ABSTRACT
Land area is basic to the weighting system of critical mass. The distribution of territory among nations is as inequitable as the distribution of population. In general, although not in every case, large territory means ample raw material resources for people to exploit economically. Since an arbitrary scale of 100 has been adopted for maximum critical mass, it is clear that the USSR and the United States have an optimum size of population related to territorial base, and hence they are in a unique category that is widely perceived as the top level of power status. People exploit the raw economic resources of the territory they live in and develop the political and social traditions that shape national cultures. The spirit and competence of the individual human beings in a society, in the long run, may count as much as or more than the concrete and material resources a nation possesses.
