1940: Geography

Continued confusion and change have characterized the year. The political and economic problems of almost every country have increased, and international relations have grown correspondingly weaker. Uncertainty and unrest have spread into the far corners and most remote recesses of man's dominion until there no longer seems to be stability or order anywhere. The political map of the world has undergone still further changes, some of them of as much significance as the unexpected and profound changes of 1939.

The Influence of Geography in the European War.

Europe has become the major theater of war and political change. The totalitarian system of government, a relic of barbarism, expounded by Hitler and his hordes in Germany, and Mussolini and his legions in Italy, has subdued by ruthless aggression and conquest almost all the governments of northwestern Europe — Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France, and threatens all the rest of Europe. Sweden and Finland have been reduced to economic vassalage by Russia and Germany; Switzerland is surrounded by totalitarian administrations and virtually dependent upon them for existence. Spain and Portugal have accepted the totalitarian doctrine and domination. No independence of sovereignty, no freedom of action, endures in the Balkans.

Greece rose to almost incredible heights of courage and defensive spirit in thrusting back Italy's invasion from Albania and hurling the Fascist legions still farther back across Albania toward the Adriatic. Britain, strong in her sea power, has doggedly retained her control of the Mediterranean, destroyed Italy's power in Africa, and staved off immediate hazard to her position in the Dark Continent. The whole course of European struggle the past year has revealed ever more clearly the persistent influence of geographic environment upon the course of empire and the destiny of nations.

Norway.

Early in the year Britain and France were forced for their own safety to rally to the defense of Norway, when Hitler in a surprise move as dastardly in its treacherous betrayal of faith as it was daring in its tactical methods, successfully invaded Norway, and that democracy free from war for more than a century found herself wholly unprepared to resist, or to defend herself. The very sea that aided the German invasion prevented effective help from Britain and France to save Norway, and after a disastrous attempt to establish adequate bases in Norway the Allies were compelled to withdraw in humiliating recognition of Germany's overpowering strength and preparedness; to have contested with her hold upon Norway would have involved sacrifice and struggle that Britain and France could not have afforded without seriously jeopardizing their safety and security, inviting the invasion of their own territory. They withdrew successfully without serious loss of men or equipment, but with great loss of prestige and strategic position.

Denmark.

Denmark at the same time was completely overrun by the Nazi hordes and reduced to a German dependency. With no barrier of any kind, — mountain, or desert, or sea, — against the mobile, mechanized forces of the Nazis, she was lost to democracy and won for totalitarianism without a struggle. Once again the inexorable influences of environment had wrought havoc with the hopes of Denmark, and served the will of Germany. A part of the north German plain, Denmark became part of the great German plan for European domination.

Low Countries.

And Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and northern France in turn soon afterward succumbed to the irresistible forces of the German hordes, and in turn were reduced to German dependencies, to become part of the new German order. The North German plain had finally won the mastery over the whole terrain of northwestern Europe. With the inclusion of Norway and Denmark in the German economic, political, and military system, Sweden completely lost her freedom of action. Though nominally independent in internal administration, though ostensibly sovereign in her own government, and formally unoccupied by German troops, Sweden can trade with no foreign lands but Russia, Germany, and to a small extent with Finland, and can permit no activity that runs counter to German interests. She has no alternative but to accept Germany's mandates. The same inexorable influences of geographic location and terrain impel the Swedes to bow to Germany's might, whatever their reluctance to do so, however strong their opposition. Again the German geographers under Karl Haushofer's leadership seem to have been vindicated in their 'Geopolitik.'

Great Britain and the Sea.

But the strength of the sea has been Britain's. Her glorious withdrawal of her own forces and large detachments of the French and Belgian armies from Dunkirk after the inglorious debacle of the Allied armies in the Low Countries and Flanders depended upon her sea resources. The protection of the sea upon which her great navy operates so effectively to defend her shores, has enabled her to fend off every attempt at invasion, to cut off from her enemies the supplies they so sorely need to maintain the struggle against her, and to safeguard her sea avenues of communication and transportation by which her own supplies must come for her succor and support from her far-flung dominions and the neutral nations of the world. Her confluence in the future is based in large part upon her geographic advantages, and upon the geographic heritage her folk have in their character, their training, their imperial vision.

