iiii~il fill! !i!i ii ~i  ̧! i iili !~ii i ~i~  ̧ ̧ i i ii!!i~ ~  ̧ 

i!!~iii  ̧ i,iii~iii!ili ~i~i~il ~!~ ~ !!!i!i!i~! iiil  ̧ !iiiiiii!i!!!ii i'i~ii~!!~!iiiiiiii!!iiii!ii!!i!i  ̧ ̧ !~i~iiiii~iii~,  ̧ ̧ ̧~ ̧ ̧ !i~i~!iii~ii~i~!,ii!iil' ~i~!i~ ~!iii!ili i~!i!i,!i ii!i i~ iiiii!i~i "~ 
Cover photograph courtesy of 

The London School of Economics and Political Sc

Cover design by Karina Braszo 
Democratic Ideals and Reality 
in the Politics of Reconstruct

by the RIGHT HONOURAB

SIR HALFORD J. MACKIND

Privy Counsellor; lately Chairman of the Imperial Shipping Com

formerly Director of the London School of Economics and Political 

and Professor of Geography in the University of London; and at o

Reader in Geography in the University. of Oxford. Author of"Brit

the British Seas." 

NDU Press 

Defense Classic Edition 

With a New Introduction 

by 

STEPHEN V. MLADINEO 

NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY PRES

Washington, DC 
g y, py j, 

coalition warfare, peacekeeping operations, and national strategy; 

of briefer works designed to circulate contemporary comment and o

tives to current policy. The Press occasionally publishes out-of-p

classics, historical works, and other especially timely or distingui

on national security. 

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied 

are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent thc 

of the National Defense University, the Deparmaent of Defense, 

other U.S Government agency. Cleared for public release: distribut

limited. 

Except for the Introduction, this text is copyright © 1942, Constable 

London. Used by permission. 

NDU Press publications are sold by the U.S. Government Prin

For ordering information, call (202) 512-1800 or write to the Sup

of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Mackinder, Halford John, Sir, 1861-1947 

Democratic ideals and reality : a study in the politics of reco

by Sir Halford J. Mackinder ; [edited by and] with a new 

by Stephen V. Mladineo. -- NDU Press defense classic ed. 

p. m 

Includes index. 

1. Reconstruction (1914-1939) 2. Geopolitics. 3. World 

1919-1932. 1. Mladineo, Stephen V. II. Title. 

D655.M18 1996 

940.5'1---dc20 

vi 
Publisher's Note: About This Edition 

This National Defense University Press "Defense Classic" is 

of the Right Honourable Sir Halford J. Mackinder's De

Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction

First published in 1919 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., M

er's work went largely unnoticed until World War II revive

in his theories. Holt re-issued the book in 1942, with an int

by Edward Meade Earle. In 1962, W.W. Norton published 

with an introduction by Anthony J. Pearce and with the three a

previously published Mackinder articles included with this 

The last publication was in 1981 by Greenwood Press, who re

the 1962 edition. 

The text for the NDU Press edition was typeset from the t

1942 Mackinder volume without editing, except for the corr

a few typographical errors. The index is the same, excep

adjustment of page numbers to conform to the NDU editio

the illustrations. We have not included introductions to th

editions but have added a new introduction that places Ma

ideas within a post-Cold War context. 

This text is copyright © 1942, Constable Publishers, Lon

is used by permission. 

vii 
Introduction by Stephen V. Mladineo ...................................

Preface ..................................................................................

Chapter One 

PERSPECTIVE ...........................................................................

The future and peace; causes of past wan; growth of oppo

interests; danger of merely juridical conceptions of the Leagu

Nations; the possibility of world-tyranny; the problem stated. 

Chapter Two 

SOCIAL MOMENTUM ..............................................................

Democratic idealism, its successive tragedies, and its relatio

reality; the economic reality of the Going Concern; the organi

of Going Concerns; the emergence of organizers from revolut

the organizer and social discipline; the great organizer is the g

realist; democratic prejudice against experts; the organizer th

strategically; his "ways and means" mind; Napoleon; Bisma

the strategical mentality of Prussia; "Kultur" and strategy; 

German war map; strategical thought in economics; but democ

thinks ethically; "No annexations, no indemnities"; refuses to t

strategically unless compelled to do so for defense; must fail un

it reckons with both geographical and economic reality. 

Chapter Three 

THE SEAMAN'S POINT OF VIEW ........................................

The unity of the ocean, the first geographical reality; the co

quences not yet fully accepted; therefore necessary to take a his

cal view; contending river-powers in Egypt; the Nile "clos

ix 
insular seabase of Britain; of seabases in general; of seap

in the Great War; the World-Island; the ultimate base of sea-p

Chapter Four 

THE LANDSMAN'S POINT OF VIEW ....................................

The World-Island seen from within; the Heartland physi

defined; the other natural regions; the Arabian Centerland; the 

bile riders and the plowmen; the Arab bid for world-empire

Steppes-Belt; the Tartar invasions and their consequences; th

betan Heights and the northwest entries to China and India; the 

access from the Heartland to Arabia and to Europe; the Hear

strategically defined; the Black Sea basin included; the Baltic 

included; the Heartland as real a physical fact as the World-Is

the ultimate citadel of land-power. 

Chapter Five 

THE RIVALRY OF EMPIRES ......................................................

The Cossack advance over the Heartland; the Russian home

sharply delimited; the real Europe; divided into East and 

Europe; their fundamental opposition; their essential differ

German and Slav in East Europe; Trafalgar seemed to spli

stream of history in two for a century; Britain and the Not-Eur

but East Europe is really within the Heartland, and there wer

two streams; British and French policy agreed in the ninete

century; the Great War caused by German attempt to control 

Europe and the Heartland; the economic reality of organized 

power--the Going Concern; political economy and national e

omy; the great economic change of 1878; the German policy 

to stimulate growth of man-power and then use it to occupy 

Heartland; but laissez-faire also a policy of empire; clash of the 

policies; inevitable from the fact that they were two Going Conc
empire; the Heartland the persistent geographical threat to wo

liberty; how came Germany to make the mistake of offensive 

West front; Hamburg and the man-power policy; we must n

divide up East Europe and the Heartland; it must be a divisi

into three, not two, state-systems; the peoples of the Middle Ti

feasibility of League of Nations, if this done; but there must 

no predominant partner; yet you will have to reckon with Goi

Concerns; a reasonable equality of power needed among a consid

able number of members of your League; of certain strategi

positions of world importance; the Going Concern in the futu

and the unequal growth of nations; the ideal is the independ

nation of balanced economic development; tragedies of the Goi

Concern; the policy of truly free nations which makes for peac

Chapter Seven 

THE FREEDOM OF MEN ..........................................................

Whether men and women will be more free in such free natio

the need of basing organization within the nation on localities; t

alternative organization is based on nation-wide classes and int

ests; this leads inevitably to international war of classes; therefo

the ideal is balanced provinces within balanced nations; such orga

zation gives greatest opportunity to greatest number of men; cau

of nationality movement; opposed to undue centralization; fratern

nations must be balanced economically, and formed of fratern

provinces; fraternity, if it is to last, depends on controlling t

development of Going Concerns. 

Chapter Eight 

POSTSCRIPT ..................................................................................

The recent General Election, its meaning in a world setting; 

the saving virtue of neighborliness. 

xi 
The Scope and Methods of Geography ...................................

The Geographical Pivot of History .........................................

The Round World and the Winning of the Peace ..................

INDEX ...................................................................................................

xii 
2 A Coastal Navigation---Britain 

3 The Greek Seas an Insular and a Peninsular 

Sea-Base 

4 Latium, a Fertile Sea-Base 

5 The Mediterranean---Two Marches to Outflank Sea-Power 

6 The Latin Sea 

7 The Latin Peninsula 

8 The Latin and Greek Peninsulas--Germany 

and Macedonia 

9 The Seaman's Europe 

10 The World-Promontory 

11 The English Plain, a Fertile Sea-Base 

12 The World-Island and Satellites---Relative 

Areas 

13 The World-Island and Satellites--Relative 

Populations 

14 Euro-Asia. Arctic and Inland Drainage 

15 The Great Lowland and the Heartland 

16 The World-Island---Its Natural Regions 

17 The Southern Heartland 

18 The Steppes of Euro-Asia 

19 Northern Arabia the Fertile Belt 

20 The Mobile Conquerors of the Plowed Lands 

21 A Medieval Wheel-Map 

xiii 
Black Sea Basins 

25 Constantinople---When Within and 

When Without the Heartland 

26 The World-Island---Knit Together by Railways and Air Routes 

27 The Russian Homeland 

28 The Real Europe---East and West 

29 Kottbus an Inlier of Wendish Speech 

30 The Eastward German Settlements 

31 The Middle Tier of East European States 

xiv 
Mackinder made famous the heartland and rimland

strategic geography that influenced a generation of strategi

By 1939, however, a cloud had fallen over Mackinder's wo

the Nazis had successfully applied certain of his principl

march of conquest. This tainted Mackinder's reputation, a

cratic Ideals and Reality faded from the curricula of m

civilian colleges in the West. 

In 1942 Allied strategic planners once again recognized 

of Mackinder's work, which they used in engineering the 

Germany. In the 1950s, Mackinder's influence declined as th

strategy of containment of the Soviet Union came to domina

and military planning. Since the end of the Cold War, ho

regional strategic concerns have replaced those of the glob

confrontation of the twin superpowers, the relevance of M

study is once again apparent. 

Democratic 1deals and Reality has, unfortunately, been o

for more than a decade. So to meet the needs of a new g

National Defense University has prepared the present editio

minor editorial corrections in a few passages and adding an il

introduction that views that text in a contemporary light. F

make this new edition a reality, we acknowledge a debt o

to three members of the NDU family: Distinguished Visiting 

of Law and Diplomacy Eugene Rostow, whose idea it wa

this honored study for the modern reader; Captain Stephen 

USN, Retired, formerly Professor of Strategy at the Nat

College, who readied the text and wrote the present Introdu

Miss Mary Sommerville, Senior Editor at NDU Press, who 

the book and prepared it for publication. 

ERVIN J. ROKKE 

Lieutenant General, U.S. Air 

President, National Defense U

XV 
Stephen V. Mladineo 

C redit for the idea to republish Halford J. Mackinde

cratic Ideals and Reali~ belongs to Professor Eugen

tow. Observing that this classic volume on geopolitic

out of print for some time, he suggested its title as appropri

National Defense University Defense Classic Editions. 

Behind this idea was the notion that Mackinder has som

value to say in this post-Cold War world. Though not the 

explanatory theory sought by some social scientists, his con

Heartland serves as the basis for discussion in geopolitical ex

of world events. Though his views are often contrasted with th

of Alfred Thayer Mahan, Mackinder accepted Mahan's des

the historical preeminence of seapower. But by analogy and 

he credited the development of railroads in Eurasia with en

ruler of the Heartland to challenge that preeminence. 

Halford J. Mackinder was an educator, geographer, explor

ter, member of Parliament, economist, and diplomat. He w

Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England, in February 1861. Th

physician, he studied sciences at Epsom College and Christ 

Oxford. Upon completing his program at Oxford, he stud

London, while lecturing at Christ Church and also helpin

fledgling University extensions in Bath, Manchester, Sali

elsewhere, where he lectured and led tutorials on physical g

With this experience, Mackinder's thoughts on the teachin

raphy began to take shape. Elected to the Royal Geographi

lB. W. Blouet, HalJord Mackinder: A Biography, 3, 30. 

xvii 
His argument was that geography should serve as a bridg

the physical sciences and the social sciences. The impact of 

facts on society and the effect of society on the environ

essential to the discipline. He wrote at a time when the majo

tions of the globe had been completed. There was no l

discover. The North and South Poles had recently been att

At the time the physical geography being taught was ge

the teaching of political geography required little more than 

of demographic facts. While the creation of the discipline of 

in England cannot be credited entirely to Mackinder, his co

presentation to the Royal Geographic Society and the subsequ

sion of it did have an impact and led to the creation of 

readerships at both Oxford and Cambridge with support fro

ciety. 

In 1904 Mackinder presented a paper to the Society enti

Geographical Pivot of History. ''3 In this paper he first o

theory of the "Pivot Area," a designation for the core area 

which was protected from the maritime powers of the day. H

that the development of the potential power of this area co

the continental power that controlled it to dominate the wo

Expanding upon this concept, and with the recent exp

World War I to draw upon, he broadened the scope of his con

"Pivot Area," renamed it the "Heartland," and published D

1deals and Reality in 1919. Comparing his concept to the 

warning by a slave, "You are mortal," to the returning 

Roman Legionnaire, Mackinder issued his oft-quoted 

dictum: 

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland: 

Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island: 

Who rules the World-Island commands the WorldJ 

2Reprinted here under Additional Papers. 

31bid. 

4H.j. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Realist (1942), 50. 

xviii 
calls them selfevident nonsense. S Tarring all geopoliti

the same brush Howard observes that they simply leave out 

Seen in the context of historical events, conflicts between la

and sea powers, and the technological advances taking pl

World War I, Mackinder's vision was neither universal 

particular. His dictum was intended to be cautionary, a warn

politicians of the day. Prescient in its anticipation of German r

and of later superpower status of the Soviet Union, it was lit

at the time. Mackinder foresaw this, noting that "Democra

to think strategically unless and until compelled to do so fo

of defense."6 

His immediate warning concerned the potential resurgen

many after World War I. Recognizing that Russia could 

danger for the near term, he nonetheless reasoned that th

peace required a viable buffer between the two great historica

ers" to prevent the ascendence of either to challenge the 

the littoral nations, which he called the inner and outer 

He coupled this requirement with the need for an effecti

of Nations. 

In his 1982 book, Mackinder: Geography as an Aid to 

W.H Parker carefully analyzes, categorizes, details, and larg

about a hundred different criticisms of the Heartland theory

"Often the critic has misinterpreted or misunderstood what M

wrote; commonly, he appears to have read very little of M

or is merely repeating the allegations of others 

Mackinder's main critic was Professor Nicholas Spykma

University. Though Spykman accepted Mackinder's descrip

World Island, the Heartland, and the inner and outer cre

perspective was different. While Mackinder's writing focu

"organizers" and their potential offensive use of their la

Spykman's focus was on the democracies. These nations on t

ery of the World Island had a defensive view, to be fully 

only later, as the theory of containment by George Kennan

SMichael Howard, Parameters XVIII, 3 (September 1988): 14. 

6Mackinder, 23. 

xix 
concept and vocabulary to define his view. If for no oth

Mackinder's theory is important because it has defined the 

of the geopolitical discussion. Without Mackinder's cons

would have been no framework for Spykman and others to b

Some have criticized Mackinder's imprecise definition of 

land. At times he included Central Europe, at other times h

it. In his 1943 article "The Round World and the Winn

Peace, ''s he rejected the need to be too precise, contendin

definition of the Heartland arose from various geographic 

which were not coincident. He went on to argue that exact 

were not necessary to describe a strategic concept, and that 

definitions were adequate. 

Another set of criticisms deals with his treatment of 

States. Some argue that North America should be consi

separate heartland. Mackinder recognized the potential of 

American democracies, but would not have applied the term 

to them, because of their maritime nature. He did speculate t

Africa could develop into a second heartland, with its attribu

containment and remoteness from the sea, but the concep

apply very well to the maritime Americas. 

He is similarly accused of ignoring the vast resources an

of North America. Remembering that Mackinder's writing w

ary, he was not concerned about the power of the North 

democracies, considering them part of the outer crescent. He 

ing of the "'organizers", those who would use the power p

the Heartland to dominate the world. 

Some critics accuse Mackinder of exaggerating the powe

of the Heartland. Others contend that his theory ignores t

that it is superseded by the advent of air power. Other crit

his theory on philosophical, ethical, political, or ideologica

Still others contend that the entire discipline of geopolitics i

7N.j. Spykman, The Geograph)' of the Peace, 43. 

SReprinted here under Additional Papers. 

XX 
that the postwar treatment of Germany was unjust. Buildi

concept of the Heartland, Haushofer argued the German need f

raum. Along with other pseudoscientific studies, such as thos

the superiority of the Aryan race, Haushofer's use of geop

propaganda purposes influenced the expansionist goals of t

Some critics accuse Mackinder of determinism. They take 

ings of what could happen based on geographic potential to 

tions of what must happen. But such critics misunderstand M

who argued that man, not geography, controls the future. B

geographic conditions, the people who controlled the Heartla

have an enormous advantage. 

In 1943 Mackinder was asked to update his theory in li

developments which led to World War II. He responded with 

of his early thesis in his article, "The Round World and the 

of the Peace. ''9 Saying that the concept of the Heartland w

valid and useful today" than when he first wrote about it, he 

a geographic view of an alliance of a capable Heartland p

Soviet Union, with the oceanic powers who possessed "a b

in France, a moated aerodrome in Britain, and a reserve 

manpower, agriculture and industries in the eastern United 

Canada." This idea formed the basis for his view of balance 

Though his primary concern continued to be Germany, he r

the possibility that other states had the potential to establish h

over the Heartland. Dismissing Russia as an immediate thr

wake of the revolution, he did not rule it out in the long term

postulated ,China as a potential ultimate "organizer" of the H

Geopolitical theory has had many years to develop since D

Ideals and Reality was first published. Spykman was one earl

Among other geopoliticians was Alexander P. De Seversky, a 

advocate of an Arctic centered view of the world. His Victory 

Air Power and Air Power: Key to Survival expressed the 

land power and sea power had become subordinate to air p

9See Reprinted here under Additional Papers. 

xxi 
regions occupied by a number of conflicting states and caugh

the opposing interests of the adjoining great powers. 

Notwithstanding the evolution of geopolitical theory, the 

value of Democratic Ideals and Reality is undiminished afte

The potential for the return of autocratic rule to Mackinder's 

remains. The end of the Cold War has not brought an end to 

Democratic ideals notwithstanding, the reality of a resurgent 

power seeking hegemony over central Eurasia remains a p

Mackinder does not predict it, he only cautions awareness of 

Stephen V. Mladineo was formerly a Professor of National Secur

and Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs at the U

War College at the National Defense University. A career Naval 

served as commanding officer of the USS BERGALL SSN-667, a

assignments. Since his retirement at the rank of captain, he has bee

as a Staff Scientist with Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, at 

ment of Energy in Washington. 

Mr. Mladineo, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, holds M

from the State University of New York at Albany and the U.S. Nav

lege. 

xxii 
PREFACE 

T his book, whatever its value, is the outcome of mor

merely feverous thought of war time; the ideas upon 

is based were published in outline a good dozen yea

1904, in a paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History," r

the Royal Geographical Society, I sketched the World-Islan

Heartland; and in 1905 1 wrote in the National Review on t

of "Man Power as a Measure of National and Imperial Stre

article which I believe first gave vogue to the term Manpow

term is implicit not only the idea of fighting strength but a

productivity, rather than wealth, as the focus of economic 

If I now venture to write on these themes at somewhat grea

it is because I feel that the war has established, and not sh

former points of view. 

1st February, 1919. 

XXII1 
Democratic Ideals and Reality 
PERSPECTIVE 

O ur memories are still full of the vivid detail of an all-

twarfare; there is, as it were, a screen between us and 

which happened earlier even in our lives. But the ti

last come to take larger views, and we must begin to think o

war as of a single great event, a cataract in the stream of hi

last four years have been momentous, because they have 

outcome of one century and the prelude to another. Tension 

the nations had slowly accumulated, and, in the language of d

there has now been a d~tente. The temptation of the mom

believe that unceasing peace will ensue merely because tire

determined that there shall be no more war. But internation

will accumulate again, though slowly at first; there was a. g

of peace after Waterloo. Who among the diplomats round the 

table at Vienna in 1814 foresaw that Prussia would become 

to the world? Is it possible for us so to grade the stream bed 

history as that there shall be no more cataracts? This, and n

is the task before us if we would have posterity think less m

our wisdom than we think of that of thc diplomats of Vienn

The great wars of history--we have had a world war ab

hundred years for the last four centuries---are the outcome, 

indirect, of the unequal growth of nations, and that unequal 

not wholly due to the greater genius and energy of some n

compared with others; in large measure it is the result of th

distribution of fertility and strategical opportunity upon the f

globe. In other words, there is in nature no such thing a
in the future, we must recognize these geographical reali

steps to counter their influence. Last century, under the 

Darwinian theory, men came to think that those forms of 

should survive which adapted themselves best to their nat

ment. To-day we realize, as we emerge from our fiery tria

victory consists in our rising superior to such mere fatal

Civilization is based on the organization of society so 

render service to one another, and the higher the civilizat

minute tends to be the division of labor and the more 

organization. A great and advanced society has, in co

powerful momentum; without destroying the society itse

suddenly check or divert its course. Thus it happcns that 

hand detached observers are able to predict a coming clas

which are following convergent paths in their developmen

rian commonly prefaces his narrative of war with an ac

blindness of men who refused to see the writing on the 

fact is, that, like every other Going Concern, a national s

shaped to a desired career while it is young, but when 

character is fixed and it is incapable of any great change 

of existence. To-day all the nations of the world are a

afresh; is it within the reach of human forethought so to set 

as that, notwithstanding geographical temptation, they sh

in the days of our grandchildren? 

In our anxiety to repudiate the ideas historically associ

balance of power is there not perhaps some danger tha

allow merely juridical conceptions to rule our thoughts 

the League of Nations? It is our ideal that Justice sho

between nations, whether they be great or small, precisel

ideal that there should be justice between men, whatever t

of their positions in society. To maintain justice as betwe

men the power of the state is invoked, and we now rec

the failure of international law to avert the Great War, th

be some power or, as the lawyers say, some sanction for the 

of justice as between nation and nation. But the power wh

sary for the rule of law among citizens passes easily into 
great replanning of human society we must recognize that th

opportunity of the robber are prior facts to the law of robber

words, we must envisage our vast problem as business me

with realities of growth and opportunity, and not merely a

defining rights and remedies. 

My endeavor, in the following pages, will be to measure th

significance of the great features of our globe as tested by 

of history, including the history of the last four years, an

consider how we may best adjust our ideals of freedom to the

realities of our earthly home. But first we must recognize certa

cies of human nature as exhibited in all forms of political org
SOCIAL MOMENTUM 

"To him that hath shall be given" 

I n the year 1789 the lucid French people, in its brain-town 

saw visions, generous visions---Liberty, Equality, Frater

presently French idealism lost its hold on reality, and ch

the grip of fate, in the person of Napoleon. With his military e

Napoleon restored order, but in doing so organized a Fren

the very law of whose being was a denial of liberty. The sto

great French Revolution and Empire has influenced all su

political thought; it has seemed a tragedy in the old Greek s

disaster predestined in the very character of revolutionary id

When, therefore, in 1848, the peoples of Europe were a

vision-seeing mood, their idealism was of a more complex na

principle of Nationality was added to that of Liberty, in the 

liberty might be secured against the overreaching organize

independent spirit of nations. Unfortunately, in that year of rev

the good ship Idealism again dragged her anchor, and by an

swept away by fate, in the person of Bismarck. With his 

efficiency Bismarck perverted the new ideal of German na

just as Napoleon had perverted the simpler French ideals of li

equality. The tragedy of national idealism, which we have 

consummated, was not, however, predestined in the disorder o

but in the materialism, commonly known as Kultur, of the o
the Russian Revolution has gone the common revolution

we still put our hope in universal democracy. To the eighte

ideal of liberty, and the nineteenth-century ideal of nationa

added our twentieth-century ideal of the League of Natio

tragedy were to ensue, it would be on a vast scale, fo

ideals are to-day the working creed of the greater part 

The Germans, with their Real-Politik, their politics 

something other than merely practical politics regard th

being sooner or later inevitable. The war lord and the Prus

caste may have been fighting for the mere maintenance of 

but large and intelligent sections of German society have 

the persuasion of a political philosophy which was none 

cerely held because we believed it to be wrong. In this 

anticipations have proved wrong in many regards, but t

because we have made them so by a few wise principles of 

and by strenuous effort, notwithstanding our mistakes in 

hardest test has yet to come. What degree of international re

is necessary if the world is long to remain a safe place for d

And in regard to the internal structure of those democ

conditions must be satisfied if we are to succeed in harn

heavy plow of social reconst1uction the ideals which h

heroism in this war? There can be no more momentous que

we succeed in soberly marrying our new idealism to rea

Idealists are the salt of the earth; without them to mov

would soon stagnate and civilization fade. Idealism has, ho

associated with two very different phases of temper. The 

isms, such as Buddhism, Stoicism, and Medieval Chris

based on self-denial; the Franciscan Friars vowed themse

tity, poverty, and service. But modem democratic idealism, 

of the American and French Revolutions, is based on sel
with two developments of reality. In older times the power o

over man was still great. Hard reality put limits to his ambit

other words, the world as a whole was poor, and resignation 

only general road to happiness. The few could, no doubt, obta

scope in life, but only at the cost of the serfdom of the man

the so-called Democracy of Athens and the Platonic Utopia wer

on domestic and industrial slavery. But the modern world is 

no small measure man now controls the forces of nature, and 

classes, formerly resigned to their fate, have become imbued w

idea that with a fairer division of wealth there should be a 

approach to equality of opportunity. 

This modern reality of human control over nature, apart from 

democratic ideals would be futile, is not wholly due to the adv

scientific knowledge and invention. The greater control whi

now wields is conditional, and not absolute like the control o

over man by famine and pestilence. Human riches and comp

security are based to-day on the division and co-ordination o

and on the constant repair of the complicated plant which has r

the simple tools of primitive society. In other words, the ou

modern wealth is conditional on the maintenance of our social or

tion and capital. Society is a Going Concern, and no small par

well-being may be compared with the intangible "goodwil

business. The owner of a business depends on the habits of his cu

no less than on the regular running of the machinery in his 

both must be kept in repair, and when in repair they have th

of the Going Concern; but should the business stop, they have 

a break-up value--the machinery becomes so much scrap me

the goodwill is reduced to the book debts. 

Society reposes on the fact that man is a creature of ha

interlocking the various habits of many men, society obtains a s

which may be compared with that of a running machine. Mrs. B

was able to form a simple society for the occupation of a room, 

Box slept by night and Cox by day, but her society was di

when one of her lodgers took a holiday, and for the nonce c

7 
is a Going Concern, or, in the language of the engineer, 

Stop the running long enough to throw men's habits 

one another, and society would quickly run down to th

of control by nature. Vast numbers would die in cons

Productive power, in short, is a far more important e

in relation to modem civilization than is accumulated w

visible wealth of a civilized country, notwithstanding 

some of its treasures, is generally estimated as equal 

not more than seven or eight years. The significance o

does not lie in its precise accuracy, but in the rapi

practical meaning for modem men, owing to their d

machinery of production, mechanical and social, which 

or five generations has become increasingly delicate a

For every advance in the application of science there ha

ponding change in social organization. It was by no m

that Adam Smith was discussing the division of lab

Watt was inventing the steam engine. Nor, in our ow

blind coincidence that beside the invention of the inter

engine---the key to the motor-car, submarine, and aero

placed an unparalleled extension of the credit system

metal machinery depends on the habits of living men. 

of some scientific enthusiasts that the study of the h

ceased to be important will not bear examination; the 

men, high and low, is more difficult and more impo

conditions of modem reality than it ever was. 

We describe the managers of the social machine as 

under that general term are commonly included two dis

In the first place, we have administrators, who are not str

at all---begetters, that is to say, of new organs in an org

function of the administrator to keep the running so

repair and to see to its lubrication. When men die, or 

ill-health or old age retire, it is his duty to fill the vac

men suitably trained beforehand. A foreman of works 

administrator. A judge administers the law, except in s
of its momentum. The goodwill of a long-established and well

business may often be sold for a large sum in the market. Pe

most striking illustration of social momentum is to be se

immobility of the markets themselves. Every seller wishes to 

buyers are in the habit of congregating in order that he ma

of a purchaser for his wares. On the other hand, every buye

he can, to the place where sellers are wont to assemble in o

he may buy cheaply as a result of their competition. The a

have often tried in vain to decentralize the markets of Lond

In order to appreciate the other type of organizer, the c

social mechanism, let us again consider for a moment the 

course of revolutions. A Voltaire criticizes the running conce

as French Government; a Rousseau paints the ideal of a happie

the authors of the great Encyclopedic prove that the material 

such a society exist. Presently the new ideas take possession 

well-meaning enthusiasts--inexperienced, however, in the di

of changing the habits of average mankind. They seize an op

for altering the structure of French society. Incidentally, but 

nately, they slow down its running. Stoppage of work, actual 

of the implements of production and government, removal of 

administrators, and substitution of misfitting amateurs comb

duce the rate of production of the necessaries of life, with 

that prices rise, and confidence and credit fall. The revolutiona

are, no doubt, willing enough to be poor for a time in order 

their ideals, but the hungry millions rise up around them. To 

the millions are led to suspect that the shortage is due to some 

ence of the deposed powers, and the Terror inevitably follow

men become fatalists, and, abandoning ideals, seek some 

who shall restore efficiency. The necessity is reinforced by 

that foreign enemies are invading the national territory, and 

production and relaxed discipline have reduced the defensi

of the state. But the organizer needed for the task of reconst

no mere administrator; he must be able to design and make
of the different habits of many men; if the running socia

to be altered, even in some relatively small respect, a gre

men and women must simultaneously change various o

in complementary ways. It was impossible to introduce da

except by an edict of government, for any partial adhe

change of hour would have thrown society into confusion. 

ment.of daylight saving was, therefore, dependent on soci

which is thus seen to consist not in the habits of men but 

of simultaneous and correlated change of those habits. I

state the sense of discipline becomes innate, and the p

rarely called upon to enforce it. In other words, social 

the alteration of habit at will or command, itself beco

Military discipline, in so far as it consists of single acts 

of command, is of a simpler order, but the professional s

well the difference between habitual discipline and ev

intelligent fighting by quick-trained men. 

In times of disorder the interlocking of productive h

down step by step, and society as a whole becomes p

poor, though robbers of one kind or another may for a 

themselves. Even more serious, however, is the failure o

discipline, for that implies the loss of the power of recupe

sider to what a pass Russia was brought by a year o

revolutions; her condition was like that terrible state of pa

the mind still sees and directs, but the nerves fail to elicit 

from the muscles. A nation does not die when so smitten, b

mechanism of its society must be reconstituted, and that q

men and women who survive its impoverishment are not 

habits and lose the aptitudes on which their civilization dep

shows no remedy but force upon which to found a fres

discipline in such circumstances; but the organizer wh

force tends inevitably to treat the recovery of mere effic

end. Idealism does not flourish under his rule. It was bec

speaks plainly in this regard, that so many of the idealis

two generations have been internationalist; the military 

10 
means, and not elusive ends. His is the mind of Martha a

Mary. If he be a captain of industry the counters of his tho

labor and capital; if he be a general of armies they are units and 

His organizing is aimed at intermediate ends money if 

industrial, and victory if he be a soldier. But money and vi

merely the keys to ulterior ends, and those ulterior ends remai

for him throughout. He dies still making money, or, if he be a v

soldier, weeps like Alexander because there are no more w

conquer. His one care is that the business or the army whic

organized shall be efficiently administered; he is hard on his ad

tors. Above all, he values the habit of discipline; his mach

answer promptly to the lever. 

The organizer inevitably comes to look upon men as his t

is the inverse of the mind of the idealist, for he would mov

brigades and must therefore have regard to material limitations

the idealist appeals to the soul in each of us, and souls are wi

can soar. It does not follow that the organizer is careless of 

being of the society beneath him; on the contrary, he reg

society as so much man-power to be maintained in efficient c

This is true whether he be militarist or capitalist, provided t

farsighted. In the sphere of politics the organizer views men a

for the state---for the Leviathan of the Stuart philosopher Hob

the democratic idealist barely tolerates the state as a neces

for it limits freedom. 

In the established democracies of the West, the ideals of 

have been transmuted into the prejudices of the average cit

it is on these "habits of thought" that the security of our 

depends, rather than on the passing ecstasies of idealism. For a 

years such prejudices took root under the insular protection o

they are the outcome of continuous experiment, and must b

at least with respect, unless we are prepared to think of our fo

as fools. One of these prejudices is that it is unwise to take 

as minister of state. In the present time of war, when freedom 

a democracy must yield to efficiency, there are those who wo

11 
merely the obverse of the truth that democracy is incom

the organization necessary for war against autocracies. Whe

Chilean Minister first came to England he was entertai

members of the House of Commons. Referring to the Mot

ments, as seen from the far Pacific, and to the chronic 

regard to Parliamentary government which he found on 

London, he exclaimed, "You forget that one of the chief 

Parliaments is to prevent things being done!" 

The thought of the organizer is essentially strategical, 

of the true democrat is ethical. The organizer is thinking 

men; but the democrat is thinking of the rights of men, 

are so many rocks in the way of the organizer. Undoubte

nizer must be a master, for, given the waywardness of h

and the inveteracy of habit, he would make little progress ot

he is a bad supreme master, because of his "ways and me

The Nemesis of democratic idealism, if it break from 

reality, is the supreme rule of the organizer and of blin

The organizer begins innocently enough; his executive 

from the disorder, and above all from the indiscipline 

Soldierly efficiency undoubtedly saved Revolutionary Fran

is the impetus of the Going Concern, that it sweeps forw

own creator. To improve the efficiency of his man-powe

the end seek to control all its activities---working and thin

than fighting. He is in supreme command, and inefficien

him. Therefore Napoleon added to his Grand Army and his 

also his Concordat with the Papacy, whereby the priest wa

his servant. He might have enjoyed lasting peace after t

Amiens, but must needs continue to prepare war. Finally 

pelled to his Moscow, just as a great money-maker wi

himself and end in bankruptcy. 

Bismarck was the Napoleon of the Prussians, their m

and iron, yet he differed from his French prototype in ce

which, for our present purpose, are worth attention. His en

the end of Napoleon. There was no banishment to Elba afte

12 
Bismarck. He was not merely the great businessman, whi

son's description of Napoleon. No statesman ever adju

policy with a nicer judgment than Bismarck. He fought thr

successful campaigns, and made three treaties of peace, fr

which ensued a harvest of advantage to Prussia. Yet wh

treaties they were! After the War of 1864 against Denmark

took Schleswig and Holstein, with the idea, beyond questio

Canal. After the War of 1866 against Austria he refused to 

mia, and thereby so offended his king that they were not full

until after the victories of 1870. There can be no doubt 

clemency Bismarck foresaw a time when Prussia might need 

of Austria. In 1871, after Sedan and the Siege of Paris

yielded to the pressure of the military party, and took Lorr

as Alsace. 

The great Chancellor had, in truth, what the Prussian

lacks, an insight into the minds of other nations than hi

methods were psychological by preference. Once he ha

German unity under Prussia, he waged no more wars. Yet 

plished great thing°o for a time he ruled Europe--and his 

no mere exploitation of military prestige. At the Berlin C

1878 he secured the occupation of the provinces of Bosnia an

vina for Austria, and thereby deepened the rivalry of Austria 

in the Balkan Peninsula. At the same Berlin Congress h

incited France to occupy Tunis, and when France presen

that occupation, Italy, as he foresaw, was sharply wounded

Alliance with Austria followed in 1879, and the Triple A

Austria and Italy in 1881. It was as though he had sent hi

round his flock to drive his sheep to him. By subtleties o

order he antagonized France and Britain, and also Britain 

So, too, did he deal in his domestic policy. In 1886 he c

struggling with the Vatican, and brought over the Catholic 

support, thereby neutralizing the socialist tendency in the in

Catholic province of the Rhineland, and the particularist 

the Catholic kingdom of Bavaria in the south. 

13 
and education which imbued a whole race with the "ways an

mind. The French are an artistic, and therefore an idealis

Napoleon prostituted their idealism with the glory of his g

marck, on the other hand, was the child of materialistic K

greater than the average of his race, he could reckon also 

tual forces. 

Kultur had its origin not in the victories of Frederick the 

in the defeat of Jena. The rule of Frederick in the eighteen

was a personal rule like that of Napoleon, whereas the Pru

nineteenth century, behind whatever other pretense, was go

an oligarchy of intellectual "experts"--staff officers, bureau

fessors. Frederick, sole organizer, raised only administrator

result that when he died he left Prussia a mere mechanism, to 

on the field of Jena. 

