EUROPE 



The N. limit of the growth of 

 economic plants illustrates the 

 effects of climate. Greece, peninsu- 

 lar Italy and S. Spain are suitable 

 for olive trees. The N. limit of the 

 vine is approximately 50 N., of 

 wheat 60 N. Wheat grows best 

 between 40 and 50 N., maize 

 about 45 N., rye about 55 N. The 

 most characteristic region of Eu- 

 rope is the Mediterranean area, the 

 land of wheat, wine, and olive oil 

 as the staple foodstuffs, of winter 

 rains and summer droughts, of lus- 

 cious fruits oranges, lemons, etc. 

 The W. margin is the land of wheat, 

 meat, and milk, of autumn down- 

 pours and muggy warm winters ; 

 the N.E. lands are notable for rye 

 and alcohol, hard frosty winters 

 and hot, dusty summers. 



NATIONALITIES. Politically, Eu- 

 rope is the most important portion 

 of the Old World. Along its S. and 

 W. margins has developed a civiliza- 

 tion which has been carried to the 

 New World and to Australasia, 

 while in modern times the civiliza- 

 tion of W.Europe tends to dominate 

 the world and to guide or control 

 the younger states now achieving 

 nationhood. 



Branches of the Slavs 



The boundaries of the new Euro- 

 pean states coincide fairly com- 

 pletely with the limits of the habi- 

 tation of definite types of people. 

 Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, and 

 Lithuania are the homes of people, 

 Finns, Esthonians (akin to the 

 Finns), Letts, and Lithuanians, 

 who are not Slavs and are mostly 

 Protestants. By speech, history, 

 and religion, they were antagonistic 

 to the Russian Slavic autocracy. 

 Poland is the land of the Poles, a 

 Roman Catholic Slav people with a 

 distinct Slav speech, who main- 

 tained for many centuries a king- 

 dom ultimately divided between 

 Russia, Prussia, and Austria. 



Czecho-Slovakia includes within 

 its boundaries Czechs, Moravians, 

 and Slovaks, a Slav people akin to 

 the Poles, Roman Catholics as 

 a rule, but with a distinct Slav 

 tongue and a separate history, 

 mainly centred round the former 

 kingdom of Bohemia. These two 

 branches of the N. Slavs have 

 adopted republicanism. The S. 

 Slavs of Yugo (S.) Slavia include 

 the Slovenes, Croatians, and Serbs. 



The Slovenes and Croats are 

 Roman Catholics with no definite 

 separate history ; the Serbs belong 

 to the Greek Orthodox Communion, 

 and their kingdom of Serbia was in 

 existence before the Turks invaded 

 Central Europe. The common 

 speech of the three branches has 

 been obscured by the use of differ- 

 ent scripts, the Serbs use Cyrillic 

 and the others Latin characters for 



3O13 



the written language, but the unity 

 of tongue and of nationality have 

 given rise to the extension of the 

 kingdom of Serbia into the Serb- 

 Croat-Slovene (S-C-S) kingdom. 



The Bulgars are akin to the S. 

 Slavs and their state was carved in 

 1878 out of the Turkish dominions. 

 The Rumanians are not Slavs, 

 although almost completely sur- 

 rounded by Slav peoples. 



Hungary is the land of the Mag- 

 yars, an Asiatic people from the 

 Siberian steppes. Their speech has 

 no affinities among the main Euro- 

 pean languages ; its strangeness has 

 tended to isolate the Magyar from 

 the peoples of W. Europe. This iso- 

 lation has been intensified by the 

 strong national feeling which main- 

 tains a nice distinction between 

 Magyars and foreigners, and possi- 

 bly accounts for the unique govern- 

 ment compromise which has been 

 established. The new Austria is 

 almost precisely the habitation of 

 the Austrian Germans, all the non- 

 Germanic areas of the old Austria 

 have been detached and the Ger- 

 manic section of the old Hungary 

 has been added to the Germanic 

 nucleus of the once powerful Aus- 

 trian Empire ; the new Austrian re- 

 public is prohibited from joining 

 the republican states of Germany. 

