The conditions necessary for an ideal, self-contained government were briefly referred to above. In North America, perhaps, several such eligible sites for a definite number of people might be chosen, but in no case without the drawing of unnatural boundaries. The continent, as is shown by its geology and geography, is a unit, and the most typical of comparable size of any on the earth. These same conditions point to a single political unit. Arguing from geographical relations simply, and not considering the racial differences and local self-interests, the one boundary in North America should be the shore boundary, except at the 30-mile-wide Isthmus of Panama. To the geographer North America presents an example of a region containing within itself essentially all of the elements necessary to a high industrial, social, educational, and ethical development of its inhabitants. The industrial needs are met by a range of products, whether of soils, mines, forests, or fisheries, as varied or nearly so as is presented by the entire earth. Although the continent is broadest at the far north, where climatic extremes prohibit a dense population, yet in the temperate region, or between the mean annual isotherms of 45 and 75, a space of some 1,200 miles in latitude, it is from 2,500 to 4,000 miles wide. In this temperate region there is at present greater commercial and mental activity than elsewhere on the continent, and it is here that the dominant power of the future will be located. Supplementing the agriculture, manufactures, etc., of the temperate belt are the vast forested and fur-bearing regions on the north and the exuberant tropical countries on the south. Each of these three great regions are parts of a whole and mutually supplement each other.
The distribution of the population of North America, in respect to political subdivisions during the year 1900, is indicated, as nearly as it has been found practicable to ascertain it, in the following table:
POPULATION OF NORTH AMERICA IN 1900
| Government. | Area in square miles. | Population. |
| American Governments | ||
| United States (inclusive of Alaska and Porto Rico)[7] | 3,626,533 | 76,265,469 |
| Mexico | 767,005 | 13,570,545 |
| Guatemala[8] | 63,400 | 1,574,338 |
| Salvador[9] | 7,225 | 803,534 |
| Nicaragua | 49,200 | 420,000 |
| Honduras[10] | 45,250 | 407,000 |
| Costa Rica[11] | 23,000 | 310,000 |
| Panama (Department of Colombia) | 32,380 | 290,000 |
| San Domingo[13] | 20,596 | 1,244,650 |
| Haiti[13] | 9,242 | 500,000 |
| Cuba | 44,000 | 1,572,797 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total for American governments | 4,687,831 | 96,958,333 |
| Possessions still held by European Governments | ||
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:[12] | ||
| Canada | 3,653,946 | 4,846,377 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 49,734 | 201,934 |
| Bermuda | 19 | 15,013 |
| West Indies (Bahamas, Jamaica, etc.) | 12,059 | 1,357,254 |
| British Honduras | 7,562 | 31,471 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total for the United Kingdom | 3,723,320 | 6,452,049 |
| France: | ||
| Miquelon and St. Pierre | 93 | 6,250 |
| West Indies (Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc.) | 1,068 | 354,790 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total for France | 1,161 | 361,040 |
| Denmark: | ||
| West Indies (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix) | 149 | 35,900 |
| Holland: | ||
| West Indies (St. Martin in part, St. Eustace, and Saba) | 29 | 7,236 |
| ———— | ———— | |
| Total for European governments | 3,724,659 | 6,856,225 |
| ======== | ======== | |
| Total for North America | 8,412,490 | 103,814,558 |
[7]The area of Alaska is 590,884 square miles; its population, 63,592. The area of Porto Rico is 3,600 square miles; its population (1899), 953,243. Hawaii, not included above, has an area of 6,449 square miles and a population of 154,000.
[8]In 1894.
[9]In 1896.
[10]In 1899.
[11]In 1891.