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Influences of Geographic Environment by Ellen Churchill Semple

E >> Ellen Churchill Semple >> Influences of Geographic Environment



INFLUENCES OF GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT
ON THE BASIS OF RATZEL'S SYSTEM OF
ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY

BY ELLEN CHURCHILL SEMPLE



TO THE MEMORY OF FRIEDRICH RATZEL

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light.
MILTON.




PREFACE


The present book, as originally planned over seven years ago, was to be
a simplified paraphrase or restatement of the principles embodied in
Friedrich Ratzel's _Anthropo-Geographie_. The German work is difficult
reading even for Germans. To most English and American students of
geographic environment it is a closed book, a treasure-house bolted and
barred. Ratzel himself realized "that any English form could not be a
literal translation, but must be adapted to the Anglo-Celtic and
especially to the Anglo-American mind." The writer undertook, with
Ratzel's approval, to make such an adapted restatement of the
principles, with a view to making them pass current where they are now
unknown. But the initial stages of the work revealed the necessity of a
radical modification of the original plan.

Ratzel performed the great service of placing anthropo-geography on a
secure scientific basis. He had his forerunners in Montesquieu,
Alexander von Humboldt, Buckle, Ritter, Kohl, Peschel and others; but he
first investigated the subject from the modern scientific point of view,
constructed his system according to the principles of evolution, and
based his conclusions on world-wide inductions, for which his
predecessors did not command the data. To this task he brought thorough
training as a naturalist, broad reading and travel, a profound and
original intellect, and amazing fertility of thought. Yet the field
which he had chosen was so vast, and its material so complex, that even
his big mental grasp could not wholly compass it. His conclusions,
therefore, are not always exhaustive or final.

Moreover, the very fecundity of his ideas often left him no time to test
the validity of his principles. He enunciates one brilliant
generalization after another. Sometimes he reveals the mind of a seer or
poet, throwing out conclusions which are highly suggestive, on the face
of them convincing, but which on examination prove untenable, or at
best must be set down as unproven or needing qualification. But these
were just the slag from the great furnace of his mind, slag not always
worthless. Brilliant and far-reaching as were his conclusions, he did
not execute a well-ordered plan. Rather he grew with his work, and his
work and its problems grew with him. He took a mountain-top view of
things, kept his eyes always on the far horizon, and in the splendid
sweep of his scientific conceptions sometimes overlooked the details
near at hand. Herein lay his greatness and his limitation.

These facts brought the writer face to face with a serious problem.
Ratzel's work needed to be tested, verified. The only solution was to go
over the whole field from the beginning, making research for the data as
from the foundation, and checking off the principles against the facts.
This was especially necessary, because it was not always obvious that
Ratzel had based his inductions on sufficiently broad data; and his
published work had been open to the just criticism of inadequate
citation of authorities. It was imperative, moreover, that any
investigation of geographic environment for the English-speaking world
should meet its public well supported both by facts and authorities,
because that public had not previously known a Ritter or a Peschel.

The writer's own investigation revealed the fact that Ratzel's
principles of anthropo-geography did not constitute a complete,
well-proportioned system. Some aspects of the subject had been developed
exhaustively, these of course the most important; but others had been
treated inadequately, others were merely a hint or an inference, and yet
others were represented by an hiatus. It became necessary, therefor, to
work up certain important themes with a thoroughness commensurate with
their significance, to reduce the scale of others, and to fill up
certain gaps with original contributions to the science. Always it was
necessary to clarify the original statement, where that was adhered to,
and to throw it into the concrete form of expression demanded by the
Anglo-Saxon mind.

One point more. The organic theory of society and state permeates the
_Anthropo-geographie_, because Ratzel formulated his principles at a
time when Herbert Spencer exercised a wide influence upon European
thought. This theory, now generally abandoned by sociologists, had to be
eliminated from any restatement of Ratzel's system. Though it was
applied in the original often in great detail, it stood there
nevertheless rather as a scaffolding around the finished edifice; and
the stability of the structure, after this scaffolding is removed shows
how extraneous to the whole it was. The theory performed, however, a
great service in impressing Ratzel's mind with the life-giving
connection between land and people.

