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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



wars have managed somehow to secure 

 the victory for their side. 



Let us not minimize the importance of 

 this success, nor assume that it is any 

 the less success because England has suc- 

 ceeded in winning her victories by means 

 of the hands of others. Let us not claim 

 that the English have selected the win- 

 ning side with uncanny perspicacity and 

 have prevailed because they have always 

 had the good sense to attach themselves 

 to the victor. There are conspicuous in- 

 stances where the English have con- 

 sciously espoused the losing side at the 

 time when it seemed as if defeat were 

 an absolilte certainty. 



Witness the case of Frederick the 

 Great, fighting nearly the whole of Eu- 

 rope with only England as his ally. 



Witness the determination with which 

 England declined to make terms with 

 Napoleon when he seemed beyond a 

 doubt master of Europe. 



Yet despite the espousal of the losing 

 side and the inability to throw into the 

 European scale an army large enough to 

 decide the issue alone, the English have 

 brought victory to their banners. This, 

 in reality, is what we mean by English 

 predominance, by English preeminence, 

 if you will : they have almost invariably 

 molded European affairs as they wished. 



GEOGRAPHY I^AVORDD ENGLAND 



We must not lose sight of the fact that 

 the strategical geography of Europe has 

 given the English advantages of position 

 which were more important in the past 

 than great armies ; that the English Chan- 

 nel was, in the days of sailing ships, a 

 more effective barrier against invasion 

 than any army could have been. The 

 strategical importance of Belgium and 

 Holland, too, vital to England, was very 

 fortunately also vital to Germany and 

 France. The English have never, single- 

 handed, been able to keep either France 

 or Germany out of those countries in 

 time of war ; but they have, somehow or 

 other, always managed to play off France 

 against Germany, or Germany against 

 France, and in the long run keep them 

 both out of Belgium and Holland. Eng- 

 land has protected herself by arousing 

 the fears of others, and it must be ad- 



mitted that Germany in Belgium threat- 

 ens Paris a good deal more effectively 

 than she does London, and that Louis 

 XIV in Holland was even more distaste- 

 ful to the German States on the Rhine 

 than he was to the English. 



While we have not, in an article of 

 this length, sufficient space to deal with 

 the strategical geography of Europe in 

 detail, we must emphasize the extent to 

 which the geography of Europe creates 

 similar antipathies and arouses similar 

 apprehensions between most of the na- 

 tions occupying that continent. By means 

 of these antipathies and fears, England 

 has broken up alliances and coalitions 

 against her and has formed alliances to 

 assist her. We need not praise the Brit- 

 ish for molding the face of Europe to 

 suit their convenience, but it may not be 

 amiss to insist that the strategical posts 

 which have been of such consequence to 

 the English in the past are in nearly 

 every instance of exactly the same con- 

 sequence today that they have always 

 been. If we have here the secret of Eng- 

 lish success, the prime condition of Eng- 

 lish predominance, it is idle to suppose 

 that it will not be of consequence in the 

 immediate future. 



It is again true that the English have 

 taken advantage of the difficulties of 

 others and have won their position by 

 means of others' hands rather than by 

 any positive advantages of their own. 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FOR CENTURIES 



LACKED THE UNITY OE SPIRIT WHICH 



GREAT BRITAIN HAD ATTAINED 



Until quite recently the Great Powers 

 of Europe distinctly lacked territorial 

 unity, racial cohesion, and national con- 

 sciousness. We speak of French and 

 German history with assurance ; we even 

 write of the French and German nations 

 during the Middle Ages, meaning simply 

 the history of those elements which have 

 since amalgamated into the nations with 

 which we are familiar ; but we do not 

 always remember that the phrase "na- 

 tion" is, in the strict sense of the word, 

 a misnomer and even an anachronism 

 when applied to the States of continental 

 Europe in the Middle Ages. 



It was precisely the lack of national 



