The larger people, commanding its larger area, expands numerically and
territorially, and continues to throw out wider frontiers, till it meets
insurmountable natural obstacles or the confines of a people strong as
itself. After a pause, during which the existing area is outgrown and
population begins to press harder upon the limits of subsistence, the
weight of a nation is thrown against the barrier, be it physical or
political. In consequence, the old boundaries are enlarged, either by
successful encroachment upon a neighbor, or, in case of defeat, by
incorporation in the antagonist's territory. But even defeat brings
participation in a larger geographic base, wider cooeperation, a greater
sum total of common national interests, and especially the protection of
the larger social group. The Transvaal and the Orange Free State find
compensation for the loss of independence by their incorporation in the
British Empire, even if gradual absorption be the destiny of the Boer
stock.

[Sidenote: Area and growth.]

Of adjacent areas equally advanced in civilization and in density of
population but of unequal size, the larger must dominate because its
people have the resistance and aggressive force inherent in the larger
mass. This is the explanation of the absorption of so many colonies and
conquerors by the native races, when no great cultural abyss or race
antagonism separates the two. The long rule of the Scandinavians in the
Hebrides ended in their absorption by the local Gaelic stock, simply
because their settlements were too small and the number of their women
too few. The lowlands on the eastern coasts of Scotland accommodated
larger bands of Norse, who even to-day can be distinguished from the
neighboring Scotch of the Highlands; but on the rugged western coast,
where only small and widely separated deltas at the heads of the fiords
offered a narrow foothold to the invaders, their scattered ethnic
islands were soon inundated by the contiguous population.[312] The
Teutonic elements, both English and Norwegian, which for centuries
filtered into Ireland, have been swallowed up in the native Celtic
stock, except where religious antagonisms served to keep the two apart.
So the dominant Anglo-Saxon population of England was a solvent for the
Norman French, and the densely packed humanity of China for their Manchu
conquerors.

On the other hand, extensive areas, like early North America and
Australia, sparsely inhabited