nt civilizations originated just within the mild but
drier margin of the Temperate Zone, where the cooler air of a short
winter acted like a tonic upon the energies relaxed by the lethargic
atmosphere of the hot and humid Tropics; where congenial warmth
encouraged vegetation, but where the irrigation necessary to secure
abundant and regular crops called forth inventiveness, cooeperation, and
social organization, and gave to the people their first baptism of
redemption from savagery to barbarism. Native civilizations of limited
development have arisen in the Tropics, but only where, as in Yemen,
Mexico and Peru, a high, cool, semi-arid plateau, a restricted area of
fertile soil, and a protected location alternately coddled and spurred
the nascent people.

As the Tropics have been the cradle of humanity, the Temperate Zone has
been the cradle and school of civilization. Here Nature has given much
by withholding much. Here man found his birthright, the privilege of the
struggle.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XVII

[1409] G.G. Chisholm, Commercial Geography, p. 15. London, 1904.

[1410] Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws, Vol. I, Book XIV. London, 1906.

[1411] W.Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, pp. 574-578. New York, 1899.

[1412] Julius Hann, Handbook of Climatology, Part I, pp. 223-224. New
York, 1903.

[1413] Isaiah Bowman, Distribution of Population in Bolivia, _Bulletin
of Geographical Society of Philadelphia_, Vol. VII, pp. 40, 41.

[1414] Ratzel, _Aus Mexico_, p. 415, Note 14. Breslau, 1878.

[1415] Julius Hann, Handbook of Climatology, Part I, pp. 224-227. New
York, 1903.

[1416] G.G. Chisholm, Commercial Geography, p. 23. London, 1904.

[1417] Julius Hann, Handbook of Climatology, Part I, pp. 171-173. New
York, 1903.

[1418] _Ibid_., pp. 188-189.

[1419] _Ibid_., pp. 57-58.

[1420] Risley and Gait, Census of India for 1901, Vol. I, Part 1, pp.
14-21, map p. 4. Calcutta, 1903.

[1421] H.J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, pp. 173-174.
London, 1904.

[1422] G.G. Chisholm, Commercial Geography, pp. 65-66. London, 1904.

[1423] _Ibid_., 126-128. Holdich, India, p. 259. London, 1905.

[1424] G.G. Chisholm, Commercial Geography, pp. 114, 382. London, 1904.

[1425] J. Russell Smith, The Economic Importance of the Tropical
Plateaus in America, House Doc. 460, 58-3--53, pp. 829-835. Washington,
1904.

[1426] G.G. Chisholm, Commercial Geography, p. 160. London, 1904.

[1427] E.C. Semple, American History