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II,LUMINATED MANUSCRIPT
From a manuscript of Chancer's Canterbury Tales in the British Museum. The
shrine of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was a celebrated resort for
medieval pilgrims. The city with its cathedral appears in the background.
MEDIEVAL AND MODERN
HISTORY
BY
HUTTON WEBSTER, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
"For the roots of the present lie deep in the past, and nothing
in the past is dead to the man who would learn how the
present comes to be what it is."
William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
^,:y
WEBSTER'S HISTORIES
Webster's Ancient History
From prehistoric times to the Age of Charlemagne
Webster's Early European History
From prehistoric times to the seventeenth century
Webster's European History
Part I — Ancient Times
The Ancient History section of the above book
Part II — Medieval and Early Modern Times
From the fall of Rome to the seventeenth century
Part III — Modern Times
From the Age of Louis XIV to the present
Webster's Medieval and Modern History
From the fall of Rome to the present
Webster's Readings in Ancient History
Webster's Readings in Medieval and Modem History
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers
Copyright, 1919
By D. C. Heath & Co.
I C 9
MAV -3 1919
A515431
PREFACE
This book, as the title indicates, covers both the Middle Ages
and modern times. The chapters treating the period from the
sixth to the seventeenth century are reproduced from my Early
European History, with minor modifications and with additional
maps and illustrations. The entire work has been written since the
outbreak of the World War, and its probable consequences have
been kept constantly in mind. If it be true, as Bishop Stubbs once
said, that "nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn
how the present comes to be what it is," then surely the prime
business of the author of a text-book deaHng with European history
is to make plain the remoter causes, as well as the immediate ante-
cedents, of a struggle epochal in the Hfe of humanity. How far I
have succeeded in doing so must be left to the reader's judgment.
The "Suggestions for Further Study" contain a classified and
annotated bibliography of those historical works which appear to
be reasonably well adapted to the needs of pupils in secondary
schools. References to the appropriate chapters of my Readings in
Medieval and Modern History are also inserted in footnotes. This
volume consists of extracts from the sources, chiefly of a biographical
or narrative character. As stated in the preface, "Each chapter
deals with a single epoch or personality and presents the work of a
single author. The passages quoted are long enough to make a
definite impression on the reader, thus avoiding the scrappy effect
necessarily produced by a set of short, unrelated extracts. Since
many of the selections are good literature as well as good history,
I hope that students will be tempted to turn to the original sources
from which excerpts have been taken, and to read in them at length
for their own enjoyment."
The pedagogical apparatus supplied includes a table of events
and dates and an index and pronouncing vocabulary. The studies
following each chapter are based directly on the text. Most of them
take the form of suggestive questions, which do not test the memory
only, but stir the sluggish mind, provoke debate, and lead to con-
structive thinking. There are also numerous exercises requiring
the preparation of outline maps.
iv Preface
It remains to acknowledge with hearty thanks the assistance
received from teachers who have read and criticized parts of the
manuscript. I may mention the following: Professor James M.
Leake of Bryn Mawr College; Professor J. C. Hildt of Smith College;
Professor E. F. Humphrey of Trinity College; Professor H. D.
Foster of Dartmouth College; Very Rev. Patrick J. Healy, Professor
of Church History in the Catholic University of America; Dr.
James Sullivan, Director of the Division of Archives and History,
State Department of Education of New York; Constantine E.
McGuire, Assistant Secretary General, International High Com-
mission, Washington; Miss Margaret E. McGill, of the Newton
(Mass.) High School; and Miss Mabel Chesley, of the Erasmus Hall
High School, Brooklyn. They have all helped me to make a better
book than I could have made alone.
HUTTON WEBSTER
Lincoln, Nebraska
March, 19 19
CONTENTS
PAGE
List of Illustrations xiii
List of Maps xix
List of Plates xxii
Suggestions for Further Study xxiii
CHAPTER
I. Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages,
476-962
1. Western Europe 1
2. The Ostrogoths in Italy, 488-553 3
3. The Lombards in Italy, 568-774 6
4. The Franks under Clovis and His Successors 8
5. The Franks under Charles Martel and Pepin the
Short 10
6. Charlemagne and the Revival of the Roman Empire,
800 12
7. Disruption of Charlemagne's Empire, 814-870 ... 16
8. Otto the Great and the Restoration of the Roman
Empire, 962 19
9. The Anglo-Saxons in Britain, 449-839 23
10. Christianity in the British Isles 25
11. The Fusion of Germans and Romans 29
11. Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages,
395-1095
12. The Roman Empire in the East 32
13. The Reign of Justinian, 527-565 33
14. The Empire and Its Asiatic Foes 35
15. The Empire and Its Foes in Europe 37
16. Byzantine Civilization 38
17. Constantinople " 40
III. Christianity in the East and in the West to 1054
18. Development of Christianity 45
19. Eastern Christianity 48
20. Western Christianity: Rise of the Papacy 50
21. Growth of the Papacy 52
22. Monasticism 54
23. Life and Work of the Monks 57
v
vi Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
24. Spread of Christianity over Europe 60
25. Separation of Eastern and Western Christianity . . . 63
26. The Greek Church 65
27. The Roman Church 66
IV. The Orient Against the Occident: Rise and Spread
OF Islam, 622-1058
28. Arabia and the Arabs 68
29. Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman, 622-632 ... 69
30. Islam and the Koran 73
31. Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt 75
32. Expansion of Islam in North Africa and Spain ... 78
33. The Caliphate and its Disruption, 632-1058 .... 80
34. Arabian Civilization 82
35. The Influence of Islam 87
V. The Northmen and the Normans to 1066
36. Scandinavia and the Northmen 90
37. The Viking Age 92
38. Scandinavian Heathenism 94
39. The Northmen in the West 97
40. The Northmen in the East 100
41. Normandy and the Normans 101
42. Conquest of England by the Danes; Alfred the Great 103
43. Norman Conquest of England; William the Conqueror 106
44. Results of the Norman Conquest 109
45. Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily. . . Ill
46. The Normans in European History 112
VI. Feudalism
47. Rise of Feudalism 114
48. Feudalism as a Form of Local Government 115
49. Feudal Justice 118
50. Feudal Warfare 120
51. The Castle and Life of the Nobles 123
52. Knighthood and Chivalry 126
53. Feudalism as a Form of Local Industry 129
54. The Village and Life of the Peasants 132
55. Serfdom 134
56. Decline of Feudalism 135
VII. The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, 962-1273
57. Characteristics of the Medieval Church 137
58. Church Doctrine and Worship 138
Contents vii
AFTER PAGE
59. Church Jurisdiction 141
60. The Secular Clergy 143
61. The Regular Clergy 144
62. The Friars 146
63. Power of the Papacy 149
64. Popes and Emperors, 962-1122 151
65. Popes and Emperors, 1122-1273 156
66. Significance of the Medieval Church 159
VIII. The OccroENT Against the Orient: the Crusades,
1095-1291
67. Causes of the Crusades 162
68. First Crusade, 1095-1099 164
69. Crusaders' States in Syria 168
70. Second Crusade, 1147-1149, and Third Crusade,
1189-1192 170
71. Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire of Constanti-
nople, 1202-1261 173
72. Results of the Crusades 175
IX. The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks to 1453
73. The Mongols 179
74. Conquests of the Mongols, 1206-1405 ....... 180
75. The Mongols in China and India 183
76. The Mongols in Eastern Europe 184
77. The Ottoman Turks and their Conquests, 1227-1453 187
78. The Ottoman Turks in Southeastern Europe .... 190
X. European Nations During the Later Middle Ages
79. Growth of the Nations 192
80. England under William the Conqueror, 1066-1087;
the Norman Kingship 193
81. England under Henry II, 1154-1189; Royal Justice
and the Common Law 195
82. The Great Charter 198
83. ParHament in the Thirteenth Century 200
84. Expansion of England under Edward I, 1272-1307 . 204
85. Unification of France, 987-1328 207
86. The Hundred Years' War between France and Eng-
land, 1337-1453 210
87. Unification of Spain (to 1492) 214
88. Austria and the Swiss Confederation, 1273-1499. . . 217
89. Expansion of Germany 220
viii Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
XI. European Cities During the Later Middle Ages
90. Growth of the Cities 224
91. City Life 227
92. Civic Industry; the Guilds 229
93. Trade and Commerce 232
94. Money and Banking 235
95. Italian Cities 238
96. German Cities: the Hanseatic League 242
97. The Cities of Flanders 243
XII. Medieval Civilization
98. Formation of National Languages 247
99. Development of National Literatures 249
100. Romanesque and Gothic Architecture; Cathedrals 252
101. Education; the Universities ....*. 256
102. Scholasticism 261
103. Science and Magic 262
104. Popular Superstitions 265
105. Popular Amusements and Festivals 269
106. Manners and Customs 273
XIII. The Renaissance
107. Meaning of the Renaissance 279
108. Revival of Learning in Italy 281
109. Paper and Printing 284
110. Revival of Art in Italy 286
111. Revival of Learning and Art beyond Italy 289
112. The Renaissance in Literature 290
113. The Renaissance in Education 294
114. The Scientific Renaissance 296
115. The Economic Renaissance 298
XIV. Geographical Discovery and Colonization in the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
116. Medieval Geography 302
117. Aids to Exploration 304
118. To the Indies Eastward: Prince Henry and Da Gama 307
119. The Portuguese Colonial Empire 310
120. To the Indies Westward: Columbus and Magellan. 311
121. The Indians 317
132. Spanish Explorations and Conquests in America . . 320
123. The Spanish Colonial Empire 322
124. English and French Explorations in America. . . . 325
125. The Old World and the New '. . . . 327
Contents ix
CHAPTEK PAGE
XV. The Reformation and the Religious Wars, 1517-1648
126. Decline of the Papacy 330
127. Heresies and Heretics 334
128. Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation
in Germany, 1517-1522 337
129. Charles V and the Spread of the Reformation . . . 341
130. The Reformation in Switzerland; ZwingU and Calvin 343
131. The English Reformation, 1533-1558 345
132. The Protestant Sects 348
133. The Catholic Counter Reformation 351
134. Spain under Philip II, 1556-1598 355
135. Revolt of the Netherlands 357
136. England under Ehzabeth, 1558-1603 361
137. The Huguenot Wars in France 366
138. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 369
XVI, Absolutism in England and France, 1603-1715
139. The Divine Right of Kings 375
140. Absolutism of the Stuarts, 1603-1642 376
141. Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War, 1642-1649. . . 382
142. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-1660 387
143. The Restoration and the "Glorious Revolution" 390
144. England in the Seventeenth Century 394
145. Absolutism of Louis XIV, 1661-1715 396
146. The Wars of Louis XIV T 401 ^
147. France under the " Grand Monarch " 407
XVII. The European Balance of Power, 1715-1789
148. The Eighteenth Century in PoHtics 411
149. Rise of Russia 412
150. Russia under Peter the Great, 1689-1725 415
151. Sweden and the Career of Charles XII 418
152. Russia under Catherine II, 1762-1796; the DecHne
of Turkey 422
153. The Partitions of Poland, 1772-1795 424
154. Rise of Prussia 428
155. Prussia under Frederick the Great, 1740-1786. . . 431
156. Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain 435
XVIII. Commerce and Colonies in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries
157. Mercantilism and Trading Companies 440
. 158. The Dutch Colonial Empire 442
X Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
159. Rivalry of France and England in India (to 1763) . 445
160. The English Settlement of Virginia and Massachu-
setts 449
161. The Thirteen Colonies 455
162. Transit of Civilization from England to America . . 459
163. French Settlements in Canada and Louisiana . . . 464
164. Rivalry of France and England in North America 467
165. Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies, 1776-1783 .... 471
166. Progress of Geographical Discovery 476
XIX. The Old Regime in Europe
167. The Eighteenth Century in Culture 480
168. The Privileged Classes 481
169. The Unprivileged Classes 483
170. Liberal Ideas of Industry and Commerce; the
Economists 485
171. The Scientists . .' ' . . 486
172. Liberal Ideas of Religion and PoUtics; the English
Philosophers 489
173. The French Philosophers 490
174. The Enhghtened Despots 493
XX. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815
175. Preparation for the French Revolution 497
176. Eve of the French Revolution 499
177. The Estates-General, 1789 502
178. Outbreak of the French Revolution 504
179. The National Assembly, 1789-1791 508
180. The First French Republic, 1792 511
181. The National Convention, 1792-1795 516
182. The Directory and Napoleon, 1795-1799 520
183. The Consulate, 1799-1804 523
184. The French Empke, 1804 525
185. Napoleon at War mth Europe, 1805-1807 526
186. The Napoleonic Reorganization of Europe 529
187. The Continental System 531
188. Revolt of the Nations, 1808-1814 533
189. Downfall of Napoleon, 1814-1815 537
190. ''Liberty, EquaHty, Fraternity" 539
XXI. The National Movement in Europe, 1815-1871
191. Modern Nationalism 543
192. Congress of Vienna 545
Contents
XI
XXII.
PAGE
193. The Reaction under Metternich, 1815-1830 .... 548
194. France and the "July Revolution," 1830 550
195. The "July Revolution" in Europe 551
196. The "February Revolution" and the Second French
Republic, 1848 554
197. The " February Revolution " in Europe 555
198. The Second French Empire, 1852-1870 559
199. United Italy, 1859-1870 560
200. United Germany, 1864-1871 567
The Democratic Movement in Europe, 1871-1914
201. Modern Democracy 575
202. The United Kmgdom 576
203. The Third French Republic 582
204. Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium 584
205. The German Empire 586
206. The Dual ISIonarchy 589
207. Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden 590
208. The Russian Empire 591
209. Turkey and the Balkan States 595
XXIII. Colonial Expansion and World Politics in the Nine-
teenth AND Twentieth Centuries
210. Greater Europe 602
211. The Opening-Up of Africa 603
212. The Partition of Africa 605
213. The Opening-Up and Partition of Asia 609
214. China 614
215. Japan 617
216. The Opening-Up and Partition of Oceania 621
217. British North America 623
218. Latin America 626
219. The United States 629
220. Close of Geographical Discovery 634
221. Inter-racial Problems 636
XXIV. The Industrial Revolution
222. Modern Industrialism 640
223. The Great Inventions 641
224. Effects of the Great Inventions 646
225. Improvements in Transportation 649
226. Improved Communications 654
xii Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
227. Commerce 656
228. Commercial Policies 658
229. Agriculture and Land Tenure 660
230. The Labor Movement 662
23 L Government Regulation of Industry 665
232. Rise and Spread of Socialism 667
233. Progress and Poverty 671
XXV. Modern Civilization
234. Internationalism 675
235. Social Betterment 677
236. Emancipation of Women and Children 679
237. Religious Toleration and the Separation of Church
and State . 681
238. Popular Education and the Higher Learning .... 683
239. Science 685
240. Philosophy and Literature 687
241. Music and the Fine Arts 690
242. Historic and Artistic Paris 692
243. Historic and Artistic London 700
XXVI. The World War, 1914-1918
244. National Rivalries and Antipathies 708
245. Colonial Problems and the Eastern Question . ... 712
246. MiUtarism 717
247. Pan-Germanism 720
248. Beginning of the War 723
249. The War in Europe, 1914-1917 727
250. The War outside of Europe and on the Sea, 1914-1917 732
251. The Intervention of the United States 734
252. The Russian Revolution 737
253. End of the War, 1918 740
XXVII. The World Settlement, 1919
Appendix — Table of Events and Dates 747
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 765
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna 3
Charlemagne 12
Iron Crown of Lombardy 13
Charlemagne's Signature 14
Cathedral at Ak-la-Chapelle 15
Ring Seal of Otto the Great 20
St. Martin's Church, Canterbury 26
Canterbury Cathedral 27
Justinian and his Suite 33
The Three Existing Monuments of the Hippodrome, Constantinople. 42
Religious Music 47
The Nestorian Monument 49
Papal Arms 51
St. Daniel the Stylite on his Column 55
An Abbot's Seal 56
Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris 58
A Monk Copyist 60
Mecca 70
A Passage from the Koran 73
Naval Battle Showing Use of ''Greek Fire" 77
TheAlhambra 79
Interior of the Great Mosque of Cordova 84
Capitals and Arabesques from the Alhambra 87
Swedish Rock Carving 90
A Runic Stone 91
A Viking Ship 93
Norse Metal Work 95
Alfred the Great 105
Alfred's Jewel 106
A Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry 107
Trial by Combat 119
Mounted Knight 121
Chateau Gaillard (restored) 124
King and Jester 126
Falconry 127
A Joust 128
Farm Work in the Fourteenth Century 131
A Bishop Ordaining a Priest 143
xiii
xiv List of Illustrations
PAGE
St. Francis Blessing the Birds 147
The Spiritual and the Temporal Power 152
Henry IV, Countess Matilda, and Gregory VII 155
Worms Cathedral 156
Combat between Crusaders and Moslems 163
"Mosque of Omar," Jerusalem 166
Effigy of a Knight Templar 169
Richard I in Prison 172
" The Last Crusade" 1^4
Hut-Wagon of the Mongols (reconstruction) 180
Tomb of Timur at Samarkand .181
Mohammed II 1^^
The "White Tower" 194
A Passage from Domesday Book 195
Extract from the Great Charter 199
Windsor Castle 201
A Queen Eleanor Cross 202
Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey 204
Royal Arms of Edward III 211
Battle of Crecy 212
Walls of Carcassonne 22:>
A Scene in Rothenburg 226
A London Bellman 228
House of the Butchers' Guild, Hildesheim, Germany 230
Baptistery, Cathedral and "Leaning Tower" of Pisa 237
Duomo and Campanile of Florence 239
Belfry of Bruges 244
Town Hall of Louvain, Belgium 245
Roland at Roncesvalles 250
Gargoyles on the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris 256
View of New College, Oxford 258
Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford 260
Roger Bacon 263
Magician Rescued from the Devil 265
The Witches' Sabbath 267
Chess Pieces of Charlemagne 269
Bear Baiting 270
Mummers
A Miracle Play at Coventry, England 272
974
Sulgrave Manor ^'^
Interior of an English Manor House 275
Costumes of Ladies during the Later Middle Ages 276
Anglo-Saxon Drinking Horn 277
List of Illustrations xv
PAGE
Mask of Dante 281
Petrarch 282
An Early Printing Press 284
Facsimile of Part of Caxton's "^neid" (reduced) 285
Desiderius Erasmus 290
Geoffrey Chaucer 292
Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon 293
Boys' Sports 295
Richard II 300
Geographical Monsters 303
An Astrolabe 306
Vasco da Gama 309
Christopher Columbus 313
Isabella 314
Caravel of the Fifteenth Century 315
The Name "America" 316
Ferdinand Magellan 317
Aztec Sacrificial Knife 318
Aztec Sacrificial Stone 319
Cabot Memorial Tower 325
English Battleship of the Sixteenth Century 326
John Wycliffe 336
Martin Luther 338
Charles V 341
John Calvin 343
Henry VIII 344
Ruins of Melrose Abbey 347
Chained Bible 350
St. Ignatius Loyola 352
Philip II 356
The Escorial 357
WilUam the Silent 359
Elizabeth 362
Silver Crown of Elizabeth's Reign 363
Mary Stuart 364
The Spanish Armada in the English Channel 365
Henry IV 367
Cardinal Richelieu 368
Gustavus Adolphus 371
Gold Coin of James I 377
A Puritan. Family 378
Charles I 379
Execution of the Earl of Strafford 381
xvi List of Illustrations
PAGE
Oliver Cromwell 383
Interior of Westminster Hall 386
Great Seal of England Under the Commonwealth (reduced) 389
Silver Crown of Charles II 391
Coach and Sedan Chair 394
John Milton 396
Cardinal Mazarin . 397
Louis XIV 398
Versailles 400
Marlborough 404
Gibraltar 405
Medal of Louis XIV 408
Moliere 409
Peter the Great 416
Charles XII 420
Catherine II . . 422
The Partition of Poland 425
Frederick the Great 432
Maria Theresa 434
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 437
Robert, Lord CUve 448
Ruins of the Brick Church at Jamestown 451
The Mayflower 453
The Mayflower Compact 454
First Page of Penn's Account of Pennsylvania 458
A Ti tie-Page of Poor Richard's Almanac 459
A Page from the New England Printer 461
Join or Die 463
Montcalm 467
James Wolfe 469
Opening Lines of the Declaration of Independence 473
Medal Commemorating the Declaration of Independence 474
Captain James Cook 478
Adam Smith 486
Death Mask of Sir Isaac Newton 487
Linnaeus 488
Voltaire 491
Jean Jacques Rousseau 492
Marie Antoinette 500
Mirabeau 503
Lafayette 504
The Storming of the Bastille 505
The Destruction of Feudalism 507
List of Illustrations xvii
^ PAGE
An Assignat 509
Danton 513
The Lion of Lucerne 514
Seal of the French Repubhc, 1792-1804 515
Execution of Louis XVI 517
Napoleon 520
Horatio, Lord Nelson 522
Cross of the Legion of Honor 526
A Napoleonic Medal 527
The "Victory" 528
WilHam Pitt, the Younger 530
Josephine 534
Baron vom Stein 536
The Duke of Wellington 539
The Tomb of Napoleon 540
Talleyrand 545
Metternich 549
Palais de Justice, Brussels 552
Louis Kossuth 556
Napoleon III and Eugenie 560
Count Cavour 562
Giuseppe Garibaldi 563
"The Right Leg in the Boot at Last" 564
Leo XIII 566
Bismarck 569
Moltke 572
The Union Jack 577
Interior of the House of Commons 579
Benjamin Disraeli 580
William E. Gladstone 581
L. A. Thiers 583
The German National Monument 587
Francis Joseph 1 589
The Kremlin, Moscow 593
Florence Nightingale, 597
Henry M. Stanley 604
Paul Kruger ' 607
Cecil Rhodes 608
" The Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger " 610
Queen Victoria 611
Simon Bolivar 627
Robert E. Peary 634
Hargreaves's " Spinning Jenny " 643
xviii List of Illustrations
PAGE
Arkwright's Spinning Machine 643
Robert Fulton 650
George Stephenson 651
The "Rocket," 1830 652
First Adhesive Penny Postage Stamp ■ 655
Karl Marx 669
"Ridiculous Taste, or the Ladies' Absurdity" 676
John Wesley 682
Marie Curie 686
Charles Darwin 687
Herbert Spencer 688
Sir Walter Scott 688
Victor Hugo 689
Mozart's Spinet 690
Ludwig van Beethoven 691
Richard Wagner 691
"Colonne Vendome 695
Arc de Triomphe 697
Notre Dame 699
The Tower of London 703
The Nelson Monument, Trafalgar Square 704
St. Paul's Cathedral 705
Westminster Abbey 707
" Dropping the Pilot " 710
The Peace Palace at the Hague 718
William H 721
King Albert I . 726
Marshal Joffre 728
Hindenburg 730
The Victoria Cross 733
A Submarine 735
Herbert Hoover 737
Nicholas II 738
Ferdinand Foch 741
LIST OF MAPS
PAGE
Europe at the Deposition of Romulus Augustulus, 476 a.d. . . Facing 2
Europe in the Sixth Century 5
Lombard Possessions in Italy about 600 a.d 7
Growth of the Prankish Dominions, 481-768 a.d 9
Europe in the Age of Charlemagne, 800 a.d Facing 14
The Frankish Dominions as Divided by the Treaties of Verdun
(843 a.d) and Mersen (870 a.d) 17
Europe in the Age of Otto the Great, 962 a.d 22
Continental Home of the English 24
Anglo-Saxon Britain 28
The Peoples of Europe at the Beginning of the Tenth Century Facing 30
The Roman Empire m the East During the Tenth and Eleventh
Centuries 36
Vicinity of Constantinople 41
Constantinople 43
Plan of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire 57
Growth of Christianity from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century
(double page) Between 62 atid 63
Expansion of Islam Facing 78
Dismemberment of the Caliphate^ 81
Discoveries of the Northmen in the West 98
Alfred's England 104
Dominions of William the Conqueror 108
Norman Possessions in Italy and Sicily Ill
Plan of Chateau Gaillard 125
Plan of Hitchin Manor, Hertfordshire 133
Germany and Italy during the Interregnum, 1254-1273 a.d. . Facing 158
Crusaders' States in Syria 168
Mediterranean Lands after the Fourth Crusade, 1202-1204 a.d.
(double page) Between 170 and 171
The Mongol Empire 182
Russia at the End of the Middle Ages 186
Empire of the Ottoman Turks at the Fall of Constantmople, 1453 a.d. 189
Dominion of the Plantagenets in England and France "~196r
Scotland in the Thirteeenth Century 205
Unification of France during the Middle Ages 208
Unification of Spain during the Middle Ages 215
xix
XX List of Maps
PAGE
Hapsburg Possessions, 1273-1526 a.d 218
The Swiss Confederation, 1291-1513 a.d 219
German Expansion Eastward during the Middle Ages 222
Trade Routes between Northern and Southern Europe in the 13th and
14th Centuries 233
Medieval Trade Routes (double page) Between 234 a>id 235
Plan of Salisbury Cathedral, England 253
Cross Section of Amiens Cathedral 255
Geographical Knowledge during the Middle Ages 305
Portuguese Exploration of the African Coast 308
Behaim's Globe 312
Portuguese and Spanish Colonial Empires in the Sixteenth Century
(double page) Between 314 a;«/ 315
West Indies 321
An Early Map of the New World (1540 a.d.) 323
The Great Schism, 1378-1417 a.d 332
Europe at the Beginning of the Reformation, 1519 a.d. . . . Facing 342
Extent of the Reformation, 1524-1572 a.d 349
The Netherlands at the Truce of 1609 a.d 360
Europe at the End of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 a.d. . . . Facing 372
England and Wales 384
Ireland in the 16th Century 388
Acquisitions of Louis XIV and Louis XV 402
Europe after the Peace of Utrecht, 1713 a.d Facing 406
Growth of Russia to the End of the Eighteenth Century ...'... 413
Scandinavia in the Seventeenth Century .^ 419
The Ottoman Empire to 1683 a.d Facing 424
Partitions of Poland, 1772, 1793, 1795 a.d 427
Hapsburg Possessions, 1526-1789 a.d 433
Growth of Prussia to the End of the Eighteenth Century . . Facing 434
East Indies 443
India at the Time of Clive 446
Virginia 450
Captain John Smith's Map of New England 452
The Exploration of North x\merica by the Middle of the Seventeenth
Century 456
La Salle's Explorations 466
North America after the Peace of Utrecht, 1713 A.D 468
North America after the Peace of Paris, 1763 A.D 470
Colonial Empires in the Eighteenth Century (double page)
Between 472 atid 473
Europe at the Beginning of the French Revolution, 1789 a.d. . Facing 498
First French Empire, 1812 a.d 531
List of Maps xxi
PAGE
Napoleon's Russian Campaign 535
Plan of the Battle of Waterloo 538
Europe after the Congress of Vienna, 1815 A. D Facing 546
Unification of Italy, 1815-1870 a.d 565
Unification of Germany, 1815-1871 A.D Facing 572
Europe in 1871 A.D Facing 576
The Peoples of Europe at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
(double page) Between 590 and 591
The Ottoman Empire, 1683-1914 A.D Facing 600
Exploration and Partition of Africa (double page) . . Between 604 and 605
Suez Canal 609
The European Ad'/ance in Asia (double page) .... Between 610 and 611
Extension of British Rule in India 612
The Peoples of Asia Facing 616
Religions of the World 619
The Woi-ld Powers, 1919 a.d. (double page) Between 622 and 623
Canada, the United States, and Mexico 625
Exclusion of Spain and Portugal from South America .... Facing 628
The Louisiana Purchase 629
Relief Map of the Panama Canal 630
Discoveries in the Polar Regions 633
Races of Man 637
Industrial England •• ■ 648
Plan of Paris 694
Plan of London 701
Europe in 1914 A.D. Facing 710
Berlin to Bagdad Railway 715
The Western Front 729
Europe after the Peace of Versailles, 1919 a.d.
(double page) Between 754 and 755
LIST OF PLATES
Illuminated Manuscript Frontispiece
Sancta Sophia, Constantinople Facing 42
A Castle on the Rhine 122
St. Peter's, Rome 150
Joan of Arc 212
Campanile and Doge's Palace, Venice 240
Reims Cathedral 254
Cologne Cathedral 255
Interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge 260
Ghiberti's Bronze Doors at Florence 288
Italian Paintings of the Renaissance 289
The Taj Mahal, Agra 448
"1807" 528
The Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 546
Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, Rome 564
The Congress of Berlin 598
Early Passenger Trains 652
Paris and the Seine 700
Houses of Parliament, London 701
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
All serious students of history should have access to the Aikerican His-
torical Review (N.Y., 1895 to date, quarteriy, $4.00 a year). This journal,
the organ of the American Historical Association, con-
tains articles by scholars, critical reviews of all important
works, and notes and news. The Historical Outlook (formerly the History
Teacher's Magazine) is edited under the supervision of a committee of the
American Historical Association (Philadelphia, 1909 to date, monthly,
$2.00 a year). Every well-equipped school library should contain the
files of the National Geographical Magazine (Washington, 1890 to date,
monthly, $2.00 a year) and of Art and Afchceology (Washington, 19 14 to
date, monthly, $3.00 a year). These two periodicals make a special feature
of illustrations. Current History (N.Y., 1914 to date, monthly, $3.00 a
year) contains many of the valuable articles appearing in the daily edition
of the Nriv York Times, as well as much additional matter of contemporary
interest.
Useful books for the teacher's library include H. E. Bourne, The Teaching
of History and Civics in the Elementary and the Secondary School (N.Y.,
1902, Longmans, Green & Co., $1.50), Henry Johnson,
The Teaching of History (N.Y., 1915, Macmillan, $1.40), ^^^^^ °^ *^®
H. B. George, Historical Evidence (N.Y., 1909, Oxford Uni- Xeachine of
versity Press, American Branch, 75 cents), J. H. Vincent, History
Historical Research (N.Y., 1911, Holt, $2.25), Frederic
Harrison, The Meaning of History and Other Historical Pieces (new ed.,
N.Y., 1900, Macmillan, $1.75), J. H. Robinson, The New History (N.Y.,
191 2, Macmillan, $1.50), and H. B. George, The Relations of History and
Geography (4th ed., N.Y., 1910, Oxford University Press, American Branch,
$1.10). The following reports are indispensable:
The Study of History in Schools. Report to the American Historical Association
by the Committee of Seven (N.Y., 1899, Macmillan, 50 cents).
The Study of History in Secondary Schools. Report to the American Historical
Association by a Committee of Five (N.Y., 191 1, Macmillan, 25 cents).
Historical Sources in Schools. Report to the New England History Teachers'
Association by a Select Committee (N.Y., 1902, out of print).
A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools. Report by a Special Committee of the
New England History Teachers' Association (N.Y., 1904, Heath, $1.32).
A Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries. Published under the auspices
of the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland
(2d ed., NY., 1915, Longmans, Green & Co., 60 cents).
xxiii
xxiv Suggestions for Further Study
For chronology, genealogies, lists of sovereigns, and other data the most
valuable works are Arthur Hassall, European History, 476-1 gio (new ed.,
N.Y., 191 1, Macmillan, $2.25), G. P. Putnam, Tabular
Dictionaries • y-^.^^ ^j Universal History (new ed., N.Y., 1915, Putnam,
pedias $2.50), and K. J. Ploetz, A Handbook of Universal History,
translated by W. H. Tillinghast (new ed,, Boston, 19 15,
Houghton Mifflin Co., $3.00).
Syllabi and The following syllabi and bibhographies have been pre-
Bibliographies pared for collegiate instruction:
Beazley, C. R. a Note-Book of Medieval History, 323-1453 (N.Y., 19 17, Oxford
University Press, American Branch, $1.20).
Lees, Beatrice A. Bibliography of Medieval History (London, 191 7, Historical
Association, 25.). A classified and annotated list of references, covering the
period 400-1500.
McKiNLEY, A. E. Collected Materials for the Study of the War (Philadelphia, 1918,
McKinley Publishing Co., 80 cents).
MuNRO, D. C, and Sellery, G. C. A Syllabus of Medieval History, 395-1500
(N.Y., 1913, Longmans, Green & Co., $1.00).
Paetow, L. J. Guide to the Study of Medieval History (Berkeley, Cal., 1918, Univ.
of California Series, $2.00). Elaborate bibliographies and topical outlines.
Perkins, Clarence. An Outline of Recent European History, 1815-1916 (Colvun-
bus, Ohio, 191 7, College Book Store, 50 cents).
Richardson, O. H. Syllabus of Continental European History from the Fall of
Rome to 1870 (Boston, 1904, Ginn, boards, 75 cents).
Stephens, H. M. Syllabus of a Course of Eighty-seven Lectures on Modern European
History (N.Y., 1899, Macmillan, $1.60). Covers the period 1600-1890.
Thompson, J. W. Reference Studies in Medieval History (2d ed., Chicago, 1914,
University of Chicago Press, $1.25).
An admirable collection of maps for school use is W. R. Shepherd, Histori-
cal Atlas (N.Y., 191 1, Holt, $2.50), with about two hundred and fifty
maps covering the historical field. Other valuable works
are E. W. Dow, Atlas of European History (N.Y., 1907,
Holt, $1.25), Ramsay Muir, Hammond's New Historical Atlas for Students
(2d ed., N.Y., 1914, Hammond, $2.50), and C. G. Robertson and J. G.
Bartholomew, An Historical Atlas of Modern Europe from 178Q to 1914
(N.Y., 1915, Oxford University Press, American Branch, $1.50. Much
use can be made of the inexpensive and handy Literary and Historical Atlas
of Europe by J. G. Bartholomew in "Everyman's Library" (N.Y., 1910,
Button, 70 cents). Other atlases in "Everyman's Library" are devoted
to Asia, Africa and Australasia, and America, respectively. S. R. Gardiner,
A School Atlas of English History (N.Y., 1891, Longmans, Green & Co.,
$1.50) is a standard work. Very valuable, also, is J. G. Bartholomew, An
Atlas of Economic Geography (N.Y., 191 5, Oxford University Press, American
Branch, $2.00), with maps showing temperature, rainfall, population, races,
occupations, religions, trade routes, products, etc.
Suggestions for Further Study xxv
The Spruner-Bretschneider Historical Maps are ten in number, size 62 x
52 inches, and cover the period from 350 to 18 15. The text is in German
(Chicago, Nystrom, each $6.00; Rand, McNally & Co., -ny ,, «
each $6.50). Johnston's Medieval and Modem History ^^^^ Charts
Maps twenty-four in number, size 40 x 30 inches, empha-
size the political aspects of European history (Chicago, Nystrom, com-
plete set with tripod stand, $28.00). A series of European History Maps,
twenty-three in number, size 44x32 inches, has been prepared for the
medieval and modern periods by Professor S. B. Harding (Chicago, Denoyer-
Geppert Co., complete set with tripod stand, $32.00). Philips's Wall Atlas
of Modern History consists of eight maps, size 45 x 36 inches (N.Y., Ham-
mond, complete set with roller, $18.00). The school should also possess
good physical wall maps such as the Sydow-Habenicht or the Kiepert
series, both to be obtained from Rand, McNally & Co. The text is in
German. Philips's Physical Maps and Johnston's Neiv Series of Physical
Wall Maps are obtainable from A. J. Nystrom & Co. The only large
charts available are those prepared by MacCoun for his Historical Geography
Charts of Europe. The two sections, "Ancient and Classical" and
"Medieval and Modern," are sold separately (N.Y., Silver, Burdett & Co.,
$15.00). A helpful series of Blackboard Outline Maps is issued by J. L.
Engle, Beaver, Penn. These are wall maps, printed with paint on black-
board cloth, for use with an ordinary crayon. Such maps are also sold by
the Denoyer-G^ppert Co., Chicago.
The "Studies" following each chapter of this book include various
exercises for which small outline maps are required. Such maps are sold
by D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, New York, Chicago. Useful
atlases of outline maps are also to be had of the McKinley j^^pg
PubHshing Co., Philadelphia, A. J. Nystrom & Co., Chicago,
Atkinson, Mentzer & Grover, Chicago, and of other publishers.
The best photographs of medieval and modern works of art must usually
be obtained from the foreign publishers in Naples, Florence, Rome, Munich,
Paris, Athens, and London, or from their American agents. ..„ ^ ^.
' , 1 . , , . „ • 1 „ Illustrations
Such photographs, m the usual size, 8 x 10 mches, sell,
unmounted, at from 6 to 8 francs a dozen. In addition to photographs and
lantern sHdes, a collection of stereoscopic views is very helpful in giving
vividness and interest to instruction in history. An admirable series of
photographs for the stereoscope is issued by Underwood and Underwood,
New York City. The same firm supphes convenient maps and handbooks
for use in this connection. The Keystone stereographs, prepared by the
Keystone View Company, Meadville, Penn., may also be cordially recom-
mended. The architecture, costumes, amusements, and occupations of
the Middle Ages in England are shown in Longmans' Historical Illustrations
(six portfolios, each containing twelve plates in black-and-white. New
York, Longrrians, Green & Co., 90 cents, each portfolio). The same
xxvi Suggestions for Further Study
firm issues Longmans^ Historical Wall Pictures, consisting of twelve colored
pictures from original paintings illustrating English history (each picture,
separately, 80 cents; in a portfolio, $10.50). The Bureau of University
Travel, Boston, Mass., publishes several series of "University Prints"
representing subjects in European painting, sculpture, and architecture.
These prints are sold for one cent each or eighty cents a hundred. They
may also be had in bound form (five volumes, each $3.00). Other notable
collections are Lehmann's Geographical Pictures, Historical Pictures, and
Types of Nations, and Cybulski's Historical Pictures (Chicago, A. J. Nystrom
& Co., and Denoyer-Geppert Co.; each picture separately mounted on
rollers, $1.35 to $2.25). The New England History Teachers' Association
pubUshes a series of Authentic Pictures for Class Room Use, size 5x8 inches,
price 3 cents each. The Catalogue of the Collection of Historical Material at
Simmons College, prepared by the New England History Teachers' Associa-
tion (2d ed., Boston, 191 2, Houghton MifHin Co., 25 cents), contains an
extensive Hst of pictures, slides, models and other aids to history teaching.
Two useful collections in book form of photographic reproductions and
drawings are the following:
Henderson, E. F. Side Lights on English History (NA''., 1900, out of print).
Source extracts and illustrations for the period from Elizabeth to Victoria.
Parmentier, a. Album kistorique (Paris, 1894-1905, Colin, 4 vols., each 15
francs) . Illustrations covering the medieval and modem periods, with descrip-
tive text in French.
To vitalize the study of geography and history there is nothing better
Works of than the reading of modem books of travel. Among these
Travel may be mentioned:
Du Chaillu, Paul B. The Land of the Midnight Sun (N.Y., 1881, Harper, 2 vols.,
$S-oo).
DwiGHT, H. G. Constantinople, Old and New (N.Y., 1915, Scribner, $5.00).
Forman, H. J. The Ideal Italian Tour (Boston, 191 1, Houghton Mifflin Co.,
$2.25). A brief and attractive volume covering all Italy.
Hay, John. Castilian Days (Boston, 1871, Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.25).
Hutton, Edward. Rome (N.Y., 1909, Macmillan, $2.00).
Jackson, A. V. W. Persia, Past and Present (N.Y., 1906, Macmillan, $4.00).
From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (N.Y., 191 1, Mac-
millan, $4.00).
Kinglake, a. W. Eothen (N.Y., 1844, Button, 70 cents). Sketches of travel in
the East.
Lucas, E. V. A Wanderer in London (N.Y., 1906, Macmillan, $2.00).
A Wanderer in Paris (5th ed., N.Y., 191.0, Macmillan, $2.00).
A Wanderer in Florence (N.Y., 191 2, Macmillan, $2.00).
Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese (N.Y., 1912, Century Co., $2.40).
Stanley, H. M. Through the Dark Continent (N.Y., 1878, Harper, 2 vols., $7.50).
Taylor, Bayard. Views A-Foot (N.Y., 1855, Putnam, $1.50). A classic work of
European travel.
Warner, C. D. In the Levant (N.Y., 1876, Harper, $2.00).
Suggestions for Further Study xxvii
Winter, William. Shakespeare's England (2d ed., N.Y., 1892, out of print).
Gray Days and Gold in England and Scotland (N.Y., 1892, out of print).
The following works of historical fiction comprise only a selection from a
very large number of books suitable for supplementary reading. For
extended bibliographies see E. A. Baker, A Guide to Histori- tt- x • 1
cal Fiction (new ed., N.Y., 1914, Macmillan, $6.00) and pjction
Jonathan Nield, A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and
Tales (3d ed., N.Y., 1914, Putnam, $1.75). An excellent list of historical
stories, especially designed for children, will be found in the Bibliography
of History for Schools and Libraries, parts viii-ix.
Blackmore, R. D. Lorna Doone (N.Y., 1869, Button, 70 cents). Monmouth's
Rebellion, 1685.
Church, A. J. Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France (N.Y.,
1902, Macmillan, $1.75).
Churchill, Winston. Richard Carvel (N.Y., 1899, Macmillan, $1.50). Colonial
Maryland and London in the eighteenth century.
Cooper, J. F. The Last of the Mohicans (N.Y., D. C. Heath & Co. 50 cents).
The French and Indian War, 17 54-1 763.
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge (N.Y., 1841, Button, 70 cents). Gordon riots
in London, 1780.
The Tale of Two Cities (N.Y., B. C. Heath & Co., 50 cents). London
and Paris at the time of the French Revolution.
Doyle, (Sir) A. C. The White Company (Boston, 1890, Caldwell, 75 cents). The
English in France and Castile, 1366-1367.
Micah Clarke (N.Y., 1888, Longmans, Green & Co. $1.25). Mon-
mouth's Rebellion, 1685.
BuMAS, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers (N.Y., 1844, Button, 70 cents).
Time of Richelieu.
Twenty Years After (N.Y., 1845, Button, 70 cents). Time of Mazarin.
Eliot, George. Romola (N.Y., 1863, Button, 70 cents). Florence in the latter
part of the fifteenth century.
Erckmann, Emile, and Chatrian, Alexandre. The Conscript and Waterloo
(N.Y., 1864-1865, Button, 70 cents).
Hale, E. E. In His Name (Boston, 1873, Little, Brown & Co., $1.00). The
Waldenses about 11 79.
Hardy, A. S. Passe Rose (Boston, 1889, Houghton MifHin Co., $1.25). Franks
and Saxons of Charlemagne's time.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter (N.Y., 1850, Button, 70 cents).
Massachusetts in the seventeenth century.
Hugo, Victor. Notre-Dame de Paris (N.Y., 1831, Button, 70 cents). Paris,
late fifteenth century.
■ Ninety-Three (Boston, 1872, Little, Brown & Co., $1.00). Insurrection
in La Vendee, 1793.
Irving, Washington. The Alhambra (N.Y., 1832, Putnam, $1.00). Sketches
of the Moors and Spaniards.
Jacobs, Joseph (editor). The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox (N.Y.,
1895, Macmillan, $1.50).
xxviii Suggestions for Further Study
KiNGSLEY, Charles. Westward Ho! (N.Y., 1855. Dutton, 70 cents). Voyages
of Elizabethan seamen and thp struggle with Spain.
Alton Locke (N.Y., 1850, Dutton, 70 cents). Christian socialism and
the Chartist agitation.
Lane, E. W. (translator). The Arabian Nights' Entertainments (2d ed., N.Y.,
1859, Macmillan, 35 cents).
Lang, Andrew. The Monk of Fife (N.Y., 1895, Longmans, Green & Co., $1.25).
The Maid of Orleans and the Hundred Years' War.
Lever, Charles. Charles O'Malley (N.Y., 1841, Macmillan, $1.25). The Pen-
insular War.
Tom Bourke of "Ours" (N.Y., 1848, Macmillan, $1.25). French wars
of the Consulate and Empire.
Manzoni, Alessandro. The Betrothed (N.Y., 1825, Macmillan, 2 vols., 70 cents).
Milan under Spanish rule, 1628-1630.
Mason, Eugene (translator) . A ucassin and Nicolette and other Medieval Romances
and Legends (N.Y., 1910, Dutton, 70 cents).
Mitchell, S. W. Hugh Wynne (N.Y., 1896, Century Co., $1.50)'. Philadelphia
during the American Revolution.
Parker, (Sir) Gilbert. The Seats of the Mighty (N.Y., 1896, Appleton, $1.50).
Capture of Quebec by Wolfe.
Reade, Charles. The Cloister and the Hearth (N.Y., 1S61, Dutton, 70 cents).
Eve of the Reformation.
Scheffel, J. VON. Ekkehard, translated by Helena Easson (N.Y., 1857, Dutton,
70 cents). Germany in the tenth century.
Scott, (Sir) Walter. The Talisman (N.Y., 1825, Dutton, 70 cents). Reign of
Richard I, 1193-
Ivanhoe (N.Y., D. C. Heath & Co., 50 cents). Richard I, 1194.
Old Mortality (N.Y., 1816, Dutton, 70 cents). Scottish Covenanters,
1679-
Shorthouse, J. H. John Lnglesant (N.Y., 1881, Macmillan, 75 cents). Life in
England and Italy during the seventeenth century.
SiENKiEWicz, Henryk. With Fire and Sword (Boston, 1884, Little, Brown & Co.,
$1.50). Poland in the seventeenth century.
Steel, (Mrs.) F. A. On the Face of the Waters (N.Y., 1896, Macmillan, $1.50).
Indian Mutiny, 1857.
Stevenson, R. L. The Black Arrow (N.Y., 1888, Scribner, $i.od). War of the
Roses.