In the very winter of Jena the philosopher Fichte came to 

Berlin, while it was still in the occupation of the French. ~ 

no university in the Prussian capital of those days, and th

were delivered not to young students, but to the maturest br

country in the fever of a great crisis. Fichte taught the phi

patriotism at a time when the German universities were dev

abstract worship of knowledge and art. In the next few year

1806 and 1813, was established that close connection be

army, the bureaucracy, and the schools, or, in other words

the needs of government and the aims of education, which c

the essencc and perverse strength of the Prussian system. 

military service was correlated with universal compulsory 

inaugurated in Prussia two generations before the English 

Act of 1870; the University of Berlin, with a brilliant profess

established as sister to the Great General Staff. Thus kno

Prussia was no longer pursued mainly for its own sake, but a

to an end, and that end was the success of a state which had ex

bitter disaster. It was a camp-state, moreover, in the midst 

ISee The Evolution of Prussia, by Marriott and Grant Robertson. Clarendon 

14 
wpp, p

at large it was a fatal momentum to have given to a nation-

is to say, in the long run, either to civilization or that natio

We have had for a byword in these times the German w

may be questioned however, whether most people in B

America have fully realized the part played by the map 

education during the past three generations. Maps are th

apparatus of Kultur, and every educated German is a geog

sense that is true of very few Englishmen or Americans. H

taught to see in maps not merely the conventional boundaries 

by scraps of paper, but permanent physical oppo .rtunities--

means" in the literal sense of the words. His Real-Politik 

mind upon a mental map. The serious teaching of geography 

high schools and universities dates from the very beginning 

It was organized in the generation after Jena, mainly by 

of four men--Alexander yon Humboldt, Berghaus, Carl 

Stieler--who were attached to the new University of Berlin 

since famous map-house ofPerthes of Gotha. To this day, not

ing all that has been done by two or three exceptional map

this country, if you want a good map, conveying accurate

graphically the fundamental contrasts, you must have reso

as not to one of German origin. The reason is that in Germ

are many cartographers who are scholarly geographers and 

surveyors or draftsmen. They can exist, because there is a w

educated to appreciate and pay for intelligently drawn map

In this country we value the moral side of education, and i

intuitively that we have neglected materialistic geography. 

war not a few teachers, within my knowledge, objected to 

as a subject of education, on the ground that it tended t

imperialism, just as they objected to physical drill becaus

to militarism. We may laugh at such excesses of political 

~ln my Address to the Geographical Section of the British Association at Ip

will be found an account of the rise of the German schools of geography. 

15 
ggy py 

among us by the rough maps of the newspapers. But your 

and his father, and his grandfather have debated such concep

lives, pencil in hand. In arranging the detailed terms of p

statesmen will, no doubt, have the advice of excellent ge

experts, but the German representatives will have behind 

merely a few experts but a great geographically instructed pu

familiar with every important aspect of the questions which 

and quick to give a farsighted support to their leaders. This m

become a decisive advantage, especially should our people 

a magnanimous frame of mind. It would be a curious th

successes of Talleyrand and Metternich, in the secret dip

1814, were repeated by the spokesmen of the defeated sta

own time under the conditions imposed upon diplomacy by po

ernment! ~ 

The map habit of thought is no less pregnant in the 

economics than it is in that of strategy. True that laissez-

little use for it, but the "most favored nation" clause which 

imposed on defeated France in the Treaty of Frankfurt ha

different meaning for the strategical German mind to that w

attached to it by honest Cobdenites. The German bureaucrat 

it a whole structure of preferences for German trade. Of w

Britain under her northern skies was the most favored nati

when Germany granted a concession to Italy in the matter 

duties on olive oil? Would there not also be railway trucks to b

to Italy which might as well return loaded with German exp

whole system of most voluminous and intricate commerci

between Germany and her neighbors was based on a minute 

commercial routes and of the lie of productive areas. The 

lit is true that there is a "horse-sense" of geography among those of us who h

It is true, also, that we keep atlases in our offices and libraries, to be consulted 

consult a dictionary for the spelling of a word. But correct spelling does not always 

power! A trained sense of geographical perspective is essential to the mode of 

in question. 

16 
views of the world. View is characteristic of the organize

things from above. Kipling agreed with the Kaiser, but in the 

of simple men below, when he declared that there is huma

and German feeling. The organizer, as organizer, is inevitably 

or rather unhuman. No doubt both Kaiser and poet exagg

order to emphasize opposing tendencies; even a democracy m

organizers, just as there must be someremnant of kindlin

among the students of Kultur. The real question is as to wh

have the last word in the state---the idealists or the organizers

tionalists are in futile revolt against all organization when th

have war of the proletariat on the bourgeoisie. 

Democracy refuses to think strategically unless and until c

to do so for purposes of defense. That, of course, does no

democracy from declaring war for an ideal, as was seen d

French Revolution. One of the inconsistencies of our pacifis

is that they so often urge intervention in the affairs of othe

In the Middle Ages vast unorganized crowds set out to marc

the infidel and perished fecklessly by the way. It was not f

of warning that the Western democracies were unprepare

present war. At the same moment, early in this century, to 

the case of Great Britain, three honored voices were app

our sovereign people and were not heard: Lord Rosebery c

efficiency, Mr. Chamberlain for economic defense, and Lord 

for military training. Democracy implies rule by consent of th

citizen, who does not view things from the hilltops, for he m

his work in the fertile plains. There is no good in railing at the c

istics of popular government, for they are its qualities and 

defects. President Wilson admits them when he says we m

the world a safe place henceforth for democracies. They wer

admitted in the British House of Commons when responsible 

took pride in the fact that, save in respect of the defensive fo

navy, we were not prepared for the war. 

The democrat thinks in principles, be they--according to his 

crasy----ideals, prejudices, or economic laws. The organize

17 
a nation which is growinghe must carefully consider t

which it is desirable to occupy and the social structures--no

laws--which are to his handas the result of history. So 

his strategy to the ethics of the democrat. 

Fierce moralists allow no extenuation for sin however pe

temptation, and great undoubtedly must be the reward in 

the slum-dweller who "keeps straight." But practical refo

much of their thought to the housing problemT Of late o

moralists have been very fierce. They preached the narrow 

annexations, no indemnities." In other words, they refuse

with the realities of geography and economics. Had we bu

grain of mustard seed in average human nature, could we 

the mountains! 

Practical sense, however, warns us that it would be w

the present opportunity, when for once the democratic 

efficiently armed to make the world a safe place for democr

going about their ordinary business. In other words, we m

the housing problem of our coming League of Nations. We m

presciently with the realities of space and time, and not 

merely to lay down on paper good principles of conduct

may not always appear the same even to those who are 

and will pretty surely appear not good, for a time at le

present enemies. 

"No annexations, no indemnities" was no doubt a rally

meant by its authors to support existing tyrannies. But 

legitimate to remark that there is a wide difference between 

of the lawyer with his presumptions unless there be proof to th

and that of the business man untied by formulae. The one d

and the other, at best, allows them to be done. 

In the past, democracy has looked with suspicion on .th

even of popular governments, and therein has shown a 

knowledge. It used to be thought, and sooner or later will 

again, that the main function of the state in free countries is 

tyrannous things from being done whether by offenders 

18 
him. In Prussia all progress has been state engineered, but then 

there has meant merely increase of efficiency? 

To save democracy, however, in its recent jeopardy we s

the very safeguards of democracy, and allowed our govern

organize us not merely for defense but for offense. Had the 

short, this would have been a mere parenthesis in history. B

been long, and social structures have wasted in part, and in 

been diverted to new uses, so that habits and vested inter

dissolved, and all society is as clay in our hands, if only we 

cunning to mold it while it is still yielding. But the art of 

molder, as of the worker in hot metal, lies not merely in know

he would make, but also in allowing for the properties of the 

in which he is working. He must not only have artistic aims

technical knowledge; his human initiative must reckon with r

must cultivate his "ways and means" mind, while he tries 

his ideals of form. 

As the artist endeavors to his dying day to learn ever m

the medium in which he works and not merely more in a 

sense, but in a practical "tactile" way, gaining, as we sa

command over his material---so has it been with the know

humanity at large in regard to the realities of the round world 

we must practice the intricate art of living together. It is n

that we have amassed vast encyclopaedias of fact, but that, a

through each new epoch, we see all the past and all the pre

new eyes and from new standpoints. It is obvious that these f

of war have wrought a change in human outlook the like of w

not effected in all the previous life of those of us who have g

Yet, when we look back with our present knowledge, is it 

that the currents of thought now running so tumultuously wer

setting in gently some twenty years ago? In the last years of la

~Twelve years ago 1 met a Prussian staff officer who told me that he spent his 

save half an hour on mobilization. 

19 
schoolmen, there is a great difference between vera caus

causans--mere academic learning and the realization w

to action. 

IMr. Chamberlain resigned from the Cabinet in order to free himself as a lead

1903, and Lord Roberts resigned from his post as commander-in-chief with a 

January, 1904. 

20 
THE SEAMAN'S POINT OF VIEW 

' 'And God said, Let the waters be gathered together in one p

T he physical facts of geography have remained substanti

same during the fifty or sixty centuries of recorded hum

tory. Forests have been cut down, marshes have been 

and deserts may have broadened, but the outlines of land and 

and the lie of mountains and rivers have not altered except in 

The influence of geographical conditions upon human activi

depended, however, not merely on the realities as we now kno

to be and to have been, but in even greater degree on what men im

in regard to them. The ocean has been one throughout history, 

effective human purposes there were two oceans, western and 

until the Cape of Good Hope was rounded only four hundre

ago. So did it happen that Admiral Mahan in the closing year

century could still base a new message in regard to sea-pow

text from the first chapter of Genesis. The ocean was one o

the time, but the practical meaning of that great reality was not 

understood until a few years ago---perhaps it is only now being 

in its entirety. 

Each century has had its own geographical perspective. M

living, though past the age of military service, were taught from 

of the world on which nearly all the interior of Africa was a 

yet last year General Smuts could address the Royal Geogr

21 
.,,, ~ 

Fro. l.--A river-world apart. 

Society on the German ambition to control the world fr

explored vantage-ground of Central Africa. The geographi

tive of the twentieth century differs, however, from tha

previous centuries in more than mere extension. In outline ou

ical knowledge is now complete. We have lately attained 

Pole, and have found that it is in the midst of a deep sea

South Pole, and have found it upon a high plateau. With 

discoveries the book of the pioneers has been closed. No 

fertile new land, no important mountain range, and no firs

can any more be the reward of adventure. Moreover, the 

world had hardly been sketched before claims to the politica

of all the dry land had been pegged out. Whether we 

physical, economic, military, or political interconnection 

the surface of the globe, we are now for the first time pre

a closed system. The known does not lade any longer throu

known into the unknown; there is no longer elasticity 

expansion in lands beyond the pale. Every shock, every 

superfluity, is now felt even to the antipodes, and may in

from the antipodes, as the air waves from the eruption of 

22 
S 

Fro. 9.--A coastal navigation 

drawn to tile same scale as 

the river navigation on p. 22. 

Krakatoa in the year 1883 were propelled in rings over the 

they converged to a point in the opposite hemisphere, 

diverged again to meet once more over Krakatoa, the s

origin. Every deed of humanity will henceforth be echoed a

in like manner round the world. That, in the ultimate anal

every considerable state was bound to be drawn into the 

if it lasted, as it did last, long enough. 

To this day, however, our view of the geographical realiti

for practical purposes by our preconceptions from the pa

words, human society is still related to the facts of geogr

they are but in no small measure as they have been appro

course of history. It is only with an effort that we can yet 

in the true, the complete, and therefore detached, perspe

twentieth century. This war has taught us rapidly, but th

vast numbers of our citizens who look out on to a viv

foreground, but only to a very dim Eastern background. In 

fore to appreciate where we now stand, it will be worth while 

shortly the stages by which we have arrived. Let us beg

succeeding phases of the seaman's outlook. 

23 
miles a silvery navigable river. That river is the Nile flow

where the granite rocks of Assouan break its navigability a

cataract to where its waters divide at the head of the Delta. Fro

edge to desert edge across the valley is a crow-fly distance 

ten or twenty miles. Stand on one of the brinks with the dese

you; the rocky descent falls from your feet to the strip of pla

and away over the floods of the summer-time, or the gree

growing winter-time or the golden harvests of the spring, you 

by the opposing wall of rock rising to the other desert. The 

in those rock fronts were carved long ago into cavernous tem

tombs, and the salient into mighty effigies of kings and god

in this long sunken belt, was anciently civilized because all the 

physical advantages were here combined for men to work u

the one hand were a rich soil, abundant water, and a powerful 

hence fertility for the support of a population in affluence. On 

hand was a Smooth waterway within half a dozen miles or less 

field in the country. There was also motive power for shippi

the river current carried vessels northward, and the Etesian 

known on the ocean as the trade-winds---brought them southwa

Fertility and a line of communicationo~ man-power and fac

its organization; there are the essential ingredients for a king

We are asked to picture the early condition of Egypt as 

valley held by a chain of tribes, who fought with one another 

of great war canoes, just as later tribes have fought on the riv

in our own time. Some one of these tribes, having defeated its n

gained possession of a longer section of the valley, a more e

material basis for its man-power, and on that basis organize

conquests. At last the whole length of the valley was brough

single rule, and the kings of all Egypt established their palace a

Northward and southward, by boat on the Nile, traveled their 

trators---their messengers and their magistrates. Eastward and w

lay the strong defense of the deserts, and at the northern limit

the sea pirates, a belt of marsh round the shore of the Delta? 

~See The Dawn of History by Professor J. L. Myres. 

24 
on either hand are fertile shorelands with winter rains an

sunshine. But there is a distinction to be made between th

along the Nile banks and those along the Mediterranean s

conditions of human activity are relatively uniform in all part

each of the constituent tribes would have its farmers and its 

But the races round the Mediterranean became specialized; 

content to till their fields and navigate their rivers at home, 

gave most of their energy to seamanship and foreign comm

by side, for instance, dwelt the home-staying, corn-growing 

and the adventurous Phoenicians. A long and more sustaine

organization was therefore needed to weld all the kingdo

Mediterranean into a single political unit. 

Modem research has made it plain that the leading seaf

of antiquity came at all times from that square of water betwe

and Asia which is known alternatively as the Aegean Se

Archipelago, the "Chief Sea" of the Greeks. Sailors from 

would appear to have taught the Phoenicians their trade in 

as yet Greek was not spoken in the "Isles of the Gentiles

deepest interest for our present purpose to note that the 

civilization in the pre-Greek world of the Aegean, accordi

the indications of mythology and the recent excavation, w

Island of Crete. Was that the first base of sea-power? From 

did the seamen fare who, sailing northward, saw the coast o

sun to their right hand, and of the setting sun to their left 

named the one Asia and the other Europe? Was it from Cre

sea-folk settled round the other shores of the Aegean "sea-c

forming to this day a coastal veneer of Greek population 

peoples of other race a few miles inland? There are so ma

in the Archipelago that the name has become, like the Delta 

one of the common descriptive terms of geography. But C

largest and most fruitful of them. Have we here a firm insta

importance of the larger base for sea-power? The man-po

sea must be nourished by land fertility somewhere, and ot

25 
• ~ aZ 

e,, ~a 

eg O 

26 
,, 

~. ~,,1,~ • ~ % 

i ""-" 

J IO0,M../les I 

Fir,. 4.-l.atium, a fertile sea base. 

being equal--such as security of the home and energy of th

that power will control the sea which is based on the greater 

The next phase of Aegean development teaches apparentl

lesson. Horses-riding tribes of Hellenic speech came dow

north into the peninsula which now forms the mainland of G

settled, Hellenizing the early inhabitants. These Hellenes adv

the terminal limb of the peninsula, the Peloponnese, slender

to the continent by the isthmus of Corinth. Thence, organ

power on their relatively considerable peninsular base, one 

lenic tribes, the Dorians, conquered Crete, a smaller though 

insular base. 

Some centuries passed, during which the Greeks sailed 

southern headlands of the Peloponnese into the Ionian Sea

nized along the shores of that sea also. So the peninsula ca

citadel in the midst of the Greek sea-world. Along the oute

the twin water, Aegean and Ionian, the Greek colonists w

fringe exposed to attack from behind. Only in the central 

were they relatively, although as the sequel shows not absolu

To the eastern, outer shore of the Aegean the Persians c

27 
Dardanelles, and entered the peninsula from the north, w

of destroying the nest whence the wasps emerged which 

and flew elusively away. The Persian effort failed, and it w

for the half-Greek, half-barbaric Macedonians, established 

of the Greek Peninsula itself, to end the first cycle of se

conquering to south of them the Greek sea-base, and the

into Asia, and through Syria into Egypt, and on the way 

Tyre of the Phoenicians. Thus they made a "closed sea" o

Mediterranean by depriving both the Greeks and the Ph

their bases. That done, the Macedonian king, Alexander, co

light-heartedly into Upper Asia. We may talk of the mobi

and of the long arm of the fleet, but, after all, sea-power is fu

a matter of appropriate bases, productive and secure. Gree

passed through the same phases as Egyptian river-power. 

both was the same; without the protection of a navy, comm

securely over a water-way because all the shores were held 

the same land-power. 

Now we go to the Western Mediterranean. Rome there 

fortified town on a hill, at the foot of which was a bridge 

wharf. This hill-bridge-portqown was the citadel and mark

nation of farmers, who tilled Latium, the "broad land" or pla

the Apennines and the sea. "Father" Tiber was for shippi

merely a creek, navigable for the small sea-craft of those 

entered thus from the coast a few miles into the midst of th

that was enough to give Rome the advantage over her rival

crowning the Alban and Etruscan hills of the neighborhood

the bridge and the inmost port just as had London. 

Based on the productivity of Latium, the Romans issu

Tiber to traffic round the shores of the Western Mediterra

they came into competition with the Carthaginians, who 

28 
Xerxes and Alexander had done in regard to the sea-powers 

to them. He carried his army over the western narrows from 

into Spain, and then advanced through Southern Gaul into I

was defeated, and Rome annexed the Mediterranean coasts 

and Spain. By taking Cathage itself in the Third Punic War, s

a "closed sea" of the Western Mediterranean, for all the shor

held by one and the same land-power. 

There remained the task of uniting the controls of the west

eastern basins of the Mediterranean, connected by the Sicilia

and the Strait of Messina. The Roman legions passed over into M

nia and thence into Asia, but the distinction between Latin W

Greek East remained, as was evident when civil war came to b

between the Roman governors of the West and the East, Cae

Antony. At the sea-fight of Actium, one of the decisive battle

world's history, the Western fleet of Caesar destroyed the East

of Antony. Thenceforth for five centuries the entire Mediterran

a "closed sea"; and we think in consequence of the Roman 

as chiefly a land-power. No fleet was needed, save a few police 

to maintain as complete a command of the arterial sea-way 

Mediterranean as ever the kings of Egypt exercised over the

way. Once more land-power terminated a cycle of competiti

the water by depriving sea-power of its bases. True that there h

the culminating sea-battle of Actium, and that Caesar's fleet h

the reward of all finally successful fleets, the command ove

sea. But that command was not afterwards maintained upon 

but upon the land by holding the coasts. 

When Rome had completed the organization of her powe

the Mediterranean, there followed a long transitional epoch

which the oceanic development of Western civilization was g

29 
0 

o 

o 

r., 

8' 

o 

o 

30 
the African province was protected by the Sahara desert, and 

in rear the Adriatic moat, but in Gaul and Spain Rome foun

the uncomfortable neighbor of independent Celtic tribes. T

familiar dilemma of empire presented itself; to advance and 

menace, or to entrench and shut it out, but leave it in being

virile people chose the former course, and the frontier and t

were carried through to the ocean along a thousand miles of 

between Cape St. Vincent and the mouths of the Rhine. As 

quence the Latin portion of the Empire came to be based on two 

of physical geography: on the one hand was the Latin Sea---the 

Mediterranean; and on the other hand was the Latin Peninsula, 

the Mediterranean and the ocean. ~ 

Julius Caesar penetrated to the Bay of Biscay, and buil

wherewith he defeated the fleet of the Veneti of Brittany. Then 

the Celts of Britain were giving help to their Gallic kinsmen, he 

the Channel and smote them in their island base. A hundred ye

the Romans conquered all the lower and more fruitful portion o

and so eliminated the risk of the rise of a sea-power off th

coast. In this way the Channel also became a "closed sea," co

by land-power. 

After four centuries the land-power of Rome waned, and 

on either side of the Latin Peninsula then soon ceased to be "c

The Norsemen raided over the North Sea from their fiords, and 

the Channel, and through the Straits of Gibraltar, even into the 

of the Mediterranean, enveloping with their sea-power the wh

peninsula. They seized forward bases in the islands of Bri

Sicily, and even nibbled at the mainland edges in Normandy an

ern Italy. 

At the same time the Saracen camel-men came down from 

and took Carthage, Egypt, and Syria from the Empire--the pr

that is to say, south of the Mediterranean. Then they launch

I 1 do not know whether these names, Latin Sea and Latin Peninsula, have been used 

It seems to me that they serve to crystallize important generalizations, and I pro

them henceforth. 

31 
Fl6. 6.--The Latin sea, showing thc Roman territory after 

Wars. 

fleets on the water, and seized part of Sicily and par

overseas bases. Thus the Mediterranean ceased to be t

of an empire, and became the frontier moat dividing Chr

Islam. But the greater sea-power of the Saracen enable

Spain, though north of the water, just as at an earlier t

sea-power of Rome had enabled her to hold Carthagc

of the water. 

For a thousand years Latin Christendom was thus im

Latin Peninsula and its appendant island of Britain. F

miles northeastward, measured in a straight line, tren

coast from the Sacred Promontory of the ancients to 

Copenhagen, and fifteen hundred miles eastward, measu

way, lies the sinuous Mediterranean coast from the Sacr

to the Straits at Constantinople. A lesser peninsula adv

the main peninsula at each strait, Scandinavia on the 

Asia Minor on the other; and behind the land bars so f

land-girt basins, the Baltic and Black Seas. If Britain be 

32 
Fxo. 7.--The Latin peninsula, occupied, by the modern Romance n

balancing Italy, the symmetry of the distal end of the main 

is such that you might lay a Latin cross upon it with th

Germany, the arms in Britain and Italy, the feet in Spain, and 

in France, thus typifying that ecclesiastical empire of the fi

which, though shifted northward, was the medieval heir of t

Caesars. Towards the East, however, where the Baltic and B

first begin to define the peninsular character of Europe, the 

less shapely, for the Balkan Peninsula protrudes southward, o

ing finally into the historic little peninsula of Greece. 

Is it not tempting to speculate on what might have hap

Rome not refused to conquer eastward of the Rhine? Who c

a single mighty sea-power, wholly Latinized as far as the 

Baltic Seas, would not have commanded the world from its 

base? But classical Rome was primarily a Mediterranean 

peninsular power, and the Rhine-Danube frontier must be r

demarking a penetration from the Mediterranean coast rath

the incomplete achievement of a peninsular policy. 

33 
With this empire as base the Crusades were afterwards 

Seen in large perspective at this distance of time, and from 

point of view, the Crusades, if successful, would have 

main effect the ~'closing" once more of the Mediterrane

long series of these wars, extending over two centurie

courses. On the one hand, fleets were sent out from Venic

to Jaffa and Acre on the Syrian coast; on the other hand, arm

through Hungary, along the famous "corridor" of the 

Maritza Valleys, and through Constantinople and Asia Min

The comparison is obvious between these campaigns of t

by land, from a German base round to the back of the M

Sea, and the similar campaign of Alexander from his Mace

A good many parallels might, indeed, be drawn between th

Macedonians and the half-Latin Germans. No Greek of t

but looked upon a Macedonian as a sort of bastard! But 

in the broad root of the Greek Peninsula enabled the M

conquer the Greek sea-base, as the position of the German 

root of the greater Latin Peninsula has always made him 

the Latin sea-bases beyond the Rhine and the Alps. 

The peoples of the Latin civilization were thus hardened 

of centuries, called the Dark Ages, during which they w

in their homeland by the Mohammedans, and failed to b

their Crusading sorties. Only in the fifteenth century did t

the great adventure on the ocean which was to make the wor

It is worth pausing for a moment to consider further the uni

ment in which the Western strain of our human breed d

enterprise and tenacity which have given it the lead in 

world. Europe is but a small corner of the great island 

contains Asia and Africa, but the cradle land of the Eu

only a half of Europe--the Latin Peninsula and the subsidiar

and islands clustered around it. Broad deserts lay to the 

could be crossed only in some three months on camel h

the black men were fended off from the white men. T

34 
7 

35 
or less completely, from the seventh to the nineteenth ce

Arabs and the Turks. 

In any case, however, the European system of waterw

tached by the Isthmus of Suez from the Indian Ocean. Th

the seaman's point of view Europe was a quite definit

even though the landsman might think of it as merging 

was a world apart, but within that world was ample fertil

water-paths a natural provision for the intimacy of a fami

Water-paths they were, with branchings and crossings, for 

not venturing out on to the high seas still sailed betwe

and the horizon, just as they threaded their way between t

of the rivers. In the relatively roadless days, moreover, wh

on the decay of the Roman road system, the boatmen freq

of the headwaters of the rivers, which we have now aban

longer worth navigating. 

There were two fortunate circumstances in regard to 

siege of Europe. On the one hand, the Infidels had not 

inexhaustible man-power, for they were based on arid 

deserts and steppes, and on comparatively small oasis l

other hand, the Latin Peninsula was not seriously threate

oceanic border, for the Norsemen, though fierce and cru

remained pagan, were based on fiord .valleys even less e

less fruitful than the oases, and wherever they settled--

Normandy, Sicily, or Russia--their small numbers were s

into the older populations. Thus the whole defensive streng

could be thrown against the southeastern danger. But as 

civilization gained momentum, there was energy to sp

ocean frontage; Venice and Austria sufficed for the later str

the Turks. 

After the essays, without practical result, of the Norse

their way through the northern ice of Greeland, the Portu

took to find a seaway to the Indies round the coast of 

were inspired to the venture by the lead of Prince Henry, 

tor," half Englishman and half Portuguese. At first si

36 
FIG. 9.--The river and coast ways of the seaman's Europe. The land 

Europe measures less than 2 per cent of the surface of the globe. 

prison of medieval Christendom, but the sea base of modern Ch

strange that pilots like Columbus, who had spent their lives 

voyages, often going from Venice to Britain, should so 

delayed an exploration southward as they issued from th

Gibraltar. Still more strange does it appear that when at la

set themselves to discover the outline of Africa, it took 

generations of almost annual voyaging before Da Gama 

into the Indian Ocean. The cause of their difficulties was p

a thousand miles, from the latitude of the Canary Island

Cape Verde, the African coast is a torrid desert, because th

wind there blows off the land without ceasing. It might be 

easy matter to sail southward on that steady breeze, but h

voyage back to be accomplished by ships which could n

the wind like a modem clipper, and yet dared neither sa

the broad ocean across the wind, nor yet tediously tack thei

off a coast with no supplies of fresh food and water, in a 

the plague of scurvy had not yet been mastered? 

Once the Portuguese had found the ocean-way into the 

37 
lqG. lo.--The World-Promontory. 

they soon disposed of the opposition of the Arab dhows. 

taken its foes in rear; it had sailed round to the rear of th

as Xerxes, Alexander, IIannibal, and the Crusaders had mar

to the rear of the sea. 

From that time until the opening of the Suez Canal in 

seamen of Europe continued in ever-increasing number to 

Cape, and to sail northward on the eastern ocean as far as 

Japan. Only one ship, the Vega of the Swedish Baron No

has to this day made the passage round the north of Asia--w

risk, and in two years---and she happens not to have circu

the Triple Continent, for she returned home through the S

Nor was the overland journey to the Indies undertaken, e

adventure, until last century. The trade to the Indies was co

coasting--no doubt in a bold way, from point to point, roun

southward promontory whose shores were European and 

the one side, and African and Asiatic on the other. From t

view of the traffic to the Indies, the world was a vast cap

out southward from between Britain and Japan. This world-p

was enveloped by sea-power, as had been the Greek and Lat

tories beforehand: a-ll its coasts were open to ship-borne 

attack from the sea. The seamen naturally chose for the loc

their trading or warfare small islands off the continental 

as Mombasa, Bombay, Singapore, and Hongkong, or small 

such as the Cape of Good Hope and Aden, since those positi

shelter for their ships and security for their depots. When gr

and stronger they put their commercial cities, such as C

Shanghai, near the entry of great riverways into productive an

38 
~'~C~ESUmE~.,, =- ~ / . \ 

o ~Se"@ o- .% ".. 

"o ~. .~ "g ~ "\ ...- "" .."o 

~ ~ ~ ~ XO~ ,c~ 

-~. ) ..,% / 

,,,~ ~ o ..~o,oo~ 

....--//To ~ . ,~s .~ 

~-"irelon° ,00 ~J.~"~"" 60";"~,,, 

~.. ÷ ..xJ . "~,'/o~ 

MOOfS~- ...-"~ "( 

.~,, ".~ 

/ 

FIG. lt.--Thc English plain, a fertile sea base. 

marketlands. The seamen of Europe, owing to their greater 

have thus had superiority for some four centuries over the 

of Africa and Asia. The passing of the imminent danger to Ch

because of the relative weakening of Islam, was, no doubt, 

reasons for the break-up of Medieval Europe at the close of 

Ages; already in 1493 the Pope had to draw his famous lin

the ocean, from Pole to Pole, in order to prevent Spanish and P

seamen from quarreling. As a result of this break-up, there 

competing oceanic powers Portuguese, Spanish, French, 

English---in the place of the one power which would, no d

been the ideal of the Crusaders. 

Thus the outcome of a thousand years of transition, from t

to the modern conditions of sea-power, is such as to prompt 

son between the Greek and Latin Peninsulas, each with its of

39 
greater peninsula and greater island, Britain was conque

by Rome from the peninsular mainland; but when the 

were closing, several rival sea-bases occupied the Latin Pe

of them open to attack from the land behind, as Athens an

been open to the Macedonian invasion. Of these Latin se

Venice, fronted towards Islam, while the others contended 

cine feuds for the command of the ocean, so that in the e

British insular base, faced by no united peninsular base

home of a power which enveloped and contained the great

Within Great Britain itself it is true that there was not e

until the eighteenth century, but the facts of physical ge

determined that there should always be predominant Eng

the south of the island, whether as foe or partn, er of the 

Welsh peoples. From Norman days, until the growth o

industries upon the coal-fields, the English nation was alm

simple in its structure. It is that which makes English hi

story that it is, until the histories of Scotland and Irel

confuse their currents with it. One fertile plain between t

of the west and north and the narrow seas to the east 

people of farmers, a single king, a single parliament, a 

single great city for central market and port--those are 

on which the England was built whose warning beaco

the hilltops from Plymouth to Berwick-on-Tweed, in 

Elizabeth's reign when the Spanish Armada had entered 

On a smaller scale, Latium, the Tiber, the city, the sen

people of Rome once presented a similar unity and a simi

strength. The real base historically of British sea-power wa

plain---fertile and detached; coal and iron from round th

the plain have been added in later times. The white ensign 

Navy is with some historic justice the flag of St. Ge

"difference" for the minor partners. 

Every characteristic of sea-power may be studied in B

40 
Dorians from the greater peninsula. 

Four times in the past three centuries was it attempted to o

British sea-power from frontages on the penisular coast oppos

Spain, from Holland, and twice from France. At last, after 

British sea-power definitively enveloped the Latin Peninsul

subsidiary bases at Gibraltar, Malta, and Heligoland. The c

coast line became the effective British boundary, notwithsta

enemy privateers, and Britain could prepare war at her ease 

sea. So she undertook the "Peninsular" campaigns in Spain, a

armies in the Netherlands in aid of her military allies. She ev

pated Gallipoli by bringing away her armies from Walcheren 

unna. 

When the Napoleonic War was over, British sea-power enco

almost without competition, that great world-promontory wh

forward to the Cape of Good Hope from between Britain a

British merchant ships on the sea were a part of the British 

British capital ventured abroad in foreign countries was part 

resources, controlled from the city of London and availab

maintenance of power on and over the seas. It was a proud and 

position, and seemed so secure that Victorian folk thought 

in the natural order of things that insular Britain should rule 

We were, perhaps, not quite a popular people in the rest of t

our position behind a Channel seemed an unfair advantage. But 

cannot navigate the mountains, and since the French wars of th

• genets we have not sought to make permanent European con

that, on the whole, we may hope that the verdict of foreign 

on our Britain of the nineteenth century may resemble th

famous schoolboy who described his headmaster as "a be

just beast." 

Perhaps the most remarkable outcome of British sea-powe

position in the Indian Ocean during the generation before the 

British "Raj" in India depended on support from the sea, 

the waters between the Cape of Good Hope, India, and Austra

41 
were inaccessible under existing conditions by landway 

Save in the Persian Gulf, there could be no rival base 

which combined security with the needful resources, and 

it a declared principle of her policy that no sea-base sho

lished on either the Persian or Turkish shores of the 

Superficially there is a striking similarity between the clos

nean of the Romans, with the Legions along the Rhine 

the closed Indian Ocean, with the British army on the nort

of India. The difference lay in the fact that, whereas the 

Mediterranean depended on the Legions, the closing of th

was maintained by the long arm of sea-power itself from th

In the foregoing rapid survey of the vicissitudes of s

have not stayed to consider that well-worn theme of the s

of the seas. Everyone now realizes that owing to the con

ocean and the mobility of ships, a decisive battle at sea h

and far-reaching results. Caesar beat Antony at Actium, 

orders were enforceable forthwith on every shore of the M

Britain won her culminating victory at Trafalgar, and c

the ocean to the fleets of her enemies, could transport 

whatsoever coast she would and remove them again, cou

plies home from foreign sources, could exert pressure i

on whatsoever offending state has a sea-front. Our con

been rather in regard to the bases of sea-power and the rel

of land-power. In the long run, that is the fundamental qu

were fleets of war canoes on the Nile, and the Nile was c

contention by a single land-power controlling their fertile 

all the length of Egypt. A Cretan insular base was conq

larger Greek peninsular base. Macedonian land-power clo

ern Mediterranean to the warships both of Greeks and Ph

depriving them impartially of their bases. Hannibal struc

the peninsular base of Roman sea-power, and that base 

42 
bases of seapower upon it, all open to attack from the land, th

of the seas passed to a power which was less broadly base

an island--fortunately a fertile and coal-bearing island. On s

thus based, British adventurers have found an overseas empi

nies, plantations, depots, and protectorates, and have estab

means of sea-borne armies, local land-powers in India and 

impressive have been the results of British sea-power that 

perhaps been a tendency to neglect the warnings of histo

regard sea-power in general as inevitably having, because o

of the ocean, the last word in the rivalry with land-power. 

Never has sea-power played a greater part than in the recen

in the events which led up to it. Those events began some tw

ago with three great victories won by the British fleet without 

of a gun. The first was at Manila, in the Pacific Ocean, when 

squadron threatened to intervene to protect a Spanish squadr

was being defeated by an American squadron, and a British 

stood by the Americans. Without unduly stressing that singl

it may be taken as typical of the relations of the Powers d

war between Spain and America, which war gave to Americ

possessions both in the Atlantic and Pacific, and led to her un

the construction of the Panama Canal, in order to gain the a

of insularity for the mobilization of her warships. So was a 

taken towards the reconciliation of British and American hea

over the Monroe Doctrine was upheld in regard to South A

The second of these victories of the British fleet was wh

the ocean during the South African War, of such vital conse

the maintenance of the British rule in India; and the third 

it kept the ring round the Russo-Japanese War, and inciden

the door open into China. In all cases history would have 

difI~rent but for the intervention of the British fleet. None the 

perhaps as a consequence---the growth of the German fleet 

43 
days of the struggle the British fleet had already taken 

the ocean, enveloping, with the assistance of the French fle

peninsular theater of the war on land. The German troops i

colonies were isolated, German merchant shipping was d

seas, the British expeditionary force was transported across 

without the loss of a man or a horse, and British and Fre

from over the ocean were safely brought in. In a word, t

of Britain and France were made one for the purpose of 

their joint boundary was advanced to within gunshot 

German coast---no small offsct for the temporary, though d

ted, loss of certain French departments. After the battle o

the true war map of Europe would have shown a Franco-Br

following the Norwegian, Danish, German, Dutch, 

coasts--at a distance of three miles in the case of the neutral 

then running as a sinuous line through Belgium and Franc

border of Switzerland. West of that boundary, whether by 

the two Powers could make ready their defense against 

Nine months later Italy dared to join the Allies, mainly 

ports were kept open by the Allied sea-power. 

