162 THE EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT 



ilization of the Hawaiian and other islands of the Pacific ocean 

 caused a great diminution in the number of their inhabitants 

 and the entire extinction of some tribes. No discovery or inven- 

 tion was ever made, whether of fire, of the bow, of gunpowder, 

 of printing, steam, or electricity, of the telegraph, telephone, or 

 bicycle, that did not bring with it changes in civil, social, and 

 private life and in business transactions. The greater the value 

 of the invention, the greater the disturbance of established habits, 

 trade, and business. The cotton gin enriched the South, but 

 made slavery profitable and led to our civil war. The rail- 

 road, steamship, and telegraph revolutionized the entire com- 

 merce of the world, and ruined many wealthy and long estab- 

 lished mercantile and commercial firms. The civilization of 

 past ages was never the enlightenment and elevation of the 

 Avhole nation, it was the upbuilding of the higher classes in 

 knowledge, culture, wealth, and power, and the oppression and 

 debasement of the lower classes. 



Comfort, happiness, and length of life are ever increasing with 

 civilization. Individual strife is prevented by law, warfare is 

 controlled, new and improved varieties of food, shelter, and 

 clothing add to the sum of human happiness. Civilized man 

 has become a highly developed and sensitive organism, with in- 

 creased susceptibilities to both pain and pleasure. It is the pur- 

 pose and effect of modern civilization to offer opportunities which 

 shall raise the whole race to an elevation never yet attained. 



One of the most striking features in the development of civili- 

 zation, though hitherto little considered, is its relation to and 

 dependence on geographic environment. In our earliest studies 

 of man we find him the creature of his environment, only pro- 

 gressing in those directions and at that rate to which he is 

 forced by his necessities. As we follow him through different 

 and progressive stages of development, we find still the influ- 

 ence of geographic environment in directing, in stimulating, 

 or retarding his progress. Indeed, so marked is the effect of 

 geographic environment on any primitive people that, given the 

 environment, the geographer can determine the character, re- 

 ligion, and habits of life of that people. 



We were formerly taught that some four or five thousand 

 years back in the world's history a man, perfect and complete, 

 was created, the ancestor of the human race, to whom was given 

 lordship over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air and 

 dominion over all nature. Modern research and the discovery 



