The Natural Strongholds of Nomad Races
The lowlands are also regions of the most extensive mingling of races. We have but to think of Siberia or the Sudan. In the development of states, lowlands take precedence over mountainous district. Rome expanded from the sea-coast to the Apennines, and from the valley of the Po to the Alps; the conquest of Iberia began in the one great plain of the peninsula, in Andalusia, and in the lowlands of the Ebro; and foreign control of Britain ended at the mountains of Scotland and Wales. In North America colonisation spread out in broad belts at the foot of the Alleghanies before it penetrated into the mountains. In Southern China the mountains with their unsubdued tribes are like political islands in the midst of the Mongolised hills and plains.
The lesser the differences in level, and the smaller the conformations of the earth, the more important are those differences that remain within heights of less than a thousand feet above the sea. Elevations of a dozen yards were of the greatest importance on the battlefields of Leipzig, Waterloo, and Metz. The significance of the little rise in the land of Gavre, near Ghent, lies in the fact that even at times of flood a foundation for a bridge will remain firm upon it. The slightest elevation in the lowland cities of Germany and Russia offers such a contrast in altitude to its surroundings that a fortress, a cathedral, or a kremlin is erected upon it. The two ridges that extend through the plains of North Germany are not only very prominent in the landscape, but also in history. Owing to their thick forests, their lakes and marshes, and small populations, they are peculiarly like barriers; and the breaches in them are of importance to the geography both of war and of commerce. The battles fought against Sweden and Poland, round about the points where the Oder and the Vistula cross these regions, are to be counted among the most decisive struggles in the history of Prussia.
Nature at Waterloo
Wherever there are no differences in level, a substitute is sought in water. In such cases wide rivers or numerous lakes and marshes form the most effective obstacles, boundaries, and strongholds. Finally the plains approach the sea and are submerged by it; and here lowland countries find a support safer than that of the mountains, and richer in political results. North Germany is supported by the sea; South Germany by mountains. Which boundary is the more definite, the more capable of development, politically and economically? Political superiority is ever connected with the protection and support of the sea.
The influences of vegetation upon historical movements are often more important than those of the earth-formation itself. Wherever extensive lowland regions are overgrown with grass, we always find mobile nomadic races that, with their large herds and warlike organisations, are great causes of disturbance in the development of neighbouring lands. Since the form of vegetable growth which covers grass steppes and prairies is dependent on climate, it follows that nomadism is prevalent throughout the entire northern sub-temperate zone, where such grass is abundant—from the western border of Sahara to Gobi. Nomadic races of historical significance are even to be seen in the New World—for example, the Gauchos of the Pampas, and the Llaneros of Venezuela.
THE GREATEST PLATEAU IN THE WORLD: ITS PEOPLE, AND ITS INFLUENCE IN HISTORY
This is a typical scene of life in Central Asia, the greatest plateau in the world, whose people, the direct product of the climate and the soil, inhabiting little worlds of their own on the heights, have exercised an enormous influence in separating the great coast nations of the east, west, and south from one another.
LARGER IMAGE