On the Eastern front also the old style of war held. Lan

there divided into two contending forces, and the outer 

notwithstanding its incongruous Czardom, was allied w

power of the democratic West. In short, the disposition 

peated in a general way that of a century earlier, when 

power supported the Portuguese and Spaniards in "the 

and was allied with the autocracies of the Eastern land-po

leon fought on two fronts, which in the terms of to-da

describe as Western and Eastern. 

In 1917, however, came a great change, due to the 

United States into the war, the fall of the Russian Czard

subsequent collapse of the Russian fighting strength. The w

of the contest was entirely altered. We have been fightin

can afford to say it without hurting any of our allies, to ma

a safe place for democracies. So much as regards idealis

44 
in history, and in fact on the widest possible base. The joint 

of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is now effectively, and not merely 

cally, an island. Now and again, lest we forget, let us call it t

Island in what follows. 

One reason why the seamen did not long ago rise to the gene

implied in the expression "World-Island," is that they could 

the round voyage of it. An ice-cap, two thousand miles acr

on the polar sea, with one edge aground on the shoals off th

Asia. For the common purposes of navigation, therefore, the 

is not an island. The seaman of the last four centuries have 

as a vast promontory stretching southward from a vague n

mountain peak may rise out of the clouds from hidden fou

Even in the last century, since the opening of the Suez C

eastward voyage has still been round a promontory, though 

point at Singapore instead of Cape Town. 

This fact and its vastness have made men think of the Co

though it differed from other islands in more than size. We 

its parts as Europe, Asia, and Africa in precisely the same 

we speak of the parts of the ocean as Atlantic, Pacific, and 

theory even the ancient Greeks regarded it as insular, yet th

of it as the "World." The school children of to-day are ta

as the "Old World," in contrast with a certain pair of peninsu

together constitute the "New World." Seamen speak of it 

"the Continent," the continuous land. 

Let us consider for a moment the proportions and relatio

newly realized Great Island. t It is set as it were on the shoul

earth with reference to the North Pole. Measuring from Po

along the central meridian of Asia, we have first a thousand 

ice-clad sea as far as the northern shore of Siberia, then five 

miles of land to the southern point of India, and then seven 

miles of sea to the Antarctic cap of ice-clad land. But measu

llt would be misleading to attempt to represent the statements which follow 

They can only be appreciated on a globe. Therefore they are illustrated by diagra

12 and 13. 

45 
to its circumnavigation, practical seamen would long ago 

of the Great Island by some such name, for it is only a lit

one-fifth as large as their ocean. 

The World-Island ends in points northeastward and so

On a clear day you can see from the northeastern hea

Bering Strait to the beginning of the long pair of peni

measuring about one twenty-sixth of the globe, which 

Americas. Superficially there is no doubt a certain res

symmetry in the Old and New Worlds; each consists of tw

Africa and Euro-Asia in the one case, and North and So

in the other. But there is no real likeness between them. 

and northeastern shores of Africa for nearly four thousa

so intimately related with the opposite shores of Europe a

the Sahara constitutes a far more effective break in soci

than does the Mediterranean. In the days of air navigatio

coming, sea-power will use the waterway of the Medite

Red Seas only by the sufferance of land-power, a new 

cavalry, when the contest with sea-power is in question. 

But North and South America, slenderly connected at 

for practical purposes insular rather than peninsular in r

another. South America lies not merely to south, but also 

to east of North America; the two lands are in echelon

would say, and thus the broad ocean encircles South Ame

for a minute proportion of its outline. A like fact is tr

America with reference to Asia, for it stretches out into the 

Bering Strait so that, as may be seen upon a globe, the 

from Pekin to New York is across Bering Strait, a circums

may some day have importance for the traveler by railwa

third of the new continents, Australia, lies a thousand mi

southeastern point of Asia, and measures only one fifth o

of the globe. 

Thus, the ttu'ee so-called new continents are in point of 

satellites of the old continent. There is one ocean covering n

of the globe; there is one continent--the World-Island--co

twelfths of the globe; and there are many smaller islan

46 
the North American sea-base we have, on a vast scale, y

contrast of peninsula and island to be set beside the Greek 

and the island of Crete, and the Latin Peninsula and the Brit

But there is this vital difference, that the world-promonto

united by modem overland communications, is in fact th

Island, possessed potentially of the advantages both of insu

of incomparably great resources. 

Leading Americans have for some time appreciated the 

their country is no longer a world apart, and President W

brought his whole people round to that view when they con

throw themselves into the war. But North America is no lo

a continent; in this twentieth century it is shrinking to be 

Americans used to think of their three millions of square m

equivalent of all Europe; some day, they said there would be 

States of Europe as sister to the United States of America. No

they may not all have realized it, they must no longer think 

apart from Asia and Africa. The Old World has become i

in other words a unit, incomparably the largest geographic

our globe. 

There is a remarkable parallelism between the short 

America and the longer history of England; both countries 

passed through the same succession of colonial, continental, a

stages. The Angle and Saxon settlements along the east and s

of Britain have often been regarded as anticipating the thirtee

colonies along the east coast of North America; what has n

been remembered is that there was a continental stage in Engli

to be compared with that of Lincoln in America. The wars 

the Great and William the Conqueror were in no small degre

contending parts of England, with the Norsemen intervening

gland was not effectively insular until the time of Elizabeth

not until then was she free from the hostility of Scotland, a

united, and therefore a unit, in her relations with the ne

continent. America is to-day a unit, for the American pe

47 
• o ~ 

o Q~ 

I 

48 
chiefly across the landward front of peninsular France; and 

the one side have been Britain, Canada, the United Stat

Australia, New Zealand, and Japarv--all insular. France an

peninsular, but even with that advantage they would not ha

the war to the end had it not been for the support of the 

India and China so far as China has been in the war on the M

front----may be regarded as advanced guards of British, Ame

Japanese sea-power. Dutch Java is the only island of large 

which is not in the Western Alliance, and even Java is not o

of the Continentals. There can be no mistaking the significa

unanimity of the islanders. The collapse of Russia has cleare

of the realities, as the Russian Revolution purified the ideals 

we have been fighting. 

The facts appear in the same perspective if we consider the 

of the globe. More than fourteen-sixteenths of all humanity 

Great Continent, and nearly one-sixteenth more on the clo

islands of Britain and Japan. Even to-day, after four centuries 

tion, only about one-sixteenth live in the lesser continents. N

likely to change these proportions materially. If the midd

North America comes presently to support, let us say, anoth

million people, it is probable that the interior of Asia will a

time carry two hundred millions more than now, and if th

part of South America should feed a hundred million more

tropical parts of Africa and the Indies may not improbably s

hundred millions more. The Congo forest alone, subdued to a

would maintain some four hundred million souls if populate

same density as Java, and the Javanese population is stil

Have we any right, moreover, to assume that, given its c

history, the interior of Asia would not nourish a populatio

as that of Europe, North America, or Japan? 

What if the Great Continent, the whole World-Island or a 

of it, were at some future time to become a single and unit

sea-power? Would not the other insular bases be outbuilt 

49 
-o 

50 
Britain would inevitably be outbuilt and outmanned a few ye

The surrender of the German fleet in the Firth of Forth is a 

event, but in all soberness, if we would take the long view, 

not still reckon with the possibility that a large part of 

Continent might some day be united under a single sway, an

invincible sea-power might be based upon it? May we not hav

off that danger in this war, and yet leave by our settlement th

for a fresh attempt in the future? Ought we not to recognize 

is the great ultimate threat to the world's liberty so far as s

concerned, and to provide against it in our new political sy

Let us look at the matter from the landmans's point of v

51 
THE LANDSMAN'S POINT OF VIEW 

F our centuries ago the whole outlook of mankind w

in a single generation by the voyages of the grea

Columbus, Da Gama, and Magellan. The idea of the u

ocean, beforehand merely inferred from the likeness of the 

Atlantic and Indian waters, suddenly became a part of 

equipment of practical men. A similar revolution is in prog

present generation in the rapid realization of the unity of the 

owing to modem methods of communication by land an

islanders have been slow to understand what is happening. B

into the war for the defense of her neighbors, Belgium a

seeing vaguely perhaps that she was herself threatened th

danger but almost unanimous in her decision only because of 

her bond in regard to Belgium. America was shocked by th

tragedy, and was ultimately brought in because of the gener

ment of the rights of neutrals by the German submarines. 

the Anglo-Saxon nations at first clearly saw the strategica

of the war. Theirs was an external view of the Continent, 

the seamen who named the Guinea, Malabar, Coromandel, an

"Coasts." Neither in London nor in New York were in

politics commonly discussed in the way in which they are 

in the caf6s of Continental Europe. In order, therefore, to 

the Continental view we must remove our standpoint from 

within the great ring of the "Coasts." 

Let us begin by "brigading" our data, for only so shall 

to reason conveniently about the realities which the Contine

for strategical thought. When you are thinking of large thing

think on broad lines; the colonel of a battalion thinks in 

53 
Fro. lt.--Showing the great part of Asia and Europe whose rive

either to the icy north, or into salt lakes without exit to the 

also how A[rica faces Europe and Asia for 400o miles. (Equa

projection.) 

but the general of a division in brigades. For the purpose 

our brigades, however, it will be necessary at the outset 

some degrec of geographical detail. 

The northern edge of Asia is the inaccessible coast, bes

except for a narrow water lane which opens here and ther

shore in the brief summer owing to the melting of the local 

in the winter between the grounded floes and the land. It 

that three of the largest rivers in the world, the Lena, Y

Obi, stream northward through Siberia to this coast, and ar

detached for practical purposes from the general system o

and river navigations? South of Siberia are other regions 

large, drained into salt lakes having no outlet to the ocean

the basins of the Volga and Ural Rivers flowing to the Ca

and of the Oxus and Jaxartes to the Sea of Aral. Geograph

IThis is true up to the present time, though, with the aid of modern icebreak

which arc being made, especially by Tyneside enterprise, to open a direct route 

of the Obi and Yenisei may perhaps result in the establishment of a seaborne su

Western Siberia. 

54 
g

ocean. The opening of it by railways for it was practical

beforehand---and by aeroplane routes in the near future, co

revolution in the relations of men to the larger geographic

of the world. Let us call this great region the Heartland of the 

The north, center, and west of the Heartland are a plain, 

a few hundred feet at most above sea level. In that greate

on the globe are included Western Siberia, Turkestan, and 

basin of Europe, for the Ural Mountains, though a long ran

of important height, and terminate some three hundred mil

the Caspian, leaving a broad gateway from Siberia into E

us speak of this vast plain as the Great Lowland. 

Southward the Great Lowland ends along the foot of a 

whose average elevation is about half a mile, with moun

rising to a mile and a half. This tableland bears upon its b

the three countries of Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan; 

nience we may describe the whole of it as the Iranian Up

Heartland, in the sense of the region of Arctic and Continenta

includes most of the Great Lowland and most of the Irania

it extends therefore to the long, high, curving brink of t

Mountains, beyond which is the depression occupied by the 

Valley and the Persian Gulf. 

Now let us travel in imagination to the west of Africa. Ther

the latitudes of the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, is a de

it was the character of that coast, it will be remembered, wh

baffled the efforts of the medieval sailors to make the southw

round Africa. With a breadth of a thousand miles the Saha

thence across the north of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to 

of the Nile. The Sahara is not everywhere an utter desert

many oases--trenched valleys with wells to the water percola

ground in their bottoms, or hilly tracts against which at times 

gather--but these are minute and scattered exceptions upo

and riverless area nearly as large as all Europe. The Sahara 

55 
~a 

.~ 

s 

a~ 

~a 

~a 

56 
p, , 

known as Arabistan or the country of the Arabs. In comple

therefore, with local usage, Arabia may be regarded as sp

eight hundred miles from the Nile to beyond the Euphrate

foot of the Taurus Mountains, north of Aleppo, to the Gu

it measures no less than eighteen hundred miles. As to one-

is desert, and as to the other half mainly dry steppes; alth

in the same latitudes as the Sahara, it is more productive 

a more considerable population of wandering Bedouin. M

has larger oases, and therefore larger cities. What, how

distinguishes Arabia both from the Heartland and the Sahar

that it is traversed by three great waterways in connectio

ocean---the Nile, the Red Sea, and the Euphrates and Pe

None of these three ways, however, affords naturally a comp

across the arid belt. The Nile was navigable from the Me

only to the first cataract, midway across the desert, though 

now been constructed at Assouan which give access as far a

cataract; and the navigation of the Euphrates ascends only 

a hundred miles from the Mediterranean. To-day it is true th

Canal unites the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, but it was n

isthmus which formerly impeded through traffic by this rout

north winds of the trade-wind current blow down the nort

the Red Sea, which is beset with rocks, and sailing ships do n

attempt the northward voyage to the Canal, which woul

have been relatively useless but for steam navigation. The 

Sea route to the Mediterranean was from Kosseir on the 

over the desert to the Nile at Keneh, and then down the Ni

the way followed by the British army when sent from Ind

more than a hundred years ago at the time of the Napoleon

of Egypt and Palestine. 

It follows from the foregoing description that the Heartla

and the Sahara together constitute a broad, curving belt i

to seafaring people, except by the three Arabian waterway

extends completely across the great continent from the A

57 
g

important respect. Its larger rivers, the Niger, Zambesi, a

and also its smaller rivers, such as the Orange and Lim

across the tableland of the interior, and fall steeply over 

relatively short seaward reaches in the narrow coastal low

long upland courses of these rivers are navigable for sever

miles, but are for practical purposes as completely detache

ocean as the rivers of Siberia. The same, of course, is true 

above the cataracts. We may, therefore, regard the interio

south of the Sahara as a second Heartland. Let us speak 

Southern Heartland, in contra-distinction to the Northern H

Asia and Europe. 

Notwithstanding their very different latitudes the two 

present other striking similarities. A great belt of forest, ma

evergreen type of the pines and firs, spreads from North Ge

the Baltic shore right across to Manchuria, connecting b

ribbon, as it were, the forests of Europe with those of the Pa

South of this forest zone the Heartland lies open, with trees 

the river banks and upon the mountains. This vast, open g

luscious prairie along the southern border of the forest, a

with bulb flowers in the spring-time, but southward, as 

increases, the grass becomes coarser and more sparse. The w

land, rich and poor, is conveniently spoken of as the steppe

that name properly belongs only to the less fertile southem t

surround the desert patches of Turkestan and Mongolia. T

were probably the original habitat of the horse, and in the

parts, of the two-humped camel (Fig. 18). 

The Southern Heartland also has its wide open grassla

in the Sudan gradually increase in fertility from the edge of 

towards the tropical forest of the Guinea Coast and the C

forests do not spread completely across to the Indian Ocean

a belt of grassy upland which connects the grasslands of 

with those of South Africa, and this immense, open gr

58 
0 

@ 

, / 

i 

i 

~d 

59 
y 

lafids, therefore, although to a greater extent in the Nort

the Southern, mobility by the aid of animals has been 

replace the riverwise and coastwise mobility of the ships of 

and Pacific coastlands. 

The Northern Heartland adjoins Arabia, as we have see

hundred miles where the Iranian Upland drops to the Euphr

the Southern Heartland, at its northeastern comer in Ab

Somaliland, grasps, though with an interval of sea, the sou

angle of Arabia, known as Yemen. So the steppes of Arabia

its deserts, serve as a passage-land between the Northern a

Heartlands; and there is also the way by the banks of the N

Nubia. Thus it will be realized that the Northern Heartla

and the Southern Heartland afford a broad, grassy way f

and camel-men from Siberia through Persia, Arabia, and 

the Sudan, and that but for the tsetse-fly and other plagues 

probably have penetrated on horseback and camel-back 

almost to the Cape of Good Hope. 

Outside Arabia, the Sahara, and the two Heartlands, t

in the World-Island only two comparatively small region

two regions are the most important on the globe. Around th

nean, and in the European peninsulas and islands, there 

hundred million people, and in the southern and eastern c

Asia, or, to use the historic expression, in the Indies, there 

hundred million people. In these two regions, therefore

quarters of the people of the world. From our present po

the most pertinent way of stating this great fact is to sa

fifths of the population of the Great Continent, the World

in two regions which together measure only one-fifth of i

These two regions resemble one another in certain oth

portant respects. In the first place, their rivers are for th

navigable continuously from the ocean. In the Indies we hav

of large rivers descending to the open sea; Indus, Ganges, B

Irrawady, Salwen, Menam, Mekong, Songho, Sikiang, Yan

gho, Peiho, Liauho, Amur. Most of them are navigable 

60 
F "v ~X 

? 

Fro. ]7.--The southern Heartland. = River falls. ~,-Lines of A

invasion, 

mouths for some hundreds of miles; a British battleship on

up the Yangtse to Hankow, five hundred miles from the se

not much space for such large rivers in peninsular Europ

Danube, Rhine, andElbe carry a great traffic in direct conne

the ocean. Mannheim, three hundred miles up the Rhine, w

the principal ports of Europe before the war; barges a hun

long and of a thousand tons burden lay beside its wharve

rest, the peninsulation of Europe, which limits the devel

rivers, itself offers even greater facilities for mobility by w

The similarity of these two "Coastlands" is not limi

61 
y 

and from the southeast on to China; the west winds from 

bring rain at all seasons upon Europe, and in the winter-tim

Mediterranean. Both coastlands are therefore rich with till

that reason nourished their great populations. Thus Euro

Indies are the regions of the plowmen and shipmen; wherea

ern Heartland, Arabia, and the Southern Heartland have f

part been unplowed, and are inaccessible to seagoing sh

other hand, they are naturally adapted to the mobility of ho

camel-men, with their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. 

savannahs of tropical Africa, where horses and camels are 

wealth of the natives is chiefly of cattle and sheep. These ar

broad generalizations, with many local exceptions; they are n

truly and sufficiently descriptive of immense geographica

Let us now call history to our aid, for no practical id

which moves men to action, can be grasped statically; we 

to it with a momentum of thought either from our own ex

from the history of the race. The oases of the East coun

as the gardens of the world, only because they are appro

the desert! 

Recorded history begins in the great oases round the nort

The first international politics of which we have definite 

were concerned with the intercourse between two states 

grown up in the alluvial flats of the Lower Euphrates and L

the maintenance of dikes to keep out the water, and of canals 

water, inevitably gives an impulse to social order and discip

was a certain difference in the two civilizations which ma

been the basis of interchange between them. In Egypt the 

of the relatively narrow valley offered stone for buildin

papyrus reed afforded a material for writing; whereas, b

IRealities, that is to say, that have conditioned history, and have thus led 

distribution of population and civilization. These .same realities have to-day b

new aspects owing to the higher organization of food production on the richer 

62 
J~ 

63 
'" I,{.:,"~,';-"%/ ~', ~'~",.~-) 

~).~,,: ~ ~¢Off / "~'" ~ v %. 

'%," ![ ~ .,: _-"i ~', ~ 

t"- ~.l .," ~ ; o \ %,,~, l ~, ~.l ,-'~'~" .." ~'~ I ~ O, ,),') / ~:." 3~' .d" 

-%,, '? o ,,. 

l ~ ~ ~ zR c 

/ 1%g_ OAsesoF ( ~.~. /VEJO 

FIG. 19.-Northern Arabia 

of brick in the broad plain of Babylonia, and clay tab

cuneiform inscriptions. The road between the two count

ward from the Euphrates across the Syrian angle of the Ar

past the wells of Palmyra, to Damascus, which was buil

formed by the streams Abana and Pharpar descendin

Lebanon and Hermon. From Damascus there were alte

into Egypt; the lower by the coast, and the upper along 

the desert plateau east of the Jordan Valley. Aloof, on th

of Judea, between these upper and lower ways, was the 

of Jerusalem. 

In a monkish map, contemporary with the Crusade

hangs in Hereford Cathedral, Jerusalem is marked as at th

center, the navel, of the world, and on the floor of the C

Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem they will show you to this d

spot which is the center. If our study of the geographica

we now know them in their completeness, is leading us to 

sions, the medieval ecclesiastics were not far wrong. I

Island be inevitably the principal seat of humanity on th

64 
/....o 

Fie. 2o.--The mobile conquerors of the plowed lands. 

if Arabia, as the passage-land from Europe to the Indies and 

Northern to the Southern Heartland, be central in the Wor

then the hill citadel of Jerusalem has a strategical position with 

to world-realities not differing essentially from its ideal posi

perspective of the Middle Ages, or its strategical position 

ancient Babylon and Egypt. As the war has shown, the S

carries the rich traffic between the Indies and Europe to with

distance of an army based on Palestine, and already the trun

is being built through the coastal plain by Jaffa, which will c

Southern with the Northern Heartland. Who owns Damascus, 

will have flank access to the alternative route between the oce

the Euphrates Valley. It cannot be wholly a coincidence t

selfsame region should be the starting point of history and th

point of the most vital of modem highways. 

In the dawn of history we find the children of Shem, the 

conquering the cultivated margins of the Arabian deserts; t

small similarity between the ring of their settlements round 

sand, and the settlements of the Greeks round the Aegean 

invasion of the Promised Land from beyond the Jordan by 

Irael, the Children of Israel, was probably but one of many lik

of the Bedouin. The Chaldees, from whose city of Ur on 

border Abraham migrated along the beaten track into Pales

65 
Fig. aL--A medieval 

wheel -map. 

Semites who supplanted the non-Semitic Accadians in t

became Babylonia; and the dynasty of the Shepherd K

was also apparently of Semitic origin. So it came abo

peoples of Arabia Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Sy

cians, and Hebrews spoke dialects of the same Sem

speech. To-day Arabic is the universal tongue from the 

Gulf of Aden, and from the Persian Mountains to the 

Sahara west of the Nile. 

The Arabian tableland drops steeply to the sea shores 

directions save one; northeastward in shelves gradually 

depression occupied by the Euphrates and the Persian Gul

sion is eighteen hundred miles long, from the gorge 

Euphrates issues from its source valley in the Armenian 

Strait of Ormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf; throug

it is overlooked by the range of the Persian Mountains, th

brink of the Heartland. One of the great events of classic

when the Persian Highlanders came down on to the Eu

under their King Cyrus, and, after conquering Babylon, 

the Syrian road through Damascus to the conquest of E

The gorge by which the Euphrates escapes from the A

land is more than eight hundred miles in a direct line f

mouth and only a little more than one hundred miles from 

ern comer of the Mediterranean Sea near Aleppo. Imm

of this gorge the high upland of Armenia, some one an

in average elevation, drops to the much lower peninsula

Asia Minor. A second great event in classical history w

Macedonians, under King Alexander, having crossed th

66 
pgp

Alexandria and Antioch, the coastal capitals, that is to say, 

going inland. 

If these facts be considered with a geographical eye, a bel

will be seen extending northwestward up the Euphrates, th

to southward along the rain-gathering mountains of Syria, 

westward in Egypt. It is a populous belt, for it is inhab

settled plowmen. Except for two intervals of sterility, the 

of antiquity ran through its corn fields from Babylon to Me

key to some of the greater events of ancient history is to b

the subjection of the peoples of this agricultural strip now 

now to that neighboring race of superior mobility. From 

with all the depth of Arabia behind them, the camel-men 

northeastward against Mesopotamia, northwestward against 

westward against Egypt; from the northeast, with all the va

the Heartland behind them, the horsemen came down from 

Upland into Mesopotamia; and from the northwest, whethe

peninsula of Asia Minor or directly to the Levantine shore

shipmen against Syria and Egypt, having behind them all 

ways of Europe? 

In Asia the Romans did but take over the westward por

Macedonian conquests. As the Rhine and Danube, defen

Legions, marked the extent of Roman penetration northwar

Mediterranean, so the Upper Euphrates, where it flows fro

south before bending southeastward, marked the limit, de

other Legions, of their eastward penetration from the Med

The Roman Empire was, in fact, in the large sense, a loca

belonged wholly to the Atlantic Coastland. The further provi

had been under the Macedonian sway fell in Roman ti

Parthians, successors of the Persians, who in their turn desc

Iran upon Mesopotamia. 

Once more came the opportunity of the camel-men. Insp

ISee Fig. 20 on p. 65. 

67 
the regions around in such manner as to make a bid for 

empire. Northeastward the Mohammedans ascended from 

Iran by the same passway which had guided the Parthians 

downward, and they spread even into Northern India. So

crossed from the Yemen headland of Arabia to the Africa

of the Sahara, and penetrated on their camels and horses 

whole breadth of the Sudan. Thus, like a vast eagle, the

land-power spread its wings from the Arabian Centerland

hand over the Northern Heartland, far into the depths of 

the other hand over the Southern Heartland equally far in

of Africa. 

But the Saracens were not content with a dominion b

the means of mobility proper to their steppes and deser

predecessors, the Phoenicians and Shebans, they took to th

ward they traveled along the north coast of Africa, both 

land, until they came to two countries, Barbary and Spain, 

tablelands, neither utterly sterile like the Sahara, nor yet 

most of the European peninsula, repeated in some degree th

of their own homeland. On the other hand, eastward from 

the mouth of the Red Sea, and from Oman, at the mouth o

Gulf, they sailed on the summer monsoon to the Mala

India, and even to the far Malay Islands, and returned 

winter monsoon. Thus the Arab dhows sketched out a 

extending from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Straits of M

the Atlantic gate to the Pacific gate. 

This vast Saracen design of a northward and southwa

of camel-men crossed by a westward and eastward dominio

was vitiated by one fatal defect; it lacked in its Arabi

necessary man-power to make it good. But no student of 

about which must turn the strategical thought of any gover

ing to world-power, can aftbrd to lose sight of the warnin

by history. 

68 
downfall of the Saracens in Arabia itself was due to Turk

power. We must give some further consideration to the chara

of the great Northern Heartland, and in the first place to tho

long grassy zone which, south of the forest zone, extends 

whole breadth overlapping westward and eastward some dis

the adjoining parts of the two Coastlands. 

The steppes begin in the center of Europe, where the H

Plain is completely surrounded by a ring of forested moun

Eastern Alps and the Carpathians. ~ To-day fields of wheat a

have in large part replaced the native grass, but a hundred y

before the railways had brought markets within reach, the 

levels of Hungary east of the Danube were a prairie land

wealth of the Hungarians was almost exclusively in horses a

Beyond the forested barrier of the Carpathians begin the step

main belt, spreading eastward, with the shore of the Black S

south and the edge of the Russian forest to the north. The fo

crosses the Russian Plain sinuously, but in a generally oblique 

from the northern end of the Carpathians in the fiftieth p

latitude to the foot of the Ural range in the fifty-sixth parallel. 

stands a short way within the forest, where are the broad 

which constituted all of inhabited Russia until the recent col

of the steppe southward. As far as the Volga and the Don t

fields have now in large measure replaced the steppe grass, 

a hundred years ago the Cossack outposts of Russia were s

on the Dnieper and Don Rivers, the trees along whose ban

broke the vast levels of waving grass or of snow. 

The forests which clothe the end of the Ural Mountain

promontory southward into the open steppes, but the grass is c

through the gateway of plain which leads from Europe into Asi

the Ural range and the northern end of the Caspian Sea. Be

gateway the steppes expand again to even greater breadth 

ISee Fig. 18. 

69 
the grass along the line of the railway, but the thread of set

is still a narrow one, and the Tartar and Khirghiz hor

nomad over wide areas. 

The edge of the forest bends southward along the bou

Western and Eastern Siberia, for Eastern Siberia is filled 

mountains and hills, which fall in elevation gradually from 

kalian Plateau into the northeastern promontory of Asia t

Strait. The grassy zone bends south with the forest 

eastward over the lower level of the Mongolian Upla

upward from the Great Lowland into Mongolia is thro

Strait" of Zungaria, between the Tianshan Mountains on 

Altai Mountains on the north. Beyond Zungaria the st

upland level, continue round the southern edge of the 

and Transbaikalian Mountains, with the Gobi Desert t

them, until they reach the upper tributaries of the Amu

is a forest belt along the eastern, outward face of the 

by which the Mongolian upland drops to the lowland 

but there is a last detached grassland in Manchuria, to 

with the similarly detached grassland of Hungary five t

away at the west end of the steppe belt. Grassy Manch

however, extend through to the Pacific shore, for there 

of mountains, thickly lbrested, enframes the open countr

the eastward-flowing Amur to a northward mouth. 

Let us clear this long ribbon of steppes of its modern 

corn fields, and people it again in imagination with horse-

who are none other than Turks; it is said that the Turkis

Constantinople can to this day be understood by the Arc

mouth of the Lena River. For some recurrent reasow--it m

owing to spells of droughty years---these Tartar mobil

from time to time in the course of history gathered their w

together and fallen like a devastating avalanche upon the s

tural peoples either of China or Europe. In the West we 

first as the Huns, who in the middle of the fifth century af

70 
FI6. 22.--Forest and steppes in East Europe. (After a diagram i

paper on "The Geographical Pivot of History" in the Geogra

Journal for 19o4. ) 

into Hungary under a great but terrible leader, Attila. From Hun

raided in three directions--northwestward, westward, and s

ward. Northwestward they caused so much commotion a

Germans, that those tribes nearest the sea, the Angles and Sax

in part driven over the water to a new home in the island o

Westward they penetrated far into Gaul, but were defeated in 

battle of Chalons, where the Frank, the Goth, and the Roman P

standing shoulder to shoulder against the common enemy 

east, began that fusion from which has sprung the modem 

people. Southwestward Attila advanced as far as Milan, dest

the way the important Roman cities of Aquileia and Padu

inhabitants fled to the lagoons by the sea and there founde

At Milan Attila was met by Bishop Leo of Rome, and, for 

reason, went no further, with the result that the Roman See w

71 
The Hunnish raids ceased after a few years, for it is 

the man-power behind them was not very considerable; 

blow may be due as much to its speed as to its weig

Hunnish remnants probably lingered in the grassy vacanc

garian Plain, to be absorbed by new tribes of horsem

westward, the Avars, against whom Charlemagne made w

ently the Magyars. In the year 1000 these Magyar Tu

done much ravaging in Germany during the previous 

converted to Christianity from Rome, and became then

sort of a bulwark to Latin Christendom, so that no more 

admitted into Hungary. But the economic life of the Magy

in the main to be that of the steppes until less than a hundr

When we reflect that through several centuries of th

the Norse pagans in their ships were at piracy on the N

and the Saracen and Moorish infidels in their ships at 

Mediterranean, and that the horse-riding Turks from As

into the very heart of the Christian peninsula when it w

hostile sea-power, we have some idea of the pounding

pestle and mortar, which went into the making of modem 

pestle was land-power from the Heartland. 

If these historical events be followed on the map, the s

of decisive meaning which emerges is that the continu

the Great Lowland overlap from the Continental and Ar

of the Heartland into the east of the European peninsul

no impediment to prevent the horsemen from riding w

regions drained by such wholly European rivers as the 

Danube. In sharp contrast to this open passage from the H

Europe is the system of mighty barriers which separate 

along its eastern and southeastern border from the Indies. 

lands of China proper and India lie round the eastern 

72 
the peak height of Mont Blanc in the Alps. As compared with 

as these, the distinction between the lower uplands and the 

between the Iranian Upland, let us say, and the Great Lowland

altogether subordinate. Tibet, with its attendant Himalaya, Pam

akoram, Hindu Kush, and Tianshatr----call them together th

Heights---has no parallel on earth for combined height and 

in a single word, for massiveness. When the Sahara shall b

and recrossed daily by the traffic of civilization, it is prob

Tibet, the "roof of the world," will still deflect round its f

widely separate the overland routes into China and India, th

a special significance to the northwest frontiers of those two c

North of Tibet, a considerable part of which has a continen

age and is, therefore, included within the Heartland, spreads th

lian Upland, also largely of the Heartland. This Mongolian U

of a much lower elevation than Tibet, and is in fact comp

point of level with the Iranian Upland. Two natural ways c

the arid surthce of Mongolia to drop down into the fertile lo

China; the one through the Province of Kansu, round the no

comer of Tibet, to the great city of Sinan, of a million inhabi

other directly southeastward from Lake Baikal to Pekin, w

also has about a million inhabitants. Sinan and Pekin, thus ju

the Chinese Lowland, are capitals founded by conquerors 

Heartland. 

Across the Iranian Upland into India there are also two natu

the one over the lofty but narrow side of the Hindu Kush, 

Cabul Valley, and over the terminal Kaibar Pass to the cross

Indus River at Attock; the other through Herat and Kandah

the ends of the Afghan ridges, and by the Bolan Gorge down to 

Immediately east of the Indus River is the Indian Desert, exten

the ocean to within a short distance of the Himalaya, and t

and Kaibar ways converge, therefore, through the antecham

Punjab to the inner entry of India, which is the passage lef

the desert and the mountains. Here stands Delhi, at the he

73 
stace, wtte ogus oda, wo wee deved o

of the interior. 

: The conclusion to which this discussion leads is that th

between the Heartland, and especially its more open we

of Iran, Turkestan, and Siberia, is much more intimate 

and Arabia than it is with China and India, or yet with 

Heartland of Africa. The stxong natural frontiers of the S

and the Tibetan Heights have no equivalent where the No

land merges with Arabia and Europe. The close connec

three regions is well typified by that geographical formu

it was attempted to crystallize just now certain essenti

Mesopotamian and Syrian history; the plowmen of Mes

Syria have always been exposed to descents of the horse

Heartland, of the camel-men from Arabia, and of the s

Europe. None the less and indeed just because of its mo

character--the boundary between the Heartland on the o

Arabia and Europe on the other, is worth following with 

The long range of the Persian Mountains bends westw

upper end of Mesopotamia and becomes the Taurus Ran

the high southern brink of the peninsular upland of Asi

surface of Asia Minor is a patch of steppes, verging on 

center, where salt lakes receive some of the streams from 

but the larger rivers flow northward to the Black Sea. Bey

made by the Aegean Sea, we have the great basin of the 

draining into the Black Sea; the head-streams of the Danu

rise almost within sight of the Adriatic, but high on t

Uplands whose steep outer brink forms the mountain w

beautiful Dalmatian coast. That wall we name the Dinar

Thus the Taurus and the Dinaric Alps present steep 

Mediterranean and Adriatic, but send long rivers down 

Sea. But for the Aegean Sea, breaking through the upl

74 
! 

o 

,g, 

.8 

...a 

75 
Fro. 24.--The Heartland, with the addition of the basins of th

and Baltic Seas, and the uppermost (plateau) valleys of the 

and Indian rivers. 

the Black Sea, and but for the Dardanelles, whose current 

ward with the water of all the Black Sea rivers, these hi

fronts of the Taurus and Dinaric Alps would be a single cu

the edge of a continuous bar of land dividing the inner Bla

the outer Mediterranean and Adriatic. Were it not for the 

that edge would form the border of the Heartland, and th

and all its rivers would be added to the "Continental" 

drainage. When the Dardanelles are closed by land-powe

power of the Mediterranean, as they have been in the Gre

condition of things is in effect realized so far as human 

are concerned. 

The Roman emperors put their eastern capital at Con

midway between the Danube and Euphrates frontiers, but C

ple was to them more than the bridge-town from Europ

Rome, the Mediterranean Power, did not annex the north

the Black Sea, and that sea, therefore, was itself a part of 

76 
frontiers along the rivers. Under Rome, seapower thus adv

the Heartland, if that term be understood, in a large, a strateg

as including Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. 

Later history is no less transparent to the underlying facts 

phy, but in the inverse direction. Some of the Turks from Ce

turned aside from the way down into Arabia, and rode over th

and Armenian Uplands into the open steppe of Asia Minor, 

made their home just as the Magyar Turks only a century or t

rode round the north of the Black Sea into the Hungarian Step

great leaders of cavalry of the Ottoman dynasty, these Turk

the Dardanelles, and, following the "Corridor" of the M

Morava Valleys through the Balkan Mountains, achieved the 

of Magyar Hungary. From the moment that the city of Cons

fell into Turkish hands in 1453, the Black Sea was closed to the 

and Genoese seamen. Under Rome, the realm of the seamen 

advanced to the northern shore of the Black Sea; under the 

Turks the Heartland, the realm of the horsemen, was advan

Dinaric Alps and the Taurus. This essential fact has been m

the extension of Turkish dominion into Arabia outside the H

but it is evident again to-day when Britain has conquered A

the Arabs. Within the Heartland, the Black Sea has of late 

path of strategical design eastward for our German enemy. 

