TEE EVOLUTION OF NATIONS 169 



difficult for the movement of a hostile expedition. In this last fact 

 are found the peculiar advantages enjoyed by a country possessing coast 

 boundaries on all sides, like Britain. Without this common, easily 

 travelled, highway, the leading European nations of to-day could not 

 live on their present basis. Access by land alone, along the line of, or 

 even at the convergence of, great natural land routes, such as were so 

 important in the early days of Dutch activity, could not meet the 

 modern demands in the exchange of bulky raw materials for the pro- 

 ducts of mechanical energy. A list of the countries with no access from 

 the sea is a list of the less important countries of the world, as Bolivia, 

 Switzerland, Servia, Abyssinia, Afghanistan and Thibet. Other coun- 

 tries with seacoasts, but coasts of unsatisfactory character, either 

 because of the absence of good harbors, too great ruggedness of surface, 

 or being ice bound, suffer almost to the same degree, as Peru, and 

 Russia both in Europe and in Asia. 



The significance of access from the sea is in one way clearly demon- 

 strated by Russia. During more than two centuries the importance of 

 securing a coast affording ready sea communication at all seasons has 

 been the dominating influence in Russian aggression and territorial 

 expansion. Siberia, with its vast resources, loses most of its value to 

 Russian national development as long as satisfactory outlets to the sea 

 are lacking. The Russo-Japanese war may be regarded as an incident 

 in the long-continued effort to remedy this natural defect. It is not 

 too much to say that the failure of Russia to secure a satisfactory coast 

 and easy access to the common highway of the world accounts for much 

 of the slowness of Russian national evolution, a slowness ordinarily, 

 but wrongly, attributed to the fact that the Russians are of the Slavic, 

 rather than of some other, branch of the Caucasic race. 



On the other hand, mere possession of this advantage of a sea coast, 

 avails little unless other conditions are such that it may be used to best 

 profit, as illustrated by the results of the failure of France to utilize, at 

 the dawn of modern commerce, her superior access to the coasts of both 

 Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. The reason for this failure 

 must be sought in the weakness of the French position in other direc- 

 tions. For had France enjoyed the internal security and aloofness of 

 England, this direct access to both great commercial highways, backed 

 as it was by the greater size and larger population of the country, the 

 better soil and climate, the natural facilities for internal communica- 

 tion by navigable rivers, and the situation of France with reference to 

 the markets of Europe, would have made France, instead of England, 

 the master of commerce and the leader of all Europe. 



The significance of position, therefore, does not cease with the incep- 

 tion of national development, but makes its influence manifest through- 

 out the national existence. In advantages derived from physical posi- 



VOL. LXXVIII. — 12 



