ABSTRACT
THE lands which fringe the Mediterranean sea share a climate so individual as to be considered a type, and from it has been coined a term applied to similar climatic conditions wherever they occur in the world. The Mediterranean climate is characterised by the concentration of an adequate annual rainfall into the autumn, winter, and spring; and by the limited range of the temperatures produced. These conditions occur within the temperature zones around a certain latitude (35 °“40 °) in lands which receive rain-laden westerly winds in winter, and north-east winds in summer. Whereas elsewhere (e.g. in California or South Australia) these conditions are fulfilled only over a comparatively small area of land facing a western sea, they extend over a very large area around the inland sea of the Mediterranean. The development of early civilisations in this area has sometimes been attributed to the existence of this wide belt of temperate and homogeneous climate: it was not suited to large-scale cereal production, consequently it could not be expected to carry an enormous population; it did however allow an adequate production of food to small communities, and when population outran supply, it encouraged the free movement of migrants to more distant areas offering similar geographical conditions, combined with the stimulus of social change.