Suttner, (Baroness) Bertha von. Lay Down Your Arms (2d ed., N.Y.,
1904, Longmans, Green, & Co., 75 cents). European wars of the nineteenth
century.
Thackeray, W. M. Henry Esmond (N.Y., 1852, Dutton, 70 cents). England
during the reigns of William III and Queen Anne.
The Virginians (N.Y., 1858-1859, Dutton, 2 vols., each 70 cents).
England and colonial Virginia in the eighteenth century.
Tolstoy, (Count) L. N. War and Peace (N.Y., 1864-1869, Dutton, 3 vols., each
70 cents). Napoleon's campaigns in Russia.
Sevastopol (N.Y., 1855-1856, Crowell, $1.25). Crimean War.
"Twain, M.ark." A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur (N.Y., 1889,
Harper. $1.75).
Suggestions for Further Study xxix
It is unnecessary to emphasize the value, as collateral reading, of historical
poems and plays. To the brief list which follows should
be added the material in Katharine Lee Bates and p^^x°"^^
Katharine Coman, English History told by English Poets
(N.Y., 1902, Macmlllan, 60 cents).
Aytoun, W. E. The Execution of Montrose.
Browning, Elizabeth B. The Cry of the Children and The Forced Recruit.
Browning, Robert. Herve Kiel and An Incident of the French Camp.
Burns, Robert. The Battle of Bannockburn.
Byron, (Lord). "The Eve of Waterloo" {Childe Harold, canto iii, stanzas 21-
28) and Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte.
Campbell, Thomas. Hohenlinden, The Battle of the Baltic, Rule Britannia, and
Ye Mariners of England.
Clough, a. H. Columbus.
Coleridge, S. T. Kubla Khan.
CowPER, William. Loss of the ''Royal George.'^
Drayton, Michael. The Battle of Agincmrt.
Halleck, Fitz-Greene. Marco Bozzaris.
Hemans, Felicia. The Landing of the Pilgrims.
Kipling, Rudyard. Recessional.
Lang, Andrew. Three Portraits of Prince Charles.
Longfellow, H. W. "The Saga of King Olaf" {Tales of a Wayside Inn), The
Skeleton in Armor, The Norman Baron, The Belfry of Bruges, and Nuremberg.
Lowell, J. R. Villafranca.
Macaulay, T. B. The Armada, The Battle of Ivry, and The Battle of Naseby.
Miller, Joaquin. Columbus.
Milton, John. To the Lord General Cromwell.
Norton, Caroline E. S. The Soldier from Bingen.
RossETTi, D. G. The White Ship.
Schiller, Friedrich. The Maid of Orleans, William Tell, Maria Stuart, and
Wallenstein.
Scott, (Sir) Walter. "Flodden Field" {Marmion, canto vi, stanzas 19-27, 33-35).
Shakespeare, William. King John, Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, parts
i and ii, Henry the Fifth, Henry the Sixth, parts i, ii, and iii, Richard the Third,
Henry the Eighth, and The Merchant of Venice.
Taylor, Bayard. The Song in Camp.
Tennyson, Alfred. Boadicea, St. Telemachus, St. Simeon Stylites, Sir Galahad,
" The Revenge": A Ballad of the Fleet, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington,
The Charge of the Light Brigade, and The Defense of Lucknow.
Thackeray, W. M. King Canute.
Thornbury, G. W. The Three Troopers, The Jacobite on Tower Hill, La Tricoteuse,
and The Old Grenadier's Story.
Wolfe, Charles. The Burial of Sir John Moore.
Full information regarding the best translations of the sources of medieval
and modern history is to be found in one of the Reports previously cited —
Historical Sources in Schools, parts ii-iv. The use of the
following collections of extracts from the sources will go
far toward remedying the lack of library facilities.
XXX Suggestions for Further Study
DuNCALF, Frederick, and Krey, A. C. Parallel Source Problems in Medieval
History (N.Y., 191 2, Harper, $1.10).
Fling, F. M., and Fling, Helene D. Source Problems on the French Revolution
(N.Y., 1913, Harper, $1.10).
Henderson, E. F. Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (N.Y., 1892, Mac-
millan, $1.50).
Ogg, F. a. a Source Book of Medieval History (N.Y., 1907, American Book Co.,
$1.50).
Robinson, J. H. Readings in European History (Abridged ed., Boston, 1906,
Ginn, $1.50).
Thatcher, O. J., and McNeal, E. H. A Source Book for Medieval History (N.Y.,
1905, Scribner, $1.85).
Webster, Hutton. Readings in Medieval and Modern History (N.Y., 191 7,
Heath, $1.36).
Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History (N.Y.,
1894-1899, Longmans, Green & Co., 6 vols., each $1.50).
Most of the books in the following list are inexpensive, easily procured,
and well adapted in style and choice of topics to the needs of high-school
pupils. Some more advanced and costly works are in-
Works dicated by an asterisk (*). For detailed bibliographies,
often accompanied by critical estimates, see C. K. Adams,
A Manual of Historical Literature (3d ed., N.Y., 1889, Harper, $2.50), and
the Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries, parts iii-v.
GENERAL WORKS
* Abbott, W. C. The Expansion of Europe, 1415-178Q (N.Y., 1918, Holt, 2 vols.,
$6.50). Emphasizes cultural aspects of modem European history.
* Beard, C. A. Introduction to the English Historians (N.Y., 1906, Macmillan,
$1.80). A book of selected readings.
Carlyle, Thomas. On Heroes, Hero-Worshlp, and the Heroic in History (N.Y.,
1840, Button, 70 cents).
Chapin, F. S. An Historical Introduction to Social Economy (N.Y., 191 7, Cen-
tury Co., $2.00). An elementary treatment of industrial and social history;
illustrated.
Creasy, E. S. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to Waterloo
(N.Y., 1854, Button, 70 cents).
* Cunningham, William. An Essay on Western Civilization in its Economic
Aspects {Medieval and Modern Times) (N.Y., 1901, Putnam, $1.25).
"Cambridge Historical Series."
Bay, Clr-e. A History of Commerce (2d ed., N.Y., 1914, Longmans, Green &
Co., $2.00). The most scholarly treatment in English.
GiBBiNS, H. DE B. The History of Commerce in Europe (2d ed., N.Y., 1897,
Macmillan, $1.20).
Goodyear, W. H. Roman and Medieval Art (2d ed., N.Y., 1897, Macmillan,
$1.00).
Renaissance and Modern Art (N.Y., 1894, Macmillan, $1.00).
* Green, J. R. Short History of the English People, edited by Mrs. J. R. Green and
Suggestions for Further Study xxxi
Miss Kate Norgate (N.Y., 1893-1895, Harper, 4 vols., $20.00). A beauti-
fully illustrated edition of this standard work.
* Hayes, C. J. H. A Political and Social History of Modern Europe (N.Y., 1916,
Macmillan, 2 vols., $4.25). A college text-book covering the period 1500-
1915; provided with full bibliographies.
Herbertson, a. J., and Herbertson, F. D. Man and His Work (3d ed., N.Y.,
1 9 14, Macmillan, 60 cents). An introduction to the study of human geog-
raphy.
Jacobs, Joseph. The Story of Geographical Discovery (N.Y., 1898, Appleton,
50 cents) .
Jenks, Edward. A History of Politics (N.Y., 1900, Button, 45 cents). A
very illuminating essay.
Keane, John. The Evolution of Geography (London, 1899, Stanford, 6s.). In-
terestingly written and helpfully illustrated.
Kerr, P. H., and Kerr, A. C. The Growth of the British Empire (N.Y., 191 1,
Longmans, Green and Co., 50 cents).
LiBBY, Walter. An Introduction to the History of Science (Boston, 1917, Hough-
ton Mifflin Co., $1.50). Fascinating reading.
Marvin, F. S. The Living Past (2d ed., N.Y., 1915, Oxford University Press,
American Branch, $1.40). Thoughtful and suggestive essays in intellectual
history.
* Monroe, Paul. A Text-Book in the History of Education (N.Y., 1905, Mac-
millan, $2.00).
Nevinson, H. W. The Growth of Freedom (N.Y., 191 2, Dodge Publishing Co.,
25 cents). "The People's Books."
Pattison, R. p. D. Leading Figures in European History (N.Y., 1912, Mac-
millan, $1.75). Biographical sketches of European statesmen from Charle-
magne to Bismarck.
Powers, H. H. Mornings with Masters of Art (N.Y., 1912, Macmillan, $2.00).
Christian art from the time of Constantine to the death of Michelangelo.
Reinach, Salomon. Apollo; an Illustrated Manual of the History of Art through-
out the Ages, translated by Florence Simmonds (last ed., N.Y., 1914, Scribner,
$1.50). The best brief work on the subject.
Seignobos, Charles. History of Medieval and Modern Civilization, edited by
J. A. James (N.Y., 1907, Scribner, $1.35).
History of Contemporary Civilization, edited by J. A. James (N.Y.,
1909, Scribner, $1.35).
* Wilson, Woodrow. The State. Elements of Historical atid Practical Politics
(new ed., N.Y., 1918, Heath, $2.00).
THE MIDDLE AGES
Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages (2d ed., N.Y., 1914, Scribner,
$2.00).
Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L. The Crusades (N.Y., 1894, Putnam,
$1.50). "Story of the Nations."
Baring-Gould, Sabine. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (N.Y., 1869, Long-
mans, Green and Co., $1.25).
Bateson, Mary. Medieval England (N.Y., 1903, Putnam, $1.50). Deals with
social and economic life; "Story of the Nations."
xxxii Suggestions for Further Study
* Bryce, James. The Holy Roman Empires (new ed., N.Y., 1904, Macmillan,
$1-75) • A famous work, originally published in 1864.
Church, R. W. The Beginning of the Middle Ages (N.Y., 1877, Scribner, $1.00),
"Epochs of Modem History."
CuTTS, E. L. Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages (London, 1872, De La
More Press, 75. dd.). An almost indispensable book.
Davis, H. W. C. Medieval Europe (N.Y., 191 1, Holt, 60 cents). "Home Uni-
versity Library."
Charlemagne, the Hero of Two Nations (N.Y., 1899, Putnam, $1.50).
"Heroes of the Nations."
Emerton, Ephraim. An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages (Boston,
1888, Ginn, $1.10). Of special value to beginners.
* Flick, A. C. The Rise of the Medieval Church (N.Y., 1909, Putnam, $3.75)-
By a competent Protestant scholar.
FooRD, Edward. The Byzantine Empire (N.Y., 191 1, Macmillan, $2.00). The
most convenient short treatise; lavishly illustrated.
* Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
edited by J. B. Bury (N.Y., 1914, Macmillan, 7 vols., $25.00). The best
edition, illustrated and provided with maps, of this standard work.
GuERBER, H. A. Legends of the Middle Ages (N.Y., 1896, American Book Co.,
$1.50).
Haskins, C. H. The Normans in European History (Boston, 191 5, Houghton
Mifflm Co., $2.00).
Jessopp, Augustus. The Coming of the Friars, and Other Historic Essays (N.Y.,
1888, Putnam, $1.50). A book of great interest.
* Lacroix, Paul. Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle Ages and during
the Renaissance Period (London, 1874, out of print).
* Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the
Renaissance (London, 1874, out of print).
* Science and Literature in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renais-
sance (London, 1878, out of print).
Lawrence, W. W. Medieval Story (N.Y., 1911, Columbia University Press,
$1.50). Discusses the great literary productions of the Middle Ages.
* LucHAiRE, Achille. Social France at the Time of Philip Augustus, translated by
E. B. Krehbiel (London, 191 2, Murray, los. 6d.). A historical masterpiece.
Mawer, Allen. The Vikings (N.Y., 1913, Putnam, 50 cents). "Cambridge
Manuals."
* MuNRO, D. C, and Sellery, G. C. Medieval Civilization (2d ed., N.Y., 1907,
Century Co., $2.00). Translated selections from standard works by French
and German scholars.
Rait, R. S. Life in the Medieval University (N.Y., 191 2, Putnam, 50 cents).
"Cambridge Manuals."
Tappan, Eva M. When Knights were Bold (Boston, 191 1, Houghton Mifflin
Co., $2.00). An economic and social study of the Feudal Age; charmingly
written for j^oimg people.
* Thorndike, Lynn. The History of Medieval Europe (Boston, 191 7, Houghton
Mifflin Co., $2.75). A college text-book.
Wright, Thomas. The Homes of Other Days (London, 1871, out of print).
Valuable for both text and illustrations.
Suggestions for Further Study xxxiii
TRANSITION TO MODERN TIMES
Bourne, E. G. Spain in America, 1430-1580 (N.Y., 1904, Harper,. $2.00).
Cheyney, E. p. European Background of Aftterican History, 1300-1600 (N.Y.,
1904, Harper, $2.00).
Eggleston, Edward. The Transit of Civilization from England to America in
the Seventeenth Century (N.Y., 1902, Appleton, $1.75).
Gardiner, S. R. The Thirty Years' War (N.Y., 1874, Scribner, $1.00). "Epochs
of Modern History."
Harrison, Frederic. William the Silent (N.Y., 1897, Macmillan, 80 cents).
"Foreign Statesmen."
Hudson, W. H. The Story of the Renaissance (N.Y., 191 2, Cassell, $1.50). A
well-written volume.
* HuLME, E. M. The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution, and the Catholic
Reformation in Continental Europe (rev. ed., N.Y., 1915, Century Co.,
$2.75). The best work on the subject by an American scholar.
Hume, M. A. S. Philip II of Spain (N.Y., 1897, Macmillan, So cents). "Foreign
Statesmen."
* Joyce, T. A. Mexican Archeology (N.Y., 1914, Putnam, $4.00).
* South American Archeeology (N.Y., 1912, Putnam, $3.50).
Oldham, J. B. The Renaissance (N.Y., 1912, Button, 45 cents).
Seebohm, Frederic. The Era of the Protestant Revolution (N.Y., 1875, Scribner,
$1.00). "Epochs of Modern History."
Smith, Preserved. Life and Letters of Martin Luther (Boston, 1910, Houghton
Mifflin Co., $1.75). Written from a Protestant standpoint.
THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
Firth, C. H. Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England (N.Y.,
1900, Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
* Hassall, Arthur. The Balance of Power, 171S-1789 (N.Y., 1896, Macmillan,
$1.90). "Periods of European History."
Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy (N.Y., 1S95, Putnam,
$1.50).
Lowell, E. J. The Eve of the French Revolution (2d ed., Boston, 1893, Houghton
Mifflin Co., $2.00). A satisfactory account of the Old Regime in France.
* Macaulay, T. B. History of England, edited by C. H. Firth (N.Y., 1913-1915,
Macmillan, 6 vols., $19.50). A beautifully illustrated edition of this standard
work.
Frederick the Great (N.Y., Merrill, 25 cents). A brilliant essay.
Motley, J. L. Peter the Great (N.Y., Merrill, 25 cents). An essay originally
published in 1845.
Reddaway, W. F. Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia (N.Y., 1904,
Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC PERIOD
Belloc, Hilaire. The French Revolution (N.Y., 191 1, Holt, 60 cents). "Home
University Library."
* Bourne, H. E. The Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1762,-1815 (N.Y., 1914,
Century Co., $2.75). "Century Historical Series."
xxxiv Suggestions for Further Study
Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution (N.Y., 1837, Button, 2 vols., each
70 cents). Not a history, but a literary masterpiece.
Fisher, Herbert. Napoleon (N.Y., 1913, Holt, 60 cents). "Home University
Library."
* Henderson, E. F. Symbol and Satire in the French Revolution (N.Y., 191 2,
Putnam, $4.00). Contains 171 illustrations from contemporary prints.
Johnston, R. M. Napoleon (N.Y., 1909, Holt, $1.30). An excellent short
sketch.
Madelin, Louis. The French Revolution (N.Y., 1916, Putnam, $2.50). A
popular work translated from the French.
Mathews, Shailer. The French Revolution (N.Y., 1900, Longmans, Green
& Co., $1.25). Ends with the year 1795.
Rose, J. H. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 178Q-1815 (2d ed., N.Y.,
189s, Putnam, $1.25). The work of a very competent British scholar;
"Cambridge Historical Series."
Rosebery (Lord). Pitt (N.Y., 1891, Macmillan, 80 cents). "English States-
men."
* Stephens, H. M. Revolutionary Europe, 178Q-1815 (N.Y., 1893, Macmillan,
$1.90). "Periods of European History."
Wheeler, F. B. The French Revolution from the Age of Louis XIV to the Coming
of Napoleon (N.Y., 1914, out of print). A popular survey, interestingly
illustrated.
THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
* Andrews, C. M. The Historical Development of Modern Europe (N.Y., 1896-
1898, Putnam, two vols, in one, $3.50). Covers the period 1815-1897.
Davis, W. S., Anderson, William, and Tyler, M. W. The Roots of the War
(N.Y., 1918, Century Co., $1.50). A non-technical, yet scholarly, history
of Europe, 1870-1914.
Gibbons, H. A. The New Map of Europe (4th ed., N.Y., 1915, Century Co.,
$2.00). A history of the years 1911-1914.
GoocH, G. P. History of Our Time, 1885-1911 (N.Y., 191 1, Holt, 60 cents).
"Home University Library."
Hayes, C. J. H. A Brief History of the Great War (N.Y., 1919, Macmillan, $2.00).
Hazen, C. D. Modern European History (N.Y., 1917, Holt, $1.75). Chiefly
a political narrative; "American Historical Series."
Headlam, J. W. Bismarck and the Founding of the German Empire (N.Y., 1899,
Putnam, $1.50). "Heroes of the Nations."
Hearnshaw, F. J. C. Main Currents of European History, 1815-1915 (N.Y.,
191 7, Macmillan, $2.50). Illuminating comment; not a continuous historical
narrative.
Johnston, (Sir) H. H. The Opening-up of Africa (N.Y., 1911, Holt, 60 cents).
"Home University Library."
LiPSON, E. Europe in the Nineteenth Century (N.Y., 1916, Macmillan, $2.00).
A good poUtical history in brief compass.
Macdonald, J. R. The Socialist Movement (N.Y., 191 1, Holt, 60 cents). "Home
University Library."
McKiNLEY, A. E., Coulomb, C. A., and Gerson, A. J. A School History of the
Great War (N.Y., 1919, American Book Co., $1.50).
Suggestions for Further Study xxxv
* Ogg, F. a. The Governments of Europe (N.Y., 1913, Macmillan, $3.00).
* Economic Development of Modern Europe (N.Y., 1917, Macmillan,
$2.50).
* Phillips, W. A. Modern Europe, 1815-18QQ (5th ed., N.Y., 1915, Macmillan,
$1.90). "Periods of European History."
Reinsch, p. S. World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century (N.Y., 1900,
Macmillan, $1.25).
* Rose, J. H. The Development of the European Nations, 1870-IQ14 (5th ed., N.Y.,
1916, Putnam, two vols, in one, $2.75).
* ScHAPiRO, J. S. Modern and Contemporary European History (Boston, 1918,
Houghton Mifflin Co., $350). An admirable college text-book covering the
period from the French Revolution to the present time.
Shepherd, W. R. Latin America (N.Y., 1914, Holt, 60 cents). "Home Uni-
versity Library."
Wallace, A. R. The Wonderful Century (N.Y., 1898, out of print).
Weir, Archibald. An Introduction to the History of Modern Europe (Boston,
1907, Houghton Mifflin Co., $2.00). A suggestive book for teachers.
MEDIEVAL AND MODERN
HISTORY
CHAPTER I
WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE
AGES, 476-962 1
1. Western Europe
The geographical boundary between western and eastern
Europe may for practical purposes be taken as a line drawn
northward from the Adriatic through the Baltic xjnityof
Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia to the North Cape, western
That part of the continent west of this line has "^°^®
had a unified civilization. Many of the countries of western
Europe once formed provinces of the Roman Empire; all of
them during the Middle Ages came under the dominion of the
Roman Papacy; and even in modern times they possess a
certain community of interests and ideals which separates
them sharply from the countries of eastern Europe.
But the civiHzation of western Europe has not been confined
within the narrow limits of the Continent. During the last four
centuries it has expanded over America, Australia, Expansion
the islands of the Pacific, and vast areas of Asia of western
and Africa. Western Europeans have introduced "^°^®
into these remote regions their languages, government, customs,
religion, even their literature and art, until to-day the greater
part of the world has become subject to European influence.
The civiUzation of western Europe is traceable to four prin-
cipal origins, naniely, Greece, Rome, Christianity, origins of
and the Teutonic peoples. To Greece Europe owes western
the characteristic qualities of its intellectual life. ^°^®
^ Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter i, "Stories of the
Lombard Kings"; chapter ii, "Charlemagne."
I
2 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
From Rome it derives its conceptions of law and politics.
The Christian Church gave to Europe religious unity. The
invasions of the Germans broke up the Roman Empire and
led to the foundation of what became the separate European
nations.
We are not to suppose that the inroads of the Germans ended
with the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West (476).
Transition Odoacer, who in that year deposed the puppet-em-
to the peror, Romulus Augustulus, was himself followed
^®® by other German leaders. Their efforts to carve
out kingdoms for themselves in western Europe introduced a
long period of disorder and confusion. The study of these
troubled times leads us from the classical to the medieval
world, from the history of antiquity to the history of the Middle
Ages.
The period called the Middle Ages is not well defined either
as to its beginning or its close. For an initial date we may
Limits of select the year 476, when western Europe was
the Middle almost wholly occupied by the Germans. Roman
^^^ emperors still reigned in the East, but in the West
barbarian kings divided between them the heritage of the Caesars.
The extinction of the line of western emperors does indicate,
in a somewhat striking way, the close of ancient times. For
concluding dates we may select those of the invention of print-
ing (about 1450), the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman
Turks (1453), the discovery of America (1492), and the opening
up of a new sea-route to the East Indies (1498). Such signifi-
cant events, all falling within the second half of the fifteenth
century, seem to mark the conclusion of medieval, and the
beginning of modern, times. The student will understand,
however, that it is really impossible to separate by precise
dates one historic period from another. The change from
antiquity to the Middle Ages and, again, from the medieval
to the modern world, was in each case a gradual process extend-
ing over several centuries. The truth is that the social life of
man forms a continuous growth, and man's history, an uninter-
rupted stream.
The Ostrogoths in Italy 3
2. The Ostrogoths in Italy, 488-553
The kingdom which Odoacer estabhshed on ItaUan soil did
not long endure. It was soon overthrown by the Ostrogoths.
At the time of the "fall" of Rome in 476 they -pj^^ ostro-
occupied a district south of the middle Danube, goths under
which the government at Constantinople had ^° °"*^
hired them to defend. The Ostrogoths proved to be expen-
sive and dangerous allies. When, therefore, their chieftain,
Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna
A two-storied marble building erected by Theodoric in imitation of a Roman tomb.
The roof is a single block of marble, 33 feet in diameter and weighing more than 300 tons.
Theodoric's body was subsequently removed from its resting place, and the mausoleum was
converted into a church.
Theodoric, offered to lead his people into Italy and against
Odoacer, the Roman emperor gladly sanctioned the under-
taking.
Theodoric led the Ostrogoths — women and children as well
as warriors — across the Alps and came down to meet Odoacer
and his soldiers in battle. After suffering several ^
Ostrogothic
defeats, Odoacer shut himself up in the strong invasion of
fortress of Ravenna. Theodoric could not capture V^}^' *^®~
the place and at last agreed to share with Odoacer
the government of Italy, if the latter would surrender. The
agreement was never carried into effect. When Theodoric
4 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
entered Ravenna, he invited Odoacer to a banquet and at
its conclusion slew him in cold blood. Theodoric had now no
rival in Italy.
Though Theodoric gained the throne by violence and treach-
ery, he soon showed himself to be, as a ruler, wise, broad-minded,
Theodoric ^^^ humane. He had lived as a youth in the
idng of Italy, imperial court at Constantinople, and there had
become well acquainted with Roman ideas of law
and order. Roman civilization impressed him; and he wished
not to destroy but to preserve it. Theodoric reigned in Italy
for thirty-three years, and during this time the country enjoyed
unbroken peace and prosperity.
The enlightened policy of Theodoric was exhibited in many
ways. He governed Ostrogoths and Romans with equal con-
Theodoric's sideration. He kept all the old offices, such as
rule in Italy ^}^g senatorship and the consulate, and by pref-
erence filled them with men of Roman birth. His chief counsel-
ors were Romans. A legal code, which he drew up for the use
of Ostrogoths and Romans alike, contained only selections
from Roman law. He was remarkably tolerant and, in spite
of the fact that the Ostrogoths were Arians, was always ready
to extend protection to CathoHc Christians. Theodoric patron-
ized hterature and gave high positions to Roman writers.
He restored the cities of Italy, had the roads and aqueducts
repaired, and so improved the condition of agriculture that
Italy, from a wheat-importing, became a wheat-exporting
country. At Ravenna, the Ostrogothic capital, Theodoric
erected many notable buildings, including a palace, a mauso-
leum, and several churches. The remains of these structures
are still to be seen.
The influence of Theodoric reached far beyond Italy. He
alHed himseh by marriage with most of the German rulers of
Theodoric's ^^^ West. His second wife was a Prankish prin-
foreign cess, his sister was the wife of a Vandal chieftain,
^° ^^ one of his daughters married a king of the Visi-
goths, and another daughter wedded a Burgundian king.
Theodoric by these alhances brought about friendly relations
The Ostrogoths m Italy
Europe in the Sixth Century
6 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
between the various barbarian peoples. It seemed, in fact, as
if the Roman dominions in the West might again be united
under a single ruler; as if the Ostrogoths might be the Ger-
man people to carry on the civilizing work of Rome. But no
such good fortune was in store for Europe.
Theodoric died in 526. The next year a great emperor,
Justinian, came to the throne at Constantinople. Justinian
End of the ^^^ ^° intention of abandoning to the Germans
Ostrogothic the rich provinces of Sicily and Italy. Although
kmg om, ^j^^ Ostrogoths made a stubborn resistance to his
armies, in the end they were so completely overcome that they
agreed to abandon the Itahan peninsula. The feeble remnant
of their nation withdrew northward through the passes of the
Alps and, mingling with other barbarian -tribes, disappeared
from history.
3. The Lombards in Italy, 568-774
The destruction of the Ostrogothic kingdom did not free
Italy of the Germans. Soon after Justinian's death the country
was again overrun, this time by the Lombards. The name of
these invaders (in Latin, Langohardi) may have been derived
Invasion of f ro^i the long beards that gave them such a fero-
Itaiy by the cious aspect. The Lombards seized the territory
om ar s north of the river Po — a region ever since known
as Lombardy — and estabhshed their capital at Pavia.
They afterwards made many settlements in central and
southern Italy, but never succeeded in subduing the entire
peninsula.
The rule of the Lombards at first bore hard on Italy, which
they treated as a conquered land. In character they seem to
Lombard have been far less attractive than their predeces-
nile in Italy g^j-g^ ^^iQ Visigoths and Ostrogoths. Many of
them were still heathen when they entered Italy, and others
were converts to the Arian form of Christianity. In course
of time, however, the Lombards accepted Catholicism and
adopted the customs of their subjects. They even forgot their
German language and learned to speak Latin. The Lombard
The Lombards in Italy
kingdom lasted more than two centuries, until it was over-
thrown by the Franks.^
The failure of the Lombards to conquer all Italy had im-
portant results in later history. Sicily and the extreme southern
part of the Italian peninsula, besides large dis- Results of
tricts containing the cities of Naples, Rome, the Lom-
Genoa, Venice, and Ravenna, continued to belong
to the Roman Empire in the East. The rulers at Constanti-
bard invasion
Lombard Possessions in Italy about 600 a.d.
nople could not exercise effective control over their Italian
possessions, now that these were separated from one another
by the Lombard territories. The consequence was that Italy
broke up into a number of small and practically independent
states, which never combined into one kingdom until our own
1 See page 13.
8 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
time. The ideal of a united Italy waited thirteen hundred
years for its realization.^
4. The Franks under Clovis and His Successors
In 486, just ten years after the deposition of Romulus Augus-
tulus, the Franks went forth to conquer under Clovis,^ one of
their chieftains. By overcoming the governor
of°tiie' ^ of Roman Gaul, in a battle near Soissons, Clovis
Franks, 481- destroyed the last vestige of imperial rule in the
West and extended the Frankish dominions to
the river Loire. Clovis then turned against his German neigh-
bors. East of the Franks, in the region now known as Alsace,
lived the Alamanni, a people whose name still survives in
AUemagne, the French name of Germany.^ The Alamanni
were defeated in a great battle near Strassburg, and much of
their territory was added to that of the Franks. Clovis subse-
quently conquered the Visigothic possessions between the
Loire and the Pyrenees, and compelled the Burgundians to
pay tribute. He thus made himself supreme over nearly the
whole of Gaul and even extended his authority to the other side
of the Rhine.
Clovis reigned in western Europe as an independent king,
but he acknowledged a sort of allegiance to the Roman emperor
by accepting the title of honorary consul. Hence-
The Franks . , , ^ „ -r. ^ 11
and the forth to the Gallo-Romans he represented the
GaUo- distant ruler at Constantinople. The Roman in-
Romans , , . . .
habitants of Gaul were not oppressed; their cities
were preserved; and their language and laws remained undis-
turbed. Clovis, as a statesman, may be compared with his
eminent contemporary, Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
The Franks were still a heathen people, when they began
their career of conquest. Clovis, however, had married a
1 The modern kingdom of Italy dates from 1859-1870.
2 His name is properly spelled Chlodweg, which later became Ludwig, and in
French, Louis.
2 On the other hand, the inhabitants of Gaul came to call their covmtry France
and themselves Franqais after their conquerors, the Germanic Franks.
The Franks Under Clovis and His Successors 9
Burgundian princess, Clotilda, who was a devout Catholic and
an ardent advocate of Christianity. The story is christianiza-
told how, when Clovis was hard-pressed by the tion of the
Alamanni at the battle of Strassburg, he vowed ^* ^'
that if Clotilda's God gave him victory he would become a
Christian. The Franks won, and Clovis, faithful to his vow,
had himself baptized by St. Remi, bishop of Reims.
I I Territory of the Franks 481 A.D.
I I Conquests of Clovis 486-511 A.D.
I I Conquests of successors 511-768 A.D.
Scale of Miles
0 50 100 200 300 400
.5° Longitude West 0° Longitude EasT
Growth of the Prankish Dominions, 481-768 a.d.
The conversion of Clovis was an event of the first importance.
He and his Franks naturally embraced the orthodox Catholic
faith, which was that of his wife, instead of the significance
Arian form of Christianity, which had been ac- of Clevis's
cepted by almost all the other German invaders.
Furthermore, the conversion of Clovis gained for the Frankish
king and his successors the support of the Roman Church.
The friendship between the popes and the Franks afterwards
ripened into a close alliance, which greatly influenced European
history.
lo Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
The descendants of Clovis are called Merovingians. ^ They
The earUer occupied the throne of the Franks for nearly two
Merovingian hundred and fifty years. The earlier Merovingians
^^ were strong men, under whose direction the Prank-
ish territory continued to expand, until it included nearly all
of what is now France, Belgium, and HoUand, besides a con-
siderable part of Germany.
The Frankish conquests differed in two important respects
from those of the other German peoples. In the first place,
Character of ^^^ Franks did not cut themselves off completely
the FranMsh from their original homes. They kept permanently
conques s ^j^^.^ territory in Germany, drawing from it con-
tinual reinforcements of fresh German blood. In the second
place, the Franks steadily, added new German lands to their
possessions. They built up in this way what was the largest
and the most permanent of all the barbarian states founded in
western Europe.
5. The Franks under Charles Martel and Pepin the Short
After the middle of the seventh century the Frankish rulers,
worn out by violence and excesses, degenerated into weakHngs,
The later ^^^ reigned but did not rule. The actual manage-
Merovingian ment of the State passed into the hands of officers,
^^ called "mayors of the palace." They left to the
kings little more than their title, their long hair, — the badge
of royalty among the Franks, — and a scanty allowance for their
support. The later Merovingians, accordingly, are often known
as the ''do-nothing kings."
The most illustrious of the mayors was Charles, surnamed
Martel, ''the Hammer," from the terrible defeat which he
Charles administered to the Mohammedans near Tours,
Martel ^^ central France. Charles Martel was virtually
a king, but he never ventured to set aside the Merovingian ruler
and himself ascend the throne. This step was taken, however,
by Charles's son, Pepin the Short.
1 From Merovech, grandfather of Clovis.
Charles Martel and Pepin the Short ii
Before dethroning the last feeble ''do-nothing," Pepin sought
the approval of the bishop of Rome. The pope, without hesi-
tation, declared that it was only right that the Accession of
man who had the real authority in the state Pepin the
should also have the royal title. Pepin, accord- **^'
ingly, caused himself to be crowned king of the Franks, thus
founding the Carohngian^ dynasty (751). Three years later
Pope Stephen II came to Pepin's court and solemnly anointed
the new ruler with holy oil, in accordance with ancient Jewish
custom. The rite of anointing, something unknown to the
Germans, gave to Pepin's coronation the sanction of the Roman
Church. Henceforth the Frankish sovereigns called themselves
"kings by the grace of God."
Pepin was soon able to repay his great obligation to the
Roman Church by becoming its protector against the Lombards.
These barbarians, who were trying to extend their „ donation
rule in Italy, threatened to capture Rome and of Pepin,"
the territory in the vicinity of that city, then
under the control of the pope. Pepin twice entered Italy with
his army, defeated the Lombards, and forced them to cede to
Pope Stephen an extensive district lying between Rome and
Ravenna. Pepin might have returned this district to the
emperor at Constantinople, to whom it had belonged, but the
Frankish king declared that he had not fought for the advantage
of any man, but for the welfare of his own soul. He decided,
therefore, to bestow his conquests on St. Peter's representative,
the pope. Before this time the bishops of Rome had owned
much land in Italy and had acted as virtual sovereigns
in Rome and its neighborhood. Pepin's gift, known as the
''Donation of Pepin," greatly increased their possessions,
which came to be called the States of the Church. They
remained in the hands of the popes until late in the nineteenth
century.^
^ So called from Pepin's son, Charles the Great (in Latin, Carolus Magnus).
The French form of his name is Charlemagne.
^ In 1870 the States of the Church were added to the newly formed kingdom of
Italy.
12 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Charle
magne
man
6. Charlemagne and the Revival of the Roman Empire, 800
Pepin was succeeded in 768 by his two sons, one of whom,
Charlemagne, three years later became sole king of the Franks.
Charlemagne reigned for nearly half a century,
the and during this time he set his stamp on all later
European history. His appearance and character
are familiar to us from a brief biography, written by his secretary,
Einhard. Charlemagne, we learn, was a tall, square-shouldered,
strongly built man, with
bright, keen eyes, and an
expression at once cheerful
and dignified. Riding, hunt-
ing, and swimming were his
favorite sports. He was sim-
ple in his tastes and very
temperate in both food and
drink. Except when in Rome,
he wore the old Frankish cos-
tume, with high-laced boots,
hnen tunic, blue cloak, and
sword girt at his side. He
was a clear, fluent speaker,
used Latin as readily as his
native tongue, and understood
Greek when it was spoken.
Much of Charlemagne's
long hfe, almost to its close,
was filled with warfare. He
fought chiefly against the
heathen peoples on the fron-
tiers of the Frankish realm. The subjugation of the Saxons,
Conquest who lived in the forests and marshes of north-
western Germany, took many years. Once when
Charlemagne was exasperated by a revolt of the
Saxons, he ordered forty-five hundred prisoners
to be executed. This savage massacre was followed by equally
Charlemagne
Lateran Museum, Rome
A mosaic picture, made during the lifetiine
of Charlemagne, and probably a fair likeness
of him.
and con-
version of
the Saxons
772-804
Charlemagne and the Roman Empire
13
severe laws, which imposed the death penalty on those who
refused baptism or observed the old heathen rites. By such
harsh means Charlemagne at length broke down the spirit of
resistance among the people. All Saxony, from the Rhine to
the Elbe, became a Christian land and a permanent part of
the Frankish realm.
Shortly after the beginning of the Saxon wars the king of the
Franks received an urgent summons from the pope, who was
again being threatened Conquest
by his old enemies, the Loi^lrds,
Lombards. Charle- 774
magne led an army across the Alps,
captured Pavia, where the Lombard
ruler had taken refuge, and added
his possessions to those of the
Franks. Thus passed away one
more of the German states which
had arisen on the ruins of the
Roman Empire. Charlemagne now
placed on his own head the famous
"Iron Crown" and assumed the
title of ''King of the Franks and
Lombards, and Patrician of the
Romans."
The conquests of Charlemagne were not confined to German
peoples. He forced the wild Avars, who had advanced from
the Caspian into the Danube valley, to acknowl- ^ ,
1 1 . Tx n 1 • r-ii • Charle-
edge his supremacy. He compelled various Slavic magne's
tribes, including the Bohemians, to pay tribute. He °*^®^
conquests
also invaded Spain and wrested from the Moham-
medans a considerable district south of the Pyrenees.^ This fron-
tier territory received the name of the Spanish March (or Mark) .
Charlemagne was a statesman, as well as a warrior. He
divided his wide dominions into counties, each ruled by a count,
1 The rearguard of Charlemagne's army, when returning from Spain, was attacked
and overwhehned by the mountaineers of the Pyrenees. This incident gave rise
to the famous French epic known as the Song of Roland. See page 250.
Iron Crown of Lombardy
A small gold diadem, about two
inches high. It is studded with jew-
els. A strip of iron, which, according
to pious legend, had been eaten out
of one of the nails of the True Cross,
is inserted within. The crown was a
gift to the Lombards from Pope
Gregory I, as a reward for their con-
version to Roman Catholicism.
14 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Charlemagne's who was expected to keep order and admin-
government ister justice. The border regions, which lay
exposed to invasion, were organized into "marks," under
the military supervision of counts of the mark, or mar-
graves (marquises). These officials had so much power and
lived so far from the royal court that Charlemagne appointed
special agents, caXltd missi dominici ("the lord's messengers"),
to maintain control over them. The mis si were usually sent
Charlemagne's Signature
The emperor's signature as attached to a charter signed at Kurstein in
790. Only the small lines withJn the diamond were made by Charlemagne.
out in pairs, a layman and a bishop or abbot, in order that
the one might serve as a check upon the other. They traveled
from county to county, bearing the orders of their royal master.
In this way Charlemagne kept well informed as to the condi-
tion of affairs throughout his kingdom.
Charlemagne did something for the promotion of education
and literary culture among the Franks. He encouraged the
Revival of establishment of schools in the monasteries and
u^r"^ cathedrals, where the sons of both freemen and
Charlemagne serfs might be trained for the Christian ministry.
He also formed his court into a "school of the palace," in which
learned men from Italy, Spain, and England gave instruction
to his own children and to those of his nobles. All this work
formed only a hopeful beginning. Centuries were to pass be-
fore learning in western Europe fully recovered from the low
state to which it had fallen during the period of the invasions.
Charlemagne, the champion of Christendom and the fore-
most ruler in Europe, seemed to the men of his day the rightful
Coronation successor of the Roman emperors. He had their
of Charle- power, and now he was to have their name. In
magne, ^^^ ^^^^ g^^ ^^ Frankish king visited Rome
1 6 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
who had protected the Church and had done so much to spread
the CathoHc faith among the heathen. The Roman people
also welcomed the coronation, because they felt that the time had
come for Rome to assume her old place as the capital of the
world. To reject the eastern ruler, in favor of the great Prankish
king, was an emphatic method of asserting Rome's independence
of Constantinople.
The coronation of Charlemagne forms one of the most sig-
nificant events in medieval history. It might be thought a
Significance small matter that he should take the imperial title,
of the when he already exercised imperial sway through-
out western Europe. But Charlemagne's con-
temporaries believed that the old Roman Empire had now been
revived, and that a German king now sat on the throne once
occupied by Augustus and Constantine. Henceforth there was
estabhshed in the West a Hne of Roman emperors which lasted
until the opening of the nineteenth century.^
7. Disruption of Charlemagne's Empire, 814-870
The empire of Charlemagne did not long remain intact.
So vast was its extent and so unlike were its inhabitants in
After Charle- race, language, and customs that it could be
magne managed only by a ruler of the greatest energy
and strength of will. Unfortunately, the successors of Charle-
magne proved to be too weak for the task of maintaining peace
and order. Western Europe now entered on a long period of
confusion and violence, during which the Prankish dominions
broke up into separate and warring kingdoms.
Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, who became emperor in
814, was a well-meaning but feeble ruler, better fitted for the
Treaty of quiet Ufe of a monastery than for the throne. He
Verdun, could not control his rebellious sons, who, even
843
during his lifetime, fought bitterly over their in-
heritance. The unnatural strife, which continued after his
death, was temporarily settled by a treaty concluded at the
^ The title of "Holy Roman Emperor," assumed by the later successors of
Charlemagne, was kept by them till 1806.
' Disruption of Charlemagne's Empire 17
city of Verdun. According to its terms Lothair, the eldest
brother, received Italy and the imperial title, together with a
narrow stretch of land along the valleys of the Rhine and the
Rhone, between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Louis
and Charles, the other brothers, received kingdoms lying to the
east and west, respectively, of Lothair's territory. The Treaty
I 1 East Frankish Kingdom
I 1 of Louis
I ] West Frankish Kingdom
' of Charles
1 Lothair's Kingdom
, The Boundaries in 870 A.D.
according to the Treaty
of_Mersen
Scale of Miles
50 100 200 ann /
The Frankish Dominions as divided by the Treaties
OF Verdun (843 a.d.) and Mersen (870 a.d.)
of Verdun may be said to mark the first stage in the dissolution
of the CaroUngian Empire.
A second treaty, made at Mersen in Holland, was entered
into by Louis and Charles, after the death of their brother
Lothair. They divided between themselves Lo- Treaty of
thair's kingdom north of the Alps, leaving to his Mersen, 870
young son the possession of Italy and the empty title of "em-
peror." The Treaty of Mersen may be said to mark the second
stage in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. That
empire, as such, had now ceased to exist. •
i8 Western Europe During* the Early Middle Ages
The territorial arrangements made by the treaties of Verdun
and Mersen foreshadowed the future map of western Europe.
Importance ^^^ 'Esist Frankish kingdom of Louis, inhabited
of the two almost entirely by German peoples, was to de-
treaties velop into modern Germany. The West Frank-
ish kingdom of Charles, inhabited mainly by descendants of
Romanized Gauls, was to become modern France. Lothair's
kingdom, separated into two parts by the Alps, never became
a national state. Italy, indeed, might be united under one
government, but the long, narrow strip north of the Alps had
no unity of race, no common language, and no natural bound-
aries. It was fated to be broken into fragments and to be
fought over for centuries by its stronger neighbors. Part of
this territory now forms the small countries of Belgium, Hol-
land, and Switzerland, and another part, known as Alsace and
Lorraine,^ has remained until modern times a bone of conten-
tion between France and Germany.
Even had Charlemagne been followed by strong and able
rulers, it would have been a difficult matter to hold the empire
Renewed together in the face of the fresh series of barbarian
barbarian inroads which began immediately after his death,
invasions ^j^^ Mohammedans, though checked by the Franks
at the battle of Tours, continued to be dangerous: enemies.
They ravaged southern France, Sicily, and parts of Italy. The
piratical Northmen from Denmark and Norway harried the
coast of France and made inroads far beyond Paris. They also
penetrated into western Germany, sailing up the Rhine in their
black ships and destroying such important towns as Cologne
and Aix-la-Chapelle. Meanwhile, eastern Germany lay exposed
to the attacks of the Slavs, whom Charlemagne had defeated
but had not subdued. The Magyars, or Hungarians, were also
dreaded foes. These wild horsemen entered Europe from the
plains of Asia and, like the Huns and Avars to whom they
were probably related, spread devastation far and wide. A
great part of Europe thus suffered from invasions ahnost
1 The French name Lorraine and the German name Lothringen are both derived
from the Latin title of Lothair's kingdom — Lotharii regnum.
Otto the Great
19
as destructive as those which had brought ruin to the old
Roman world.
8. Otto the Great and the Restoration of the Roman
Empire, 962
The tenth century saw another movement toward the resto-
ration of law and order. The civilizing work of Charlemagne
was taken up by German kings, not of the old
Frankish stock, but belonging to that Saxon people Jtem-^ucWe^
which had opposed Charlemagne so long and
bitterly. Saxony was one of the five great territorial states,
or stem-duchies, as they are usually called, into which Germany
was then divided.^ Germany at that time extended only as
far east as the river Elbe, beyond which lay the territory occu-
pied by half-civilized Slavic tribes.
The rulers of the stem-duchies enjoyed practical independ-
ence, though they had recognized some king of Germany ever
since the Treaty of Verdun. Early in the tenth Elective
century the Carolingian dynasty died out in Ger- kingship of
many, and the German nobles then proceeded to ®"°^^y
elect their own kings. Their choice fell first upon Conrad,
duke of Franconia, but he had little authority outside his own
duchy. A stronger man was required to keep the peace among
the turbulent nobles and to repel the invaders of Germany.
Such a man appeared in the person of Henry, duke of Saxony,
who, after Conrad's death, was chosen king.
Henry I, called the Fowler, because he was fond of hunting
birds, spent the greater part of his reign in wars against the
Slavs, Magyars, and other invaders. He began _ ,
r 1 01 r 1 . , Reign, of
the conquest from the Slavs of the territory be- Henry the
tween the Elbe and the Oder. Here arose the Fowler, 919-
936
mark of Brandenburg, estabhshed as an outpost
against the Slavs. Brandenburg was to furnish Germany, in
later centuries, with the dynasty of the Hohenzollerns.^ Henry
1 The others were Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, and Lorraine.
2 The Hohenzollerns became electors of Brandenburg in 141 5, kings of Prussia
in 1701, and emperors of Germany in 1871.