We defined the Heartland originally in accordance with ri

age; but does not history, as thus recounted, show that for the 

of strategical thought it should be given a somewhat wider e

Regarded from the point of view of human mobility, and of th

modes of mobility, it is evident that since land-power can to

the Black Sea, the whole basin of that sea must be regarded 

Heartland. Only the Bavarian Danube, of very little value for n

may be treated as lying outside. 

One more circumstance remains to be added, and we s

before us the whole conception of the Heartland as it eme

the facts of geography and history. The Baltic is a sea which 

be "closed" by land-power. The fact that the German fle

77 
of prime importance in regard to any terms of peace wh

guarantee us against future war that we should recognize 

the conditions of to-day, as was admitted by responsible m

the House of Commons, the fleets of the islanders coul

penetrate into the Baltic than they could into the Black Se

The Heartland, for the purposes of strategical thinking, i

Baltic Sea, the navigable Middle and Lower Danube, the 

Asia Minor, Armenia, Persia, Tibet, and Mongolia. Within it

were Brandenburg-Prussia and Austria-Hungary, as well as 

vast triple base of man-power, which was lacking to the h

of history. The Heartland is the region to which, under mod

tions, sea-power can be refused access, though the wester

lies without the region of Arctic and Continental drainage

one striking physical circumstance which knits it graphicall

the whole of it, even to the brink of the Persian Mountains o

torrid Mesopotamia, lies under snow in the winter-time. The 

tive of an average freezing temperature for the whole month 

passes from the North Cape of Norway southward, just 

"Guard" of islands along the Norwegian shore, past Denm

mid-Germany to the Alps, and from the Alps eastward along 

range. The Bay of Odessa and the Sea of Azofare frozen ove

and also the greater part of the Baltic Sea. At mid-winte

from the moon, a vast white shield would reveal the Hear

largest meaning. 

When the Russian Cossacks first policed the steppes at t

the Middle Ages, a great revolution was effected, for the T

the Arabs, had lacked the necessary man-power upon whic

a lasting empire, but behind the Cossacks were the Russian 

who have to-day grown to be a people of a hundred milli

fertile plains between the Black and Baltic Seas. During the 

century, the Russian Czardom loomed large within the great 

and seemed to threaten all the marginal lands of Asia an

Towards the end of the century, however, the Germans of P

Austria determined to subdue the Slavs and to exploit th

78 
I /I 

• ~ 

e, 

~+ 

+ 

~g 

#+ 

79 
Railway but also the motor-car. They have, too, the aeropl

is of a boomerang nature, a weapon of land-power as a

power. Modem artillery, moreover, is very formidable aga

In short, a great military power in possession of the Heartl

Arabia could take easy possession of the crossways of th

Suez. Sea-power would have found it very difficult to hold 

if a fleet of submarines had been based from the beginning 

on the Black Sea. We have defeated the danger on this oc

the facts of geography remain, and offer ever-increasing 

opportunities to land-power as against sea-power. 

It is evident that the Heartland is as real a physical fact 

World-Island as is the World-Island itself within the ocean

its boundaries are not quite so clearly defined. Not until abou

years ago, however, was there availablc a base of man-powe

to begin to threaten the liberty of the world from within 

of the World-Island. No mere scraps of paper, even thoug

the written constitution of a League of Nations, are, under the 

of to-day, a sufficient guarantee that the Heartland will not aga

the center of a world war. Now is the time, when the nation

to consider what guarantees, based on geographical and 

realities, can be made available for the future security of 

With this in view, it will be worth our while to see how 

gathered in the Heartland on the present occasion. 

80 
O ZtI~ ~R T 

Fig. 26.-The world Island united, as it soon will be, by railways, and by aeruplane routes, the latter for most part 

81 
THE RIVALRY OF EMPIRES 

A most interesting parallel might be drawn between th

of the sailors over the ocean from Western Europ

contemporary advance of the Russian Cossacks a

steppes of the Heartland. Yermak, the Cossack, rode over 

Mountains into Siberia in 1533, within a dozen years, that 

after Magellan's voyage round the world. The parallel might b

in regard to our own days. It was an unprecedented thing in 

1900 that Britain should maintain a quarter of a million m

war with the Boers at a distance of six thousand miles over t

but it was as remarkable a feat for Russia to place an army 

than a quarter of a million men against the Japanese in Man

1904 at a distance of four thousand miles by rail. We have b

habit of thinking that mobility by sea far outran mobility 

land, and so for a time it did, but it is well to remember that f

ago ninety percent of the world's shipping was still moved by 

that already the first railway had been opened across North 

One of the reasons why we commonly fail to appreciate th

cance of the policing of the steppes by the Cossacks is that 

vaguely of Russia as extending, with a gradually diminishin

of settlement, from the German and Austrian frontiers for 

of miles eastward, over all the area colored on the map wit

and labeled as one country, as far as Bering Strait. In truth Ru

real Russia which supplied more than eighty per cent of th

for the Russian armies during the first three years of the 

very much smaller fact than the simplicity of the map woul

indicate. The Russia which is the homeland of the Russian pe

wholly in Europe, and occupies only about half of what we c

83 
finally southwestward along the lower river Don to Rostof a

of Azof. Within this line, to south and west of it, are m

hundred million Russian people. They, the main stock of Rus

the plain between the Volga and the Carpathians and between 

and Black Seas, with an average density of perhaps one hu

fifty to the square mile, and this continuous sheet of popul

more or less abruptly along the line which has been indica

Northward of Petrogad and Kazan is North Russia, a v

forest land with occasional marshes, more than half as l

the region just defined as the Russian homeland. North Ru

population of less than two millions, or not three to the sq

East of the Volga and Don, as far as the Ural Mountain

Caspian Sea, lies East Russia, about as large as North Russia

a population also of about two millions. But in the Kam

between North and East Russia, is a belt of settled country, 

eastward from Kazan and Samara to the Ural range, and 

range, past the mines of Ekaterinburg, into Siberia, and ri

Western Siberia to Irkutsk, just short of Lake Baikal. Th

population beyond the Volga numbers perhaps twenty mil

whole of it, from Kazan and Samara to Irk~tsk, in so far as it i

by plowmen and not by wandering horsemen, is of recent s

The Middle Volga, flowing southward from Kazan to C

a remarkable moat not only to Russia but to Europe. The w

knowna as the Hill Bank, in opposition to the Meadow Ba

other side, is a hill face, some hundred feet high, which ove

river for seven hundred miles; it is the brink of the inhab

here a little raised above the sea level. Stand on the top of 

looking eastward across the broad river below you, and you w

that you have populous Europe at your back, and, in front, 

low meadows fade away into the half sterility of the dri

eastward, you have the beginning of the vacancies of Centr

A striking practical commentary on these great physical 

contrasts has been supplied in the last few months by thc 

in Russia. In all North Russia there are but two or three towns 

84 
Archangel to Vologda on the Upper Dwina long remained 

communication with the ocean and the West. The Yrans-Sibe

runs from Petrograd through Vologda, and there is a direct l

Moscow to Vologda which may be considered as leaving Russ

and entering North Russia at the bridge over the Volga at 

For these reasons it was that the Allied embassies established th

at Vologda when they retired from Petrograd and Moscow: ap

the convenience of alternative communications with Archa

Vladivostok, they were outside Bolshevik Russia. 

Even more significant was the action of the Czecho-Slova

Moscow branch of the Trans-Siberian line. Advancing from 

Mountains, with the support of the Ural Cossacks, they took 

at the point where the railway reaches the Meadow Bank, 

seized the great bridge over the river at Syzran. They even p

a short way along the line to Penza within the real Russia, bu

a rather sparsely populated neighborhood. Also, they struc

river to Kazan. In truth they were thus hovering round the ed

real Russia and threatening it from outside. The British expedit

Archangel by boat up the Dwina River to Kotlas, and thence by 

to Vyatka on the Trans-Siberian line, appears a less foolhardy e

when seen in the light of these realities. 

This definition of the real Russia gives a new meaning no

the Russia but also to the Europe of the nineteenth century

consider that Europe, with the help of the map. All the more 

regions of Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia, and also Eas

southward to the Caucasus, are excluded as being mere vacan

with them the Turkish dominion in the Balkan Peninsula. I

remembered that Kinglake in E6then, writing in 1844, consid

he was entering the East when he was ferried across the rive

Belgrade. The boundary between the Austrian and Turkish Em

settled by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, was not varied un

Thus the real Europe, the Europe of the European peoples, th

which, with its overseas colonies, is Christendom, was a 

definite social conception; its landward boundary ran strai

85 
..... Vvo o o,, _,,,"27 

vr°o2--) -f "~'.")f "~1 ,'% 

~,, / -x_. jM?scow~.,_ ) ~---~2...'g-tK.ib~h

') CT .>%"- + 

Fie. 27.--Showing the limits of the denser Russian population ...

Petrograd to Kazan, and then along a curved line from Kaz

Volga and Don Rivers to the Black Sea, and by the Turkis

to near the head of the Adriatic. At the one end of this Europ

St. Vincent standing out to sea; at the other end is the land ca

by the Volga elbow at Kazan. Berlin is almost exactly midwa

St. Vincent and Kazan. Had Prussia won this war it was her 

that Continental Europe from St. Vincent to Kazan, with th

of the Asiatic Heartland, should have become the naval b

which she would have fought Britain and America in the n

Let us now divide our Europe into East and West by a line 

from the Adriatic to the North Sea that Venice and the Ne

may lie to the west, and also that part .of Germany which 

German from the beginning of European history, but so th

and Vienna are to the east, for Prussia and Austria are countr

the German has conquered and more or less forcible Teuto

the map thus divided let us "think through" the history o

86 
EzG. z8.--The real Europe, east and west, with the addition oE Ba

the Balkans, and Asia Minor (see p. 90). 

four generations: it will assume a new coherency. 

The English Revolution limited the powers of monarchy

French Revolution asserted the rights of the people. Owing t

in France, and her invasion from abroad, the organizer Nap

thrown up. Napoleon conquered Belgium and Switzerland, s

himself with subsidiary kings in Spain, Italy, and Holland, 

an alliance with the subordinate Federation of the Rhine, o

words, with the old Germany. Thus Napoleon had united the 

West Europe, saving only insular Britain. Then he advanc

East Europe, and defeated Austria and Prussia, but did not an

though he compelled them to act as his allies when he afterw

forward against Russia. We often hear of the vast spaces fo

retreat which lay behind Moscow; but, in fact, Napoleon a

had very nearly marched right across the inhabited Russia of 

Napoleon was brought down partly by the exhaustion of his Fr

power, but mainly because his realm of West Europe was env

lAnd therefore across the territory, which could afford supplies to the contend

87 
twice at Copenhagen. Owing to her command of the sea, Br

however, able to land her armies in Holland, Spain, and Ita

sap the Napoleonic strength in rear. It is interesting to not

culminating victory of Trafalgar and the turning-point of Mo

very nearly at the two extremes of our real Europe. The N

War was a duel between West and East Europe, whose a

populations were about evenly balanced, but the superiority d

higher civilization of West Europe was neutralized by Br

power. 

After Waterloo, East Europe was united by the Holy Leag

three Powers--Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Each of the three 

westward a stage, as though drawn by a magnet in that directio

obtained most of Poland, and thus extended a political penin

the heart of the physical peninsula of Europe. Austria took the D

coast, and also Venice and Milan in the mainland of North

Prussia obtained a detached territory in lhe old Germany of 

which territory was divided into the two provinces of the R

and Westphalia. This annexation of Germans to Prussia pro

a much more significant thing than the addition of Poles to R

of Italians to Austria. The Rhineland is an anciently civilized 

and so far Western that it accepted the Code Napoleon fo

which it still retains. From the moment that the Prussians th

their way into West Europe a struggle became inevitable bet

liberal Rhineland and the conservative Brandenburg of Berlin

struggle was postponed for a time owing to the exhaustion of 

British naval power continued the while to envelop West Eur

Heligoland, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Gibraltar, and Malta. By 

precipitated in the years 1830 to 1832 the temporary reacti

West was brought to an end, and the middle classes came in

in Britain, France, and Belgium. In the years from 1848 to 

democratic movement spread eastward of the Rhine, and Centra

was ablaze with the ideas of freedom and nationality, but 

point of view two events, and two only, were decisive. In 

Russian armies advanced into Hungary and put the Magyars 

88 
unity of East Europe was asserted, and the liberal movemen

Rhineland was definitely balked. 

In 1860 Bismarck, who had been at Frankfurt, and who 

been ambassador in Paris and Petrogad, was called to power 

and resolved to base German unity not on the idealism of 

and the West, but on the organization of Berlin, and the Eas

and 1866 Berlin overran West Germany, annexing Hanover an

opening the way to the Rhineland for Junker militarism. At 

time Berlin weakened her competitor Austria by helping th

to establish the dual government of Austria-Hungary, and by 

Austria of Venice. France had previously recovered Milan for 

The War of 1866 between Prussia and Austria was, however, 

merely a civil war; this became evident in 1872 when Pruss

shown that her power was irresistible in the war against Fran

the League of the Three Emperors, and thus reconstituted 

the East Europe of the Itoly Alliance. The center of powe

Europe was now, however, Prussia, and no longer Russia, 

Europe has established a considerable Rhenish "Glacis

West Europe. 

For some fifteen years after the Franco-Prussian War Bism

both East and West Europe. He ruled the West by dividing 

Romance Powers of France, Italy, and Spain. This he accom

regard to their relations to Barbary, the "Island of the We

Arabs. France had taken the central portion of Barbary, 

Algeria, and by encouraging her to extend her dominion eas

Tunis and westward into Morocco, Bismarck brought her int

conflict with those of Italy and Spain. In East Europe th

somewhat similar rivalry between Russia and Austria in resp

Balkan Peninsula, but here the effort of Bismarck was to ho

allies together. Therefore, after making the Dual Alliance wi

in 1878, Bismarck negotiated his secret Reinsurance Treaty wi

He desired a solid East Europe under Prussian control, but 

West Europe. 

89 
gg 

strategical sense from the Coastland. 

In West Europe there are two principal elements, the Ro

the Teutonic. As far as the two chief nations, Britain and 

concerned, there is and can be in modern times no question 

of the one by the other. The Channel lies between them. 

in the Middle Ages it is true that for three centuries Fre

ruled England, and that for another century the English t

France. But those relations ended for good when Queen 

Calais. The great Wars between the two countries in the 

century were waged primarily to prevent the French mon

dominating the continent of Europe. For the rest, they w

colonial and commercial rivalry. So far, also, as the Teuto

along the Rhine is concerned, there was certainly in the pa

seated hostility to the French. The Alsatians, though German 

became---it is one of the great facts of history operative to 

French in heart. Even what is now the Rhine province 

accepted, as we have seen, the Code Napoleon. 

In East Europe there are also two principal elements, th

and the Slavonic, but no equilibrium has been establish

them as between the Romance and Teutonic elements of W

The key to the whole situation in East Europe--and it is a 

cannot be too clearly laid to heart at the present moment--is 

claim to dominance over the Slav. Vienna and Berlin, just 

boundary of West Europe, stand already within territory th

in the earlier Middle Ages; they represent the first step of t

out of his native country as a conqueror eastward. In t

Charlemagne the rivers Saale and Elbe divided the Slav

Germans, and to this day, only a short distance south of B

Circle of Kottbus, where the peasantry still speak Wendish, 

tongue of all the region a few centuries ago. Outside this litt

remnant, the Slav peasantry have accepted the language of 

barons who rule them in their large estates. In south Germ

the peasantry is truly German, the land is held by small p

90 
, gy 

Prussian only. The peasantry of both countries was in a state o

until a comparatively short time ago. 

The territory thrust out by Prussia in northeasterly and sou

directions has deep historical meaning for those who read h

the map, and it is history on the map which constitutes one o

realities with which we must deal in our reconstruction. 

showing the distribution of languages tells in this instance e

than the political map, for it shows three tongues of Germa

and not merely two. The first lies northeastward along the Bal

it represents a German conquest and forced Teutonization o

Middle Ages. By the coastwise waterway the Hanseatic mer

L0beck and the Teutonic knights, no longer occupied in C

conquered all the shorelands to where now stands Petrograd. 

quent history half of this strip of"Deutschthum' ' was incorpo

the Berlin monarchy, and the other half became the Baltic pro

the Russian Czardom. But the Baltic provinces retained, to 

their German merchant community of Riga, their German U

of Dorpat, and their German barons as landlords. Under the 

Brest-Litovsk the German element was again to have ruled 

lands of Courland and Livonia. 

The second pathway of the Germans was up the Oder R

source in the Moravian Gate, the deep valley leading fro

towards Vienna between the mountains of Bohemia on the 

and the Carpathian Mountains on the other hand. The Germ

ments along the Upper Oder became Silesia, of which the gr

was taken from Austria by Prussia under Frederick the G

salience of these northeastward and southeastward limbs of 

speaking country is still further accentuated by the Polish

Prussian province of Posen in the reentering angle between 

The third eastward path of the Germans was down the Da

by southward passes also into the Eastern Alps. This has be

Austrian Archduchy about Vienna, and the Carinthian 

German-speaking--in the Austrian Alps. Between the Sil

91 
Cz 

~'~resl

Fro. ~9.--The surviving islands of Wendlsh (Slavonic) speech at 

encircled by the flowing tide of German speech. 

Austrian Germans projects westward the province of Bohe

of Slav speech. Let us not forget that Posen and Bohemia h

their native tongues, and that the three salients of Ger

represent three streams of conquest. 

Beyond even the utmost points of these three principal 

Deutschthum, there are many scattered German colonies 

and miners, some of them of very recent origin. They oc

points in Hungary, although for political purposes the Ge

there now very much identified themselves with the Mag

The Saxons in Transylvania share with the Magyars of t

privileged position amid a subject population of Rumania

In Russia a chain of German settlements lies eastward 

north of the Ukraine almost to Kieff. Only on the Middle V

the city of Saratof, do we come to the last patch of these G

nists. 

We must not, however, think of German influence amo

IThe statements here made are left in the form that held before the war, tb

them is more potent than the as yet vague regrouping of the future. 

92 
which came to an end only in 1806, after the battle of Auste

Poles, the Czechs, the South Slavs of Croatia, and the Ma

Roman Catholic--that is to say, of the Latin or western bran

Church, and this has certainly meant an extension of German 

as against the Greek Church of the Russians. After the siege o

in 1683, the Austrian Germans advanced step by step in the e

century, driving the Turks before them from Hungary, unt

Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, they fixed the line which, for m

a hundred years, afterwards delimited Turkish power towar

tendom. Undoubtedly the Austrians thus rendered a great 

Europe, but the incidental effect, so far as the Croatians, 

Slovaks, and Rumanians of Transylvania were concerned, wa

to substitute the mastery of the German for that of the Tur

Peter the Great of Russia moved his capital at the beginni

eighteenth century from Moscow to Petrograd, he went from a 

to a German environment, a fact recorded in the German 

Petersburg. As a consequence, throughout the eighteenth and n

centuries, German influence was great in Russian governm

Russian bureaucracy, on which the Czardom depended, was

measure, recruited from among the cadets of the German 

families of the Baltic provinces. 

Thus East Europe has not consisted, like West Europe, o

of peoples independent of one another, and--until Alsace w

by Prussia--without serious frontier questions between th

Europe has been a great triple organization of German domina

a mainly Slavonic population, though the extent of the Germa

no doubt, varied in different parts. In this fact we have the k

meaning of the volte-face of 1895, when was concluded the inc

Franco-Russian alliance between democracy and despotism. W

sia allied herself with France against the Germans, much m

implied than merely a reshuffling of the cards on the play

Europe. Something fundamental had happened in East Eur

the point of view of Berlin. Prior to that great and signific

there had been long bickerings between the Russian and 

93 
Flo. So.--Showing the three eastward tongues of German speech, and the sc

settlements as far as the Volga. (l) Prussia. (a) Silesia. (3) Aust

governments as the result of their rivalry in the Balkans, bu

in the nature of family quarrels, no less than was the short 

Prussia and Austria in 1866. When Russia advanced to 

against Turkey in 1853 and Austria massed forces to 

from the Carpathians, the friendship of the Holy Allianc

subsisted since 1815, was, no doubt, suspended until Bism

the three despotisms together again in his Three-Kaiser 

1872. But it so happened that, during the interval, Russi

a position to advance afresh against the Turks, owing 

which she had experienced in the Crimean War, and 

irremediable breach ensued between her and Austria. Bu

Kaiser Alliance could not last long after Austria had giv

her Balkan ambitions by occupying the Slav provinces o

Herzegovina in 1873. Some uncomfortable years follo

which German strength was mounting up, before Russia w

that the alternative before her was either an alliance wit

Republicans or the acceptance of a position of subordina

many, like that to which Austria had been reduced. 

94 
y yppp

save in so far as it was necessary at times for her to interven

the Eastern Mediterranean because of her stake in the Indies

no serious part in the politics of the European peninsula. Br

power, however, also enveloped the great world-promonto

ends in the Cape of Good Hope, and, operating from the s

the Indies, came into rivalry with the Russian-Cossack po

gradually completing its hold on the Heartland. In the far 

Russians descended the great Amur River to the Pacific coa

the Crimean War. It is usual to attribute the opening of Jap

action of the American Commodore Perry in 1853, but the 

of the Russians in the island of Sakhalin, and even as far 

Hakodate in Yesso, had done something to prepare the way. 

to Britain, the most immediate Russian menace was, of cours

the northwest frontier of India. 

In the nineteenth century Britain did what she liked upon t

for the United States were not yet powerful, and Europe 

occupied with its wars. Shipping and markets were the ob

the nation shopkeepers under the regime of the Manchester 

political thought. The principal new markets offering were a

vast populations of the Indies, for Africa was unexplored, an

most part went naked, and the Americas were not yet populou

fore, while Britain might have annexed almost every coas

Europe except the Atlantic coast of the United States, she limit

to calling-ports for her shipping on the ocean road to the In

to such colonial developments in the unoccupied regions as we

on her by her own adventurers, whom she tried in vain to c

she was compelled to make a steady advance in India, of 

which old Rome had known so well, when one new prov

another was annexed for the purpose of depriving invader

bases against the territory already possessed. 

The map reveals at once the essential strategic aspects of t

between Russia and Britain during the nineteenth century. R

command of nearly the whole of the Heartland, was knocki

95 
pg g

power of the distant islands in West Europe, and was m

in the East by the mobility of British ships. Obviously th

critical points in the alternative voyages round from West 

points we know to-day as the "Cape" and the "Canal

lay far removed from all overland threat throughout t

century; practically South Africa was an island. The C

opened until 1869, but its construction was an event 

shadow before. It was the Frenchman, Napoleon, who g

and therefore also to Palestine, its modern importance, ju

Frenchman Dupleix, who, in the eighteenth century, show

possible to build an empire in India from the coast inward

of the Mogul Empire which had been built from Delhi o

ideas, that of Napoleon and that of Dupleix, were essent

sea-power, and sprang not unnaturally from France in the 

West Europe. By his expedition to Egypt Napoleon dre

fleet to the battle of the Nile in the Mediterranean, and 

British army from India, for the first time, overseas to the 

When, therefore, Russian power in the Heartland increa

both of Britain and France were necessarily directed t

those of Britain tbr obvious practical reasons, and tho

partly for the sentimental reason of the great Napoleonic 

also because the freedom of the Mediterranean was es

comtbrt in the Western peninsula. 

But Russian land-power did not reach, in the eyes of p

time, as far as to threaten Arabia. The natural European 

Heartland was by the sea-way through the Straits of Co

We have seen how Rome drew her frontier through the B

made Constantinople a local base of her Mediterranea

against the Scythians of the steppes. Russia, under Cz

sought to invert this policy, and, by commanding the B

its southward exit, aimed at extending her land-power t

nelles. The effect was inevitably to unite West Europe ag

it happened that when Russian intrigue had involved B

96 
Russia. France had assumed the protectorate of the Christia

Near East, and her prestige in that respect was being dam

Russian intrigue in regard to the Holy Places at Jerusalem. S

and Britain found themselves involved in support of the Tu

the Russian armies came against them on the Danube. Lord S

shortly before his death, declared that in supporting Turkey 

backed the wrong horse. It that so certain in regard to the m

last century? Time is of the essence of international policy; th

opportunism which is the tact of politics. In regard to things w

not fundamental, is it not recognized that in ordinary social in

it is possible to say the right thing at the wrong time? In 185

Russian power, and not yet German power, which was the 

organization in East Europe, and Russia was pressing thr

Heartland against the Indies, and by the Straits of Constantin

seeking to issue from the Heartland into the west, and Pru

supporting Russia. 

In 1876 Turkey was again in trouble and was again ba

Britain, though necessarily without the support of France. T

was to head off Russian power from Constantinople, but at 

of giving to the Germans their first step towards the Balkan 

by handing over to Austrian keeping the Slav Provinces, hithe

ish, of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On that occasion the British 

Turkish sufferance, steamed through the Dardanelles to wit

of the minarets of Constantinople. The great change in the or

of Russian policy had not yet occurred, and neither Russia no

yet foresaw the economic methods of amassing man-power 

Berlin was about to resort. 

When we look back on the course of events during the 

years after the French Revolution, and consider East Europ

basis of what was on the whole a single force in the world'

do we not realize that, separate as people of the Victorian A

thought the politics of Europe from those of the Not-Europe 

there was, in fact, no such separation? East Europe was in c

97 
Prussia had established her outpost provinces. Then 

German song, the "Wacht am Rhein," was written! But 

ened against France was not in respect of Alsace and L

support of Russia; in other words, the quarrel was be

West Europe. 

In 1870 Britain did not support France against Pru

after-wisdom of events should we not, perhaps, be jus

whether we did not in this instance fail to back the ri

the eyes of the islanders were still blinded by the victo

They know what it was to enjoy sea-power, the freedo

but they forgot that sea-power is, in large measure, de

productivity of the bases on which it rests, and that E

the I Ieartland would make a mighty sea-base. In the Bism

moreover, when the center of gravity of East Europe wa

from Petro~ad to Berlin, it was perhaps not unnatural tha

ies should fail to realize the subordinate character of t

tween the three autocracies, and the fundamental chara

between Prussia and France. 

The recent Great War arose in Europe from the revo

against the Germans. The events which led up to it 

Austrian occupation of the Slav provinces of Bosnia an

in 1878, and the alliance of Russia with France in 189

of 1904 between Britain and France was not an eve

significance; our two countries had co-operated more 

in the nineteenth century but France had been the quic

that Berlin had supplanted Petrograd as the center of 

Europe, and our two policies had, in consequence, bee

different angles for a few years. West Europe, both insul

lar, must necessarily be opposed to whatever Power attem

the resources of East Europe and the Heartland. View

of that conception, both British and French policy for a 

past takes on a large consistency. We were opposed to th

Russian Czardom because Russia was the dominating, th

98 
compared with the whips of Russia. 

Thus far we have been thinking of the rivalry of empires 

point of view of strategical opportunities, and we have com

conclusion that the World-Island and the Heartland are the f

graphical realities in regard to sea-power and land-power, and 

Europe is essentially a part of the Heartland. But there rema

considered the economic reality of man-power. We have see

question of base, not only secure but also productive, is vita

power; the productive base is needed for the support of men 

for the manning of the ships, but for all the land services in co

with shipping, a fact to-day more clearly realized in Britain 

before. In regard to land-power we have seen that the camel

horsemen of past history failed to maintain lasting empires f

of adequate man-power, and that Russia was the first tena

Heartland with a really menacing man-power. 

But man-power does not imply a counting only of heads

other things being equal, numbers are decisive. Nor does i

merely on the number of efficient human beings, though h

skill are of first importance. Man-power--the power of men

in these modern days very greatly dependent on organizatio

other words, on the Going Concern, the social organism. Germa

the "ways and means" philosophy, has been dangerous to 

world because it recognizes both realities, geographical and e

and thinks only in terms of them. 

The "political" economy of Britain and the "national" 

of Germany have come from the same fountain, the book 

Smith. Both accept as their bases the division of labor and com

to fix the prices at which the products of labor shall be ex

Both, therefore, can claim to be in harmony with the dominant 

of thought in the nineteenth century as expressed by Darw

99 
regarding it as an installment of their own Free Trade

removing competition in greater or less degree to the ou

economy aimed at substituting for the competition of 

of great national organizations. In a word, the nation

thought dynamically, but the political economists in the m

This contrast of thinking between Kultur and Demo

at first of great practical significance. In the fifties and 

century the Germans were at their wars. The British man

top dog, and, as Bismarck once said, free trade is the 

strong. It was not until 1878, the date of the first scient

the economic sword of Germany was unsheathed. Th

approximately a very great change in the arts of trans

due weight is not always attached. It was then that British

in America and British steel-built ships on the Atlantic 

bulk-cargoes. 

What this new fact of the carriage of bulk--wheat, 

pctrolcum--means will be realized if we reflect that in w

to-day a community of a million people raise the cereal 

millions, and that the other nineteen millions are at a 

eastern Canada, the eastern United States, and Europe. 

relatively light cargoes of such commodities as cotton, ti

had been transported over the ocean by sailing ship, 

bulk of the cargoes of the world was insignificant as me

standards of to-day. Germany grasped the idea that u

conditions it was possible to grow man-power where y

imported food and raw material, and therefore in Germ

strategical use. 

Up to this time the Germans, like the British, had fre

but the Germans no less than the British populations in the 

made an increased demand for British manufactures. 

people grew in number at home as well as in the col

United States. Cobden and Bright had foreseen this; they 

cheap food and cheap raw materials wherewith to make 

100 
it had competitors. It was because they were the strong

that they could adopt free trade with immediate advantage an

serious immediate disadvantage. 

From 1878 Germany began to build up her manpower by st

employment at home. One of her methods was the scientifi

sieve through which imports were "screened," so that th

contain a minimum of labor and especially of skilled labor. 

other means was resorted to for the purpose of raising a Going 

which should yield a great production at home. The railw

bought by the state, and preferential rates granted. The ba

brought under the control of the state by a system of in

shareholding, and credit was organized for industry. Cartels 

bines reduced the cost of production and distribution. The r

that about the year 1900 German emigration, which had bee

falling, ceased altogether, except in so far as balanced by imm

The economic offensive was increased by methods of p

abroad. Shipping lines were subsidized, and banks were use

outposts in foreign cities. International combines were organi

German control, very largely with the help of the Jews of 

Finally, in 1905, Germany imposed such a system of commerci

on seven adjoining nations as meant their economic subjec

of these nations was Russia, then weak from war and revoluti

treaties are said to have taken ten years to think out--a cha

efflorescence of Kultur! 

The rapid German gro,grth was a triumph or organizatio

other words, of the strategical, the "ways and means" ment

fundamental scientific ideas were, most of them, imported

vaunted German technical education was merely a form of org

The whole system was based on a clear understanding of t

of the Going Concern---organized man-power. 

But the Going Concern is a relentless fact, for the firs

attribute of the animal Man is hunger. In the ten years befor

Germany was growing at the rate of a million souls a year--t

ence between deaths and births. That meant that the product

101 
food for her and to buy her wares. 

The men who, at Berlin, pulled the lever in 1914, a

dammed-up flood of German man-power have a respo

has been analyzed and fixed, so far as our information 

keen research by the unfortunate generation which has 

fearful duel. But before history their guilt will be shared 

in years past, set the concern going. In this matter Br

and the British people will not be held wholly blamele

It is the theory of free trade that the different part

should develop on the basis of their natural facilities, an

communities should specialize and render service to o

exchanging their products freely. It was firmly believed 

thus made for peace and the brotherhood of men. That 

a tenable theme in the time of Adam Smith and for a 

two afterwards. But under modem conditions the Goin

in other words, accumulating financial and industrial stre

of outweighing most natural facilities. The Going Concer

shire cotton industry is an instance of this on a great 

small difference of price in cheap lines of export will 

market, and the great Going Concern can best afford 

Hence Lancashire has maintained her cotton industry 

against all competitors, though the sources of the raw m

principal markets for the finished goods are in distan

world. Coal and a moist climate are her only natural faci

can be paralleled elsewhere. The Lancashire cotton indu

by virtue of momentum. 

The result, however, of all specialization is to make gr

When the stress began after 1878, British agriculture 

British industry continued to grow. But presently lopsi

oped even within British industry; the cotton and shipbui

still grew, but the chemical and electrical branches di

proportionately. It was not only that German penetrati

robbed us of our key industries, for the ordinary operation 

tion in a world which was becoming industrially active 

102 
respect she stood naked before the world. Therefore, when t

in some vital market, she could but return threats of sea-powe

probably foresaw this in his later days when he declared the 

a strong British navy, but the rank and file of the Manchest

were so persuaded that free trade made for peace that they g

thought to the special industrial requirements of sea-power

view any trade was equally good provided it were profitable. Y

was fighting for her South American markets when her fleet m

the Monroe Doctrine against Germany in the Manila inciden

the Indian market when her fleet kept Germany at bay during 

African War, and for the open door to her China market when 

supported Japan in the Russian War. Did Lancashire reali

was by force that the free import of cottons was imposed 

Undoubtedly India has profited vastly on a balance by the Br

and no great weight of guilt need rest on the Lancashire c

in this matter; but the fact remains that repeatedly, both w

without the Empirc, free-trading peace-loving Lancashire 

supported by the force of the Empire. Germany took note o

and built her fleet, and that fleet in being, and still in being t

of the war, neutralized a mighty British effort which would h

available otherwise in support of our army in France. 

The momentum of the Going Concern is very difficult to 

a democracy. The one hope of the future is that, as a res

lesson of this war, even democracy may learn to take longer vi

economically lopsided community the majority is on the overd

side, and it is the majority which chooses the rulers in a de

The vested interests as a consequence tend to vest ever dee

the interest of labor in earning and buying in particular way

capital in making profit in those same ways; on the averag

nothing to choose between labor and capital in these regards; 

take short views. 

But there is the same difficulty of changing the Going C

an autocracy, although that difficulty is felt in a different 

103 
she had consu'ucted an unmanageable monster. 

In my belief, both free trade of the laissez-faire type 

of the predatory type are policies of empire, and both 

The British and the Germans took seats in express train

line, but in opposite directions. Probably from about 19

was inevitable; there comes a moment when the brakes h

time to act. The difference in British and German respo

perhaps be stated thus: the British driver started first, and 

neglecting the signals, whereas the German driver deliber

ened and armored his train to stand the shock, put it on t

and at the last moment opened his throttle valves. 

The Going Concern is, in these days, the great econo

was used criminally by the Germans, and blindly by th

Bolsheviks must have forgotten that it existed. 

104 
THE FREEDOM OF NATIONS 

T he Allies have won the war. But how have we won? The 

is full of warning. We were saved, in the first place, 

readiness of the British fleet, and by the decision which 

to sea; so British communications with France were secure

readiness and decision were the outcome of the British habit of 

to the one thing essential in the midst of many things we leave s

it is the way of the capable amateur. We were saved, in the 

place, by the wonderful victory of French genius on the Marne, p

for by many years of deep thought in the great French Ecole M

in other respects the French army was not as ready as it mig

been, except in courage. We were saved in the third place 

sacrifice-- -it was no less----of the old British professional army at 

a name that will stand in history beside Thermopylae. We were 

in short, by exceptional genius and exceptional heroism from the 

of an average refusal to foresee and prepare: eloquent testimo

to the strength and the weakness of democracy. 

Then for two years the fighting was stabilized, and becam

of trenches on land and of submarines at sea, a war of attrition i

time told in favor of Britain but against Russia. In 1917 Russia 

and then broke. Germany had conquered in the East, but po

the utter subjection of the Slavs in order first to strike down her W

foes. West Europe had to call in the help of America, for West 

alone would not have been able to reverse the decision in th

Again time was needed, because America, the third of the 

democracies to go to war, was even less prepared than the oth

And time was bought by the heroism of British seamen, the s

of British merchant shipping, and the endurance of the Fren

105 
taire. 

