A STORM THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY: THE WRECK OF THE ARMADA
The weather has greatly influenced the course of history and helped to mould the fate of nations. The tempest that scattered the Spanish Armada in 1588 was one of the most important political events of the time. This picture, from the painting by J. W. Carey, illustrates the wreck of the galleon “Girona,” at Giant’s Causeway.
Situation determines the affinities and relations of peoples and states, and is for this reason the most important of all geographical considerations. Situation is always the first thing to be investigated; it is the frame by which all other characteristics are encircled. Of what use were descriptions of the influence of the geographical configuration of Greece on Grecian history, in which the decisive point that Greece occupies a medial position between Europe and Asia, and between Europe and Africa, was not insisted upon above all? Everything else is subordinate to the fact that Greece stands upon the threshold of the Orient. However varied and rich its development may have been, it must always have been determined by conditions arising from its contiguity with the lands of Western Asia and Northern Africa. Area in particular, often over-valued, must be subordinated to location. The site may be only a point, but from this point the most powerful effects may be radiated in all directions. Who thinks of area when Jerusalem, Athens, or Gibraltar is mentioned? When it is found that the Fanning Islands or Palmyra Island is indispensable to the carrying out of England’s plans in respect to telegraphic connection of all parts of the empire with one another, merely because these islands are adapted for cable stations on the line between Queensland and Vancouver, is it not owing to their location alone, without consideration as to area, configuration, or climate?
Every portion of the earth lends its own peculiar qualities to the nations and races that dwell upon it, and so does each of its subdivisions in turn. Germany, as a first-class Power, is thinkable only in Europe. There cannot be either a New York or a St. Petersburg in Africa. Our organic conception of nations and states renders it impossible for us to look upon situation as something lifeless and passive; far rather must it signify active relations of giving and receiving. Two states cannot exist side by side without influencing each other. It is much more likely that such close relationships result from their contiguity; that, for example, we must conceive of China, Korea, and Japan as divisions of a single sphere of civilisation, their history consisting in a transference, transplanting, action, and reaction, leading to results of the greatest moment. Some situations are, indeed, more independent and isolated than others; but what would be the history of England, the most isolated country in Europe, if all relations with France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia were omitted? It would be incomprehensible.
The more self-dependent a situation is, the more is it a natural location; the more dependent, the more artificial, and the more it is a part of a neighbourhood. Connection with a hemisphere or grand division, identity with a peninsula or archipelago, location with respect to oceans, seas, rivers, deserts, and mountains, determine the histories of countries. It is precisely in the natural locality that we must recognise the strongest bonds of dependence on Nature. Apart from all other features peculiar to Italy, her central position in the Mediterranean alone determines her existence as a Mediterranean Power. However highly we may value the good qualities of the German people, the best of these qualities will never reach so high a development in the constrained, wedged-in, continental situation of their native land as they would in an island nation; for Germany’s location is more that of a state in a neighbourhood of states than a natural location, and for this reason more unfavourable than that of France.
POLITICAL EXPANSION HAS FOLLOWED IN THE TRACK OF THE WINDS
This map illustrating the trade winds and prevailing winds shows how important were these winds before the days of steam vessels. It shows that the outward voyage of Columbus was entirely along the track of the north-east trade winds. Where the arrows cross, as off the North-west of Scotland, we have regions of wind disturbances.
THE RIVERS OF TWO CONTINENTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE IN CIVILISATION