FrontiersClarendon Press, 1907 - 58 pages |
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Frontiers: The Romanes Lecture, 1907. Delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre ... George N. Curzon No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
advance Afghanistan Africa Agreement Alleghanies ambitions America amid ancient Arish army Artificial Frontiers Asia barrier Belgium border Britain Britain and Russia British buffer century character China coast collision Commissioners commonly Danube defence degree delimitation demarcation desert diplomatic doctrine dominions Egypt El Arish England English Europe forests forms of Frontiers France Franco-German War Frontier policy geographical Germany guarantee Himalayas Hindu Kush Hinterland illustration Indian Empire Indian Frontier Indus instance Katieh kingdoms Korea Land Frontier latter Leases lines of division Manchuria Marcomanni Mekong miles military Modern Expedients mountains national existence natural boundaries natural features Natural Frontiers neutral zone North-West Nushki occupation Oxus Persia possession practice protected Protectorates purely political race rampart or wall recent reference rival rivers Roman Empire ROMANES LECTURE Russia Seistan Siam sometimes Sphere of Influence strategical swamps Syria tendency territories Tibet tion Treaty tribes tunnel United Wall of China water-divide
Popular passages
Page 23 - Alfred and the Danes. An early English example of the other type was Offa's Dyke, the huge earthwork constructed by the Mercian king of that name (about 780 AD) from the mouth of the Wye to the mouth of the Dee as a Frontier against the Welsh.
Page 51 - 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 7 - Frontiers are indeed the razor's edge on which hang suspended the . modern issues of war or peace, of life or death to nations.
Page 55 - Universities, revivified and reinspired, I look to play their part in this national service. Still from the cloistered alleys and the hallowed groves of Oxford, true to her old traditions, but widened in her 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...
Page 55 - 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 47 - 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 40 - 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 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 13 - Then, as population increased, and commerce and industry grew, as naval and military forces developed, and as larger political aggregations began to supersede the smaller units, natural boundaries were found no longer to suffice. It became necessary to supplement or to replace them by artificial Frontiers, finding their origin in the complex operations of race, language, trade, religion, and war.