514 JOHNSON— GEOGRAPHIC ASPECTS 



with less than a hundred Italians ; and for all of Istria, and the 

 shores of the Gulf of Fiume to and including the port, as well as 

 islands which would close the gulf and make it an Italian lake. In 

 the long negotiations looking toward a reduction of these claims, 

 Italy's persistent demand for explicit or virtual control of the port 

 of Fiume proved the most serious stumbling block. 



The peculiar strategic value of Fiume from both the economic 

 and military point of view is at once apparent. A glance at the 

 map will show that the Dinaric Alps, a broad belt of wild and 

 rugged mountainous country, intervenes between the interior of the 

 Balkan peninsula and the Adriatic Sea. South of Fiume this range 

 is crossed by but two or three narrow-gauge railroads, wholly in- 

 adequate to serve the commercial needs of the interior. The only 

 standard gauge road crosses the mountain barrier at its narrowest 

 point, opposite Fiume. The geographic conditions are such as 

 permanently to preclude any cheap and effective rail transport across 

 the broad part of the barrier ; hence Fiume, advantageously situated 

 opposite the narrowest part, and at the head of a sea that makes 

 water transportation both cheap and easy, is the inevitable economic 

 outlet for the northern part of Jugoslavia. Practically the whole 

 standard gauge railroad system of Jugoslavia is in the latitude of 

 Fiume, because the fertile river plains of the country are almost 

 entirely confined to that region ; because nearly two-thirds of the 

 population lives in these plains and valleys ; because railroad con- 

 struction is easy and comparatively inexpensive there ; and because 

 there is sufficient local traffic to maintain the roads and keep rates 

 down. Thus it will be seen that the life of the Jugoslav nation is 

 to an unusual degree concentrated in the north of the country ; and 

 as the railroad system upon which this economic life depends has its 

 only direct outlet to the sea at Fiume, it may well be said that the 

 power that holds Fiume holds the life of an entire nation in its 

 hands. 



Not only do Austria and Hungary, and to a considerable degree 

 Czechoslovakia and the newly enlarged Rumania look to Fiume 

 as an important economic outlet, but all the outside world desiring 

 to trade with central and southeastern Europe via the Mediterranean 