The writer's own method of research has been to compare typical peoples
of all races and all stages of cultural development, living under
similar geographic conditions. If these peoples of different ethnic
stocks but similar environments manifested similar or related social,
economic or historical development, it was reasonable to infer that such
similarities were due to environment and not to race. Thus, by extensive
comparison, the race factor in these problems of two unknown quantities
was eliminated for certain large classes of social and historical
phenomena.

The writer, moreover, has purposely avoided definitions, formulas, and
the enunciation of hard-and-fast rules; and has refrained from any
effort to delimit the field or define the relation of this new science
of anthropo-geography to the older sciences. It is unwise to put tight
clothes on a growing child. The eventual form and scope of the science,
the definition and organization of its material must evolve gradually,
after long years and many efforts of many workers in the field. The
eternal flux of Nature runs through anthropo-geography, and warns
against precipitate or rigid conclusions. But its laws are none the less
well founded because they do not lend themselves to mathematical
finality of statement. For this reason the writer speaks of geographic
factors and influences, shuns the word geographic determinant, and
speaks with extreme caution of geographic control.

The present volume is offered to the public with a deep sense of its
inadequacy; with the realization that some of its principles may have to
be modified or their emphasis altered after wider research; but also
with the hope that this effort may make the way easier for the scholar
who shall some day write the ideal treatise on anthropo-geography.

In my work on this book I have only one person to thank, the great
master who was my teacher and friend during his life, and after his
death my inspiration.

ELLEN CHURCHILL SEMPLE.
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY,
_January_, 1911.




CONTENTS


PREFACE

CHAPTER I. OPERATION OF GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS IN HISTORY

Man a product of the earth's surface--Persistent effect of geographic
barriers--Recurrent influences of nature-made highways--Regions of
historical similarity--Persistence of climatic influences--Relation of
geography to history--Multiplicity of geographic factors--Evolution of
geographic relations--Interplay of geographic factors--Direct and
indirect effects of environment--Indirect effects in differentiation of
colonial peoples--General importance of indirect effects--Time
element--Previous habitat--Transplanted religions--Partial response to
environment--The larger conception of environment--Unity of the earth
and the human race.


CHAPTER II. CLASSES OF GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES

Four classes of influences--Physical effects of environment--Stature
and environment--Effects of dominant activities--Physical effects of
climate--Pigmentation in relation to heat and light--Pigmentation
and altitude--Difficulty of generalization from geographic
distribution--Psychical effects--In Religion--In mind and character--In
language--The great man in history--Economic and social effects--Size of
the social group--Effects on movements of peoples--Segregation and
accessibility--Change of habitat.


CHAPTER III. SOCIETY AND STATE IN RELATION TO THE LAND

People and land--Political geography--Political versus social
geography--Land basis of society--Morgan's _societas_--Land bond in
primitive hunter tribes--In fisher tribes--In pastoral tribes--Land and
state--Strength of the land bond in the state--Evolution of land
tenure--Land and food supply--Advance from natural to artificial basis
of subsistence--Land basis in relation to agriculture--Migratory and
sedentary agriculture--Geographic checks to progress in economic and
social development--Native animal and plant life as factors in
progress--Density of population under different cultural and geographic
conditions--Its relation to government--Territorial expansion of the
state--Artificial checks to population--Extra-territorial relations of
state and people--Theory of progress from the standpoint of
geography--Progressive dependence of man upon nature.


CHAPTER IV. MOVEMENTS OF PEOPLES IN THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Universality of such movements--The name Historical Movement--Its
evolution--Its importance in history--Geographical interpretation of
historical movement--Mobility of primitive peoples--Civilization and
mobility--Migration and ethnic mingling--Cultural modification during
migration--The transit land--War as form of historical
movement--Slavery--Military colonies--Withdrawal and flight--Natural
regions of asylum--Emigration and colonization--Commerce as a form of
historical movement--Movements due to religion--Historical movement and
race distribution--Zonal distribution--Movements to like or better
geographic conditions--Their direction--Return movements--Regions of
attraction and repulsion--Psychical influences in certain movements--Two
results of historical movement--Differentiation and
area--Differentiation and isolation--Geographic conditions of
heterogeneity and homogeneity--Assimilation--Elimination of unfit
variants through historical movement--Geographical origins.


CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

The importance of geographical location--Content of the term
location--Intercontinental location--Natural versus vicinal
location--Naturally defined location--Vicinal location--Vicinal groups
of similar or diverse race and culture--Thalassic vicinal
location--Complementary locations--Continuous and scattered
location--Central versus peripheral location--Mutual relations between
center and periphery--Inland and coastward expansion--Reaction between
center and periphery--Periphery in colonization--Dominant historical
side--Change of historical front--Contrasted historical sides--One-sided
historical location--Scattered location--Due to adverse geographic
conditions--Island way stations on maritime routes--Scattered location
of primitive peoples--Ethnic islands of expansion and
decline--Discontinuous distribution--Contrasted location--Geographical
polarity--Geographical marks of growth and decline--Interpretation of
scattered and marginal location--Contrast between ethnic islands of
growth and decline.


CHAPTER VI. GEOGRAPHICAL AREA

The size of the earth--Relation of area to life--Area and
differentiation--The struggle for space--National area an index
of social and political development--The Oikoumene--The unity of
the human species in relation to the earth--Isolation and
differentiation--Monotonous race type of small area--Wide race
distribution and inner diversities--Large area a guarantee of racial or
national permanence--Weakness of small states--Protection of large area
to primitive peoples--Contrast of large and small areas in
bio-geography--Political domination of large areas--Area and
literature--Small geographic base of primitive societies--Influence of
small, confined areas--The process of territorial growth--Historical
advance from small to large areas--Gradations in area and in
development--Preliminaries to ethnic and political
expansion--Significance of sphere of influence or activity--Nature of
expansion in new and old countries--Relation of ethnic to political
expansion--Relation of people and state to political boundary--Expansion
of civilization--Cultural advantages of large political
area--Politico-economic advantages--Political area and the national
horizon--National estimates of area--Limitations of small tribal
conceptions--Evolution of territorial policies--Colonial expansion--The
mind of colonials.


CHAPTER VII. GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES

The boundary zone in Nature--Oscillating boundaries of the habitable
area of the earth--Wallace's Line a typical boundary zone--Boundaries as
limits of expansion--Boundary zone as index of growth or
decline--Breadth of boundary zone--Broad frontier zones of active
expansion--Value of barrier boundaries--The sea as the absolute
boundary--Natural boundaries as bases of ethnic and political
boundaries--Primitive waste boundaries--Alien intrusions into border
wastes--Politico-economic significance of the waste boundary--Common
boundary districts--Tariff free zones--Boundary zones of mingled race
elements--Assimilation of civilization in boundary zones--Relation of
ethnic and cultural assimilation--The border zone of assimilation in
political expansion--Tendency toward defection along political
frontiers--The spirit of colonial frontiers--Free border states as
political survivals--Guardians of the marches--Lawless citizens deported
to political frontiers--Drift of lawless elements to the
frontiers--Asylums beyond the border.


CHAPTER VIII. COAST PEOPLES

The coast a zone of transition--The inner edge--Shifting of the inner
edge--Outer edge in original settlement--In early navigation--In
colonization--Inland advance of colonies--Interpenetration of land and
sea--Ratio of shore-line to area--Criticism of the
formula--Accessibility of coasts from hinterland--Accessibility of
coasts from the sea--Embayed coasts--Contrasted coastal belts--Evolution
of ports--Influence of offshore islands--Previous habitat of
coast-dwellers--Habitability of coasts as a factor in maritime
development--Geographic conditions for brilliant maritime
development--Scope and importance of seaward expansion--Ethnic contrast
between coast and interior peoples--Ethnic amalgamations of
coastlands--_Lingua franca_ a product of coasts--Coast-dwellers as
middlemen--Differentiation of coast from inland people--Early
civilization of coasts--Progress from thalassic to oceanic
coasts--Importance of geographic location of coasts--Historical decline
of certain coasts--Complex interplay of geographic factors in
coastlands.


