political life of every civilization.

This statement is less a requirement for success in organizing the
nucleus of a civilization, than a generalization about the natural and
social milieu out of which competing nuclei arise. Success of one among
the many competitors is a characteristic feature of the struggle for
nuclear survival, development and perhaps for eventual supremacy.

From earliest times waterways have provided the readiest means of
getting about. All that was needed was a hollow log, a raft, a primitive
canoe. Movement by land was impeded by mountains, deserts, forests,
swamps, water courses. Movement by water was a natural.

More and bigger boats required shelter against storms and protection
against destruction by enemies. A good harbor with an adjacent walled
town or city was the answer to this need.

Good harbors and navigable waterways are notably absent along the west
coast of South America and notably present in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Consequently, the South American West Coast line is sparsely settled to
this day, while the Eastern Mediterranean has been crowded with peoples,
teemed with trade and commerce, carried largely by sea, between cities
that occupied the best access to waterways.

Safe harbors and navigable waterways made trade and transport easy and
cheap. As each wave of human advance turned from animal husbandry and
agriculture to bourgeois practices of industry, commerce and finance,
locations at strategic points along trade routes were first occupied by
occasional markets and fairs and eventually by trading towns and cities.
Geography was a decisive factor.

Fertility was equally important. In the early stages of social
development transportation was difficult, dangerous and expensive.
Sources of food and building materials were found within a short
distance of the growing trade center. Again geography played a decisive
role. A deep, sheltered harbor backed by a desert could not attract and
support a thriving trade center. Food and raw materials are
indispensable to concentrations of human beings.

The Nile Valley, like that of the Ganges and the Yellow River, provided
the fertility and transport, the food and raw materials that have
sustained concentrated human populations for many thousands of years,
forming part of the base for Egyptian, Indian and Chinese civilizations.
Animal husbandry and grain farming, coupled with fishing and forestry,
made possible the growth of