20 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Ring Seal of Otto
THE Great
The inscription reads
Oddo Rex.
the Fowler also conquered the southern part of Denmark and
Christianized it. Here he reestabUshed the mark of Schleswig,
which had first been formed by Charlemagne.
Henry the Fowler was succeeded by his son, Otto I, whom
history knows as Otto the Great. He well deserved the title.
„ . , Like Charlemagne, Otto pre-
Reign of , , r 1
otto the sented the aspect of a born
Great, 936- j-uigr. He is described as be-
973
ing tall and commanding in
presence, strong and vigorous of body,
and gifted with much charm of manner.
In his bronzed face shone clear and
sparkhng eyes, and down his breast hung
a long, thick beard. Though subject to
violent outbursts of temper, he was liberal
to his friends and just to his foes.
Otto was a man of immense energy
and ambition, with a high conception of his duties as a
sovereign. His reign forms a notable epoch in German
history.
Otto continued Henry's work of defending Germany from the
foes which threatened to overrun that country. He won his
Otto and the most conspicuous success against the Magyars,
Magyars ^^io suffered a crushing defeat on the banks of the
river Lech in Bavaria (955). These barbarians now ceased their
raids and retired to the lands on the middle Danube which they
had seized from the Slavs. Here they settled down, accepted
Christianity from the Roman Church, and laid the foundations
of the kingdom of Hungary.^ As a protection against future
Magyar inroads Otto established the East Mark. This region
afterwards assumed importance under the more familiar name
of Austria.
Otto the Great is not to be remembered only as a German
1 The Magyar settlement in central Europe had the important result of dividmg
the Slavic peoples into three groups. Those who remained south of the Danube
(Serbians, Croatians, etc.) were henceforth separated from the northwestern Slavs
(Bohemians, Moravians, and Poles) and from the eastern Slavs (Russians). See
the map facing page 30.
Otto the Great 21
king. His reign was also noteworthy in the history of Italy.
The country at this time was hopelessly divided Condition of
between rival and contending peoples. The em- ^^^y
peror at Constantinople controlled the southern extremity of
the peninsula. The Mohammedans held Sicily and some cities
on the mainland. The pope ruled at Rome and in the States
of the Church. A so-called king of Italy still reigned in Lom-
bardy, but he could not manage the powerful counts, dukes, and
marquises, who were virtually independent within their own
domains. Even the imperial title died out, and now there was
no longer a Roman emperor in the West.
The deplorable condition of Italy invited interference from
abroad. Following in the footsteps of Charlemagne, Otto the
Great led two expeditions across the Alps, assumed coronation
the /'Iron Crown" ^ of Lombardy, and then pro- of Otto the
ceeded to Rome, where he secured the pope (John ^^^*'
XII) against the latter's enemies in that city. Otto's reward
was the same as Charlemagne's. On Candlemas Day ,2 962,
the grateful pope crowned him Roman emperor.
The coronation of Otto the Great seemed to his contempo-
raries a necessary and beneficial act. They still believed that the
Roman Empire was suspended, not extinct; and Meaning of
that now, one hundred and fifty years after Charle- the coro-
magne, the occasion was opportune to restore the "^*^°^
name and power associated with the golden age of the first
Frankish emperor. Otto's ardent spirit, one may well imagine,
was fired with this vision of imperial sway and the renewal of a
title around which clustered so many memories of success and
glory.
But the outcome of Otto's restoration of the Roman Empire
was good neither for Italy nor for Germany. It became the
rule, henceforth, that the man whom the German ^ .
Ultimate
nobles chose as their king had a claim, also, to the results of
Italian crown and the imperial title. The efforts *^®
of the German kings to make good this claim led
to their constant interference in the affairs of Italy. They
1 See the illustration, page 13. 2 February 2.
22 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
treated that country as a conquered province which had no
right to a national Hfe and an independent government under
its own rulers. At the same time they neglected Germany and
failed to keep their powerful territorial lords in subjection.
Neither Italy nor Germany, in consequence, could become a
Europe in the Age of Otto the Great, 962 a.d.
unified, centralized state, such as was formed in France and
England during the later Middle Ages.
The empire of Charlemagne, restored by Otto the Great,
came to be called in later centuries the "Holy Roman Empire."
The Holy ^^^ ^^^^^ points to the idea of a world monarchy
— the Roman Empire — and a world religion —
Roman Christianity — united in one institution.
This magnificent idea was never fully realized. The popes and
emperors, instead of being bound to each other by the closest
Roman
Empire
The Anglo-Saxons in Britain 23
ties, were more generally enemies than friends. The conflict
between the Empire and the Papacy formed a significant epi-
sode in the later history of the Middle Ages.
9. The Anglo-Saxons in Britain, 449-839
From the history of Continental Europe we now turn to
the history of Britain. That island had been overrun by the
Germans after the middle of the fifth century. Anglo-Saxon
The Jutes came from northern Denmark, the conquest of
Angles, from what is now Schleswig-Holstein, and "**^
the Saxons, from the neighborhood of the rivers Elbe, Weser,
and Ems in northern Germany. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of
Britain was a slow process, which lasted at least one hundred
and fifty years. The invaders followed the rivers into the
interior and gradually subdued more than half of what is now
England, comprising the fertile plain district in the southern
and eastern parts of the island.
Though the Anglo-Saxons probably destroyed many flourish-
ing cities and towns of the Romanized Britons, it seems likely
that the conquerors spared the women, with whom Nature of
they intermarried, and the agricultural laborers, *^® conquest
whom they made slaves. Other natives took refuge in the hill
regions of western and northern Britain, and here their de-
scendants stin keep up the Celtic language and traditions. The
Anglo-Saxons regarded the Britons with contempt, naming
them Welsh, a word which means one who talks gibberish.
The antagonism between the two peoples died out in the course
of centuries; conquerors and conquered intermingled; and an
English nation, partly Celtic and partly Teutonic, came into
being.
The Anglo-Saxons started to fight one another before they
ceased fighting their common enemy, the Britons. Throughout
the seventh and eighth centuries, the Anglo- jj^g ^^^^^
Saxon states were engaged in almost constant kingdoms in
struggles, either for increase of territory or for " ^^^
supremacy. The kingdoms farthest east — Kent, Sussex,
Essex, and East Anglia — found their expansion checked by
24 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
other kingdoms — Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex — which
grew up in the interior of the island. Each of these three
stronger states gained in turn the leading place.
e 8° East from 10° Greenwich 12°
Continental Home of the English
The beginning of the supremacy of Wessex dates from the
reign of Egbert. He had lived for some years as an exile at the
Egbert and court of Charlemagne, from whom he doubtless
the suprem- learned valuable lessons of war and statesmanship.
Wessex, After returning from the Continent, Egbert became
802-839 ]^jj^g Qf Wessex and gradually forced the rulers of
the other states to acknowledge him as overlord. Though
Christianity in the British Isles 25
Egbert was never directly king of all England, he began the
work of uniting the Anglo-Saxons under one government. His
descendants have occupied the English throne to the present
day.
When the Germans along the Rhine and the Danube crossed
the frontiers and entered the western provinces, they had
already been partially Romanized. They under- Anglo-Saxon
stood enough of Roman civilization to appreciate ^^^^
it and to desire to preserve it. The situation was quite different
with the Anglo-Saxons. Their original home lay in a part of
Germany beyond the borders of the Roman Empire and
remote from the cultural influences of Rome. Coming to
Britain as barbarians, they naturally introduced their own
language, laws, and customs wherever they settled. Much of
what the Anglo-Saxons brought with them still lives in England,
and from that country has spread to the United States and the
vast English colonies beyond the seas. The English language is
less indebted to Latin than any of the Romance languages,
and the Common law of England owes much less to Roman
law than do the legal systems of Continental Europe. England,
indeed, looks to the Anglo-Saxons for some of the most charac-
teristic and important elements of her civilization.
10. Christianity in the British Isles
The Anglo-Saxons also brought to Britain their heathen
faith. Christianity did not come to them until the close of
the sixth century. At this time more or less in- preparation
tercourse had sprung up between the people of for Roman
Kent, lying nearest to the Continent, and the stia^ty
Franks in Gaul. Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had even married
the Frankish princess. Bertha. He allowed his Christian wife
to bring a bishop to her new home and gave her the deserted
church of St. Martin at Canterbury as a place of worship.
Queen Bertha's fervent desire for the conversion of her
husband and his people prepared the way for an event
of first importance in English history — the mission of
Augustine.
26 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
:^f?^
The pope at this time was Gregory I, better known, from his
services to the Roman Church, as Gregory the Great. The
Mission of kingdom of Kent, with its Christian queen,
Augustine, seemed to him a very promising field for mission-
ary enterprise. Gregory, accordingly, sent out the
monk Augustine with forty companions to bring the gospel to
the heathen EngHsh. The king of Kent, already well disposed
toward the Christian
^^ faith, greeted the mis-
sionaries kindly and
told them that they
were free to convert
whom they would. Be-
fore long he and his
court embraced Chris-
tianity, and the people
of Kent soon followed
the royal example.
The monks were as-
signed a residence in
Canterbury, a city
which has ever since
remained the religious capital of England. From Kent Chris-
tianity in its Roman form gradually spread into the other
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Augustine and his monks were not the first missionaries to
Britain. Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials had in-
Celtic troduced Christianity among the Britons as early
Christianity g^g ^j^g second century. During the fifth century
the famous St. Patrick had carried Christianity to the heathen
Irish. The Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain drove many
Christians to Ireland, and that island in the sixth and seventh
centuries became a center from which devoted monks went
forth to labor in western Scotland and northern Britain.
Here they came in contact with the missionaries from
Rome.
The Celtic Christians followed some customs which differed
St. Martin's Church, Canterbury
The present church, dating from the thirteenth cen-
tury, occupies the site of a chapel built before the arrival
of Augustine. The walls still contain some of the Roman
bricks used in the original structure. St. Martin's
Church was the scene of the earliest work of Augustine
in Canterbury.
Christianity in the British Isles
27
from those observed by Roman Christians. They computed
the date on which Easter fell according to a system Differences
unHke that of the Romans. They permitted between
... 1 ^ r , , , Celtic and
their priests to marry; the Romans forbade the Roman
practice. Their monks shaved the front of the Christianity
head from ear to ear as a tonsure, while Roman monks shaved
the top of the head, leaving a "crown of thorns." These dif-
Canterbury Cathedral
The choir dates from the twelfth century, the nave, transepts, and central tower, from
Whe fifteenth century. One of the two towers at the west front was built in 1834-1840.
The beautiful stained glass in the windows of the choir belongs to the thirteenth century.
ferences may not seem very important, but they were enough
to prevent the cooperation of Celtic and Roman missionaries
for the conversion of the heathen.
The rivalry between Celtic and Roman Christians was finally
settled at a church gathering, or s5mod, called by the king of
Northumbria at Whitby. The main controversy Synod of
at this synod concerned the proper date for Easter. Whitby, 664
In the course of the debate it was asserted that the Roman
custom had the sanction of St. Peter, to whom Christ had
28 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
' The Fusion of Germans and Romans 29
intrusted the keys of heaven. This statement was enough for
the Northumbrian king, who thereupon decided in favor of the
Roman claim, declaring that he would not oppose St. Peter,
"lest when I come before the gates of the kingdom of heaven,
he who holds the keys should not open to me." ^ The repre-
sentatives of the Celtic Church then withdrew from England,
leaving the field clear for Roman missionaries.
The decision of the Synod of Whitby in favor of Rome meant
that all England henceforth would recognize the pope's author-
ity in religious matters. It remained a Roman ^, „ . . ,
^ 1 T ., 1 . r ^ ^ r • ^hc Brftish
Catholic country until the time of the Reformation, isles become
nearly nine hundred years later.^ The Celtic 5°^^
. . -^ Catholic
Christians in Ireland and Scotland in the course
of time also became the devoted children of the Roman Church.
11. The Fusion of Germans and Romans
We have now followed the fortunes of the Germans for five
centuries from the end of the Roman Empire in the West.
Most of their kingdoms, it has been seen, were not ^j^^
permanent. The Visigothic and Burgundian do- Germanic
minions in Gaul yielded to the Franks, and those "^ °"^^
of the Visigoths in Spain, to the Mohammedan Arabs. The
Vandal possessions in North Africa were regained by the em-
perors at Constantinople. The rule of the Ostrogoths in Italy
endured for only sixty years, and that of the Lombards passed
away after two centuries. The kingdoms established by the
Franks and the Anglo-Saxons alone developed into lasting
states.
But even where the Germans did not found permanent king-
doms, they mingled with the subject provincials and adopted
much of the old Roman civilization. The fusion Hindrances
of the two peoples naturally required a long time, *° fusion
being scarcely completed before the middle of the tenth century.
It was hindered, in the first place, by the desire of the Germans
to secure the lands of the Romans. Wherever the barbarians
^ Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, iii, 25.
2 The separation from Rome occurred in 1534, during the reign of Henry VIII.
30 Western Europe During the Early Middle Ages
settled, they appropriated a large part of the agricultural soil.
How much they took varied in different countries. The
Ostrogoths seem to have seized one- third of the land in Italy;
the Visigoths, two-thirds of that in Gaul and Spain; the Anglo-
Saxons, perhaps all the tillable soil of Britain. It could not
but be galling to the Romans to surrender their farms to the
barbarians. In the second place, the Germans often assessed
heavy taxes on the Romans, which they themselves refused to
pay. Tax -paying seemed to the Germans a mark of servitude.
In the third place, a barrier between the two peoples arose from
the circumstance that each had its particular law. For several
centuries following the invasions there was one law for the
Romans — that which they had enjoyed under the empire —
and another law for the Germans — their old tribal customs.
After the Germans had lived for some time in contact with the
Romans they wrote out their laws in the Latin language. These
"Laws of the Barbarians" still survive and throw much light
on their early beliefs and manners.
In spite of the hindrances to fusion, it seems true that con-
querors and conquered felt no great dislike for each other
Conditions ^^^ ^^^^' ^^ ^ ^^^^' ^^^y freely intermingled,
favoring Certain conditions directly favored this result.
First, many Germans had found their way within
the empire as hired soldiers, colonists, and slaves, long before
the invasions began. Second, the Germans came in relatively
small numbers. Third, the Germans entered the Roman
world, not as destroyers, but as homeseekers who felt a real
reverence for Roman civilization. Fourth, some of the princi-
pal Teutonic peoples, including the Visigoths, Burgundians,
and Vandals, were already Christians at the time of their
invasions, while other peoples, such as the Franks and the
Anglo-Saxons, were . afterwards converted to Christianity.
As long, however, as most of the barbarians remained Arian
Christians,^ their belief stood in the way of friendly intercourse
with the Roman provincials, who had accepted the Catholic
faith.
^ See page 47. note i.
The Fusion of Germans and Romans 31
If western Europe during the early Middle Ages presented
a scene of violence and confusion while the Germans were set-
tling in their new homes, a different picture was ^
Contrast
afforded by eastern Europe. Here the Roman between
Empire still survived and continued to uphold 5^^* *^^
for centuries the Roman tradition of law and
order. The history of that empire forms the theme of the
following chapter.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the boundaries of the empire of Charlemagne,
distinguishing his hereditary possessions from those which he acquired by conquest.
2. On an outline map indicate the boundaries of the empire of Otto the Great.
3. What events are connected with the following places: Soissons; Mersen;
Whitby; Reims; Verdun; Canterbury; and Strassburg? 4. What is the historical
importance of Augustine, Henry the Fowler, Pepin the Short, Charles Martel,
Egbert, and Ethelbert? 5. Give dates for the following events: battle of Tours;
crowning of Charlemagne as emperor; crowning of Otto the Great as emperor;
deposition of Romulus Augustulus; Augustine's mission to England; and the
Treaty of Verdun. 6. Explain the following expressions: "do-nothing kings";
missi dominici; Holy Roman Empire; and "Donation of Pepin." 7. Why have
some historians chosen to begin medieval history with the year 313? With 378?
With 395? 8. Why was the extinction of the Ostrogothic kingdom a misfortune
for Italy? 9. Why did Italy remain for so many centuries after the Lombard
invasion merely "a geographical expression"? 10. Why does Clovis deserve to
be called the founder of the French nation? 11. What difference did it make
whether Clovis became an Arian or a CathoHc? 12. What events in the lives of
Clovis and Pepin the Short contributed to the alliance between the Franks and the
popes? 13. What provinces of the Roman Empire in the West were not included
within the limits of Charlemagne's empire? 14. What countries of modern Europe
are included within the limits of Charlemagne's empire? 15. Show that Charle-
magne's empire was not in any true sense a continuation of the Roman Empire.
16. What is the origin of the word "emperor"? As a title distinguish it from that
of "king." 17. Why has Lothair's kingdom north of the Alps been called the
"strip of trouble" ? 18. Why might the inhabitants of England be more properly
described as Anglo-Celts rather than as Anglo-Saxons? 19. How did the four
EngUsh counties, Sussex, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, receive their names?
20. What was the importance of the Synod of Whitby? 21. Set forth the condi-
tions which hindered, and those which favored, the fusion of Germans and Romans.
CHAPTER II
EASTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES,
395-1095
12. The Roman Empire in the East
The Roman Empire in the West moved rapidly to its "faU"
in 476, at the hands of the Germanic invaders. The Roman
Empire in the East, though threatened by enemies
the Roman from without and weakened by civil conflicts
Empire in irom within, endured for more than a thousand
the East
years. Until the middle of the eleventh century
it was the strongest state in Europe, except during the reign
of Charlemagne, when the Frankish kingdom eclipsed it. Until
the middle of the fifteenth century it preserved the name, the
civilization, and some part of the dominions, of ancient Rome.
The long life of the Roman Empire in the East is one of the
marvels of history. Its great and constant vitahty appears
Causes of the more remarkable, when one considers that
its stirvival j|- j^^^^j ^q easily defensible frontiers, contained
many different peoples with little in common, and on all sides
faced hostile states. The empire survived so long, because of
its vast wealth and resources, its despotic, centralized govern-
ment, the strength of its army, and the almost impregnable
position occupied by Constantinople, the capital city.
The changing fortunes of the empire during the Middle Ages
are reflected in some of the names by which it is often known.
Character '^^^ term "Greek Empire" expresses the fact that
of the the state became more and more Greek in char-
empire acter, owing to the loss, first of the western prov-
inces in the fifth century, and then of Syria and Egypt in the
seventh century. Another term — "Byzantine Empire" —
appropriately describes the condition of the state in still later
times, when its possessions were reduced to Constantinople
(ancient Byzantium) and the territory in the neighborhood of
32
The Reign of Justinian
33
that city. But through all this period the rulers at Constanti-
nople regarded themselves as the true successors of Augustus,
Diocletian, and Constantine. They never admitted the right
of Charlemagne and Otto the Great to establish a rival Roman
Empire in western Europe.^ They claimed to be the only
legitimate heirs of Old Rome.
Justinian and his Suite
A mosaic dating from 547 in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna. It
shows the emperor (in the center) with a bishop, his suite, and imperial
guards. The picture probably gives us a fair idea of Justinian's appearance,
though it represents him as somewhat younger than he was at the time.
13. The Reign of Justinian, 527-565
The history of the Roman Empire in the East, for more than
one hundred years after the death of Theodosius the Great, is
uneventful. His successors, though unable to
prevent the Germans from seizing Italy and the of Theodo-
other western provinces, managed to keep their ^^"^' ^^^~
own dominions intact. The eastern provinces
escaped the fate of those in the West, because they were more
populous and offered greater obstacles to the barbarian in-
vaders, who followed the line of least resistance. The gradual
1 See pages 15-16 and 21.
34 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
recovery of the empire in strength and warlike energy prepared
the way for a really eminent ruler — Justinian.
It was the ambition of Justinian to conquer the German
kingdoms which had been formed out of the Mediterranean
Conquests of provinces. In this task he relied chiefly on the
Justinian military genius of Belisarius, one of the world's
foremost commanders. Belisarius was able in one short cam-
paign to destroy the Vandal kingdom in North Africa. The
Vandals by this time had lost their early vigor; they made but a
feeble resistance; and their Roman subjects welcomed Beli-
sarius as a deliverer. Justinian awarded a triumph to his
victorious general, an honor which for five centuries emperors
alone had enjoyed. The conquest of North Africa, together
with the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, was followed by the
overthrow of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Sicily and Italy.^ Jus-
tinian also recovered from the Visigoths the southeastern part
of Spain. He could now say with truth that the Mediter-
ranean was once more a Roman sea."
The conquests of Justinian proved to be less enduring than
his work as a lawgiver. Until his reign the sources of Roman
Codification ^^^' including the legislation of the popular assem-
of Roman blies, the decrees of the senate, the edicts of the
praetors and emperors, and the decisions of learned
lawyers, had never been completely collected and arranged in
scientific form. Justinian appointed a commission of legal
scholars to perform this task. The result of their labors, in
which the emperor himself assisted, was the publication of the
Corpus Juris Civilis, the "Body of Civil Law." Under this
form the Roman principles of jurisprudence have become the
foundation of the legal systems of modern Italy, Spain, France,
Germany, and other European countries. These principles
even influenced the Common law of England, which has been
adopted by the United States.^ The Corpus Juris Civilis,
1 See page 6.
2 See the map, page 5.
^ Roman law still prevails in the province of Quebec and the state of Louisiana,
territories formerly under French control, in all the Spanish-American countries,
in the Philippines, and in {he Dutch East Indies.
The Empire and Its Asiatic Foes 35
because of its widespread influence, is justly regarded as one
of Rome's most valuable gifts to the world.
Justinian's claim to the title of "Great" rests also on his civil-
izing work. He wished to restore the prosperity, as well as
the provinces, of the empire. During his reign civilizing
roads, bridges, and aqueducts were repaired, and work of
commerce and agriculture were encouraged. It J"^*^^*"
was at this time that two Christian missionaries brought from
China the eggs of the silkworm, and introduced the manu-
facture of silk in Europe. As a builder Justinian gained special
fame. The edifices which he caused to be raised throughout
his dominions included massive fortifications on the exposed
frontiers, splendid palaces, and many monasteries and churches.
The most noteworthy monument to his piety is the church of
Sancta Sophia ^ at Constantinople, long used as a Mohammedan
mosque. By his conquests, his laws, and his buildings, Justin-
ian revived for a time the waning glory of imperial Rome.
14. The Empire and Its Asiatic Foes
The Roman Empire in the East did not long remain at the
pinnacle of greatness to which Justinian had raised it. His
conquests, indeed, weakened rather than strength- After
ened the empire, since now there were much more J^stiman
extensive frontiers to defend. Within half a century after his
death it was attacked both in Europe and in Asia. The Lom-
bards 2 soon seized Italy, and in the East the Persians renewed
their contest against the Roman power.
The Persians at first were able to overrun all the Asiatic
provinces of the empire. A deliverer arose, however, in the
person of the Roman emperor, Heraclius (610-641). .
His brilliant campaigns partook of the nature of a
"holy war," for the Persians had violated the Holy Sepulcher
at Jerusalem and had stolen away the True Cross, the most
sacred relic of Christendom. Heraclius recovered all his prov-
inces, but only at the cost of a bloody struggle which drained
them of men and money and helped to make them fall easy
^ In Greek, Uagia Sophia, "Holy Wisdom." 2 See pages 6-7.
36 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
victims to foes still more terrible than the Persians. These were
the Arabs.
Heraclius had not closed his reign before he saw all his vic-
tories undone by the advance of the Arabs. The first wave of
invasion tore away Syria and Egypt from the
empire, penetrated Asia Minor, and reached the
shores of the Bosporus. Repulsed before the walls of Con-
stantinople, the Arabs carried their arms to the West and seized
Arabs
I 1 Lands of the Eastern emperors
I 1 before 960 A. D.
I 1 The lands conquered betweea
I 1 960 A.D. and 1045 A.D.
20° Longitude 25° East from 30° Greenwich 35
The Roman Empire in the East
DURING THE TeNTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES
North Africa, Spain, part of southern Italy, and the Mediter-
ranean islands. Asia Minor and the Balkan peninsula still
held out, however, and during the tenth century a hne of able
rulers at Constantinople succeeded in winning back some of
their lost provinces.
During the eleventh century the empire had to face new
enemies. These were the Seljuk Turks,^ fierce nomads from
the steppes beyond the Caspian. After their
conversion to Mohammedanism, they swept with
irresistible force through the East and conquered nearly all
1 So named from one of their leaders.
Seljuk Turks
The Empire and Its Foes in Europe 37
Asia Minor. The ruin of this country, in earlier ages one of
the most populous and flourishing regions of the world, dates
from its occupation by the Seljuks. To resist their further
advance the Roman emperor sought in 1095 the help of the
Christians of Europe. His appeals for aid resulted in the First
Crusade, with which a new chapter of medieval history began.^
Thus, for more than five centuries after Justinian, the Roman
Empire in the East was engaged in a long struggle with the
foes — Persians, Arabs, and Seljuk Turks — which -^0^^ of the
successively attacked its dominions. By its stub- empire in
born resistance to the advance of the invaders ^^^
the old empire protected the young states of Europe from attack,
until they grew strong enough to meet and repulse the hordes
of Asia. This work was not less important than that which
had been performed by Greece and Rome in the contests with
the Persians and the Carthaginians.
15. The Empire and Its Foes in Europe
The troubled years after Justinian's death also witnessed
the beginning of the Slavic ^ settlements in southeastern Europe.
The Slavs belonged to the Indo-European race,
but had not progressed in civilization as far as the
Germans. Their cradle land seems to have been in western
Russia, whence they slowly spread to the Baltic, the Elbe,
and the Danube. We have already mentioned the campaigns
which Charlemagne and Henry the Fowler waged against them.^
The emperors at Constantinople were less successful in resist-
ing that branch of the Slavs which tried to occupy the Balkan
peninsula. After crossing the Danube, the Slavs pressed on
farther and farther, until they reached the southern extremity
of ancient Greece. They avoided the cities, but formed peasant
communities in the open country, where they readily mingled
with the inhabitants. Their descendants have remained in
the Balkan peninsula to this day. The inhabitants of modern
^ See chapter viii.
2 The word slova means "speech"; the Slavs are those who speak the same
language. 3 See pages 13 and 19.
38 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Serbia are Slavs, and even in the Greeks there is a considerable
strain of Slavic blood.
The Bulgarians, a people akin to the Huns and Avars, made
their appearance south of the lower Danube in the seventh
^ . . century. For more than three hundred years
Bulganans .
these barbarians, brutal, fierce, and cruel, were a
menace to the empire. At one time they threatened Constan-
tinople and even killed a Roman emperor, whose skull was
converted into a drinking cup to grace their feasts. The Bul-
garians settled in the region which now bears their name and
gradually adopted the speech and customs of the Slavs. Modern
Bulgaria is essentially a Slavic state.
The empire was attacked in southeastern Europe by still
other barbarians, among whom were the Russians. This
. Slavic people, led by chieftains from Sweden,
Russiflns
descended the Dnieper and Dniester rivers and,
crossing the Black Sea, appeared before the walls of Constan-
tinople. Already, in the tenth century, that city formed the goal
of Russian ambitions. The invaders are said to have made four
attempts to plunder its treasures. Though unsuccessful, they
compelled the emperors from time to time to pay them tribute.
Christianity reached the invaders of the Balkan peninsula
from Constantinople. The Serbians, Bulgarians, and Russians
Work of the were converted in the ninth and tenth centuries,
empire in With Christianity they received the use of letters
^^^^ and some knowledge of Roman law and methods
of government. Constantinople was to them, henceforth, such
a center of religion and culture as Rome was to the Germans.
16. Byzantine Civilization
The Roman Empire in the East, though often menaced by
barbarian foes, long continued to be the leading European power.
Strength and ^^^ highest degree of prosperity was reached be-
weaith of tween the middle of the ninth and the middle of
empire ^-^^ eleventh century. The provinces in Asia
Minor and the Balkan peninsula produced a large annual
revenue, much of which went for defense. It was necessary to
Byzantine Civilization 39
maintain a strong, well-disciplined army, great fleets and engines
of war, and the extensive fortifications of Constantinople and
the frontier cities. Confronted by so many dangers, the empire
could hope to survive only by making itself a military state.
The merchant ships of Constantinople, during the earlier part
of the Middle Ages, carried on most of the commerce of the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The products commerce
of Byzantine industry were exchanged at that city and
for the spices, drugs, and precious stones of the East. *" "^ ^
Byzantine wares also found their way into Italy and France
and, by way of the Russian rivers, reached the heart of eastern
Europe. Russia, in turn, furnished Constantinople with honey,
wax, fur, wool, grain, and slaves. A traveler of the twelfth
century well described the city as a metropoUs ''common to
all the world, without distinction of country or religion."
Many of the Roman emperors from Justinian onward were
great builders. Byzantine architecture, seen especially in the
churches, became a leading form of art. Its most character of
striking feature is the dome, which replaces the Byzantine
flat, wooden roof used in the basilican churches
of Italy. The exterior of a Byzantine church is plain and unim-
posing, but the interior is adorned on a magnificent scale. The
eyes of the worshipers are dazzled by the walls faced with marble
slabs of variegated colors, by the columns of polished marble,
jasper, and porphyry, and by the brilliant mosaic pictures of
gilded glass. The entire impression is one of richness and
splendor. Byzantine artists, though mediocre painters and
sculptors, excelled in all kinds of decorative work. Their
carvings in wood, ivory, and metal, together with their em-
broideries, enamels, and miniatures, enjoyed a high reputation
throughout medieval Europe.
Byzantine art, from the sixth century to the present time,
has exerted a wide influence. Sicily, southern Italy, Rome,
Ravenna, and Venice contain many examples of influence of
Byzantine churches. Italian painting in the Mid- Byzantine
die Ages seems to have been derived directly from *"
the mosaic pictures of the artists of Constantinople. Russia
40 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
received not only its religion but also its art from Constanti-
nople. The great Russian churches of Moscow and Petrograd
follow Byzantine models. Even the Arabs, in spite of their
hostiUty to Christianity, borrowed Byzantine artists and
profited by their services. The Mohammedan mosques of
Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova, both in methods of construc-
tion and in details of ornamentation, reproduce Byzantine
styles.
The libraries and museums of Constantinople preserved
classical learning. In the flourishing schools of that city the
o ,. , ^- wisest men of the day taught philosophy, law,
Scholarship . .
medicme, and science to thousands of pupils.
It is true that Byzantine scholars were erudite rather than
original. Impressed by the great treasures of knowledge
about them, they found it difhcult to strike out into new,
unbeaten paths. Most students were content to make huge
collections of extracts and notes from the books which
antiquity had bequeathed to them. Even this task was useful,
however, for their encyclopedias preserved much information
which otherwise would have been lost. During the Middle
Ages the East cherished the productions of classical learning,
until the time came when the West was ready to receive them
and to profit by them.
17. Constantinople
The heart of Byzantine civilization was Constantinople.
The city lies on a peninsula between the Sea of Marmora and
Position of ^^^ spacious harbor called the Golden Horn.
Constanti- Washed on three sides by the water and, like
^°^ ^ Rome, enthroned upon seven hills, Constantinople
occupies a magnificent site, well-fitted for an imperial capital.
It stands in Europe, looks on Asia, and commands the
entrance to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
As an old writer once pointed out, Constantinople ''is a city
which Nature herself has designed to be the mistress of the
world."
The position of Constantinople made it difl&cult to attack
Constantinople
41
but easy to defend. To surround the city an enemy would
have to be strong upon both land and sea. A constanti-
hostile army, advancing through Asia Minor, nopie a
found its further advance arrested by the long, ""^^^ "^^'^^^
winding channel which the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora,
and the Dardanelles combine to form. A hostile fleet, coming
by way of the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, faced grave
Vicinity of Constantinople
difficulties in attempting to penetrate the narrow strait into
which this waterway contracts at each extremity. On the
landward side the Hne of defense was so short — about four
miles in width — that it could be strongly fortified and held
by a small force against large numbers. During the Middle
Ages the rear of the city was protected by two huge walls, the
remains of which are still visible. Constantinople, in fact, was
all but impregnable. Though each new century brought a fresh
horde of enemies, it resisted siege after siege and long continued
to be the capital of what was left of the Roman Empire.^
1 Of the eight sieges to which Constantinople was subjected in medieval times,
only two succeeded. In 1204 it was captured by the Venetians and in 1453, by the
Ottoman Turks.
42 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Constantine had laid out his new capital on an imposing scale
and adorned it with the choicest treasures of art from Greece,
Monuments Italy, and the Orient. Fourteen churches, four-
of Con- teen palaces, eight pubhc baths, and several
s an nop e triumphal arches are assigned to the founder of
the city. His most stately building was the Hippodrome, an
immense structure devoted to chariot races and all sorts of
popular gatherings.
There new emper-
ors, after their con-
secration in Sancta
Sophia, were greeted
by their subjects;
there civic festivals
were held; and there
the last Roman
triumphs were cel-
ebrated. Theodo-
sius the Great built
the principal gate
of Constantinople,
the ''Golden Gate,"
as it was called, by
which the emperors
made their solemn
entry into the city.
But it was Justinian
who, after Constan-
tine, did most to
adorn the new cap-
ital by the Bos-
porus. He is said
to have erected more than twenty-five churches in Constanti-
nople and its suburbs. Of these, the most beautiful is the
world-famed cathedral dedicated by Justinian to "Holy
Wisdom." On its completion the Emperor declared that he
had surpassed Solomon's Temple. Though nearly fourteen
The Three Existing Monuments of the
Hippodrome, Constantinople
These three monuments preserve for us the exact line of
the low wall, or spina, which divided the race course and
around which the charioteers drove their furious steeds. The
obelisk was transported from Egypt by Constantine. Be-
tween it and the crumbling tower beyond is a pillar of three
brazen serpents, originally set up at Delphi by the Greeks,
after the battle of Plataea. On this trophy were engraved
the names of the various states that sent soldiers to fight the
Persians.
Exterior
Interior
SANCTA SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE
Built by Justinian and dedicated on Christmas Day, 538 a.d. The main building is
roofed over by a great central dome, 107 feet in diameter and 179 feet in height. After the
Ottoman Turks turned the church into a mosque, a minaret was erected at each of the four
exterior angles. The outside of Sancta Sophia is somewhat disappointing, but the interior,
with its walls and columns of polished marble, granite, and porphyry, is magnificent. The
crystal balustrades, pulpits, and large metal disks are Turkish.
Constantinople
43
hands, it
Christian
hundred years old and now defaced by vandal
remains perhaps the supreme achievement of
architecture.
Excepting Athens and Rome, no other European city can
lay claim to so long and so important a history as Constantinople.
Her day came after theirs was done. Throughout
the Middle Ages Constantinople remained the JgSficance
most important place in Europe. When London,
Paris, and Vienna were small and mean towns,
Constantinople was a large and flourishing metropolis.
of Con-
stantinople
The re-
Wall of old( Greek) Byzantium(?)
Wall of ConstanUHc(JSO)
~ Double Wall of T/ieodosius IlUOS-iSO)
■i-i wall of Heraclius(626-6il)
Wall of mediaeval Galata
Wall of the New Seraglio
Cosrnidion
(Eyiub)
Palace ofxBlachenjae
\ Palace vof the\
\ Hebdorrion ^
(Tekfour SerclTKerko
^, Gate ofj^Purta?'ii
Charisiuay Phanariot
\r Quarter
/-tfhurch of the A
Gate o/{5r(MV,sque of MohanimeJ fl^^'^-^JJ
(Can,rfi GatcK.^ ■^^^Sheik-ul-fPtnrrj-^
,>.> StTTAUI
-. .-n"'" M»» i o«;eVv(CHRYSOPOLIS)
M<,sriueg?Ta<JlSf^-r4b3> of Leand\
»--, vie vof Suleiman. . ^^^ „
Old'^V ''Sublinie Eortey^^'w Seraglio
'Seraglio * 3 ^ / KCAcropolis of Greek
irn^f Constantir?e >ia^ Byzantium
n^~*-9J^P"^™'" ''^ ^Bucoleon Palace
•"•^ vA-ttnoidan) /Injperial
^'"'"""--^Palace
SEA OF MARMORA
GoT^n Castle of the Seven Towers
CP^y(YediKouleb) ^^^^^^^^
^"^ CONSTANTINOPLE ^^^^^<^^^o^^
Scale 1:125000
1 1/^ Mile?
nown of the city penetrated even into barbarian lands. The
Scandinavians called it Micklegarth, the ''Great City"; the
Russians knew of it as Tsarigrad, the "City of the Cssars."
But its own people best described it as the ''City guarded by
God." Here, for more than eleven centuries, was the capital
of the Roman Empire and the center of eastern Christendom.
44 Eastern Europe During the Early Middle Ages
Studies
I. Compare the respective areas in 800 of the Roman Empire in the East and
Charlemagne's empire. 2. On the map, page 41, locate Adrianople, GalUpoli,
Nicaea, the Bosporus, Sea of Marmora, and Dardanelles. 3. Explain the terms
"Greek Empire," "Byzantine Empire," and "Roman Empire in the East." 4. In
your opinion which of the two rival imperial lines after 800 had the better title to
represent ancient Rome? 5. Why has Justinian been called the "lawgiver of
civilization"? 6. Why was it necessary to codify Roman law? Is the English
Common law codified? 7. What were the principal sources of the Corpus Juris
Civilis? 8. "The Byzantines were the teachers of the Slavs, as the Romans were
of the Germans." Comment on this statement. 9. In what parts of Europe is
the influence of Byzantine art most clearly traceable? 10. The Byzantine Empire
was once called "a gigantic mass of mold, a thousand years old." Does this seem
a fair description? 11. "The history of medieval civilization is, in large measure,
the history of the Roman Empire in the East." Comment on this statement.
12. Show that Constantinople formed "a natural citadel." 13. Describe the prin-
cipal architectural features of Sancta Sophia (plate facing page 42). 14. On the
map, page 43, trace the successive walls of Constantinople.
CHAPTER III
CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST
TO 10541
18. Development of Christianity
Christianity, at the time of its victory over paganism, had
become a great and powerful organization, with fixed laws,
with a graded system of officers, and with councils ^ , ,. .
,11 , r n r , ^ CathoUclsm
attended by clergy irom all parts of the Roman
world. To this organization the word Catholic, that is, "uni-
versal," came to be applied. Membership in the Catholic
Church, secured only by baptism, was essential to salvation.
As St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, had said, ''He can no longer
have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother."
The first three centuries of Christianity witnessed the devel-
opment of the episcopal system in the Church. Each pro-
vincial city had its bishop, assisted by priests The
and deacons. An archbishop (sometimes called a episcopate
metropolitan) presided over the bishops of each province, and
a patriarch had jurisdiction, in turn, over metropohtans. This
graded arrangement of ecclesiastical officers, from the lowest to
the highest, helped to make the Church centralized and strong.
It appears to have been modeled, almost unconsciously, on the
government of the Roman Empire.^
The development of the patriarchate calls for special notice.
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter iii, "The Benedic-
tine Rule"; chapter iv, "The Reestablishment of Christianity in Britain"; chapter
V, "St. Boniface, Apostle to the Germans."
^ The correspondence may be indicated as follows:
The Roman Empire The Christian Church
City — Municipal officials. Bishop.
Province — Governor. Archbishop, or Metropolitan.
Diocese — Vicar. Patriarch.
Prefecture — Prefect. (No corresponding division.)
45
46 Christianity in the East and in the West
At the time of the Council of Nicaea there were three patri-
Xhe archs, namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and
patriarchs Alexandria. These cities ranked among the most
important in the Roman Empire. It was only natural, there-
fore, that the churches established in them should be singled out
for preeminence. Some years after the removal of the capital
to Constantinople, the bishop of that imperial city was recog-
nized as a patriarch at a general council of the Church. In the
fifth century the bishop of Jerusalem received the same dignity.
Henceforth there were five patriarchs — four in the East but
only one in the West.^
The Church formed a very democratic organization. Patri-
archs, archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons were drawn
Clergy and from all ranks of life. No special training at first
laity was considered necessary to fit them for their
duties, though the more celebrated ministers wefe often highly
educated. To eke out their salaries the clergy sometimes
carried on business as farmers and shopkeepers. Where, how-
ever, a church had sufficient funds to support its bishop, his
engagement in secular affairs was discouraged and finally pro-
hibited. In the fourth century, as earlier, priests and bishops
were generally married men. The sentiment in favor of celibacy
for the clergy became very pronounced during the early Middle
Ages, especially in the West, and led at length to the general
abandonment of priestly marriage in those parts of Europe
where papal influence prevailed. Distinctive garments for
clergymen did not begin to come into use until the fifth century,
when some of them began to don clothing of a more sober hue
than was fashionable at the time. Clerical vestments were
developed from two pieces of ancient Roman dress — the tunic
and the toga. Thus the clergy were gradually separated from
the people, or laity, by differences in costume, by their celibate
lives, and by their abstention from worldly occupations.
While the Church was perfecting her organization, she was
also elaborating her doctrines. Theologians engaged in many
^ For the boundaries of the patriarchates in 622 see the map between pages
52-63.
Development of Christianity
47
controversies upon such subjects as the connection of Christ
with God and the nature of the Trinity. In order „
1 • , . . . ^ ^, . . Heresies
to obtain an authoritative expression of Christian
opinion, councils of the higher clergy were held, at which the
opposing views were debated and a decision was reached. The
Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arianism,^ formed the first,
and one of the most important, of these general gatherings of
the Church. After the Church had once expressed itself on
any matter of Christian belief, it was regarded as unlawful to
maintain a contrary opinion. Those who did so were frequently
persecuted for heresy.
As soon as Christianity had triumphed in the Roman Empire,
thus becoming the religion of the rich and powerful as well as
the religion of „, , .
° Worship
the poor and
lowly, more attention was
devoted to the conduct of
worship. Magnificent
church buildings were often
erected. Their architects
seem to have followed as
models the basilicas, or
public halls, which formed
so familiar a sight in Roman
cities. Church interiors
were adorned with paint-
ings, mosaic pictures,
images of saints and
martyrs, and the figure of
the cross. Lighted candles on the altars and the burning of
fragrant incense lent an additional impressiveness to worship.
^ Some theologians, headed by Arius, a priest of Alexandria, maintained that
Christ the Son, having been created by God the Father, was necessarily inferior to
him. Athanasius, another Alexandrian priest, opposed this view and held that
Christ was not a created being, but was in all ways equal to God. The Council
accepted the arguments of Athanasius, condemned Arius as a heretic, and framed
the Nicene Creed. Though thrust out of the Church, Arianism continued to
flourish among the Teutonic tribes, of which the majority were converted to Chris-
tianity by Arian missionaries.
Religious Music
From a window of the cathedral of Bourges,
a city in central France. Shows a pipe organ
and chimes.
48 Christianity in the East and in the West
Beautiful prayers and hymns were composed. Some of the
early Christian hymns, such as the Gloria in Excelsis and the
Te Deum Laudamus, are still sung in our churches. Organs
did not come into use until the seventh century, and then only
in the West, but church bells, summoning the worshiper to
divine service, early became attached to Christian edifices.
The Christians from the start appear to have observed "the
first day of the week"^ in memory of Christ's resurrection.
They attended pubHc worship on the Lord's Day,
but otherwise did not rigidly abstain from worldly
business and amusements. During the fourth century Sunday,
as the Lord's Day was now generally called, came more and
more to be kept as a day of obligatory rest. Constantine's
Sunday law formed the first of a long series of imperial edicts
imposing the observance of that day as a legal duty. In this
manner Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day
of the week, was dedicated wholly to the exercises of religion.
The great yearly festivals of the Church gradually took shape
during the early Christian centuries. The most important
anniversary to be observed was Easter. A period
of fasting (Lent), which finally lasted forty days,
preceded the festival. Whitsunday, or Pentecost, was cele-
brated on the fiftieth day after Easter.^ Two other festivals of
later adoption were Christmas, the celebration of which was
finally assigned to the 25th of December, and Epiphany (Jan-
uary 6), commemorating the baptism of Christ. Many other
feasts and fasts, together with numerous saints' days, were
afterwards added to the calendar of the "Christian Year."
19. Eastern Christianity
By the time of Constantine, Christianity had spread widely
throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Asia Minor
Expansion of ^^^ ^^^^ largely Christian. Thrace, Macedonia,
Christianity Epirus, and Greece were all ecclesiastical prov-
"^ ^ ^^ inces with their own metropolitans. Many
Christians were found in Syria and Eg3^t. Churches also ex-
^ John, XX, I, 19; compare i Corinthians, xvi, 2. ^ See Acts, ii, 1-4.
Eastern Christianity
49
isted in Mesopotamia and Arabia, and even beyond the bound-
aries of the empire in Armenia and Persia. Between the time
of Constantine and that of Jus-
tinian, Christianity continued to
expand in the East, until the gospel
had been carried to such distant
regions as Abyssinia and India.
Most of the Christian communi-
ties in the Orient owed allegiance
to the patriarchs of Constantinople,
Jerusalem, Antioch, union of
and Alexandria. The Church and
Tj 1, State
Roman emperor, how-
ever, was the supreme religious
authority in the East. He felt it
as much his duty to maintain the
doctrines and organization of Chris-
tianity as to preserve the imperial
dominions against foreign foes.
