158 GERMANY. 



invasion of England by the Anglo-Saxons, the great historical events in which 

 Germans have played a leading part were decided by land, and not by sea. The 

 battles and struggles between them and their neighbours, whether Slavs, Italians, 

 or Latinised Gauls, took place in the region of the Alps and in the valleys of the 

 Rhine, the Oder, the Vistula, and the Danube. The migrations of peoples were 

 facilitated by the open, undefinable boundaries of the country, for only in the 

 south do the Alps constitute a well-defined natural boundary, whilst in the east 

 and the west the German lowlands merge into those of Russia and the Nether- 

 lands. The Flemings, who are of more purely German origin than either 

 Berliners or Viennese, advanced along the shore of the North Sea as far as the 

 hills of Boulogne, in the centre of France. Other German immigrants followed 

 the Baltic shores to the east, and penetrated into a country which now forms part 

 of the Russian Empire. Others, again, descended the valley of the Danube, and 

 founded colonies in Hungary and Transylvania. In the east the struggle between 

 Slav and German has been incessant, and the line separating the two races has 

 ever vacillated. If Bohemia has not been wholly Germanised, like other ancient 

 Slav countries in Austria and Prussia, this is solely owing to the mountain 

 rampart which surrounds it. 



"Whatever boundaries may have been laid down in treaties, the true limits of 

 the land of the Germans must always remain to some extent undefined, and it 

 is difficult to saj'- where Germany really begins and where it ends. At the 

 same time the central portion of the country is divided by mountain ranges into 

 a number of distinct districts, geographically predestined to become the homes of 

 separate tribes. These small basins are more especially abundant between the 

 north-western ano-le of Bohemia and the Ardennes, and there the feudal institu- 

 tions flourished longest, and the small states evolved by it are numerous to the 

 present day. The extensive plateau to the south of this region of hills and 

 valleys favoured the formation of a larger state, such as Bavaria, whilst the 

 extended plain of maritime Germany was shared between a number of independent 

 communities, which have been gradually absorbed by Prussia. 



The mountain ranges of Germany are of sufficient elevation and extent to 

 have considerably retarded the political unification of the country ; but they 

 presented no insurmountable obstacles to the migration of peoples, and the 

 country on both sides of them is inhabited by men of the same race. No doubt 

 the vast plains of Northern Germany contrast strikingly with the plateau and 

 mountains of the south, but the North German nevertheless differs only in minor 

 respects from the South German. The manners and customs of Frieslanders, 

 Mecklenburgers, and Pomeranians possess curious analogies with those of 

 Bavarians, Tyrolese, and Styrians. Central Germany, and above all Thuringia, 

 played the part of intermediary between the north and the south, and every great 

 impulse in the political life of the country departed from a line connecting 

 Frankfort, Leipzig, and Berlin. 



The general slope of the country is towards the north, from the Alps to the 

 Baltic Sea and the German Ocean. The plateau of Bavaria lies at a higher 