But this whole record of Western and oceanic fighting, so 

and yet so humiliating, has very little direct bearing on the int

resettlement. There was no immediate quarrel between Ea

and West Europe; the time was past when France would have 

Germany to recover Alsace and Lorraine. The war, let us nev

began as a German effort to subdue the Slavs who were 

against Berlin. We all know that the murder of the Austrian 

Archduke in Slav Bosnia was the pretext, and that the Austrian 

ultimatum to Slav Serbia was the method of forcing the w

cannot be too often repeated that these events were the re

fundamental antagonism between the Germans, who wished t

ters in East Europe, and the Slavs, who refused to submit to t

Germany elected to stand on the defensive on her short frontie

France, and had she thrown her main strength against Russia

improbable that the world would be nominally at peace to

overshadowed by a German East Europe in command of all t

land. The British and American insular peoples would not hav

the strategical danger until too late. 

Unless you would lay up trouble for the future, you ca

accept any outcome of the war which does not finally dispo

issue between German and Slav in East Europe. You mu

balance as between German and Slav, and true independence 

You cannot afford to leave such a condition of affairs in Ea

and the Heartland, as would offer scope for ambition in the f

you have escaped too narrowly from the recent danger. 

A victorious Roman general, when he entered the city, am

head-turning splendor of a "Triumph," had behind him on th

a slave who whispered into his ear that he was mortal. W

statesmen are in conversation with the defeated enemy, s

cherub should whisper to them from time to time this sayin

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland: 

Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island: 

Who rules the World-Island commands the World. 

106 
y y g g

Undoubtedly that was a milestone in history, but the original o

of these two Slav provinces of Turkey by Austria in 1878, u

very Berlin Treaty, was perhaps nearer to the source. It me

Slav mind notice that the Prussian German stood behind the 

German in his advance over the country for which the Slav h

with the Turk; for the War of 1876, it must be remembered, 

up to the Congress of Berlin, began with a rising of the Slavs 

and Herzegovina against Turkey, and became European beca

sympathy of the neighboring Slavs of Serbia and Monteneg

impelled them also to fight against the Turk. After 1878 there 

a few years of Russian hesitancy while Germany was beg

build up her man-power. Then, in 1895, came the alliance be

Czardom and the French Republic. France needed an ally b

the still open Alsatian wound in her side; Russia needed an all

of the German bully by her side. Russia and France were not i

neighbors, so that the incompatibility of democracy and autoc

not under the circumstances an impediment sufficient to f

marriage. But it was none the less some measure of the need 

Russia stood. 

In 1905, when Russia was weak after the Japanese War and 

revolution, Germany imposed upon her a punishing tariff. 

Russia went so far, in consequence, as to accept an understand

with Britain, her rival of two generations and the ally of her la

Japan. Again we have no evidence of the stress that was 

especially if we remember the German influences in her cour

reaucracy. 

When, therefore, in 1908, Austria took that further action 

to Bosnia and Herzegovina to which Viscount Grey attac

importance, she dealt a blow where there were already bru

little neighbor Serbia protested, and the big sister Russia s

her, for it meant, the definite closing of the door to the historic as

of Serbian nationality, proudly held ever since the great 

Kossovo in the fourteenth century. But the Kaiser of Berlin p

"shining armor" at Vienna, and shook his "mailed fist" in 

107 
provided by the Treaty of the Balkan Alliance, were persu

German intrigue to attack the Serbian Slavs. The Second Bal

ensued, in which the Bulgarians were defeated owing to the inte

of the Rumanians, and the Treaty of Bukharest registered 

check to German ambition, and gave new hope to the subje

of Austria. 

The very remarkable report sent from Berlin to Paris, three 

after the Treaty of Bukharest, by M. Jules Cambon, the French a

dor, makes it clear that Germany had then decided to obtain 

own sword, whenever an opportunity could be made, the positio

she had failed to win vicariously. Accumulating evidence goes 

that within a week of the murder of the Archduke Franz Fe

Germany had decided to seize that pretext in order to force t

Austria sought to impose such terms of punishment on Serbia 

assumed complicity in the murder as no free nation could acc

when Serbia had gone to the utmost limit of concession, a

Austria hesitated, Germany hastened to fasten her quarrel on 

the ultimate reserve of all Slavdom. Had Russia submitted, as 

she would have gone into the question of the renewal of th

Treaty with Germany in 1916 with no option but a surren

economic slavery. All this is a familiar story, but it is nece

keep it clearly in mind, if we are to appreciate the fact that th

the resettlement is in the East, though the decisive fighting h

in the West. 

How came it that Germany made the double mistake of i

France and of invading her through Belgium? Germany k

weakness of Russia; there was no illusion of the "steam rol

her. Her choice of the more difficult offensive must have bee

assumption that the British democracy probably and the A

democracy certainly, were, from her point of view, asleep. Sh

the German superman to rule the world, and she thought sh

short cut to her end, in the place of the longer path through the He

the command of which would fall to her inevitably, could 

deprive the islanders of their "bridge-head" in France. But th

108 
she could keep it going, but so insatiably hungry, she had 

Hamburg, and all that Hamburg stood for in the way of 

adventure and home industries. Hamburg had her own momen

it was not eastward. Thus German strategy was biased by politic

sity. 

The result was that Berlin committed a fundamental mis

fought on two fronts without fully making up her mind on wh

she meant to win. You may strike at the two flanks of you

the right and the left, but, unless your force is sufficient to an

you must decide beforehand which stroke is to be the feint a

the real attack. Berlin has not decided between her political obje

Hamburg and overseas dominion, or Baghdad and the Heartla

therefore her strategial aim also was uncertain. 

The German blunder, under compelling destiny, having 

victory, it is essential that we should focus our thought on t

resettlement of the affairs of East Europe and the Heartlan

accept anything less than a complete solution of the Eastern 

in its largest sense we shall merely have gained a respite, 

descendants will find themselves under the necessity of m

their power afresh for the siege of the Heartland. The essen

resettlement must be territorial, for in East Europe, and in sti

measure in the remainder of the Heartland, we have to do wit

whose economic development has only commenced. Unless 

forward, the growth of peoples will by and by unbalance yo

ment. 

No doubt it may be urged that German mentality will be a

German defeat. He would be a sanguine man, however, wh

trust the future peace of the world to a change in the mentali

nation. Look back to old Froissard or to Shakespeare, and 

find your Englishman, Scotsman, Welshman, and Frenchman 

their essential characteristics already fixed. The Prussian is a 

109 
most virile races of mankind. 

Even with revolution in Germany let us not be too sure in 

to its ultimate effect. The German revolutions of 1848 were 

comic in their futility. Since Bismarck there has only been one 

chancellor with political insight, and he--Von B~low--has d

in his book on Imperial Germany that "the German has always 

plished his ~eatest works under strong, steady, and firm gui

The end of the present disorder may only be a new ruthless organ

and ruthless organizers do not stop when they have attained the 

which they at first set before them. 

It will be replied, of course, that though Prussian mentality 

unchanged, and though a really stable Prussian democracy be 

its development, yet that Germany will, in any case, be so impov

that she cannot do harm for the better part of a century to c

there not, however, in that idea a misreading of the real nature o

and poverty under modern conditions? Is it not productive powe

now counts rather than dead wealth? Shall we not all of us--a

in some degree even the Americans also--have spent our dead 

and shall we not all of us, the Germans included, be starting 

the productive race practically from scratch? The world was ast

at the rapidity with which France recovered from her disaster o

but the power of" industrial production was as nothing then to 

is now. Sober calculation in regard to Britain leads to the con

that her increased productive power, owing to reorganization a

methods compelled by the war, should far exceed the inter

sinking fund even of her vast war debts. No doubt you have th

Resolutions, and can deny to a refractory Germany the raw m

wherewith to compete with you. If you resort to that method, h

you postpone your League of Nations, and you remain a Le

Allies. Are you certain, moreover, that you would win in an ec

war? You might undoubtedly handicap Germany, but a handic

only lead to greater effort. Did not Napoleon limit the Prussia

after Jena to 42,000 men with the colors, and was not the P

effort to circumvent his prohibition the origin of the whole 

II0 
conditions can view unconcernedly either the preparation for t

war which would be inevitable, or the ultimate result of that 

We, the Western nations, have incurred such tremendous 

in this conflict that we cannot afford to trust to anything 

happen at Berlin; we must be secure in any case. In other w

must settle this question between the Germans and Slavs, and 

see to it that East Europe, like West Europe, is divided i

contained nations. If we do that, we shall not only reduce the 

people to its proper position in the world, a great enough positio

single people, but we shall also have created the conditions pre

a League of Nations. 

You plead that if we inflict a decisive peace we shall le

bitter feelings that no workable League of Nations can en

have in mind, of course, the results of the annexation of A

1871. But the lessons of history are not to be learned from 

instance. The great American Civil War was fought to a fin

to-day the southerners are as loyal to the Union as are the Nor

the two questions of Negro slavery and of the right of particu

to secede from the Federation were finally decided, and cea

the causes of quarrel. The Boer War was fought to a finish

day General Smuts is an honored member of the British Cab

War of 1866, between Prussia and Austria, was fought to a fi

within a dozen years Austria had formed the Dual Alliance with 

If you do not now secure the full results of your victory and c

issue between the German and the Slav, you will leave ill-feeli

will not be based on the fading memory of a defeat, but on 

irritation of millions of proud people. 

The condition of stability in the territorial rearrangement 

Europe is that the division should be into three and not into t

systems. It is a vital necessity that there should be a tier of ind

111 
with the revolutionaries of the towns, and now as small pr

they hardly know how to manage their own countrysides. Th

class have so suffered that they were ready to accept order ev

the hated Germans. As for the workmen of the towns, only 

minority of the Russian populatiorv--but because of their relativ

tion and of their command of the centers of communication t

to-day of the country--Kultur knows well how to "influence

In the opinion of those who know Russia best, autocratic rule 

sort is almost inevitable if she is to depend on her own str

cope with the Germans. 

The Slav and kindred nations which inhabit the borderland 

the Germans and the Russians are, however, of a very differen

Consider the Czechs: have they not stood proof against Bol

and asserted their capacity of nationhood under amazing cond

Russia? Have they not shown the most extraordinary political 

in creating anew and maintaining Slav Bohemia, though beset 

sides by Germany and on the fourth side by Hungary? Have 

also made Bohemia a hive of modern industry and a seat of 

learning? They, at any rate, will not lack the will to order and to i

dence. 

Between the Baltic and the Mediterranean you have thes

non-German peoples, each on the scale of a European stat

second rank--the Poles, the Bohemians (Czechs and Slova

Hungarians (Magyars), the South Slavs (Serbians, Croatians, 

venes), the Rumanians, the Bulgarians, and the Greeks. Of th

are among our prcsent enemies the Magyars and the Bulgari

the Magyars and Bulgarians are engirt by the other five peop

neither of them will be powerful for harm without Prussian s

Let us count over these seven peoples. First we have the Pole

~The details of the discussion of the territorial resettlement which will follow will

becomes in large measure obsolete with the announcemcnt of the decisions of the Peace 

My object is not, however, so much to debate certain solutions of the problems im

confronting us, as to give a concrete aspect to the general idea which I am endeavori

up. My purpose will still be served if it is borne in mind that what I have writte

particulars represents the outlook at Christmas, 1918. 

112 
y jyg

the debasement which Kultur brought to the master German. U

edly these arc strong currents of party among the Poles, but 

the Polish aristocracy of Galicia is no longer bribed to the su

the Hapsburg throne by leave to oppress the Ruthenians of Eas

at least one motive of party, one vested interest, should hav

peared. 

By some means the new Poland must be given access to t

Sea, not only because that is essential to her economic indep

but also because it is desirable to have Polish ships on the Balt

strategically is a closed sea of the Heartland, and, further, th

be a complete territorial buffer between Germany and Russia. 

nately the province of East Prussia, mainly German by sp

Junker by sentiment, would be detached from Germany by 

of Poland going down to the sea. Why should we not contem

exchange of peoples as between Prussia east of the Vistula, an

Posen? ~ During this war we have undertaken much vaster thin

in the way of merely transport and also of organization. In 

in order to deal with such difficulties, diplomatists have resor

manner of "servitudes" as the land lawyers would say. But r

way over other people's property usually become inconven

lead to disputes. Would it not pay humanity to bear the cost of 

remedy in this case, a remedy made just and even generous 

individuals in every respect? Each proprietor should be given t

of exchanging his property and retaining his nationality or of 

his property and changing his nationality. But if he selects 

alternative there must be no reservation of special rights in r

schools and other social privileges. The United States in her 

sternly imposes the English language on all her immigrants. 

the conquerors of old time did their work ruthlessly, coun

France and England are to-day homogeneous and free from tha

ISince I wrote this paragraph, M. Venizelos~ in an interview with a Times co

dated Paris, Janua~y 14, 1919, has used these words: "This would still leave some 

thousands of Greeks under Turkish rule in the center of Asia Minor. l-or this there 

cure, and that is to encourage a wholesale and mutual transfer of population." 

113 
Polish Posen would bite a very threatening bay into the eastern f

of Germany, and a German East Prussia would be a stepping-st

German penetration into Russia. ~ 

Next among our "border" peoples are the Czechs and Slovak

recently severed by the line dividing Austria from Hungary, as th

were severed by the frontiers between Russia, Prussia, and Austr

Czechs and Slovaks together number perhaps nine millions; th

make one of the most virile little peoples in Europe, and th

equipped with a remarkable country, offering coal, metals, 

water-power, corn, and wine, and centered on the main line of r

from the Baltic and Warsaw to Vienna and the Adriatic. 

Then we come to the South Slavs---Jugo means Soutt~--i

three tribes of SIovenes, Croatians, and Serbs. They number 

twelve millions. They also have been sundered by the line b

Austria and Hungary; moreover, they are of the rival Latin and 

Churches. For anyone who knows the Balkans, it is eloquent tes

indeed to the effect of Austro-Hungarian tyranny that the Roman 

lic Slovenes and Croatians should have made the pact of Corf

the Greek Orthodox Serbs. The South Slavs will have access to D

tian ports on the Adriatic, and one of the trunk railways of the 

will run down the Save Valley to Belgrade, and then throu

Morava and Maritza "Corridor" to Constantinople. 

Rumania is the next state of this middle east of Europe. The n

focus of Rumania is the great Transylvanian bastion of the Carpa

with fruitful valleys, metalliferous mountains, oil wells, and sp

forests. The Transylvanian peasantry is Rumanian, but a "privil

minority of Magyars and "Saxons" have been the rulers. Here 

it should be no quite impossible feat of statesmanship to arran

an equitable exchange of homes, or a full acceptance of Rum

nationality, though it must be admitted that the hostility between 

and Ruman is not so acute as that between Prussian and Pole. 

The rest of Rumania, the present kingdom, is the glacis, ea

and southward, of Transylvania, watered by the Transylvanian 

ITo meet the obvious argumentum ad hominem, let me say that 1 see no really com

strategical necessities in the case of Ireland. 

114 
v ,GERt,~ 

o ) 

ua "~_...°o,5,=,t,,. ] -

(,.9 ~'~ ""z4 ~-J',.,.. ,.---------,-~. ~ f 

• - _-,h e ""~ ~, R u~'~ J - f- t A e~.-, "-.. ,. (- Block 

...- l IjL.o'-" ~ (.~,.m, .... 

FIG. 3t.--The middle tier of states bctween Germany and Russia. Ma

boundary questions have still to be determined. 

This fertile glacis is one of the chief sources in Europe of oil

and maize; the twelve million Rumanians will be a rich peo

Galatz, Braila, and Constanza they have ports on the Black S

it will be a prime interest of all free peoples that there sh

Rumanian ships on that sea, for it is naturally a closed wate

Heartland. The time will never come when the League of Nati

be able to regard the Baltic and Black Seas without concern, 

Heartland offers the bias of an all-powerful militarism. Civ

consists in the control of nature and of ourselves, and the Le

Nations, as the supreme organ of united humanity, must closel

the Heartland and its possible organizers for the same reason 

115 
ble to sea-power. But in these days of submarines and aeropl

possession of Greece by a great Heartland power would probab

with it the control of the World-Island; the Macedonian histor

be reenacted. 

Now as to the Magyars and Bulgarians. The truth is that 

them were exploited by, although not subject to, the Prussians. E

who knows Budapest is aware of the deeply alien feeling of the 

toward the Germans; the recent alliance was strictly one of conv

and not of hearts. The ruling Magyar caste of about a millio

has been oppressive of the other nine millions of its own race 

than of subject races. The alliance with Prussia--for it has i

been an alliance with Prussia rather than with Austria--has bee

in return for support of the Magyar oligarchy. No doubt the M

have begotten deep feelings of hostility among the Slavs and 

nians, but if there be no more profit to be made from farmin

in the German behalf, a democratic Hungary will sooner or lat

herself to the new environment. The Bulgarians fought, let us rem

as allies of the Serbs against the Turks, and the difference 

Serb and Bulgar, though bitter for the time being, is a family dif

It is a difference of recent growth, and based largely on rival ecc

cal organizations of recent foundation. The Bulgarians mus

allowed to exploit their treachery in the Second Balkan War, 

equitable settlement be dictated by the Allies, both nations, the 

ans and the Serbs, deeply war weary, will probably accept it j

For twenty years only one will, that of the German Czar Fe

has counted in Bulgaria. 

The most important point of strategical significance in re

these middle states of East Europe is that the most civilized o

Poland and Bohemia, lie in the north, in the position most exp

Prussian aggression. Securely independent the Polish and Bo

nations cannot be, unless as the apex of a broad wedge of indepe

extending from the Adriatic and Black Seas to the Baltic; bu

independent states, with a total of more than sixty million 

traversed by railways linking them securely with one anoth

116 
This great deed of international statesmanship accomplish

would appear to be no impossibility of realizing the democra

the League of Nations, whose mirage has haunted our Western 

from afar over the desert of war. What are the essential co

which must be fulfilled if you are to have a real and potent L

Nations? Viscount Grey, in his recent pamphlet, laid down 

conditions. The first was that "the Idea must be adopted with 

ness and conviction by the Executive Heads of States." Th

was that "the Governments and Peoples of the States willing 

it understand clearly that it will impose some limitation u

national action of each, and may entail some inconvenient ob

The stronger nations must forego the right to make their interest

against the weaker by force." 

These are excellent and very necessary theses, but do they 

far enough? Before you undertake any general obligation, is it 

to consider what is likely to mean in concrete terms? Your 

will have to reckon with certain realities. There was before th

incipient League of Nations; its members were the states par

system of international law. Have we not had to fight the 

because two of the greater states broke the international law

regard to one and then another of the smaller states, and have 

two greater states very nearly succeeded in defeating a very 

League of Nations which intervened in behalf of the law? In 

of such a fact, it is quite adequate to say that stronger natio

"forego" the right to make their interest prevail by force ag

weaker? In a word, do not our ideals involve us in a circle u

reckon with realities? 

It is not plain that if your League is to last there must be n

strong enough to have any chance against the general will of hu

Or, to put the matter in another way; there must be no pred

partner or even group of partners in your League. Is there an

117 
bullied by either. In the Commonwealth of Australia you h

approximately equal states of New South Wales and Victoria. 

zerland not even the large canton of Berne is anything like predo

Has not German Federation been a pretense because of the do

of Prussia? Is not the chief difficulty in the way of devolutio

the British Isles, even if Irishmen would agree among themse

predominance of England? Did not this war originate from 

that you allowed an almost dominant Gcrmany to arise in 

Have not the great wars of the past in Europe come from the 

one state in the European system, under Napoleon, Louis 

Phillip II, had become too powerful? Is it not necessary, if your 

of Nations is to have any chance of success, to face this cum

evidence and not to gloss it over? 

Is there not also another reality with which you must rec

reality of the Going Concern? If the nations of your Leagu

settle down to a quiet life, there are two different ways, it s

me, in which you will have to face the reality of the Going C

in respect of the present and of the future. What is meant by thi

in the present will best be conveyed by concrete consideratio

states available as the units to be leagued together. 

The British Empire is a Going Concern. You will not per

majority of Britons to risk the coherence of the Empire, whic

triumphantly stood the test of this war, for any paper sche

Universal League. It follows, therefore, that the governing uni

British Empire can only grow by gradual process into their 

units of your League. Yet the relations of six of them are 

in fact, the relations of equality and, under their British Le

independency. Only last year was the last word said in that 

The Prime Ministers of the Dominions are henceforth to comm

directly with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and n

through the subordinate Colonial Secretary; the Parliament at W

ster is no longer to be called the Imperial Parliament but 

Parliament of the United Kingdom. It only remains that the King 

no longer be called King of the United Kingdom and of the Do

118 
command only on the outbreak of war? As regards populatio

it not now a question of only a few years before Canada and 

will equal the Motherland in power? We shall then have 

minor Dominions- -New Zealand, South Africa, and Newfou

counting the more because of the balance between the three m

minions. 

France and Italy are Going Concerns. Are they going t

League in which the British Empire is a unit? Fortunately 

achieved the single strategical command in the later stages o

so that the name Versailles has now an added historic mea

longer merely through their Ambassadors, but in the person

Prime Ministers, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have 

the habit of taking counsel together. These three countries 

Europe are not unfitted by any decisive inequality of size to 

members of a League. Is it not probable that occasions w

when the Prime Ministers of Canada and Australia may be c

conference with the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

and Italy? They will be occasions of all the more value if you r

the Going Concerns of to-day and do not attempt to make mer

progress. Remember that it required the peril of the German 

of 1918 to secure the unity of strategical command? 

Then what of the United States? There is no good in preten

the separate American states can be units in your League; the 

fought the greatest war in history, before this war, in orde

them together. Yet the United States form something like a pre

partner as against the separate allied countries of West Eur

United States must be in your League; and that means that, fo

working, the six Britains must be held together as a counte

Fortunately three thousand miles of undefended frontier 

America constitute a fact of good omen, though, to be quite 

would signify more if the countries which that frontier has 

had been less unequal; the test would have been more sever

~Since this was written the Paris Conference has treated the British Empire as 

unit Jor some purposes. 

119. 
therc are also natural boundaries which define the spread of 

insular, or even peninsular, base of power. The test of the 

will be in the Heartland of the Continent. Nature there offer

prerequisites of ultimate dominance in the world; it must be 

by his foresight and by the taking of solid guarantees to pr

attainment. Notwithstanding their revolutions the German and 

peoples are Going Concerns, each with a powerful histori

mentum. 

Therefore let the idealists who, now that the nations are loc

a single world system, rightly see in the League of Nations 

alternative to hell on earth, concentrate their attention on the 

subdivision of East Europe. With a Middle Tier of really inde

states between Germany and Russia they will achieve their 

without it they will not. Any mere trench-line between the 

Powers and Russia, such as was contemplated by Nauman

Central Europe, would have left German and Slav still in dua

and no lasting stability could have ensued. But the Middle T

ported by the outer nations of the World League, will accomp

end of breaking-up East Europe into more than two state-

Moreover, the states of that Tier, of approximate equality o

will themselves be a very acceptable group for the recruit

the League. 

Once thus remove the temptation and opening to world-emp

who can say what will occur among the German and Russian 

themselves? There are already indications that Prussia, which

England or France, is a purely artificial structure, will be bro

several federal states. In one region the Prussians belong by h

East Europe and in another to West Europe. Is it not probable 

Russians will fall into a number of states in some sort of loose 

tion? Germany and Russia have grox~a into great empires out of 

tion to one another; but the peoples of the Middle Tier

Bohemians, Hungarians, Rumanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, and G

are much too unlike to federate for any purpose except defe

they are all so different both from Germans and Russians t

120 
follow that it would be wise to commit them forthwith to a

international administration; here, too, it is very necessary t

mind the truth of the Going Concern. Condominium has not, 

been a success, for the reason that the agents of the joint p

Powers almost inevitably take sides with the local nation

parties. The most effective method of international control wo

to be that of commissioning some one Power as trustee for hum

different Power, of course, in the case of different positions. 

the method experimentally tried when Austria-Hungary was 

with the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Co

Berlin, and it succeeded so far as the material advanceme

protected provinces was concerned. There is no reason why 

principle and the facts of the Going Concern should not be r

in the cases of Panama, Gibraltar, Malta, Suez, Aden, and S

by regarding the American Republic and the British Empire 

trustees for the peace of the ocean and of the straits connecting t

of the ocean. This, however, would amount merely to a regular

existing lhcts. The test of the principle, as of most other world p

is in connection with the Heartland and Arabia. The islande

world cannot be indifferent to the fate either of Copenhag

Constantinople, or yet of the Kiel Canal, for a great Pow

Heartland and East Europe could prepare, within the Baltic a

Seas, for war on the ocean. During the present war it has 

whole naval strength of the Allies to hold the North Sea and th

Mediterranean. An adequate submarine campaign, based on t

Sea from the beginning of the war, would probably have given 

to an army operating overland against the Suez Canal. It 

therefore, that Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia, the Bosporu

Dardanelles, and the outlets from the Baltic must be internation

some manner. In the case of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotam

been understood that Britain and France would undertake inte

trusts. Why should we not solve the problem of Constanti

making that historic city the Washington of the League of 

When the network of railways has covered the World Island, C

nople will be one of the most accessible places on the globe by 

121 
Heartland with oceanic freedom. 

The Jewish national seat in Palestine will be one of the most i

outcomes of the war. That is a subject on which we can no

to speak the truth. The Jew, for many centuries shut up in th

and shut out of most honorable positions in society, develop

unbalanced manner and became hateful to the average Chr

reason of his excellent, no less than his deficient, qualities. 

penetration has been conducted in the great commercial cente

world in no small measure by Jewish agency, just as German do

in southeastern Europe was achieved through Magyar and T

Jewish assistance. Jews are among the chief of the Bolsheviks o

The homeless, brainfid Jew lent himself to such international

and Christendom has no great right to be surprised by the 

you will have no room tbr these activities in your League of inde

friendly nations. Therefore a national home, at the physical an

cal center of the world, should make the Jew "range" himself. S

of judgment, brought to bear on Jews by Jews, should res

among those large Jewish communities which will remain a

Concerns outside Palestine. This, however, will imply the fran

tance of the position of a nationality, which some Jews seek t

There are those who try to distinguish between the Jewish reli

the Hebrew race, but surely the popular view of their broad 

is not far wrong. 

In the vast and populous regions of Asia and Africa which li

the girdle of the great deserts and plateaux there are Going C

such as the British Raj in India, which it would be folly i

shake-down in your hurry to realize a world symmetry for you

of Nations. But it is essential that neither Kiauchau nor Ea

should go back to the Power which took them with a keen st

eye to the day when armies marching overland should find in 

them a citadel already prepared; which took them, moreover, 

clear intention that the Chinese and the Negroes should be ut

subsidiary man-power to help in the conquest of the Worl

What part may ultimately be played by that half of the hum

122 
implies that, subject to an international trust in the case o

critically important positions, each nation must be mistress in 

house, and that principle holds in regard to South Africa and A

Any other principle would leave the seeds of future quarrels an

impede disarmament. 

So much in respect of the starting of the League and of th

Concern in the present. It remains for us to speak of the Going 

in the future. Viscount Grey has described the state of min

will be required when we approach this great international en

is there not something more precise to be said in that matter 

I have expressed my belief that both free trade of the lais

type and predatory protection of the German type are princ

empire, and that both make for war. Fortunately the younger 

refused to accept the free trade of Manchester; they used th

independence granted to them by the Motherland to pursue t

nomic ideal which was foreshadowed by the great American st

Alexander Hamilton---the ideal of the truly independent nat

anced in all its development. This does not in the least imp

great international trade should not be done, but it should be 

so controlled that the effect of it is always tending towards the 

aimed at, and is not accumulating, beyond hope of recove

nomic onesideness. 

No stable League of Nations appears to me possible if an

is allowed to practice commercial "penetration," for the objec

penetration is to deprive other nations of their fair share of t

skilled forms of employment and it is inevitable that a general 

should ensue in so far as it succeeds. Nor, to speak quite pl

there any great difference in result if some nations feel that 

reduced to the position of hewers and drawers owing to the i

specialization of another country under the regime of unrestric

denism; wherever an industry is so developed in one countr

123 
might just as well have adopted the attractive position ideal 

economic independence instead of being driven from one ex

another in mere defensiveness. If you attempt to maintain a 

Cobdenism with exceptions, you will, under the conditions of 

that are opening before us, very soon build up a large and clu

of merely ad hoc machineries. A general system of low d

bounties would enable you to deal quickly and lightly with e

culty as it develops, because you would have the appropriate m

of control at your hand. But I am not here going into detai

questions of machinery; I am dealing with the question of 

aim. The Cobdenite believes that international trade is good 

and that specialization as between country and country, prov

it arises blindly under the guidance of natural causes, shou

thwarted. The Berliner, on the other hand, has also encouraged 

specialization among the nations, but he operates scientifically

lating in his own country those industries which give most, 

highly skilled, employment. The result is the same in eac

going concern of industry grips the nation and deprives it, a

other nations, of true independence. The resulting differences 

late to the point of quarrel and collision. 

There are three attitudes of mind in regard to the Going 

which spell tragedy. There is laissez-faire, which is surre

fatalism. This attitude produces a condition comparable with 

discase brought on by self-neglect; the human body is a goin

which, becoming unbalanced in its functions, is organically 

so that in the end no doctor's advice or even surgeon's sc

avail, since to stop the disease means the stoppage of life 

IThe distinction between these two terms is not always observed. Key industr

which, althc~ugh themselves rclatively small, are necessary to other and much great

Thus, for instance, aniline dyestuffs to the value of two million pounds a year we

Great Britain before the war in textile and paper mann factures of the annual worth of 

millions. The proportion was something like that of a key to the door which it unloc

industries there are which have not this character of a small key; such, for inst

twentieth century is the steel industry. It is well to preserve the distinction, beca

defensive measures may perhaps be needed in the two cases. 

124 
constitute a symptom which almost makes one thank God tha

came when it did. 

The second attitude of mind in relation to the Going Conce

of panic. This has been the attitude of Prussia, though it wa

by the flattering philosophy of the superman, not less pleasa

it was credible, than the comforting religion of laissez-faire. 

stated, however, Kultur meant that, being obsessed with th

competition and natural selection, as finally expressed in Da

and being frightened, the Prussians decided that if, in the e

must come to man-eating in order to survive, they, at any rat

be the cannibals! So they assiduously cultivated the strength 

ciency of the prize-fighter. But the monster Going Concern in

they developed their country grew hungrier and hungrier, an

they had to let it feed. Half the cruel and selfish things which 

in this world are done for reasons of panic. 

The third attitude is that of the anarchist and the Bolshev

would distinguish no doubt between themselves, but whether y

the Going Concern or take it to pieces makes little practical di

This attitude means social suicide. It is vital that discipline s

maintained in the Westem democracies during the period of re

tion, whatever Bolshevism may happen in Central as well 

Europe. The Westerners are the victors, and they alone ar

prevent the whole world from having to pass through the cycle 

repeated in the case of individual nations---idealism, disorder

tyranny. Provided that we do not hasten to dismantle runni

machinery, but accomplish our ideas by successive acts of soc

pline, we shall maintain the steady output of production, the fu

tal reality, that is to say, on which now, more than eve

civilization rests. The disorder of a whole world, let us no

implies the absence of any remaining national base as a ful

the restoration of order, and therefore the indefinite prolon

anarchy and tyranny. It took several centuries to attain aga

stage of civilization which had been reached when the Rom

of antiquity broke down. 

125 
gigantic forces of modern production are capable of control. B

it was assumed by many that a world war would bring so 

financial crash that it would not--could not--be allowed to 

Yet how easily, when it actually befell, were the British an

systems of credit disengaged by the simple device of using th

credits to carry the roots of individual credit which were pu

the enemy soil. 

If you once admit control of the Going Concern to be 

then the ideal state-unit of your League must be the nation o

economic development. Raw materials are unequally distrib

the world, but the primary pursuits of men, other than the g

the staples of food proper to each region, form in these d

relative small part of the total industry. Minerals must be w

mines and tropical produce can only be grown within the tr

both minerals and tropical produce are now easy of transpo

higher industries may, therefore, be located at the choice a

mankind. We are what our occupations make us; every matu

imprinted with the characteristics of his calling. So is it with th

and no self-respecting nation henceforce will allow itself to b

of its share of the higher industries. But these industries ar

locked that they cannot be developed except in balance one wi

It follows, therefore, that each nation will strive for devel

each great line of industrial activity, and should be allowed 

to it. 

This is the ideal, I am firmly persuaded, which will make 

In ordinary society it is notoriously difficult for people of ver

fortune to be friends in the true sense; that beautiful relation

compatible with patronage and dependence. Civilization, 

consists of the exchange of services, but it should be an equal 

Our economics of money have assessed as equal service

unequal value from the point of view of the quality of the 

employment which they give. For the contentment of nation

126 
127 
THE FREEDOM OF MEN 

F rom the consideration of the realities presented by the g

of our globe we have come to the conclusion that if the 

of nations is to be secure, it must rest on a reasonable 

to equality of resources as between a certain number of t

nations. We have also seen that, given the imperious reali

Going Concern, it is necessary that the nations should be so c

in their economic growth that they do not tend to get of h

clash. But what have these principles to do with the freedom 

and women? Will free nations in a League be able to give more 

to their citizens? Certainly the men who have been fighting, 

who have been sailing our ships through danger on the seas

mothers and wives who have been working, waiting, and mo

home, are not looking for the mere defeat of a danger that th

they have positive visions of greater happiness in their own 

in the lives of those dear to them. 

Let us analyze from this point of view the successive 

democratic idealism which were referred to in the opening 

this book. The American Declaration of Independence claim

men the right to pursue happiness. The French Revolution cry

this phrase into the single word Liberty, and added Equalit

implies control, and Fraternity, which implies self-control. F

is of the essence of successful democracy, the highest but 

difficult of all modes of government, since it demands mo

average citizen. That is the first cycle of democratic thought; i

directly and obviously to the freedom of men. 

In the middle of the nineteenth century began the seco

which has aimed at the freedom of nations. The claim of n

129 
it is not until we come to the League of Nations that we 

an ideal which has been thought out to a stage equivalen

the great trilogy of the French Revolu.tion. Some degree of 

the League is admittedly necessary to secure the equality 

before the law, and I believe that in the ideal of the balance

ment of each nation we have the self-control which is 

fraternity. Without balanced development nations are sure 

special hungers, whether neglectthlly or criminally, which 

satisfied at the expense of other nations. In other words, w

permanently secure equality among the nations by control f

as well as from without. But this involves the statement 

politics must be conducted with an eye to their effect on fore

a truism in the superficial sense, but carrying deeper impli

are commonly admitted. 

It carries, 1 believe, this implication among others, that, si

are local societies, their organization must, if they are to las

dominantly on local communities within them, and not on n

"interests." That is the old English idea of the House of

The word commons is, of course, identical with the French w

munes," signifying communities; the House of Communit

and burghs---would be the true modern translation. As a fact, 

and the burgcsses of the Middle Ages represented comm

far more complete and balanced life than the artificially 

constituencies of to-day. 

If the real organization of the nation be by classes and inte

that is the alternative to organization by localities~--it is quit

that the corresponding classes in neighboring nations will 

selves together, and that what has been described as the 

cleavage of international society will ensue. Fortunately th

Babel was the beginning of certain great Going Concerns 

languages, and these have impeded intemationalism. But th

ment of the modern struggle between capital and labor has 

1As has been pointed out by Mr. H. G. Wells, though he would---wrongly as 

to current tendencies and accept organization by "interests." 

130 
they were being used by Germany tbr purposes of penetrati

other words, to wreck the economic and social balance of riva

Labor could only follow suit, and also try to organize intern

So came the idea of class warfare between the international p

and international capitalism. During the progress of the war 

gone to great trouble to break up the international organi

capital. Is labor now to reverse all that has been achieved in th

by persisting with an international organization which sprang 

tence for the very right purpose of fighting international ca

less than such a reversal is involved if the momentum of inter

organized labor becomes powerful, for a resuscitation of int

capitalism would then be inevitable. The economic war th

ensue could only end either in general Bolshevism or in the 

one of the parties, and that party would then become the real go

of the world, a new empire of organizers. If labor were to win

soon be found that labor organizers would not differ from thei

and capitalist predecessors in the essential respect that they w

to power and continue blindly to organize until brought d

new revolution. So the wheels of history would revolve again 

same recurrent phases of disorder and tyranny, and future 

would be taught to recognize one more "age," that of the p

following on the ages of ecclesiasticism, militarism, and c

Become supreme, the labor leaders of the future would no mor

to use machine-guns against the mob than any other pani

riders of the whirlwind. 

