In the more favored zones western influences are shown by the presence of modern surface features. Striking examples of German enterprise can be observed along their extensive sphere of action. Grain warehouses at Polatli on the Angora line receive the crops of the environing country. In the plains of Konia canals and locks of varying dimensions have been built and the former swampy area is fast becoming a heavy producer of wheat. Farther south near Adana over 200,000 acres have been reclaimed mainly for cotton growing. In this district important harbor works have been undertaken at Alexandretta which it is planned to make both the outlet of all southern Asia Minor and the terminal of the sea route from Europe to the east. Similarly French influence in Syria is observable in the macadamized highways of the Lebanon no less than in the development of a thriving silk industry. In the British zone of the Meander valley mines have been opened up by British capital. Along with this economic progress education is also advancing. Numerous European and American schools were in existence in Asiatic Turkey prior to the European war. The mere presence of European employees of the railroads in the Anatolian towns is enough to infuse new thoughts into the minds of the inhabitants. On the whole the locomotive is performing its civilizing work and Asia Minor is gradually becoming Europeanized. Summing up we find that we have dealt with a connecting region which may justly be considered as the classical type in geography. A land which by its position was everyman’s land, and which, because of its geography, was of greater interest to the outsider than to its own inhabitants. Being a part of three continents it became part of the life which flourished in each. A nation formed on such a site belongs more to its neighbors than to itself. In this respect its future will resemble its past. FOOTNOTES: [202] The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, _Roy. Geogr. Soc. Suppl. Papers_, Vol. 4, 1900, p. 27. [203] W. Leaf: Troy, A Study in Homeric Geography, London, 1912. [204] Bk. 1, Chap. 193. Babylonia’s fertility is also noticed by other ancient writers. Cf. footnote of Rawlinson’s Herodotus, New York, 1859, Vol. 1, p. 258. [205] W. Willcocks: The Irrigation of Mesopotamia, New York, 1911, pp. 13-14. [206] Bushire with a population of about 20,000 inhabitants owes its importance to its being the southern sea terminal of the caravan route which starts at Teheran and passes through Isfahan and Shiraz. [207] Vivien de St. Martin: Asie Mineure, Vol. 11, p. 386. [208] Reclus: Asie Antérieure, pp. 509 and 522. [209] Hogarth: The Nearer East, New York, 1902, p. 33. [210] Hogarth: op. cit., p. 155. [211] Op. cit., p. 194. [212] _Asie Française_, Oct. 1913, p. 402. [213] Hogarth: op. cit., p. 244. CHAPTER XII THE PEOPLES OF TURKEY