umscribed outlook of the enclosed basin before
adopting the wider vision of the open ocean. Venice and Genoa were
crippled not only by the discovery of the sea route to India, but also
by their adherence to old thalassic means and methods of navigation
inadequate for the high seas.[554] However, these Mediterranean sea folk
are being gradually drawn out of their seclusion, as is proved by the
increase of Italian oceanic lines and the recent installation of an
Hellenic steamship line between Piraeus and New York.

[Sidenote: Three geographic stages of maritime development.]

The size of a sea or ocean is a definite factor in its power to attract
or repel maritime ventures, especially in the earlier stages of nautical
development. A broken, indented coast means not only a longer and
broader zone of contact between the inhabitants and the sea; it means
also the breaking up of the adjacent expanse of water into so many
alcoves, in which fisherman, trader and colonist may become at home, and
prepare for maritime ventures farther afield. The enclosed or marginal
sea tempts earlier because it can be compassed by coastwise navigation;
then by the proximity of its opposite shores and its usual generous
equipment with islands, the next step to crosswise navigation is
encouraged. For the earliest stages of maritime development, only the
smaller articulations of the coast and the inshore fringe of sea inlets
count. This is shown in the primitive voyages of the Greeks, before they
had ventured into the Euxine or west of the forbidding Cape Malia; and
in the "inside passage" navigation of the Indians of southern Alaska,
British Columbia, and Chile, who have never stretched their nautical
ventures beyond the outermost rocks of their skerry-walled coast.

[Sidenote: Influence of enclosed seas upon navigation.]

A second stage is reached when an enclosed basin is at, hand to widen
the maritime horizon, and when this larger field is exploited in all its
commercial, colonial and industrial possibilities, as was done by the
Phoenicians and Greeks in the Mediterranean, the Hanse Towns in the
Baltic, the Dutch and English in the North Sea. The third and final
stage is reached when the nursery of the inshore estuary or gulf and the
elementary school of the enclosed basin are in turn outgrown, and the
larger maritime spirit moves on to the open ocean for its field of
operation. It is a significant fact that the Norse, bred to the water in
t