But if it be held that organization based on local comm

essential to the stable and therefore peaceable life of nations, t

local communities must have as complete and balanced a lif

own as is compatible with the life of the nation itself. In no 

can you prevent a "class and interest" organization from 

powerfully your locality organization. As long as you allo

metropolis to drain most of the best young brains from the loca

nities, to cite only one aspect of what goes on, so long must org

center unduly in the metropolis and become inevitably an org

131 
provinces, and under the provinces of the lesser communi

Let us approach the matter from the other end of the arg

of the freedom of men. What does the ordinary man want

that after food and home he wants liberty, but the more modem 

lays stress not merely on freedom to take opportunity, 

equality of opportunity itself. It is for opportunity to realize 

him, to live a life of ideas and of action for the realizatio

ideas, that the healthy man---in ever-increasing number--is 

ideas may be of love and of the noble upbringing of his c

of his craft and delight in his dexterity, or of religion and 

of souls, or of excellence in sport of some kind, or of the c

of society and its improvement, or of the appreciation of 

of artistic expression; but in one way or another he wishes for 

intelligent life, and incidentally for a recognition of his hum

By general elementary education we have begun to teac

manipulating ideas to those who in ancient society were 

wholly unlettered man thinks only in concrete terms; there

that the great religious teachers have spoken slowly in par

unlettered man is not open either to the pleasures or the 

idcalism. Undoubtedly our Western communities are passi

a dangerous stage in this generation. Half-educated peop

very susceptible condition, and the world to-day consists 

half-educated people. They are capable of seizing ideas, bu

not attained to the habit of testing them and of suspense 

the meantime. In other words, most people to-day are ve

"suggestion," a fact well known to the experienced in elec

rarely stop to reason with their audiences. Suggestion is t

of the German propagandist. 

Now the expression "equality of opportunity" involves 

In the first place control, because, given average human na

132 
ypgy¢ 

allowed opportunities of testing their ideas become responsible 

but those who get no such opportunity may continue, for a 

enjoy ideas, but irresponsibly and, as we say, academically. T

condition is precisely that of a large part of our intelligent ne

reading working classes to-day, and some of them know it and 

What is the bane of our modern industrial life? Surely mon

monotony of work and of a petty social and communal life. No 

our men took refuge before the war in betting on football. Mo

responsible decisions are reserved for a few, and those few 

even seen at their work, for they are away; in the big center

What is it that in the last two or three generations has gi

strength to the nationality movement? Nationality had no gr

in the Middle Ages, or indeed in modern times until the n

century. It has arisen as the modern states have not only inc

size, but have also grasped wider functions within the com

Nationalist movements are based on the restlessness of intellige

men who wish for scope to live the life of ideas and to be amo

who "can" because they are allowed to do. In the old Gree

the medieval world, Society was so loosely knit that there w

of scope in any considerable town. Is it not that fact which ma

history so interesting until we come to the eighteenth century 

so banal? Take up the history of one of our more significan

cities, and see whether that be not true. When you come to 

few generations it becomes mere statistics of material growt

best the town becomes specialized in some important way, but 

to be a complete organism. All its institutions are second-rate, 

its best people have gone away, unless it have some one estab

or industry of more than local fame, and that establishment or 

usually crushes rather than develops real local life. 

Why were Athens and Florence the wonderful founts of civ

which have made them the teachers of the world? They we

b Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, 12th edition, p. 230. 

133 
p

open to the able young Florentine, to be practiced, remem

for his native town, and with no need to go away to so

capital. Instead of mayor he might be prime minister; instea

of territorials he might be a general leading the town for

battle--a small battle no doubt, but enough to give the fu

to the activity of his mind; if he were a painter, sculptor, 

he would be employed on the monuments of his own place 

seeing them designed by some visiting great man. Of cou

suggests that you should or could return to institutions on th

or Florentine scale, but the fact remains that you have dr

local life of most of its value and interest by the developmen

wide class organization. 

Are you quite sure that the gist of the demand for Ho

Ireland, and in a less degree in Scotland, does not come m

young men who are agitating, though they do not fully re

equality of opportunity rather than against the assumed wic

England? The Bohemians have achieved a very remarkable 

prosperity under the Austrian tyranny, and yet they figh

Czecho-Slovak nationality. Is there not something of the s

truth in the refractoriness of the shop stewards in our facto

the union executivcs away in London offices? 

It is the principle of laissez-fi~ire which has played such 

our local life. For a hundred years we have bowed down 

Going Concern as though it were an irresistible god. Und

is a reality, but it can be bent to your service if you hav

inspired by an ideal. Laissez-faire was no such policy; it 

surrender to fate. You tell me that centralization is the "ten

the age: I reply to you that it is the blind tendency of every 

it not said nineteen hundred years ago that "to him that 

be given"? 

Consider the growth of London. A population of a millio

ago has risen to be more than seven millions today; or, t

fact with more essential point, the London of a century ago 

134 
right condition of things, a federalization against strong loca

tisms. When macadamized roads were introduced a star of 

made, radiating from London; they brought the life of the c

to London, sapping it for the growth of London. When the 

were constructed the main lines formed a star from London

expresses run up and down, feeding London, milking the 

Presently the state also must needs step in to accentuate the ce

tendency by establishing such services as the parcel post. Th

come about that the market towns for a hundred miles ar

degraded in respect of the variety of their life. 

Not in four out five cases does the Londoner profit in any t

from the change, tie lives in a suburb; he is shot through a t

office room in the City, and then shot back to his bedroo

suburb; only on Saturdays and Sundays has he time for comm

and then he amuses himself with neighbors who are tied t

nothing essential. In the great majority of cases he never co

living contact with a large and trained mind except through th

page: for him, as for the industrial worker in the country, h

ideas is detached from his responsible life, and both suffer 

in consequence. 

Centralization, however, is only one form of a more genera

which I would call the segregation of social and economic 

owing to the national fatalism in the presence of the Going 

You have allowed industrial life to crowd certain districts and 

other districts poor. I grant that in the past that was inevitable 

extent owing to the need of generating power near the colli

not to the extent that has occurred. By proper control you co

substituted a "village region," with a community dependen

factory or group of small factories, wherein rich and poor

and men, might have been held together in a neighborly re

relationship; but you have allowed instead the East and Wes

grow up in your great cities. Surely the essential characterist

statesmanship is foresight, the prevention of social disease

method for a century past has been to drift, and when things be

135 
buywe must use plain words, for the element of competi

the colleges exists--the best young brains by means of s

open to national competition. In the middle of the last cen

large measure, abolished the system of close scholarships, 

particular schools to particular colleges; that was, in my 

far the healthier system. By social custom you add to you

number of other fortunate boys from well-to-do homes sc

the country. So you recruit your public schools and your 

Cambridge; from the beginning you lift your lads out of 

environment. From the universities many of them pass into a 

civil service, a centralized legal profession, and even a 

medical profession. In London they wait, eating out their h

their best years. A few of them come through and shine in 

unnaturally segregated competition of wits, and you compl

government by lawyers! The whole system results from his

mentum; when the Midlands, the East, and the South of En

all of England that counted, Oxford and Cambridge were loc

ties, and London was the natural market center of a single c

But in the past century the roads and the railways have 

metropolis to attract to itself the careers that were desti

inspiration of other countrysides. The natural place of an 

man is to be leading his oven people and helping them to 

burdens. Your exceptional brain is serving the nation best i

racy of its own particular soil. ~ 

One of the most serious difficulties in the way of the re

the balanced local community lies in the difference of dia

by the common people and the upper classes. In Englan

Norman Conquest our peasants talked English, but our knig

and our priests Latin, with the result that a knight felt hi

at home with a knight from France than with his own peo

was it also with the priests. To-day there is a curious di

seems to me, in this respect, between the Scottish and Engli

~As a loyal son of Oxford who gratefully recognizes what he owes to his 

would not have her flourish less, but more in changing some of her lower funct

136 
of the highest tier of society send their sons for the most p

English public schools and English universities, whereas the 

of the Scottish churches, the advocates in the Scottish law co

the doctors and schoolmasters are trained in the main in 

universities, which are frequented by the sons of the shopke

artisans to a greater extent than in England. The result, as 

is that the Scottish aristocracy has been, to a greater degre

England, detached from the people. I do not blame them, for 

merely drifted in the grip of fate. It is said that a certain 

baronet, who had eight beautiful daughters approaching, some 

to the age of marriage, put them all on a coach and drove th

from Edinburgh to London, because all the young Scotsm

acquaintance who had money, or the wits to make money, ha

gone thither! In the end of the eighteenth century, and the b

of the nineteenth, Edinburgh was one of the lamps of Europe

own particular tinge of flame. To-day it is one more instan

futility of trying to separate the economic from the other a

• the life either of a nation or a province. 

Whether we reason downward from the freedom of nation

ward from the freedom of men, we come to the same con

The nation which is to be fraternal towards other nations, 

independent in an economic as in every other sense; it must 

keep a complete and balanced life. But it cannot be indepen

is broken into classes and interests which are for ever s

range themselves for fighting purposes with the equivalent cl

interests of other nations. Therefore you must base national org

on provincial communities. But if your province is to have any 

power of satisfying local aspirations it must, except for th

reservations, have its own complete and balanced life. That is 

what the real freedom of men requires scope for a full lif

137 
keeping that life complete and balanced. 

Provinces of complete life, of course, imply a federal 

not a mere decentralization which is contemplated, but dec

of the different social functions to the same local units. U

that is the tendency at the present time, in the Anglo-Sax

regard to the administration of government. The United Sta

Australia, and South Africa are all, in greater or less deg

and in Britain we seem to be not very far from becoming 

Irish question blocks the way, but it is intrinsically a sm

and we ought not to allow the quarrels of four million peopl

permanently the organic remedy of the ills of more than fo

A division of England into northern and southern prov

probably be needed in order to remove the fact of the p

partner, but from the point of View here taken that divisi

itself be a good thing. To achieve the object in view it 

however, be enough to give to your provinces merely "gas 

powers; they must be so involved in the economic life of t

that both masters and men will base their organizations on th

areas. If every unit of society--the nation, the province, th

were entitled, nay, were desired, to take appropriate steps 

the completeness and balance of its life, the need for the wid

organization of any class or interest, save for informativ

would gradually cease to be urgent. 

Consider the life of trees. In the forests of nature co

severe, and no tree attains to the full and balanced growth 

is capable. The trees of the middle forest struggle upward 

those of the border spread outward onesidedly; and in the 

are all manner of rottenness and parasitism. If, as in Dan

there were spirits imprisoned in the trees, one might imag

league of the foliage against the roots for sending up too m

and a forest league of the roots against the foliage for ke

the sweet light and air. But they would be futile leagues, b

tree consists of roots and foliage. The landscape gardener of 

with his organic remedies, can alone achieve the perfec

138 
which leap from branch to branch, have suffered the elusiv

tional exploiters and profiteers of the forest. 

This parable of the gardener contains also the idea that the 

of growth and control are separate and should be kept separ

officials of the state become socialistic, and try to initiate 

merely assuring growth, they become less capable of their o

function, which is criticism---understanding and sympatheti

criticism. The temper of criticism is incompatible with ar

formative enthusiasm. We have had too little criticism based 

watchfulness for the signs of unbalance in growth. The Brit

of Trade under the regime of laissez-faire was so penetrate

advisability of doing nothing, that it had no appreciable mac

even watching what the Going Concern was doing. Federal a

of every description, whether of the League of Nations or th

should consist essentially of defensive and of outlook departm

the watching or outlook departments should issue warnings, 

those warnings, until, thus enlightened, public opinion in the 

concerned intervenes while there isyet time to prevent some 

outgrowth of the Going Concern from fatally upsetting the eq

of the world or of the nation. In the United States the care of a

is, I believe, left to the separate states, but the Federal B

Agriculture it is which issues warnings of the need of c

the natural resources of the country. In Rome we already 

International Agricultural Institute which collects the statist

world harvests, and seeks to steady markets and prices by tim

ings; it has rendered considerable service to the Allies during 

I have no doubt that I shall be told by practical men that 

of complete and balanced economic growth in each locality i

to the whole tendency of the age, and is, in fact, archaic. 

told that you can only get a great and cheap production by th

of world organization and local specialization. I admit that s

present tendency, and that it may give you maximum mater

for a while. But if you breed animals, does there not come a t

you have gone as far as you can inbreeding, and must you 

resort again to cross-breeding? 

139 
that you will get a continuous supply of fruitful brains, a

because intellectually active workers? All specialization co

seeds of death; the most daring army must, at times, wait for 

columns to come up. In the growth of brains and contentment 

far more subtle is involved than any technical education 

housing. Is it quite certain that at the end of a century of ref

rich as quickly as possible, we should not have been far r

we are? 

I know that in this war you have set your controllers

international committees of controllers, to manage vast trad

concerns, and that they have not let us starve. But in the 

have very rightly been usingyour capital of intellect and e

Those men are the men that they are because they have built 

businesses with the fear of bankruptcy ever before them; 

grown up with their business lives always in their hands. Grea

tions, whether of combines or government services, in that t

a sheltered life, will not give you unlimited crops of such 

You urge that credit and insurance must have broad ba

agree: their function is to average away local deficiencies 

varying seasons and the varying success of undertakings. 

none the less recognize that they present the danger of 

control of the world. Your League of Nations may have to 

in hand, lest we be ruled by one only of the "interests" 

There are two courses open to us in regard to them: to co

federally, or to fight them and balance them by the internatio

zation of other "interests." The federal authority, whether of 

or the nation, is constituted of communities of complete gr

cannot, from its nature, aspire to empire, since it consists e

of balanced humanity. But great specialist organizations, 

experts, will inevitably contend for the upper hand, and t

must end in the rule of one or other type of expert. This is e

it is unbalanced. 

140 
no more desert shores on which the jetsam of incomple

can rest undisturbed? Let us attempt logical, symmetrical th

practical, cautious action, because we have to do with a mig

Concern. If you stop it, or even slow down its running, it w

you relentlessly. If you let it run without guidance, it wil

over the cataract again. You cannot guide it by setting up m

and by mending those fences if it breaks them down, be

Going Concern consists of hundreds of millions of human b

are "pursuing" happiness, and they will swarm over all y

like an army of ants. You can only guide humanity by the 

of ideals. That is why Christianity wins on, after nineteen 

through all the impediments set up by criticism of its c

its miracles. 

What we need, in my belief, to guide our reconstruction is a 

tion of statesmanship in favor of the balanced nation, and th

province, sinning neither with the free-trader nor the prote

we persist for a generation or two, with such an ideal bef

may gradually change the Going Concern, so that we shall hav

nations and fraternal provinces, instead of warring, organize

ever striving to extend their limits to the international field 

outflank opposing interests which still lag on the merely nati

Remember how that curious negative ideal of laissez-faire d

a couple of generations gradually assimilate the whole textur

society, so that it has taken this world war to overthrow 

interests which grew up. 

At present, it seems to me, we are thinking out our reco

piecemeal, according to this and that detached ideal of th

philanthropist--housing, temperance, industrial conciliatio

rest of them. But if you build three hundred thousand new h

put them merely where they are "wanted," you may but 

again, though with heavier ballast. 

In the war we have gradually risen to the conception of 

141 
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars 

But in ourselves, that we are underlings." 

142 
POSTSCRIPT 

S ince the writing of this book I have fought a Parl

election in Scotland, with a Liberal and a Socialist for 

nents. Of Liberalism there is nothing just now to b

said; a sturdy individualism will always be one of the el

character in our British race, whatever the fate of the poli

which was its nineteenth-century expression. But the ever

propaganda of Socialism is at present in a very significant ph

bureaucratic Socialism has been criticized by events of late

we know of the working of dominant officialdom during th

less likely, I think, are we to desire it for a permanent m

Socialist opponent was out to take away property in land and 

interest on capital; in other words, he would begin with a co

revolution; but that was not of the essence of his position. Hi

ers young men with a burning faith in their eyes, though oft

the full power of expressing their argument--were, at alm

meeting, boldly defensive of the Russian Bolsheviks. Ther

sides to Bolshevism; there is the mere violence and tran

Jacobin, upthrown at a certain stage of most great revolu

there is the "syndicalist" idealism. To do them justice it is 

aspect of Bolshevism which really attracts and holds my youn

antagonists. The Bolsheviks are in revolt against a Parliam

based on local communities or, as they would put it, on so m

pyramids each with its capitalist at the top. Their ideal is of a 

of vocational soviets or unions---soviets of workmen, of pea

if you will, of professional men. Therefore the Bolshevik

Petrograd and Berlin, have consistently opposed the meeting 

143 
and finally of one section of the proletariat against the other s

already the Russian town-workers are at issue with the Russian 

The end could only be world-anarchy or a world-tyranny. 

Thus I come back to the quiet of my library with the c

that what I have written is pertinent to the hot currents of r

this great crisis of humanity. Our old English conception of t

of Commons or Communities, the American conception of th

tion of States and Provinces, and the new ideal of the League o

are all of them opposed to the policies cast in the tyrannical 

East Europe and the Heartland, whether dynastic or Bolshevi

be the case that Bolshevik tyranny is an extreme reaction from 

tyranny, but it is none the less true that the Russian, Prus

Hungarian plains, with their widespread uniformity of social c

are favorable alike to the march of militarism and to the pr

of syndicalism. Against this two-headed eagle of land-power 

emers and the islanders must struggle. Even in their own p

and islands modem methods of communication are so levelin

barriers that organization by interests constitutes a real thre

Heartland, where physical contrasts are few, it is only with 

a conscious ideal, shaping political life in the direction of nati

that we shall be able to entrench true freedom. If only as a 

"penetrating" this dangerous Heartland, the oceanic peop

strive to root ever more firmly their own organization by 

each locality with as complete and balanced a life of its own a

stances may permit of. The effort must go downward thr

provinces to the cities. East Ends and West Ends divide our c

castes; at whatever sacrifice we must tone away such contr

countryside, in which the successful leaders visibly serve the 

of their weaker brethren, must be our ideal. 

There was a time when a man addressed his" friends and nei

We still have our friends, but too often they are scattered ove

and belong to our own caste in society. Or, if they happen t

IThe vocational soviet of the peasants is only incidentally local; it is not local 

sense of combining various local interest into a community. 

144 
and Christian. So was it not either in fourteenth-century Fl

Periclean Athens, or Elizabethan England. 

With too many of us, in our urban and suburban civiliz

grand old word neighbor has fallen almost into desuetude

neighborliness that the world to-day calls aloud, and for a 

gad ever about--merely because of modem opportunities for 

cation. Let us recover possession of ourselves, lest we becom

slaves of the world's geography, exploited by materialistic o

Neighborliness or fraternal duty to those who are our fellow

is the only sure foundation of a happy citizenship. Its con

extend upward from the city through the province to the n

to the world League of Nations. It is the cure alike of the sl

the poor and of the boredom of the rich, and of war betwe

and war between nations. 

145 
NOTE ON AN INCIDENT AT THE QUAI D'ORSAY 

25th JANUARY, 1919 

T he representatives of the Allied Nations were assemb

second plenary session of their Conference at Paris. A 

was before them to appoint committees for the purpo

porting on the proposed League of Nations and other ma

constitution of the committees, giving two members to each o

Great Powers (United States, British Empire, France, Italy, Ja

five members to the Smaller Powers collectively, had be

by the Council of Ten, representing only the Great Powers

constitution was now brought up at the plenary session for end

There was not unnaturally discontentment among the Smalle

Sir Robert Borden, on behalf of Canada, asked by whom and 

authority the constitution of the committees had been dec

question should have been submitted to the Conference. The 

of Belgium, Brazil, Serbia, Greece, Portugal, Czecho-Slovaki

nia, Siam, and China rose in turn to claim special representatio

several countries. Then M. Clemenceau interposed from his pr

chair, where he sat between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lloyd Ge

pointed out that at the cessation of hostilities, the Great Po

twelve million men on the field of battle; that they might hav

the future of the world on their own initiative; but that, in

the new ideals, they had invited the Smaller Powers to co-op

them. The resolution was passed, nemine eontradicente, with

ation. 

Thus the rule of the world still rests upon force, notwit

the juridical assumption of equality between sovereign states

great or small. The theme of this book, that we must base our 

League on realities, if we would have it last, holds good. 

147 
bid for predominance on the part of one or two of them. N

new Germany and a new Russia will some day increase them 

Perhaps the Smaller Powers, taking note of the naked fact 

exposed by this incident, will set about federating among t

A Scandinavian group, a group of the Middle Tier of E

(Poland to Jugo-Slavia), and a Spanish South American gr

also including Brazil) may all, perhaps, be attainable. In an

League should do service in bringing the opinion of mankind 

the just revision of obsolescent treaties before they become 

misfits. But let us be rid of cant: Democracy must reckon wi

148 
Additional Papers 

149 
The following of Mackinders papers were reprinted f

listed sources: 

"The Scope and Methods of Geography," Proceedings of 

Geographical Society. Vol.9 (1887), pp. 141-60. 

"The Geographical Pivot of History," Geographical Journ

(1904), pp. 421-37. 

"The Round World and the Winning of the Peace." Forei

Vol.21 (July 1943), pp. 595-605. 

150 
ON THE SCOPE AND METHODS OF GEOGRAPHY I 

W hat is geography? This seems a strange question 

to a Geographical Society, yet there are at least tw

why it should be answered, and answered now. 

place geographers have been active of late in pressing the 

their science to a more honoured position in the curricul

schools and Universities. The world, and especially the teach

replies with the question, "What is geography?" There is 

irony in the tone. The educational battle now being fough

on the answer which can be given to this question, Can geo

rendered a discipline instead of a mere body of informa

is but a rider on the larger question of the scope and m

our science. 

The other reason for now pressing this matter on your no

from within. For half a century several societies, and most 

own, have been active in promoting the exploration of the w

natural result is that we are now near the end of the ro

discoveries. The Polar regions are the only large blanks rem

our maps. A Stanley can never again reveal a Congo to the 

world. For a time good work will be done in New Guinea, 

in Central Asia, and along the boundaries of the frozen regi

time, a Greely will now and again receive the old ringing 

and will prove that it is not heroes that are wanting. But 

adventure grow fewer and fewer, as their place is more and m

by the details of Ordinance Surveys, even Fellows of Ge

Societies will despondently ask, "What is geography?" 

It is needless to say that this paper would not be written 

belief that the Royal Geographical Society must shortly 

IThis and the following papers, including footnotes and maps, are reprinted with

151 
to some extent, at any rate, open. A discussion of the quest

present moment will probably the further incidental advantage 

us new weapons in our educational struggle. 

The first inquiry to which we must turn our attention 

geography one, or is it several subjects? More precisely, Ar

and political geography two stages of one investigation, o

separate subjects to be studied by different methods, the one an 

of geology, the other of history? Great prominence has rece

given to this question by the President of the Geographical 

the British Association. In his address at Birmingham he 

very definite position. He said,-- 

"It is difficult to reconcile the amalgamation of what may 

ered 'scientific' geography with history. One is as thoroug

from the other as geology is from astronomy." 

It is with great reluctance and diffidence that I venture 

so justly esteemed an authority as Sir Frederick Goldsmid. I d

because it is my firm conviction that the position taken u

mingham is fatal to the best prospects of geography. I tak

moreover, of Sir Frederick Goldsmid's declaration that he is q

to abandon the conclusion at which he has arrived, before the a

of sounder reason. In so difficult a discussion it would be 

presumptuous were I to assume that mine are arguments o

reason. I put them forward only because so far as I can see, 

not been met and overthrown in the address in question. Pe

Frederick Goldsmid has but expressed the vague views of th

current in most men's minds. This is the more probable, b

his own statement he has used arguments going to suppo

opposed to that which he himself formulates. 2 

On the same page as that from which our quotation is take

2Sir Frederick Goldsmid has written a very courteous answer to this paragrap

gather that I have not attached the meaning to his words which he intended. For th

I leave the paragraph standing, however, as I believe that mine is not an unnatura

attach to the words. They might easily be quoted against the geographers, and with 

because they come from a known friend of geography. 

152 
geography that it shall impart to our future statesmen a f

of "geographical conditions." So far no exception can be t

views. But he seems to imaging that the "full grasp" of which 

may be obtained from what remains after "physical and 

geography have been eliminated. 

Before proceeding further, it will be to see whether we ca

on our definition with advantage. Physiology would answ

definition of the science which traces the interaction of m

environment. It is the function of physiology, of physics, and 

try to trace the action of forces irrespective for the most part 

locality. It is especially characteristic of geography that it 

influence of locality, that is, of environment varying locally

it does not do this it is merely physiography, and the essential t

ical element has been omitted. I propose therefore to define 

as the science whose main function is to trace the interacti

in society and so much of his environment as varies locall

Before the interaction can be considered, the elements 

to interact must be analyzed. One of these elements' is th

environment, and the analysis of this is, I hold, the function o

geography. Thus we are driven to a position in direct anta

current notions. We hold that no rational political geograph

which is not built upon and subsequent to physical geograp

present moment, we are suffering under the effects of an 

political geography, one, that is, whose main function is n

causal relations, and which must therefore remain a body 

data to be committed to memory. Such a geography can n

3For another definition from a rather different standpoint see my speech i

discussion "it is the science of distribution, the science, that is, which traces th

of things in general on the earth's surface". 

aThe other element is, of course, man in society. The analysis of this will b

that of the environment. It may best be considered on the lines of Bagehot's 'Physic

The communities of men should be looked on as units in the struggle for exist

less favoured by their several environments. See page 169 for definition of 

and "environment." 

153 
analysis than that furnished by physical geography? In repl

up our lowest position. Such analyses have been tried, and 

found wanting. It is practically easier to learn the profoun

of science, raising and satisfying as it does at every point th

which drive us for ever to ask the question "why?" than to 

sufficient amount of information from the name-lists of the 

books or the descriptions of so-called descriptive geography

phy, which is geography with the "reasons why" eliminated

unanimously rejected both by masters and pupils. 

There are other reasons for out position of even higher i

than practical convenience in teaching. I will mention three

is this. If you learn what the old geographers term "the 

features" in their causal relations, advance becomes ever 

easier. New facts fit in an orderly way into the general sche

throw a new light on to all previously obtained knowledge

knowledge in turn illuminates them from many points. When, 

the method of description has been adopted, and still mo

enumeration each additional fact adds an ever-increasing a

the burden to be borne by the memory. It is like throwin

pebble on to a heap of gravel. It is like learning mathematics 

to remember formulae instead of grasping principles. 

Our second reason is shortly this. A superficial analysis i

lead into error: on the one hand by failing to go beneath the s

similarity of things essentially differing; on the other hand 

to detect the essential similarity of things superficially unlik

The third reason is this. The mind which has vividly grasp

true relations the factors of the environment is likely to be 

the suggestion of new relations between the environment 

Even if there be no design of advancing the science, the same c

will lead to a rapid, a vivid, and therefore a lasting appreciat

relations which have been detected by others. 

It will be here to pause and to sum up our position in 

of propositions. 

(1) It is agreed that the function of political geography is 

154 
(4) Nothing else can adequately perform this function. 

Because--- 

No other analysis can exhibit the facts in their causal 

and in their true perspective. 

Therefore--- 

No other analysis will-- 

firstly, serve the teacher as a discipline; 

secondly, attract the higher minds among the pup

thirdly, economise the limited power of memory; 

fourthly, be equally trustworthy; and 

fifthly, be equally suggestive. 

Here we must expect the observation that, granting the de

of what we ask, we are none the less asking what is imposs

reply will be that it has not been tried. Physical geography ha

been undertaken by those already burdened with geology, 

geography by those laden with history. We have yet to see 

who, taking up the central, the geographical position, shall loo

on such parts of science and such parts of history as are pe

his inquiry. Knowledge is, after all, one, but the extreme s

of the present day seems to hide the fact from a certain class 

The more we specialise the more room and the more necessit

for students whose constant aim it shall be to bring out the 

of the special subjects. One of the greatest of all gaps lies be

natural sciences and the study of humanity. It is the duty of th

pher to build one bridge over an abyss which in the opinion 

is upsetting the equilibrium of our culture. Lop off eithe

geography and you maim it in its noblest part. 

In speaking thus we are not blind to the necessity of s

within geography itself. If you would do original work in th

you must specialise. But for this purpose either physical or 

geography would be as unwieldy as the entire subject. Moreo

special subject need not fall entirely within the realm of one 

155 
on the teaching and the grasping of geography as a whole

This question of possibility leads us naturally into an in

the relations of geography to its neighbor sciences. We cann

than adopt Mr. Bryce's rough classification of the environm

we have the influences due to the configuration of the earth

secondly, those belonging to meteorology and climate; and 

products which a country offers to human industry. 

First, then, as to the configuration of the earth's surface

here a bone of contention between the geographers and the 

The latter hold that the causes which have determined the f

lithosphere are dealt with by their science, and that there 

room nor necessity for the physical geographer. The geog

in consequence damaged his science by refusing to include 

data any but the barest results of geology. The rivalry mu

known to all here present. It has been productive of nothi

to geography. Two sciences may have data in part identica

ought to be no bickering in consequence, for the data, thoug

are looked at from different points of view. They arc grouped 

Least of all should the geologist exhibit such weakness

step in his own department he is dependent on his scientifi

Palaeontology is the key to the relative age of strata, but it i

apart from biology. Some of the most difficult problems 

and chemistry lie within the realm of mineralogy, especia

stance, the causes and methods of metamorphism. The best 

find a common measure of geological and historical time 

Croll's astronomical interpretation of recurrent glacial ep

enough of this. The true distinction between geology and 

seems to me to lie in this: the geologist looks at the pres

may interpret the past; the geographer looks at the past th

interpret the present. This line has already been traced for 

of the greatest of the geologists. 

In his 'Text-book of Geology,' Dr. Archibald Geikie gives 

ing lucid determination of it: 5 

5Archibald Geikie, 'Text-book of Geology,' 1882, p. 910. 

156 
of the rocks, we may try to trace that of the surface itself, t

and vicissitudes of the mountains and plains, valleys and ravin

passes, and lake basins, which have been formed out of the ro

two inquiries traced backwards merge into each other, but the

more and more distinct as they are pursued towards later ti

obvious, for instance, that a mass of marine limestone which 

groups of valleys, presents two sharply contrasted pictures to 

Looked at from the side of its origin, the rock brings before 

bottom over which the relics of generations of a luxurian

calcareous fauna accumulated. We may be able to trace ever

mark with precision its organic contents, and to establish the z

succession of which these superimposed sea-bottoms are the 

But we may be quite unable to explain how such sea-formed l

came to stand as it now does, here towering into hills, and ther

into valleys. The rocks and their contents form one subject 

the history of their present scenery another." 

The same idea is endorsed by Professor Moseley in his l

"'The Scientific Aspects of Geographical Education." We 

following passage 6 from among many others in the same str

"Regarding physical geography as a part of geology to be 

from it:--The reason why such a separation should be effect

there is thus tbrmed and brought together for special treatment 

which is far more necessary and suitable for general educati

poses than the whole of geology itself, which will attract 

students and act as a lever for promoting the study of other 

of science as special studies, and certainly of geology itself. 

"The principal argument that is always brought against the e

ment of professorships of physical geography at the Universit

the subject is already covered by the professors of geology; but 

Geikie evidently does not take that view, and points out in 

already referred to, 'Geology is every day increasing in i

which is already too vast for the physical powers of even 

indefatigable teacher.' " 

6R. G. S. Educational,' 1886, p. 228, Professor Moscley. 

157 
to secure the representation of geography as a whole, be

apparent vagueness of its bounds and the attacks on all sid

it is in consequence liable, there may be a chance of su

attempt be made to press the claims of physical geograph

And again:--"Ought not physical geography to form p

liberal education as being a subject specially adapted for 

general learning, and as the only true basis on which can 

a knowledge of what is termed political geography?" 

Perhaps nowhere is the damage done to geography by 

which denies its unity better seen than in the case of physica

The subject has been abandoned to the geologists, and h

quence a geological bias. Phenomena such as volcanoes, 

and glaciers, have been grouped into chapters, irrespective o

in which they occur. From the geologist's point of view 

cient-he is looking at his Rosetta stone; the understan

individual hieroglyphics is of great importance, but the me

entire passage, the account of the event recorded, is, for 

of interpreting other records, unimportant. But such a sc

really physical geography, and Dr. Archibald Geikie tell

in his 'Elements of Physical Geography '~ that he is usin

as equivalent to physiography. True physical geography aim

us a causal description of the distribution of the features o

surface. The data must be regrouped on a topographical ba

venture to put the matter somewhat abruptly--Physiograp

given feature, "Why is it?" Topography, "Where is it

geography, "Why is it there?" Political geography, "How 

on man in society, and how does he react on it?" Geology a

riddle of the past does it help to solve?" Physiography 

ground to the geologist and the gcographer. The first four 

the realm of the geographer. The questions come in seq

may stop short of any one of them, but it is my contenti

cannot with advantage answer a later one unless you hav

'New edition, 1884, p.3. 

158 
The first is the undue prominence given to such subjects as v

and glaciers. To this my attention has been several times d

your Assistant-Secretary, Mr. Bates. It is perfectly natural 

written by geologists. Volcanoes and glaciers are phenome

leave most marked and characteristic traces behind them. T

ti'om a geological point of view they are most important, and a

of special study. But the result resembles a book on biolog

by a paleontologist. In it we should expect to find the snail's 

instance, described in the greatest detail, but to the comparativ

of the far more important soft parts within. 

My other illustration is a practical one, which must appe

experience of all thoughtful travellers. Let us say that you go 

up the Rhine: you must be strangely wanting in curiosity if y

ask yourself such questions as the followings--Why is it t

passing over many miles of flat land through which the Rhine m

almost on a level with the surrounding country, we come su

a part of its course in which it passes through a gorge? Wh

we reach Bingen, does that gorge still more suddenly cease, 

taken by a lake-like valley bounded by parallel ranges of mo

No ordinary physical geography that I have seen adequately 

such questions as these. If you happen to have a special know

the subject, you may know that if you look into the Journ

Geological Society ~ you will find a delightful paper on this s

Sir Andrew Ramsay. But this implies the time and opport

research among original authorities, and even then your rew

be slight. It is only a few isolated regions which have been so 

I will close this portion of the subject with a constructive 

I shall select a region familiar to all, that your attention may be 

trated on the method rather than the matter. Let us take the s

of England. The usual method of treating the geography o

region would be to describe from a physical point of view 

coast and then the surface. The capes and inlets of the one 

s1874. 

159 
rises no higher than to the rank of a good system of mn

for the physical portion, all the text-books agree in com

is, from my point of view, a fundamental error. They 

descriptions of the coast and the surface. This is fatal to th

tion in due perspective of the chain of causes and effects. T

of the surface and of the coast are alike the results of th

of two forces, the varying resistance of the rock strata and 

erosive powers of atmosphere and sea. The erosive pow

superficial or marginal, act on one and the same set of 

should there be a Flamborough Head? Why should there be 

Wold? They are but two edges of the rim of one and th

of uptilted chalk-strata. 

Let us try to construct a geography of South-eastern En

shall exhibit a continuous series of casual relations. Ima

over the land like a white table cloth over a table, a g

chalk. Let the sheet be creased with a few simple tblds, lik

laid by a careless hand. A line of furrow 9 runs down th

Reading, and then follows the Thames out to sea. A line of 

eastward through Salisbury Plain and then down the c

Weald. A second line of furrow follows the valley of th

its submarine continuations, the Solent and Spithead. F

second line of ridge is carried through the Isle of Purbeck 

detached member of the Isle of Wight. Imagine these ridges 

untouched by the erosive forces. The curves of the stra

parallel with the curves of the surface. The ridges would b

and broad. The furrows would be flat-bottomed and broad. 

Thames furrow would be characterised by increasing wi

vanced eastward. The slopes joining the furrow-bottom 

top would vary in steepness. It is not pretended that th

exhibited such a picture. The upheaving and the erosive 

always acted simultaneously. As with the Houses of Par

9Furrow and ridge are here used in the sense of syncline and anticline. They 

distinguished from valley and hill. The two arc often causally related, as I point 

but they are far from identical. 

