GLOBAL GEOGRAPHY

I. Geographically determined areas:

If we look at the globe carefully, we may first observe that the largest land area represents a massive continent which we usually represent as three continents; Eurasia-Africa. Second, on Eurasia-Africa we may denote a long, dry-belt arc extending from the Atlas Mountains in the West to the end of the silk road in Kansu, China. This large, long land arc was distinct in many ways that were a function of its geography. One should also mention the great mountain chain of Eurasia as a geographic factor. From Alps to the Eastern Himalayas, these mountains provided a border between the dry belt and steppes, but a border that could be penetrated through the passes. From time to time this did happen allowing nomadic pastoralists or the armies of large agricultural areas to move.

Above this dry-belt arc and mountain chain lay a slightly shorter belt of steppes; grassy highlands suited to some pastoral pursuits. The steppe lands stretched from the Hungarian steppe of central Europe in the west to the Himalayas and China in the east.

To the east of the steppe lands lay a large, forested land where intense cultivation was also possible in great river valleys: this was the land of China. This area enjoyed a moderate temperate climate with ample rainfall for agriculture; The major valleys were those of the Yellow, Yangtze, and West rivers (Hsung Chiang). Civilizations were built on these river basins. They gave birth to fairly stable civilizations.

To the south of the dry-belt in Asia lay India, South China, and South East Asia, where in widely dispersed river basins, the possibility of intensive farming was also possible. Most important were those of the Indus and Ganges on Asian subcontinent and in sub-Saharan Africa, moist tropical and subtropical savanna and forestlands were also found; West Africa had certain locations that were favorable to heavy cultivation located on the Niger and Senegal rivers.

To the west of the steppe lands lay the West European peninsula. If you look at a globe, you will be able to get a better perspective on this concept of West Europe as a peninsula off of the Eurasian land mass. This peninsula was located in a moist, moderate temperate climate, and hence there were heavily forested lands on this peninsula. For this reason, the greater river valleys were capable of intense cultivation and supporting political development: these river valleys were those of Middle Rhine, the low lands at the bottom of the Rhine and other rivers, the Seine, the Po, and the Thames.

Rather uniquely, the West European peninsula was also surrounded by water on three sides, making it particularly prone to trade development and to long-distance communications. However, because it was a peninsula, enough political organization to stop marine marauders had to be developed.

II.. Politico-economic culture:

Geography influenced and constrained the development of institutions. Sophisticated political organization, towns, writing and a higher standard of living require surplus production to support it. Where agriculture easily prospered, this was easier to achieve.

B. Politico-economic culture of the steppes:

The steppes supported only nomadic peoples who followed herds of animals. The harsh climate did not lend itself well to agriculture. Tribal polities sprang up in this environment.

C. Politico-economic culture supported by the river valleys:

In the intensely cultivated regions, polities tended to arise that were based on the agricultural produce of peasant-farmers. An elite political group that extracted tribute from these producers dominated the latter. Trade tended to be unimportant to the existence of the state elites in these areas. Civilization developed early in these areas because it was relatively easy to produce a surplus which, in turn, fostered political development. Political development, in turn, insured greater productivity.

Whether or not states were highly centralized or diffuse was also partly a function of geography. Highly centralized refers to imperial monarchies, large political structures based on tribute extracted by ruling elites arose. They were heterogeneous: multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-regional, and multi-linguistic. China was highly compact and this lent itself to centralization. West Europe, however was rather segmented, being confined to the outlier of a peninsula. This led to more diffuse arrangements, which are identified as feudalism.

III. The politico-economic development supported by the Dry-belt:

In the dry-belt areas, nomadic herdsmen and a small number of cultivators were found; the latter were both limited to small areas where polities could arise based on the availability of water and various agricultural productivity. But the Dry-belt was also the area through which caravans carried goods between the great urban centers in the river valleys. It was located in between the greatest centers of civilization geographically, and its topography readily supported transporting goods with low technology means. Pastoralist polities also arose by exploiting trade being conducted on the long trade routes that linked one part of the arc to the other; e.g., the silk road. That is to say, they demanded tribute for protection from long-distance merchants. Nomadic pastoralists often controlled the steppes, too, until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Compared to the polities of the major river valley civilizations, these polities were not very sophisticated. They were usually the chiefdom or clan-type entity. Nevertheless, they were capable of war and conquest.

The hydraulic oases of Egypt and Iran/Iraq provided an exception to geographical determinism in the Dry-belt. They were like the river valleys so long as the hydraulic technology worked. Hence, with this technology, political development could be more readily achieved and would be like that in the great river valleys.

Political centralization was obviously difficult given the geography of the great dry-belt arc. Only once was the great arc united under one polity: that was under the Moslem Arab Empire of the seventh and eighth centuries.

IV. The importance of long-distance trade:

Trade was an important element in human life and, from ancient times, it was also influenced by geographic factors. Because great distances separated the great agricultural and political centers from one another, trade between them was difficult. But trade between these areas was highly desirable, even necessary. Trade provided goods to deficit areas from surplus areas. Most important, it provided luxury products for elite groups in the societies, the consumption of which represented part of their high position. This need for trade between the great agricultural and political centers presented an economic opportunity to the peoples of the dry-belt arc.

Geography determined that the main trade routes were in the dry-belt, as already noted. The lack of dense forests or growth of any vegetation permitted a relatively inexpensive selection of trade routes. Nomadic pastoralists could and did provide the "service" and "protection" for merchants on these routes until the sixteenth century, when other routes appeared. And one must just mention now how important it was that the West Europeans, once they had cleared the forests and stopped the marine marauders, were able to create sea trade routes between the great agricultural centers, avoiding the land routes over the dry-belt controlled by the nomadic pastoralists.

(For further information, see Eric Wolf, Europe and the People Without a History.)