Since he presided over the Church,
there could be no real independ-
ence for its officers. Bishops, met-
ropolitans, and patriarchs were
in every respect subordinate to
his will. This union of Church
and State formed one of the
most characteristic features of
Christianity in the East.
Eastern Christians, far more
than those in the West, devoted
themselves to theolog- Theological
ical speculations. Con
stantinople and the great Hellen-
istic cities of Antioch and Alexandria contained many learned
scholars who had prolonged and heated arguments over subtle
questions of belief. After the Arian controversy had been
settled in the fourth century, other disputes concerning the
The Nestorian Monument
Evidence of Nestorian missions in
China is afforded by the famous
monument at Chang'an, province of
Shensi. The stone, which was set
up in 781, commemorates by an in-
scription in Chinese characters and the
figure of a cross the introduction of
Christianity into northwestern China.
A replica of the Nestorian monument
was taken to the United States in 1908
speculations and was deposited in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
50 Christianity in the East and in the West
true nature of Christ broke out. These gave rise to many
heresies.
The heresy known as Nestorianism, from Nestorius, a patri-
arch of Constantinople, spread widely in the East. Nestorian
missionaries even penetrated to India, China, and
Mongolia. The churches which they established
were numerous and influential during the Middle Ages, but
since then most of them have been destroyed by the Moham-
medans. Members of this sect are still to be found, however,
in eastern lands.
After the formation of the Nestorian and other heretical
sects, the orthodox faith was preserved in the East only by the
Greeks of Asia Minor and Europe. The Greek
Church, which calls itself the ''Holy Orthodox
Church," for a time remained in unity with the Roman Church
in the West. Their final separation occurred in the eleventh
century.^
20. Western Christianity: Rise of the Papacy
Christianity in the West presented two sharp contrasts to
eastern Christianity. In the first place, the great heresies
which divided the East scarcely affected the West.
The Pfl.D£LCV
In the second place, no union of Church and State
existed among western Christians. Instead of acknowledging
the religious supremacy of the emperor at Constantinople, they
yielded obedience to the bishop of Rome, the head of the Roman
Church. He is known to us as the pope, and his office is called
the Papacy.
A church in Rome must have been established at an early
date, for it was to Roman Christians that St. Paul addressed
Rome an ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Epistles now preserved in the New
apostolic Testament. St. Paul visited Rome, as we know
churc from the Acts of the Apostles, and there he is said
to have suffered martyrdom. Christian tradition, very ancient
and very generally received, declares that St. Peter also labored
in Rome, where he met a martyr's death, perhaps during the
1 See pages 64-65.
Western Christianity: Rise of the Papacy 51
reign of the emperor Nero. To the early Christians, therefore,
the Roman Church was especially sacred, for it had been
founded by the two greatest apostles and had been nourished
by their blood.
Another circumstance helped to give the Roman Church a
superior position in the West. It was a vigorous missionary
church. Rome, the largest Rome ^
and most flourishing city " mother-
in the empire and the
seat of the imperial government,
naturally became the center from
which Christianity spread over the
western provinces. Many of the
first Christian communities planted
in Spain, Gaul, and Africa owed
their start to the missionary zeal
of the popes.
The independence of the Roman
Church also furthered its develop-
ment. The bishop of The
-r, j^i 1 Roman
Rome was the sole pa- Church in-
triarch in the West, while dependent
in the East there were two, and later
four patriarchs, each exercising au-
thority in religious matters. Fur-
thermore, the removal of the capital
from Rome to Constantinople helped to free the Roman bishop
from the close oversight of the imperial government. He was
able, henceforth, to promote the interests of the church under
his control without much interference on the part of the eastern
emperor.
Finally, it must be noted how much the development of the
Roman Church was aided by its attitude on disputed questions
of behef. While eastern Christendom was torii -j-j^^ Roman
by theological controversies, the Church of Rome Church
stood firmly by the Nicene Creed. After the °^^°^°^
Arian, Nestorian, and other heresies were finally condemned,
Papal Arms
According to the well-known pas-
sage in Matthew (xvi, 19), Christ
gave to St. Peter the " keys of the
kingdom of heaven," with the power
" to bind and to loose." These keys
are always represented in the papal
arms, together with the tiara or head-
dress, worn by the popes on certain
occasions.
52 Christianity in the East and in the West
orthodox Christians felt indebted to the Roman Church for
its unwavering championship of "the faith once deUvered to
the saints." They were all the more ready, therefore, to
defer to that church in matters of doctrine and to accept without
question its spiritual authority.
The claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy over the
Christian world had a double basis. Certain passages in the
The Petrine New Testament, where St. Peter is represented as
supremacy t^g j-Q^k on which the Church is built, the pastor
of the sheep and lambs of the Lord, and the doorkeeper of
the kingdom of heaven, appear to indicate that he was regarded
by Christ as the chief of the Apostles. Furthermore, a
well-established tradition made St. Peter the founder of
the Roman Church and its first bishop. It was then argued
that he passed to his successors, the popes, all his rights
and dignity. As St. Peter was the first among the Apostles,
so the popes were to be the first among bishops. Such was
the doctrine of the Petrine supremacy, expressed as far back
as the second century, strongly asserted by many popes
during the Middle Ages, and maintained to-day by the Roman
Church.
21. Growth of the Papacy
Up to the middle of the fifth century about forty-five bishops
had occupied St. Peter's chair at Rome. The most eminent
Pontificate °^ these was Leo the Great. When he became
of Leo I, bishop, the Germans were overrunning the western
provinces of the empire. The invaders professed
the Arian faith, as we have seen, and often prosecuted the
orthodox Christians among whom they settled. At Such a
time, when the imperial power was growing weaker, faithful
Catholics in the West naturally turned for support to the bishop
of Rome. Leo became their champion against the barbarians.
Tradition declares that he succeeded in diverting Attila from
an attack on Rome, and when the Vandals sacked the city
Leo also intervened to prevent its destruction.
After Leo, no important name occurs in the list of popes
Growth of the Papacy 53
until we come to Gregory the Great. Gregory, as the son of
a rich and distinguished Roman senator, enjoyed pontificate f
a good education in all the learning of the time. Gregory i.
He entered public life and at an early age became ^''"^^
prefect of Rome. But now, almost at the outset of his career,
Gregory laid aside earthly ambition. He gave up his honorable
position and spent the fortune, inherited from his father, in
the foundation of monasteries and the relief of the poor. He
himself became a monk, turned his palace at Rome into a mon-
astery, and almost ruined his health by too great devotion to
fasts and midnight vigils. Gregory's conspicuous talents, how-
ever, soon called him from retirement and led to his election as
pope.
The work of Gregory lay principally in two directions. As a
statesman he did much to make the popes virtual sovereigns
at Rome and in Italy. At this time the Italian Temporal
peninsula, overrun by the Lombards and neglected power of
by the eastern emperor, was in a deplorable con- ^^^^^y
dition. The bishop of Rome seemed to be the only man who
could protect the people and maintain order. Gregory had
conspicuous success in this task. He appointed governors of
cities, issued orders to generals, drilled the Romans for military
defense, and sent ambassadors to treat with the king of the
Lombards. It was largely owing to Gregory's efforts that these
barbarians were prevented from conquering central Italy.
Gregory was no less eminent as a churchman. His writings
and his personal influence greatly furthered the advancement
of the Roman Church in the West. We find him Gregory's
sternly repressing heresies wherever they arose, spiritual
aiding the conversion of Arian Visigoths in Spain *^ °" ^
and Arian Lombards in Italy, and sending out monks as mis-
sionaries to distant Britain.^ He well deserved by these labors
the title ''Servant of the servants of God," ^ which he assumed,
and which the popes after him have retained. The admira-
tion felt for his character and abilities raised him, in later ages,
to the rank of a saint.
^ See page 26. 2 Servus servorum Dei.
54 Christianity in the East and in the West
When Gregory the Great closed his remarkable career, the
Papacy had reached a commanding place in western Christen-
Position of dom. To their spiritual authority the popes had
the Papacy j^q^ begun to add some measure of temporal
power as rulers at Rome and in Italy. During the eighth
century, as we have already learned,^ the alliance of the popes
and the Franks helped further to establish the Papacy as an
ecclesiastical monarchy, ruling over both the souls and bodies
of men.
22. Monasticism
The Papacy during the Middle Ages found its strongest
supporters among the monks. By the time of Gregory the Great
^j^g monasticism ^ was well established in Christianity,
monastic Its origin must be sought in the need, often felt
^^^^ by spiritually minded men, of withdrawing from
the world — from its temptations and its transitory pleasures
— to a Hfe of solitude, prayer, arid religious contemplation.
Joined to this feeling has been the conviction that the soul
may be purified by subduing the desires and passions of* the
body. Men, influenced by the monastic spirit, sought a
closer approach to God. *
The monastic spirit in Christianity owed much to the example
of its founder, who was himself unmarried, poor, and without a
Early place "where to lay his head." Some of Christ's
Christian teachings, taken literally, also helped to exalt the
monasticism ^^^^^i of the monastic life. At a very early period
there were Christian men and women who abstained from
marriage and gave themselves up to devotional exercises and
works of charity. This they did in their homes, without aban-
doning their famihes and human society.
Another monastic movement began about the middle of the
third century, when many Christians in Egypt withdrew into
the desert to live as hermits. St. Anthony, who
The hermits , , „ , , ^ ^i • . i • ^
has been called the first Christian hermit, passed
twenty years in a deserted fort on the east bank of the Nile.
^ See page I'l. ^ From a Greek word which means "living alone."
Monasticism
55
During all this time he never saw a human face. Some of the
hermits, beheving that pain and suffering had a spiritual value,
went to extremes of self-mortification. They dwelt in wells,
tombs, and on the summits of pillars, deprived themselves of
necessary food and sleep, wore no clothing, and neglected to
bathe or to care for the body in any way. Other hermits, who
did not practice such austerities, spent all day or all night in
St. Daniel the Stylite on his Column
From a Byzantine miniature in the Vatican.
prayer. The examples of these recluses found many imitators
in Syria and other eastern lands. ^
A life shut off from all contact with one's fellows is difficult
and beyond the strength of ordinary men. The mere human
need for social intercourse gradually brought the Rule of
hermits together, at first in small groups and then ^*' ^*^*^
in larger communities, or monasteries. The next step was to
give the scattered monasteries a common organization and
government. Those in the East gradually adopted the regu-
lations which St. Basil, a leading churchman of the fourth
See Tennyson's poem, .9/. Simeon Styliles.
56 Christianity in the East and in the West
St Benedict
century, drew up for the guidance of the monks under his direc-
tion. St. Basil's Rule, as it is called, still remains the basis
of monasticism in the Greek Church.
The monastic system, which early gained an entrance into
western Christendom, looked to St. Benedict as its organizer.
While yet a young man, St. Benedict had sought to
escape from the vice about him by retiring to a
cave in the Sabine hills near Rome. Here he lived for three
years as a hermit, shutting himself off from all human inter-
course, wearing a hair
shirt, and rolling in beds
of thistles to subdue
"the flesh." St. Bene-
dict's experience of the
hermit's life convinced
I dm that there was a
surer and better road
to religious peace of
mind. His fame as a
holy man had attracted
to him many disciples,
and these he now began
to group in monastic
communities under his
own supervision. St.
Benedict's most important monastery was at Monte Cassino,
midway between Rome and Naples. It became the capital of
monasticism in the West.
To control the monks of Monte Cassino St. Benedict framed
a Rule, or constitution, which was modeled in some respects
Rule of St. upon the earher Rule of St. Basil. The monks
Benedict, formed a sort of corporation, presided over by an
abbot,^ who held office for life. Every candidate
for admission took the vow of obedience to the abbot.
Any man, rich or poor, noble or peasant, might enter the mon-
1 From a Syrian word, abba, meaning "father." Hence a monastery was often
called an abbey.
An Abbot's Seal
The seal of Abbot Samson, head of the monastery
of St. Edmundsbury, England, 1 182-12 12.
Monasticism
57
♦ ••^i^
I
astery, after a year's probation; having once joined, however,
he must remain a monk for the rest of his days. The monks
were to hve under strict discipHne. They could not own any
property; they could not go beyond the monastery walls with-
out the abbot's con-
sent; they could not
even receive letters
from home; and they
were sent to bed
early. A violation
of the regulations
brought punishment
in the shape of pri-
vate admonition, ex-
clusion from com-
mon prayer, and, I
in extreme cases,
expulsion.
The Rule of St.
Benedict came to . > *
1,1 . , Plan of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire
have the same wide
influence in the West which that of St. Basil exerted in the East.
Gregory the Great established it in many places spread of
in Italy, Sicily, and England. During Charle-
magne's reign it was made the only form of monas-
ticism throughout his dominions. By the tenth century the
Rule prevailed everywhere in western Europe.^
the Bene-
dictine Rule
23. Life and Work of the Monks
St. Benedict sought to draw a sharp line between the monastic
life and that of the outside world. Hence he required that,
as far as possible, each monastery should form a monastic
an independent, self-supporting community. In community
course of time, as a monastery increased in wealth and number
1 Other monastic orders arose during the later Middle Ages (see pages 145-146),
but the Benedictines still exist, chiefly in Austria and Italy. Their order was
introduced into the United States during the nineteenth century.
58 Christianity in the East and in the West
of inmates, it might come to form a large establishment,
covering many acres and presenting within its massive walls
the appearance of a fortified town.
The principal buildings of a Benedictine monastery of the
Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres, Paris
This celebrated monastery was founded in the sixth century. Of the orig-
inal buildings only the abbey church remains. The illustration shows the mon-
astery as it was in 1361, with walls, towers, drawbridge, and moat. Adjoining
the church were the cloister, the refectory, and the dormitory.
larger sort were grouped around an inner court, called a cloister.
The monas- These included a church, a refectory, or dining
room, with the kitchen and buttery near it, a
dormitory, where the monks slept, and a chapter
house, where they transacted business. There was also a
Hbrary, a school, a hospital, and a guest house for the reception
of strangers, besides barns, bakeries, laundries, workshops,
and storerooms for provisions. Beyond these buildings lay
tery build-
ings
Life and Works of the Monks 59
vegetable gardens, orchards, grain fields, and often a mill, if
the monastery was built on a stream. A high wall and ditch
gave the monks the necessary seclusion and in time of danger
protected them from attack.
St. Benedict defined a monastery as "a school for the service
of the Lord." The monks under his Rule occupied themselves
with a regular round of worship, reading, and Monastic
manual labor. Each day was divided into seven occupations
sacred offices, beginning and ending with services in the mon-
astery church. The first service came usually about two
o'clock in the morning; the last, just as evening set in, before
the monks retired to rest. In addition to their attendance at
church, the monks spent several hours in reading from the
Bible, private prayer, and meditation. For most of the day,
however, they worked harci with their hands, doing the neces-
sary washing and cooking for the monastery, raising the neces-
sary suppUes of vegetables and grain, and performing all the
other tasks required to maintain a large establishment. This
emphasis on labor, as a religious duty, was a characteristic
feature of western monasticism. ''To labor is to pray," be-
came a favorite motto of the Benedictines.^
It is clear that life in a Benedictine monastery appealed to
many different kinds of people in the Middle Ages. Those of
a spiritual turn of mind found in the career of a Attractive-
monk the opportunity of giving themselves wholly ness of the
to God. Studious and thoughtful persons natu- °^°^*^^*^ ®
rally turned to the monastery as a secure retreat. The friendless
and the disgraced often took refuge within its walls. Many a
troubled soul, to whom the trials of this world seemed unen-
durable, sought to escape from them by seeking the peaceful
shelter of the cloister.
The civilizing influence of the Benedictine monks during the
early Middle Ages can scarcely be over-emphasized. A monas-
tery was often at once a model farm, an inn, a The monks
hospital, a school, and a library. By the careful *^ civiUzers
cultivation of their lands the monks set an example of good
1 Laborare est orare.
6o Christianity in the East and in the West
farming wherever they settled. They entertained pilgrims and
travelers, at a period when western Europe was almost destitute
of inns. They performed many works of charity, feeding the
hungry, healing the sick who were brought to their doors, and
distributing their medi-
cines freely to those
who needed them. In
their schools they trained
both boys who wished
to become priests and
those who intended to
lead active lives in the
world. The monks, too,
were the only scholars
of the age. By copying
the manuscripts of clas-
sical authors, they pre-
served valuable books
that would otherwise
have been lost. By keep-
ing records of the most
striking events of their
time, they acted as chroniclers of medieval history. To all
these services must be added the work of the monks as mis-
sionaries among the heathen.
24. Spread of Christianity over Europe
Almost all Europe had been won to Christianity by the end
of the eleventh century. In the direction of this great mis-
_ „ sionary campaiorn the Roman Church took the
The Roman , ,. S.i ^ r i
Church and leadmg part. The officers of her armies were
the bar- zealous popes, bishops, and abbots; her private
barians , ,. r- r- ? „ , , . ,
«, soldiers were equally zealous monks, priests, and
laymen. Pagan Rome had never succeeded in making a com-
plete and permanent conquest of the barbarians. Christian
Rome, however, was able to bring them under her spiritual
sway.
A Monk Copyist
From a manuscript in the British Museum, London,
Spread of Christianity over Europe 6i
Christianity first reached the Teutonic invaders in its Arian ^
form. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lom-
bards were all Arians. The Roman Church Reconversion
regarded them as heretics and labored with success of the Teu-
to reconvert them. This work was at last com- *°"'*^ peoples
pleted when the Lombards, in the seventh century, accepted the
Catholic faith.
The Franks and the Anglo-Saxons, whose kingdoms were to
develop into the chief states of medieval Europe, adopted
from the outset the Cathohc form of Christianity. Franks and
The conversion of the Franks provided the Roman Anglo-Saxons
/-.I 1 • 1 • 1 r ' ■, r ■, converted to
Church with its strongest and most faithful Roman
adherents among the Germans.^ The conversion Catholicism
of Anglo-Saxon Britain by Augustine and his monks, followed
later by the spread of Roman Catholicism in Ireland and
Scotland, firmly united the British Isles to the Papacy.^ Thus
Rome during the Middle Ages came to be the one center of
church life for the peoples of western Europe.
An Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Boniface, did more than any
other missionary to bring Christianity to the remote tribes
of Germany. Like Augustine in England, St.
T) -r . u .1. 1 / 1 . St. Boniface
Bomiace was sent by the pope, who created him and the con-
a missionary bishop and ordered him to ''carry version of
the word of God to unbelievers." St. Boniface
also enjoyed the support of the Frankish rulers, Charles Martel
and Pepin the Short. Thanks to their assistance this intrepid
monk was able to penetrate into the heart of Germany. Here
he labored for nearly forty years, preaching, baptizing, and
founding numerous churches, monasteries, and schools. His
boldness in attacking heathenism is illustrated by the story
of how he cut down with his own hands a certain oak tree, much
reverenced by the natives of Hesse as sacred to the god Woden,
and out of its wood built a chapel dedicated to St. Peter. St.
Boniface crowned a lifetime of missionary labor with a martyr's
death, probably in 754. His work was continued by Charle-
magne, who forced the Saxons to accept Christianity at the
^ See page 47, note i. ^ See page 9. ' See pages 25-29.
62 Christianity in the East and in the West
point of the sword.^ All Germany at length became a Christian
land, devoted to the Papacy.
Roman Catholicism not only spread to Celtic and Teutonic
peoples, but it also gained a foothold among the Slavs. Both
Conversion Henry the Fowler and Otto the Great attempted
of the Slavs j-q Christianize the Slavic tribes between the Elbe
and the Vistula, by locating bishoprics in their territory. The
work of conversion encountered many setbacks and did not
reach completion until the middle of the twelfth century.
The most eminent missionaries to the Slavs were Cyril and
Methodius. These brother-monks were sent from Constan-
tinople in 863 to convert the Moravians, who formed a king-
dom on the eastern boundary of Germany. Seeing their great
success as missionaries, the pope invited them to Rome and
secured their consent to an arrangement which brought the
Moravian Christians under the control of the Papacy.^ From
Moravia Christianity penetrated into Bohemia and Poland.
These countries still remain strongholds of the Roman Church.
The Serbians and Russians, as we have learned,^ received
Christianity by way of Constantinople and so became adherents
of the Greek Church.
Roman Catholicism gradually spread to most of the remaining
peoples of Europe. The conversion of the Norwegians and
Swedes was well advanced by the middle of the
Final exten- , , rT^^ ^ r tt •
sion of eleventh century. The Magyars, or Hungarians,
Roman accepted Christianity at about the same date.
The king of Hungary was such a devout CathoUc
that the pope sent to him a golden crown and saluted him as
"His Apostolic Majesty." The last parts of heathen Europe
to hear the message of the gospel were the districts south and
east of the Baltic, occupied by the Prussians, Lithuanians, and
Finns. Their conversion took place between the twelfth and
fourteenth centuries.
^ See pages 12-13.
2 Cyril and Methodius were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 188 1. A millennial
celebration of the two apostles was held in f'^6s by the inhabitants oi Moravia
and Bohemia.
3 See page 38. The Bulgarians also received Christianity from Constantinople.
GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY
FROM THE FIFTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
I I Extent of Christianity about 400 A. D. I I Mohammedanism is
shown by white bands
I Division between the
Greek and Roman Churches
T=
H Area Christianized 400-800 A. D.
D Area Christianized 800-1100 A, D.
J Area Christianized 1100-1300 A, D.
Boundaries (in 622 A.D.)of the patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople,
Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria
Longritui
Separation of Eastern and Western Christianity 63
25. Separation of Eastern and Western Christianity
Before the Christian conquest of Europe was finished, Chris-
tianity had divided into two great communions — the Greek
Church and the Roman Church. Their separa- j^j^^^. ^^
tion was a long, slow process, arising from the of East and
deep-seated differences between East and West. ^®^*
Though Rome had carried her victorious arms throughout
the Mediterranean basin, all the region east of the Adriatic
was imperfectly Romanized. It remained Greek in language
and culture and tended, as time went on, to grow more and more
unlike the West, which was truly Roman. The founding of
Constantinople and the transference of the capital from the
banks of the Tiber to the shores of the Bosporus still further
widened the breach between the two halves of the Roman
world. After the Germans established their kingdoms in Italy,
Spain, Gaul, and Britain, western Europe was practically
independent of the rulers at Constantinople. The coronation
of Charlemagne in 800 marked the final severance of East and
West.
The division of the Roman Empire led naturally to a grouping
of Christian churches about Rome and Constantinople, the
two chief centers of government. The popes, it
has been seen, had always enjoyed spiritual leader- and the
ship in the West. In temporal matters they ac- eastern
knowledged the authority of the eastern emperors,
until the failure of the latter to protect Rome and Italy from
the barbarians showed clearly that the popes must rely on their
own efforts to defend Christian civilization. We have already
learned how well such men as Leo the Great and Gregory the
Great performed this task. Then in the eighth century came
the alliance with the Prankish king, Pepin the Short, which
gave the Papacy a powerful and generous protector beyond the
Alps. Finally, by crowning Charlemagne, the pope definitely
broke with the emperor at Constantinople and transferred his
allegiance to the newly created western emperor.
The patriarch of Constantinople, as bishop of the capital
64 Christianity in the East and in the West
city, naturally occupied a prominent position in eastern Chris-
tendom. Before long he assumed the high-
Rise of the r ..XT • 1 * 1 , • 1 ,, .
patriarchate soundmg title of Universal Archbishop. His
of Con- authority was immensely strengthened when the
Mohammedans, having conquered Syria and
Egypt, practically extinguished the three patriarchates of
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria.^ The Church in the
East now had a single patriarch, just as that in the West
had the one bishop of Rome. Rivalry between them was
inevitable.
One source of strife between pope and patriarch was the
controversy, arising in the eighth century, over the use of
images in the churches. These images seem to
Rivalry , ^ , i • /. x r
between have been, not statues, but pictures (icons) of
pope and ^j^g apostles, saints, and martyrs. Many eastern
patriarch ^, . . , • i , , /•
Christians sought to strip the churches of icons, on
the ground that by the ignorant they were venerated almost as
idols. The Iconoclasts ('4mage-breakers") gained no support
in the West. The Papacy took the view that images were a
help to true devotion and might, therefore, be allowed. When
a Roman emperor issued a decree for the destruction of all
images, the pope refused to obey the order in the churches
under his direction, and went so far as to exclude the Icono-
clasts from Christian fellowship. Although the iconoclastic
movement failed in the East, after a violent controversy, it
helped still further to sharpen the antagonism between eastern
and western Christianity. Other causes of dispute arose in
later times, chiefly concerning fine points of doctrine on which
neither side would yield.
The final rupture of Christendom was delayed until the
middle of the eleventh century. In 1054 the pope sent his
The final legates to Constantinople to demand obedience to
rupture, the Papacy. This being refused, they laid upon
the high altar of Sancta Sophia the pope's bill of
excommunication. Against the patriarch and his followers
they pronounced a solemn curse, or anathema, devoting them
1 See page 76.
The Greek Church 65
"to the eternal society of the Devil and his angels." Then,
we are told, they strode out of- Sancta Sophia, shaking the dust
from their feet and crying, ''Let God see and judge." The
two branches of Christendom, thus torn apart, were never
afterward reunited.^
26. The Greek Church
Both the Greek and Roman churches recognize three orders
for the ministry, namely, bishops, priests, and
deacons. Baptism, by both churches, is admin- and Roman
istered to infants, but by the Greek Church churches
, . , , . . ^ ^ compared
under the form of total immersion. Confirma-
tion in the Greek Church follows immediately after baptism;
in the Roman Church it is postponed to the age of reason.
In the communion service the Greek Church gives leavened
bread, dipped in wine. The Roman Church withholds wine
from the laity and uses only a dry, unleavened wafer. The
festivals of the Greek Church do not coincide in time of
celebration with those of the Roman Church, since the "Julian
Calendar" followed in the East is now thirteen days behind the
"Gregorian Calendar."
The Greek Church has not lacked missionary zeal. Through
her agency the barbarians who entered southeastern Europe
during the early Middle Ages were converted to spread of
Christianity. At the present time nearly all the the Greek
peoples of the Balkan peninsula, including Greeks, ^^^
Montenegrins, Serbians, Bulgarians, and Rumanians, belong
to the Greek Church.^ Its greatest victory was won toward
the close of the tenth century, when the Russians were
induced to accept the Greek form of Christianity. Outlying
branches of the Greek Church are found also in the Turkish
Empire.
The patriarch of Constantinople is the spiritual head of the
1 Unsuccessful attempts to bring the two churches together took place in the
Middle Ages. The latest movement in this direction was made by Pope Leo XIII
in 1894, but his efforts were not crowned with success.
2 Many Roman CathoHcs are found in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, Daknatia, and
Albania.
66 Christianity in the East and in the West
Greek Church. He enjoys, however, no such wide authority
over eastern Christians as that exercised by the
Present or- i >-, i
ganization of pope over all Roman Catholics. There are as
ttie Greek many as sixteen branches of the Greek Church,
Church ^ '
each self-governing and under its own officers.
Despite the local independence of its branches, the Greek Church
remains unified in doctrine. It claims to be the only "Ortho-
dox" church and clings with almost Oriental conservatism to the
traditions of earher ages. Nevertheless, as the principal church
of Russia, the largest and most swiftly growing of European
countries, the Greek Church has before it a future of great
importance.
27. The Roman Church
The Roman Empire in the West had gone down before the
assaults of the Teutonic barbarians, but in its place had arisen
_ _ a new creation — the Roman Church. The leading
The Roman . r , i , . , , • i r
Church sur- City of the old empire became the capital of the
vives the Papacy. The pope took, and has since retained,
the title of Supreme Pontiff {Pontifex Maximus),
once given to the head of the Roman state religion. Latin
has continued to be the official language of Roman Catholicism.
The Roman genius for law and government found a new expres-
sion in the creation of the papal power. The true successors
of the ancient Roman statesmen were the popes of the Middle
Ages. The idea of Rome, of her universality and of her eter-
nity, lived on in the Roman Church.
The Roman Church, as the successor of the Roman Empire
in the West, formed the chief center of civilization during the
Work of earher part of the Middle Ages. She stood between
the Roman the conquering Germans and the Romanized
^^ provincials and helped to join them both in lasting
union. To the heathen she sent out her missionaries, preach-
ing a religion of love and charity and introducing a higher
morality than the barbarians had ever known before. She
multiplied hospitals, orphanages, and asylums. Her bishops
were the only protectors of the weak and the oppressed. She
The Roman Church 67
fostered education, art, and learning within the walls of churches
and monasteries. Her priests and monks were the only teachers
in an ignorant age. In an age of bloodshed and violence, when
might made right, she proclaimed the superiority of the spirit
to mere brute force. To sum up: The Roman Church was an
indispensable agent in the making of medieval Europe.
Christianity in its Greek and Roman forms was not the only
great religion of the Middle Ages. In the seventh century,
before the separation of the two churches had ^j^g menace
been completed and before all Europe had become to Christen-
Christian, another religion arose. It grew with °°^
marvelous rapidity, stripped the Church of much territory in
western Asia, northern Africa, and Spain, and promised for a
time to become the dominant faith of the world. This was
Islam, or Mohammedanism, the religion of the Arabs.
Studies
I. In what different senses is the word " church " of ten used? 2. "The eastern
patriarch was the shadow of the emperor, cast on the spiritual world." Explain
this statement. 3. Why did heresies develop in the East rather than in the West?
4. Look up in the New Testament the following texts relating to the primacy of
St. Peter: Matthew, xvi, i8-ig; Luke, xxii, 31-32; and JoAn, xxi, 15-17. 5. What
is "the power of the keys" which the popes claim to possess? 6. What reasons for
the growth of the Papacy have been set forth in this chapter? 7. In what non-
Christian religions is monasticism an estabUshed institution? 8. Look up in the
New Testament the following texts quoted as favorable to monasticism: Matthew,
xix, 21; Mark, x, 29-30; and Luke, xiv, 26. 9. What is the origin of the words
"monk," "hermit," "anchorite,"- and "abbot"? 10. Summarize the principal
benefits which the monastic system conferred on Europe. 11, Give reasons for
the rapid conversion of the Germans to Christianity. 12. In what sense is it true
that "half Europe owes its Christianity to women"? 13. Who was the "Apostle
to the Germans"? 14. Who were the "Apostles to the Slavs"? 15. Comment
on the significance to European civilization of the missionary activity of the Chris-
tian Church in the Middle Ages. i6.' Why has the separation of the Greek and
Roman churches been described as "the most momentous fact in the history of
Christendom during the Middle Ages"? 17. Why could not such an institution
as the Papacy develop in the East?
CHAPTER IV
THE ORIENT AND THE OCCIDENT: RISE AND
SPREAD OF ISLAM, 622-10581
28. Arabia and the Arabs
Arabia, a vast peninsula between the Persian Gulf, the
Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea, forms the link between Asia
The Arabian and Africa. It is connected with Asia by the
peninsula g^j-j^j plains extending northward to the Euphrates;
with Africa, by the equally arid isthmus of Suez. Though the
country is more than one-third the size of the United States
(excluding Alaska), it has never supported a large population.
The interior, except for occasional oases, is a desert, inhabited
only by wandering tribes. Along the southern and western
coasts, between the mountains and the sea, the soil is generally
fertile, the climate temperate, and the rainfall sufficient. Here
the chief cities and towns are located.
The Bedouin Arabs, by which name the nomadic inhabitants
of the desert are known, claim Ishmael, the son of Abraham
The Bedou- ^^^ half-brother of Isaac, as their ancestor. The
ins of the life which they lead in the Arabian wilderness
closely resembles that of the Hebrew patriarchs,
as described in the Old Testament. The Bedouins are shep-
herds and herdsmen, continually moving with their sheep and
camels from one pasturage and water-hole to another. Their
virtues — hospitality to the stranger, generosity, faithfulness
to the ties of kinship — are those of a nomadic, barbarian people.
Such also are their vices — love of fighting and plunder, re-
vengefulness, and impatience of restraint. Nothing like a
settled government is known to them. The only tribal author-
ity is that of the chief, or "sheik," who, because of his birth,
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter vi,"The Teach-
ings of Mohammed."
68
Arabia and the Arabs 69
courage, or wealth, has been chosen to the leadership. This
description of the Bedouins to-day applies equally well to them
in the age of Mohammed, during the sixth century.
The Arabs who settled along the southern and western
coasts of the peninsula had reached in the sixth century a
considerable degree of civilization. They prac- The seden-
ticed agriculture and carried on a flourishing trade **^y Arabs
across the Red Sea and even to distant India. Between these
sedentary Arabs and the Bedouins raged constant feuds, lead-
ing to much petty warfare. Nevertheless the hundreds of
tribes throughout the peninsula preserved a feeling of national
unity, which was greatly strengthened by Mohammed's ap-
pearance on the scene.
The city of Mecca, located about fifty miles from the Red
Sea, formed a commercial metropolis and the center of Arabian
heathenism. Every year the Arab tribes ceased Arabian
fighting for four months, and went up to Mecca heathenism
to buy and sell and visit the famous sanctuary called the Kaaba.
Here were three hundred and sixty idols and a small, black
stone (probably a meteorite), which legend declared had been
brought from heaven. The stone was originally white, but
the sins of the people who touched it had blackened it. Al-
though most of the Arabs were idolaters, yet some of them
recognized the ''Unknown God" of the Semites, Allah, the
Creator of all things. Arabia at this time contained many
Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians, who helped to spread
abroad the conception of one God and thus to prepare the way
for a prophet of a new religion.
29. Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman, 622-632
Mohammed,^ born at Mecca about 570, belonged to the
tribe of the Ko'reish, who had long been guardians of the Kaaba.
Left an orphan at an early age, the future prophet Early life of
was obliged to earn his own Hving. He served Mohammed
first as a shepherd on the hillsides of Mecca. This occupation,
though lowly, gave him the love of solitude and helped to
1 The earlier spelling was Mahomet.
yo
Rise and Spread of Islam
Mohammed: Prophet and Statesman 71
nourish in his soul that appreciation of nature which later found
expression in so many of his utterances. While still a youth, he
became a camel-driver and twice crossed the deserts with cara-
vans to Syria. Doubtless he made many acquaintances on
these journeys and picked up much useful information. Mo-
hammed, however, did not receive a regular education; it is
doubtful whether he could read or write. His marriage, when
about twenty-five years of age, to a rich widow, named Kadija,
brought him wealth and consideration. For some time, hence-
forth, he led the Hfe of a prosperous merchant of Mecca.
Mohammed seems always to have been a deeply religious
man. As he grew older, his thoughts more and more centered
on spiritual themes. JHe could not reconcile the Mohammed's
idolatry of the Arabs with that behef in the unity visions
of God which he himself had reached. In his distress he would
withdraw into the wilderness, where he spent much time in
fasting and sohtary vigils, practices perhaps suggested to him
by the example of Christian hermits. During these lonely
hours in the desert strange scenes passed before his eyes and
strange voices sounded in his ears. Mohammed at first thought
that evil spirits possessed him, but Kadija encouraged him to
beheve that his visions were a revelation from another world.
One day, so he declared, the archangel Gabriel appeared to
him and bade him preach a new religion to the Arabs. It was
very simple, but in its simplicity lay its strength: ''There is
no god but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God."
Mohammed made his first converts in his wife, his children,
and the friends who knew him best. Then, becoming bolder,
he began to preach publicly in Mecca. In spite The Hegira,
of his eloquence, obvious sincerity, and attractive ^^^
personality, he met a discouraging reception. A few slaves
and poor freemen became his followers, but most of the citizens
of Mecca regarded him as a madman. Mohammed's disciples,
called Moslems,^ were bitterly persecuted by the Koreish, who
1 From the Arabic muslim, "one who surrenders himself" (to God's will). Dur-
ing the Middle Ages the Moslems to their Christian enemies were commonly known
as Saracens, a term which is still in use.
72 Rise and Spread of Islam
resented the prophet's attacks on idolatry and feared the loss
of their privileges at the Kaaba. Finally Mohammed and his
converts took refuge in Medina, where some of the inhabitants
had already accepted his teachings. This was the famous
Hegira (Flight of the prophet).^
At Medina Mohammed occupied a position of high honor and
influence. The people welcomed him gladly and made him their-
Later life of chief magistrate. As his adherents increased in
Mohammed number, Mohammed began to combine fighting
with preaching. His military expeditions against the Arab
tribes proved to be very successful. Many of the conquered
Bedouins enhsted under his banner and at length captured
Mecca for the prophet. He treated its, inhabitants leniently,
but threw down all the idols in the Kaaba. After the submis-
sion of Mecca most of the Arabs abandoned idolatry and ac-
cepted the new religion.
Mohammed did not long enjoy his position as uncrowned
king of Arabia. He died in 632, at Medina, where he was
Death of buried and where his tomb is still visited by pious
Mohammed, Moslems. His followers could scarcely believe
that their great prophet had gone away from
them forever. They were ready to worship him as a god,
until old Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law, rebuked them
with the memorable words: ''Whoso worshipeth Mohammed,
let him know that Mohammed is dead; but whoso worshipeth
God, let him know that God liveth and dieth not."
The character of Mohammed has been variously estimated.
Moslem writers make him a saint; Christian writers, until
Mohammed's recent times, have called him an ''imposter."
character j^^ know that he was a man of simple habits,
who, even in the days of his prosperity, lived on dates, barley
bread, and water, mended his woolen garments, and attended
to his own wants. He was mild and gentle, a lover of children,
devoted to his friends, and forgiving toward his foes. He seems
^ The year 622, in which the Hegira occurred, marks the beginning of the Mo-
hammedan era. The Christian year 1919 a.d. nearly corresponds to the Moham-
medan year 1338 a.h. {Anno Hegira).
Islam and the Koran 73
to have won the admiration of all with whom he came in con-
tact. We know, too, that Mohammed was so deeply impressed
with the consciousness of his rehgious mission that he was
ready to give up wealth and an honorable position and face for
years the ridicule and hatred of the people of Mecca. His
faults — deceitfulness, superstitiousness, sensuality — were
those of the Arabs of his time. Their existence in Moham-
med's character should not prevent our recognition of his real
greatness as a prophet and as a statesman.
30. Islam and the Koran
The religion which Mohammed preached is called Islam,
an Arabic word meaning "surrender," or "resignation." This
religion has its sacred book, the Koran ("thing Formation of
read" or "thing recited"). It contains the ^^ ^°^*^
speeches, prayers, and other utterances of Mohammed at
L A ^. ^ . — ^ ^ L ^ L
-«b^ J L » Law J L Jl L Aj^
A Passage from the Koran
From a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
various times during his career. Some parts of the Koran
were dictated by the prophet to his disciples and by them
were written out on skins, leaves of palm trees, bones, and
bits of parchment. Many other parts remained at first only
in the memory of Mohammed's followers. Soon after his
74 Rise and Spread of Islam
death all the scattered passages were collected into one book.
Since the middle of the seventh century the Koran, every
word of which the Moslems consider holy, has remained un-
changed.
The doctrines found in the Koran show many adaptations
from the Jewish and Christian rehgions. Like them Islam
Religious emphasizes the unity of God. The Moslem cry
teachings of —"Allah Akhar!'' "God is Great !" — forms its
cardinal principle. Like them, also, Islam recog-
nizes the existence of prophets, including Abraham, Moses,
and Jesus, but insists that Mohammed was the last and great-
est of the prophets. The existence of angels and demons is
recognized. The chief of the demons, Iblis, bears some resem-
blance to the Jewish Satan and the Christian Devil. The
account of the creation and fall of man is taken, with varia-
tions, from the Old Testament. The descriptions of the resur-
rection of the dead and the last judgment, and the division of
the future world into paradise and hell, the former for believers
in Islam, the latter for those who have refused to accept it,
were also largely borrowed from other religions.
The Koran imposes on the faithful Moslem five great obli-
gations. First, he must recite, at least once in his life, aloud.
Observances correctly, and with full understanding, the short
of Islam creed: " There is no god but God, and Mohammed
is the prophet of God." Second, he must pray five times a
day: at dawn, just after noon, before sunset, just after sunset,
and at the end of the day. In every Mohammedan city the
hour of prayer is announced from the tall minaret of the mosque
by a crier {muezzin). Before engaging in prayer the worshiper
washes face, hands, and feet; during the prayer he turns toward
Mecca and bows his head to the ground. Third, he must ob-
serve a strict fast, from morning to night, during every day of
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Mohammedan year.^ In
this month God presented the Koran to Gabriel for revelation
to the prophet. Fourth, he must give alms to the poor. Fifth,
he must, "if he is able," undertake at least one pilgrimage to
^ Feasting during the nights of this month is allowable.
Islam and the Koran 75
Mecca. The annual visit of tens of thousands of pilgrims to
the holy city helps to preserve the feeling of brotherhood among
Moslems all over the world. These five obligations are the
"piUars" of Islam.
As a religious system Islam is exceedingly simple. It does
not provide any elaborate ceremonies of worship and permits
no altars, pictures, or images in the mosque. Organization
Islam even lacks a priesthood. Every Moslem ^^ ^^lam
acts as his own priest. There is, however, an official, who on
Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, offers up pubHc prayers
in the mosque and delivers a sermon to the assembled worshipers.
All work is suspended during this service, but at its close secular
activities are resumed.
The Koran furnishes a moral code for the adherents of Islam.
It contains several noteworthy prohibitions. The Moslem is
not to make images, to engage in games of chance, ^^^^^ ^^^^^_
to eat pork, or to drink wine. This last prohibi- ings of the
tion has saved the Mohammedan world from the ^°^*°
degradation and misery which alcohol has introduced into
Christian lands. To Mohammed strong drink was "the
mother of all evil," and drunkenness, a sin. The Koran also
inculcates many active virtues, including reverence toward
parents, protection of widows and orphans, charity toward
the poor, kindness to slaves, and gentle treatment of the lower
animals. On the whole, it must be admitted that the laws of
the Koran did much to restrain the vices of the Arabs and to
provide them with higher standards of right and wrong. Islam
marked a great advance over Arabian heathenism.
31. Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt
Islam was a religion of conquest. It proclaimed the right-
eousness of a "holy war," or jihad, against unbehevers. It
promised rich booty for those who fought and ^^^^^ ^^ ^
won, and paradise for those who fell. The Arab religion of
soldier, dying on the battle-field, expected to be *^°"^"^^*
carried away by bright-eyed maidens to a garden of delight,
where, reclining on soft cushions and rugs, he was to enjoy
76 Rise and Spread of Islam
forever an existence of sensual ease. "Whosoever falls in
battle," so runs a passage in the Koran, "his sins are forgiven,
and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the
wings of angels and cherubim."
The creation of the Arabian power must not be understood,
however, as solely a rehgious movement. Pride and greed,
Islam as a ^^ ^^^^ ^^ fanaticism, drove the Arabs forward on
poUtical their conquering career. Long before Moham-
°^^® med's time Arabia had been in a state of unrest.
Its warlike tribes, feeling a sense of their superiority to other
peoples, were eager to overrun the rich districts of western
Asia, much as the Germans had overrun western Europe.
Islam strengthened the racial pride of the Arabs, united them
into one nation, and gave them an effective organization for
world-wide rule.
The most extensive conquests of the Arabs were made within
ten years after Mohammed's death. During this period the
. , Moslem warriors, though poorly armed, ill-dis-
Arab con- . ,. , , . 1 i 1 ,
quests in the ciplmed, and m every battle greatly outnumbered,
East, 632- attacked with success the two strongest military
powers then in the world — Rome and Persia.
From the Roman Empire in the East they seized the province
of Syria, with the famous cities of Damascus, Antioch, and
Jerusalem.^ They took Mesopotamia from the Persians and
then, invading Iran, overthrew the Persian power. Egypt
was also subjugated by these irresistible soldiers of the
Crescent.
According to the strict teaching of the Koran, those who
refused to accept Islam were either to be killed or to be reduced
, to slavery. As a matter of fact, the Arabs treated
Treatment of , . ■' , . . , , 1 ,.1 i-
the con- their new subjects with marked hberahty. No
quered massacres and no persecutions occurred. The
peoples
conquered peoples were allowed to retain their
own religions, on condition of paying ample tribute. In course
of time, however, many of the Christians in Syria and Egypt
and most of the Zoroastrians in Persia adopted Islam, in order
1 See page 36.
Expansion of Islam in Asia and Egypt 77
that they might acquire the rights and privileges of Moslem
citizens.
The sweeping conquests of the decade 632-642 were followed
in later years by a further extension of the boundaries of the
Arabian Empire. In the remote East the Arabs Later Arab
sent their victorious armies beyond the Oxus and conquests
Indus rivers to central Asia and India. They captured the
island of Cyprus, annexed parts of Armenia and Asia Minor,
and at length threatened to take Constantinople. Had that city
fallen, all eastern Europe would have been laid open to invasion.
|ii>=-
Naval Battle Shom^ing Use of "Greek Fire"
From a Byzantine manuscript of the fourteenth century at Madrid. "Greek fire" in
marine warfare was most commonly propelled through long tubes of copper, which were placed
on the prow of a ship and managed by a gunner. Combustibles might also be kept in tubes
flung by hand and exploded on board the enemy's vessel.
The first attempts on Constantinople were made by sea and
were repulsed, but early in the eighth century the city had
to face a combined attack by a Moslem navy and «.
rr-i T , -r . Siege of
army, ine eastern emperor, Leo the Isaunan, Constanti-
conducted a heroic defense, using with much ^°p^®' '^^®~
effectiveness the celebrated mixture known as
" Greek fire." This combustible, probably composed of sulphur,
naphtha, and quickUme, was poured or hurled on the enemy's
ships in order to burn them. "Greek fire," the rigors of an
uncommonly severe winter, and timely aid received by the
78 Rise and Spread of Islam
emperor from the Bulgarians, at length compelled the Arabs
to beat a retreat. Their failure to take Constantinople gave
the Roman Empire in the East another long lease of life.