160 
all that we require. 

The moulder's work is complete; the chisel must now be 

The powers of air and sea tear our cloth to tatters. But as th

cloth had been stiffened with starch as it lay creased on the 

furrows and ridges we have described have not fallen in. The

edges and ends project stiffly as hill ranges and capes. The 

bottoms, buried beneath the superincumbent clay, produce 

valley along the London and Hampshire basins. Into the sof

sea has eaten, producing the great inlet of the Thames mouth

narrower but more intricate sea-channels which extend fro

Harbour through the Solent to Spithead, and which ramify in

ampton Water and Portsmouth, Langstone, and Chichcster H

The upturned edge of the chalk-sheet produces the long rang

which, under the various names of Berkshire Downs, Chil

Gogmagog Hills, and East Anglian Heights, bounds the Kenne

basin to the north-west. The North and South Downs stand 

each other, the springs of an arch from which the key-stone 

removed. The same arch forms Salisbury Plain, and its eastwar

gation in the chalk uplands of Hampshire; but here the k

though damaged, has not been completely worn through. Bea

and the North and South Forelands are but the seaward proj

the Down ranges. The fact that the North Downs end not in 

promontory, like Beachy Head, but in a long line of cliff, the 

of which are marked by the North and South Forelands, may 

draw attention to a relation which frequently exists between 

of the surface and the dip of the strata. A few sentences 

mentioned the fact, that if our simple ridge and furrow syst

obtained, the slopes connecting the ridge-tops and the furrow

would vary in steepness. By remembering the position of a h

in the "restored" ruin, we shall remember not merely its 

but also the relative steepness of its two faces. One will be 

by the dipping strata, the other will be the escarpment where 

have been cut short. On the dip of the strata will depend v

whether when we have climbed the escarpment, we see in fr

161 
the Chilterns is continuous with the dip-slope which for

uplands of Norfolk. The dip is steep in the case of the Ch

in that of Norfolk. Similarly the Kentish uplands are a 

of the Hog's Back. The southern scarped faces differ but l

the northern dip-slope of the Hog's Back is steep, though 

tion in Kent is only gently inclined. This terminal expa

hill-ranges has been of great importance in English histo

seen presently. The expansions may be considered as d

the eastward widening of the Kennet-Thames basin. It wi

that the shores of the Thames estuary are on the whole 

the hill-ranges which mark the lips of the basin, the no

parallel with the curve traced by the hills from Hunstan

the Chilterns, the southern parallel with the straighter 

North Downs. 

The rivers of the district fall naturally into three class

have those which flow down the dip-slope of East Anglia

quence, they are numerous and roughly parallel. They do 

to form one large stream presenting a tree-like appearance 

Secondly, we have those which flow down the great furrow

and the Thames below Reading on the one hand, the Fr

submarine prolongation by the Solent and Spithead on th

many tributaries of the Thames are obvious, but the tree-l

of the Frome is not obvious unless its submarine continua

into account. Then the Frome, the Stour, the Avon, the Tes

and the Medina, would combine to form one great stream

mouth east of the Isle of Wight. Such a river may very pr

actually existed. Lastly, there are the streams which pas

right through the chalk ranges, the Thames above Read

various small rivers of the Weald. This circumstance is inc

ble, unless we suppose that the strata arches were former

Then these streams would flow down the even slope o

following the ordinary hydrostatic laws. The only promi

of our area which would require a special explanation ap

162 
y py 

conquerors into "Ventae." They were the chalk uplands w

we were familiar, the arch-top of Salisbury Plain and Ham

the terminal expansions of the chalk ranges in East Anglia 

In East Anglia was Venta Icenorum; in Kent and Canter

still have relics of another Gwent. The first syllable of W

completes the triplet. In later, but still early times, they we

nests of the three races which composed the German host. T

settled in Norfolk and Suffolk, the Jutes in Kent, the Saxons 

shire. In still later England, Winchester, Canterbury, and Nor

among the chief of mediaeval cites. To this day the isolati

of these regions at least has left its traces in the marked char

of their populations. The Fens cut off Norfolk, the Weald f

in Kent. Their people have taken distinct positions in our hi

"men of Norfolk" and the "men of Kent" have been of a r

rebellious disposition. 

There were four great cities in the east and south; we have 

three. The fourth was London. Geographical conditions h

mined the greatness of the metropolis. The map will make 

once, that the Fens and the Weald would compel the lines of 

cation from Norfolk and Kent on the one hand, and the rest o

on the other to pass in the general direction of London. Kent l

to the Continent, and hence Watling Street was not merely th

road, but also the road to Flanders. Where the hills narrow th

marshes most there is the natural crossing of Watling Str

ferry, then a bridge. This point lies between Tower Hill and t

of Dulwich and Sydenham. Bermondsey, the isle of Bermo

dry spot, rising like a stepping-stone from among the su

marshes. The existence of solid ground on the immediate ba

1°1 have omitted in this sketch to account for Leith Hill and the Forest Ran

They, too, depend on the flexure of the rocks; but to explain their cause would tak

space in a paper which purports only to indicate methods, and not to exhaust its 

l lSo J.R. Green would have it, 'Making of England,'1882, p.9. But Isaac Taylo

from Cenn, a Gadhelic form of the Cymric Pen--a head, a projectiorv

Places,' 1885, p.148. 

12Venta Belgarum. 

163 
necessary meeting-point of river and sea traffic. Even mo

with meaning is the position of the Thames mouth relat

of the Scheldt. It determines the linked greatness of Lond

werp, and also much of the Continental policy of England. 

causes conspire to maintain the greatness of London. Thi

be marked. It is the secret of its persistent growth from 

times. The importance of a given geographical feature var

degree of man's civilisation. A city which depends on o

advantage may fall at any moment. A single mechanical di

effect the change..3 

So much for the cities. Lastly as to the political division

two types of political divisions, natural and arbitrary. T

presented by the old division of France into provinces and 

tionary division into departments will serve to indicate the 

The one is the result of an unconscious process, such as t

of smaller states to a larger state. The other is the product 

legislation. In England we have the two kinds side by 

midlands we have arbitrary divisions, counties named afte

towns, and supposed to have originated from the partition 

In the east and south, on the other hand, the counties ar

growth, and bear names indicating their distinct origin. In 

arbitrary divisions the frontiers are also likely to be ar

frontiers of natural divisions will usually be natural, and 

two kinds. Immigrants spread from a centre, either unti

physical obstacles or until they meet with the oppositi

centrifugal settlements. In the region we are dealing with w

excellent examples of this last. The inhabitants of Surrey

Sussex would establish themselves on the chalk hills and u

then push slowly into the forest until their advanced guard

~3In this account of the "greatness" of London I have not indicated the ful

Tower Hill. The "dun" or hill-fort no doubt decided the precise locality of L

causes, as given above, have determined its greatness. 

I4Consider J.R. Green, "Conquest of England," 1883, p. 141, note. But comp

"Words and Places," 1885, p. 179. 

164 
been filled up. Take again the region of the Fens. Five coun

tongues into these marshes. 

Time forbids our going further into this subject. The bro

are these. From a consideration of the folding of the chalk 

hardness as compared with the strata above and below it

demonstrated the causes of the two great promontories, the 

inlets, and the three great upland openings which have determ

positions, the number, and the importance of the chief cities 

sions of South-eastern England. The same processes of reason

be continued to any required degree of detail. The geograph

other region might be treated in a similar way. Further, hav

mastered the few simple geological ideas involved, a graphic an

conception of a land may be conveyed in a few sentences. T

required to grasp the first application of the method may b

than that called for by the older methods. Its beauty lies in 

that every fresh conquest gives increased ease of acquisition

We will sum up our results bearing on the relation of g

geography in the form of propositions:-- 

1. It is essential to know the form of the lithosphere. 

2. This can only be accurately and vividly remembered by 

the causes which have determined it. 

3. One of these causes is the relative hardness and arrang

the rocks. 

4. But no geological data or reasoning must be admitted 

be pertinent to the geographical argument. It must help 

the question, "Why is a given feature where it is?" 

Mr. Bryce's two remaining classes of environment factor

less remark. The distinction between meteorology and geogra

be a practical one. So much of meteorology, and it is much

with weather-forecasting cannot be required by the geographer

or recurrent climatic conditions alone come within his ken. E

he must be content very often to adopt the results of 

ology as data, just as meteorology itself accepts the results o

165 
gpg

are merely dabblers in all the sciences. It is our contention 

phy has a separate sphere of work. Its data may overlap th

sciences, but its function is to point out certain new relatio

those data. Geography must be a continuous argument, an

whether a given point is to be included or not must be 

pertinent to the main line of argument? How far digressio

view of proving data are allowable must of course be 

question. As a rule they should be excluded if it is the fun

other science to prove them. 

Mr. Bryce's last category includes the production of a 

distribution of minerals is obviously incidental to the roc

and we need refer to it only to give another tap to the na

we have been hammering previously. As regards the dis

animals and plants, we must apply the test to which we ref

last paragraph:--How far is it pertinent to the main line of g

argument? So far as the animals and plants in question form a

ble factor in man's environment, so far their distribution is 

nent. So far also as that distribution gives evidence of g

changes, such as the separation of islands from continents or 

of the snow-line, so far it is also pertinent. But the study of t

tion of animals and plants in detail and as an aid to the un

of the evolution of those beings, is in no sense a part of ge

is a part of zoology or botany, for the proper study of which a 

study of geography is necessary. 

The truth of the matter is that the bounds of all the sc

naturally be compromises. Knowledge, as we have said be

Its division into subjects is a concession to human weakness

example of this we will deal with the relation of geography 

In their elementary stages they must obviously go hand 

their higher stages they diverge. The historian finds full oc

the critical and comparative study of original documents. He 

15Vol. ii. pp. 118-127, and ed. 

166 
, pg 

toric" history. John Richard Green's 'Making of England' 

a deduction from geographical conditions of what must have 

course of history. 

It remains that I should set out what I conceive to be the 

of geographical argument. I will do this in two stages. The 

be general, such as might be gathered from the syllabus of a 

course of lectures or from the table of contents at the begin

text-book. The second will be a special application of this to th

of a definite problem--the reasons why Delhi and Calcutta sh

been respectively the old and the new capitals of India. 

We presuppose a knowledge of physiography. We would 

from the idea of a landless glove, and build up a concepti

earth on the analogy of mechanics. First, the laws of Ne

demonstrated in their ideal simplicity on the hypothesis of 

rigidity. It is not until these are fixed in the mind that the cou

tendencies of elasticity and friction are introduced. So would 

the study of geography. Imagine our globe in a landless 

composed that is of three concentric spheroids--atmospher

sphere, and lithosphere. Two great world-wide forces wo

action - the sun's heat and the earth's rotation on its axis. O

the tradewind system would have unimpeded sway. Next intr

third set of world-wide forces the inclination of the earth

the plane of its orbit and the revolution of the earth round the 

result would be an annual march from tropic to tropic of the c

separating the trades. The fourth and last of the causes which 

termed world-wide would be the secular variation in the ell

the earth's orbit and in the obliquity of its axis. This would 

similar variations in the annual march and in the intensity of 

wind system. 

Thus far we have steered clear of longitudinal variations. 

latitude, the altitude, the season of year, and the year in th

period, and the climatic conditions are deductible from very 

Now we abandon our primary hypothesis. Conceive the wor

167 
gyppy 

the way of the world-currents. They may be compared t

in the bed of a rapid stream on which the currents impi

diverted. They either leap over them or are split upon them. 

mechanical action is well seen in the splitting of the Southem 

Drift on Cape San Roque. Cape San Roque has a distinct 

the clinate of England. The "leaping-over" action is visibl

of winds rising over mountain-chains, and as a consequen

their slopes with moisture. But, in addition to the mecha

are thermal causes of variation, due mainly to the differ

heats of land and water--hence the monsoons. The lie 

wrinkles has a special meaning. Were the continents exten

west instead of in three great bands across the Equator, cli

be approximately indexed by latitude. 

Thus may we steadily progress in the analysis of the wor

Conceive the world as landless, and you will see the moto

air and water circulation. Replace your conception by one o

world, and you will grasp how by mechanical obstruction 

irregularity your simple currents are differentiated into 

almost infinite but still orderly complexity. But we mus

stage further. The form of the lithosphere is not fixed. Th

is still in progress. Old wrinkles are raised and new wri

into existence. As they rise their destruction commences. T

ever work at the removal of the obstacles which obstruct t

They tend to achieve the ideal simplicity of circulation. Thus 

of the earth's surface are constantly changing. Their prec

determined by their past history as well as by their present 

Recent changes are the subject of one of the most fascinat

in geography. Plains are built by the accumulation ofd6bris

give birth to islands. The evidence is drawn from a hundre

from the lines of migration of birds, the distribution of ani

depths of the neighbouring seas. 

Each successive chapter postulates what has gone befo

quence of argument is unbroken. From the position of th

168 
of the world into natural regions based on vegetation. ! a

referring to the distribution of botanical species, but to that o

types of what may be called the vegetable clothing of the w

polar and tropical deserts, the terperate and tropical fores

regions which may be grouped together as grass-plains. 

Passing now to the second stage of the investigation, it w

to make use of two technical terms. "An environment" i

region. The smaller the area included the greater tends to t

of conditions uniform or nearly uniform throughout the are

have environments of different orders, whose extension and 

to borrow a logical phrase, vary inversely. So with commu

community" is a group of men having certain characteristi

mon. The smaller the community, the greater tends to be t

of common characteristics. Communities are of different ord

nations, provinces, towns---the last two expressions used in 

of corporate groups of men. By the use of these two term

can be given to such discussions as the effects of exposing tw

nities to one environment, and one community to two env

For instance, this---How have geographical conditions differe

English race in the three environments, Britain, America, and 

Everywhere political questions will depend on the res

physical inquiry. Certain conditions of climate and soil are 

the aggregation of dense populations. A certain density of 

seems necessary to the development of civilisation. In the li

principles would be discussed such problems as the contra

the ancient upland civilisations of the New World, Peru an

and the ancient lowland civilisations of the Old World, 

Babylon. Again, comparatively undisturbed strata usually un

p!ains, and wide plains seem specially favourable to the de

of homogeneous races, like the Russians and the Chinese. 

the distribution of animal, vegetable and mineral product

much to determine the local characteristics of civilisation. C

this respect the series presented by the Old World, the N

and Australia in the matter of comparative wealth in cereals 

of burden. 

169 
of artificial lighting has rendered possible the existence 

community at St. Petersburg. The discovery of the Cape rou

and of the new World led to the fall of Venice. The invent

steam engine and the electric telegraph have rendered possibl

size of modern states. We might multiply such instances gr

might group them into categories, but our object today is 

indicate the possibilities of the subject. One thing, howe

always be borne in mind. The course of history at a given 

whether in politics, society, or any other sphere of human a

the product not only of environment but also of the momentum 

in the past. The fact that man is mainly a creature of h

be recognised. The Englishman, for instance will put up w

anomalies until they become nuisances of a certain degree of 

The influence of this tendency must always be kept in mind 

phy. Milford Haven, in the present state of things, offers f

physical advantages than Liverpool for the American trade

improbable that Liverpool will have to give way to Milford 

any rate in the immediate future. It is a case of vis inertiae

We propose passing now to the special illustration which 

promised. We will start from the fountain-head. From the 

and the earth's rotation we demonstrate the trade-wind syst

the influence of that heat on the vast mass of Asia we d

monsoon variation of the system. Within the monsoon area are 

some seven hundred out of the eight hundred millions of A

athwart the south-west monsoon extends the Himalaya. The 

of the Indian Ocean in consequence deluges its southern f

the full importance of the direction of the mountain-chain i

out. The rains have washed down from the mountains the d6b

forms the fertile plain at their base. Hence, along the southe

the Himalaya we have a belt of country possessing the con

climate and soil needed to sustain a large population. In effe

two-fifths of the population of the entire peninsula concentra

provinces of Bengal, the North-west and the Punjab, altho

three provinces have but little more than one-sixth the area. 

170 
development of civilisation, density of population, and ease 

nication. 

A wealthy civilised community is a region tempting to the 

Now conquerors are of two kinds land-wolves and sea-wo

would these respectively gain access to their prey in the Gang

Consider first the landward frontier of India. On the nor

Himalaya is practically impassable to a host. t6 On the no

the Sulaiman range, pierced by many passes. From the Irani

of which this range is the boundary wall have swept down 

waves of conquerors. But Within the mountain line is a far mor

obstacle, the Thar or great Indian desert, with its continuatio

of Katch. This barrier extends parallel to the Sulaiman Moun

the sea almost to the Himalaya. Between the desert and the 

Himalaya the fertile belt is narrowest. Through that gate 

whoever would gain access to the Ganges valley. Alexander 

to its entrance. When he swerved to the right and followed 

India was saved. Close to the eastern end of the pass is Delh

at the head of the Jumna-Ganges navigation, the place of tra

from land to water carriage. It is therefore a natural centre of 

It is also the natural base of operations for the Asiatic con

left flanked by the mountains, his right by the desert, h

communications secure to the rear. The strategic importa

region has not escaped the British. Here is Simla, the summ

of India. Here also the army cantonments are most thickly s

are the fields of many battles. So much for Delhi. Now fo

From the sea India is singularly inaccessible. The easter

beaten by a heavy surf. We have had to construct a harbour 

at great expense. The western coast has many good harbo

its rear rises the steep slope of the Western Ghats. Drench

monsoon, they are densely clothed with forests, which to th

the abode of some of the most savage races of the wor

Bombay railways have now been carried over the mountain

16Only one exception is recorded by history. A Chinese army once succeed

Nepaul. 

171 
themselves at Calcutta. It is the place of junction of river 

shipping, and therefore a commercial centre. It is also the nat

of operations for the conquerors from over the sea. From it 

extended their influence far and wide. The old presidencies o

and Madras have each been succeeded by a single province

Presidence of Bengal has begotten Bengal, the North-west, th

and the Central Provinces; we might also add Assam and Burm

to sum up, at the two ends of the fertile belt are the two 

India--the Khaibar Pass and the Hoogly. Along that belt 

highway is the Jumna-Ganges. At either end of the river n

stands a strategical and commercial capital, Delhi on the o

Calcutta j8 on the other. 

Thus we complete our survey &the methods and scope of ge

I believe that on lines such as I have sketched a geography 

worked out which shall satisfy at once the practical require

the statesman and the merchant, the theoretical requiremen

historian and the scientist, and the intellectual requiremen

teacher. Its inherent breadth and many-sidedness should be c

its chief merit. At the same time We have to recognise that 

the very qualities which will render it "suspect" to an age of sp

It would be a standing protest against the disintegration &cul

which we are threatened. In the days of our fathers the ancien

were the common element in the culture of all men, a ground 

the specialists could meet. The world is changing, and it wo

that the classics are also becoming a speciality. Whether we 

turn which things have taken or whether we rejoice at it, it i

our duty to find a substitute. To me it seems that geography 

some of the requisite qualities. To the practical man, whethe

at distinction in the State or at the amassing of wealth, it is a 

invaluable information; to the student it is a stimulating ba

J7Our earliest possession. We had factories at Surat and at Fort George somew

t8Calcutta---Kali Katta--~he village of the goddess Kali. This suggests the qu

should this particular village have risen to be a metropolis rather than any other vill

propose the term "geographical selection" for the process on the analogy of"natura

172 

..................................... L ........................ 
The alternative is to divide the scientific from the practical. T

of its adoption will be the ruin of both. The practical will b

by the teacher and will be found indigestible in after life. The 

will be neglected by most men, because it lacks the element 

in every-day life. The man of the world and the student, the 

and the historian, will lose their common platform. The wor

the poorer. 

173 
THE GEOGRAPHICAL PIVOT OF HISTORY 

W hen historians in the remote future come to lo

the group of centuries through which we are no

and see them foreshortened, as we to-day see th

dynasties, it may well be that they will describe the last 4

the Columbian epoch, and will say that it ended soon aft

1900. Of late it has been a common-place to speak of ge

exploration as nearly over, and it is recognized that geog

be diverted to the purpose of intensive survey and philosophi

In 400 years the outline of the map of the world has been 

with approximate accuracy, and even in the polar regions t

of Nansen and Scott have very narrowly reduced the last 

of dramatic discoveries. But the opening of the twentieth 

appropriate as the end of a great historic epoch, not merely 

of this achievement, great though it be. The missionary, the 

the farmer, the miner, and, of late, the engineer, have f

closely in the traveller's footsteps that the world in its remo

has hardly been revealed before we must chronicle its virtual

political appropriation. In Europe, North America, South 

Africa, and Australasia there is scarcely a region left for t

out of a claim of ownership, unless the result of a war betwe

or half-civilized powers. Even in Asia we are probably wit

last moves of the game first played by the horsemen of Y

Cossack and the shipmen of Vasco da Gama. Broadly sp

may contrast the Columbian epoch with the age which prec

describing its essential characteristic as the expansion of Eur

almost negligible resistances, whereas mediaeval Christendo

into a narrow region and threatened by external barbarism

175 
weak elements in the political and economic organism of t

will be shattered in consequence. There is a vast difference 

in the fall of a shell into an earthwork and its fall amid th

spaces and rigid structures of a great building or ship. Proba

half-consciousness of this fact is at last diverting much of the 

of statesmen in all parts of the world from territorial expansi

struggle for relative efficiency. 

It appears to me, therefore, that in the present decade we a

first time in a position to attempt, with some degree of comp

a correlation between the larger geographical and the larger 

generalizations. For the first time we can perceive somethin

real proportion of features and events on the stage of the who

and may seek a formula which shall express certain aspect

rate, of geographical causation in universal history. If we are f

that formula should have a practical value as setting into pe

some of the competing forces in current international poli

familiar phrase about the westward march of empire is an e

and fragmentary attempt of the kind. I propose this evening d

those physical features of the world which I believe to have b

coercive of human action, and presenting some of the chief p

history as organically connected with them, even in the ages w

were unknown to geography. My aim will not be to discuss the 

of this or that kind of feature, or yet to make a study in 

geography, but rather to exhibit human history as part of th

the world organism. I recognize that I only arrive at one aspe

truth, and I have no wish to stray into excessive materialism. 

not nature initiates, but nature in large measure controls. My 

is with the general physical control, rather than the causes of u

history. It is obvious that only a first approximation to truth 

hoped for. I shall be humble to my critics. 

The late Professor Freemen held that the only history whic

is that of the Mediterranean and European races. In a sense, o

this is true, for it is among these races that have originated 

which have rendered the inheritors of Greece and Rome d

176 
gpy y 

conquerors; the idea of France was forced upon competin

Goths, and Romans by the Huns at Chalons, and in the Hund

War with England; the idea of Christendom was born of t

persecutions, and matured by the Crusades; the idea of t

States was accepted, and local colonial patriotism sunk, only 

War of Independence; the idea of the German Empire was 

adopted in South Germany only after a struggle against 

comradeship with North Germany. What I may describe as t

conception of history, by concentrating attention upon ideas 

the civilization which is their outcome, is apt to lose sight o

elemental movements whose pressure is commonly the exci

of the efforts in which great ideas are nourished. A repellent p

performs a valuable social function in uniting his enemies, 

under the pressure of external barbarism that Europe ach

civilization. I ask you, therefore, for a moment to look up

and European history as subordinate to Asia and Asiatic h

European civilization is, in a very real sense, the outcome of 

struggle against Asiatic invasion. 

The most remarkable contrast in the political map of mode

is that presented by the vast area of Russia occupying half the 

and the group of smaller territories tenanted by the Wester

From a physical point of view, there is, of course, a lik

between the unbroken lowland of the east and the rich c

mountains and valleys, islands and peninsulas, which toge

the remainder of this part of the world. At first sight it wou

that in these familiar facts we have a correlation between na

ronment and political organization so obvious as hardly to 

of description, especially when we note that throughout th

plain a cold winter is opposed to a hot summer, and the con

human existence thus rendered additionally uniform. Yet a 

historical maps, such as that contained in the Oxford Atlas, 

the fact that not merely is the rough coincidence of Europe

with the Eastern Plain of Europe a matter of the last hundre

177 
5 "~ : :..:..:.5./.+!ii! "( ..~::.Z:':::.?.~.:! 

• "---,, :f3: .:!::. :: :.:.:-.-.....,,-/" 

Fig. ~. Eastern Europe before the nineteenth c

(Alter Drude in Berghaus" Physical Atlas) 

so, but that in all earlier time there was persistent re-assertio

another tendency in the political grouping. Two groups of sta

divided the country into northern and southern political sys

fact is that the orographical map does not express the particula

contrast which has until very lately controlled human move

settlement in Russia. When the screen of winter snow fades 

off the vast face of the plain, it is followed by rains whose 

occurs in May and June beside the Black sea, but near the 

White seas is deferred to July and August. In the south the lat

is a period of drought. As a consequence of this climatic r

north and north-west were forest broken only by marshes, w

south and south-east were a boundless grassy steppe, with 

along the rivers. The line separating the two regions ran d

178 
,,5 

¢9 

l,t $ 

Fig. 2. Political divisions of eastern Europe at the 

tile Third Crusade. (After The Oxford Historical 

north-eastward from the northern end of the Carpathians to 

the Ural range nearer to its southern than to its northern 

Moscow lies a little to north of this line, or, in other wor

forest side of it. Outside Russia the boundary of the great 

westward almost exactly through the centre of the Europea

which is 800 miles across between the Baltic and the Black S

this, in Peninsular Europe, the woods spread on through th

Germany in the north, while the steppe lands in the south 

great Transylvanian bastion of the Carpathians, and exten

Danube, through what are now the cornfields of Roumania, 

Gates. A detached area of steppes, known locally as Pu

largely cultivated, occupied the plain of Hungary, ingirt by t

179 
Fig. 3. Political divisions of eastern Europe at the ac

of Charles V. (A[ter The Ox[ord Historical Atlas) 

rim of Carpathian and Alpine mountains. In all the west 

save in the far north, the clearing of the forests, the drain

marshes, and the tillage of the steppes have recently av

character of the landscape, and in large measure obliterated a 

which was formally very coercive of humanity. 

The earlier Russia and Poland were established wholly in 

of the forest. Through the steppe on the other hand there 

the unknown recesses of Asia, by the gateway between the U

tains and the Caspian sea, in all the centuries from the 

sixteenth, a remarkable succession of Turanian nomadic 

Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Magyars, Khazars, Patzinaks, Cum

gols, Kalmuks. Under Attila the Huns established themse

midst of the Pusstas, in the uttermost Danubian outlier of t

180 
pp

first time, to stand shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield 

making common cause against the Asiatics, who were un

welding together modem France. Venice was founded from 

tion of Aquileia and Padua; and even the Papacy owed 

prestige to the successful mediation of Pope Leo with Atti

Such was the harvest of results produced by a cloud of r

idealess horsemen sweeping over the unimpeded plain--a 

were, from the great Asiatic hammer striking freely through 

space. The Huns were followed by the Avars. It was for a 

against these that Austria was founded, and Vienna forti

result of the campaigns of Charlemagne. The Magyar cam

by incessant raiding from his steppe base in Hungary in

significance of the Austral outpost, so drawing the politic

Germany eastward to the margin of the realm. The Bulgarian 

a ruling caste south of the Danube, and has left his nam

map, although his language has yielded to that of his Slavon

Perhaps the longest and most effective occupation of the Ru

proper was that of the Khazars, who were contemporaries 

Saracen movement: the Arab geographers knew the Cas

Khazar sea. In the end, however, new hordes arrived from 

and for two centuries Russia in the northern forest was he

to the Mongol Khans of Kipchak, or "the Steppe," and Ru

opment was thus delayed and biassed at a time when the r

Europe was rapidly advancing. 

It should be noted that the rivers running from the F

Black and Caspian Seas cross the whole breadth of the 

path of the nomads, and that from time to time there we

movements along their courses at right angles to the move

horsemen. Thus the missionaries of Greek Christianity a

Dnieper to Kief, just as beforehand the Norse Varangians had 

the same river on their way to Constantinople. Still earlier, t

Goths appear for a moment upon the Dneister, having cros

from the shores of the Baltic in the same south-eastwar

181 
peninsula, shaping by the necessity of opposing them the 

each of the great peoples around--the Russians, the Ge

French, the Italians, and the Byzantine Greeks. That they 

healthy and powerful reaction, instead of crushing oppositi

widespread despotism, was due to the fact that the mobil

power was conditioned by the steppes, and necessarily ce

surrounding forests and mountains. 

A rival mobility of power was that of the Vikings in t

Descending from Scandinavia both upon the northern and th

shores of Europe, they penetrated inland by the river way

scope of their action was limited, for, broadly speaking, t

was effective only in the neighborhood of the water. Thus 

people of Europe lay gripped between two pressures--that of 

nomads from the east, and on the other three sides that of 

from the sea. From its very nature neither pressure was over

and both therefore were stimulative. It is noteworthy that the 

influence of the Scandinavians was second only in significa

of the nomads, for under their attack both England and Fr

long mox~es towards unity, while the unity of Italy was brokc

In earlier times, Rome had mobilized the power of her settl

by means of her roads, but the Roman roads had fallen into 

were not replaced until the eighteenth century. 

It is likely that even the Hunnish invasion was by no mea

of the Asiatic series. The Sythians of the Homeric and H

accounts, drinking the milk of mares, obviously practised th

of life, and were probably of the same race as the later inh

the steppe. The Celtic element in the river-names Don, Done

Dneister, and Danube may possibly betoken the passage of 

similar habits, though not of identical race, but it is not un

the Celts came merely from the northern forests, like the 

Varangians of a later time. The great wedge of population

which the anthropologists characterize as Brachy-Cepha

westward from Brachy-Cephalic Asia through Central E

182 
y; y

is desirable to shift our geographical viewpoint from Euro

we may consider the Old World in its entirety. It is obvious 

the rainfall is derived from the sea, the heart of the greatest 

is likely to be relatively dry. We are not, theretbre, surpri

that two-thirds of all the world's population is concentrated i

small areas along the margins of the great continent--in Eur

the Atlantic ocean; in the Indies and China, beside the 

Pacific oceans. A vast belt of almost uninhabited, because 

rainless, land extends as the Sahara completely across North

into Arabia. Central and Southern Africa were almost as 

Severed from Europe and Asia throughout the greater part 

as were the Americas and Australia. In fact, the southern b

Europe was and is the Sahara rather than the Mediterranea

the desert which divides the black man from the white. The 

land-mass of Euro-Asia thus included between the ocean and 

measures 21,000,000 square miles, or half of all the land on 

if we exclude from reckoning the deserts of Sahara and Ara

are many detached deserts scattered through Asia, from Syria 

north-eastward to Manchuria, but no such continuous vacan

comparable with the Sahara. On the other hand, Euro-Asia is 

ized by a very remarkable distribution of river drainage. T

an immense portion of the centre and north, the rivers 

practically useless for purposes of human communication wi

world. The Volga, the Oxus, and the Jaxartes drain into sal

Obi, the Yenisei, and the Lena into the frozen ocean of the n

are six of the greatest rivers in the world. There are many 

still considerable streams in the same area, such as the Tar

Helmund, which similarly fail to reach the ocean. Thus t

Euro-Asia, although mottled with desert patches, is on th

steppe-land supplying a widespread if often scanty pasture

are not a few river-fed oases in it, but it is wholly unpen

ISee "The Races of Europe,' by Professor W.Z. Ripley (Kegan Paul, 1900). 

183 
-"~-" ,X t . .. ".~ /..~ x,J 

..'., ." ~.-,vX s~<. -,, " " . . ' " t 

I • . ~..I ,, s. I "-. .~ :.'. \ #.~. . 

/ ~x.X s,~.,,._.O -,--,... .. ,, .,~ 

# . l X,. z /X. ',

_S r" ~i v~ :. q.-,, ..

Fig. 4. Continental and Artic drainage. (Equal area proj

waterways from the ocean. In other words, we have in thi

area all the conditions for the maintenance of a sparse, 

aggregate considerable, population of horse-riding and ca

nomads. Their realm is limited northward by a broad belt of 

forest and marsh, wherein the climate is too rigorous, exc

eastern and western extremities, for the development of a

settlements. In the east the forests extend southward to the Pa

in the Amur land and Manchuria. Similarly in the west, in 

Europe, forest was the predominant vegetation. Thus frame

north-east, north, and north-west, the steppes spread contin

4000 miles from the Pusstas of Hungary to the Little Gobi of M

and, except in their western-most extremity, they are untra

rivers draining to an accessible ocean, for we may neglec

recent efforts to trade to the mouths of the Obi and Yenisei. 

Western Siberia, and western Turkestan the steppe-lands 

some places below the level of the sea. Further to the east, in 

they extend over plateaux; but the passage from the one l

other, over the naked, unscarped lower ranges of the arid 

presents little difficulty. 

The hordes which ultimately fell upon Europe in the mid

fourteenth century gathered their first force 3000 miles aw

184 
ggp

foot of the Carpathians, another horde descending south-we

tween the Caspian sea and the Hindu Kush into Persia, Me

and even into Syria, founded the domain of the Ilkhan. A t

quently struck into Northern China, conquering Cathay. 

Mangi, or Southern China, were for a time sheltered by the inc

barrier of Tibet, to whose efficacy there is, perhaps, noth

in the world, unless it be the Sahara desert and the polar ic

later time, in the days of Marco Polo in the case of Mang

of Tamerlane in the ease of India, the obstacle was circumve

it happened that in this typical and well-recorded instance, al

margins of the Old World sooner or later felt the expansi

mobile power originating in the steppe. Russia, Persia, India

were either made tributary, or received Mongol dynasties

incipient power of the Turks in Asia Minor was struck do

a century. 

As in the case of Europe, so in other marginal lands of 

there are records of earlier invasions. China had more th

submit to conquest from the north; India several times t

from the north-west. In the case of Persia, however, at least 

earlier descents has a special significance in the history 

civilization. Three or four centuries before the Mongols, 

Turks, emerging from Central Asia, overran by this path a

area of the land, which we may describe as of the five seaz 

Black, Mediterranean, Red, and Persian. They established 

at Kerman, at Hamadan, and in Asia Minor, and they ove

Saracen dominion of Bagdad and Damascus. It was ostensib

their treatment of the Christian pilgrims at Jerusalem that C

undertook the great series of campaigns known collectiv

Crusades. Although these failed in their immediate objec

stirred and united Europe that we may count them as the 

of modern history--another striking instance of Europea

stimulated by the necessity of reacting against pressure fro

of Asia. 

185 
y, , , p

forest, are very generally favourable to the mobility of hor

camelmen. The east, south, and west of this heart-land ar

regions, ranged in a vast crescent, accessible to shipmen. 

to physical conformation, these regions are four in numbe

not a little remarkable that in a general way they respective

with the spheres of the four great religions. Buddhism, Br

Mahometanism, and Christianity. The first two are the mons

turned the one towards the Pacific, and the other towards 

ocean. The fourth is Europe, watered by the Atlantic rain

west. These three together, measuring less than seven mill

miles, have more than 1000 million people, or two-thirds o

population. The third, coinciding with the land of the Fiv

as it is more often described, the Nearer East, is in larg

deprived of moisture by the proximity of Africa, and, exc

oases, is therefore thinly peopled. In some degree it parta

characteristics both of the marginal belt of the central are

Asia. It is mainly devoid of forest, is patched with desert, and 

suitable for the operations of the nomad. Dominantly, h

is marginal, for sea-gulfs and oceanic rivers lay it open to 

and permit of the exercise of such power from it. As a co

periodically throughout history, we have here had empires 

essentially to the marginal series, based on the agricultural p

of the great oases of Babylonia and Egypt, and in free water-

cation with the civilized worlds of the Mediterranean and 

But, as we should expect, these empires have been subject to a

leled series of revolutions, some due to Scythian, Turkish, an

raids from Central Asia, others to the effort of the Med

peoples to conquer the overland ways from the western to 

ocean. Here is the weakest spot in the girdle of early civiliz

the isthmus of Suez divided sea-power into Eastern and We

the arid wastes of Persia advancing from Central Asia to t

Gulf gave constant opportunity for nomad-power to strike h

ocean edge, dividing India and China, on the one hand, 

186 
Hungary. Vienna stood in the gateway of Inner Europe, withst

nomadic raids, both those which came by the direct road th

Russian steppe, and those which came by the loop way to so

Black and Caspian Seas. 

