Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/388

 37° THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Domingo's flourishing condition stood without a parallel in colo- nial history. The leading position then assumed in turn by Cuba would have been more lasting, had it not been for the competition offered by the immense area of the United States, upon which Cuba is becoming more and more dependent.

The wholesome limitation of a country in the first stages of its growth need not be caused necessarily by the sea. In the New England states this function was performed by mountains and forests, which were inhabited by hostile Indian tribes. Only a hundred years ago there lay in Vermont and Maine a "young" West and North for the old New England states — Massachu- setts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. They too, therefore, had the advantage of developing inside narrow boundaries and v/ith a broad horizon. In the same way the mountains of Spain forced the Moors into a few favored regions, and in consequence gave rise to dense populations, large cities, and lasting traces. In Russia, where Islam was spread out over a territory three times as big, a sparse population, small towns, and no monument of any significance are the result.

There are political aims which require only a minimum of space for their achievement. Rome proved that a great empire could grow out of the district of a city, and that it would, there- fore, be idle to designate a minimum area for a state. A coal- ing station can be very important, and yet it is always very small. St. Helena is only forty-seven square miles in area, but has great political importance in consequence of its position in the south Atlantic, which is so poor in islands, twelve hundred miles from the African and twenty-two hundred from the South American coast. This importance has belonged to it from the seventeenth century, when it was the main stopping point for the Dutch between Holland and Java, and has only been dimin- ished by the transfer of the East India route to the Suez canal. A trading people, in founding cities and colonies, does not in the beginning aim at territorial possession, but it only wants a base here and there for maritime commerce and the control of the sea. Even the greatest colonies of the present time have developed out of narrow strips of shore, like the half mile along