic factors in coastlands.
CHAPTER IX.
OCEANS AND ENCLOSED SEAS
The water a factor in man's mobility--Oceans and seas the factor of union in universal history--Origin of navigation--Primitive forms--Relation of river to marine navigation--Retarded and advanced navigation--Geographic conditions in Polynesia--Mediterranean versus Atlantic seamanship--Three geographic stages of maritime development--Enclosed seas as areas of ethnic and cultural assimilation--Assimilation facilitated by ethnic kinship--Importance of zonal and continental location of enclosed seas--Thalassic character of the Indian Ocean--Limitations of small area in enclosed seas--Successive maritime periods in history--Contrasted historical r?les of northern and southern hemispheres--Size of the ocean--Neutrality of the seas--Mare clausum and Mare liberum.
CHAPTER X.
MAN'S RELATION TO THE WATER
The protection of a water frontier--Pile villages of ancient times--Modern pile dwellings--Their geographic distribution--River-dwellers in old and popular lands--Man's encroachment upon the sea by reclamation of land--The struggle with the water--Mound villages in river flood-plains--Social and political gain by control of the water--A factor in early civilization of arid lands--The economy of the water--Fisheries--Factors in maritime expansion--Fisheries as nurseries of seamen--Anthropo-geographic importance of navigation.
CHAPTER XI.
THE ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY OF RIVERS
Rivers as intermediaries between land and sea--Sea navigation merges into river navigation--Historical importance of seas and oceans influenced by their debouching streams--Lack of coast articulations supplied by rivers--River highways as basis of commercial pre?minence--Importance of rivers in large countries--Rivers as highways of expansion--Determinants of routes in arid or semi-arid lands--Increasing historical importance of rivers from source to mouth--Value of location at hydrographic centers--Effect of current upon trade and expansion--Importance of mouth to upstream people--Prevention of monopoly of river mouths--Motive for canals in lower course--Watershed canals for extension of inland waterways--Rivers and railroads--Natural unity of every river system--In arid lands as common source of water supply--Tendency towards ethnic and cultural unity in a river valley--Identity of country with river valley--Rivers as boundaries of races and peoples--Rivers as political boundaries--Fluvial settlements and peoples--Boatman tribes or castes--River islands as protected sites--River and lake islands as robber strongholds--River peninsulas--River islands as sites of trading posts and colonies--Swamps as barriers and boundaries--Swamps as regions of survivals--Swamps as places of refuge--The spirit of the marshes--Economic and political importance of lakes--Lakes as nuclei of states--Lakes as fresh-water seas.
CHAPTER XII.
CONTINENTS AND THEIR PENINSULAS
Insularity of the land-masses--Classification of land-masses according to size and location--Effect of the size of land-masses--Independence due to location versus independence