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Compass: The Geography and Economy of Mountain Regions In Part 2 of a three-part interview, analyst Marko Papic discusses why mountain chains historically have impeded economic development – as well as how some states managed to overcome the challenges of their terrain. (Audio file, 4 minutes 58 seconds) MARKO PAPIC: The final way in which we look at mountains in terms of geopolitical significance is commerce. Mountains, to put it bluntly, stifle commerce. Essentially there are no navigable rivers within a mountain chain, almost by default. A navigable river on a plain allows goods and often services to be transported at very low costs. This means that within transactions, there is more capital left over for investments, for development of the region, and this is why most capital centers occur on rivers. A mountainous region has to essentially plan to spend more money on things like transportation, quite often because there are various ethnic groups and cultural groups that exist within a mountain system and that simply use their advantage of knowing the terrain and dominating a mere valley. You also often have to account for defense and security of your cargo. This is nowhere more clear than in the Balkans, where brigandry and banditry is uh very well known and is actually praised in many of the countries of the region, -- Greek, Serbian, Albanian. Many of these brigands and bandits are often considered national heroes because they opposed the dominant force in the region. But what this all means is that countries that are dominated by mountains are almost impossible to develop economically. Exceptions to the Rule Now there are exceptions -- and it should be noted that nothing in geopolitics is completely determinate. So yes, mountains can be crossed, yes one can invade another country via mountains. And yes, you can, you can attempt to amalgamate a minority into a larger nation-state. Similarly, you can certainly develop a mountainous country, but there are some things that almost always have to be present. One is access to some sort of a sea. Two examples specifically are Japan and Greece. Japan and Greece are extremely mountainous countries, to a point where transportation via road is really not advantageous at all. But because they are essentially surrounded by water, it is definitely possible to develop an economy and develop commerce. But what this also does to both countries is it creates almost a city-state type of feel to how they actually run themselves. And this has throughout history of both often impeded centralized control. Now Japan has managed to overcome this, in part because of geopolitical threats that surround it. It had to develop a centralized, firm control in order to deal with the early 20th century geopolitical hotspot that was the Pacific. For Greece, ti really has never been able to overcome its problems. Even when Greece was a dominant power in ancient history, it really never managed to be centralized. And certainly centralization never came from its coastal regions. It came from Macedonia, which was the only part of Greece that actually had a river valley that could produce food for itself. Another example that’s quite often used to argue against the negative aspects of mountains is Switzerland. And it may be useful just to explain exactly how it is that mountains impact Switzerland. Case Study: Switzerland Switzerland certainly is born of mountains. There wouldn’t be a Switzerland if there wasn’t a St. Gotthard’s pass or if there weren’t numerous passes between what essentially is northern Europe and southern Europe. Various nascent Swiss tribes used their location in these passes to parlay an advantage against far more powerful empires around them. And they essentially managed to use the mountains that they controlled, which allowed for communication between the Po valley and the Danube valley – an extremely important connection in medieval Europe -- they managed to use this advantage to create an independent state. However, the commercial success of present-day Switzerland has nothing to do with mountains. You could argue that it has something to do with mountains because many wealthy people found the charms of Switzerland on their vacations to the mountains and then decided to bring their capital to the region, but really the industrial and commercial heartland of Switzerland is not in the Alps. It is on the plains and on the hilly terrain, if you will, of Zurich, Basel, Neufchatel and Geneva. So modern Switzerland definitely pays homage to its history as a mountainous nation, that’s where it was born, but its commercial success is not really bound to the mountains themselves. In fact, Switzerland was so poor during Middle Ages that its main export was essentially humans. Its young men found that the only way they could provide for their families was to join various armies that fought mainly on the Italian Peninsula. And Machiavelli talked about it incessantly.