The Geographical Advantages of Greece.

It is the same geographic heritage that has given the Greeks their time of victory over the Fascist legions. They have turned their rugged terrain, their mountain climate, their knowledge of the sea, into powerful allies both in defense and offense. Their strategy is born of the conditions of their land, the land they have defended so long and so nobly.

The Far East.

In the Far East China and Japan have continued their desperate struggle, apparently at stalemate. French Indo-China and Thai Land (Siam) have been drawn into the vortex of oriental war, but Russia and Japan seem to have agreed upon at least a temporary truce.

Thus has the map of the world been in large part a map of war and war's alarms. Never has there been so prominent a place for geography in the news of the world, in all the newspapers, in all the magazines, in the minds of the people. To keep abreast of the news, to evaluate the significance of current events, to understand the course of international relations in all their aspects, every intelligent citizen has had to refresh his knowledge of geography and supplement it by learning new facts and ideas about lands and seas, rivers and mountains, ports and provinces, of which he had never before heard.

Geographic Publications.

The Geographical Review, Economic Geography, The Journal of Geography, The National Geographic Magazine, half a score of regional publications that deal not only with their own regions but with problems of general character, and many magazines in related fields of science, have portrayed the course of history as related to the culture and peoples of the various lands of the world. They constitute a reservoir of current knowledge relating to the lands which are now making world history. They describe the features that form the theater of man's international and national activity, and delineate the scene of action for both war and peace. The volume of books of all kinds has decreased somewhat, but the proportion of geographical texts and reference books is greater now than ever.

The Annals of the Association of American Geographers remains the outstanding professional mouthpiece of the Association to which most of the professional geographers of the country belong, particularly those geographers who are making the distinctive and most progressive contributions to the field. Articles which represent the most advanced thought and technique of the geographic field can scarcely be said to be popular, but they form one of the most valuable contributions each year to the literature of the field.

The Geographical Review, one of the world's outstanding journals in any professional field, and for many years the most important journal in the field of geography, a position which it still holds, has continued the publication of a wealth of significant and fundamental articles. It is not amiss to enumerate some of the most important that have appeared the past year. In the October issue the first article by Colonel Lawrence Martin, chief of the Division of Maps and incumbent of the Chair of Geography in the Library of Congress, presents an article 'Antarctica Discovered by a Connecticut Yankee, Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer,' which proves beyond the peradventure of doubt that to an early American whaler belongs the credit and the honor of having discovered and in part outlined the great continent which embraces the South Pole. The documentary evidence that he presents is irrefutable.

Further to indicate how extensive and how up-to-date is the material in the Geographic Review, it is worth listing the other titles and authors in that same issue: 'Angolan Safari,' by Linton Wells; 'The Rice Country of Southwestern Louisiana,' by Lauren C. Post; 'Landslides and Earthflows near Ventura, Southern California,' by William C. Putnam and Robert P. Sharp; 'The Expanding Settlements of Southern Brazil,' by Preston E. James; 'Land and Peoples of the Hadhramaut, Aden Protectorate,' by Ruthven W. Pike; 'The Australian Iron and Steel Industry as a Functional Unit,' by Clifford M. Zierer; 'Some Notes on the Growth of Population in Minnesota,' by Leonard S. Wilson; 'Suez Canal Problems,' by Halford L. Hoskins; 'Economic and Social Problems in the British West Indies: A Review,' by Raye R. Platt; and 'Mineral Economics and World Politics: A Review,' by Charles H. Behre, Jr.

Other issues of the Review earlier in the year contain such outstanding articles as 'Hawaii and the Pacific: A Survey of Political Geography,' by Stephen B. Jones and Klaus Mehnert; 'Finland in the Sixteenth Century,' by W. R. Mead; 'Stockholm: Its Structure and Development,' by W. William-Olsson; and 'The World's Petroleum,' by John W. Frey; all in the July issue.

In the April issue Robert Burnett Hall presents a valuable and interesting article 'American Raw-Material Deficiencies and Regional Dependence,' Griffith Taylor an equally important article 'Trento to the Reschen Pass: A Cultural Traverse of the Adige Corridor'; R. H. Fiedler, 'Fisheries of North America: With Special Reference to the United States'; Felix Howland, 'Crossing the Hindu Kush.'

