THE MEDITERRANEAN PEOPLES—FISCHER. 521 
the population in the former is steadily decreasing, while in the coast 
countries it is just as steadily on the increase. 
From the very small number of 35 inhabitants to the square kilo- 
meter, the interior provinces have decreased to 14 and 15, while in the 
Mediterranean coast provinces Valencia shows 68 to the square kilo- 
meter, Malaga 71, Alicante 76, and Barcelona 117, as much as the 
average of the whole German Empire. 
In the Atlas countries this tendency toward the sea is even more 
marked ; all the larger cities lie on the coast, Constantine and Tlemcen 
are less than 100 kilometers away, and this distance is only exceeded 
in the cases of Fez and Marrakesch. 
We may safely say that two-thirds of all the inhabitants live less 
than 100 kilometers from the sea. It is the same way in Syria, where 
the deserts begin less than 100 kilometers from the coast, and the case 
is the same in Asia Minor and of course in Greece and the Balkan 
Peninsula. 
This brings us to the conclusion that all the Mediterranean 
countries were thickly populated in ancient times and have not 
changed so in their nature that they could not support a far greater 
number of people than they do to-day. Asia Minor alone, where to- 
day there are only 18 inhabitants to the square kilometer, has room 
for forty-three millions more, while the girdle of land which begins 
at the gates of Vienna and ends at the mouth of the Euphrates could 
surely hold a hundred millions more. If we consider this and the 
fact that in the Mohammedan countries which are under European 
administration the population is again increasing, as is shown by 
Egypt and Algeria, it becomes very evident that the Mediterranean 
not only looks back on an illustrious past, but is destined to have 
a great future, and its political importance will become steadily and 
rapidly greater as time goes on. 
