The Impact of Mountains on the Ecological System

The locations and shapes of mountain passes have also had other military and consequently cultural impacts. Different sides of a mountain range often have not only different amounts of rainfall, but also different slopes. This has had important military implications where people on one side have found it easier to climb the gentler slope and then descend upon the other side to invade their neighbors. The greater ease of Roman soldiers entry into Gaul as compared to the more difficult mountain route into German regions meant that Roman culture reached Gaul first and later filtered second hand into the hands of inhabited by Germans.