THE MAKING OF THE NATIONS—II
Professor FREDERICK RATZEL
LAND AND WATER AND THE GREATNESS OF PEOPLES
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SINCE man is a creature capable only of life on land, bodies of water must at one time have been the greatest obstacles to his diffusion. Thus the original family of human beings could have inhabited only one portion of the earth, to which it was restricted by impassable barriers of water. We know that in early geological times the division of the earth’s surface into land and water was subject to the same general laws as to-day; therefore such a portion of the earth could not have been more than a part of the total land in existence—a larger or smaller world-island.
Early Man’s Greatest Invention
The first step beyond the bounds of this island was the first step towards the conquest of the whole earth by man. The first raft was therefore the most important contrivance that man could have invented. It not only signified the beginning of the acquisition of all parts of the earth to their very farthest limits, but also—and this is far more important—the potentiality for all possibilities of divergence and temporary separation offered by our planet. It brought with it escape from the development that always turns back upon itself, travelling in a circle, and the progress that constantly consumes itself—factors inseparable from life confined within a small area; it led to the creation of fruitful contrasts and differences, and to wholesome competition—in short, to the beginning of the evolution of races and peoples. Looked at from this point of view, even the discovery of Prometheus has been of less moment to the progress of mankind than that of the inventor who first joined logs together into a raft and set out on a voyage of discovery to the nearest islet.