THE NEW MAP OF EUROPE 



Greater Greece, provided the recent polit- 

 ical events have not permanently alien- 

 ated Allied sympathies. 



Greece also is pressing its claim to the 

 Epirns district, embracing some 2,000 

 square miles. Albania is the rival claim- 

 ant here. 



RUMANIA DOUBLES ITS AREA AND 

 POPULATION 



By its recovery of the fertile province 

 of Bessarabia, which Russia absorbed at 

 the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War 

 of 1878, and the acquisition of the former 

 Austrian crownland, Bukowina, together 

 with Transylvania, a part of Banat and 

 other provinces from Hungary, Rumania 

 becomes the largest of the Balkan States, 

 with an area equal to the combined areas 

 of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria 

 and with 17,000,000 inhabitants.* 



To the northeast, across the Dniester 

 River, lies the nascent republic of the 

 Ukraine, whose territorial limits can as 

 yet be indicated only vaguely. It is a 

 land rich in agricultural resources, espe- 

 cially that portion known as the "Black 

 Soil District.'' Some statisticians have 

 computed its area to be in the neighbor- 

 hood of 200.000 square miles (twice that 

 of Jugo-Slavia), with a population of 

 30,000,000. f Ukrainian propagandists 

 lay claim to 330,000 square miles and 

 45,000,000 population. 



PROBLEMS WHICH THE NEW NATIONS 

 PACE 



Even after the course and extent of its 

 boundaries have been determined, a new 

 nation has not yet launched its ship of 

 state upon the turbulent seas of interna- 

 tional politics and commercial rivalry. 

 Indeed, boundaries are little more than 

 the preliminary plans or drawings, indi- 

 cating the length, breadth, and tonnage 

 of the proposed "ship.'' 



* For accounts of Rumania's history and as- 

 pirations, see in the National Geographic 

 Magazine "Rumania and Its Rubicon," by 

 John Oliver La Gorce, September, 1916; "Ru- 

 mania, the Pivotal State," by James Howard 

 Gore, October, 1915, and "Rumania and Her 

 Ambitions." by Frederick Moore, October, 1913. 



t See "The Ukraine, Past and Present," by 

 Nevin O. Winter, in the National Geographic 

 Magazine for August, 1918. 



Xow begins the great task of con- 

 structive organization, the training of 

 officers, the equipping and provisioning 

 for the voyage. 



Each of the new states of Europe is 

 beginning its national life with even less 

 capital in experience than had the Thir- 

 teen Colonies after the American Revo- 

 lution. In some instances they lack such 

 machinery of government as customs 

 posts and the trained officers to admin- 

 ister them ; their postal systems have 

 been disorganized by violent severance 

 from old governments, and the innumer- 

 able new postage stamps in themselves 

 tell a fascinating story ; mints have had 

 to be established to provide a complete 

 system of coinage. 



NEW STATES ARE WRESTLING WITH 

 EISCAE SYSTEMS 



The development of a sound fiscal sys- 

 tem is one of the most difficult problems 

 of modern statecraft, especially in a 

 world where normal exchange rates no 

 longer exist, for in the financial world 

 chaos has followed the overthrow of 

 credit. That credit must be reestablished 

 both at home and abroad before any of 

 these nascent nations can make substan- 

 tial progress. Parliamentary debate must 

 crystallize into wise legislation. Even the 

 election machinery which enables a peo- 

 ple to register their will requires devel- 

 opment in some regions, where universal 

 suffrage has never been enjoyed hereto- 

 fore. 



In the restored countries the problem 

 is as difficult as in the new. Poland, for 

 example, has not been called upon to ex- 

 ercise the functions of self-government 

 in more than a century, while in the case 

 of Bohemia (the land of the Czechs) the 

 gap of time between the suppression of 

 the ancient free constitution of the king- 

 dom and the advent of President Mas- 

 aryk under the new constitution, adopted 

 by the Constituent Assembly in Prague 

 on February 29, 1920, is nearly three 

 hundred years. 



How many of these craft of state can 

 sail on 



"In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 

 In spite of false lights on the shore." 



none can prophesy. 



