E.—GEOGRAPHY. 127 
empire reduced the home population by half, the land went out of culti- 
vation, the country was stricken by famine, and Negroes were introduced 
to till the derelict farms and then absorbed into the nation. The dilution 
of the Portuguese by Negro blood is often regarded as one of the main causes 
in the fall of Portugal from its former political, scientific and intellectual 
pre-eminence. Has Europe been led into the same enterprising but 
disastrous error? Has it undertaken the administration of larger areas 
than it has the personnel to maintain? Will, for example, the African 
troops in France have a similarly demoralizing effect as the Negroes in 
Portugal and the slaves carried into Italy during the decline of the 
Roman Empire ? 
II. The Races of Mankind. 
Consideration of inter-racial problems requires a classification of the 
races of mankind. The most popular classification is that into four races 
based on colour—the white or Huropean, the yellow or Mongolian, the 
brown or non-Mongolian Asiatic, and the ‘black’ or Negro. These colour 
names, however, are only valid if used in a conventional sense, which is 
often inaccurate. 
The character of the hair forms a more reliable basis and it divides 
mankind into three primary races—the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro. 
The Caucasian has abundant wavy hair; the Mongolian long, lank black 
hair; and the Negro short woolly hair. This classification is only politi- 
cally suitable if the Caucasians be subdivided into two sub-races, the fair- 
complexioned people of northern Europe, who were named by Huxley 
the Xanthochroii, and the Dark Caucasians or brown people, the Melano- 
chroii of Huxley, who include the south Europeans, and some still darker 
people in Asia and Africa. 
The numbers of the white, yellow, brown and black divisions of mankind, 
according to the returns for the last available year before the war, were— 
white or European race 520 million; Mongolian 620 million; brown 
370 million ; Negro 190 million—total 1,700 million. The coloured races 
are in the majority of more than 2to1l. The advantages conferred on the 
Whites by their more efficient organization, better equipment, and com- 
mand of transport and machinery should enable them to hold their 
own in any direct conflict, in spite of their inferior numbers. The danger 
to the white race comes from their dependence on trade with Asia and 
Africa which would be jeopardised by the restoration of the political 
conditions that held before those continents fell under European influence. 
The maintenance of European dominion lays a heavy burden on the white 
race, as it is responsible for the government of eight-ninths of the habitable 
land of the globe. One-third of the inhabitants of the world rule eight- 
ninths of it ; the remaining two-thirds of the people control only one-ninth 
of the land. 
This condition is modern. A thousand years ago the Whites held 
only part of Europe, for Spain was then ruled by the Moors and south- 
eastern Hurope by Asiatics. Four centuries ago the white race had 
secured nearly all Europe; but the coloured races still ruled the rest of the 
world. The formula of Asia for the Asiatics and Africa for the Africans 
was then accepted, as well as America for the Red Indians. Even at the 
beginning of the last century only a small proportion of North America 