CHAPTER IX. OCEANS AND ENCLOSED SEAS

The water a factor in man's mobility--Oceans and seas the factor of
union in universal history--Origin of navigation--Primitive
forms--Relation of river to marine navigation--Retarded and advanced
navigation--Geographic conditions in Polynesia--Mediterranean versus
Atlantic seamanship--Three geographic stages of maritime
development--Enclosed seas as areas of ethnic and cultural
assimilation--Assimilation facilitated by ethnic kinship--Importance of
zonal and continental location of enclosed seas--Thalassic character of
the Indian Ocean--Limitations of small area in enclosed seas--Successive
maritime periods in history--Contrasted historical roles of northern and
southern hemispheres--Size of the ocean--Neutrality of the seas--_Mare
clausum and Mare liberum_.


CHAPTER X. MAN'S RELATION TO THE WATER

The protection of a water frontier--Pile villages of ancient
times--Modern pile dwellings--Their geographic
distribution--River-dwellers in old and popular lands--Man's
encroachment upon the sea by reclamation of land--The struggle with the
water--Mound villages in river flood-plains--Social and political gain
by control of the water--A factor in early civilization of arid
lands--The economy of the water--Fisheries--Factors in maritime
expansion--Fisheries as nurseries of seamen--Anthropo-geographic
importance of navigation.


CHAPTER XI. THE ANTHROPO-GEOGRAPHY OF RIVERS

Rivers as intermediaries between land and sea--Sea navigation merges
into river navigation--Historical importance of seas and oceans
influenced by their debouching streams--Lack of coast articulations
supplied by rivers--River highways as basis of commercial
preeminence--Importance of rivers in large countries--Rivers as highways
of expansion--Determinants of routes in arid or semi-arid
lands--Increasing historical importance of rivers from source to
mouth--Value of location at hydrographic centers--Effect of current upon
trade and expansion--Importance of mouth to upstream people--Prevention
of monopoly of river mouths--Motive for canals in lower
course--Watershed canals for extension of inland waterways--Rivers and
railroads--Natural unity of every river system--In arid lands as common
source of water supply--Tendency towards ethnic and cultural unity in a
river valley--Identity of country with river valley--Rivers as
boundaries of races and peoples--Rivers as political boundaries--Fluvial
settlements and peoples--Boatman tribes or castes--River islands as
protected sites--River and lake islands as robber strongholds--River
peninsulas--River islands as sites of trading posts and colonies--Swamps
as barriers and boundaries--Swamps as regions of survivals--Swamps as
places of refuge--The spirit of the marshes--Economic and political
importance of lakes--Lakes as nuclei of states--Lakes as fresh-water
seas.


CHAPTER XII. CONTINENTS AND THEIR PENINSULAS

Insularity of the land-masses--Classification of land-masses according
to size and location--Effect of the size of land-masses--Independence
due to location versus independence due to size--Continental convergence
and ethnic kinship--Africa's location--The Atlantic abyss--Geographical
character of the Pacific--Pacific affinities of North America--The
Atlantic face of America as the infant Orient of the world--The Atlantic
abyss in the movements of peoples--Races and continents--Contrast of the
northern and southern continents--Effects of continental structure upon
historical development--Structure of North and South America--Cultural
superiority of Pacific slope Indians--Coast articulations of
continents--Importance of size in continental articulations--Peninsular
conditions most favorable to historical development--The continental
base of peninsulas--Continental base a zone of transition--Continental
base the scene of invasion and war--Peninsular extremities as areas of
isolation--Ethnic unity of peninsulas--Peninsulas as intermediaries.


