Geography and World Power

James Fairgrieve

Description

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. But history is not all repetition. There has been an advance. If we go back a year or two we mav not notice it, but if we cast our thoughts back some centuries and look all over the world, we are conscious that some thing oi an advance has been made, and if we consider the whole history of the world the progress becomes most evident. We may be very doubtful how to express what we mean by advance, but none the less we feel it is there. We are conscious, for example, that during historic times men's ideas of what is right and wrong have undergone a change which, on the whole, is for the better. But this is only one side of the advance. There are other obvious ways in which a change for the better has taken place. We are better off not only morally and intellectually, but materially; we have better clothes; our food is better; we have more conveniences; we have more time for ourselves than had men who lived centuries ago. In a thousand ways we know that on the average it is a great deal better to be alive in the twentieth century a.d. Than to have lived five thousand years ago.

Sujets

• Geography

Informations

• Publié par: Forgotten Books
• Date de parution: 27 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780243661015
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

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th is volume an ende avour is m ade tell a coh eren t story and sh o that th ere is reall som e order i n th e apparently isorderly happ eni n gs th is pl n et D ealing ith world history and g eography such small omp ass it i s obvious th at th ere must b e man omissions O pinions m ay di er as to h at omis ion s ought b e made and so e th in gs m ay present th emsel v es i e sam n th t as th e ligh ey th e author but th e corr ectn ess th e th esis as a hol e does epend on th e accuracy this th at statem en t or i ew I n parti ular it may be as well to emp asis e th e act that w il e th e book d als with world istor it als ith only si e i t I ts special con cern i n a t is rath er with th e s etting th e sta e than ith t he action th e drama I ts ai m is p i t the stag e set at di erent epochs in th e h istory th e worl and spe iall th e st e has b een set that act the d am n ow b ein g played A t a cursory glan ce th en th e bo k m ay possibly app ar to be m aterialistic bu t i t is m aterialistic only in th e se se that rom th e ture th e as e it eal ith m aterial th in gs Th e ays in hi ch g eograp ical conditions a ect th e actors are traced out but thos e spi ritual aspects drama h ch do e hibit th e geog aphical ontrol are n aturally r e erred to This does mean that th ey n ot exist

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I O D U C IO D E E BE G I I G OF I O Y E Y MA E E BAB Y ALO IA Y IA W A Y AL I E i G EE C E i i A A G E C BEO A W E L A D I G LA D LO W LA D OM LAI I VA D I G IBE MO AMME D A I O EA D I O VE Y IB IA O EA O C OE A W E OLLA D F A C E O C I AIE B EA E I EA O i U I A G MA Y LA D IVE C I A v ii

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C ON TENTS

W LA IA M D IA A F I C A G A LA D E E F U E C E O L D I O Y B FO C OLUM U A I AM I C A C II EOA L G LAA E D D I IB IO II U I E D A FU U E I D EX

CHAPTER D U

I

T book is written to show how the history of the world has been control ed thos e con tions and phenomena which we class together un der the title of Geography and to point w ch are the really essential geograp cal facts by noti g th ose w ch have most e ectivel cont r In that sentence thereolled the histor t ree words ab out whos e mea ng must be q te clear They are controlled Geography W istory t hen we speak of s we of co rse imply that we are speaking of the history of man on the e rth even s o history mean a number of th ngs It may mean merely statement of all the events that ever happened in the order in which they happened without any comments on them whatever it is very necessary to have a k owledge of events when we study h story but it would be very interesti g merely to know them nor is it possible even if they could all be fou d out for any to know them all There mus t be a s election of the most important

G E OG RAPHY AND W OR LD POWER Hence get another idea of history as a state men t of the most important even s in order in hi h the happened In the proce s of picking out the most important e v ust ho ents m ever have compared them and j u ged which were the most important To do this must of course thi nk t ey are importan t and hat we mean i mportant Then we that things are important they a fect well being of men to a great extent and are less important if they do not man much We have thus a most at once a thi rd idea of history as a story of the important events hich have happened ith a statement of the causes whi ch have brought them about and of effects which they have had on man In estimating importance we m st remember that some e v time and onlyfor a ents a fect man greatl slightl afterward while others man only sl ghtly atfibut continue to produce results for a long timer t When look at history in th s wefind that some events that are apparently of little acco nt are really the important events while others that are apparently very important mu t take a lower place Wefialso that the ca ses and n d areresults of h story s o ent ned that history becomes one orga c whole Some particular event aturally led on to other events What one man or tribe or nati on has done has a fected the action o f other men or nations The stud of histor is so interesting j us t becau e it is one of the studies h ch treat of men their relation to one another and the that each man or collection of men has on the re t From a study of history too wefin d that men very wi dely separated both in time and space have yet poss ess ed very sim lar characters so that events very

INTR OD UCTI ON

simi lar to one nother happen in very different parts of world or even at times many centu i es apart j st because of th s ikeness There is thu a tendency for history to repeat itself as say But h tory is not all repe ition There has been an advance If we go back a year or two we ma v not noti ce it but if cast our thoughts back s ome centu es and look all over the world we are cons cious that so me thing an advance has been made and if we consi der the whole story of the world the progress becom s most evident W be very doubtful how toe may express what we mean by advance but none the less we feel it is there W cious for e are cons example that during histori c times men s i deas of what is right and w ong have u dergo a change which on the whole is for the better But this only one side of the advance There are other obvi ous ways i n which a chang for the better has taken place W e are better not only morally and intellectually but materially we have better clothes o ur food is better we have more conven ences we have mor e time for ourselves than had men who lived centuries ago In a thousan d ways we kno w that on the average it is a great deal better to be alive in the twentieth century than to have l vedfive thousand years ago Now what is it that has been happe ng Leav ng out of accou t re gious questions what does h story mean Is there n o short way in which we can say what h story Many answers may be iven and t o the one given here there may be obj ections and there certainly are qualifications but