The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European historyGrant, Madison
History
The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history
Grant, Madison
Ethnology -- Europe
The pure Nordic race is at present clustered around the shores of the
Baltic and North Seas from which it has spread west and south and east
fading off gradually into the two preceding races.
The centre of its greatest purity is now in Sweden and there is no doubt
that at first the Scandinavian Peninsula and later, also, the
immediately adjoining shores of the Baltic were the centres of radiation
of the Teutonic or Scandinavian branch of this race.
The population of Scandinavia has been composed of this Nordic
subspecies from the commencement of Neolithic times and Sweden to-day
represents one of the few countries which has never been overwhelmed by
foreign conquest and in which there has been but a single racial type
from the beginning. This nation is unique in its unity of race,
language, religion and social ideals.
Southern Scandinavia only became fit for human habitation on the retreat
of the glaciers about twelve thousand years ago and apparently was
immediately occupied by the Nordic race. This is one of the few
geological dates which is absolute and not relative. It rests on a most
interesting series of computations made by Baron DeGeer, based on an
actual count of the laminated deposits of clay laid down annually by the
retreating glaciers, each layer representing the summer deposit of the
subglacial stream.
The Nordics first appear at the close of the Paleolithic along the
coasts of the Baltic. The earliest industry discovered in this region,
named the Maglemose and found in Denmark and elsewhere around the
Baltic, is probably the culture of the Proto-Teutonic branch of the
Nordic race. No human remains in connection therewith have been found.
The vigor and power of the Nordic race as a whole is such that it could
not have been evolved in so restricted an area as southern Sweden
although its Teutonic or Scandinavian section did develop there in
comparative isolation. The Nordics must have had a larger field for
their specialization and a longer period for their evolution than is
afforded by the limited time which has elapsed since Sweden became
habitable. For the development of so marked a type there is required a
continental area isolated and protected for long ages from the intrusion
of other races. The climatic conditions must have been such as to impose
a rigid elimination of defectives through the agency of hard winters and
the necessity of industry and foresight in providing the year’s food,
clothing and shelter during the short summer. Such demands on energy if
long continued would produce a strong, virile and self-contained race
which would inevitably overwhelm in battle nations whose weaker elements
had not been purged by the conditions of an equally severe environment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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