CHAPTER XIII. ISLAND PEOPLES

Physical relationship between islands and peninsulas--Character of
insular flora and fauna--Paradoxical influences of island habitat on
man--Conservative and radical tendencies born of isolation and
accessibility--Islands as nurseries and disseminators of distinctive
civilizations--Limitation of small area in insular history--Sources of
ethnic stock of islands on nearest mainland. Ethnic divergence with
increased isolation--Differentiation of peoples and civilizations in
islands--Differentiation of language--Unification of race in
islands--Remoter sources of island populations--Double sources--Mixed
population of small thalassic isles--Significant location of island way
stations--Thalassic islands as goals of maritime expansion--Political
detachability of islands--Insular weakness based upon small area--Island
fragments of broken empires--Area and location as factors in political
autonomy of islands--Historical effects of island isolation in primitive
retardation--Later stimulation of development--Excessive
isolation--Protection of an island environment--Islands as places of
refuge--Islands as places of survival--Effects of small area in
islands--Economic limitations of their small area--Dense population of
islands--Geographic causes of this density--Oceanic climate as
factor--Relation of density to size--Density affected by a focal
location for trade--Overflow of island population and colonies to the
mainland--Precocious development of island agriculture--Intensive
tillage--Emigration and colonization from islands--Recent emigration
from islands--Maritime enterprise as outlet--Artificial checks to
population--Polyandry--Infanticide--Low valuation of human life.


CHAPTER XIV. PLAINS, STEPPES AND DESERTS

Relief of the sea floor--Mean elevations of the continents--Distribution
of relief--Homologous reliefs and homologous
histories--Anthropo-geography of lowlands--Extensive plains unfavorable
to early development--Conditions for fusion in plains--Retardation due
to monotonous environment--Influence of slight geographic features in
plains--Plains and political expansion--Arid plains--Nomadism--Pastoral
life--Pastoral nomads of Arctic plains--Historical importance of steppe
nomads--Mobility of pastoral nomads--Seasonal migrations--Marauding
expeditions--Forms of defense against nomad depredations--Pastoral life
as a training for soldiers--Capacity for political organization and
consolidation--Centralization versus decentralization in
nomadism--Spirit of independence among nomads--Resistance to
conquest--Curtailment of nomadism--Supplementary agriculture of pastoral
nomadism--Irrigation and horticulture--Scant diet of nomads--Effects of
a diminishing water supply--Checks to population--Trade of
nomads--Pastoral nomads as middlemen--Desert markets--Nomad
industries--Arid lands as areas of arrested development--Mental and
moral qualities of nomads--Religion of pastoral nomads.


CHAPTER XV. MOUNTAIN BARRIERS AND THEIR PASSES

Man as part of the mobile envelope of the earth--Inaccessibility of
mountains--Mountains as transit regions--Transition forms of relief
between highlands and lowlands--Piedmont belts as boundary
zones--Density of population in piedmont belts--Piedmont towns and
cities--Piedmonts as colonial or backwoods frontiers--Mountain
carriers--Power of mountain barriers to block or deflect historical
movement--Significance of mountain valleys--Longitudinal valleys--Passes
in mountain barriers--Breadth of mountain barriers--Dominant
transmontane routes--Height and form of mountain barriers--Contrasted
accessibility of opposite slopes--Political and ethnic
effects--Persistence of barrier nature--Importance of mountain
passes--Geographic conditions affecting the historical importance of
passes--Passes determine the transmontane routes--Navigable river
approaches to passes--Types of settlement in the valley approaches--Pass
cities and their markets--Pass peoples--Their political importance.


CHAPTER XVI. INFLUENCES OF A MOUNTAIN ENVIRONMENT

Zones of altitude--Politico-economic value of a varied relief--Belief
and climate--Altitude zones of economic and cultural
development--Altitude and density belts in tropical
highlands--Increasing density where altitude confers safety--Geographic
conditions affecting density of mountain population--Terrace
agriculture--Its geographical distribution--Terrace agriculture in
mountainous islands--Among savage peoples--Fertilizing terrace
lands--Economy of level land--Mountain pastures and stock-raising--Life
and industry of the summer herdsmen--Communal ownership of mountain
pastures--Hay making in high mountains--Winter industries of mountain
peoples--Overpopulation and emigration--Preventive checks to increase of
population--Religious celibacy--Polyandry--Marauding tendencies in
mountaineers--Historical consequences of mountain raiding--Conquest of
mountain regions--Political dismemberment of mountain peoples--Types of
mountain states--Significance of their small size--Mountain isolation
and differentiation--Survival of primitive races in mountains--Diversity
of peoples and dialects--Constriction of mountain areas of ethnic
survival--Isolation and retardation of mountain regions--Mental and
moral qualities of mountain people.


