Most of northern continental Europe has an annual rainfall (including melted snow) between 20 and 30 inches. This is the same as that over a narrow belt in our own country east of the Great Plains, reaching north from the Gulf of Mexico, in Texas, to and across the Canadian line. In the eastern United States the rainfall is heavier. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts it averages over 40 inches and in places over 50 or even 60 inches. The rain is fairly evenly distributed through the year over most of Europe. The autumn and winter are somewhat the wetter seasons along the northern coast, while the warmer months are the rainier farther east, as in Russia. From a military point of view, snow is usually more important than rain. The snow gradually becomes deeper as we go from west to east in Europe, because more of the winter precipitation there comes in the frozen form, owing to the lower temperatures. If all the precipitation of the colder months over the war area fell as snow, the total depth each month would average about 20 inches, this being, roughly, the equivalent of 2 inches of rainfall. Such, however, is not the case. In eastern and northeastern Prussia the ground during each of the three midwinter months is snow-covered for from two to four weeks, the average depth of snowfall per month being considerably less than 10 inches at places from which records are available. Farther east and southeast, in Russian and Austrian Poland, the snow is deeper, and the more severe cold keeps it from melting as rapidly.* These winter snows may become a serious obstacle to military movements, especially during severe and blinding snowstorms which come with cold winds. On the other hand, hard packed snow and frozen rivers and swamps give solid foundation for marching and for transportation. The mountains of Europe everywhere have deeper snows than the lowlands. The Vosges and the Carpathians, e. g., the one in the western and the other in the eastern theaters of war, both often have their passes blocked by heavy snows. In the western war area the snow is more apt to be wet and to melt quickly, while in the east, it is drier and likely to remain longer on the ground. Modern wars are intense. They do not come to a dead stop in winter. Armies do not go into winter quarters as they did in the old days. Modern methods of transportation are so well organized that winter storms and cold do not interfere as much as was formerly the case. Yet the movements of the heavy guns, the armored automobiles and the motor trucks of the presentday army are blocked by deep snows about as effectively as was once the case when guns and wagons were lighter, and when horses were exclusively used. And in spite of all our carefully-planned medical and hospital organization, there is much the same bitter suffering among the troops that, in former wars, made winter campaigns in northern Europe so terrible. • Boston has an average annual depth of snow of 44 inches. (To be continued) T THE WAR IN THE COLONIES By Lawrence Martin University of Wisconsin THE GERMAN EMPIRE OVERSEAS HE colonies of the German Empire, which are threatened during the present war, cover an area of 1,134,640 square miles, or nearly 5 times that of Germany. They contain an estimated population of 13 million. persons, including only 25,000 whites, while the parent country in Europe had 64,925,993 inhabitants in 1910. The chief colonies and dependencies are: German East Africa and German South-West Africa, each larger than the Fatherland; Kamerun also in Africa, and nearly as large as Germany; Togo on the Gulf of Guinea, and larger than Bavaria; in the East Indies and Pacific Ocean are German New Guinea, over half as large as Prussia, the Bismarck Archipelago, Caroline, Pelew, Marianna, Solomon, and Marshall Islands, and Savaii and Upola in the Samoan group; while German's only Asiatic possession is Kiau-Chau in China, west of Korea and about half way between Port Arthur and Shanghai. Part or all of each of these pieces of German territory is now occupied by British, French, or Japanese forces. They have been taken by small detachments of soldiers and marines, sometimes without bloodshed, sometimes with minor skirmishes, and in no case except that of the 3 months' siege of Tsingtau in Kiau-Chau has there been any notable military or naval force. RESULTS OF EXTRA-EUROPEAN WARFARE The results of the war in the colonies and dependencies of European countries from August 1, 1914, to January 15, 1915, are summarized below. Events in Europe and the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Black Seas in Turkish Armenia, and in Morocco and French North Africa, are not included. GERMANY holds Walfish Bay,* a British colony on the coast of German Southwest Africa, and perhaps a town in British Central Africa. Her soldiers have invaded Portuguese West Africa, British Cape Colony, East Africa, and Uganda, and have repulsed several British invasions of German East Africa. German cruisers have also done much damage at Papeete in French Tahiti; cut a British cable at Fanning Island; bombarded Madras in India; sunk a Russian and a French warship in the British harbor of Penang, Malay Peninsula; put a British cruiser out of commission at Zanzibar off the eastern coast of Africa; destroyed many merchantmen