i66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The real understanding of a nation and its evolution depends on an 

 appreciation of the particular combination of physical conditions by 

 which its course has been influenced in the different stages of develop- 

 ment. Consequently each nation must be interpreted in terms of its 

 own physical forces, and its strength or weakness may be measured by 

 those forces. The chief physical factors which are important in shap- 

 ing national development may be grouped, roughly in descending order 

 of importance,^ under the following general heads: (1) Position with 

 respect to physical relations, (2) position climatically, (3) surface 

 area, (4) surface configuration, (5) productivity of the soil and 

 climate, (6) the possession of potential mechanical energy, (7) mineral 

 wealth. 



Physical Position: Separation. — If the conditions necessary for 

 agriculture are assumed to exist, position with respect to physical rela- 

 tions may, on general grounds, be accorded first importance in its effect 

 on national evolution. In the early stages of development of all the 

 older nations, the degree of isolation or separation appears to have been 

 the one significant feature common to all the national territories. This 

 striking similarity may be explained on the ground that unless the 

 primitive group was afforded some degree of protection by natural 

 barriers to attack, the problem of successful establishment and 

 maintenance materially hampered continuity of progress. 



A survey of the physical relations surrounding the seats of the early 

 nations of the world indicates the value of separation, since, without 

 exception, they all possessed that quality to a marked degree. Thus, 

 Egypt in the Nile valley, highly favored as it was in soil and climate 

 as a basis for agriculture, may be regarded as owing its early develop- 

 ment of national qualities and culture no less to the surrounding desert 

 barrier which guaranteed a large measure of immunity from molesta- 

 tion. For, at the same time, other regions, like the lower Mississippi 

 valley, no less fertile, but lacking protective barriers of any sort, have 

 shown no national development by native groups. 



Similar conditions of separation and security were afforded in one 

 way or another in the fertile valleys of western Asia, and in the Greek 

 and Italian peninsulas. Considering Europe as a whole, for example, 

 there are nine fairly distinct physical subdivisions, of which four, the 

 Greek, Italian and Spanish peninsulas and the British Isles, have more 

 or less complete separation, by natural boundaries, from the adjoining 

 continental areas. Each one of the four stands as the seat of solid 

 national development at a date earlier than any stable national 

 existence prevailed in the other parts of the continent, as in the 

 exposed sections occupied by the modern states of Germany and 



^ For any individual nation at some particular stage in its evolution any 

 one of these factors may stand first in importance, aa noted later. 