32. Expansion of Islam in North Africa and Spain
Though repulsed before the impregnable walls of Constanti-
nople, the Arabs continued to win new dominions in other
North Africa parts of the Christian world. After their occupa-
subdued ^[q^ ^f Egypt, they began to overrun North
Africa, which Justinian, Uttle more than a century earlier,
had reconquered from the Vandals. The Romanized provin-
cials, groaning under the burdensome taxes imposed on them
by the eastern emperors, made only a slight resistance to the
Moslem armies. A few of the great cities held out for a time,
but after the capture and destruction of Carthage in 698, Arab
rule was soon established over the whole extent of the Mediter-
ranean coast from Eg}^t to the Atlantic.
Islam made in North Africa one of its most permanent con-
quests. Some of the Christian inhabitants were exterminated
Arabs and by the Arabs, while many more appear to have
Berbers withdrawn to Spain and Sicily, leaving the field
clear for the introduction of Arabian civilization. The Arabs
who settled in North Africa gave their religion and government
to the Berbers, as the natives of the country were called, and
to some extent intermingled with them. Arabs and Berbers
still comprise the population of North Africa, though their once
independent states have now been absorbed by European
powers.^
With North Africa in their hands the Moslems did not long
delay the invasion of Spain. In 711 an army of Arabs and
„ , . . Berbers, under their leader Tarik, crossed the
Subjugation . .
of Spain Strait which still bears his name ^ and for the
begun, £j.g|- ^jjj^g confronted the Germans. The Visi-
gothic kingdom, already much enfeebled, proved
to be an easy prey. A single battle made the invaders masters
1 Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis belong to France; Tripoli, to Italy.
2 Gibraltar = Gibal al Tarik, " the mountain of Tarik."
•2. o
IS
1.1
3- 3
to n
s ^
OS
a. 3
C w
n n
8o Rise and Spread of Islam
of half of Spain. Within a few years their hosts swept north-
w^ard to the Pyrenees. Only small districts in the northern part
of the Spanish peninsula remained unconquered.
The Moslems were not stopped by the Pyrenees. Crossing
these mountains, they captured many of the old Roman cities
The Moslem ^^ ^^^ south of Gaul and then advanced to the
advance in north, attracted, apparently, by the booty to be
found in Christian monasteries and churches.
In the vicinity of Tours they encountered the great army which
Charles Martel, the chief minister of the Frankish king,^ had
collected to oppose their advance.
The battle of Tours seems to have continued for several
days. Of its details we know nothing, though a Spanish chron-
Battie of ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ heavy infantry of the Franks
Tours, stood "immovable as a wall, inflexible as a block
of ice" against the desperate assaults of the
Moslem horsemen. When the Franks, after the last day's
fighting, wished to renew the struggle, they found that the
enemy had fled, leaving a camp filled with the spoils of war.
This engagement, though famous in history, was scarcely
decisive. For some time afterward the Moslems maintained
themselves in southern Gaul. It was the Frankish ruler,
Pepin the Short, who annexed their possessions there and drove
them back across the Pyrenees to Spain.^
33. The Caliphate and its Disruption, 632-1058
The title of caliph, meaning "successor" or "representative,"
had first been assumed by Mohammed's father-in-law, Abu
Bekr, who was chosen to succeed the prophet as
"Orthodox" the civil and religious head of the Moslem world.
cauphs, After him followed Omar, who had been one of
632-661
Mohammed's most faithful adherents, and then
Othman and AH, both sons-in-law of Mohammed. These
four rulers are sometimes known as the "Orthodox" caliphs,
because their right to the succession was universally acknowl-
edged by Moslems.
1 See page lo. ^ For Charlemagne's Spanish conquests, see page 13.
The Caliphate and its Disruption
8i
After Ali's death the governor of Syria, Moawiya by name,
succeeded in making himself caliph of the Moslem world.
This usurper converted the caliphate into a hered-
itary, instead of an elective, office, and established caUphs at
the dynasty of the Ommiads.^ Their capital l>amascus,
was no longer Medina in Arabia, but the Syrian
city of Damascus. The descendants of Mohammed's family
refused, however, to recognize the Ommiads as legitimate
caliphs. In 750 a sudden revolt, headed by the party of the
Dismemberment of the Caliphate
Abbasids,^ established a new dynasty. The Abbasids treacher-
ously murdered nearly all the members of the Ommiad family,
but one survivor escaped to Spain, where he founded at Cordova
an independent Ommiad dynasty. Early in the tenth century
this became the caliphate of Cordova, About the same time
North Africa and Egypt united in another caliphate with its
capital at Cairo.
The Abbasids continued to reign over the Moslems in Asia
for more than three hundred years. The most celebrated of
Abbasid rulers was Harun-al-Rashid (Aaron the Just), a con-
1 So called from a leading family of Mecca, to which Moawiya belonged,
2 So called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed.
82 Rise and Spread of Islam
temporary of Charlemagne, to whom the Arab ruler sent several
presents, including an elephant and a water-clock which struck
The Abbasid the hours. The tales of Harun-al-Rashid's mag-
caliphs, nificence, his gold and silver, his silks and gems,
his rugs and tapestries, reflect the luxurious life of
the Abbasid rulers. Gradually, however, their power decHned,
and the Asiatic provinces became practically independent.
This process of dismemberment went on until 1058, when the
Seljuk Turks took over the caliph's political authority. He
remained, however, the religious head of Islam until the middle
of the thirteenth century.^
The Abbasids removed their capital from Damascus to
Bagdad on the banks of the middle Euphrates. The new city,
„ , , under the fostering care of the caUphs, grew with
Bagdad . ,. ^^ , . . , ' . ,
great rapidity. Its population in the nmth cen-
tury is said to have reached two milhons. For a time it was
the metropolis of the Moslem world. How its splendor im-
pressed the imagination may be seen from the stories of the
Thousand and One Nights. After the extinction of the Abbasid
caliphate, its importance as the religious and pohtical center of
Islam declined. But memories of the former grandeur of
Badgad still cling to it, and even to-day it is referred to in
Turkish oflicial documents as the "glorious city."
34. Arabian Civilization
The great Moslem cities of Bagdad, Damascus, Cairo, and
Cordova were not only seats of government for the different
The Arabs divisions of the Arabian Empire; they were also
as absorbers the centers of Arabian civilization. The conquests
of the Arabs had brought them into contact with
highly developed peoples whose culture they absorbed and
to some extent improved. They owed most to Persia and,
after Persia, to Greece, through the empire at Constantinople.
In their hands there was somewhat the same fusion of East
^ Descendants of the Abbasids subsequently took up their abode in Egypt.
Through them the claim to the caliphate passed in 1538 to the Ottoman Turks.
The Turkish sultan still calls himself caliph of the Moslem world.
Arabian Civilization 83
and West which Alexander the Great had sought to accompHsh.
Greek science and philosophy mingled with the arts of Persia
and other Oriental lands. Arabian civilization, for about four
centuries under the Ommiad and Abbasid caliphs, far surpassed
anything to be found in western Europe.
Many improvements in agriculture were due to the Arabs.
They had a good system of irrigation, practiced rotation of
crops, employed fertilizers, and understood how . . ,
.,, .. r 1 1 Agnculture
to graft and produce new varieties of plants and
fruits. From the Arabs we have received cotton, flax, hemp,
buckwheat, rice, sugar cane, and coffee, various vegetables,
including asparagus, artichokes, and beans, and such fruits as
melons, oranges, lemons, apricots, and plums.
The Arabs excelled in manufactures. Damascus was long
famous for its brocades, tapestries, and blades of tempered
steel. The Moslem cities in Spain had also their Manufac-
special productions: Cordova, leather; Toledo, ^^^^s
armor; and Granada, rich silks. Arab craftsmen taught the
Venetians to make crystal and plate glass. The work of Arab
potters and weavers was at once the admiration and despair
of its imitators in western Europe. The Arabs knew the
secrets of dyeing and made a kind of paper. Their textile
fabrics and articles of metal were distinguished for beauty of
design and perfection of workmanship. European peoples
during the early Middle Ages received the greater part of their
manufactured articles of luxury through the Arabs.^
The products of Arab farms and workshops were carried far
and wide throughout medieval lands. The Arabs were keen
merchants, and Mohammed had expressly encour- ^
' ^ -^ Commerce
aged commerce by declaring it agreeable to God.
The Arabs traded with India, China, the East Indies (Java
and Sumatra), the interior of Africa, Russia, and even with
the Baltic lands. Bagdad, which commanded both land and
water routes, was the chief center of this commerce, but other
^ The European names of some common articles reveal the Arabic sources from
which they were first derived. Thus, damask comes from Damascus, muslin from
Mosul, gauze from Gaza, cordovan (a kind of leather) from Cordova, and morocco
leather from North Africa.
84
Rise and Spread of Islam
cities of western Asia, North Africa, and Spain shared in its
advantages. The bazaar, or merchant's quarter, was found
in every Moslem city.
The trade of the Arabs, their wide conquests, and their
reHgious pilgrimages to Mecca vastly increased their knowledge
Geographical of the world. They were the best geographers of
knowledge ^j^e Middle Ages. An Abbasid caliph, the son of
Harun-al-Rashid, had the Greek Geography of Ptolemy trans-
Interior of the Great Mosque of Cordova
The Great Mosque of Cordova, begun in the eighth century, was gradually enlarged during
the following centuries to its present dimensions, 570 by 425 feet. The building, one of the
largest in the world, has now been turned into a cathedral. The most striking feature of the
interior is the forest of porphyry, jasper, and marble pillars supporting open Moorish arches.
Originally there were 1200 of these pillars, but many have been destroyed.
lated into Arabic and enriched the work with illuminated maps.
Arab scholars compiled encyclopedias describing foreign coun-
tries and peoples, constructed celestial spheres, and measured
closely the arc of the meridian in order to calculate the size of
the earth. There is some reason to beheve that the mariner's
compass was first introduced into Europe by the Arabs. The
geographical knowledge of Christian peoples during the Middle
Ages owed much, indeed, to their Moslem forerunners.
Arabian Civilization 85
Schools and universities flourished in Moslem lands. The
largest institution of learning was at Cairo, where the lectures
of the professors were attended by thousands of „^
„ ... , . , . Education
students. Famous universities also existed in
Bagdad and Cordova. Moslem scholars especially delighted in
the study of philosophy. Arabic translations of Aristotle's
writings made the ideas of that great thinker familiar to the
students of western Europe, where the knowledge of Greek had
nearly died out. The Arabs also formed extensive libraries
of many thousands of manuscripts, all carefully arranged and
catalogued. Their libraries and universities, especially in
Spain, were visited by many Christians, who thus became ac-
quainted with Moslem learning and helped to introduce it
into western Europe.
The Arabs have been considered to be the founders of modern
experimental science. They were relatively skillful chemists,
for they discovered a number of new compounds Chemistry
(such as alcohol, aqua regia, nitric acid, and cor- ^^ medicine
rosive sublimate) and understood the preparation 'of mercury
and of various oxides of metals. In medicine the Arabs based
their investigations on those of the Greeks, but made many
additional contributions to the art of healing. They studied
physiology and hygiene, dissected the human body, performed
difficult surgical operations, used anaesthetics, and wrote
treatises on such diseases as measles and smallpox. Arab
medicine and surgery were studied by the Christian peoples
of Europe throughout the later period of the Middle Ages.
The Arabs had a strong taste for mathematics. Here again
they carried further the old Greek investigations. In arith-
metic they used the so-called "Arabic" figures. Mathematics
which were borrowed from India. These were and astron-
afterwards introduced from Spain into Chris- °°^^
tian Europe, where they gradually supplanted the awkward
Roman numerals. In geometry the Arabs added Httle to
Euclid, but algebra is practically their creation. An Arabic
treatise on algebra long formed the text-book of the subject in
the universities of Christian Europe. Spherical trigonometry
86 Rise and Spread of Islam
and conic sections are Arabic inventions. This mathematical
knowledge enabled the Arabs to make considerable progress in
astronomy. Observatories at Bagdad and Damascus were
erected as early as the ninth century. Some of the astronomical
instruments which they constructed, including the sextant and
the gnomon, are still in use.^
There are two Moslem productions in prose and verse which
have attained wide popularity in European lands. The first
Romance work is the Thousand and One Nights, a collection
and poetry ^f ^-^j^g written in Arabic and describing Hfe and
manners at the court of the Abbasids. The book, as we now
have it, seems to have been composed as late as the fifteenth
century, but it borrows much from earlier Arabic sources.
Many of the tales are of Indian or Persian origin, but all have
a thoroughly Moslem coloring. The second work is the Ru-
bdiydt of the astronomer-poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam, who
wrote about the beginning of the twelfth century. He composed
a little volume of quatrains, about five hundred in all, dis-
tinguished'for wit, satirical power, and a vein of melancholy,
sometimes pensive, sometimes passionate. These character-
istics of Omar's poetry have made it widely known in the
western world.^
Painting and sculpture owe Httle to the Arabs, but their
architecture, based in part on Byzantine and Persian models,
* t-.x ^ reached a high level of excellence. They seem to
Architecture . ^ ■, . ., . . ^
have mtroduced the pomted arch mto Europe.
Swelling domes, vaulted roofs, arched porches, tall and graceful
minarets, and the exquisite decorative patterns known as
"arabesques" are some of the prominent characteristics of
Arab architecture. Glazed tiles, mosaics, and jeweled glass
were extensively used for ornamentation. The best known of
Arab buildings include the so-called "Mosque of Omar" at
1 Many words in European languages beginning with the prefix al (the definite
article in Arabic) show how indebted was Europe to the Arabs for scientific knowl-
edge. In English these words include alchemy (whence chemistry), alcohol, alembic,
algebra, alkali, almanac, Aldebaran (the star), etc.
- The translation of the Rubdiydt by Edward Fitzgerald is almost an English
classic.
The Influence of Islam
87
Jerusalem/ the Great Mosque of Cordova, and that archi-
tectural gem, the Alhambra at Granada.
35. The Influence of Islam
The dismemberment of the Arabian Empire did not check
the growth of Islam. The Turks and other converts during
the Middle Ages carried Growth of
it to the uttermost regions ^slam
of Asia and throughout southeastern
Europe. Some parts of the territory
thus gained by it have since been
lost. Spain and all of the Balkan
peninsula are once more Christian
lands. In other parts of the world,
and notably in Africa and India, the
religion of Mohammed is spreading
faster than any rival faith. Its
simple creed — the unity of God,
man's immortal soul, and material
rewards and penalties in a future life
— adapt it to the understanding of
half -civilized peoples,
it is immeasurably superior to the
, I'll One of Mohammed's laws forbid-
rude nature worship and idolatry ding the use .of idols was subse-
Which it has supplanted. ^"^^'ly expanded by religious
_-, - 1 J • r teachers into a prohibition of all
I'rom the moral standpoint one Ot imitations of human or animal forms
the least satisfactory features of Is-
lam is its attitude toward Treatment
women. The ancient °^ women
Arabs, like many other peoples, seem
to have set no limit to the number of wives a man might
possess. Women were regarded by them as mere chattels, and
female infants were frequently put to death. Mohammed
recognized polygamy, but limited the number of legitimate
wives to four. At the same time Mohammed sought to improve
the condition of women by forbidding female infanticide, by
^ See the illustration, page 166.
As a relision Capitals and Arabesques
° FROM THE Alhambra
in art. Sculptors who observed this
prohibition relied for ornamentation
on intricate geometrical designs
called " arabesques." These were
carved in stone or molded in plaster.
88 Rise and Spread of Islam
restricting the facilities for divorce, and by insisting on kind
treatment of wives by their husbands. ''The best of you,"
he said, "is he who behaves best to his wives." According to
eastern custom Moslem women are secluded in a separate part
of the house, called the harem. They never appear in public,
except when closely veiled from the eyes of strangers. Their
education is also much neglected.
Slavery, like polygamy, was a custom which Mohammed
found fully established among the Arabs. He disliked slavery
and tried in several ways to lessen its evils. He
declared that the emancipation of Moslem slaves
was an act of special merit, and ordered that in a war between
Moslems the prisoners were not to be enslaved. Mohammed
also insisted on kind treatment of slaves by their masters.
"Feed your slaves," he directed, "with food of that which you
eat and clothe them with such clothing as you wear, and com-
mand them not to do that which they are unable to do." The
condition of Moslem slaves does not appear to be intolerable,
though the slave traffic which still exists in some parts of Africa
is a disgrace to Islam.
It was a very great misfortune for the eastern world when
the Arabian Empire passed under the control, first of the Seljuk
Islam Turks, and then of the Ottoman Turks. These
among the rude Asiatic peoples held a degenerate form of
Turks Islam, as compared with that practiced by the
Arabs. The stagnant, non-progressive condition of the East
at the present time is largely due to the influence of its Turkish
conquerors.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the Arabian Empire at its widest extent. Locate
the more important cities, including Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Bagdad,
Cairo, Alexandria, Granada, Cordova, and Seville. 2. Define the following:
Kaaba; Islam; Koran; caliph; harem; a.nd jihad. 3. How did the geographical
situation of Arabia preserve it from being conquered by Persians, Macedonians, or
Romans? 4. Why had the Arabs, until the time of IMohammed, played so incon-
spicuous a part in the history of 'the world? 5. Mohammed "began as a mule
driver and ended as both a pope and a king." Explain this statement. 6. How
does Mohammed's career in Mecca illustrate the saying that "a prophet is not
without honor save in his own country"? 7. What resemblances may be traced
The Influence of Islam 89
between Islam on the one side and Judaism and Christianity on the other side?
8. Did religion have anything to do with the migrations of the Germans? How
was it with the Arabs? 9. "Paradise Has vmder the shadow of swords." What
is the significance of this Moslem saying? 10. Contrast the methods of propagat-
ing Christianity in Europe with those of spreading Islam in Asia. 1 1 . Why is the
defeat of the Moslems before Constantinople regarded as more significant than their
defeat at the battle of Tours? 12. Show that the Arabian Empire, because of its
geographical position, was less easily defended than the Roman Empire. 13. Locate
on the map facing page 78 the following commercial cities in the Arabian Empire:
Samarkand; Cabul; Bokhara; Mosul; Kairwan; Fez; Seville; and Toledo.
14. Can you suggest any reason why the Arabs did little in painting and sculpture?
15. What are some of the best-known stories in the Thousand and One Nights?
16. Discuss the justice of this statement: "If our ideas and our arts go back to
antiquity, all the inventions which make life easy and agreeable come to us from
the Arabs." 17. "From the eighth to the twelfth century the world knew but
two civilizations, that of Byzantium and that of the Arab^." Comment on this
statement. 18. Show that Islam was an heir to the Gr^co-Oriental civilization.
19. Can you suggest any reasons for the rapid spread of Islam to-day among the
negroes of Africa? 20. How does Islam, by sanctioning polygamy and slavery,
hinder the rise of women and of the working classes?
CHAPTER V
THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 i
Scandinavia
36. Scandinavia and the Northmen
The Northmen, with whose raids and settlements we are
concerned in the present chapter, belonged to the Teutonic
Renewed family of European peoples. They were kinsmen
Teutonic of the Germans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Dutch,
migra ons. 'pj^gij- migrations may be regarded, therefore, as
the last wave of that great Teutonic movement which in earlier
times had inundated western Europe and overwhelmed the
Roman Empire.
The Northmen lived, as their descendants still live, in Den-
mark, Sweden, and Norway. The name Scandinavia is some-
times applied to all three countries, but more
commonly it is restricted to the peninsula com-
prising Sweden and Norway.
Sweden, with the exception of the northern highlands, is
mostly a level region, watered by copious streams, dotted with
„ , many lakes, and
Sweden . ^. ^
smkmg down grad-
ually to the Baltic Sea and the
Gulf of Bothnia. The fact that
Sweden faces these inland waters
determined the course of her
development as a nation. She
never has had any aspirations
to become a great oceanic power. Her whole historic life has
centered about the Baltic.
Norway, in contrast to
Swedish Rock Carving
Shows a man plowing.
Sweden, faces the Atlantic. The
country is little more than a strip of rugged seacoast reach-
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter vii, "The Saga
of a Viking"; chapter viii, "Alfred the Great"; chapter ix, "WiUiam the Con-
queror and the Normans in England."
90
Scandinavia and the Northmen
91
Norway
^•'S^'^f^S,
ing northward to well within the Arctic Circle. Were it not
for the influence of the ''Gulf Stream drift," much of Norway
would be a frozen waste during many months of the
year. Vast forests of fir, pine, and birch still cover
the larger part of the country, and the land which can be used
for farming and grazing does not exceed eleven per cent ol the
territory. But Norway, like Greece, has an extent of shore-
line out of all proportion to its superficial area. So numerous
are the fiords, or inlets of the
sea, that the total length of
the coast approximates twelve
thousand miles. Slight won-
der that the Vikings,^ as they
called themselves, . should feel
the lure of the ocean and
should put forth in their frail
barks upon the "pathway of
the swans" in search of booty
and adventure.
The Swedes and Norwegi-
ans, together with their kins-
men, the Danes, prehistoric
probably settled in times in
c 1- • 1 Scandinavia
bcandmavia long
before the beginning of the
Christian era. They gradually
became acquainted with the
use of bronze and afterwards with that of iron. Excavations
in grave mounds have revealed implements of the finest polished
stone, beautiful bronze swords, and coats of iron ring mail,
besides gold and silver ornaments which may have been im-
ported from southern Europe. The ancient Scandinavians
have left to us curious records of the past in their picture
writing chiseled on the flat surface of rocks. The objects repre-
sented include boats with as many as thirty men in them,
1 The word perhaps comes from the old Norse vik, a bay, and means "one who
dwells by a bay or fiord." Another meaning assigned to Viking is "warrior."
A Runic Stone
A stone, twelve feet high and six feet wide,
in the churchyard of Rok, Ostergotland, Swe-
den. The runic inscription, which contains
more than 760 letters, is the longest known.
92 The Northmen and the Normans
horses drawing two-wheeled carts, spans of oxen, farmers en-
gaged in ploughing, and warriors on horseback. By the close
of the prehistoric period the northern peoples were also familiar
with a form of the Greek alphabet (the runes) and with
the art of writing.
37. The Viking Age
The Viking Age, with which historic times begin in northern
Europe, extends from about 800 to the introduction of Chris-
Dawn of his- tianity in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This
tory in was the period when the Northmen, or Vikings,
can mavia j-gaJizing that the sea offered the quickest road to
wealth and conquest, began to make long voyages to foreign
lands. In part they went as traders and exchanged the furs,
wool, and fish of Scandinavia for the clothing, ornaments,
and other articles of luxury found in neighboring countries.
But it was no far cry from merchant to freebooter, and, in
fact, expeditions for the sake of plunder seem to have been
even more popular with the Northmen than peaceful commerce.
Whether the Northmen engaged in trade or in warfare, good
ships and good seamanship were indispensable to them. They
The North- became the boldest sailors of the early Middle
men as Ages. No longer hugging the coast, as timid
sai ors mariners had always done before them, the North-
men pushed out into the uncharted main and steered their
course only by observation of the sun and stars. In this way
they were led to make those remarkable explorations in the
Atlantic Ocean and the polar seas which added so greatly to
geographical knowledge.
It was not uncommon for a Viking chieftain, after his days
of sea-roving had ended, to be buried in his ship, over which
Ships of the a grave chamber, covered with earth, would be
Northmen erected. The discovery of several of these burial
ships enables us to form a good idea of Viking vessels. The
largest of them might reach a length of seventy feet and hold as
many as one hundred and twenty men. A fleet of the North-
men, carrying several thousand warriors, mail-clad and armed
The Viking Age
93
with spears, swords, and battle-axes, was indeed formidable.
During this period the Northmen were the masters of the sea,
as far as western Europe was concerned.
A very important source of information for the Viking Age
consists of the writings called sagas.^ These narratives are in
prose, but they were based, in many instances, _
/ , . , . ' . . The sagas
on the songs which mmstrels sang to appreciative
audiences assembled at the banqueting board of a Viking
A Viking Ship
The Gokstad vessel is of oak, twenty -eight feet long and sixteen feet broad in the center.
It has seats for sixteen pairs of rowers, a mast for a single sail, and a rudder on the right
or starboard side. The gunwale was decorated with a series of shields, painted alternately
black and gold. This ship, which probably dates from about goo, was found on the
shore of Christiania Fiord. A still larger ship, of about the same date, was taken in
1904 from the grave of a Norwegian queen at Oseberg. With the queen had been
buried a four-wheeled wagon, three sleighs, three beds, two chests, a chair, a large loom,
and various kitchen utensils, in fact, everything needed for her comfort in the other world.
chieftain. It was not until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
that the sagas were committed to writing. This was done
chiefly in Iceland, and so it happens that we must look to that
distant island for the beginnings of Scandinavian literature.
The sagas belong to different classes. The oldest of them
relate the deeds of Viking heroes and their families. Others
^ The word is derived from old Norse segya, "to say"; compare German sagen.
94 The Northmen and the Normans
deal with the lives of Norwegian kings. Some of the most
Subject matter important sagas describe the explorations and set-
of the sagas tlements of the Northmen and hence possess con-
siderable value as historical records.
The sagas throw much light on the character of the Northmen.
Love of adventure and contempt for the quiet joys of home
The North- come out in the description of Viking chiefs,
men as seen who ''never sought refuge under a roof nor emptied
m e sagas |-]^g^j. drinking-horns by a hearth." An intense
love of fighting breathes in the accounts of Viking warriors,
"who are glad when they have hopes of a battle; they will
leap up in hot haste and ply the oars, snapping the oar- thongs
and cracking the tholes." The undaunted spirit of Viking
sailors, braving the storms of the northern ocean, expresses
itself in their sea songs: "The force of the tempest assists the
arms of our oarsmen; the hurricane is our ser^^ant, it drives
us whithersoever we wish to go." The sagas also reveal other
characteristics of the Northmen: a cruelty and faithlessness
which made them a terror to their foes; an almost barbaric
love of gay clothing and ornament; a strong sense of public
order, giving rise to an elaborate legal system; and even a
feeling for the romantic beauty of their northern home, with
its snow-clad mountains, dark forests of pine, sparkUng water-
falls, and deep, blue fiords.
Another literary production of the Viking Age consists of
the poems forming the Elder Edda. Like the prose sagas they
Eddaic wxre collected and arranged in Iceland during the
poems later Middle Ages. The Elder Edda is a store-
house of old Norse mythology. It forms our chief source of
knowledge concerning Scandinavian heathenism before the
introduction of Christianity.
38. Scandinavian Heathenism
The religion of the Northmen bore a close resemblance to
that of the other Teutonic peoples. The leading deity was
Odin (German Woden), whose exploits are celebrated in many
of the songs of the Elder Edda. Odin was represented as a tall,
Scandanavian Heathenism
95
Odin
gray-bearded chieftain, carrying a shield and a spear which
never missed its mark. Though a god of battle, Odin was also
a lover of wisdom. He discovered the runes,
which gave him secret knowledge of all things.
Legend told how Odin killed a mighty giant, whose body was
cut into pieces to form the world:
the earth was his flesh, the water
his blood, the rocks his bones, and
the heavens his skull. Having
created the world and peopled it
with human beings, Odin retired
to the sacred city of Asgard,
where he reigned in company
with his children.
Enthroned beside Odin sat his
eldest son, Thor (German Thunor),
god of thunder and „,
f. 1 . ^x. Thor
lightnmg. His weapon,
the thunderbolt, was imagined as
a hammer, and was especially used
by him to protect gods and men
against the giants. The hammer,
when thrown, returned to his
hand of its own accord. Thor
also possessed a belt of strength,
which, when girded about him,
doubled his power.
Many stories were told of Thor's
adventures, when visiting Jotun-
heim, the abode of the Myths of
giants. In a drinking- ^^^^
match he tried to drain a horn of
liquor, not knowing that one end of the horn reached the sea,
which was appreciably lowered by the god's huge draughts.
He sought to lift from the ground a large, gray cat, but struggle
as he might, could raise only one of the animal's feet. What
Thor took for a cat, however, was really the Midgard serpent,
Norse Metal Work
Museum, Copenhagen
A door from a church in Iceland;
date, tenth or eleventh century. The
iron knob is inlaid with silver. The
slaying of a dragon is represented above,
and below is shown the Midgard ser-
pent.
96 The Northmen and the Normans
which, with its tail in its mouth, encircled the earth. In the
last trial of strength Thor wrestled with an old woman, and
after a violent contest was thrown down upon one knee. But
the hag was in truth relentless old age, who sooner or later lays
low all men.
Most beautiful and best beloved of the Scandinavian divinities
was Odin's son. Balder. He was represented as a gentle deity
Myth of of innocence and righteousness. As long as he
Balder lived, evil could gain no real control in the world
and the power of the gods would remain unshaken. To pre-
serve Balder from all danger his mother Frigga required every-
thing on earth to swear never to harm her son. Only a single
plant, the mistletoe, did not take the oath. Then the traitor
Loki gathered the mistletoe and came to an assembly where
the gods were hurling all kinds of missiles at Balder, to show that
nothing could hurt him. Loki asked the blind Hoder to throw
the plant at Balder. Hoder did so, and Balder fell dead. The
gods tried to recover him from Hel, the gloomy underworld,
but Hel demanded as his ransom a tear from every living
creature. Gods, men, and even things inanimate wept for
Balder, except one cruel giantess — Loki in disguise — who
would not give a single tear. She said, ''Neither living nor
dead was Balder of any use to me. Let Hel keep what it has."
Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned
up the world and the human race. The giants invaded Asgard
"Twilight of and slaughtered its inhabitants. Odin fell a
the Gods" victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having
killed the Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom
which the dying monster cast over him. The end of all things
arrived. This was the catastrophe which had been predicted
of old — the ''Twilight of the Gods."
Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed
the idea of Valhalla,^ the abode to which Odin received the
V ih souls of those who had died, not ingloriously in
their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop
of divine maidens, the Valkyries,^ rode through the air on Odin's
^ "Hall of the slain." 2 "Choosers of the slain."
' The Northmen in the West 97
service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave
warriors for Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought
with one another by day, but at evening the slayer and the
slain returned to Odin's hall to feast mightily on boar's flesh
and drink deep draughts of mead.
Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through the
work of Roman CathoUc missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's
son, Louis the Pious. Two centuries elapsed be- christianiza-
fore the Danes were completely converted. From tion of the
Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Nor- °^ "^^^
way owed its conversion largely to the crusading work of King
Olaf (1016-1029), better known as Olaf the Saint. The Nor-
wegians carried Christianity to their settlements in Iceland.
With the general adoption of the Christian religion in Scan-
dinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.
39. The Northmen in the West
The Viking movement, which began when the Northmen
were still heathen, was due principally to land-hunger. Like
the Arabs, the Northmen went forth from a Expansion of
sterile peninsula to find better homes abroad. Scandinavia
The political condition of Scandinavia in the ninth century also
helps to explain the Viking movement. Denmark and Norway
had now become strong kingdoms, whose rulers forced all who
would not submit to their sway to leave the country. Thus it
resulted that the numbers of the emigrants were swelled by
exiles, outlaws, and other adventurers, who turned to the sea
in hope of gain.
The Northmen started out as pirates and fell on the coasts
of England, France, and Germany. They also found it easy
to ascend the rivers in their shallow boats and Raids of the
reach places lying far inland. The Northmen Northmen
directed their attacks especially against the churches and
monasteries, which were full of treasure and less easily defended
than fortified towns. Their raids inspired such great terror
that a special prayer was inserted in the church services: "From
the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us."
98
The Northmen and the Normans
The incursions of the Northmen took place at first only in
summer, but before long they began to winter in the lands which
they visited. Year by year their fleets became
larger, and their attacks changed from mere forays
of pirates to well-organized expeditions of conquest
and colonization. Early in the ninth century
we find them making permanent settlements in
Ireland, and for a time bringing a considerable part of that
The North
men in
Ireland,
Scotland,
and the
islands
Discoveries of the Northmen in the West
country under their control. The first cities on Irish soil,
including Dublin and Limerick, were founded by the Northmen.
Almost simultaneously with the attacks on Ireland came those
on the western coast of Scotland. In the course of their west-
ward expeditions the Northmen had already discovered the
Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the Hebrides.
These barren and inhospitable islands received large numbers
of Norse immigrants and long remained under Scandinavian
control.
The Northmen in the West 99
The Northmen soon discovered Iceland, where Irish monks
had previously settled. Colonization began in 874.^ One of
the most valuable of the sagas — the ''Book of j^^ North-
the Land-taking" — describes the emigration to men in
the island and enumerates the Viking chiefs who ^^^^
took part in the movement. Iceland soon became almost a
second Norway in language, Uterature, and customs. It re-
mains to-day an outpost of Scandinavian civilization.
The first settlement of Greenland was the work of an Ice-
lander, Eric the Red, who reached the island toward the end
of the tenth century. He called the country ^j^^ North-
Greenland, not because it was green, but because, men in
as he said, ''there is nothing like a good name to ^^^ *^
attract settlers." Intercourse between Greenland and Iceland
was often dangerous, and at times was entirely interrupted by
ice. Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red, estabUshed a new
route of commerce and travel by sailing from Greenland to
Norway by way of the Hebrides. This was the first voyage
made directly across the Atlantic. Norway and Greenland
continued to enjoy a flourishing trade for several centuries.
After the connection with Norway had been severed, the Green-
landers joined the Eskimos and mingled with that primitive
people.
Two of the sagas give accounts of a voyage which Leif Erics-
son about 1000 made to regions lying southward from Green-
land. In the sagas they are called Helluland /j-j^g North-
(stone-land), Markland (wood-land), and Vinland. men in
Just what part of the coast of North America
these countries occupied is an unsolved problem. Leif Ericsson
and the Greenlanders who followed him seem to have reached
at least the shores of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova
Scotia. They may have gone even farther southward, for the
sagas describe regions where the climate was mild enough for
wild vines and wild wheat to grow. The Northmen, how-
ever, did not follow up their explorations by lasting settlements.
^ The Icelanders in 1874 celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the Scandi-
navian settlement of their island.
loo The Northmen and the Normans
All memory of the far western lands faded before long from the
minds of men. The curtain fell on the New World, not again
to rise until the time of Columbus and Cabot.
40. The Northmen m the East
The Norwegians took the leading part in the Viking move-
ment westward across the Atlantic. They also sailed far north-
Arctic ex- ward, rounding the North Cape and reaching the
of^'^e North- mouth of the Dwina River in the White Sea.
men Viking sailors, therefore, have the credit for under-
taking the first voyages of exploration into the Arctic.
The Swedes, on account of their geographical position,
were naturally the most active in expeditions to eastern lands.
The North- ^^ ^ "^^^y early date they crossed the Gulf of
men in Bothnia and paid frequent visits to Finland. Its
^ rude inhabitants, the Finns, were related in lan-
guage, and doubtless in blood also, to the Huns, Magyars, and
other Asiatic peoples. Sweden ruled Finland throughout the
Middle Ages. Russia obtained control of the country early in
the nineteenth century, but Swedish influence has made it
largely Scandinavian in civilization.
The activities of the Swedes also led them to establish settle-
ments on the southern shore of the Baltic and far inland along
The North- ^^^ waterways leading into Russia. An old
men in Russian chronicler declares that in 862 the Slavs
sent an embassy to the Swedes, whom they called
"Rus," saying, "Our country is large and rich, but there is
no order in it; come and govern us." The Swedes were not
slow to accept the invitation. Their leader, Ruric, established
a dynasty which reigned in Russia over seven hundred years. ^
The first Russian state centered in the city of Novgorod,
near Lake Ilmen, where Ruric built a strong fortress. Nov-
Novgorod gorod during the Middle Ages was an important
and Kiev station on the trade route between the Baltic and
the Black Sea.^ Some of Ruric's followers, passing southward
1 Russia in 1862 celebrated the millenary of her foundation by Ruric.
2 See the map between pages 234 and 235.
Normandy and the Normans loi
along the Dnieper River, took possession of the small town of
Kiev. It subsequently became the capital of the Scandinavian
possessions in Russia.
The Northmen in Russia maintained close intercourse with
their mother country for about two centuries. During this
period they did much to open up northeastern Scandinavian
Europe to the forces of civilization and progress, influence in
Colonies were founded, cities were built, commerce "^^^*
was fostered, and a stable government was established. Russia
under the sway of the Northmen became for the first time a
truly European state.
During the reign of Vladimir, a descendant of Ruric, the
Christian religion gained its first foothold in Russia. We are
told that Vladimir, having made up his mind to Christianity
embrace a new faith, sent commissioners to Rome in Russia,
988
and Constantinople, and also to the adherents
of Islam and Judaism. His envoys reported in favor of the
Greek Church, for their barbarian imagination had been so
impressed by the majesty of the ceremonies performed in
Sancta Sophia that "they did not know whether they were on
earth or in heaven." Vladimir accepted their report, ordered
the idols of Kiev to be thrown into the Dnieper, and had him-
self and his people baptized according to the rites of the Greek
Church. At the same time he married a sister of the reigning
emperor at Constantinople.
Vladimir's decision to adopt the Greek form of Christianity
is justly regarded as one of the formative influences in Russian
history. It meant that the eastern Slavs were to ,
Importance
come under the religious influence of Constanti- of the con-
nople, instead of under that of Rome. Further- version of
. ..... Russia
more, it meant that Byzantine civilization would
henceforth gain an entrance into Russia.
41. Normandy and the Normans
No part of western Europe suffered more severely from the
Northmen than France. They first appeared on the French
coast toward the end of Charlemagne's reign. After that
I02 The Northmen and the Normans
ruler's death the wars of his grandsons left the empire defense-
less, and the Northmen in consequence redoubled their attacks.
The North- They sailed far up the Seine, the Loire, and the
men in Garonne to plunder and murder. Paris; then a
small but important city, lay in the path of the
invaders and more than once suffered at their hands. The
destruction by the Northmen of many monasteries was a loss
to civilization, for the monastic establishments at this time
were the chief centers of learning and culture.^
The heavy hand of the Northmen also descended on Germany.
The rivers Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine, and Elbe enabled them to
The North- .proceed at will into the heart of the country,
men in Liege, Cologne, Strassburg, Hamburg, and other
ermany great Frankish cities fell before them. Viking
raiders even plundered Aix-la-Chapelle and stabled their horses
in the church which Charlemagne had built there.^ The
ancient homeland of the Franks was laid completely waste.
The history of the Northmen in France began in 911, when
the Carolingian king granted to a Viking chieftain, RoUo,
dominion over the region about the lower Seine.
RoUo and ^ „ , . ^ , ^, . . .
the grant of Rollo on his part agreed to accept Christianity
Normandy, ^^^^ ^q acknowledge the French ruler as his lord.
It is said, however, that he would not kneel and
kiss the king's foot as a mark of homage, and that the follower
who performed the unwelcome duty did it so awkwardly as
to overturn the king, to the great amusement of the assem-
bled Northmen. The story illustrates the Viking sense of
independence.
The district ceded to Rollo developed into what in later
times was known as the duchy of Normandy. Its Scandinavian
Duchy of settlers, henceforth called Normans,^ soon became
Normandy French in language and culture. It was amazing
to see how quickly the descendants of wild sea-rovers put off
their heathen ways and made their new home a Christian land,
noted for its churches, monasteries, and schools. Normandy
1 See page 59. 2 gee the illustration, page 15.
3 "Norman" is a softened form of "Northman."
Conquest of England by the Danes 103
remained practically independent till the beginning of the
thirteenth century, when a French king added it to his
possessions.
The Normans helped to found the medieval French monarchy.
During the tenth century the old Carohngian line of rulers,
which had already died out in Germany and Italy,
came also to an end in France. A new dynasty mans and
was then founded by a nobleman named Hugh ^"^^ Capet,
Capet, who secured the aid of the powerful Nor-
man dukes in his efforts to gain the throne. The accession of
Hugh Capet took place in 987. His descendants reigned over
France for almost exactly eight hundred years.^
42. Conquest of England by the Danes; Alfred the Great
Even before Egbert of Wessex succeeded in uniting all the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, bands of Vikings, chiefly from Den-
mark, had made occasional forays on the Enghsh England
coast. Egbert kept the Danes at bay, but after overrun by
his death the real invasion of England began. ^ ^"^^
The Danes came over in large numbers, made permanent
settlements, and soon controlled all England north of the
Thames.
Wessex before long experienced the full force of the Danish
attack. The country at this time was ruled by Alfred, the
grandson of Egbert. Alfred ascended the throne Alfred and
in 871, when he was only about twenty- three years ^^ Danes
old. In spite of his youth, he showed himself the right sort of
leader for the hard-pressed West Saxons. After much fighting
Alfred gained a signal victory over the enemy, who were now
glad to make peace and accept the religion of their conquerors.
The English and Danes finally agreed to a treaty dividing the
country between them. The eastern part of England, where
the invaders were firmly established, came to be called the
Danelaw, because here the Danish, and not the Anglo-Saxon,
law prevailed. In the Danelaw the Danes have left memorials
^ The abolition of the French monarchy dates from 1792, when Louis XVI was
deposed from the throne.
I04 The Northmen and the Normans
ALFRED'S
ENGLAND
Scale of English Miles
Longitude West 2 from Greenwich
Conquest of England by the Danes 105
of themselves in local names/ and
in the bold, adventurous char-
acter of the inhabitants.
It was a well-nigh ruined country
which Alfred had now to rule over
and build up again, civilizing
His work of restora- activities of
^. . .^ . Alfred
tion invites compari-
son with that of Charlemagne.
Alfred's first care was to organize
a fighting force always ready at
his call to repel invasion. He
also created an efficient fleet, which
patrolled the coast and engaged
the Vikings on their own element.
He had the laws of the Anglo-
Saxons collected and reduced to
writing) taking pains at the same
time to see that justice was
done between man and man. He
did much to rebuild the ruined
churches and monasteries. Alfred
labored with especial diligence to
revive education among the Eng-
lish folk. His court at Winchester
became a literary center where
learned men wrote and taught.
The king himself mastered Latin,
in order that he might translate
Latin books into the English
tongue. So great were Alfred's
services in this direction that he
has been called the "father of
English prose."
1 The east of England contains more than
six hundred names of towns ending in by
(Danish "town"); compare by-law, originally
a law for a special town.
Alfred the Great
A lofty, bronze statue by H. Thor-
neycraft set up at Winchester, Alfred's
ancient capital. It was dedicated in
1 90 1 on the thousandth anniversary of
his death. The inscription reads:
" Alfred found learning dead,
And he restored it;
Education neglected.
And he revived it;
The laws powerless.
And he gave them force;
The Church debased,
And he raised it;
The land ravaged by a fear-
ful enemy,
Fiom which he delivered it."
io6
The Northmen and the Normans
About seventy-five years after the close of Alfred's reign the
Danes renewed their invasions. It then became necessary to
From Alfred buy them off with an
to the Nor- annual tribute called the
man Con- i i t-. i •
quest, 901- Danegeld. Early m the
1066 eleventh century Canute,
the son of a Danish king, succeeded in
establishing himseh on the Enghsh
throne (1016-1035). His dynasty did
not last long, however, and at length
the old West-Saxon line was restored
in the person of Edward the Confessor
(or "the Saint"). Edward had spent
most of his early life in Normandy,
and on coming to England brought
with him a large following of Normans,
whom he placed in high positions.
During his reign (1042-1066) Norman
wrought." Found at Atheiney in nobles and churchmen gained a foot-
the seventeenth century. ^^^^ ^^ England, thus preparing the
way for the conquest of the country.
Alfred's Jewel
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
A jewel of blue enamel inclosed
in a setting of gold, with the
words around it ' ' Alfred had me
43. Norman Conquest of England; William the Conqueror
Edward the Confessor having left no direct heirs, the choice
of his successor fell lawfully upon the Witenagemot,^ as the
Harold and national assembly of noblemen and higher clergy
WiiUam ^g^g called. This body chose as king, Harold,
earl of Wessex, the leading man in England. Harold's right
to the succession was disputed by William, duke of Normandy,
who declared that the crown had been promised to him by his
cousin, the Confessor. William also asserted that Harold had
once sworn a solemn oath, over a chest of sacred reUcs, to sup-
port his claim to the throne on Edward's death. When word
came of Harold's election, William wrathfully denounced him
1 "Meeting of wise men.'
formal meeting.
The word gemot or moot was used for any kind of
Norman Conquest of England 107
as a usurper and began to prepare a fleet and an army for the
invasion of England.
Normandy under Duke William had become a powerful,
well-organized state. Norman knights, attracted by promises
of wide lands and rich booty if they should con- invasion of
quer, formed the core of William's forces. Adven- England
turers from every part of France, and even from Spain and
Italy, also entered his service. The pope blessed the enter-
prise and sent to William a ring containing a hair from St.
A Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry
Museum of Bayeux, Normandy
The Bayeux Tapestry, which almost certainly belongs to the time of the Norman Con-
quest, is a strip of coarse linen cloth, about 230 feet long by 20 inches wide, embroidered in
worsted thread of eight different colors. There are seventy-two scenes picturing various
events in the history of the Norman Conquest. The illustration given above represents an
attack of Norman cavalry on the English shield wall at the battle of Hastings.
Peter's head and a consecrated banner. When all was ready
in the late fall of 1066, a large fleet, bearing five or six thousand
archers, foot soldiers, and horsemen, crossed the Channel and
landed in England.