The January issue is equally noteworthy, containing such outstanding contributions as 'The World in Maps,' by John K. Wright; 'Bolivia's Water-Power Resources,' by William A. Rudolph; 'Singapore: Town and Country,' by E. H. G. Dobby; and 'The Function of Meltwater in Cirque Formation,' by W. V. Lewis.

Economic Geography, in addition to the regular series of articles, has resumed publication of the monographic 'Agricultural Regions of the World' by beginning a new series on Africa, by Dr. Homer L. Shantz, chief of the Division of Wildlife Management, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. The series presents an exhaustive discussion of the distribution of agricultural methods and products in Africa. Outstanding articles for the year have been: 'Timber Industry of the U.S.S.R.,' by V. Katkoff; 'Salmon Industry of the Pacific Coast,' by Homer E. Gregory; 'Dairy Region of Southwestern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois,' by Loyal Durand Jr.; and 'Weather Influences on Crop Yields,' Stephen S. Visher, all in the October issue. 'Geography of Mast Feeding,' by Earl B. Shaw; and 'Geography in the Census Bureau,' by A. W. von Struve in the July issue; 'Geographical Aspects of the Defense of the Netherlands,' by Samuel Van Valkenburg; 'Recent Trends in Manchoukuo Trade,' by George F. Deasy; 'Return of the Forest in Northeastern Minnesota,' by Darrell H. Davis, in the April issue; and in the January issue 'The Szechwan Village Fair,' by J. E. Spencer; 'Population of Quebec Province,' by H. Harry Lewis; and 'Distribution of Dairy Farming in Peninsular Ontario,' by J. R. Whitaker. In the field of economic geography no other journal publishes so much new and original material.

The Journal of Geography, devoted particularly to material for the use of high school and grade school teachers, and the elaboration of teaching methods, publishes a large number of articles most of which are relatively brief and more compact and general than the articles of the magazines previously mentioned; but such articles as 'Mussolini: Italy's Geographer-in-Chief,' by Harold Kemp; 'Harbin, Manchoukuo,' by Shannon McCune; 'Climate: A Factor of Economic Life,' by J. Sullivan Gibson; 'The Rupununi Savannahs of British Guiana,' by Earl B. Shaw; and a score of others of equally high value in content and educational significance, indicate the scope and diversified character of the material which it presents. The National Geographic, the best known monthly geographical magazine of English-speaking people, popularizes geography in lavishly illustrated articles that cover the whole world. Its readers are numbered in the hundreds of thousands, even in the millions, and its influence upon the public generally has been of incredible value to the knowledge of geography among the masses of the people.

Outstanding books of the year in the field of geography include 'The Physiographic Provinces of North America,' a textbook which represents the mature thought and experience of Dr. W. W. Atwood, for many years one of the leading physiographers of the country, and now president of Clark University; 'The Earth and the State,' an equally comprehensive textbook in the field of political geography by Derwent Whittlesey, Professor of Geography at Harvard University; 'Australia: A Study of Warm Environments and their Effect on British Settlement,' by the veteran explorer and geographer, Professor Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto; a revision of 'College Geography,' a textbook in the field of geography for students of college grade, by E. C. Case and D. R. Bergsmark of the University of Cincinnati; 'Indians of the United States,' a geo-anthropological popular account of the Indians of the United States, their distribution and customs, by Clark Wissler of the American Museum of Natural History; 'Guatemala: Past and Present,' by Professor Chester Lloyd Jones of the University of Wisconsin, a much needed and valuable textbook and reference; and 'My Country 'Tis of Thee,' a rather personalized and somewhat exaggerated argument for the need of land conservation.

The Association of American Geographers in 1940 held its annual meeting in New York from Dec. 29 to 31 inclusive. Officers of the Association: Professor Griffith Taylor of the University of Toronto, president; Professor W. Elmer Ekblaw of Clark University, vice-president; Professor Guy-Harold Smith of Ohio State University, treasurer; and Professor Preston E. James of the University of Michigan, secretary. See also EUROPEAN WAR and WORLD ECONOMICS.