Ridpath's Universal history - an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the (14597606390)
Summary
Identifier: ridpathsuniversa05ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's Universal history : an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the civilized life among men and nations, from recent and authentic sources with a preliminary inquiry on the time, place and manner of the beginning
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Jones
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation
Text Appearing Before Image:
thousand square miles, and a popula- uation, ethnologically considered, is thatit presses hard upon the areas occupiedby the Teutonic peoples. We need hardlv pause to sketch thephysical features of Poland, to note itsrivers, its lakes, and its mountains. Thegreat streams are the Vistula and theNiemen. The principal lakes are in theprovince of Suvalki. None of the fresh 170 GREAT RACES OE JILIXKEXD. water bodies, however, are comparable inextent with the great lakes of our owncountry. The thoroughfares are therivers and the canals by which they areconnected, though in recent times physi-cal progress has brought the railroadand all the other leading means of in-tcrcommunicati(^n. history, has been reinforced by the en-vironment of the race. The whole man-ner of life, from the earliest time to thepresent, has been determined by thejoint influence of an ethnic dispositionand an inviting field for its display. The essentially Slavic character of thePoles is shown in the oriofinal constitu-
Text Appearing After Image:
^5%)*035: ^ -^U>^—-^ .MIXKl) TYPES OK THE POLISH PORUKR. —Dr.iwn by Flanieng Poland lies, as we have said, betweenthe vSlavic and the Germanic countries. tion of their society. This was the vil-lage, or guiina. The village was thevShe tends constantly toward ! center of the district, and of its agricul-the German character. Of tural interest. About twenty of the The country-verges towardGermany; the PoUshgmina. this kind is the flora, \gnii)ias were united to form a district,which includes much of the finest tree- and on this simple ccmdition the politicalgrowth of Europe. The country, viewed ; organization was effected. The peopleas a whole, is fertile, and the agricultural became essentially agricultural. Polanddisposition, for which the Poles have been j was one of the first marts for the exporta-remarked since the beginning of their i tion of grain in modern Europe. THE SLAVS.—POLES. 171 The vicissitudes through which Polishsociety has passed have greatly affectedManner o