William at first met no resistance. Harold was far away in
the north fighting against the Norwegians, who had seized the
opportunity to make another descent on the English Battle of
coast. Harold defeated them decisively and then Hastings,
1066
hurried southward to face his new foe. The two
armies met near Hastings on the road to London. All day they
fought. The stout English infantry, behind their wall of shields,
threw back one charge after another of the Norman knights.
io8
The Northmen and the Normans
4 Longitude West 2 from Greenwich 0 Longitude East 2
. .I.onfr.nt /--• S
V-i-py ^V Mencon ^^^J
Results of the Norman Conquest 109
Again and again the duke rallied his men and led them where
the foe was thickest. A cry arose that he was slain. "I live,"
shouted William, tearing off his helmet that all might see his
face, "and by God's help will conquer yet." At last, with the
approach of evening, Harold was killed by an arrow; his house-
hold guard died about him; and the rest of the English took
to flight. William pitched his camp on the battle-field,
and "sat down to eat and drink among the dead."
The battle of Hastings settled the fate of England. Fol-
lowing up his victory with relentless energy, William pressed
on to London. That city, now practically the William be-
capital of the country, opened its gates to him. co^^^s king
The Witenagemot, meeting in London, offered the throne to
William. On Christmas Day, 1066, in Westminster Abbey
the duke of Normandy was crowned king of England.
What manner of man was William the Conqueror? Tall of
stature, endowed with tremendous strength, and brave even
to desperation, he seemed an embodiment of the William's
old Viking spirit. "No knight under heaven," personality
men said truly, "was William's peer." A savage temper and a
harsh, forbidding countenance made him a terror even to his
closest followers. "So stern and wrathful was he," wrote an
Enghsh chronicler, "that none durst do anything against his
will." Though William never shrank from force or fraud,
from bloodshed or oppression, to carry out his ends, he yet
showed himself throughout his reign a patron of learning, a
sincere supporter of the Church, and a statesman of remarkable
insight. He has left a lasting impress on English history.
44. Results of the Norman Conquest
The coming of the Normans to England formed the third
and last installment of the Teutonic invasion. Norman mer-
chants and artisans followed Norman soldiers and
11 • 1 1 • 1 1 1 Norman ele-
settled particularly m the southern and eastern ment in the
parts of the island. They seem to have emigrated English
in considerable numbers and doubtless added an
important element to the English population. The Normans
no The Northmen and the Normans
thus completed the work of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes in
making England largely a Teutonic country.
It must be remembered, however, that the Normans in
Normandy had received a considerable infusion of French
blood and had learned to speak a form of the French
Norman ele-
ment in the language (Norman-French) . In England Norman-
English French naturally was used by the upper and ruling
classes — by the court, the nobility, and the
clergy. The English held fast to their own homely language,
but could not fail to pick up many French expressions, as they
mingled with their conquerors in churches, markets, and other
places of public resort. It took about three hundred years for
French words and phrases to soak thoroughly into their speech.
The result was a very large addition to the vocabulary of
Enghsh.^
Until the Norman Conquest England, because of its insular
po*sition, had remained out of touch with Continental Europe.
Union of William the Conqueror and his immediate suc-
Engiand and cessors were, however, not only rulers of England,
orman y ^^^ ^j^^ dukes of Normandy and subjects of the
French kings. Hence the union of England with Normandy
brought it at once into the full current of European affairs.
The country became for a time almost a part of France and
profited by the more advanced civilization which had arisen
on French soil.
The Norman Conquest much increased the pope's authority
over England. The English Church, as has been shown, ^
England ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^*^ ^^ Rome, but during the Anglo-
and the Saxon period it had become more independent
apacy ^^ ^|^^ Papacy than the churches on the Con-
tinent. William the Conqueror, whose invasion of England
took place with the pope's approval, repaid his obHgation by
bringing the country into closer dependence on the Roman
pontiff.
Although the Normans came to England as conquerors, yet
after all they were near kinsmen of the EngUsh and did not
1 See page 248. - See page 29.
Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily iii
long keep separate from them. In Normandy a century and
a half had been enough to turn the Northmen into French-
men. So in England, at the end of a like period, pusion of
the Normans became Englishmen. Some of the English and
qualities that have helped to make the modern o"^*ns
English a great people — their love of the sea and fondness for
adventure, their vigor, self-reliance, and dauntless spirit —
are doubtless derived in good part from the Normans.
45. Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily
The conquest of England, judged by its results, proved to
be the most important undertaking of the Normans. But
during this same eleventh century they found Gorman
another field in which to display their energy expansion
and daring. They turned southward to the ^°"*^^"
Mediterranean and created a Norman state in Italy and Sicily.
Norman Possessions in Italy and Sicily
The unsettled condition of Italy gave the Normans an op-
portunity for interference in the affairs of the country. The
founding of Norman power there was largely the conquests
work of a noble named Robert Guiscard ("the of Robert
Crafty"), a man almost as celebrated as William
the Conqueror. He had set out from his home in Normandy
112 The Northmen and the Normans
with only a single follower, but his valor and shrewdness soon
brought him to the front. Robert, united the scattered bands
of Normans in Italy, who were fighting for pay or plunder,
and wrested from the Roman Empire in the East its last ter-
ritories in the peninsula.
Robert's brother, Roger, crossed the strait of Messina and
began the subjugation of Sicily, then a Moslem possession.
Roger ^^^ recovery from the hands of "infidels" was con-
Guiscard's sidered by the Normans a work both pleasing to
conquests q^^ ^^^ profitable to themselves. By the close
of the eleventh century they had finally established their rule
in the island.
The conquests of the Normans in southern Italy and Sicily
were united into a single state, which came to be known as
Kingdom ^^^ kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Normans
of the governed it for only about one hundred and fifty
wo ic les yga^js, but under other rulers it lasted until the
middle of the nineteenth century, when the present kingdom of
Italy came into existence.
The kingdom of the Two Sicilies was well- governed, rich,
and strong. Art and learning flourished in the cities of Naples,
Norman Salerno, and Palermo. Southern Italy and Sicily
culture in under the Normans became a meeting place of
Byzantine and Arabic civilization. The Norman
kingdom thus formed an important channel through which the
culture of the East flowed to the North and to the West.
46. The Normans in European History
The conquests of the Normans in England, Italy, and Sicily
were effected after they had become a Christian and a French-
Norman speaking people. In these lands they were the
faculty of armed missionaries of a civilization not their
a ap on own. The Normans, indeed, invented Uttle and
borrowed much. But, like the Arabs, they were more than
simple imitators. In language, Hterature, art, religion, and
law what they took from others they improved and then spread
abroad throughout their settlements.
The Normans in European History 113
It seems at first sight remarkable that a people who occu-
pied so much of western Europe should have passed away.
Normans as Normans no longer exist. They lost Assimilation
themselves in the kingdoms which they founded of the
and among the peoples whom they subdued. •'^^^"^^^^
Their rapid assimilation was chiefly the consequence of their
small numbers: outside of Normandy they were too few long
to maintain their identity.
If the Normans themselves soon disappeared, their influence
was more lasting. Their mission, it has been well said, was
to be leaders and energizers of society — " the Norman
Httle leaven that leaveneth the whole lump." influence
The peoples of medieval Europe owed much to the courage and
martial spirit, the genius for government, and the reverence
for law, of the Normans. In one of the most significant move-
ments of the Middle Ages — the crusades — they took a prom-
inent part. Hence we shall meet them again.
Studies
I. What events are associated with the following dates: 988; 862; 1066; 911;
and 987? 2. What was the origin of the geographical names Russia, Greenland,
Finland, and Normandy? 3. Mention some of the striking physical contrasts
between the Arabian and Scandinavian peninsulas. 4. Why has the Baltic Sea
been called a "secondary Mediterranean"? 5. How does it happen that the
Gulf of Bothnia is often frozen over in winter, while the Norse fiords remain open?
6. Why is an acquaintance with Scandinavian mythology, literature, and history
especially desirable for English-speaking peoples? 7. What is meant by the
"berserker's rage"? 8. What names of our weekdays are derived from the names
of Scandinavian deities? 9. Compare the Arab and Scandinavian conceptions of
the future state of departed warriors. 10. What is meant by "sea-power"? What
people possessed it during the ninth and tenth centuries? 11. Compare the inva-
sions of the Northmen with those of the Germans as to (o) causes, (b) area covered,
and (c) results. 12. What was the significance of the fact that the Northmen were
not Christians at the time when they began their expeditions? 13. Show how the
voyages of the Northmen vastly increased geographical knowledge. 14. Show
that the Russian people have received from Constantinople their writing, religion,
and art. 15. Mention three conquests of England by foreign peoples before 1066.
Give for each conquest the results and the approximate date. 16. On the map,
page 104, trace the boundary line between Alfred's possessions and those of the
Danes. 17. Compare Alfred and Charlemagne as civilizing kings. 18. Compare
Alfred's cession of the Danelaw with the cession of Normandy to Rollo. 19. Why
is Hastings included among "decisive" battles? 20. "We English are not our-
selves but somebody else." Comment on this statement. 21. What is meant by
the "Norman graft upon the sturdy Saxon tree"?
CHAPTER VI
FEUDALISM
47. Rise of Feudalism
The ninth century in western Europe was a period of violence,
disorder, and even anarchy. Charlemagne for a time had ar-
rested the disintegration of society which resulted
from the invasions of the Germans, and had
united their warring tribes under something like a centralized
government. But his work, it has been well said, was only a
desperate rally in the midst of confusion. After his death
the Carolingian Empire, attacked by the Northmen and other
invaders and weakened by civil conflicts, broke up into separate
kingdoms.
Charlemagne's successors in France, Germany, and Italy
enjoyed little real authority. They reigned, but did not rule.
Decline of During this dark age it was really impossible
the royal for a king to govern with a strong hand. The
authority absence of good roads or of other easy means of
communication made it difficult for him to move troops quickly
from one district to another, in order to quell revolts. Even
had good roads existed, the lack of ready money would have
prevented him from maintaining a strong army devoted to his
interests. Moreover, the king's subjects, as yet not welded
into a nation, felt toward him no sentiments of loyalty and
affection. They cared far le^s for their king, of whom they
knew httle, than for their own local lords who dwelt near them.
The decline of the royal authority, from the ninth century
onward, meant that the chief functions of government came to
Increased ^^ "^^^^ ^^^ "^^^^ performed by the nobles, who
power of were the great landowners of the kingdom. Under
the nobles Charlemagne these men had been the king's offi-
cials, appointed by him and holding office at his pleasure.
114
Rise of Feudalism 115
Under his successors they tended to become almost independent
princes. In proportion as this change was accompUshed during
the Middle Ages, European society entered upon the stage of
feudalism.^
Feudalism in medieval Europe was not a unique develop-
ment. Parallels to it may be found in other parts of the world.
Whenever the state becomes incapable of protect- parallels to
ing life and property, powerful men in each locality European
will themselves undertake this duty; they will
assume the burden of their own defense and of those weaker
men who seek their aid. Such was the situation in ancient
Egypt for several hundred years, in medieval Persia, and in
modern Japan until about two generations ago.
European feudalism arose and flourished in the countries
which had formed the Carolingian Empire, that is, in France,
Germany, and northern Italy. It also spread Extent of
to Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and the Christian European
states of Spain. Toward the close of the eleventh
century the Normans transplanted it into England, southern
Italy, and Sicily. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
the crusaders introduced it into the kingdoms which they
founded in the East. Still later, in the fourteenth century,
the Scandinavian countries became acquainted with feudalism.
The institution, though varying endlessly in details, presented
certain common features througout this wide area.
48. Feudalism as a Form of Local Government
The basis of feudal society was usually the landed estate.
Here lived the feudal noble, surrounded by dependents over
whom he exercised the rights of a petty sovereign. Feudal
He could tax them; he could require them to give sovereignty
him mihtary assistance; he could try them in his courts. A
great noble, the possessor of many estates, even enjoyed the
1 The word has nothing to do with "feuds," though these were common enough
in feudal times. It comes from the medieval Latin feudum, from which are derived
the French fief and the English fee.
ii6 Feudalism
privilege of declaring war, making treaties, and coining money.
How, it will be asked, did these rights and privileges arise?
Owing to the decay of commerce and industry, land had be-
come practically the only form of wealth in the early Middle
Feudal Ages. The king, who was regarded as the ab-
tenure of solute owner of the soil, would pay his officials for
^^^^ their services by giving them the use of a certain
amount of land. In the same way, one who had received large
estates would parcel them out among his followers, as a reward
for their support. Sometimes an unscrupulous noble might seize
the lands of his neighbors and compel them to become his
tenants. Sometimes, too, those who owned land in their own
right might surrender the title to it in favor of a noble, who then
became their protector.
An estate in land which a person held of a superior lord,
on condition of performing some "honorable" service, was
called a fief. At first the tenant received the fief
only for a specified term of years or for his life-
time; but in the end it became inheritable. On the death
of the tenant his eldest son succeeded him in possession. This
right of the first-born son to the whole of the father's estate
was known as primogeniture.^ If a man had no legal heir, the
fief went back to its lord.
The tie which bound the tenant who accepted a fief to the
lord who granted it was called vassalage. Every holder of
land was in theory, though not always in fact,
the vassal of some lord. At the apex of the
feudal pyramid stood the king, the supreme landlord, who was
supposed to hold his land from God; below the king stood the
greater lords (dukes, marquises, counts, and barons), with
large estates; and below them stood the lesser lords, or knights,
whose possessions were considered to be too small for further
subdivision.
The vassal, first of all, owed various services to the lord. In
1 The practice of primogeniture has now been abolished by the laws of the
various European countries and is not recognized in the United States. It still
prevails, however, in England.
Feudalism as a Form of Local Government 117
time of war he did garrison duty at the lord's castle and joined
him in military expeditions. In time of peace personal
the vassal attended the lord on ceremonial occa- services of
sions, gave him the benefit of his advice, when
required, and helped him as a judge in trying cases.
The vassal, under certain circumstances, was also required to
make money payments. When a new heir succeeded to the
fief, the lord received from him a sum usually j.^^ vassal's
equivalent to one year's revenue of the estate, money
This payment was called a "relief." Again, if a p^^^®" ^
man sold his fief, the lord demanded another large sum from the
purchaser, before giving his consent to the transaction. Vassals
were also expected to raise money for the lord's ransom, in case
he was made prisoner of war, to meet the expenses connected
with the knighting of his eldest son, and to provide a dowry for
his eldest daughter. Such exceptional payments went by the
name of "aids."
The vassal, in return for his services and payments, looked to
the lord for the protection of life and property. The lord agreed
to secure him in the enjoyment of his fief, to guard -^j^g j^jj.^,g
him against his enemies, and to see that in all duty to the
matters he received just treatment. This was no
slight undertaking.
The ceremony of homage^ symbolized the whole feudal rela-
tionship. One who proposed to become a vassal and hold a
fief came into the lord's presence, bareheaded
and unarmed, knelt down, placed his hands be-
tween those of the lord, and promised henceforth to become his
"man." The lord then kissed him and raised him to his feet.
After the ceremony the vassal placed his hands upon the Bible,
or upon sacred relics, and swore to remain faithful to his lord.
This was the oath of "fealty." The lord then gave the vassal
some object — a stick, a clod of earth, a lance, or a glove —
in token of the fief with the possession of which he was now
"mvested."
It is clear that the feudal method of land tenure, coupled
^ Latin homo, "man."
ii8 Feudalism
with the custom of vassalage, made in some degree for security
A substitute and order. Each noble was attached to the lord
for anarchy above him by the bond of personal service and the
oath of fidelity. To his vassals beneath him he was at once
protector, benefactor, and friend. Unfortunately, feudal ob-
Hgations were not always strictly observed. Both lords and
vassals often broke their engagements, when it seemed profit-
able to do so. Hence they had many quarrels and indulged in
constant warfare. But feudahsm, despite its defects, was better
than anarchy. The feudal lords drove back the pirates and
hanged the brigands and enforced the laws, as no feeble king
could do. They provided a rude form of local government for
a rude society.
49. Feudal Justice
Feudalism was not only a form of local government; it was
also a form of local justice. Knights, barons, counts, and dukes
Judicial had their separate courts, and the king had his
rights court above all. Cases arising on the lord's
estate were tried before him and the vassals whom he called to
his assistance in giving justice. Since most wrongs could be
atoned for by the payment of a fine, the conduct of justice on a
large fief produced a considerable income. The nobles, ac-
cordingly, regarded their judicial rights as a valuable property,
which they were loath to surrender to the state.
The law followed in a feudal court was largely based on old
Germanic customs. The court did not act in the public interest,
Judicial ad- as with US, but waited until the plaintiff requested
ministration j^g service. Moreover, until the case had been
decided, the accuser and the accused received the same treat-
ment. Both were imprisoned; and the plaintiff who lost his
case suffered the same penalty which the defendant, had he
been found guilty, would have undergone.
Unlike a modern court, again, the feudal court did not require
the accuser to prove his case by calhng witnesses and having
them give testimony. The burden of proof lay
on the accused, who had to clear himself of the
charge, if he could do so. In one form of trial it was enough
Feudal Justice
119
for him to declare his innocence under oath, and then to bring
in several '' oath-helpers," sometimes relatives, but more often
neighbors, who swore that they believed him to be telling the
truth. The number of these "oath-helpers" varied according
to the seriousness of the crime and the rank of the accused.
This method was hardly as unsatisfactory as it seems to be, for
a person of evil repu-
tation might not be
able to secure the
required number of
friends who would
commit perjury on his
behalf. To take an
oath was a very
solemn proceeding; it
was an appeal to God,
by which a man called
down on himself di-
vine punishment if he
swore falsely.
The consequences
of a false oath were
not ap- ^ ^ ,
^ Ordeals
parent at
once. Ordeals, how-
ever, formed a method
Trial by Combat
From a manuscript of the fifteenth century.
of appealing to God, the results of which could be immedi-
ately observed. A common form of ordeal was by fire. The
accused walked barefoot over live brands, or stuck his hand into
a flame, or carried a piece of red-hot iron for a certain distance.
In the ordeal by hot water he plunged his arm into boiling water.
A man established his innocence through one of these tests, if
the wound healed properly after three days. The ordeal by
cold water rested on the belief that pure water would reject the
criminal. Hence the accused was thrown bound into a stream:
if he floated he was guilty ; if he sank he was innocent and had to
be rescued. Though a crude method of securing justice, ordeals
1 20 Feudalism
were doubtless useful in many instances. The real culprit
would often prefer to confess, rather than incur the anger of
God by submitting to the test.
A form of trial which especially appealed to the warHke nobles
was the judicial duel.^ The accuser and the accused fought
The judicial with each Other; and the conqueror won the case.
*^"®^ God, it was beheved, would give victory to the
innocent party, because he had right on his side. When one
of the adversaries could not fight, he secured a champion to
take his place. Though the judicial duel finally went out of
use in the law courts, it still continued to be employed pri-
vately, as a means of settling disputes which involved a man's
honor. The practice of dueling has now nearly died out in
civilized communities.
Oaths, ordeals, and duels formed an inheritance from Ger-
manic antiquity.^ They offered a sharp contrast to Roman
Feudal and law, which acted in the public interest, balanced
Roman law evidence, and sought only to get at the truth.
After the middle of the twelfth century the revival of the study
of Roman law, as embodied in Justinian's code,^ led gradually
to the abandonment of most forms of appeal to the judgment
of God. The kings at the same time grew powerful enough
to take into their own hands the administration of justice.
50. Feudal Warfare
Feudalism, once more, was a form of local defense. The
knight must guard his small estate, the baron his barony, the
Local count his county, the duke his duchy. At the
defense lord's bidding the vassal had to follow him to war,
either alone or with a certain number of men, according to the
size of the fief. But this assistance was limited. A vassal
served only for a definite period (varying from one month to
three in the year), and then only within a reasonable distance
from the lands for which he did homage. These restrictions
1 Sir Walter Scott's novel, Ivanhoe (chapter xliii), contains an account of a judi-
cial duel.
2 See page 30. ^ See pages 258-259.
Feudal Warfare
121
made it difficult to conduct a lengthy campaign, or one far re-
moved from the vassal's fief, unless mercenary soldiers were
employed.
The feudal army, as a rule, consisted entirely of cavalry.
Such swiftly moving assailants as the Northmen and the Mag-
yars could best be dealt with by mounted men The feudal
who could bring them to bay, compel them to ^^^
fight, and overwhelm them by the shock of the charge. In
this way the foot soldiers of Charlemagne's time came to be
replaced by the mailed
horsemen who for four
centuries or more domi-
nated European battle-
fields.
The armor used in the
Middle Ages was gradually
perfected, until Anns and
at length the "™°'
knight became a living
fortress.^ In the early
feudal period he wore a
cloth or leather tunic,
covered with iron rings or
scales, and an iron cap
with nose guard. About
the beginning of the twelfth century he adopted chain mail,
with a hood of the same material for the head. During the
fourteenth century the knight began to wear heavy plate
armor, weighing fifty pounds or more, and a helmet with a
visor which could be raised or lowered. Thus completely in-
cased in metal, provided with shield, lance, straight sword, or
battle-ax, and mounted on a powerful horse, the knight could
ride down almost any number of poorly armed peasants. Not
till the development of missile weapons — the longbow, and later
the musket — did the foot soldier resume his importance in
warfare. The feudal age by this time was drawing to a close.
* See the illustrations, pages 107, 119, 121, and 169.
Mounted Knight
Seal of Robert FitzwaUer, showing a mounted
knight in complete mail armor; date about 1265.
122 Feudalism
The nobles regarded the right of waging war on one another
as their most cherished privilege. A vassal might fight with
Prevalence ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ various lords to whom he had done
of private homage, in order to secure independence from
them, with bishops and abbots whom he disliked
for any reason, with his weaker fellow vassals, and even with
his own vassals. Fighting became almost a form of business
enterprise, which enriched the nobles and their retainers
through the sack of castles, the plunder of villages, and the
ransom of prisoners. Every hill became a stronghold and
every plain a battle-field. Such private warfare, though
rarely very bloody, spread havoc throughout the land.
The Church, to its great honor, lifted a protesting voice
against this evil. It proclaimed a ''Peace of God" and for-
The Peace bade attacks on all defenseless people, including
and Truce priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, peasants,
and women. But it was found impossible to pre-
vent the feudal lords from attacking one another, even though
they were threatened with the eternal torments of hell; and
so the Church tried to restrict what it could not altogether
abolish. A ''Truce of God" was established. All men were
to cease fighting from' Wednesday evening to Monday morn-
ing of each week, during Lent, and on various holy days. The
truce would have given Christendom peace for about two
hundred and forty days each year; but it seems never to have
been strictly observed except in limited areas.
As the power of the kings increased in. western Europe, they
naturally sought to put an end to the constant fighting between
AboUtion ^^^^^ subjects. The Norman rulers of Normandy,
of private England, and Sicily restrained their turbulent
nobles with a strong hand. Peace came later
in most parts of the Continent; in Germany, "fist right"
(the rule of the strongest) prevailed until the end of the fif-
teenth century. The abohtion of private war was the first
step in Europe toward universal peace. The second step
— the abolition of public war between nations — is yet to
be taken.
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The Castle and Life of the Nobles 123
51. The Castle and Life of the Nobles
The outward mark of feudalism was the castle/ where the
lord resided and from which he ruled his fief. The castle, in
its earUest form, was simply a wooden block- oeveloo-
house placed on a mound and surrounded by a ment of the
stockade. About the beginning of the twelfth ^^^^^
century the nobles began to build in stone, which would better
resist fire and the assaults of besiegers. A stone castle con-
sisted at first of a single tower, square, or round, with thick
walls, few windows, and often with only one room to each
story.2 As engineering skill increased, several towers were
built and were then connected by outer and inner walls. The
castle thus became a group of fortifications, which might cover
a wide area.
Defense formed the primary purpose of the castle. Until
the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, the only siege
engines employed were those known in ancient The castle
times. They included machines for hurling heavy *^ ^ fortress
stones and iron bolts, battering rams, and movable towers,
from which the besiegers crossed over to the walls. Such
engines could best be used on firm, level ground. Conse-
quently, a castle would often be erected on a high cliff or hill,
or on an island, or in the center of a swamp. A castle without
such natural defenses would be surrounded by a deep ditch
(the "moat"), usually filled with water. If the besiegers could
not batter down or undermine the massive walls, they adopted
the slower method of a blockade and tried to starve the gar-
rison into surrendering. Ordinarily, however, a well-built,
well-provisioned castle was impregnable. Behind its frown-
ing battlements even a petty lord could defy a royal army.
A visitor to a medieval castle crossed the drawbridge over
the moat and approached the narrow doorway, which was
protected by a tower on each side. If he was admitted, the
1 The French form of -the word is chateau.
^ A good example is the "White Tower," which forms a part of the Tower of
London. See the illustration, page 194.
124
Feudalism
Chateau Gaillard (Restored)
The finest of all medieval castles. Located on a high hill overlooking the Seine, about
twenty miles from Rouen. Built by Richard the Lion-hearted within a twelvemonth
(1197-1198) and by him called " Saucy Castle." It was captured a few years later by the
French king, Philip Augustus, and was dismantled early in the seventeenth century. The
castle consisted of three distinct series of fortifications, besides the keep, which in this case
was merely a strong tower.
The Castle and Life of the Nobles
125
iron grating ("portcullis") rose slowly on its creaking pulleys,
the heavy, wooden doors swung open, and he found himself in
the courtyard commanded by the great central Description
tower ("keep"), where the lord and his family of a castle
lived, especially in time of war. At the summit of the keep
5=i^j3=,^2a^.
KHighAngleTower Klnirance Ga ie ^.Gate H-omEscarpment
E,'&Sma//er Side Tower L.Counterscarpe TT.F/anking To\A/erS
CCDB.Corner Tower W./Ceep V. Outer Towers
YL. Outer Enciefiie,orIowerCouri\i Escarpment "K.ConnBcting h/a//
Y. Well 0. Postern Tower y Stockade m River
G.H.Bui'/dings in LowerCourt P. Postern Gate Z.Z GreatDiiches
1. Moat 'R.-R..ParapetWa//s
Plan of Chateau Gaillard
The plan is intended to represent that of a typical castle, as
the plan of Kirkstall Abbey represents that of a typical monastery.
rose a platform whence the sentinel surveyed the country far
and wide; below, two stories underground, lay the prison,
dark, damp, and dirty. As the visitor walked about the
courtyard, he came upon the hall, used as the lord's residence
126
Feudalism
in time of peace, the armory, the chapel, the kitchens, and the
stables. A spacious castle might contain, in fact, all the build-
ings necessary for the support of the lord's servants and soldiers.
Life within the castle was very dull. There were some
games, especially chess, which the nobles learned from the
Amusements Moslems. Banqueting, however, formed the chief
of the nobles jndoor amusement. The lord and his retainers
sat down to a feast and, as they ate and drank, watched
the pranks of a profes-
sional jester or listened to
the songs and music of
minstrels or, it may be,
heard with wonder the
tales of far-off countries
brought by some returning
traveler. Outside castle
walls a common sport was
hunting in the forests and
game preserves attached
to every estate. Deer,
bears, and wild boars
were hunted with hounds;
for smaller animals trained hawks, or falcons, were employed.
But the nobles, as we have just seen, found in fighting their
chief outdoor occupation and pastime. "To play a great
game" was their description of a battle.
King and Jester
From a manuscript of the early fifteenth century.
52. Knighthood and Chivalry
The prevalence of warfare in feudal times made the use of
arms a profession requiring special training. A nobleman's
Apprentice- ^^^ served for a number of years, first as a page,
ship of the then as a squire, in his father's castle or in that of
^^^^* some other lord. He learned to manage a horse,
to clhnb a scaling ladder, to wield sword, battle-ax, and lance.
He also waited at the lord's table, assisted him in his toilet,
followed him in the chase, and attended him on campaigns.
This apprenticeship usually lasted from five to seven years.
Knighthood and Chivalry
127
When the young noble became of age, he might be made a
knight, if he deserved the honor and could afford the expense.
The ceremony of conferring knighthood was often Conferring of
most elaborate. The candidate fasted, took a knighthood
bath — the symbol of purification — and passed the eve of his
admission in prayer. Next morning he confessed his sins, went
to mass, and Hstened to a sermon on the duties of knighthood.
This ended, his father, or the noble who had brought him up,
girded him with .
a sword and gave k %^
him the "acco-
lade," that is, a
blow on the neck
or shoulder, at
the same time
saying, "Be thou
a good knight."
Then the youth,
clad in shining
armor and wear-
ing golden spurs,
mounted his horse
and exhibited his skill in warlike exercises. If a squire for
valorous conduct received knighthood on the battle-field, the
accolade by stroke of the sword formed the only ceremony.
In course of time, as manners softened and Christian teach-
ings began to affect feudal society, knighthood developed into
chivalry. The Church, which opposed the war-
like excesses of feudalism, took the knight under
her wing and bade him be always a true soldier of Christ. To
the rude virtues of fidelity to one's lord and bravery in battle,
the Church added others. The "good knight" was he who re-
spected his sworn word, who never took an unfair advantage
of another, who defended women, widows, and orphans against
their oppressors, and who sought to make justice and right
prevail in the world. Chivalry thus marked the union of
pagan and Christian virtues, of Christianity and militarism.
Falconry
From a manuscript of the thirteenth century in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
128 Feudalism
Needless to say, the ''good knight" appears rather in romance
than in sober history. Such a one. was Sir Lancelot, in the
The chival- stories of King Arthur and the Round Table. ^ As
lie code gjj. Lancelot lies in death, a former companion
addresses him in words which sum up the best in the chivalric
code: '"Thou wert the courthest knight that ever bare shield;
and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrode
horse; and thou wert the truest lover among sinful men that
ever loved woman; and thou wert the kindest man that ever
struck with sword; and thou wert the goodUest person that
A Joust
From a French manuscript of the early fourteenth century. Shows knights jousting
with cronels on their lances.
ever came among press of knights; and thou wert the meekest
man, and the gentlest, that ever ate in hall among ladies; and
thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put
spear in the rest.'" ^
The all-absorbing passion for fighting led to the invention of
mimic warfare in the shape of jousts and tournaments.^ These
Jousts and exercises formed the medieval equivalent of the
tournaments Greek athletic games and the Roman gladiatorial
shows. The joust was a contest between two knights; the tour-
nament, between two bands of knights. The contests took
place in a railed-off space, called the "lists," about which the
spectators gathered. Each knight wore upon his helmet the
1 See page 251.
2 Malory, Alorte d'Arthur, xxi, 13. See also Tennyson's poem, Sir Galahad,
for a beautiful presentation of the ideal knight.
^ Sir Walter Scott's novel, Ivanhoe (chapter xii), contains a description of a
tournament.
Feudalism as a Form of Local Industry 129
scarf or color of his lady and fought with her eyes upon him.
Victory went to the one who unhorsed his opponent or broke
in the proper manner the greatest number of lances. The
beaten knight forfeited horse and armor and had to pay a
ransom to the conqueror. Sometimes he lost his life, espe-
cially when the participants fought with real weapons and not
with blunted lances and pointless swords. The Church now
and then tried to stop these performances, but they remained
universally popular until the close of the Middle Ages.
Chivalry arose with feudalism, formed, in fact, the religion of
feudalism, and passed away only when the changed conditions
of society made feudalism an anachronism. While influence of
chivalry lasted, it produced some improvement in chivalry
manners, particularly by insisting on the notion of personal
honor and by fostering greater regard for women (though only
for those of the upper class). Our modern notion of the con-
duct befitting a "gentleman" goes back to the old chivalric
code. Chivalry expressed, however, simply the sentiments of
the warlike nobles. It was an aristocratic ideal. The knight
despised and did his best to keep in subjection the toiling
peasantry, upon whose backs rested the real burden of feudal
society.
53. Feudalism as a Form of Local Industry
Under the Roman Empire western Europe had been filled
with flourishing cities. The Germanic invasions led to a gradual
decay of trade and manufacturing, and hence of Decline of
the cities in which these activities centered. As ^^^^ ^^®
urban life declined, the mass of the population came to live
more and more in isolated rural communities. This was the
great economic feature of the early Middle Ages.
An estate in land, when owned by a lord and occupied by
dependent peasants, was called a manor.^ It naturally varied
in size according to the wealth of its lord. In ^,
^ . The manor
England perhaps six hundred acres represented
the extent of an average estate. Every noble had at least
^ From the Old French manoir, "mansion" (Latin manere, "to dwell").
130 Feudalism
one manor; great nobles might have several manors, usually
scattered throughout the country; and even the king depended
on his many manors for the food supply of the court. England,
during the period following the Norman Conquest, contained
more than nine thousand of these manorial estates.
Of the arable land of the manor the lord reserved as much
as needful for his own use. The lord's land was called his
"demesne," or domain. The rest of the land he
Common n 1 , , i •
cultivation of allotted to the peasants who were his tenants.
the arable They cultivated their holdings in common ac-
cording to the "open field" system. A farmer,
instead of having his land in one compact mass, had it split
up into a large number of small strips (usually about half an
acre each) scattered over the manor, and separated, not by
fences or hedges, but by banks of unplowed turf. The ap-
pearance of a manor, when under cultivation, has been likened
to a vast checkerboard or a patchwork quilt. The reason for
the intermixture of strips seems to have been to make sure that
each farmer had a portion both of the good land and of the bad.
It is obvious that this arrangement compelled all the peasants
to labor according to a common plan. A man had to sow the
same kinds of crops as his neighbors, and to till and reap them
at the same time. Agriculture, under such circumstances,
could not fail to be unprogressive.
In other ways, too, agriculture was very backward. Farmers
did not know how to enrich the soil by the use of fertilizers
Farming or how to provide for a proper rotation of crops,
methods Hence each year they cultivated only two-thirds
of the land, letting the other third lie "fallow" (uncultivated),
that it might recover its fertility. It is said that eight or nine
bushels of grain represented the average yield of an acre. Farm
animals were small, for scientific breeding had not yet begun.
Farm implements, also, were few and clumsy. It took five
men a day to reap and bind the harvest of two acres.
Besides his holding of arable land, which in England averaged
about thirty acres, each peasant had certain rights over the
non-arable land of the manor. He could cut a limited amount
Feudalism as a Form of Local Industry 131
Farm Work in the Fourteenth Century
Plowing. Harrowing. Cutting Weeds. Reaping.
132 Feudalism
of hay from the meadow. He could turn so many farm animals
— cattle, geese, swine — on the waste. He also enjoyed the
Common use Privilege of taking so much wood from the forest
of the non- for fuel and building purposes. A peasant's
holding, which also included a house in the village,
thus formed a complete outfit.
54. The Village and Life of the Peasants
The peasants on a manor lived close together in one or more
villages.- Their small, thatch-roofed, and one-roomed houses
Description were grouped about an open space (the ''green"),
of a village ^j. qj^ both sides of a single, narrow street. The
only important buildings were the parish church, the par-
sonage, a mill, if a stream ran through the manor, and
possibly a blacksmith's shop. The population of one of these
communities often did not exceed one hundred souls.
A village in the Middle Ages had a regular staff of officials.
First came the headman or reeve, who represented the peasants
Village in their dealings with the lord of the manor,
officials Next came the constable or beadle, whose duty it
was to carry messages round the village, summon the inhabi-
tants to meetings, and enforce the orders of the reeve. Then
there was the poundkeeper, who seized straying animals, the
watchman, who guarded the flocks at night, and the village
carpenter, blacksmith, and miller. These officials, in return for
their services, received an allowance of land, which the villagers
cultivated for them.
Perhaps the most striking feature of a medieval village was
its self-sufficiency. The inhabitants tried to produce at home
A viUage as everything they required, in order to avoid the
self-sufficing uncertainty and expense of trade. The land gave
them their food; the forest provided them with wood for houses
and furniture. They made their own clothes of flax, wool, and
leather. Their meal and flour were ground at the village mill,
and at the village smithy their farm implements were manu-
factured. The chief articles which needed to be brought from
some distant market included salt, used to salt down farm
The Village and Life of the Peasants 133
animals killed in autumn, iron for various tools, and millstones.
Cattle, horses, and surplus grain also formed common objects
of exchange between manors.
Life in a medieval village was rude and rough. The peasants
labored from sunrise to sunset, ate coarse fare, lived in huts,
and suffered from frequent pestilences. They Hard lot of
were often the helpless prey of the feudal nobles, the peasantry
If their lord happened to be a quarrelsome man, given to fight-
Plan of Hitchin Manor, Hertfordshire
Lord's demesne, diagonal lines.
Meadow and pasture lands, dotted areas.
Normal holding of a peasant, black strips.
ing with his neighbors, they might see their lands ravaged, their
cattle driven off, and their village burned, and might themselves
be slain. Even under peaceful conditions the narrow, shut-in
life of the manor could not be otherwise than degrading.
Yet there is another side to the picture. If the peasants had
a just and generous lord, they probably led a fairly comfortable
134 Feudalism
existence. Except when crops failed, they had an abundance
AUeviations ^^ food, and possibly wine or cider to drink,
of the They shared a common Ufe in the work of the
peasant s ot ^gj^^g^ jj^ ^}^e sports of the village green, and in the
services of the parish church. They enjoyed many holidays;
it has been estimated that, besides Sundays, about eight weeks
in every year were free from work. Festivities at Christmas,
Easter, and May Day, at the end of ploughing and the com-
pletion of harvest, relieved the monotony of the daily round of
labor. Perhaps these medieval peasants were not much worse
off than the agricultural laborers in most countries of modern
Europe.
55. Serfdom
A medieval village usually contained several classes of
laborers. There might be a number of freemen, who paid a
Freemen fixed rent, either in money or produce, for the
slaves, and use of their land. A few slaves might also be
^^ ^ found in the lord's household or at work on his
domain. By this time, however, slavery had about died out
in western Europe. Most of the peasants were serfs.
Serfdom represented a stage between slavery and freedom.
A slave belonged to his master; he was bought and sold like
Nature of other chattels. A serf had a higher position, for
serfdom ]^g could not be sold apart from the land nor could
his holding be taken from him. He was fixed to the soil. On
the other hand, a serf ranked lower than a freeman, because he
could not change his abode, nor marry outside the manor, nor
bequeath his goods, without the permission of his lord.
The serf did not receive his land as a free gift; for the use of
it he owed certain duties to his master. These took chiefly the
ObUgations form of personal services. He must labor on the
of the serf lord's domain for two or three days each week,
and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting,
he must do extra work. At least half his time was usually de-
manded by the lord. The serf had also to make certain pay-
ments, either in money or more often in grain, honey, eggs,
Decline of Feudalism 135
or other produce. When he ground the wheat or pressed the
grapes which grew on his land, he must use the lord's mill,
the lord's wine-press, and pay the customary charge.
Serfdom developed during the later centuries of the Roman
Empire and in the early Middle Ages. It was well estabhshed
by the time of Charlemagne. Most serfs seem Origin of
to have been the descendants, or at least the sue- serfdom
cessors, of Roman slaves, whose condition had gradually im-
proved. The serf class was also recruited from the ranks of
freemen, who by conquest or because of the desire to gain the
protection of a lord, became subject to him. Serfdom, how-
ever, was destined to be merely a transitory condition. By
the close of medieval times, the serfs in the more progressive
countries of western Europe had secured their freedom.
56. Decline of Feudalism
Feudalism led a vigorous life for about five hundred years.
Taking definite shape early in the ninth century, Duration of
it flourished throughout the later Middle Ages, feudaUsm
but became decadent by the opening of the fourteenth century.
As a form of local government, feudalism tended to pass
away when the rulers in England, France, and Spain, and later
in Germany and Italy, became powerful enough
to put down private warfare, execute justice, and opposed to
maintain order everywhere in their dominions, ffudahsm:
the kings
The kings were always anti-feudal. We shall study
in a later chapter ^ the rise of strong governments and centralized
states in western Europe.
As a form of local industry, feudalism could not survive the
great changes of the later Middle Ages, when reviving trade,
commerce, and manufactures had begun to lead _
° Forces
to the increase of wealth, the growth of markets, opposed to
and the substitution of money payments for those feudalism:
in produce or services. Flourishing cities arose,
as in the days of the Roman Empire, freed themselves from the
control of the nobles, and became the homes of liberty and
^ See chapter x.
136 Feudalism
democracy. The cities, like the kings, were always anti-feudal.
We shall deal with their development in a later chapter.^
There was still another anti-feudal force, namely, the Roman
Church. It is true that many of the higher clergy were feudal
The Church lords, and that even the monasteries owned
and feudalism manorial estates which were parceled out among
tenants. Nevertheless, the Roman Church as a universal
organization, including men of all ranks and classes, was neces- ■
sarily opposed to feudalism, a local and an aristocratic system.
The work and influence of this Church will now engage our
attention.
Studies
I. Write a brief essay on feudal society, using the following words: lord;
vassal; castle; keep; dungeon; chivalry; tournament; manor; and serf. 2. Ex-
plain the following terms: vassal; fief; serf; "aid"; homage; squire; investiture;
and "relief." 3. Look up the origin of the words homage, castle, dungeon, and
chivalry. 4. Mention some feudal titles which survive in those of European
nobles. 5. "The real heirs of Charlemagne were from the first neither the kings
of France nor those of Italy or Germany; but the feudal lords." Comment on this
statement. 6. Why was the feudal system not found in the Roman Empire in the
East during the Middle Ages? 7. Why has feudalism been called "confusion
roughly organized"? 8. Contrast feudalism as a political system with (a) the
classical city-states, {b) the Roman Empire; and (c) modern national states.
Q. What was the effect of feudaUsm on the sentiment of patriotism? 10. What
are some of the advantages and disadvantages of primogeniture as the rule of
inheritance? 11. Explain these phrases: "to be in hot water"; "to go through
fire and water " ; and ' ' to haul over the coals. " 12. Compare the oaths administered
to witnesses in modern courts with medieval oaths. 13. WTiy was war the usual
condition of feudal society? 14. Compare the "Peace of God" with the earlier
"Roman Peace" {Pax Romano). 15. Mention some modem comforts and luxuries
which were unknown in feudal castles. 16. What is the present meaning of the
word "chivalrous"? How did it get that meaning? 17. Why has chivalry been
called "the blossom of feudalism"? 18. Describe the agricultural processes and
implements shown in the illustration on page 131. 19. Show that the serf was
not a slave or a "hired man" or a tenant-farmer paying rent.
^ See chapter xi.
CHAPTER VII
THE PAPACY AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, 962-1273 ^
57. Characteristics of the Medieval Church
A PRECEDING chapter dealt with the history of Christianity
in the East and West during the early Middle Ages. We
learned something about its organization, belief, The Roman
and worship, about the rise and growth of the Church
Papacy, about monasticism, and about that missionary cam-
paign which won all Europe to the Christian rehgion. Our
narrative extended to the middle of the eleventh century,
when the quarrel between pope and patriarch led at length to
the disruption of Christendom/ We have now to consider the
work and influence of the Roman Church during later centuries
of the Middle Ages.
The Church at the height of its power held spiritual sway
throughout western Europe. Italy and Sicily, the larger part
of Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the xemtorial
British Isles, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and extent of the
Iceland yielded obedience to the pope of Rome. Church
Membership in the Church was not a matter of free choice.
All people, except Jews, were required to belong to it. A
person joined the Church by baptism, a rite usually The Church
performed in infancy, and remained in it as long *^ universal
as he lived. Every one was expected to conform, at least
outwardly, to the doctrines and practices of the Church, and
any one attacking its authority was Hable to punishment as a
heretic.
The existence of one Church in the western world furnished
a bond of union between European peoples during the age
^ Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter x, "Monastic
Life in the Twelfth Century"; chapter xi, "St. Francis and the Franciscans."
137
138 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
of feudalism. The Church took no heed of political boundaries,
The Church ^^^ ^^^ °^ ^^^ nationalities entered the ranks
as inter- of the priesthood and joined the monastic orders,
nation Priests and monks were subjects of no country,
but were "citizens of heaven," as they sometimes called
themselves. Even differences of language counted for little
in the Church, since Latin was the universal speech of the
educated classes. One must think, then, of the Church as
a great international state, in form a monarchy, presided
over by the pope, and with its capital at Rome.
The Church in the Middle Ages performed a double task.
On the one hand, it gave the people religious instruction and
Twofold watched over their morals; on the other hand, it
duties of the played an important part in European politics and
^^^ provided a means of government. Because the
Church thus combined ecclesiastical and civil functions, it was
quite unlike all modern churches, whether Greek, Roman, or
Protestant. Both sides of its activities deserve, therefore, to
be considered.
58. Church Doctrine and Worship
The Church taught a behef in a personal God, all-wise,
all-good, all-powerful, to know whom was the highest goal
" The gate of life. The avenue to this knowledge lay through
of heaven" faith in the revelation of God, as found in the
Scriptures. Since the unaided human reason could not properly
interpret the Scriptures, it was necessary for the Church,
through her officers, to declare their meaning and set forth
what doctrines were essential to salvation. The Church thus
appeared as the sole repository of religious knowledge, as
"the gate of heaven."
Salvation did not depend only on the acceptance of certain
beliefs. There were also certain acts, called "sacraments," in
The which the faithful Christian must participate, if
sacramental he was not to be cut off eternally from God. These
sysem ^^^^ formed channels of heavenly grace; they
saved man from the consequences of his sinful nature and filled
Church Doctrine and Worship 139
him with ''the fullness of divine life." Since priests alone
could administer the sacraments/ the Church presented itself
as the necessary mediator between God and man.