Here we have illustrated the essential difference between t

and the Turkish controls of the Nearer East. The Saracens wer

of the Semitic race, essentially peoples of the Euphrates an

of the smaller oases of Lower Asia. They created a great 

availing themselves of the two mobilities permitted by their 

of the horse and camel on the one hand, that of the ship on 

At different times their fleets controlled both the Medite

far as Spain, and the Indian occan to the Malay islands. F

strategically central position between the eastern and weste

they attempted the conquest of all the marginal lands of the O

imitating Alexander and anticipating Napoleon. They c

threaten the steppe-land. Wholly distinct from Arabia as fro

India, and China were the Turanian pagans from the close

Asia, the Turks who destroyed the Saracen civilization. 

Mobility upon the ocean is the natural rival of horse 

mobility in the heart of the continent. It was upon navigation 

rivers that was based the Potamic stage of civilization, tha

on the Yangtse, that of India on the Ganges, that of Babylo

Euphrates, that of Egypt on the Nile. It was essentially upon t

tion of the Mediterranean that was based what has been de

the Thalassic stage of civilization, that of the Greeks and Ro

Saracens and the Vikings held sway by navigation of the ocean

The all-important result of the discovery of the Cape r

Indies was to connect the western and eastern coastal navi

Euro-Asia, even though by a circuitous route, and thus in som

to neutralize the strategical advantage of the central posit

steppe-nomads by pressing upon them in rear. The revolu

menced by the great mariners of the Columbian generation 

Christendom with the widest possible mobility of power, 

winged mobility. The one and continuous ocean enveloping t

187 
Ages Europe was caged between an impassable desert t

unknown ocean to west, and icy or forested wastes to north 

east and in the east and south-east was constantly threate

superior mobility of the horsemen and camelmen, she no

upon the world, multiplying more than thirty-fold the sea 

coastal lands to which she had access, and wrapping he

round the Euro-Asiatic land-power which had hitherto thr

very existence. New Europes were created in the vacant la

ered in the midst &the waters, and what Britain and Scand

to Europe in the earlier time, that have America and Austr

some measure even Trans-Saharan Africa, now become to 

Britain, Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia

are now a ring of outer and insular bases for sea-power and 

inaccessible to the land-power of Euro-Asia. 

But the land power still remains, and recent events 

increased its significance. While the maritime peoples of W

rope have covered the ocean with their fleets, settled the 

nents, and in varying degree made tributary the oceanic 

Asia, Russia has organized the Cossacks, and, emergin

northern forests, has policed the steppe by setting her own 

meet the Tartar nomads. The Tudor century, which saw the 

of Western Europe over the sea, also saw Russian power c

Moscow through Siberia. The eastward swoop of the horse

Asia was an event almost as pregnant with political co

as was the rounding of the Cape, although the two move

remained apart. 

It is probably one of the most striking coincidences of 

the seaward and the landward expansion of Europe should, 

continue the ancient opposition between Roman and Greek

failures have had more far-reaching consequences than th

Rome to Latinize the Greek. The Teuton was civilized and C

by the Roman, the Slav in the main by the Greek. It is th

Teuton who in later times embarked upon the ocean; it was 

Slav who rode over the steppes, conquering the Turanian

188 
was the southward migration of the Russian peasants, so th

agricultural settlements formerly ended at the forest bou

centre of the population of all European Russia now lies 

that boundary, in the midst of the wheat-fields which hav

the more western steppes. Odessa has here risen to impor

the rapidity of an American city. 

A generation ago steam and the Suez Canal appeared 

creased the mobility of sea-power relatively to land-power

acted chiefly as feeders to ocean-going commerce. But trans-

railways are now transmuting the conditions of land-powe

where can they have such effect as in the closed heart-lan

Asia, in vast areas of which neither timber nor accessible 

available for road-making. Railways work the greater won

steppe, because they directly replace horse and camel m

road stage of development having here been omitted. 

In the matter of commerce it must not be forgotten that o

traffic, however relatively cheap, usually involves the fourfo

of goods at the factory of origin, at the export wharf, at 

wharf and at the inland warehouse for retail distribution; w

continental railway truck may run direct from the export

into the importing warehouse. Thus marginal ocean-fed 

tends, other things being equal, to form a zone of penetra

the continents whose inner limit is roughly marked by the 

which the cost of four handlings, the oceanic freight, and t

freight from the neighbouring coast, is equivalent to the c

handlings and the continental railway freight. English an

coals are said to compete on such terms midway through L

The Russian railways have a clear run of 6000 miles from 

in the west to Vladivostok in the east. The Russian army in 

~l-his statement was criticized in thc discussion which followed the reading o

reconsidering the paragraph, 1 still think it substantially correct. Even the Byzantin

have been other than he was had Rome completed the subjugation of the anci

doubt the ideals spoken of were Byzantine rather than Hellenic, but they were not 

is the point. 

189 
.~ o 

0 

c~ 

°~ ° 

c~ 

~a 

0 

0 

• I~ 

~ ,o 

190 
ities in population, wheat, cotton, fuel, and metals so incalcu

that it is inevitable a vast economic world, more or less 

there develop inaccessible to oceanic commerce. 

As we consider this rapid review of the broader currents 

does not a certain persistence of geographical relationshi

evident? Is not the pivot region of the world's politics tha

of Euro-Asia which is inaccessible to ships, but in antiquit

to the horse-riding nomads, and is today about to be cove

network of railways? There have been and are here the co

a mobility of military and cconomic fewer of a far-reachi

limited character. Russia replaces the Mongol Empire. He

on Finland, on Scandinavia, oil Poland, on Turkey, on Persi

and on China replaces the centrifugal raids of the steppe-m

world at large she occupies the central strategical positio

Germany in Europe. She can strike on all sides and be stru

sides, save the north. The full development of her mode

mobility is merely a matter of time. Nor is it likely that an

social revolution will alter her essential relations to the great 

cal limits of her existence. Wisely recognizing the fundam

of her power, her rulers have parted with Alaska; ~br it is 

law of policy for Russia to own nothing over seas as for B

supreme on the ocean. 

Outside the pivot area, in a great inner crescent, are 

Austria, Turkey, India, and China, and in an outer cresce

South Africa, Australia, the United States, Canada, and Ja

present condition of the balance of power, the pivot state, 

not equivalent to the peripheral states, and there is room for an 

in France. The United States has recently become an east

affecting the European balance not directly, but through R

she will construct the Panama Canal to make her Missi

Atlantic resources available in the Pacific. From this point 

real divide between east and west is to be found in the Atlan

The oversetting of the balance of power in favour of the 

resulting in its expansion over the marginal lands of Euro-A

191 
bridge heads where the outside navies would support armies 

the pivot allies to deploy land forces and prevent them from c

ing their whole strength on fleets. On a smaller scale that 

Wellington accomplished from his sea-base at Torres Ved

Peninsular War. May not this in the end prove to be the 

function of India in the British Imperial system? Is not thi

underlying Mr. Amery's conception that the British mil

stretches from the Cape through India to Japan? 

The development of the vast potentialities of South Ame

have a decisive influence upon the system. They might stre

United States, or, on the other hand, if Germany were to cha

Monroe Doctrine successfully, they might detach Berlin fr

may perhaps describe as a pivot policy. The particular com

of power brought into balance are not material; my content

from a geographical point of view they are likely to rotate 

pivot state, which is always likely to be great, but with limite

as compared with the surrounding marginal and insular pow

I have spoken as a geographer. The actual balance of polit

at any given time is, of course, the product, on the one 

geographical conditions, both economic and strategic, and, o

hand, of the relative number, virility, equipment, and organ

the competing peoples. In proportion as these quantities are 

estimated are we likely to adjust differences without the cr

to arms. And the geographical quantities in the calculation 

measurable and more nearly constant than the human. Hence 

expect to find our formula apply equally to past history and 

politics. The social movements of all times have played arou

tially the same physical features, for I doubt whether the p

desiccation of Asia and Africa, even if proved, has in histor

vitally altered the human environment. The westward march 

appears to me to have been a short rotation of marginal po

the south-western and western edge of the pivotal area. Th

Middle, and Far Eastern questions relate to the unstable e

of inner and outer powers in those parts of the marginal cresc

local power is, at present, more or less negligible. 

192 
yellow peril to the worlds freedom just because they wou

oceanic frontage to the resources of the great continent, an 

as yet denied to the Russian tenant of the pivot region. 

193 
THE ROUND WORLD AND THE WINNING OF THE PE

I have been asked to carry further some of the themes 

I have dealt in my past writings, in particular to consid

my strategical concept of a '" Heartland" has lost any o

cance under the conditions of modern warfare. In order 

concept into its context, I must begin with a short accoun

originally came to take shape. 

My earliest memory of public affairs goes back to the day 

ber 1870 when, as a small boy who had just begun attend

local grammar school. I took home the news, which I had le

a telegram affixed to the post office door, that Napoleon 

whole army had surrendered to the Prussians at Sedan. Th

a shock to Englishmen, who still moved mentally in th

Trafalgar and the retreat from Moscow, but the full effec

not realized until some years later. Britain's supremacy on 

had not yet been challenged, and the only danger she saw 

to her overseas empire was in the Asiatic position of Rus

this period the London newspapers were quick to detect e

Russian intrigue in every rumor from Constantinople and in 

disturbance along the northwest frontier of India, British 

and Russian land power held the center of the internationa

Thirty years later, at the turn of the century, yon Tirpi

build a German high seas fleet. I was busy at this time se

teaching of political and historical geography at the uni

Oxford and London, and was noting current events with 

eye for generalization. The German movement meant, I sa

*Reprinted by special permission from Foreign Affairs, July 1943. Copyright 

on Foreign Relations, Inc., New York. 

195 
childhood someone had already been impressed with Ame

sourcefulness, for I remember in our school room a picture of 

between the Merrimac and the Monitor, the first armoured 

the first turret ship. Thus Germany and the United States 

alongside of Britain and Russia. 

The particular events out of which sprang the idea of th

the Heartland were the British war in South Africa and th

war in Manchuria. The South African war ended in 1902, a

spring of 1904 the Russo-Japanese war was clearly imminent

which I read before the Royal Geographical Society early in 

year entitled "The Geographical Pivot of History," was there

cal, but it had a background of many years of observation and 

The contrast presented by the British war against the Boe

6,000 miles away across the ocean, and the war fought by 

a comparable distance across the land expanse of Asia, natu

gested a parallel contrast between Vasco da Gama rounding 

of Good Hope on his voyage to the Indies, near the end of the 

century, and the ride of Yermak, the Cossack, at the he

horsemen, over the Ural range into Siberia early in the sixteenth 

That comparison in turn led to a review of the long successio

made by the nomadic tribes of Central Asia, through classical 

and the Middle Ages, upon the settled populations of the cr

subcontinents: peninsular Europe, the Middle East, the In

China proper. My conclusion was that: 

Within the present decade we are for the first time in a pos

to attempt, with some degree of completeness, a correlation 

tween tile larger geographical and the larger historical genera

tions. For the first time we can perceive something of the 

proportion of features and events on the stage of the whole w

and may seek a formula which shall express certain aspect

any rate, of geographical causation in universal history. If we 

fortunate, that formula should have a practical value as se

into perspective some of the competing forces in current inte

tional politics. 

196 
g pg

would permit of the use of vast continental resources for 

building, and the empire of the world would then be in sigh

might happen if Germany were to ally herself with Russia

In conclusion, it may be well expressly to point out th

substitution of some new control of the inland area for t

Russia would not tend to reduce the geographical significa

the pivot position. Were the Chinese, for instance, organiz

the Japanese, to overthrow the Russian Empire and conq

territory, they might constitute the yellow peril to the w

freedom just because they would add an oceanic frontage 

resources of the great continent. 

At the end of the First World War, my book, "Democr

and Reality," was published in London and New York. 

"pivot" label, which had been appropriate for an academ

the beginning of the century, was no longer adequate to the in

situation as it emerged from that first great crisis of our world 

Hence "Ideals," "Realities" and the "Heartland." But th

even when additional criteria were brought to bear, the the

still sufficed as the background for an estimate of the posi

years later gave confidence that the formula sought had be

II 

We turn now to the main object of the present article: t

of an interim estimate of the value of the Heartland concept 

of the world preliminary to the coming settlement. It must be 

that I am dealing with strategy, which, of course is effective in 

no less than in wartime. I do not presume to join in the wid

debates already in progress which look forward over gen

come; I center my thoughts on the years during which th

to be held down while, in the language of Casablanca, his 

of war is being killed. 

The Heartland is the northern part and the interior of Eu

197 
of all, we have in this region by far the widest lowland pl

face of the globe. Secondly, there flow across that plain s

navigable rivers; certain of them go north to the Arctic Se

inaccessible from the ocean because it is cumbered with 

others flow into inland waters, such as the Caspian, which 

exit to the ocean. Thirdly, there is here a grassland zone wh

within the last century and a half, presented ideal conditio

development of high mobility by camel and horse-riding no

the three features mentioned, the river basins are the easiest 

cartographically; the water divide which delimits the whole 

Arctic and "continental" rivers into a single unit does isol

on the map a vast coherent area which is thc Ileartland acc

that particular criterion. The mere exclusion of sea mobilit

power, however, is a negative if important differential; it wa

and the grassland belt which offered the positive conditions 

to the other type of mobility, that proper to the prairie. A

grassland, it traverses the whole breadth of the plain but does 

its entire surface. Notwithstanding these apparent discrepa

Heartland provides a sufficient physical basis for strategical 

To go further and to simplify geography artificially woul

leading. 

For our present purpose it is sufficiently accurate to sa

territory of the U.S.S.R. is equivalent to the Heartland, exce

direction. In order to demarcate that exception great one---l

a direct line, some 3,500 miles long, westward from Bering 

Rumania. Three thousand miles from Bering Strait that line 

the Yenisei River, flowing northward from the borders of 

to the Arctic Ocean. Eastward of that great river lies a general

country of mountains, plateaux and valleys, covered almost 

to end with coniferous forests; this I shall call Lenaland, from 

feature, the great River Lena. This is not included in Heartlan

Lenaland Russia has an area of three and three-quarter milli

miles, but a population of only six millions, of whom al

millions are settled along the transcontinental railroad from 

198 
a plain extending 2,500 miles north and south and 2,500 

and west. It contains four and a quarter million square m

population of more than 170 millions. The population is in

the rate of three millions a year. 

The simplest and probably the most effective way of pre

strategical values of the Russian Heartland is to compare 

those of France. In the case of France, however, the histo

ground is the first World War while in the case of Russ

second World War. 

France, like Russia, is a compact country, as long as it is 

not quite so well-rounded as the Heartland and therefore w

smaller area in proportion to the length of boundary to be 

It is encompassed by sea and mountain, except to the northeas

18 there were no hostile countries behind the Alps and the Py

the fleets of France and her allies dominated the seas. The 

allied armies, deployed across the open northeastern fro

therefore well defended on either flank and were secure i

The tragic lowland gateway in the northeast, through whic

armies have surged inward and outward, is 300 miles wid

the Vosges and the North Sea. In 1914, the line of battle p

the Vosges, wheeled backward to the Marne; and at the 

war, in 1918, it wheeled forward on the same pivot. Throug

years interval the elastic front sagged and bent but did not 

in the face of the great German attack in the spring of 191

it proved, there was space within the country sufficient both 

in depth and for strategical retreat. Unfortunately for France

her principal industrial area was in that northeastern sector 

unceasing battle was waged. 

Russia repeats in essentials the pattern of France, but o

scale and with her open frontier turned westward instead of 

ward. In the present war the Russian Army is aligned acros

frontier. In its rear is the vast plain of the Heartland, av

defense in depth and for strategic retreat. Away back, this pl

eastward into the natural bulwarks constituted by the "ina

199 
g

sense that held until a few years ago. Convoys of merc

assisted by powerful icebreakers with airplanes reconnoite

for water lanes through the ice pack, have traded to the Obi a

rivers, and even to the Lena River; but a hostile invasion 

vast area of circum-polar ice and over the Tundra mosses 

forests of Northern Siberia seems almost impossible in 

Soviet land-based air defense. 

To complete the comparison between France and Ru

consider the relative scales of some parallel facts. Heartl

has four times the population, four times as wide an open f

twenty times the area of France. That open frontier is not dis

ate to the Russian population; and to equal the breadth of 

deployment Germany has had to eke out her more limited 

by diluting it with less effective troops drawn from her subjec

In one important respect, however, Russia began her secon

Germany in no better position than France occupied in 19

France, her most developed agriculture and industries lay 

the path of the invader. The second Five Year Plan would hav

that situation had the German aggression been delayed a 

years. Perhaps that was one of Hitler's reasons for breakin

with Stalin in 1941. 

The vast potentialities of the Heartland, however, to say 

the natural reserves in Lenaland, are strategically well placed

are growing rapidly in such localities as the southern Urals, 

pivot of the pivot area, and in the rich Kuznetsk coal basin 

of the great natural barriers east of the upper Yenisei Rive

Russia produced more of the following foodstuffs than any ot

in the world: wheat, barley, oats, rye and sugar beets. More 

was produced in Russia than in any other country. It was 

with the United States in the first place as regards iron, a

second place in production of petroleum. As for coal, Mikhay

the statement that the resources of the Kuznetsk and Krasno

basins are each estimated to be capable of supplying the re

200 
as the greatest land Power on the globe. Moreover, she w

Power in the strategically strongest defensive position. The 

is the greatest natural fortress on earth. For the first time in 

is manned by a garrison sufficient both in number and qua

III 

I cannot pretend to exhaust the subject of the Heartland, 

of land power on the great mainland of the world, in a sh

like this. But a few words should be devoted to another 

balance it. 

From Casablanca there came lately the call to destroy 

German philosophy. That can be done only by irrigating th

mind with the clean water of a rival philosophy. I assume th

two years from the time the "cease fire" order is given, 

will occupy Berlin, try the criminals, fix frontiers on the 

complete other surgical treatment so that the older generati

many which will die impenitent and bitter cannot again m

history to the younger generation. But it would obviously 

than useless to set alien teachers to work in Germany to in

theory of freedom. Freedom cannot be taught; it can only b

those who can use it. However, the polluted channel migh

clear very effectively if it were controlled by strong emban

power on either hand--land power to the east, in the Hea

sea power to the west, in the North Atlantic basin. Face th

mind with an enduring certainty that any war fought by Ger

be a war on two unshakable fronts, and the Germans them

solve the problem. 

For this to happen it will be necessary in the first place 

be effective and lasting cooperation between America, B

France, the first for depth of defense, the second as the moat

IN. Mikhaylov, "Soviet Geography," London: Methuen, 1937. 

201 
Germany can never again get its head up and must die 

Some persons today seem to dream of a global air pow

"liquidate" both fleets and armies. I am impressed, how

broad implications of a recent utterance of a practical 

power depends absolutely on the efficiency of its ground o

That is too large a subject to discuss within the limits of 

can only be said that no adequate proof has yet been p

air fighting will not follow the long history of all kinds o

presenting alternations of offensive and defensive tactica

meanwhile effecting few permanent changes in strategica

l make no pretense to forecasting the future of huma

am concerned with are the conditions under which we set a

the peace when victory in the war has been achieved. In 

pattern of the postwar world, now being studied by man

the first time, it is important that a line should be car

between idealistic blueprints and realistic and scholarly ma

concepts---political, economic, strategic and so fortl~-b

recognition of obstinate facts. 

With that in mind, attention might be drawn to a gre

global geography: a girdle, as it were, hung around the 

regions. It begins as the Sahara desert, is followed as 

eastward by the Arabian, Iranian, Tibetan and Mongolian 

then extends by way of the wildernesses of Lenaland, A

Laurentian shield of Canada, to the sub-arid belt of the we

States. That girdle of deserts and wildernesses is a featur

importance in global geography. Within it lie two relate

almost equal significance: the Heartland, and the basin of 

Ocean (North Atlantic) with its four subsidiaries (Mediterr

Arctic and Caribbean Seas). Outside the girdle is the 

(Pacific, Indian and South Atlantic) and the lands whic

(Asiatic Monsoon lands, Australia, South America and 

of the Sahara). 

Archimedes said he could lift the world if he could fi

202 
receive capital on a generous scale as a debt of honor, 

her romantic adventure of building for a quarter of huma

civilization, neither quite Eastern nor quite Western. Then t

of the Outer World will be relatively easy, with China, 

States and the United Kingdom leading the way, the las

followed by its trail of commonwealth of free nations for t

histories will have been different the result will be simil

first enterprise undertaken in economic rebuilding will sur

be in the area within the desert girdle, lest a whole civiliza

deliquesce into chaos. What a pity the alliance, negotiated 

sailles, between the United States, the United Kingdom and 

not implemented! What trouble and sadness that act might h

IV 

And now, to complete my picture of the pattern of the ro

let me add, briefly, three concepts to the two already visu

the purposes of what I see described in American writings 

Strategy," it is necessary to build broad generalizations in 

no less than in history and economics. 

I have described my concept of the Heartland, which 

hesitation in saying is more valid and useful today than it 

twenty or forty years ago. I have said how it is set in its gird

natural defenses ice-clad Polar Sea, forested and rugged Le

Central Asiatic mountain and arid tableland. The girdle is i

however because of an open gateway, a thousand miles wide

from Peninsular Europe into the interior plain through the bro

between the Baltic and Black Seas. For the first time in 

there is within this vast natural fortress a garrison adequa

entry to the German invader. Given that fact, and the defe

flanks and rear which I have described, the sheer breadth 

gateway is an advantage, for it provides the opportunity o

the enemy by compelling him to make a broad deploym

203 
German mind clear of its black magic. Surely no one i

mad enough to set foreign teachers to exorcize the evi

the soul of the conquered German nation. Nor, after the f

punitory years, do I have sufficient trust that the conquering 

will maintain garrisons of the necessary spirit and num

in the vanquished lands; for there is no use in asking democ

in an attitude contrary to the very spirit and essence of de

cleansing stream might better be released to flow from som

and regenerating German source, between the embankme

I have named, the one within the Heartland and the oth

territories of the three amphibious powers, American, 

French. The two friendly forces facing one another acros

the canal would be of equal power and should always be 

for necessary action. Then Germany would live contin

• the threat of immediate war on two fronts should she be 

breach of the treaties which prohibited either physical pr

war or the misleading of youth which is another way o

for war. The democratic garrisons in their home countri

by force of example, the teachers. 

On this proposal follows my second geographical con

the Midland Ocearv--the North Atlantic--and its depend

river basins. Without laboring the details of that concept, 

it again in its three elements--a bridgehead in France, a 

drome in Britain, and a reserve of trained manpower, ag

industries in the eastern United States and Canada. So 

potential goes, both the United States and Canada are Atlan

and since instant land-warfare is in view, both the bridge

moated aerodrome are essential to amphibious power. 

The three remaining concepts I shall do little more tha

only for the sake of globular completeness and balance. 

twin unit just described--Heartland and the basin of 

Ocean---there appears on the globe the mantle of vacancies

a practically continuous land-space covering some tw

204 
mankind on the globe. 2 

The fourth of my concepts embraces on either side of 

Atlantic the tropical rain-forests of South America and Afri

were subdued to agriculture and inhabited with the present 

tropical Java, they might sustain a thousand million peop

provided that medicine had rendered the tropics as productiv

energy as the temperate zones. 

Fifthly, and lastly, a thousand million people of ancie

civilization inhabit the Monsoon lands of India and China. 

grow to prosperity in the same years in which Germany an

being tamed to civilization. They will then balance that oth

million who live between the Missouri and the Yenisei. A 

globe of human beings. And happy, because balanced and 

2Some day, incidentally, when coal and oil are exhausted, the Sahara may b

for capturing direct power from the Sun. 

205 
INDEX ~ 

Actium, sea-battle of, 29, 42 

Administrators, their function, 8 

Aegean sea, 25-27 

Afghan war, first, in 1839, 97 

Air navigation, 46 

Alexander, King of Macedonia, 28, 

29, 38, 67 

Alsatians, 90 

America (North and South), 46 

American conceptions opposed to 

policies of E. Europe, 144 

Antony and Caesar, 42 

Arabia, 57-58; reconquered by Britain for the Arabs, 77 

Arabian tableland, 66 

Archipelago, 25 

Asia Minor, 74 

Asia (Northern), the inaccessible 

coast, 54 

Athenian fleet, 28 

Athens and Florence, 140; teachers of 

the world, reasons cited, 133 

Attila, leader of Huns, 70-72 

Austria, assassination of Archduke 

Frank Ferdinand, Germans advance of in 18th Century, 108 

Autocracy a "Going Concern," 103 

Balkan Corridor, Germans given first 

steps towards, 97 

IRefers to chapters 1 through 8 only. 

Balkans, the, Austrian a

rivalry in, 93 

Baltic, the, 32-33; possibi

paring for war within, 

bility of closing by lan

Baltic and Mediterranean

non-German peoples 

112; Russian burea

cruited from Germans 

Belt inhabited by settled p

Berlin, dammed-up flood 

man-power set free, 1

Berlin and Vienna occupy 

tory of Middle Ages, 9

Berlin-Bagdad visualized 

relief map, 16 

Bishop Leo, of Rome, 71 

Bismarck, ambassador in 

called to power at Berli

Alliance, 89; his basis 

unity, 89; part played b

of Empires, 89; the N

Prussia, 12; Three-Kais

of (1872), 94; view of 

100 

Black Sea, the, 32; closed 

and Genoese seamen, 7

Black and Baltic Seas, the

ace to League of Nation

sibility of preparing for 

207 
; , ; 

the two-headed eagle of landpower, 144; their ideal, 143-144 

Bolshevism, Czechs, proof against, 

112; in North Russia, 85; two sides 

to, 143 

"Border" people Czechs and Slovaks, 114 

Bright, John, Advocate of Free 

Trade, 100 

Britain, General Election in 1919, 

143; Roman invasion of, 31; and 

France in action against Russia in 

1854, 97; and Russia, rivalry during 19th Century, 95 

British Board of Trade, 139; command of the sea, 88-89 

British Empire a "Going Concern," 

118; League of Independency, 

118; relation of equality among 

governing units of, 118 

British insular base, 40 

British sea-power, 41-42; after Napoleonic war, 88; attempts to overthrow, 41; in West Europe, 88; 

outcome of, 41; overseas Empire 

foundcd on, 43; position in the Indian Ocean, 41-42; the real base 

historically of. 40-41 

British trade with Indies, 95-96 

Cambon, M. Jules, report of, 108 

Camelmen and horsemen raids 67 

Caesar, sea operations of, 31, 42 

Carnot, 10 

Chamberlain, Joseph, 17 

, , 

of free trade, 10

Columbus, 37, 53 

Constantinople, east

man Emperors a

Britain allied in 

to, 98; local base 

sea-power, 96; 

probabilities, 12

as the Washingt

Nations, 121 

Crete, 25-27 

Czecho-Slovaks, ac

berian line, 85 

Czechs, "border" 

traordinary polit

112; proof aga

112 

Da Gama, the explo

Dark Ages, The, 3

seas during, 72 

Daylight saving, int

Delhi, 73 

Delta. the Nile, 24 

Democracies, Germ

of the west, 11 

Democracy, momen

change in a, 103 

Democracy and de

between, 93 

Democracy and war

Democrat, the, 17 

Democrat and orga

outlook of, 17 

Democratic Idealism

12; the oldest an

208 
East-ends and west-ends, 144 

Eastern question, the, essence of resettlement territorial, 109 

Economic ideal, fiscal independence, 

123; independence of fraternal nations, 137; reality of man-power 

considered, 99; specialization, 124 

Economists, political, 100 

Edinburgh, 137 

Egypt, early conditions and physical 

advantages of, 24 

Egypt and Palestine, 96 

English educational system, 136; nation simple in structure, 40; nationality, rise of, 72; revolution, 87 

Europe, a world apart, 36; danger of 

war in 1840, 98; medieval siege 

of, 36; the real, 85 

Europe, East, condition of, stability, 

111; division of, precedent to a 

League of Nations, 111; German 

domination over Slavism, 93-94; 

Middle States of important strategical significance in, 116; The 

Middle Tier, importance of, in 

breaking up, 120; suggestions and 

reasons for division, organization, 

and transportation in, 113--114; tyrannical policies, English and 

American conception opposed to, 

144; united by The Holy League, 

88 

Europe, East and West, 86 et seq.; 

fundamental opposition between, 

90; two principal elements in, 

90-91 

France and Italy "G

ceres," 119 

Franco-Russian Alliance, 

Frederick, The Great, so

of Prussia, 14; territory 

Austria under, 91 

Free Trade, adoption with 

advamage, 101; and 

104; Cobden, advocate 

dian market, 103; sp

and its results, 102; 

of the strong," 100; w

of, 101 

Freedom of Men, 129 et 

French nationality, rise o

French Revolution, 5, 87

"Friends and Neighbors,

Geographical, descriptio

Great Lowland, 55; de

Heartland, 55; knowled

and South Poles, 22; 

22-23; realities, 21, 

unit, the largest, 47 

Geography, physical fact

German, design on Hea

fleet, surrender of, Fir

51; Kaiserdom, French 

opposition to, 99; "Ku

ger to outside world 

man-power set free 

maps, 15; maps in sph

nomics, 16-17; militar

80; national economist

tlements, 93; strategy, 

cessity, 109; universit

war song, 98 

209 
tariff, 101; unsheaths economic 

sword in 1878, 100 

Gibraltar, 25 

Globe, the, proportions of.. 49 

"Going Concern," the, 12; in Asia 

and Africa, 122; autocracy and, 

104; British prosperity due to, 101; 

control of, 126; in the future, 123; 

man-power dependent on, 100; 

momentum difficult of change, 

103; reality of, 118; relentless fact, 

101; society a, 7; the great economic reality, 104; three attitudes 

of mind towards, 124; uncontrolled development, danger of, 

141 

Great Island, the, proportions and relations of, 45 

Great Lowland, the, 55 

Hamburg, 109 

Hamilton, Alexander, 123 

Hannibal. 29, 38, 42 

Heartland, the, 55-58; Cossack advance over, 83; geographical threat 

to world liberty, 105; German designs on, 79~0; immense geographical realities of, 62; Northern 

and Southern, 58, 60; Russian 

Czardom in, 78; strategical definition of, 77-78; under present day 

conditions, 78; western regions 

of, 74 

Hellenic tribes, 27 

Hereford Cathedral, 64 

History, American and England, parallelism between, 47; classical, 

Horsemen and came

House of Commons, 

of, 130 

Hungarian plains, cu

•Huns, The, 70 

Idealism, European, 

French, in 1789, 5

130; democratic, 

sis of, 12; two ten

Idealists, influence o

Indies, The, British tr

navigable rivers o

38 

Industrial life, 134-

the bane of moder

International re-settle

Ionian Sea, 27 

Jerusalem~ Church of 

chre at, 64 

Jew, the, 122 

Kaiser Wilhelm, 17 

Kiel. German fleet at

Kipling, 17 

Kottbus, Circle of, 9

Krakatoa, volcanic e

at, 22-23 

"Kultur" and democ

"Kultur," German, 

"Kultur" and Germa

Lancashire cotton ind

Latin Christendom, 32

bulwark to, 72 

210 
, ; y 

ing Concern" to reckon with, 118; 

reality the basis, 148; supreme organ of united humanity, 115; the 

test of, 120; United States of 

America in, 119 

London, rapid growth of, 134-135 

Macadonia, 42 

Macedonians, end first cycle of seapower, 28; led into Arabia under 

King Alexander, 67; made Mediterranean a "closed sea," 28; seapower, 67 

Magyar alliance with Prussia, 116; 

economic life till 19th Century, 72 

Magyar Hungary conquered by the 

Turks, 77 

Magyars and Bulgarians, 116 

Manchuria, 70 

Manila, British Fleet at, 43 

Man-power, economic reality considered, 99 

Map, mental relief, 16 

Mediterranean Sea, 25 

Mehemet All, 97 

Middle Ages, 43; Early, 74; England 

and France in the, 90; rival seabases during the, 40 

Middle Tier, importance of, 120 

Mongolia, physical aspects of, 70, 73 

Napoleon, 5, 10, 12-14; at Moscow, 

87-88; limitation of Prussian army 

by, 110; modem importance of 

Egypt and Palestine given by, 96; 

the organizer, 87 

, , , 

Norsemen, 36-37; raids b

North and South Americas

Oim0tz, fatal conference a

Organization, dependent 

pline, 10; national, basi

138; basis for lasting

classes and interests, 1

Organizer, the, 8-17 

Ottoman Turks, 77 

Palestine, Jewish national 

Panama Canal, 43 

Parable of the gardener, 1

Paris Resolutions, 110 

Persians, sea-raid, failure 

Peter the Great, 93 

Petrograd, 93; Bolsheviks 

Phoenician Coast, 25 

Phoenicians, 28 

Plowmen, 67, 78 

Poland, the Poles, 112-113 

Political economists, 100 

Political economy of Brita

Political moralists, 18 

Politics, the first internatio

Population of globe, 49 

Productive power, 110; i

of, 10-11 

Protection and free trade, 

Quai D'Orsay incident, 14

Real-Politik, 6, 15 

Realities, basis of propos

211 
of, 141; history one of the great 

realities in, 91 

Revolutions, 9-10 

Roberts, Lord, 17 

Rome, frontier of, 96; International 

Agricultural Institute in, 139; 

Mediterranean power, 76; wane of 

land-power ol, 31 

Roman Emperors, capital of, 76 

Rosebery, Lord, 17 

Rumania, 114-115 

Russia, Britain and France against in 

1854, 97; collapse of, 49; fall of 

Czardom, 6; first powerful tenant 

of Heartland, 98-99; German influence in, 93; land boundaries of, 

84; Peter the Great, 93; physical 

and social aspects of, 83 85; railways in, 85; revolution in, 10, 49; 

stress after Japanese War, 107; tarifftreaty with Germany, 107, 108; 

under Czar Nicholas, 96; vast forests-land of, 84 

Sahara, the, 55-57; natural features 

of, 74 

St. Petersburg, 93 

Saracen camelmen, land and sea raids 

of, 31; Empire overthrown, 69; 

power a bid for world empire, 68; 

sea-power lacked necessary manpower, 68-69 

Science and social organization, 8 

Sea-power, bases and the relation of 

these to land-power, British overseas empire formed on, 42-43; 

Slavs, German effor

German influenc

volt against Be

(Jugo-Slavs), thre

borderland, 112

Austria, 107 

Smith, Adam, cited, 

Smuts, General, 21, 

Socialism, bureaucr

Society, 74; organi

mentum of illust

State, the function o

Suez Canal, 38, 45, 

Tartars, first called 

Taurus Range, 74-7

Tibetan Heights, 73

Tower of Babel, 13

Trafalgar, effect on 

42, 95 

Trans-Siberian Railw

Transportation, grea

1878, 100-101 

Treaty of Balkan All

of, 108; Belgrade

lin, Austria's acti

Triple base of man-

Turks from central A

nor, 77 

Ukraine, German se

United States of Ame

reau of Agricultu

University Democra

of Nations) 

212 
War, Afghan, 1839, Russian intrigue, 

97; Balkan (first) 1912, 108; Balkan (second), 108; Caesar and Antony, civil war between, 29, 42; 

Congress Table at Vienna 1814, 1; 

European, changes in social structure, 19; European and sea-power, 

43; Napoleonic, 87-88; Prussia 

and Austria 1866, 89; Punic (first 

and second), 29; Punic (third), taking of Carthage, 29; Russia, civil 

war in, 84; Russo-Japanese, 43, 83, 

107; South African, 1900, 83; the 

Great War, American's entrance 

into, 44; began as German effort 

to subdue Slavs, 106; between Islanders and Continentals, 66; Britain's entrance into, 43--44; causes 

emancipation from G

trol, 116; Italy's entran

won by Allies, method

and warnings, 105--10

Watt, James, 8 

Wilson, President, 17, 47 

World, geographical cent

World Island, The, 45, 

joint continents of Eu

and Africa, 45; limitati

poses of navigation, 45

paratively small region

important on globe, 60

World Promontory, the 4

Xerxes, King, 28, 29 

Yermak, the Cossak, 83 

213 

"-:' U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING 
1