The same is true of other European countries except that their speed of recovery varies according to their degree of progress. Even though France suffered terribly she seems to be moving back toward her old place with encouraging rapidity. Russia, on the other hand, had scarcely started on the road to recovery in 1922. The upshot of the whole matter seems to be that Europe is by no means in danger of losing her business supremacy. She has been obliged to accept Japan and especially the United States as rivals, and the United States seems to be in little danger of losing its position as the most active of all countries in business. New York seems likely to remain the world's financial center, but apparently the geographical conditions which we are studying in this book would have led to this result, war or no war. The war merely hastened processes which were already in operation. It weakened Europe very seriously, but it did not destroy the geo graphical and racial conditions which have made Europe the most active of the continents.
The Reasons for the Business Activity of Europe.—We must now inquire into the causes of the business activity of Europe both at home and abroad. Some of the more important of these may be classified as follows: (1) Climate.—The climate of Europe excels that of any other con tinent in almost every respect. (a) In no other continent does so large a proportion of the area receive sufficient rain at all seasons. More than 20 inches per year fall everywhere except in the far east, the far north, central and eastern Spain and small areas in eastern Italy and Greece. More important than this is the fact that in June, July and August, which are the chief growing season, more than six inches fall every where except in northern Russia, where the temperature is too low for agriculture, and in the three southern peninsulas and southeastqrn Russia.
(b) Europe is peculiarly fortunate in having a large area where extremes of temperature are unknown. The northern half of the con tinent, as appears in Fig. 4, has no month when the temperature for night and day together averages above F. The southwestern half has no month when the temperature averages below F. The region where both these conditions prevail includes the whole of Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark, the northern half of I France, the western half of Germany, the Swiss lowland, the low land part of Austria, a mere fringe of northern Spain, and similar fringes in the south of Norway and Sweden. Such conditions are almost ideal for human health and activity. They are also highly favorable for agriculture since farm work is interrupted for not more than two or three months in winter, the farmers are not made sluggish by prolonged and extreme heat in summer, and the temperature is high enough for a great variety of crops. Aside
from a few mountain areas, which are often the health resorts of low latitudes, the only other parts of the world that have equally favorable conditions of temperature are (1) a limited strip of land on the eastern coast of the United States including Long Island and southern Rhode Island, (2) a narrow fringe often only a few miles wide along the Pacific coast from San Diego to Sitka, (3) a similar strip along the coast of Chile, (4) a considerable area in the Argentine plain south of Buenos Aires, (5) the southeastern tip of Australia together with Tasmania and New Zealand, (6) the merest tip of South Africa near Cape Town, and (7) a tiny area at the northern end of the main ' island of Japan. These regions, it will be seen, are located in countries where civilization is high, business is active, and Europeans can thrive. All, however, are much smaller than the European area. Moreover, aside from the eastern United States, most of them lack sufficient contrast between summer and winter, and many have a long dry season in summer.
(c) The third great climatic advantage of Europe is its abundant storms. These not only bring rain at all seasons, but give the constant changes of temperature and of sunshine which are one of the most important elements in producing good health and vigorous activity. Among the regions with a favorable range of temperature only the eastern United States has more storminess than Europe, while Japan, the Puget Sound region, and New Zealand follow Europe but do not equal it.
(2) Europe's Highly Favorable Relation to the Ocean.—In the ad ' vantages of its relation to the ocean Europe stands in a class by itself. These advantages arise partly through climate and partly through trans portation. Climatically the first important feature is that Europe lies east of an oceanic region in which the warm Atlantic Drift penetrates to an unusually high latitude through the opening to the Arctic Ocean between Iceland and Norway. In winter this causes the air over the ocean west and north of the British Isles to be 30° F. or even 40° F. warmer than the average for the corresponding latitudes over land and sea together. The prevailing westerly winds of these latitudes not only are warmed by the water but bring a high degree of humidity to the land and thus prevent low temperature far into Europe, espe cially in the northern half. They also increase the winter rainfall, I especially in the south.