Geography admits no single blanket theory.

The slow historical development of the Russian folk has been due to many geographic causes--to excess of cold and deficiency of rain, an outskirt location on the Asiatic border of Europe exposed to the attacks of nomadic hordes, a meager and, for the most part, ice-bound coast which was slowly acquired, an undiversified surface, a lack of segregated regions where an infant civilization might be cradled, and a vast area of unfenced plains wherein the national energies spread out thin and dissipated themselves.

The better Baltic and Black Sea coasts, the fertility of its Ukraine soil, and location next to wide-awake Germany along the western frontier have helped to accelerate progress, but the slow-moving body carried too heavy a drag.
[Sidenote: Land and sea in co-operation.] The law of the resolutions of forces applies in geography as in the movement of planets.

Failure to recognize this fact often enables superficial critics of anthropo-geography to make a brave show of argument.

The analysis of these interacting forces and of their various combinations requires careful investigation.