i64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



GEOGEAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE EVOLUTION 

 OF NATIONS 



By Pkofessob WALTER S. TOWEE 



UNIVBBSITT OF PENNSYLVANIA 



The Study of Nations. — ^The study of the chief nations of the world, 

 with respect to their history, government, institutions or people, forms 

 the basis of most of the humanitarian, as opposed to the natural, 

 sciences. Yet in many respects the general attitude adopted in the 

 interpretation of national development has not changed with the 

 advances made in the scientific understanding of the earth in its rela- 

 tion to life. Fifty years ago, for example, the belief was prevalent that 

 the earth was made for man's convenience. Since then the students of 

 the natural sciences have adopted the conception that life is the pro- 

 duct of evolution, in which physical conditions are at all times impor- 

 tant factors. The study of nations, on the contrary, is still largely 

 carried on from the old point of view, with little or no open recogni- 

 tion of the significance of evolutionary factors. 



National Evolution. — For the nation, also, as well as for the indi- 

 viduals of which it is composed, physical conditions are at all times 

 important influences. This principle of evolution, therefore, may be 

 applied to the different stages through which human groups pass in 

 their rise from primitive tribes to modern nations, in the same way as 

 it is applied to the human individual in the evolution of man to his 

 present high estate in the animal kingdom. Thus as the course of 

 human progress replaces the isolated, self-dependent savage by the 

 tribe, or any primitive group, the qualities and motives of the group 

 reflect the needs which arise from the surroundings and also the oppor- 

 tunities at hand for satisfying these needs. The organized hunting 

 tribes of forest dwellers, the pastoral nomads of open grassy plains, the 

 fishing folk of barren coast lands, represent great advances beyond the 

 first savage individuals, yet each of these groups is none the less the 

 combined result of human needs and natural opportunities to gratify 

 needs. Physical conditions are for these groups the most important 

 factors in determining both the character of, and the opportunities for 

 satisfying, human needs. 



Each of the above groups represents a stage of progress toward 

 national existence, but no one of them, as they stand, possesses the 

 physical conditions necessary to lift the tribe to the higher plane where 

 it might be said to have true national qualities. Before any primitive 

 group can develop into a nation, it must be given an evironment where- 



