ltural status of
the continents.[783]

[Sidenote: Coast articulations of continents.]

It is necessary to distinguish two general classes of continental
articulations; first, marginal dependences, like the fringe of European
peninsulas and islands, resulting from a deeply serrated contour; and
second, surface subdivisions of the interior, resulting from differences
of relief or defined often by enclosing mountains or deserts, like the
Tibetan Plateau, the Basin of Bohemia, the Po River trough, or the
sand-rimmed valley of the Nile. The first class is by far the more
important, because of the intense historical activity which results from
the vitalizing contact with the sea. But in considering coast
articulations, anthropo-geography is led astray unless it discriminates
between these on the basis of size and location. Without stopping to
discuss the obvious results of a contrasted zonal location, such as that
between Labrador and Yucatan, the Kola Peninsula and Spain, it is
necessary to keep in mind always the effect of vicinal location. An
outlying coastal dependency like Ireland has had its history
impoverished by excessive isolation, in contrast to the richer
development of England, Jutland, and Zealand in the same latitude,
because these have profited from the closer neighborhood of other
peripheral regions. So from ancient times, Greece has had a similar
advantage over the Crimea, the Tunisian Peninsula of North Africa over
Spain, the Cotentin Peninsula of France over Brittany, and Kent over
Cornwall or Caithness in Great Britain.

[Sidenote: Importance of size in continental articulations.]

Articulations on a vast scale, like the southern peninsulas of Asia,
produce quite different cultural and historical effects from small
physical sub-divisions, like the fiord promontories and "skerries" of
Norway and southern Alaska, or the finger peninsulas of the
Peloponnesus. The significant difference lies in the degree of isolation
which the two types yield. Large continental dependencies of the Asiatic
class resemble small continents in their power to segregate; while
overgrown capes like ancient Attica and Argolis or the more bulky
Peloponnesus have their exclusiveness tempered by the mediating power of
the small marine inlets between them. Small articulations, by making a
coast accessible, tend to counteract the excessive isolation of a large
articulation. They themselves develop in their people only minor or
inner