Montesquieu: How the Laws of Political Servitude Relate to the Climate

The Spirit of Laws (1751)Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

Print |

Email |

How the Laws of Political Servitude Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate1. Of political Servitude.2. The Difference between Nations in point of Courage.3. Of the Climate of Asia.4. The Consequences resulting from this.5. That when the People in the North of Asia and those of the North of Europe made Conquests, the Effects of the Conquest were not the same.6. A new physical Cause of the Slavery of Asia, and of the Liberty of Europe.7. Of Africa and America.8. Of the Capital of the Empire. FOOTNOTES
   1. Father Du Halde, i, p. 112.
   2. The Chinese books make mention of this. Ibid., iv, p. 448.
   3. See Travels to the North, viii; the History of the Tartars; and Father Du Halde, iv.
   4. Tartary is, then, a kind of flat mountain.
   5. As Vouty V, emperor of the fifth dynasty.
   6. The Scythians thrice conquered Asia, and thrice were driven thence. Justin, ii. 3.
   7. This is in no way contrary to what I shall say in book xxviii. 20 concerning the manner of thinking among the German nations in respect to the cudgel; let the instrument be what it will, the power or action of beating was always considered by them as an affront.
   8. The waters lose themselves or evaporate before or after their streams are united.
   9. The petty barbarous nations of America are called by the Spaniards Indios Bravos and are much more difficult to subdue than the great empires of Mexico and Peru.