306 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
able to state the general principle that tribes which have been left to themselves, like the Negroes in Africa, Indians, Malays, Australians, and the inhabitants of the polar regions, have, with few exceptions and those rapidly disappearing, formed no states which exceed the limits of the medium states ; and that they live, as a rule, under petty polit- ical conditions. On the other hand, Africa is sure, within ten years, to present a different picture, in which continental proportions will have developed out of medium states. According to the figures, most of the states of continental extent are to be found in the largest conti- nents ; in this connection, however, it is significant for the advanced territorial development of states in all continents, that those of medium size are almost as numerous as small ones, while the latter appear in Europe and Asia today merely as residues not yet absorbed. Since we leave the growth of states for the time being quite out of the present consideration, from the connection between age and stage of territorial development, we can seize only upon the fact that all states of conti- nental size are of recent formation. Even China has reached its present great extent only in the last centuries ; while the smallest, like Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and the Hanse Towns are among the oldest states.
Stating the present division of political areas in terms of Europe, Russia in Asia and the Chinese Empire are each larger than Europe, both together are nearly three times as big ; British Asia is almost exactly the size of European Russia. In Africa, the French, British, Portuguese and German possessions, together with the Congo State, occupy an area that exceeds that of Europe by more than nine hundred thousand square miles. The French holdings in Africa are even now five times, the German are three and one-half times, as large as their respective mother countries ; the Congo State is almost eighty times as large as Belgium. In America, we find the United- States, the British possessions, and Brazil each with an area hardly smaller than that of Europe. Fourteen to fifteen such countries as Germany or France could find room within the boundaries of the United States. The aver- age size of the twenty-four countries and colonies of America is 623,220 square miles, or almost three times as big as the area of France or Germany, and almost forty times the average size of
