THE UNITED STATES INTRODUCTION THE LAND AND ITS RESOURCES Books for Consultation General Readings. Shaler in Winsor's America, IV, pp. i-xxx, especially pp. xx-xxx. Special Accounts. *Shaler in his United States, I, chs. i-iii, vii-ix; * Shaler's Nature and Man in America, especially pp. 208283; * Whitney's United States; Lippincott's Gazetteer. Sources and Bibliography. Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, §§ 21, 21 a, 21 b, 77. Maps. United States Geological Survey, United States Relief Map THE LAND AND ITS RESOURCES - The maps in See, further, on history. 1. Geography and History. The life of a nation, like Influence of that of an individual, depends mainly on two factors: the geography moral and mental make-up of the nation or the individual and the opportunities of improvement which are placed within reach. On the one hand, a weak and indolent race, as for example the Spanish-American, has made slight use of great natural resources; on the other hand, a strong and energetic race, as the Danish, has accomplished little in countries like Iceland and Greenland. In the territory now occupied by the American nation, a strong Influence of coveries on history. people found opportunities for development such as no other country of equal size possesses. The elements which form the American people, and the leading characteristics of the race, will become apparent as the narrative proceeds. In the present chapter will be found a brief description of the extraordinary natural resources which a benign Providence has placed at the disposal of the inhabitants of North America south of Canada and north of Mexico. Without this knowledge, the student will seek in vain to comprehend the history of the formation of the American people and the growth of its federative state. Of course it will not do to exaggerate the effect of scientific dis- material advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the application of steam to modes of transport, especially to communication by land, has greatly lessened the importance of many natural forces. It should be remembered, however, that the steam engine has exerted an effective influence only since the close of the War of 1812. Since then it has overcome in a constantly increasing degree the obstacles to intercourse offered by distance, by mountain systems, and by river courses. Steam has now made the markets of the world more accessible to the farmer on the western prairies than they were to the cultivator of central New York in 1820. Modern scientific discoveries have only slightly affected other natural forces, as climate and rainfall. They have enabled man to make a better use of fertile soils and rich mineral deposits; they have also, by means of artificial irrigation, converted barren valleys into fruitful gardens. As yet, however, science has not been able to increase the rainfall of a rainless region or to moderate the climate so far as to affect agriculture. The historical student ought to note every important application of scientific discoveries to the arts, since the influence of many improvements of this description has far outweighed the effect produced by political changes. If the cotton gin (p. 326) had never been invented, it is not unlikely that slavery would have been peaceably abolished in the South On the in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 2. Temperature of America and of Europe. On this page and the following pages are maps showing the lines of equal temperature for Europe and North America. The cotton United States, gin, Rhodes's I, 26. Lines of equal temperature, annual It will be seen that those portions of Europe which have Climate and been the seat of the greatest activity and the abode of the civilization. highest civilization are situated between the lines of average annual temperature of forty and seventy degrees. These countries are Norway and Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the homes of the races which have colonized the United States. The winter temperature of these lands is between twenty and sixty degrees, and the summer temperature between fifty and eighty degrees - so far as these temperatures are indicated by the lines for February and August. Turning now to the western side of the Atlantic, it becomes apparent that these conditions are nowhere reproduced with exactness. A glance, however, suffices to show that the United States, as a whole, enjoys substantially the same annual temperature as western Europe as a whole, but the winters are much colder and the summers are much warmer in America than in Europe. A further Lines of equal temperature, February remarkable fact is also revealed: the annual and the winter temperature lines turn sharply to the south as they approach. the American coast and become pinched together. The summer lines, on the other hand, pursue a more direct westerly course, and some of them even trend to the northwestward. The southward trend of the two former sets of lines indicates that the valuable portions of eastern North America are far to the south of the corresponding portions of European lands. For example, the southern end of Greenland and the entrance to Hudson Strait are in the same latitude (sixty degrees north latitude) as the south $ 2] Temperature of America and Europe 5 ern end of Sweden, but the winters are very much more ence in tem perature. severe in the former than in the latter. The cause of the Effects of failure of many early colonies is now evident. The old this differvoyagers were ignorant of this great dissimilarity of climatic environment between Europe and America; they expected to find similar conditions prevailing on both sides of the Atlantic. They were further led into a confirmation of their error through the fact that their explorations were made in the summer, when the climatic conditions of the two sides of the North Atlantic most nearly resemble one another. For instance, Weymouth, who visited the coast of Maine in the summer, found a temperature which resembled that of southern France; but the colonists who came over in consequence of his favorable reports found a winter temperature like that of northern Norway. Furthermore, the charts give average temperatures, and in this way tell only a portion of the story; for the extremes of heat and cold are much greater on the western than on the eastern side of the Atlantic. For example, |