Note 1416 — Chapter XVII · —The Influence Of Climate

Man makes himself at home in any zone. The cold pole of the earth, so far as recorded temperatures show, is the town of Verkhoyansk in northeastern Siberia, whose mean January temperature is 54 F. below zero (-48 Centigrade). Massawa, one of the hottest spots in the furnace of Africa is the capital of the Italian colony of Eritrea. However, extremes both of heat and cold reduce the density of population, the scale and efficiency of economic enterprises. The greatest events of universal history and especially the greatest historical developments belong to the North Temperate Zone. The decisive voyages of discovery emanated thence, though the needs of trade and the steady winds of low latitudes combined to carry them to the Tropics. The coldest lands of the earth are either uninhabited, like Spitzenbergen, or sparsely populated, like northern Siberia. The hottest regions, also, are far from being so densely populated as many temperate countries.1416 [See maps pages 8, 9, and 612.] The fact that they are for the most part dependencies or former colonial possessions of European powers indicates their retarded economic and political development. The contrast between the Mongol Tunguse, who lead the life of hunters and herders in Arctic Siberia, and the related Manchus, who conquered and rule the temperate lands of China, shows how climates help differentiate various branches of the same ethnic stock; and this contrast only parallels that between the Eskimo and Aztec offshoots of the American Indians, the Norwegian and Italian divisions of the white race.