The Map of the world conveys to us the fact that political boundaries are very often identical with linguistic boundaries. This is particularly the case in Europe. Each people there has its own language and this language is also the primary element of its particular culture. This is true of the larger countries like England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia and Poland, and is almost true of France, whose linguistic domain on the European continent overlaps part of only Belgium and Switzerland. This statement applies also to the smaller countries: Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Balkan States. For all these peoples, and for many others, unity of language is one of the features contributing to political unity.