EFFECT OF MOUNTAINS ON HISTORY 437 



range. For a long time the Alps hemmed in the power 

 of Rome. One of the greatest exploits of Hannibal and 

 later of Napoleon was the passage of these same mountains. 



In our own country the Appalachian Mountains acted 

 for a long time as an impassable barrier to the expansion 

 of the Thirteen Colonies. The trails across them were 

 so long and difficult that it was many years before the fer- 

 tile plains on their western side became populated. The 

 Mohawk valley opened a comparatively easy route at the 

 north, but the Cumberland trail at the south was long, 

 circuitous and full of places suitable for Indian ambuscade. 



The little mountain country of Switzerland is a buffer 

 state for the rest of Europe. Afghanistan, rough, moun- 

 tainous and desert, is a buffer state for Asia. 



Mountains are often used as boundaries to countries, as 

 in the case of the Pyrenees between France and Spain 

 and the Carpathian Mountains between Austria-Hungary 

 and Roumania. In early times it was thought sufficient to 

 indicate the crest of the mountains as the boundary line, 

 but soon it was found that what was to be called the crest 

 was so open to controversy that definite lines, accurately 

 determined from point to point, had to be substituted. 



Sometimes the determination of what shall be called the 

 crest line has given rise to bitter international disputes, as 

 was the case recently between Chile and Argentina. It 

 may happen that mountain boundaries are so broad and 

 complicated that a little country inserts itself along the 

 boundary of two powerful nations and is able to protect 

 itself from being absorbed by either. The little country 

 of Andorra, containing only 150 square miles, situated in a 

 lofty valley on the southern slope of the Pyrenees, with a 

 population not exceeding 10,000, has remained independ- 

 ent for nearly a thousand years in spite of its powerful 

 neighbors. 



