398 THE SEA IN THE LIFE OF THE NATIONS. 



it showers upon man from out of its never-exhausted fund, and more 

 still by carrying to his feet the products of the whole earth with the 

 smallest conceivable injury to their marketable value. The countries 

 situated on the seacoast, especially in the temperate zones, where 

 devotion to work is at its intensest, are witness to this truth. The 

 busiest cities, serving* world commerce as seaports; the wharves; the 

 industrial centers, desiring to have at first hand the raw material pro- 

 duced in foreign ports, are connected by a chain of smaller coast 

 settlements, which likewise depend in part upon sea commerce or upon 

 the coasting trade and the fisheries, and are usually surrounded by 

 well-cultivated fields, fertile by reason of the mild sea breezes wafted 

 over them. It is the more easily attained prosperity that lures men 

 to the coast. Therefore islands, as compared with the neighboring 

 mainland, and smaller islands conditions on the whole being equal — 

 as compared with larger ones, are distinguished, in consequence oi 

 their relatively greater coast allotment, by greater populousness. 

 Wherever land and sea touch each other, there, naturally, are most 

 apparent the blessings which the sea bestows upon mankind. 



Finally, let us cast a rapid glance at the political importance of the 

 sea. From what has been said it is obvious that every State, as soon 

 as it realizes the advantages of sea life to its citizens, will strive to 

 extend its territory to the sea, though it should only secure so tiny a 

 strip of coast as Montenegro recently obtained on the Adriatic. He 

 who has one foot planted on the c ast can dispatch his vessels over the 

 whole earth. With but a single port, to what a commanding position 

 in sea commerce, in dominion over the sea, and in colonization as far 

 as the most distant shores of the Black Sea, did Miletus attain in 

 antiquity and Genoa in the Middle Ages. Switzerland, founded in the 

 heart of Europe on the Alpine battlements, comes to mind as the only 

 one and as a remarkable example of a State carrying on trade with the 

 whole world by means of the vigorous industrial enterprise of its cit- 

 izens, though it can never hope to acquire coast possessions. But, 

 when disposing of her products and transporting them, how painfully 

 Switzerland feels her dependence upon the customs regulations and the 

 railroad rates prevailing in the four great powers encircling her. 

 Russia, on the other hand, aff rds the most striking instance in history 

 of a State purely inland in origin advancing with conscious intent, 

 step by step, to the shores of all the seas in its surroundings and 

 attaching them to itself until its banners wave from the Baltic to the 

 Yellow Sea. 



But the best, indeed the most indispensable, gifts of the sea to the 

 state, as such, are these three: independence, unity, and plenitude of 

 power. Ratzel properly points out that the sea is absolutely uninhab- 

 itable, hence constitutes the securest defense of a state. How much 

 less guaranteed would the freedom of the greatest republic seem if 