CHAPTER XVII. THE INFLUENCES OF CLIMATE UPON MAN

Importance of climatic influences--Climate in the interplay of
geographic factors--Its direct and indirect effects--Climate determines
the habitable area of the earth--Effect of climate upon relief and hence
upon man--Man's adaptability to climatic extremes--Temperature as
modified by oceans and winds--Rainfall--Temperature and zonal
location--Mutual reactions of contrasted zones--Isothermal lines in
anthropo-geography--Historical effects of compressed
isotherms--Historical effects of slight climatic differences--Their
influence upon distribution of immigration--Temperature and race
temperament--Complexity of this problem--Monotonous climatic
conditions--Effects of Arctic cold--Effect of monotonous heat--The
tropics as goals of migration--The problem of
acclimatization--Historical importance of the temperate zone--Contrast
of the seasons--Duration of the seasons--Effect of long winters and long
summers--Zones of culture--Temperate zone as cradle of civilization

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Resounding Guardian first book award victory for The Rest Is Noise
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Site of the Week: The International Literary Quarterly

An intricate, kaleidoscopic, all-embracing history of 20th-century music from Mahler to La Monte Young is the winner of this year's Guardian first book award. Alex Ross's The Rest Is Noise was the clear and undisputed winner of the £10,000 prize, which has been presented at a ceremony in central London tonight.

The chair of the judging panel, Guardian literary editor Claire Armitstead, said: "In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers' groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books."

According to one judge: "Where Ross lifts his book above the 'expert' and impressive to the 'good read' category is in the way he wears his learning lightly, never clutches for false or contrived ways of explaining music, and never dumbs down in order to explain."

One of the members of the Waterstone's reading groups, who helped in the judging process, said: "Every time I felt overwhelmed by the technicalities, along came a sublime metaphor or simile that would light up the prose."

Ross, who is the music critic of the New Yorker, has distilled a lifetime's enthusiasm and learning into a rich narrative of musical history, setting the works of Mahler, Schoenberg, John Cage and the rest into their cultural and political contexts – but also giving a vivid sense of what the music he describes actually sounds and feels like.

Of all the artforms, modern and contemporary classical music is often seen as the most rebarbative. Ross brushes aside the mythology of 20th-century music's "inaccessibility" as he charts its meandering histories. Along the way, fascinating connections are made: hip-hop has more in common with Janacek than you might think; Arnold Schoenberg and George Gershwin were tennis partners; Gershwin, in turn, was an ardent fan of Alban Berg and kept an autographed photo of the composer of Lulu in his apartment. If there is an overarching idea to the book, it is perhaps contained in Berg's pronouncement to Gershwin: "Mr Gershwin, music is music."

Ross, 40, was born in Washington DC, and studied English and history at Harvard. An enthusiastic teenage musician and student broadcaster, he began writing music criticism after university and in 1996 was appointed music critic of the New Yorker. His blog – also called The Rest Is Noise – has been a trailblazer in harnessing the internet as a way of amplifying (often literally) his writing on music.

The New York Review of Books described The Rest Is Noise as "by far the liveliest and smartest popular introduction yet written to a century of diverse music". The Economist noted: "No other critic writing in English can so effectively explain why you like a piece, or beguile you to reconsider it, or prompt you to hurry online and buy a recording."

Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of the Barbican and a former Observer music critic, said: "At a time when people are still talking about 20th-century music as if it were a problem, here is a lucid and entertaining book about what I regard as some of the greatest music ever written. It's a wonderful way to advance the cause of 20th-century music to an ordinary, intelligent general reader. It's the ideal mix of enthusiasm and information."

This year's judging panel comprised novelist Roddy Doyle; broadcaster and novelist Francine Stock; poet Daljit Nagra; the historian David Kynaston; novelist Kate Mosse and Guardian deputy editor, Katharine Viner. Stuart Broom of Waterstone's also joined the deliberations, speaking as the representative of the readers' groups.

The other books on the shortlist were Mohammed Hanif's A Case of Exploding Mangoes; Ross Raisin's God's Own Country; Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole (which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker prize) and Owen Matthews's Stalin's Children.

Previous winners of the prize have included Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters (2005) and Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000).

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