THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CENTRAL ASIA 3
in part the result of racial characteristics due to past environments, and in part the result of present geographic conditions. Climate, the relation of land and sea, the presence of mountains, the location of trade routes, and the suitability of a region for agriculture, mining, or manufacturing are all potent factors in determining sociological conditions. The dependence of history upon geography is equally great. In recent years there has arisen the so-called " bread and butter school " of historians, who hold that the deepest cause of historical events is the necessity of mankind to subsist. The ambition of kings, the hatred of race for race, the antagonisms of religion, may agitate the surface and cause the waves which seem to us so portentous; but far down below all these there is the unending struggle for bread. It is this primarily which makes men work. It manifests itself in the discontent of the poor peasants of Russia, in the disputes between labor and capital in America, and in the bitter cry of the famine-stricken millions of India and China against the foreigners who seem to rob them of bread. An increasing supply of food has made Egypt contented and prosperous during the last few decades. Scarcity of food, present or prospective, for its increasing population has brought Japan into conflict with Russia, and is bringing it face to face with the United States in California, where the Japanese coolie is said to take the bread from the mouth of the native-born American laborer. According to this view, geography is clearly the basis of history, for the productivity of a country depends upon geographic facts, especially upon climate.
In saying that geography is the basis of the anthro-
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