in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans; and decisively defeated a British fleet in the Pacific near the coast of Chile. * Recaptured by the British on Christmas day. white. FRANCE holds parts of Kamerun, a German colony in west Africa, captured by French and British forces. also German Togo, captured by French and British troops. French warships participated in the blockading of Kiau-Chau, the pursuit of the 'Emden', and the bombardment of German towns in Kamerun. JAPAN holds Kiau-Chau in eastern China, a German colony, captured by Japanese and British forces. also Jaluit, a German port in the Marshall Islands. also Yap, a German port in the Caroline Islands, the last two to be administered by British forces from Australia after Nov. 18th. Japanese warships were the most effective at Kiau-Chau; assisted in the pursuit of the 'Emden'; caused a German cruiser to be interned at Honolulu; and captured two German auxiliary cruisers. GREAT BRITAIN holds Fao, a Turkish port on the Persian Gulf, Basra, 60 miles, and Kurna, 165 miles inland, taken by troops from India. also Sheik Said, a Turkish port, on the Red Sea in Arabia. also Cyprus, a large island in the Mediterranean belonging to Turkey which has been administered by Great Britain since 1878, but is now annexed to the British Empire. also Egypt, a Turkish subject-territory in which a British protectorate is now declared. also German Samoa in Polynesia, captured by New Zealanders. also Herbertshohe and Rabaul, German ports in New Pommerania, Bismarck Archipelago, taken by Australians. also Bougainville and Buka in the Solomon Islands of German Melanesia. also Nauru or Pleasant Island in German Micronesia. also Kaiser Wilhelm Land or German New Guinea. also German Togo, in western Africa, captured by British and French troops. also Dar-es-Salaam in German East Africa. Volunteer troops and regulars in British East Africa have repulsed several German invasions. also Kamerun (see statement above under France). also Kiau-Chau (see statement above under Japan). also Swakopmund and Luderitz Bucht in German Southwest Africa. Loyal colonial troops in British South Africa have put down a Boer revolution, and turned back several small German invasions. The British warships have bottled up the 'Konigsberg' and destroyed the 'Emden' in the Indian Ocean; destroyed the German fleet in the South Atlantic near the Falkland Islands and Strait of Magellan; bombarded several Turkish and German ports; taken many German merchantmen; and confined the rest to neutral ports. The AMERICAN fleet, including the Christmas Ship 'Jason' with 5,000,000 toys and pieces of clothing for children in the Old World, the Red Cross ship 'Hamburg', the Rockefeller Foundation relief ship 'Massapequa', and other vessels from the United States, laden with food for the Belgians, cotton for the Austrian hospitals, etc., have taken every port in Europe by storm. GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONSHIPS Why was it that New Zealanders took German Samoa, while Australian troops captured the chief German port in the Bismarck Archipelago? How did it come about that Germans were able to acquire and hold England's colony on the southwestern coast of Africa, that French forces were the aggressors in Kamerun, Japanese at Kiau-Chau and the Marshall and Caroline Islands, and soldiers from India in Turkish Fao and Sheik Said? Geographical relationships help to explain all these apparently-complicated colonial campaigns of tiny groups of soldiers which have already resulted in the possibility of vast changes in the map of the world, in contrast with the slight shifting of the map of Europe where the largest armies the world has ever seen are at a deadlock. It seems worth while for teachers of geography to consider the geographical features of the war in the colonies in some detail, especially as we may soon be reading of larger conquests by Boer, Indian, Portuguese, Australian, and perhaps Japanese troops, for Germany seems to have no way of sending reinforcements to her colonies. SOURCES OF INFORMATION The facts regarding the war outside Europe have been published in the daily papers in America, in the London Times, in the department headed Unsere Kolonien und der Krieg in the weekly edition of the Tagliche Rundschau of Berlin, and in the monthly issues of United Empire published in London. The monthly numbers of Koloniale Monatsblätter and Koloniale Rundschau, both published in Berlin, were not seen for issues later than August, 1914. READING FOR TEACHERS The geographical significance of the series of events can only be appreciated by referring to a good atlas or globe, or even such an outline map as is published with this article (Fig. 1). Statements in English regarding the topography, climate, products, population, trade, garrisons, etc., in addition to the generally-excellent descriptions in the grammar school geographies, will be found in the Statesman's Yearbook for 1914, in Chisholm's Handbook of Commercial Geography, in Bartholomew's Atlas of the World's Commerce, in Jefferson's Atlas of Commercial Values, in Mill's International Geography. in the volumes of Reclus' The Earth and its Inhabitants and Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, in the Baedeker Guide Books, and in the more recent encyclopedias. |