FrontiersClarendon Press, 1908 - 58 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
advance Afghanistan Africa Agreement Alleghanies Alps ambitions America amid ancient Arish army Artificial Frontiers Asia barrier border Britain Britain and Russia buffer century character China coast collision colonies Commissioners commonly Danube defend defined delimitation demarcation desert diplomatic dominions Egypt El Arish England English ethnological Europe expedient forests France Franco-German War Frontier policy geographical Germany guarantee Himalayas Hindu Kush Hinterland illustration independent Indian Empire Indian Frontier Indus instance Katieh kingdoms Korea Land Frontier latter Leases less line of division Lord Manchuria Marcomanni Mekong miles military modern mountains national existence native natural features Natural Frontiers neutral zone Nushki occupation Oxus Persia Persia and Afghanistan political portions possession protected Protectorates Punjab race railroads rampart or wall recent region rival rivers Roman Empire ROMANES LECTURE Russia Seistan Siam sometimes Sphere of Influence strategical swamps Syria territories Tibet tion Treaty tribes tunnel United Wall of China water-divide
Popular passages
Page 10 - Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other. Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Page 53 - It would be futile to assert that an exact Science of Frontiers has been or is ever likely to be evolved : for no one law can possibly apply to all nations or peoples, to all Governments, all territories, or all climates. The evolution of Frontiers is perhaps an art rather than a science, so plastic and malleable are its forms and manifestations.
Page 4 - Frontiers are the chief anxiety of nearly every Foreign Office in the civilized world, and are the subject of four out of every five political treaties or conventions that are novi concluded. . . . Frontier policy is of the first practical importance, and has a more profound effect upon the peace or warfare of nations than any other factor, political or economic.
Page 47 - Protectorate by the stronger of the two contracting parties,1 but it tacitly recognizes some sort of reversionary claim on the part of the latter. At the weakest, it is a sort of diplomatic manifesto to other Powers of a special degree of interest entertained by one. Great Britain's desire to earmark as a potential Sphere of Influence the valley 1 Undoubtedly in the Persian Gulf the conclusion of such Agreements by the Indian Government with the Trucial Chiefs and with the Sheikh of Koweit, was tantamount...
Page 5 - Wars of religion, of alliances, of rebellion, of aggrandisement, of dynastic intrigue or ambition— wars in which the personal element was often the predominant factor — tend to be replaced by Frontier wars, ie wars arising out of the expansion of states and kingdoms, carried to a point, as the habitable globe shrinks, at which the interests or ambitions of one state come into sharp and irreconcilable collision with those of another.
Page 57 - I am one of those who hold that in this larger atmosphere, on the outskirts of Empire, where the machine is relatively impotent and the individual is strong, is to be found an ennobling and invigorating stimulus for our youth, saving them alike from the corroding ease and the morbid excitements of Western civilization.
Page 42 - He did not attach undue value to "the positive assurance" of the Russian Foreign Office that "his Imperial Majesty looked upon Afghanistan as completely outside the sphere within which Russia might be called upon to exercise her influence.
Page 49 - In Asiatic countries it would be true to say that demarcation has never taken place except under European pressure and by the intervention of European agents.
Page 19 - ... water-divide is the best and fairest line of division ; for it is not exposed to physical change, it is always capable of identification, and no instruments are required to fix it. But it is not without its possible drawbacks, of which the most familiar is the well-known geographical fact that in the greatest mountain systems of the world, for instance, the Himalayas and the Andes, the water-divide is not identical with the highest crest, but is beyond it and at a lower elevation.
Page 58 - ... activities and scope, let there come forth the invincible spirit and the unexhausted moral fibre of our race. Let the advance guard of Empire march forth, strong in the faith of their ancestors, imbued with a sober virtue, and above all, on fire with a definite purpose. The Empire calls, as loudly as it ever did, for serious instruments of serious work. The Frontiers of Empire continue to beckon.