Tim Marshall begins his survey of the effects of geography by noting that “the land on which we live has always shaped us” (1). Mountains, deserts, rivers, plains, and other features affect politics, warfare, and the development of societies. Russia, for example, worries continuously about Ukraine because Ukraine has few mountains; thus it potentially offers Russia’s enemies “an encouraging territory from which to attack Russia repeatedly” (1). By the same token, China and India, the two most populous nations in the world, have almost never come into conflict with each other despite sharing a 2,500-mile border “because between them is the highest mountain range in the world” (2).

Marshall first became interested in the effects of geography on political, economic, and social development while reporting on the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. He writes, “I watched close at hand as the leaders of various peoples, be they Serbian, Croat, or Bosniak, deliberately reminded their ‘tribes’ of the ancient divisions […] in an area crowded with diversity” (3). He goes on to examine the importance of the Ibar River in shaping those divisions, historically and during his time there. Beginning in the late 14th century, following defeat by the Ottomans, Serbians retreated to one side of the Ibar River and Muslim Albanians moved into the area on the other side.