Seven sacraments were generally recognized by the thirteenth
century. Four of these marked critical stages in human life,
from the cradle to the grave. Baptism cleansed Baptism,
the child from the taint of original sin and admitted confirmation,
1 . . 1 /-.I • . . ^ matnmony,
him mto the Christian community. Confirma- and extreme
tion gave him full Church fellowship. Matrimony ^"^ction
united husband and wife in holy bonds which might never be
broken. Extreme unction, the anointing with oil of one mor-
tally ill, purified the soul and endowed it with strength to meet
death.
Penance held an especially important place in the sacra-
mental system. At least once a year the Christian must confess
his sins to a priest. If he seemed to be truly
1 . , , , , Penance
repentant, the priest pronounced the solemn words
of absolution and then imposed lipon him some penalty, which
varied according to the nature of the offense. A man who
had sinned grievously might be required to engage in chari-
table work, to make a contribution to the support of the Church,
or to go on a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine. The more distant
and difficult a pilgrimage, the more meritorious it was, especially
if it led to some very holy place, such as Rome or Jerusalem.
This system of penitential punishment referred only to the
earthly life; it was not supposed to cleanse the soul for eternity.
The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist formed the central
feature of worship. It was more than a common meal in
commemoration of the Last Supper of Christ Holy
with the Apostles. It was a solemn ceremony Eucharist
by which the Christian believed himself to receive the body
and blood of Christ, under the form of bread and wine.^ The
right of the priest to withhold the Eucharist from any person,
1 In case of necessity baptism might be performed by any lay person of adult
years and sound mind.
^ This doctrine is known as transubstantiation. In the Roman Church, as has
been noted (page 65), wine is not administered to the laity.
I40 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
for good cause, gave the Church great power, because the
failure to partake of this sacrament imperiled one's chances
of future salvation.
The seventh and last sacrament, that of ordination, or
"Holy Orders," admitted persons to the priesthood. Accord-
^ ^. ^ ing to the teaching of the Church the rite had
Ordination ° . . °
been mstituted by Christ, when He chose the
Apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel. From
the Apostles, who ordained their successors, the clergy in all
later times received their exalted authority.^
The Church did not rely solely on the sacramental system as
a means to salvation. It was believed that holy persons, called
Reverence saints,^ who had died and gone to heaven, offered
for saints ^^ Q^^ their prayers for men. The earliest
saints were Christian martyrs, who had sealed their faith with
their blood. In course of time many other persons, renowned
for pious deeds, were exalted to sainthood. Canonization,
or the making of a saint, is now done only by the pope.
High above all the saints stood the Virgin Mary. Devo-
tion to her as the "Queen of Heaven" increased rapidly in
Devotion to the Church after the time of Gregory the Great,
the Virgin Everywhere churches arose in her honor, and no
cathedral or abbey lacked a chapel dedicated to Our Lady.
The growing reverence for saints led to an increased interest
in relics. These included the bones of a saint and shreds of his
_ J. garments, besides such objects as the wood or
nails of the cross on which Christ suffered. Relics
were not simply mementos; the faithful believed them to
possess miraculous power which passed into them through con-
tact with holy persons. This belief explains the use of relics
to heal diseases, to ward off danger, and, in general, to bring
good fortune. An oath taken upon rehcs was especially sacred.^
The Church also taught a belief in purgatory as a state or
place of probation.'^ Here dwelt the souls of those who were
^ Hence the term "Apostolical Succession." ^ Latin sanclus, "holy."
•■' See pages io6 and 117.
* The belief in purgatory is not held by Protestants or by members of the Greek
Church.
Church Jurisdiction 141
guilty of no mortal sins which would condemn them to hell,
but yet were burdened with imperfections which _
Purgatory
prevented them from entering heaven. Such
imperfections, it was held, might be removed by the prayers
of the living, and hence the practice arose of praying for the
dead. Masses were also often said for the repose of souls in
purgatory.
59. Church Jurisdiction
The Church had regular courts and a system of "canon law"
for the trial of offenders against its regulations. Many cases,
which to-day would be decided according to the church
civil or criminal law of the State, in the Middle courts
Ages came before the ecclesiastical courts. Since marriage
was considered a sacrament, the Church took upon itself "to
decide what marriages were lawful. It forbade the union of
first cousins, of second cousins, and of godparents and god-
children. It refused to sanction divorce, for whatever cause,
if both parties at the time of marriage had been baptized Chris-
tians. The Church dealt with inheritance under wills, for a
man could not make a legal will until he had confessed, and
confession formed part of the sacrament of penance. All
contracts made binding by oaths came under Church juris-
diction, because an oath was an appeal to God. The Church
tried those who were charged with any sin against rehgion,
including heresy, blasphemy, the taking of interest (usury),
and the practice of witchcraft. Widows, orphans, and the
families of pilgrims or crusaders also enjoyed the special pro-
tection of Church courts.
The Church claimed the privilege of judging all cases which
involved clergymen. No layman, it was declared, ought to
interfere with one who, by the sacrament of "Benefit of
ordination, had been dedicated to God. This clergy"
demand of the Church to try its own officers, according to its
own mild and intelligent laws, seems not unreasonable, when
we remember how rude were the methods of feudal justice.
An interesting illustration of the power of the Church is
142 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
afforded by the right of "sanctuary." Any lawbreaker who
Right of fled to a church building enjoyed, for a limited
" sanctuary " time, the privilege of safe refuge. It was consid-
ered a sin against God to drag even the most wicked criminal
from the altar. The most that could be done was to deny the
refugee food, so that he might come forth voluntarily. This
privilege of seeking sanctuary was not without social usefulness,
for it gave time for angry passions to cool, thus permitting an
investigation of the charges against an offender.
Disobedience to the regulations of the Church might be
followed by excommunication. This was a punishment which
Excommuni- cut off the offender from Christian fellowship. He
cation could neither attend religious services nor enjoy the
sacraments so necessary to salvation. If he died excommuni-
cate, his body could not be buried in consecrated ground. By
the law of the State he lost all civil rights and forfeited all his
property. No one might speak to him, feed him, or shelter
him. Such a terrible penalty, it is well to point out, was usually
imposed only after the sinner had received a fair trial and had
spurned entreaties to repent.
The interdict, another form of punishment, was directed
against a particular locality, for the fault of some of the inhabi-
tants who could not be reached directly. In
Interdict , . . ,. , . , , . . .
time of mterdict, the priests closed the churches
and neither married the living nor buried the dead. All the
inhabitants of the afflicted district were ordered to fast, as in
Lent, and to let their hair grow long in sign of mourning. The
interdict also stopped the wheels of government, for courts of
justice were shut, wills could not be made, and public officials
were forbidden to perform their duties. In some cases the
Church went so far as to lay an interdict upon an entire kingdom,
whose ruler had refused to obey her mandate. The interdict
has now passed out of use, but excommunication still retains
an important place among the spiritual weapons of the Church.^
^ Two instances of the use of excommunication are mentioned below (pages
155 and 158). For two instances of interdicts see pages 157-158.
The Secular Clergy
143
60. The Secular Clergy
Some one has said that in the Middle Ages there were just
three classes of society: the nobles who fought; the peasants
who worked; and the clergy who prayed. The ^j^^ ^^^^^
latter class was divided into the secular ^ clergy, and regular
including deacons, priests, and bishops, who lived ^^^^^
active lives in
the world, and the
regular ^ clergy,
or monks, who
passed their days
in seclusion be-
hind monastery
walls.
An account of
the secular clergy
naturally Pansh
begins P^^^^ts
with the parish
priest, who had
charge of a parish,
the smallest divi-
sion of Christen-
dom. No one
could act as a
priest without the
approval of the
bishop, but the
nobleman who supported the parish had the privilege of nomi-
nating candidates for the position. The priest derived his
income from lands belonging to the parish, from tithes,^ and
from voluntary contributions, but as a rule he received httle
more than a bare living. The parish priest was the only Church
1 Latin sceculum, used in the sense of "the world."
2 Latin regula, a "rule," referring to the rule or constitution of a monastic order.
3 The tithe was a tenth part of the yearly income from land, stock, and personal
industry.
A Bishop Ordaining a Priest
From an English manuscript of the twelfth century. The
bishop wears a miter and holds in his left hand the pastoral
staff, or crosier. His right hand is extended in blessing over
the priest's head.
144 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
officer who came continually into touch with the common
people. He baptized, married, and buried his parishioners.
For them he celebrated mass at least once a week, heard con-
fessions, and granted absolution. He watched over all their
deeds on earth and prepared them for the life to come.
A group of parishes formed a diocese, over which a bishop
presided. It was his business to look after the property be-
longing to the diocese, to hold the ecclesiastical
Bishops . . , ,
courts, to visit the clergy, and to see that they
did their duty. The bishop alone could administer the sacra-
ments of confirmation and ordination. He also performed the
ceremonies at the consecration of a new church edifice or shrine.
Since the Church held many estates on feudal tenure, the bishop
was usually a territorial lord, owing a vassal's obligations to
the king or to some powerful noble for his land, and himself
ruling over vassals in different parts of the country. As sym-
bols of his power and dignity, the bishop wore on his head the
miter and carried the pastoral staff, or crosier.^
Above the bishop in rank stood the archbishop. In Eng-
land, for example, there were two archbishops, one residing
at York and the other at Canterbury. The
Archbishops .
latter, as "primate of all England," was the highest
ecclesiastical dignitary in the land. An archbishop's distinc-
tive vestment consisted of the pallium, a narrow band of white
wool, worn around the neck. The pope alone could confer
the right to wear the pallium. The church which contained
the official seat or throne ^ of a bishop or archbishop was called
a cathedral. It was ordinarily the largest and most magnifi-
cent church in the diocese.
61. The Regular Clergy
The regular clergy, or monks, during the early Middle Ages
belonged to the Benedictine order. By the tenth century,
Decline of however, St. Benedict's Rule had lost much of its
monasticism force. As the monasteries increased in wealth
through gifts of land and goods, they sometimes became centers
1 See the illustration, page 143. 2 Latin cathedra.
The Regular Clergy 145
of idleness, luxury, and corruption. The monks forgot their
vows of poverty; and, instead of themselves laboring as farmers,
craftsmen, and students, they employed laymen to work for
them. At the same time powerful feudal lords frequently
obtained control of the monastic estates by appointing as
abbots their children or their retainers. Grave danger existed
that the monasteries would pass out of Church control and
decline into mere fiefs ruled by worldly men.
A marked revival of monasticism began i« 910, with the foun-
dation of the monastery of Cluny in eastern France. The monks
of Cluny led lives of the utmost self-denial and fol- The Cluniac
lowed the Benedictine Rule in all its strictness, revival
Their enthusiasm and devotion were contagious; before long
Cluny became a center from which a reformatory movement
spread over France and th-en over all western Europe. By
the middle of the twelfth century more than three hundred
monasteries looked to Cluny for inspiration and guidance.
Each of the earlier Benedictine monasteries had been an
isolated community, independent and self-governing. Conse-
quently, when discipline grew lax or when the abbot r^^^ « ^
proved to be an incapable ruler, it was difficult gregation of
to correct the evils which arose. In the Cluniac ^"^^
system, however, all the monasteries formed parts of one organ-
ization, the "Congregation of Cluny." The abbot of Cluny
appointed their "priors," or heads, and required every monk
to pass several years of his monastic life at Cluny itself. This
arrangement helps to explain why for two hundred years the
abbot of Cluny was, next to the pope, the most important
churchman in western Europe.
Other monastic orders arose in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Of these, the most important was the Cistercian,
founded in 1098 at Citeaux, not far from Cluny. ^j^^
The Cistercians especially emphasized the need Cistercian
for manual labor. They were the best farmers ^^
and cattle breeders of the Middle Ages. Western Europe
owes even more to them than to the Benedictines for their
hard work as pioneers in the wilderness. "The Cistercians,"
146 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
declared a medieval writer, "are a model to all monks, a mirror
for the diligent, a spur to the indolent."
The whole spirit of medieval monasticism found expression
in St. Bernard, a Burgundian of noble birth. While stiU a
St. Bernard, young man, he resolved to leave the world and
1090-1153 ggg]^ ^YiQ repose of the monastic life. He entered
Citeaux, carrying with him thirty companions. Mothers
are said to have hid their sons from him, and wives their hus-
bands, lest they should be converted to monasticism by his
persuasive words. After a few years at Citeaux St. Bernard
established the monastery of Clairvaux, over which he ruled
as abbot till his death. His ascetic life, piety, eloquence, and
ability as an executive soon brought him into prominence.
People visited Clairvaux from far and near to listen to his
preaching and to receive his counsels. The monastery flourished
under his direction and became the parent of no less than sixty-
five Cistercian houses which were planted in the wilderness.
St. Bernard's activities widened until he came to l^e the most
influential man in western Christendom. It was St. Bernard
who acted as an adviser of the popes, at one time deciding
between two rival candidates for the Papacy, who combated
most vigorously the heresies of the day, and who by his fiery
appeals set in motion one of the crusades.^ The charm of his
character is revealed to us in his sermons and letters, while
some of the Latin hymns commonly attributed to him are still
sung in many churches, both Roman Catholic and Protestant.
62. The Friars
The history of Christian monasticism exhibits an ever-
widening social outlook. The early hermits ^ had devoted
Coming of themselves, as they believed, to the service of
the friars Qq^ ^y retiring to the desert for prayer, medita-
tion, and bodily mortification. St. Benedict's wise Rule, as
followed by the medieval monastic orders, marked a change
for the better. It did away with extreme forms of self-denial,
brought the monks together in a common house, and required
1 See page 170. 2 See page 54.
The Friars
147
them to engage in daily manual labor. Yet even the Bene-
dictine system had its limitations. The monks lived apart
from the world and sought chiefly the salvation of their own
souls. A new conception of the religious life arose early
in the thirteenth century, with the coming of the friars.^ The
aim of the friars was
social service. They
took an active part
in affairs and devoted
themselves entirely
to the salvation of
others. The founda-
tion of the orders of
friars was the work
of two men, St. Fran-
cis in Italy and St.
Dominic in Spain.
St. Francis was the
son of a prominent
merchant St. Francis,
of Assisi. 1181(?)-1226
The young man had
before him the pros-
pect of a fine career,
but before long he
put away all thoughts
of riches and honor,
deserted his gay com-
panions, and, choosing "Lady Poverty" as his bride, started
out to minister to lepers and social outcasts. One day, while
attending mass, the call came to him to preach the gospel as
Christ had preached it, among the poor and lowly. The
man's earnestness and charm of manner soon drew about him
■ devoted followers. After some years St. Francis went to Rome
and obtained Pope Innocent Ill's sanction of his work. The
Franciscan order spread so rapidly that even in the founder's
• 1 Latin /m/er, "brother."
St. Francis Blessing the Birds
From a painting by the Italian artist Giotto.
148 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
lifetime there were several thousand members in Italy and
other European countries.
St. Francis is one of the most attractive figures in all history.
Perhaps no other man has ever tried so seriously to imitate in
Personality I his own life the life of Christ. St. Francis went
of St Francis about doing good. He resembled, in some re-
spects, the social workers and revivalist preachers of to-day.
In other tespects he was a true child of the Middle Ages. An
ascetic, he fasted, wore a hair-cloth shirt, mixed ashes with
his food to make it disagreeable, wept daily, so that his eye-
sight was nearly destroyed, and every night flogged himself
with iron chains. A mystic, he lived so close to God and
nature that he could include within the bonds of his love not
only men and women, but also animals, trees, and flowers.
He preached a sermon to the birds and once wrote a hymn
to praise God for his "brothers," sun, wind, and fire, and for
his "sisters," moon, water, and earth. When told that he had
but a short time to live, he exclaimed, "Welcome, Sister Death! "
He died at the age of forty-five, worn out by his exertions and
seK-denial. Two years later the pope made him a saint.
St. Dominic, unlike St. Francis, was a clergyman and a
student of theology. After being ordained, he went to southern
St. Dominic, France and labored there for ten years among a
1170-1221 heretical sect known as the Albigenses. The
order of Dominicans grew out of the little band of volunteers
who assisted him in the mission. St. Dominic sent his fol-
lowers — at first only sixteen in number — out into the world
to combat heresy. They met with great success, and at the
founder's death the Dominicans had as many as sixty friaries
in various European cities.
The Franciscans and Dominicans resembled each other in
many ways. They were "itinerant," ^ going on foot from place
Character- ^^ place, and wearing coarse robes tied round the
istics of the waist with a rope. They were "mendicants," ^-
"^^ who possessed no property but lived on the alms
of the charitable. They were also preachers, who spoke to the
1 Low Latin itinerare, "to make a journey." 2 Latin mendicare, "to beg."
Power of the Papacy 149
people, not in Latin, but in the common language of each
country which they visited. The Franciscans worked especially
in the slums of the cities; the Dominicans addressed them-
selves rather to educated people and the upper classes. As
time went on, both orders relaxed the rule of poverty and be-
came very wealthy. They still survive, scattered all over
the world and employed as teachers and missionaries.
The friars by their preaching and ministrations did a great
deal to call forth a religious revival in Europe during the thir-
teenth century. In particular, they helped to j^ie friars
strengthen the papal authority. Both orders and the
received the sanction of the pope; both enjoyed ^^^^^
many privileges at his hands; and both looked to him for
direction. The pope employed them to raise money, to preach
crusades, and to impose excommunications and interdicts.
The Franciscans and Dominicans formed, in fact, the agents
of the Papacy.
63. Power of the Papacy
The name "pope" ^ seems at first to have been applied to all
priests as a title of respect and affection. The Greek Church
still continues this use of the word. In the West j^^ pope's
it gradually came to be reserved to the bishop of exalted
Rome as his official title. The pope was addressed ^^^^ ^^
in speaking as "Your Holiness." His exalted position was
further indicated by the tiara, or headdress with triple crowns,
worn by him in processions. ^ He went to solemn ceremonies
sitting in a chair supported on the shoulders of his guard.
He gave audience from an elevated throne, and all who ap-
proached him kissed his feet in reverence.
The pope was the supreme lawgiver of the Church. His
decrees might not be set aside by any other person. He made
new laws in the form of "bulls" ^ and by his "dis- The pope's
pensations" could in particular cases set aside old authority
laws, such as those i^orbidding cousins to marry or monks to
^ Latin papa, "father." ^ See the illustration, page 51.
3 So called from the lead seal (Latin bulla) attached to pai^l documents.
150 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
obtain release from their vows. The pope was also the su-
preme judge of the Church, for all appeals from the lower
ecclesiastical courts came before him for decision. Finally,
the pope was the supreme administrator of the Church. He
confirmed the election of bishops, deposed them, when neces-
sary, or transferred them from one diocese to another. No
archbishop might perform the functions of his office until he
had received the pallium from the pope's hands. The pope
also exercised control over the monastic orders and called
general councils of the Church.
The authority of the pope was commonly exercised by the
''legates," ^ whom he sent out as his representatives at the vari-
The papal o^s European courts. These officers kept the pope
legates j^ close touch with the condition of the Church in
every part of western Europe. A similar function is performed
in modern times by the papal ambassadors known as ''nuncios."
For assistance in government the pope made use of the cardi-
nals,2 who formed a board, or "college." At first they were
The chosen only from the clergy of Rome and the
cardinals vicinity, but in course of time the pope opened the
cardinalate to prominent churchmen in all countries. The
number of cardinals is now fixed at seventy, but the college is
never full, and there are always ten or more "vacant hats," as
the saying goes. The cardinals, in the eleventh century,
received the right of choosing a new pope. A cardinal ranks
above all other church officers except the pope. His dignity
is indicated by the red hat and scarlet robe which he wears
and by the title of "Eminence" applied to him.
To support the business of the Papacy and to maintain the
splendor of the papal court required a large annual income.
Income of This Came partly from the States of the Church
the Papacy [^ i^-^jy^ partly from the gifts of the faithful, and
partly from the payments made by abbots, bishops, and arch-
bishops when the pope confirmed their election to office. Still
another source of revenue consisted of "Peter's Pence," a tax
of a penny on each hearth. It was collected every year in
1 Latin /ega/w5^,." deputy." * Latin cardmalis, "principal."
Interior
ST. PETER'S, ROME
St. Peter's, begun in 1506 a.d., was completed in 1667, according to the designs of Bramante,
Raphael, Michelangelo, and other celebrated architects. It is the largest church in the world.
The central aisle, nave, and choir measure about 600 feet in length; the great dome, 140
feet in diameter, rises to a height of more than 400 feet. A double colonnade encircles the
piazza in front of the church. The Vatican is seen to the right of St. Peter's.
Popes and Emperors 151
England and in some Continental countries until the time of
the Reformation. The modern "Peter's Pence" is a voluntary
contribution made each- year by Roman Catholics in all parts
of the world.
Rome, the Eternal City, from which in ancient times the
known world had been ruled, formed in the Middle Ages the
capital of the Papacy. Tens of thousands of pil- The capital
grims went there every year to worship at the °^ *^® Papacy
shrine of the Prince of the Apostles. Few traces now remain
of the medieval city. Old St. Peter's Church, where Charle-
magne was crowned emperor, gave way in the sixteenth cen-
tury to the world-famous structure that now occupies its site.
The Lateran Palace, which for more than a thousand years
served as the residence of the popes, has also disappeared, its
place being taken by a new and smaller building. The popes
now live in the splendid' palace of the Vatican.
The powers exercised by the popes during the later Middle
Ages were not secured without a struggle. As a matter of fact,
the concentration of authority in papal hands ^j^^ Panacv
was a gradual development covering several hun- and the
dred years. The pope reached his exalted position °^P^^®
only after a long contest with the Holy Roman Emperor.
64. Popes and Emperors, 962-1122
One might suppose that there could be no interference between
pope and emperor, since they seemed to have separate spheres
of action. It was said that God had made the
. r o T. . Relations
pope, as the successor of St. Peter, supreme m between pope
spiritual matters, and the emperor, as heir of the *^^ emperor
tT r> . , i» theory
Roman Caesars, supreme m temporal matters.
The former ruled men's souls, the latter, men's bodies. The
two sovereigns thus divided on equal terms the government of
the world.
The difficulty with this theory was that it did not work. No
one could decide in advance where the authority ^^^^ ^.^j^,
of the pope ended and where that of the emperor tions in
began. When the pope claimed certain powers ^^^^^^^
and the Papacy
152 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
which were also claimed by the emperor, a conflict between
the two rulers became inevitable.
In 962 Otto the Great, as we have learned,^ restored imperial
rule in the West, thus founding what in later centuries came
Otto the Great to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. Otto
made the city of Rome the imperial capital,
deposed a pope who
proved disobedient to
his wishes, and on
his own authority ap-
pointed a successor.
At the same time
Otto exacted from the
people of Rome an
oath that they would
never recognize any
pope to whose election
the emperor had not
consented.
Otto's successors
repeatedly interfered
in elections
to the Pa-
pacy. One
strong ruler, Henry
HI (1039-1056), has
been called the "pope-
maker." Early in his
reign he set aside
three rival claimants to the Papacy, creating a German bishop
pope, and on three subsequent occasions filled the papal throne
by fresh appointments. It was clear that if this situation
continued much longer the Papacy would become simply an
imperial office; it would be merged in the Empire.
The death of Henry III, which left the Empire in weak hands,
gave the Papacy a chance to escape from the control of the
1 See page 21.
The Papacy
and Otto's
successors
The Spiritual and the Temporal Power
A tenth-century mosaic in the church of St. John, Rome.
It represents Christ giving to St. Peter the keys of heaven,
and to Constantine the banner symbolic of earthly
dominion.
Popes and Emperors 153
secular power. A church council held at the Lateran Palace
decreed that henceforth the right of choosing the p^^ ^^^^_
supreme pontiff should belong exclusively to the tion by the
cardinals, who represented the clergy of Rome. ^^^ ^^^^
This arrangement has tended to prevent any interference
with the election of popes, either by the Roman people or by
foreign sovereigns.
Now that the Papacy had become independent, it began to
deal with a grave problem which affected the Church at large.
According to ecclesiastical rule bishops ought to Feudalizing
be chosen by the clergy of their diocese and abbots °^ *^® Church
by their monks. With the growth of feudalism, however,
many of these high dignitaries had become vassals, holding
their lands as fiefs of princes, kings, and emperors, and owing
the usual feudal dues. Their lords expected them to perform
the ceremony of homage, before "investing" them with the
lands attached to the bishopric or monastery. One can readily
see that in practice the lords really chose the bishops and abbots,
since they could always refuse to "invest" those who were
displeasing to them.
To the reformers in the Church lay investiture was intolerable.
How could the Church keep itself unspotted from the world
when its highest officers were chosen by laymen ^
111 • 1 1 • -. ^^y investi-
and were compelled to perform unpnestly duties? ture from
In the act of investiture the reformers also saw *^® Church
r . , , 1 r ^ Standpoint
the sin of simony ^ — the sale of sacred powers
— because there was such a temptation before the candidate
for a bishopric or abbacy to buy the position with promises or
with money.
The lords, on the other hand, believed that as long as bishops
and abbots held vast estates on feudal tenure they should con-
tinue to perform the obligations of vassalage. Lay investi-
To forbid lay investiture was to deprive the lords *Y^® */,
... viewed by
of all control over Church dignitaries. The real the secular
difficulty of the situation existed, of course, in the a^tJiority
^ A name derived from Simon Magus, who offered money to the Apostle Peter
for the power to confer the Holy Spirit. See Ads, viii, 18-20.
154 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
fact that the bishops and abbots were both spiritual officers
and temporal rulers, were servants of both the Church and
the State. They found it very difficult to serve two masters.
The throne of St. Peter was occupied at this time by Hilde-
brand, one of the most remarkable of the popes. Of obscure
Pontificate of Italian birth, he received his education in a Bene-
Gregory VII, dictine monastery at Rome and rose rapidly to a
position of great influence in papal affairs. On
becoming pope he assumed the name of Gregory VII. He is
described as a small man, ungainly in appearance and with a
weak voice, but energetic, forceful, and of imperious will.
Gregory devoted all his talents to the advancement of the
Papacy. A contemporary document,^ which may have been
Gregory's of Gregory's own composition, and at any rate
*"^^ expresses his ideas, contains the following state-
ments: "The Roman pontiff alone is properly called universal.
He alone may depose bishops and restore them to office. He is
the only person whose feet are kissed by all princes. He may
depose emperors. He may be judged by no one. He may
absolve from their allegiance the subjects of the wicked. The
Roman Church never has erred, and never can err, as the Scrip-
tures testify." Gregory did not originate these doctrines, but
he was the first pope who ventured to make a practical appUca-
tion of them.
Two years after Gregory became pope he issued a decree
against lay investiture. It declared that no emperor, king, duke,
marquis, count, or any other lay person should
against lay presume to grant investiture, under pain of ex-
1075^***^^^* communication. This decree was a general one,
applying to all states of western Europe, but
circumstances were such that it mainly affected Germany.
Henry IV, the ruler of Germany at this time, did not refuse
the papal challenge. He wrote a famous letter to Gregory,
Henry IV and calhng him "no pope, but false monk," telling him
Gregory VII Christ had never called him to the priesthood,
and bidding him "come down," "come down" from St. Peter's
1 The so-called Dictatus papa.
Popes and Emperors
155
throne. Gregory, in reply, deposed Henry as emperor, excom-
municated him, and freed his subjects from their allegiance.
This severe sentence made a profound impression in Ger-
many. Henry's adherents fell away, and it seemed probable
that the German nobles would elect another ruler Canossa,
in his stead. Henry then decided on abject sub- ^^'^'^
mission. He hastened across the Alps and found the pope
at the castle of Canossa, on
the northern slopes of the Ap-
ennines. It was January,
and the snow lay deep on the
ground. For three days the
emperor stood shivering out-
side the castle gate, barefoot
and clad in a coarse woolen
shirt, the garb of a penitent.
At last, upon the entreaties of
the Countess Matilda of Tus-
cany, Gregory admitted Henry
to his presence and granted
absolution. This strange and
moving spectacle revealed the
tremendous power which the
Church in the Middle Ages
exercised over the minds of
RcxRo^T AflB^jeofj '0?aT>^i]djo9 SuppLicATAr'j^-
Henry IV, Countess Matilda,
AND Gregory VII
From a manuscript of the twelfth century,
now in the Vatican Library at Rome.
men.
The dramatic scene at Ca-
nossa did not end the investiture conflict. It dragged on for
half a century after Gregory's death. At length Concordat of
the opposing parties agreed to what is known as Worms, 1122
the Concordat of Worms, from the old German city where it
was signed. The concordat drew a distinction between
spiritual and lay investiture. The emperor renounced investi-
ture by the ring and crosier — the emblems of spiritual author-
ity — and permitted bishops and abbots to be elected by the
clergy and confirmed in office by the pope. On the other
hand, the pope recognized the emperor's right to be present
156 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
at all elections and to invest bishops and abbots by the scepter
for whatever lands they held within his domains. This reason-
able compromise worked well for a time. But it was a truce,
not a peace. It did not settle the more fundamental issue,
whether the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire should be
supreme.
'■-m^^S'^^i^^^^d
Worms Cathedral
The old German city of Worms possesses in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul one of
the finest Romanesque structures in Europe. The exterior, with its four round towers, two
large domes, and a choir at each end, is particularly imposing. The cathedral was mainly
built in the twelfth century.
65. Popes and Emperors, 1122-1273
Thirty years after the signing of the Concordat of Worms
the emperor Frederick I, called Barbarossa from his red beard,
succeeded to the throne. Frederick, the second
the Hohenstaufen dynasty,^ was capable,
imaginative, and ambitious. He took Charle-
magne and Otto the Great as his models and aspired like them
^ The name of this German family comes from that of their castle in south-
western Swabia.
Frederick I,
emperor, of
1152-1190
Popes and Emperors 157
to rule Christian Europe and the Church. His reign is the
story of many attempts, ending at length in failure, to unite
all Italy into a single state under German sway.
Frederick's Italian policy brought him at once into conflict
with the Papacy. The popes gave their support to a league
of the free cities of northern Italy, which were Frederick
also threatened by Frederick's soaring ambi- and the
tions. The haughty emperor, having suffered a *^**^^
severe defeat, sought reconciliation with the pope, Alexander
III. In the presence of a vast throng assembled before St.
Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Frederick knelt before the pope
and humbly kissed his feet. Just a century had passed since
the humiliation of Henry IV at Canossa.
The Papacy reached the height of its power under Innocent
III. The eighteen years of his pontificate were one long effort,
for the most part successful, to make the pope pontificate of
the arbiter of Europe. Innocent announced the Innocent ill,
claims of the Papacy in the most uncompromising
manner. "As the moon," he declared, "receives its light
from the sun, and is inferior to the sun, so do kings receive all
their glory and dignity from the Holy See." This meant,
according to Innocent, that the pope has the right to interfere
in all secular matters and in the quarrels of rulers. "God,"
he continued, "has set the Prince of the Apostles over kings
and kingdoms, with a mission to tear up, plant, destroy, scatter,
and rebuild."
That Innocent's claims were not idle boasts is shown by
what he accomplished. When Philip Augustus, king of France,
divorced his wife and made another marriage, innocent and
Innocent declared the divorce void and ordered King Philip
him to take back his discarded queen. Philip ° ^^^^^
refused, and Innocent, through his legate, put France under an
interdict. From that hour all religious rites ceased. The
church doors were barred; the church bells were silent, the
sick died unshriven, the dead lay unburied. Philip, deserted
by his retainers, was compelled to submit.
On another occasion Innocent ordered John, the Enghsh
158 The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
king, to accept as archbishop of Canterbury a man of his own
Innocent and choosing. When John declared that he would
King John of never allow the pope's appointee to set foot on
^^^ English soil, Innocent replied by excommunicat-
ing him and laying his kingdom under an interdict. John
also had to yield and went so far as to surrender England
and Ireland to the pope, receiving them back again as fiefs,
for which he promised to pay a yearly rent. The tribute
money was actually paid, though irregularly, for about a
century and a half.
Innocent further exhibited his power by elevating to the
imperial throne Frederick II, grandson of Frederick Barbarossa.
The young man, after Innocent's death, proved
Frederick II, ^q j^g ^l most determined opponent of the Papacy.
emperor, . . .
1212-1250 He passed much of his long reign in Italy, warring
against the popes, whose territories separated
Frederick's possessions in North Italy from his kingdom of
Naples and Sicily (the Two SiciUes). Frederick was a man of
remarkable talents, but he failed, as his grandfather before
him had failed, to unite Italy under German rule.
The death of Frederick II 's son (1254) ended the Hohen-
staufen dynasty. There now ensued what is called the Inter-
regnum, a period of nineteen years, during which
The Inter- Germany was without a ruler. At length the
regnum,
1254-1273 pope sent word to the German electors that if
they did not choose an emperor, he would himself
do so. The electors then selected Rudolf of Hapsburg^ (1273).
Rudolf gained papal support by resigning all claims on Italy,
but recompensed himself through the conquest of the German
state of Austria. It was in this way that the Hapsburgs
became an Austrian dynasty.
The conflict between popes and emperors was now over.
Its results were momentous. Germany, so long neglected by
Condition of ^^^ rightful rulers, who pursued the will-o'-the-
Germany wisp in Italy, broke up into a mass of duchies,
^ ^ counties, archbishoprics, bishoprics, and free cities.
^ Hapsburg was the name of a castle in northern Switzerland.
^ORTH SEA
■ •.aUJLAN<W >■**>■■
'FALSTER
^
^ LSoi4g5bu;rg;° fet'^ff ^^S^X
P0MEBE1 ilA
^•x^ . Dahaig
Koni^oerg
jr>:ndenij(ur<
:ot-<- , ^ ."^ ^.« <---.\ L- ,--. ■:- HESS
^_
'x
on?|ance
\it'r-
GERMANY AND
ITALY
Puring: the luterregnam
1254-1273 A.D.
Longitude
East 10° from
THE M.-N. WORKS, BUFFALO
Significance of the Medieval Church 159
The map of the country at this time shows how numerous
were these small feudal states. They did not combine into
a strong government till the nineteenth century.^ Italy like-
wise remained disunited and lacked even a common monarch.
The real victor was the Papacy, which had crushed the Em-
pire and had prevented the union of Italy and Germany.
66. Significance of the Medieval Church
Medieval society, we have learned, owed much to the Church,
both as a teacher of religion and morality and as an agency of
government. It remains to ask what was the The Church
attitude of the Church toward the social problems *°^ warfare
of the Middle Ages. In regard to warfare, the prevalence of
which formed one of the worst evils of the time, the Church,
in general, cast its influence on the side of peace. It deserves
credit for establishing the Peace and the Truce of God and
for many efforts to heal strife between princes and nobles.
Yet the Church did not carry the advocacy of peace so far as
to condemn warfare against heretics and infidels. Christians
beUeved that it was a religious duty to exterminate these
enemies of God.
The Church was distinguished for charitable work. The
clergy received large sums for distribution to the needy. From
the doors of the monasteries, the poor, the sick. The Church
and the infirm of every sort were never turned *^^ charity
away. Medieval charity, however, was very often injudicious.
The problem of removing the causes of poverty seems never to
have been raised; and the indiscriminate giving multiplied,
rather than reduced, the number of beggars.
Neither slavery nor serfdom, into which slavery gradually
passed, was ever pronounced unlawful by pope or Church
council. The Church condemned slavery only ^j^^ church
when it was the servitude of a Christian in bondage and slavery
to a Jew or an infidel. Abbots, bishops, and ^^ serfdom
popes possessed slaves and serfs. The serfs of some wealthy
monasteries were counted by thousands. The Church,
^ The modem German Empire was founded in 1871.
i6o The Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
nevertheless, encouraged the freeing of bondmen as a meri-
torious act and always preached the duty of kindness and
forbearance toward them.
The Church also helped to promote the cause of human
freedom by insisting on the natural equality of all men in the
Democracy ^^§^^ ^^ ^^^' ''The Creator," wrote one of the
of the popes, "distributes his gifts without regard to
^^^^ social classes. In his eyes- there are neither
nobles nor serfs." It was not necessary to be of aristocratic
birth to become a bishop, a cardinal, or a pope. Naturally
enough, the Church attracted to its service the keenest minds
of the age.
The clergy in medieval Europe were almost the only persons
of education. Few except churchmen were able to read or
The clergy as write. So generally was this the case that an
the only edu- offender could prove himself a clergyman, thus
Gated class gecuring "benefit of clergy," if he showed his
abihty to read a single line. It is interesting, also, to note
that the word "clerk," which comes from the Latin clericus,
was originally limited to churchmen, since they alone could
keep accounts, write letters, and perform other secretarial
duties.
It is clear that priests and monks had much importance
quite aside from their religious duties. They controlled the
Importance schools, wrote the books, framed the laws, and,
of the clergy jj^ general, acted as leaders and molders of public
opinion. A most conspicuous instance of the authority wielded
by them is seen in the crusades. These holy wars of Christen-
dom against Islam must now be considered.
Studies
I. Explain the following terms: abbot; prior; archbishop; parish; diocese;
regular clergy; secular clergy; friar; excommunication; simony; interdict; sac-
rament; "benefit of clergy"; right of "sanctuary"; crosier; miter; tiara; papal
indulgence; bull; dispensation; tithes; and "Peter's Pence." 2. Mention some
respects in which the Roman Church in the Middle Ages differed from any reUgious
society of the present day. 3. "Medieval Europe was a camp with a church in the
backgrovmd." Comment on this statement. 4. Distinguish between the faiih of
Significance of the Medieval Church i6i
the Church, the organization of the Church, and the Church as a force in history.
5. How did the belief in purgatory strengthen the hold of the Church upon men's
minds? 6. Name several historic characters who have been made saints. 7. Why
has the Roman Church always refused to sanction divorce? 8. Compare the
social effects of excommunication with those of a modern "boycott." g. What
reasons have led the Church to insist upon celibacy of the clergy? 10. Name four
famous monks and four famous monasteries. 11. Could monks enter the secular
clergy and thus become parish priests and bishops? 12. Mention two famous
popes who had been monks. 13. What justification was found in the New Testa-
ment {Matthew, x, 8-10) for the organization of the orders of friars? 14. How did
the Franciscans and Dominicans supplement each other's work? 15. "The monks
and the friars were the militia of the Church." Comment on this statement.
16. Who is the present Pope? When and by whom was he elected? In what city
does he reside? What is his residence called? 17. Why has the medieval Papacy
been called the "ghost" of the Roman Empire? 18. In what sense is it true that
the Holy Roman Empire was "neither holy nor Roman, nor an empire"?
CHAPTER VIII
THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT: THE
CRUSADES, 1095-12911
67. Causes of the Crusades
The series of military expeditions undertaken by the Chris-
tians of Europe for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land
Place of the f^om the Moslems have received the name of cru-
crusades in sades. In their widest aspect the crusades may
^^°^ be regarded as a renewal of the age-long contest
between East and West, in which the struggle of Greeks and
Persians and of Romans and Carthaginians formed the earlier
episodes. The contest assumed a new character when Europe
had become Christian and Asia, Mohammedan. It was not
only two contrasting types of civilization but also two rival
world religions which in the eighth century faced each other
under the walls of Constantinople and on the battle-field of
Tours. Now, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they
were to meet again.
Seven or eight chief crusades are usually enumerated. To
number them, however, obscures the fact that for nearly two
Ntimber of hundred years Europe and Asia were engaged in
the crusades almost constant warfare. Throughout this period
there was a continuous movement of crusaders to and from the
Moslem possessions in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
The crusades were first and foremost a spiritual enterprise.
They sprang from the pilgrimages which Christians had long
™, . been accustomed to make to the scenes of Christ's
Pilgmnages , , . j r i
to the life on earth. Men considered it a wonderful
Holy Land pj-iyilege to see the cave in which He was born,
to kiss the spot where He died, and to kneel in prayer at His
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xii, "Richard the
Lion-hearted and the Third Crusade"; chapter xiii, "The Fourth Crusade and
the Capture of Constantinople."
162
Causes of the Crusades
163
tomb. The eleventh century saw an increased zeal for pil-
grimages, and from this time travelers to the Holy Land were
very numerous. For greater security they often joined them-
selves in companies and marched under arms. It needed
little to transform such pilgrims into crusaders.
The Arab conquest
of the Holy Land had
not inter- Abuse of
rupted the S'fs^fjuk'
Stream of Turks
pilgrims, for the early
caKphs were more
tolerant of unbelievers
than Christian em-
perors of heretics.
But after the coming
of the Seljuk Turks
into the East, pilgrim-
ages became more
difficult and dan-
gerous. The Seljuks
were a ruder people
than the Arabs whom
they displaced, and in their fanatic zeal for Islam were not
inclined to treat the Christians with consideration. Many
tales floated back to Europe of the outrages committed on the
pilgrims and on the sacred shrines venerated by all Christen-
dom. Such stories, which lost nothing in the telling, aroused
a storm of indignation throughout Europe and awakened the
desire to rescue the Holy Land from " infidels."
But the crusades were not simply an expression of the simple
faith of the Middle Ages. Something more than religious
enthusiasm sent an unending procession of sol-
diers along the highways of Europe and over the
trackless wastes of Asia Minor to Jerusalem. The
crusades, in fact, appealed strongly to the warlike instincts of
the feudal nobles. They saw in an expedition against the
Combat between Crusaders and Moslems
A picture in an eleventh-century window, formerly
in the church of St. Denis, near Paris.
The crusades
and the
upper classes
164 The Crusades
East an unequaled opportunity for acquiring fame, riches,
lands, and power. The" Normans were especially stirred by
the prospect of adventure and plunder which the crusading
movement opened up. By the end of the eleventh century
they had established themselves in southern Italy and Sicily,
from which they now looked across the Mediterranean for
further lands to conquer.^ Norman knights formed a very
large element in several of the crusaders' armies.
The crusades also attracted the lower classes. So great
was the misery of the common people in medieval Europe that
The lower ^^^ them it seemed not a hardship, but rather a
classes and relief, to leave their homes in order to better them-
e crusa es ggjygg abroad. Famine and pestilence, poverty
and oppression, drove them to emigrate hopefully to the golden
East. '
The Church, in order to foster the crusades, promised both
religious and secular benefits to those who took part in them.
Privileges of A warrior of the Cross was to enjoy forgiveness of
crusaders ^dj j^^g pa^sj- gins. If he died fighting for the faith,
he was assured of an immediate entrance to the joys of Paradise.
The Church also freed him from paying interest on his debts
and threatened with excommunication any one who molested
his wife, his children, or his property.
68. First Crusade, 1095-1099
The signal for the First Crusade was given by the conquests
of the Seljuk Turks.^ These barbarians, at first the mercenaries
Occasion of ^^^ thtn the masters of the Abbasid caliphs, in-
the First fused fresh energy into Islam. They began a
^^ ^ new era of Mohammedan expansion by winning
almost the whole of Asia Minor from the Roman Empire in
the East. One of their leaders established himself at Nicaea,
the scene of the first Church Council, and founded the sul-
tanate of Rum (Rome).
. The presence of the Seljuks so close to Constantinople formed
1 See page 112. 2 See pages 36 and 82.
First Crusade 165
a standing menace to all Europe. The emperor, Alexius I,
on succeeding to the throne toward the close of ^ppgai of
the eleventh century, took steps to expel the in- emperor to
vaders. He could not draw on the hardy tribes ^°^®
of Asia Minor for the soldiers he needed, but with reinforce-
ments from the West he hoped to recover the lost provinces of
the empire. Accordingly, Alexius sent an embassy to Pope
Urban II, the successor of Gregory VII, requesting aid. The
fact that the emperor appealed to the pope, rather than to any
king, shows what a high place the Papacy then held in the
affairs of Europe.
To the appeal of Alexius, Urban lent a willing ear. He sum-
moned a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Cler-
mont in France. Here, in an address which, council of
measured by its results, was the most momentous Clermont,
recorded in history, Pope Urban preached the
First Crusade. He said little about the dangers which threat-
ened the Roman Empire in the East from the Turks, but dwelt
chiefly on the wretched condition of the Holy Land, with its
churches polluted by unbelievers and its Christian inhabitants
tortured and enslaved. Then, turning to the proud knights who
stood by, Urban called upoA them to abandon their wicked
practice of private warfare and take up arms, instead, against
the infidel. '^Christ Himself," he cried, "will be your leader,
when, like the Israelites of old, you fight for Jerusalem. . . .
Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; wrench the land
from the accursed race, and subdue it yourselves. Thus shall
you spoil your foes of their wealth and return home victorious,
or, purpled with your own blood, receive an everlasting reward."
Urban's trumpet call to action met an instant response.
From the assembled host there went up, as it were, a single
shout: *^God wills it! God wills it!" "It is, in "God wills
truth. His will," answered Urban, "and let these **•"
words be your war cry when you unsheath your swords against
the enemy." Then man after man pressed forward to receive
the badge of a crusader, a cross of red cloth. ^ It was to be worn
^ Hence the name "crusades," from Latin crux, Old French crois, a "cross."
i66
The Crusades
on the breast, when the crusader went forth, and on the back,
when he returned.
The months which followed the Council of Clermont were
marked by an epidemic of rehgious excitement in western
p lude to Europe. Popular preachers everywhere took up
the First the cry "God wills it!" and urged their hearers
Crusade ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Jerusalem. A monk named Peter the
Hermit aroused large parts of France with his passionate elo-
' "Mosque of Omar," Jerusalem
More correctly called the Dome of the Rock. It was erected in 691, but many
restorations have been made since that date. The walls enclosing the entire structure
were built in the ninth century, and the dome is attributed to Saladin (1189). This build-
ing, with its brilliant tiles covering the walls and its beautiful stained glass, is a fine example
of Mohammedan architecture.
quence, as he rode from town, to town, carrying a huge cross
before him and preaching to vast crowds. Without waiting
for the main body of nobles, which was to assemble at Con-
stantinople in the summer of 1096, a horde of poor men, women,
and children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the
road to the Holy Land. One of these crusading bands, led by
Peter the Hermit, managed to reach Constantinople, after
suffering terrible hardships. The emperor Alexius sent his
ragged allies as quickly as possible to Asia Minor, where most
of them were slaughtered by the Turks.