 Greece, like Rumania, has exten- 

 ded its boundaries to include areas 

 largely inhabited by co-nationals. 

 Denmark and North Slesvig 



The Danes of N. Slesvig are now 

 included in Denmark. Of the other 

 states France has regained the lost 

 provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, 

 Italy has gained the Trentino and 

 Istria, and Belgium has gained 

 Malmedy,etc.,all acquisitions based 

 upon nationality. The peoples of 

 the remaining countries, Portugal, 

 Spain,etc., are homogeneous except 

 in Belgium and Switzerland. In 

 both these small countries two 

 peoples, one Teutonic and the other 

 French in speech and origin, con- 

 stitute the nation. The Jews are 

 scattered in many lands in small 

 numbers, chiefly in the large cities, 

 but forming considerable proport- 

 ions of the population in Poland, 

 the Ukraine, Rumania, and in 

 Hungary. 



AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES. 

 The largest portion of the people 

 of Europe work on the land, or are 

 dependants of farmers and pea- 

 sants. Wherever it is at all pos- 

 sible the land is cultivated, even 

 if only to grow some crops for 

 home use. These domestic har- 

 vests must be ignored in this sum- 

 mary, and attention paid to the 

 cultivation of the ground as a 

 business. Of the great cereal 

 crops Europe produces half the 

 world's wheat, two-thirds of the 



^ EUROPE 



oats, three-quarters of the barley, 

 nearly all the rye, but only a 

 seventh of the maize. 



Of animals, Europe has nearly 

 half the world's horses, a third of 

 the sheep, more than half the pigs, 

 and nearly a third of the cattle. 

 European Wheat Belt 



Within Europe the wheat belt 

 is approximately the N. edge of 

 the area of the densest population, 

 and in the E. the areas E. and S. 

 of this belt. The rye belt lies 

 farther N., where it is colder, the 

 maize belt farther S. Oats are 

 grown largely between rye and 

 wheat; barley is grown with the 

 wheat and to the S. of it. W. 

 Europe i.e. the U.K., France, 

 Belgium, Holland, and Germany 

 may be compared with the rest of 

 the continent. This area produces 

 almost a third of the wheat of 

 Europe, half the oats, a third of 

 the barley and rye, and contains 

 a third of the sheep, nearly half 

 the horses, three-fifths of the pigs, 

 and a third of the cattle. In 

 the colder areas of poor soil in 

 W. Europe, potatoes are produced 

 in large quantities, and roots 

 swedes, mangolds, etc. are an 

 important crop in the W. where 

 required as winter food for stock. 



Europe produces roughly hah* 

 the world's sugar from the sugar 

 beet, extensively grown in Ger- 

 many, N.E. France, Czecho-Slo- 

 vakia, Poland, Austria and Hun- 

 gary. Nearly all the rest of the 

 world's sugar is obtained from 

 tropical sugar canes. 



Flax and hemp are grown on 

 the cold wet soils of Russia, Ger- 

 many, and Ireland. In the Medi- 

 terranean area the products are 

 chiefly fruits oranges, lemons, 

 currants, figs, plums, prunes and 

 olives. The cultivation of the vine 

 extends from the Mediterranean to 

 lat. 50 N. Europe leads the rest 

 of the world in the production of 

 these fruits, which require dry, hot 

 summers and cool, moist winters. 



Europe produces no coffee or 

 cocoa, only about one-eighth of 

 the world's tobacco, and a small 

 harvest of rice, chiefly in Italy. 

 In addition to the flax mentioned, 

 Europe produces a fifth of the 

 world's wool from a third of the 

 world's sheep, no cotton or jute, 

 but obtains some raw silk in 

 France and Italy. 



Much of the fishing along the 

 coasts is for local consumption. 

 The main fisheries of world-wide 

 importance are located in the North 

 Sea, and off the Norwegian coast, 

 where herring and cod constitute 

 the main catch. The fishing 

 grounds are in shallow waters, 

 where the sea temperatures are 

 never low enough for freezing nor 