First Crusade 167
Meanwhile real armies were gathering in the West. Recruits
came in greater numbers from France than from any other
country, a circumstance which resulted in the The main
crusaders being generally called ''Franks" by their cmsade
Moslem foes. They had no single commander, but each con-
tingent set out for Constantinople by its own route and at its
own time.^
The crusaders included among their leaders some of the most
distinguished- representatives of European knighthood. Count
Raymond of Toulouse headed a band of volun- Leaders of
teers from Provence in southern France. Godfrey ^^ crusade
of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin commanded a force of
French and Germans from the Rhinelands. Normandy sent
Robert, William the Conqueror's eldest son. The Normans
from Italy and Sicily were led by Bohemond, a son of Robert
Guiscard, and by his nephew Tancred.
Though the crusaders probably did not number more than
fifty thousand fighting men, the disunion which prevailed
among the Turks favored the success of their
enterprise. With some assistance from the eastern crusaders in
emperor they captured Nicaea, overran Asia Asia Minor
Minor, and at length reached Antioch, the key to
northern Syria. The city fell after a siege of seven months, but
the crusaders were scarcely within the walls before they found
themselves besieged by a large Turkish army. The crusaders
were now in a desperate plight: famine wasted their ranks;
many soldiers deserted; and Alexius disappointed all hope of
rescue. The news of the discovery in an Antioch church of
the Holy Lance which had pierced the Savior's side restored
their drooping spirits. The whole army issued forth from
the city, bearing the relic as a standard, and drove the Turks
in headlong flight. This victory opened the road to Jerusalem.
Reduced now to perhaps one-fourth of their original numbers,
the crusaders advanced slowly to the city which formed the
goal of all their efforts. Before attacking it they marched
barefoot in religious procession around the walls, with Peter
^ For the routes followed by the crusaders see the map between pages 170-171.
i68
The Crusades
the Hermit at their head. Then came the grand assault.
Ca ture of Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred were among the
Jerusalem, first to mount the ramparts. Once inside the city,
the crusaders massacred their enemies without
mercy. Afterwards, we are told, they went "rejoicing, nay for
excess of joy weeping, to the tomb of our Savior to adore and
give thanks."
69. Crusaders' States in Syria
After the capture of Jerusalem
the crusaders met to elect a king.
j^^^ Their choice fell upon
Kingdom of Godfrey of Bouillon.
Jerusalem ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^
crown of gold in the city where
Christ had worn a crown of
thorns and accepted, instead, the
modest title of "Protector of the
Holy Sepulcher." ^ Godfrey died
tJie next year and his brother
Baldwin who succeeded him, being
less scrupulous, was crowned king
at Bethlehem. The new kingdom
contained nearly a score of fiefs,
whose lords made war, admin-
istered justice, and coined money
like independent rulers. The main
features of European feudahsm
were thus transplanted to Asiatic
soil.
Crusaders' States in Syria ^j^^ winning of Jerusalem and
the district about it formed hardly more than a preliminary
stage in the conquest of Syria. Much fighting had to take place
1 The emperor Constantine caused a stately church to be erected on the sup-
posed site of Christ's tomb. This church of the Holy Sepulcher was practically
County of Edessa
destroyed by the Moslems, early in the eleventh century,
and enlarged the structure, which still stands.
The crusaders restored
Crusaders' States in Syria
169
before the crusaders could establish themselves firmly in
the country. Instead of founding one strong other
power in Syria, they split up their possessions into crusaders'
three small states centering about Tripoli, ^***®®
Antioch, and Edessa. These states owed allegiance to the
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The abihty of the crusaders to maintain themselves for many
years in the Holy Land was largely due
to the foundation of two military-religious
orders. The members were MiUtary-
both monks and knights; religious
that is, to the monastic vows
of chastity, poverty, and obedience they
added a fourth vow, which bound them to
protect pilgrims and fight the infidels.
Such a combination of religion and war-
fare made a strong appeal to the medie-
val mind.
The Hospitalers, the first of these
orders, grew out of a brotherhood for
the care of sick pilgrims in a Hospitalers
hospital at Jerusalem. Many and Templars
knights joined the organization, which
soon proved to be very useful in defend-
ing the Holy Land. Even more impor-
tant were the Templars, so called because
their headquarters in Jerusalem lay near
the site of Solomon's Temple. Both
orders built many castles in Syria, the
remains of which still impress the be-
holder. They established numerous
branches in Europe and, from presents
and legacies, acquired vast wealth. The Templars were dis-
banded in the fourteenth century, but the Hospitalers con-
tinued to fight valiantly against the Turks long after the close
of the crusading movement.^
' The order of Hospitalers, now known as the "Knights of Malta," still survives
in several European countries.
Effigy of a Knight
Templar
Temple Church, London
Shows the kind of armor
worn between iigo and
1225.
170 The Crusades
The depleted ranks of the crusaders were constantly filled
by fresh bands of pilgrim knights who visited Palestine to pray
Christian and ^^ ^^^ Holy Sepulcher and have a taste of fighting,
infidel in the In spite of Constant border warfare, much trade
°^ *° and friendly intercourse prevailed between Chris-
tians and Moslems. They learned to respect one another both
as foes and neighbors. The crusaders' states in Syria became,
like Spain ^ and Sicily ,2 a meeting-place of East and West.
70. Second Crusade, 1147-1149, and Third Crusade,
1189-1192
The success of the Christians in the First Crusade had been
largely due to the disunion among their enemies. But the
Origin of the Moslems learned in time the value of united action,
Second and at length succeeded in capturing Edessa, one
^^^ ® of the principal Christian outposts in the East.
The fall of the city, followed by the loss of the entire county
of Edessa, aroused western Europe to the danger which threat-
ened the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and led to another
crusading enterprise.
The apostle of the Second Crusade was the great abbot of
Clairvaux, St. Bernard.^ Scenes of the wildest enthusiasm
Preaching of marked his preaching. When the churches were
St. Bernard ^q^ large enough to hold the crowds which flocked
to hear him, he spoke from platforms erected in the fields. In
addition to many princes and lesser nobles, two monarchs,
Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, assumed the
blood-red cross of a crusader.
The Second Crusade, though begun under the most favorable
auspices, had an unhappy ending. Of the host that set out
Failure of from Europe, only a few thousands escaped an-
the Second nihilation in Asia Minor at the hands of the
rusa e Turks. Louis and Conrad, with the remnants of
their armies, made a joint attack on Damascus, bufliad to
raise the siege after a few days. This closed the crusade. As
a chronicler of the expedition remarked, "having practically
accomplished nothing, the inglorious ones returned home."
1 See page 85. 2 gee page 112. ^ gee page 146.
MEDITERRANEAN LANDS
AFTER THE FOURTH CRUSADE
^ 1202-1204 A.D.
First crusade, 1096 - 1099
Second crusade, 1147 - 1149
Third crusade, 1189 - 1192
Fourth crusade, 1202 - 1204
Scale of Miles
C.= County
D.= Duchy
Dom.= Dominion
Emp.=Empire
K.=Kingdom
P.=Principality
THE M.-N. WORKS, BUFFALO, U. Y.
Longitude West
East from Greenwich
Second and Third Crusades 171
Not many years after the Second Crusade, the Moslem world
found in the famous Saladin a leader for a holy war against the
Christians. Saladin in character was a typical ^ , ,
•^ ^ Saladin
Mohammedan, very devout in prayers and fast-
ing, fiercely hostile toward unbelievers, and full of the pride of
race. To these qualities he added a kindliness and humanity
not surpassed, if equaled, by any of his Christian foes. He
lives in eastern history and legend as the hero who stemmed,
once for all, the tide of European conquest in Asia.
Having made himself sultan of Egypt, Saladin united the
Moslems of Syria under his sway and then advanced against
the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Christians
met him in a great battle near the Lake of Galilee. Jerusalem
It ended in the rout of their army and the capture J^ ^*^***^°'
of their king. Even the Holy Cross, which they
had carried in the midst of the fight, became the spoil of the
conqueror. Saladin quickly reaped the fruits of victory. The
Christian cities of Syria opened their gates to him, and at last
Jerusalem itself surrendered after a short siege. Little now
remained of the possessions which the crusaders had won in
the East.
The news of the taking of Jerusalem spread consternation
throughout western Christendom. The cry for another crusade
arose on all sides. Once more thousands of men ^, . ^
Third
sewed the cross in gold, or silk, or cloth upon their Crusade
garments and set out for the Holy Land. When JJI^^^®^'
the three greatest rulers of Europe — Philip
Augustus,^ king of France, Richard I, king of England, and
the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa ^ — assumed the
cross, it seemed that nothing could prevent the restoration of
Christian supremacy in Syria.
The Germans under Frederick Barbarossa were the first to
start. This great emperor was now nearly seventy Death of
years old, yet age had not lessened his crusading Barbarossa,
zeal. He took the overland route and after 1190
much hard fighting reached southern Asia Minor. Here,
1 See page 157. 2 See page 156.
172
The Crusades
however, he was drowned, while trying to cross a swollen
stream. Many of his discouraged fol-
lowers at once returned to Germany;
a few of them, however, pressed on
and joined the other crusaders before
the walls of Acre.
The expedition of the French and
English achieved little. Philip and
Acre cap- Richard, who came by sea,
tured by captured Acre after a hard
PMip and . ^
Richard, Siege, but their quarrels
^^^^ prevented them from fol-
lowing up this initial success. Philip
soon went home, leaving the further
conduct of the crusade in Richard's
hands.
The English king remained four-
teen months longer in the Holy Land.
His campaigns during this
in the time gained for him the
?.n7h^1?' title of "Lion-hearted," 1
1191-1192 I,- I, I, . 1
by which he is always
known. He had many adventures
and performed knightly exploits with-
out number, but could not capture
Jerusalem. Tradition declares that
when, during a truce, some crusaders
went up to Jerusalem, Richard refused
to accompany them, saying that he
would not enter as a pilgrim the city
which he could not rescue as a con-
queror. He and Saladin finally
concluded a treaty which permitted
Christians to visit Jerusalem without paying tribute. Richard
then set sail for England, and with his departure from the
Holy Land the Third Crusade came to an end.
1 In French Cceur-de-Lion.
Richard I in Prison
From an illuminated manuscript
of the thirteenth century. King
Richard on his return from the
Holy Land was shipwrecked off
the coast of the Adriatic. At-
tempting to travel through Austria
in disguise, he was captured by
the duke of Austria, whom he had
offended at the siege of Acre.
The king regained his liberty only
by paying a ransom equivalent
to more than twice the annual
revenues of England.
Fourth Crusade 173
71. Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire of Constan-
tinople, 1202-1261
The real author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope,
Innocent III.^ Young, enthusiastic, and ambitious for the
glory of the Papacy, he revived the plans of ^
1 TT , 1 . , r Innocent III
Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces and the
of Christendom against Islam. No emperor or Fourth
11- 1 1 r Crusade
kmg answered his summons, but a number of
knights (chiefly French) took the crusader's vow.
The leaders of the enterprise decided to make Egypt their
objective point, since that country was then the center of the
Moslem power. Accordingly, the crusaders pro- ^j^^ ^^_
ceeded to Venice, for the purpose -of securing saders and
transportation across the Mediterranean. The
Venetians agreed to furnish the necessary ships only on condition
that the crusaders first seize Zara on the eastern coast of the
Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it was also a naval
and commercial rival of Venice. In spite of the pope's protests,
the crusaders besieged and captured the place. Even then they
did not proceed against the Moslems. The Venetians per-
suaded them to turn their arms against Constantinople. Thus
it happened that these soldiers of the Cross, pledged to war
with the Moslems, attacked a Christian city, which for centuries
had formed the chief bulwark of Europe against the Arab and
the Turk.
The crusaders — now better styled the invaders — took
Constantinople by storm. No 'infidels" could have treated
in worse fashion this home of ancient civilization. ^^^^^ ^^ q^^_
They burned down a great part of it; they slaugh- stantinople,
tered the inhabitants; they wantonly destroyed
monuments, statues, paintings, and manuscripts — the ac-
cumulation of a thousand years. Much of the movable wealth
they carried away. Never, declared an eye-witness of the
scene, had there been such plunder since the world began.
The victors hastened to divide between them the lands of
^ See page 157.
174
The Crusades
Latin
Empire of
Constanti-
nople, 1204-
1261
the Roman Empire in the East. Venice gained some districts
in Greece, together with nearly all the iEgean
islands. The chief crusaders formed part of the
remaining territory into the Latin Empire of
Constantinople. It was organized in fiefs, after
the feudal manner. There was a prince of Achaia, a duke
of Athens, a marquis of
Corinth, and a count of
Thebes. Large districts,
both in Europe and Asia,
did not acknowledge, how-
ever, these ''Latin" rulers.
The new empire lived less
than sixty years. At the
end of this time the Greeks
returned to power.
Constantinople, after the
Fourth Crusade, declined
in strength
and could no
longer cope
with the bar-
barians menacing it. Two
centuries later the city fell
an easy victim to the
Turks. The responsibility
for the disaster which gave
the Turks a foothold in
Europe rests on the heads of the Venetians and the French
nobles. Their greed and lust for power turned the Fourth
Crusade into a political adventure.
The so-called Children's Crusade illustrates at once the reh-
gious enthusiasm and misdirected zeal which marked the whole
The Children's Crusading movement. Thousands of French chil-
Crusade, dren assembled in bands and marched through
1212
the towns and villages, carrying banners, candles,
and crosses, and singing, "Lord God, exalt Christianity. Lord
Disastrous
consequence
of the Fourth
Crusade
"The Last Crusade"
Richard I Gooking down on the Holy City):
" My dream comes true." A cartoon which ap-
peared in Punch, Dec. ig, 1917, at the time of
the British capture of Jerusalem.
Results of the Crusades 175
God, restore to us the true Cross." The children could not
be restrained at first, but finally hunger compelled them to
return home. In Germany, a lad named Nicholas really did
succeed in launching a crusade. He led a mixed multitude
of men and women, boys and girls over the Alps into Italy,
where they expected to take ship for Palestine. But many
perished of hardships, many were sold into slavery, and only a
few ever saw their homes again. "These children," Pope
Innocent III declared, "put us to shame; while we sleep they
rush to recover the Holy Land."
The crusading movement came to an end by the close of the
thirteenth century. The emperor Frederick II ^ for a short
time recovered Jerusalem by a treaty, but in 1244 End of the
the Holy City became again a possession of the crusades
Moslems. Acre, the last Christian post in Syria, fell in 1291,
and with this event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased
to exist. The Hospitalers, or Knights of St. John, still kept
possession of the important islands of Cyprus and Rhodes,
which long served as a barrier to Moslem expansion over the
Mediterranean.
72. Results of the Crusades
The crusades, judged by what they set out to accomplish,
must be accounted a complete failure. After two hundred
years of conflict, after a great expenditure of wealth Failure of
and human lives, the Holy Land remained in *^® crusades
Moslem hands. It is true that the First Crusade did help, by
the conquest of Syria, to check the advance of the Turks toward
Constantinople. But even this benefit was more than undone
by the weakening of the Roman Empire in the East as a result
of the Fourth Crusade.
Of the many reasons for the failure of the crusades, three
require special consideration. In the first place, -^j^ ^^
there was the inability of eastern and western crusades
Europe to cooperate in supporting the holy wars. ®
A united Christendom might well have been invincible, but
^ See page 158.
176 The Crusades
the bitter antagonism between the Greek and Roman churches
effectually prevented all unity of action. The emperors at
Constantinople, after the First Crusade, rarely assisted the
crusaders and often secretly hindered them. In the second
place, the lack of sea-power, as seen in the earher crusades,
worked against their success. Instead of being able to go by
water directly to Syria, it was necessary to follow the long, over-
land route from France or Germany through Hungary, Bul-
garia, the territory of the Roman Empire in the East, and the
deserts and mountains of Asia Minor. The armies that reached
their destination after this toilsome march were in no condition
for effective campaigning. In the third place, the crusaders
were never numerous enough to colonize so large a country as
Syria and absorb its Moslem population. They conquered
part of Syria in the First Crusade, but could not hold it per-
manently in the face of determined resistance.
In spite of these and other reasons, the Christians of Europe
might have continued much longer their efforts to recover the
Wh the -^^^y Land, had they not lost faith in the move-
crusades ment. But after two centuries the old crusading
ceased enthusiasm died out, the old ideal of the crusade
as "the way of God" lost its spell. Men had begun to think
less of winning future salvation by visits to distant shrines and
to think more of their present duties to the world about them.
They came to believe that Jerusalem could best be won as
Christ and the Apostles had won it — "by love, by prayers,
and by the shedding of tears."
The crusades could not fail to affect in many ways the life
of western Europe. For instance, they helped to undermine
Influence of feudalism. Thousands of barons and knights mort-
the crusades gaged or sold their lands in order to raise money
on feudaUsm ^^^ ^ crusading expedition. Thousands more per-
ished in Syria, and their estates, through failure of heirs,
reverted to the crown. Moreover, private warfare, that curse
of the Middle Ages, also tended to die out with the departure
for the Holy Land of so many turbulent feudal lords. Their
decUne in both numbers and influence, and the corresponding
Results of the Crusades 177
growth of the royal authority, may best be traced in the changes
that came about in France, the original home of the crusading
rnovement.
One of the most important effects of the crusades was on
commerce. They created a constant demand for the trans-
portation of men and suppUes, encouraged ship-
building, and extended the market for eastern and Medi-
wares in Europe. The products of Damascus, terranean
commerce
Mosul, Alexandria^ Cairo, and other great cities
were carried across the Mediterranean to the Italian seaports,
whence they found their way into all European lands. The
elegance of the Orient, with its silks, tapestries, precious stones,
perfumes, spices, pearls, and ivory, was so enchanting that an
enthusiastic crusader called it "the vestibule of Paradise."
Finally, it must be noted how much the crusades contributed
to intellectual and social progress. They brought the inhab-
itants of western Europe into close relations with
. , . . The crusades
one another, with their fellow Christians of the and
Roman Empire in the East, and with the natives European
culture
of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. The intercourse
between Christians and Moslems was particularly stimulating,
because the East at this time surpassed the West in civiliza-
tion. The crusaders enjoyed the advantages which come from
travel in strange lands and among unfamiliar peoples. They
went out from their castles or. villages to see great cities, marble
palaces, superb dresses, and elegant manners; they returned
with finer tastes, broader ideas, and wider sympathies. The
crusades opened up a new world.
When all is said, the crusades remain one of the most remark-
able movements in history. They exhibited the nations of
western Europe for the first time making a united significance
effort for a common end. The crusaders were not of the
hired soldiers, but volunteers, who, while the re- ^^^^ ^^
Hgious fervor lasted, gladly abandoned their homes and faced
hardship and death in pursuit of a spiritual ideal. They failed
to accomplish their purpose, yet humanity is the richer for the
memory of their heroism and chivalry.
178 The Crusades
studies
I . On an outline map indicate Europe and the Mediterranean lands by religions,
about 1 100. 2. On an outline map indicate the routes of the First and the Third
Crusades. 3. Locate on the map the following places: Clermont; Acre; Antioch;
Zara; Edessa; and Damascus. 4. Identify the following dates: 1204; 1095;
1096; and 1 291. 5. What parts of Europe had not been Christianized at the time
of the First Crusade? 6. Write a short essay describing the imaginary experiences
of a crusader to the Holy Land. 7. Mention some instances which illustrate the
religious enthusiasm of the crusaders. 8. Compare the Mohammedan pilgrimage
to Mecca with the pilgrimages of Christians to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages.
9. Compare the Christian crusade with the Mohammedan jihad, or holy war.
10. How did the expression, a "red-cross knight," arise? 11. Why is the Second
Crusade often called "St. Bernard's Crusade"? 12. Why has the Third Crusade
been called "the most interesting international expedition of the Middle Ages"?
13. Would the crusaders in 1204 have attacked Constantinople, if the schism of
1054 had not occurred? 14. "Mixture, or at least contact of races, is essential to
progress." How do the crusades illustrate the truth of this statement? 15. Were
the crusades the only means by which western Europe was brought in contact with
Moslem civilization?
CHAPTER IX
THE MONGOLS AND THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO 1453
73. The Mongols
The extensive steppes in the middle and north of Asia have
formed, for thousands of years, the abode of nomadic peoples
belonging to the Yellow race. In prehistoric ^j^^ Asiatic
times they spread over northern Europe, but they counter-
were gradually supplanted by white-skinned Indo- * ^^
Europeans, until now only remnants of them exist, such as the
Finns and Lapps. In later ages history records how the Huns,
the Bulgarians, and the Magyars have poured into Europe,
spreading terror and destruction in their path. These invaders
were followed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the
even more terrible Mongols and Ottoman Turks. Their inroads
might well be described as Asia's reply to the crusades, as an
Asiatic counter-attack upon Europe.
The Mongols, who have given their name to the entire race
of yellow-skinned peoples, now chiefly occupy the high plateau
bounded on the north by Siberia, on the south by ,,
Mongolia
China, on the east by Manchuria, and on the west
by Turkestan. Although the greater part of this area consists
of the Gobi desert, there are many oases and pastures available
to the inhabitants at different seasons of the year. Hence the
principal occupation of the Mongols has always been cattle
breeding, and their horses, oxen, sheep, and camels have always
furnished them with food and clothing.
Like most nomads the Mongols dwell in tents, each family
often by itself. Severe simplicity is the rule of life, for property
consists of little more than one's flocks and herds, Mongol life
clothes, and weapons. The modern Mongols are ^^'^ character
a peaceable, kindly folk, who have adopted from Tibet a
179
i8o The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
debased form of Buddhism, but the Mongols of the thirteenth
century in rehgion and morals were scarcely above the level of
savagery. To ruthless cruelty and passion for plunder they
added an efficiency in warfare which enabled them, within
fifty years, to overrun much of Asia and the eastern part of
Europe.
The daily life of the Mongols was a training school for war.
HUT-WAGON OF THE MONGOLS (RECONSTRUCTION)
On the wagon was placed a sort of hut or pavilion made of wands bound together with
narrow thongs. The structure was then covered with felt or cloth and provided with
latticed windows. Hut-wagons, being very light, were sometimes of enormous size.
Constant practice in riding, scouting, and the use of arms made
Miiit every man a soldier. The words with which an
prowess of ancient Greek historian described the Scythians
the Mongols ^^^^^^^ perfectly to the Mongols: ''Having neither
cities nor forts, and carrying their dweUings with them wherever
they go; accustomed, moreover, one and all, to shoot from
horseback; and hving not by husbandry but on their cattle,
their wagons the only houses that they possess, how can they
fail of being irresistible?" ^
74. Conquests of the Mongols, 1206-1405
The Mongols had dwelt for ages in scattered tribes throughout
their Asiatic wilderness, engaged in petty struggles with one
1 Herodotus, iv, 46.
Conquests of the Mongols
i8i
another for cattle and pasture lands. It was the celebrated
Jenghiz Khan/ chief of one of the tribes, who jenghiz
brought them all under his authority and then led ^^^
them to the conquest of the world. Of him it may be said
with truth that he had
the most victorious of
military careers, and that
he constructed the most
extensive empire known
to history. Had Jenghiz
possessed the ability of
a statesman, he would
have taken a place by
the side of Alexander the
Great and Julius Caesar.
Jenghiz first sent the
Mongol armies, which
contained many Mongol
Turkish allies, ^"^^^^^
under
over the Great jenghiz,
Wall and into 1206-1227
the fertile plains of China.
All the northern half of Tomb of Timur at Samarkand
the country was quickly Samarkand in Russian Central Asia became
overrun. Then Tenghiz Timur's capital in 1369. The city was once a
, J J • center of Mohammedan wealth and culture, famous
turned westward and m- for its beautiful mosques, palaces, and colleges. The
Vaded Turkestan and Gur-Amir, or tomb of Timur, consists of a chapel,
^ . _ . crowned by a dome and inclosed by a wall. Time
r erSia. oeven centuries and earthquakes have greatly injured this fine build-
have not sufficed to repair ^°S- ^he remains of Timur lie here under a huge
block of jade.
the damage which the
Mongols wrought in these once-prosperous lands. The great
cities of Bokhara, Samarkand, Merv, and Herat, long centers
of Moslem culture, were pillaged and burned, and their inhabit-
ants were put to the sword. Still further conquests enlarged
the empire, which at the death of Jenghiz stretched from the
Dnieper River to the China Sea.
1 "The Very Mighty King." •
i82 The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
The Mongols in China and India 183
The Mongol dominions in the thirteenth century were in-
creased by the addition of Korea, southern China, Tibet, and
Mesopotamia, as well as the greater part of Asia Mongol
Minor and Russia. Japan repulsed the Mongol Empire
, . r A . , under the
hordes, but at the other extremity of Asia they successors
captured Bagdad, sacked the city, and brought °^ Jenghiz
the Abbasid caliphate to an end.^ The Mongol realm was very
loosely organized, however, and during the fourteenth century
it fell apart into a number of independent states, or khanates.
It was reserved for another renowned Oriental monarch,
Timur the Lame,- to restore the empire of Jenghiz Khan. His
biographers traced his descent from that famous Reign of
Mongol, but Timur was a Turk and an adherent Timur,
of Islam. He has come down to us as perhaps the
most terrible personification in history of the evil spirit of con-
quest. Such distant regions as India, Syria, Armenia, Asia
Minor, and Russia were traversed by Timur's soldiers, who left
behind them only the smoking ruins of a thousand cities and
abominable trophies in the shape of columns or pyramids of
human heads. Timur died in his seventieth year, while lead-
ing his troops against China, and the extensive empire which he
had built up in Asia soon crumbled to pieces.
75. The Mongols in China and India
The Mongols ruled over China for about one hundred and
fifty years. During this period they became thoroughly imbued
with Chinese culture. '' China," said an old writer, Mongol sway
''is a sea that salts all the rivers flowing into it." ^" ^^"*
The most eminent of the Mongol emperors was Jenghiz Khan's
grandson, Kublai. He built a new capital, which in medieval
times was known as Cambaluc and is now called Peking. While
Kublai was on the throne, the Venetian traveler, Marco Polo,
visited China, and he describes in glowing colors the virtues
and glories of the "Great Khan." There appears to have been
considerable trade between Europe and China at this time, and
Franciscan missionaries and papal legates penetrated to the
^ See page 82. ^ Commonly known as Tamerlane.
1 84 The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
remote East. After the downfall of the Mongol dynasty,
China again shut her doors to foreign peoples. All inter-
course with Europe ceased until the arrival of the Portuguese
in the sixteenth century.^
Northern India, which in earlier ages had witnessed the coming
of Persian, Macedonian, and Arabian conquerors, did not escape
Timur and visitations by fresh Asiatic hordes. Timur the
Baber Lame, at the head of an innumerable host, rushed
in India down upon the banks of the Indus and the Ganges
and sacked Delhi, making there a full display of his unrivaled
ferocity. Timur's invasion left no permanent impress on the
history of India, but its memory fired the imagination of another
Turkish chieftain, Baber, a remote descendant of Timur. In
1525 he invaded India and speedily made himself master of
the northern part of the country.
The empire which Baber established in India is known as
that of the Moguls, an Arabic form of the word Mongol. The
Empire of Moguls, however, were Turkish in blood and
the Moguls Mohammedans in reUgion. The Mogul emperors
reigned in great splendor from their capitals at Delhi and Agra,
until the decline of their power in the eighteenth century opened
the way for the British conquest of India.
76. The Mongols in Eastern Europe
The location of Russia on the border of Asia exposed that
country to the full force of the Mongol attack. Jenghiz Khan's
successors, entering Europe north of the Caspian,
conquest of swept resistlessly over the Russian plain. Mos-
Russia, 1237- ^.q^ g^j^^ Kiev fell in quick succession, and before
1240
long the greater part of Russia was in the hands of
the Mongols. Wholesale massacres marked their progress.
**No eye remained open to weep for the dead."
Still the invaders pressed on. They devastated Hungary,
driving the Magyar king in panic flight from his realm. They
overran Poland and defeated the knighthood of Germany in
a great battle. The European peoples, taken completely by
1 See page 310.
The Mongols in Eastern Europe 185
surprise, could offer no effective resistance to these Asiatics
who combined superiority in numbers with surpassing general-
ship. Since the Arab attack in the eighth century invasion of
L^nnstendom had never been in graver peril. But ^o^a^d and
the wave of Mongol invasion, which threatened to Se Mongol!
engulf Europe in barbarism, receded as quickly 1241
as it came. The Mongols soon abandoned Poland and Hungary
and retired to their possessions in Russia.
The ruler of the ^'Golden Horde," as the western section
of the Mongol Empire was called, continued to be the lord of
Russia for about two hundred and fifty years
Russia, throughout this period, was little more "Golden
than a dependency of Asia. The conquered people ^^''^^"
were obliged to pay a heavy tribute and to furnish soldiers for
the Mongol armies. Their princes, also, became vassals of the
Great Khan.
^ The Mongols, or ^'Tartars," 1 are usually said to have Oriental-
ized Russia. It seems clear, however, that they did not inter-
fere with the language, religion, and laws of their ^,
subjects. The chief result of the Mongol suprem- inZfce
acy was to cut off Russia from western Europe '''' ^"^^^*
just at the time when England, France, Germany, and Italy
were emerging from the darkness of the early Middle Ages
The invasion of the Mongols proved to be, indirectly the
making of the Russian state. Before they came the coiintry
was a patchwork of rival, and often warring, prin- Rise of
cipahties. The need of union against the common Muscovy
enemy welded them together. The principaHty of Muscovy
so named from the capital city of Moscow, conquered its neigh-
bors, annexed the important city of Novgorod, whose vast
possessions stretched from Lapland to the Urals, and finally
became powerful enough to shake off the Mongol yoke
The final dehverance of Russia from the Mongols was accom-
plished by Ivan III, surnamed the Great. He is generally
and T.^l^w l^^'Tu ^""''^ '''''''^^' ^^'^'^ ^"^ °"^^^^">^ ^PP^i-d to both Mongol
1 86 The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
Black
Sea
I,ongitude East 50° from
Russia at the end of the Middle Ages
regarded as the founder of Russian autocracy, that is, of a per-
sonal, absolute, and arbitrary government. With a view to
. strengthening his claim to be the political heir of
Ivan III, the eastern emperors, Ivan married a niece of the
last ruler at Constantinople, who had fallen in the
defense of his capital against the Ottoman Turks.
Henceforth the Russian monarch described himself as "the new
Tsar ^ Constantine in the new city of Constan tine,, Moscow."
1 The title Tsar, or Czar, is supposed to be a contraction of the word Caesar.
the Great,
1462-1505
The Ottoman Turks and their Conquests 187
77. The Ottoman Turks and their Conquests, 1227-1453
The first appearance of the Ottoman Turks in history dates
from 1227, the year of Jenghiz Khan's death. In that year
a small Turkish horde, driven westward from their Rise of the
central Asian homes by the Mongol advance, settled Ottomans
in Asia Mijior. There they enjoyed the protection of their
kinsmen, the Seljuk Turks, and from them accepted Islam.
As the Seljuk power declined, that of the Ottomans rose in its
stead. Their chieftain, Othman,^ declared his independence
about 1300 and became the founder of a new empire.
The growth of the Ottoman power was almost as rapid as that
of the Arabs or of the Mongols. During the first half of the
fourteenth century they firmly established them- ottoman
selves in northwestern Asia Minor, along the expansion
beautiful shores washed by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora,
and the Dardanelles. The second half of the same century
found them in Europe, wresting province after province from
the feeble hands of the eastern emperors. First came the seizure
of Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, which long remained the prin-
cipal Turkish naval station. Then followed the capture of
Adrianople, where in earlier centuries the Visigoths had de-
stroyed a Roman army. By 1400 all that remained of the
Roman Empire in the East was Constantinople and a small
district in the vicinity of that city.
The Turks owed much of their success to the famous body
of troops known as Janizaries.^ These were recruited for the
most part from Christian children surrendered by The
their parents as tribute. The Janizaries were edu- Janizaries
cated in the Moslem faith and received careful instruction
in the use of arms. Their discipline and fanatic zeal made
them irresistible on the field of battle.
Constantinople had never recovered from the blow inflicted
upon it by the freebooters of the Fourth Crusade. Constantinople
It was isolated from western Europe by the ad- besieged
vance of the Turks. Frantic appeals for help brought only
^ Whence the name Ottoman applied to this branch of the Turks.
2 A name derived from the Turkish yeni cheri, "new troops."
i88 The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
a few ships and soldiers from Genoa and Venice. When in
1453 the sultan Mohammed II, commanding a large army
amply supplied with artillery, appeared before the walls, all
men knew that Constantinople was doomed.
The defense of the city forms one of the most stirring episodes
in history. The Christians, not more than eight thousand in
^ ^ ^ number, were a mere handful compared to the
Constanti- ' i 1 1 V 1
nople Ottoman hordes. Yet they held out for nearly
captured ^^^^ months against every assault. When at
length the end drew near, the Roman emperor, Constantine
Palaeologus, a hero
Worthy of the name he
bore, went with his fol-
lowers at midnight to
Sancta Sophia and there
in that solemn fane re-
ceived a last com-
munion. Before sunrise
on the following day the
Turks were within the
walls. The emperor, re-
fusing to survive the city
which he could not save,
fell in the onrush of the
Janizaries. Constanti-"
nople endured a sack of
three days, during which
many works of art, previously spared by the crusaders, were
destroyed. Mohammed II then made a triumphal entry into
the city and in Sancta Sophia, now stripped of its crosses,
images, and other Christian emblems, proclaimed the faith of
the prophet. And so the "Turkish night," as Slavic poets
named it, descended on this ancient home of civilization.
The capture of Constantinople is rightly regarded as an
An epoch- epoch-making event. It meant the end, once for
making event ^\i^ ^f ^j-^g empire which had served so long as
the rearguard of Christian civilization, as the bulwark of the
IMOHAMMED II
A medal showing the strong face of the conqueror
of Constantinople.
The Ottoman Turks and their Conquests i,
I go The Mongols and the Ottoman Turks
West against the East. Europe stood aghast at a calamity
which she had done so Httle to prevent. The Christian powers
of the West have been paying dearly, even to our own age, for
their failure to save New Rome from Moslem hands.
78. The Ottoman Turks in Southeastern Europe
The Turks form a small minority among the inhabitants of
the Balkans. At the present time there are said to be less than
Nature of one million Turks in southeastern Europe. Even
Turkish rule about Constantinople the Greeks far outnumber
them. The Turks from the outset have been, not a nation in
the proper sense of the word, but rather an army of occupation,
holding down by force their Christian subjects.
The people who thus acquired dominion in southeastern
Europe had become, even at the middle of the fifteenth century.
The Turks a greatly mixed in blood. Their ancestors were
mixed people natives of central Asia, but in Europe they inter-
married freely with their Christian captives and with converts
from Christianity to Islam. The modern Turks are almost
entirely European in physique.
The Bulgarians, who came out of Asia to devastate Europe,
at length turned Christian, adopted a Slavic speech, and entered
Isolation of the family of European nations. The Magyars,
the Turks ^}^q followed them, also made their way into the
fellowship of Christendom. Quite the opposite was the casQ
with the Turks. Preserving their Asiatic language and Mos-
lem faith, they remained in Europe, not a transitory scourge,
but an abiding oppressor of Christian lands.
The isolation of the Turks prevented them from assimilat-
ing the higher culture of the peoples whom they conquered.
Turkish They have never created anything in science, art,
^^^astera literature, commerce, or industry. Conquest has
Europe been the Turks' one business in the world, and
when they ceased conquering their decline set in. But it was
not till the end of the seventeenth century that the Turkish
Empire entered on that downward road which has now led
to its extinction as a European power.
The Ottoman Turks in Southeastern Europe 191
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the extent of the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
2. Locate these cities: Bokhara; Samarkand; Merv; Herat; Bagdad; Peking;
Delhi; Kiev; Moscow; and Adrianople. 3. Who were Baber, Kublai Khan,
Othman, Mohammed II, Constantine Palaeologus, and Ivan the Great? 4. Why
should the steppes of central and northern Asia have been a nursery of warlike
peoples? 5. What parts of Asia were not included in the Mongol Empire at its
greatest extent? 6. Trace on the map (page 182) the further expansion of the
Mongol Empire after the death of Jenghiz Khan. 7. On the same map indi-
cate approximately the Christian and Moslem territories overrun by the Mon-
gols. 8. "Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar." What does this mean?
9. Why did the Mongol conquest of Russia tend to strengthen the sentiment of
nationality in the Russian people? 10. How did the tsars come to regard themselves
as the successors of the eastern emperors? 11. Compare the Janizaries with the
Christian military-religious orders. 12. How was "the victory of the Crescent
secured by the children of the Cross"? 13. Why were the invasions of the Mongols
and Ottoman Turks more destructive to civilization than those of the Germans,
the Arabs, and the Northmen? 14. Enumerate the more important services of
the Roman Empire in the East to civilization.
CHAPTER X
EUROPEAN NATIONS DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES^
79. Growth of the Nations
The map of western Europe, that is, of Europe west of the
great Russian plain and the Balkan peninsula, showed this part
The new of the continent at the beginning of the twentieth
nationaUsm century divided among no less than thirteen sepa-
rate and independent nations. Most of them arose during
the latter part of the Middle Ages. They have existed so
long that we now think of the national state as the highest
type of * human association, forgetting that it has been pre-
ceded by other forms of pohtical organization, such as the
Greek republic, the Roman Empire, and the feudal state, and
that it may be followed some day by an international or
universal state composed of all civilized peoples.
These national states succeeded feudahsm. The complete
establishment of feudahsm in any country meant, as has been
The national ^^^^' ^^^ division into numerous small communi-
state and ties, each with a law court, treasury, and army,
feudahsm g^^j^ ^^ arrangement helped to keep order in an
age of confusion, but it did not meet the needs of a progressive
society. In most parts of Europe the feudal states gradually
gave way to centralized governments ruled by despotic kings.
A feudal king was often little more than a figurehead, equaled,
or perhaps surpassed, in power by some of his own vassals. But
The new in England, France, Spain, and other countries a
monarchies series of astute and energetic sovereigns were able
to strengthen their authority at the expense of the nobles.
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xiv, "St. Louis";
chapter xv, "Episodes of the Hundred Years' War"; chapter xvi, "Memoirs of a
French Courtier."
192
England under William the Conqueror 193
They formed permanent armies by insisting that all miHtary
service should be rendered to themselves and not to the feudal
lords. They got into their own hands the administration of
justice. They developed a revenue system, with the taxes
collected by royal officers and deposited in the royal treasury.
The kings thus succeeded in creating in each country one
power which all the inhabitants feared, respected, and obeyed.
A national state in modern times is keenly conscious of its
separate existence. All its people usually speak the same
language and have for their "fatherland" the ^j^^ ^enti-
warmest feelings of patriotic devotion. In the ment of
Middle Ages, however, patriotism was commonly "^*^°^* ^^
confounded with loyalty to the sovereign, while the differences
between nations were obscured by the existence of an inter-
national Church and by the use of Latin as the common language
of all cultivated persons. The sentiment of nationality arose
earlier in England than on the Continent, partly owing to the
insular position of that country, but nowhere did it become
a very strong influence before the end of the fifteenth century.
80. England under William the Conqueror, 1066-1087;
the Norman Kingship
William the Conqueror had won England by force of arms.
He ruled it as a despot. Those who resisted him he treated as
rebels, confiscating their land and presenting it to wiUiam's
Norman followers. To prevent uprisings he built despotic rule
a castle in every important town, with garrisons of his own
soldiers. The Tower of London still stands as an impressive
memorial of the days of the Conquest. But William did not
rely on force alone. He sought with success to attach the
Enghsh to himself by retaining most of their old customs and
by giving them an enlightened administration of the law.
"Good peace he made in this land," said the old Anglo-Saxon
chronicler, "so that a man might travel over the kingdom with
his bosom full of gold without molestation, and no man durst
kill another, however great the injury he might have received
from him."
194 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
The feudal system on the Continent permitted a powerful
noble to gather his vassals and make war on the king, whenever
WiiUam and he chose to do SO. William had been familiar
feudaUsm ^j^]^ |-]^jg gyjj gide of feudaHsm, both in France
and in his own duchy of Normandy, and he determined to pre-
vent its introduction into England. William estabhshed the
principle that a vassal
owed his first duty to
the king and not to
his immediate lord.
If a noble rebelled
and his men followed
him, they were to be
treated as traitors.
Rebellion proved to
be an especially diffi-
cult matter in Eng-
land, since the estates
which a great lord
possessed were not all
in any one place, but
were scattered about
the kingdom. A noble
who planned to revolt
could be put down
before he was able to
collect his retainers
from the more distant parts of the country.
The extent of William's authority is illustrated by the survey
which he had made of the taxable property of the kingdom.
Domesday Royal commissioners went throughout the length
and breadth of England to find out how much farm
land there was in every county, how many land-
owners there were, and what each man possessed, to the last
ox or cow or pig. The reports were set down in the famous
Domesday Book, perhaps so called because one could no more
appeal from it than from the Last Judgment. A similar census
The "White Tower"
Forms part of the Tower of London. Built by
William the Conqueror.
Book
1085
Royal Justice and the Common Law 195
of population and property had never before been taken in the
Middle Ages.
Almost at the close of his reign William is said to have sum-
moned all the landowning men in England to a great meeting
on Salisbury Plain. They assembled there to ^j^^ SaUsburv
the number, as it is reported, of sixty thousand Oath,
and promised "that they would be faithful to
him against all other men." The Salisbury Oath was a national
act of homage and allegiance to the king.
Tcox adem^AKXSf7 V;Jevair* metttf. iomtah ^Icpw
fl/tuitio rex iUyx'm wpeit^cne: \>iitvi(cnf4'y>^. ita^T
A Passage from Domesday Book
Beginning of the entry for Oxford. The handwriting is the beautiful Carolingian minuscule
which the Norman Conquest introduced into England. The two volumes of Domesday Book
and the chest in which they were formerly preserved may be seen in the Public Record Office,
London.
81. England under Henry II, 1154-1189; Royal Justice
and the Common Law
A grandson of WilKam the Conqueror, Henry II, was the
first of the Plantagenet^ family. Henry spent more than half
of his reign abroad, looking after his extensive Henry ii,
possessions in France, but this fact did not prevent Plaiitagenet
him from giving England good government. Three things in
which all Englishmen take special pride — the courts, the jury
system, and the Common law — began to take shape during
Henry's reign.
Henry, first of all, developed the royal court of justice.
This had been, at first, simply the court of the king's chief
1 The name comes from that of the broom plant (Latin planta genesia), a sprig
of which Henry's father used to wear in his hat. The family is also called Angevin,
because Henry on his father's side descended from the counts of Anjou in France.
196 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
6 Longitude 4 West from 2 Greenwich 0 Longitude 2 East from 4 Greenwich 6
Dominions of the Plantagenets in England and France
Royal Justice and the Common Law 197
vassals, corresponding to the local feudal courts. Henry trans-
formed it from an occasional assembly of warlike nobles into a
regular body of trained lawyers, and at the same The king's
time opened its doors to all except serfs. In the *^°"^*
king's court any freeman could find a justice that was cheaper
and speedier than that dispensed by the feudal lords. The
higher courts of England have sprung from this institution.
Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice directly
to the people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit
throughout the kingdom. At least once a year a circuit
judge was to hold an assembly in each county and Judges
try such cases as were brought before him. This system of cir-
cuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of
England.
The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact that
it employed a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal,
oath-swearing, or judicial duel. Henry introduced Trial by
a method of jury trial which had long been in use " P®**y j"^y "
in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on
circuit, they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of
the parties engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation
and give a ''verdict" ^ as to which side was in the right. These
selected men bore the name of "jurors," ^ because they swore
to tell the truth. This method of securing justice applied at
first only to civil cases, that is, to cases affecting land and
other forms of property, but later it was extended to persons
charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the ''petty jury,"
an institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed
from England.
Another of Henry's innovations developed into the "grand
jury." Before his time many offenders went unpunished,
especially if they were so powerful that no private Accusation
individual dared accuse them. Henry provided by the
that when the king's justices came to a county ^^^ -""^^
court a number of selected men should be put upon their oath
and required to give the names of any persons whom they knew
* Latin verum dictum, "a true statement." ^ Latin i«ro, "I take an oath."
198 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
or believed to be guilty of crimes. Such persons were then
to be arrested and tried. The "grand jury," as it came to be
called, thus had the public duty of making accusations, whether
its members felt any private interest in the matter or not.
The decisions handed down by the legal experts who com-
posed the royal court formed the basis of the English system of
The jurisprudence. It received the name Common
Common law ig^^ because it grew out of such customs as were
common to the realm, as distinguished from those which were
merely local. This law, from Henry II's reign, became so
widespread and so firmly established that it could not be sup-
planted by the Roman law followed on the Continent. Carried
by English colonists across the seas, it has now come to prevail
throughout a great part of the world.
82. The Great Charter
The great Henry, from whose legal reforms EngHsh-speaking
peoples receive benefit even to-day, was followed by his son
Richard I Richard, the Lion-hearted crusader. After a
and John, short reign Richard was succeeded by his brother
1189-1216 John, a man so cruel, tyrannical, and wicked that
he is usually regarded as the worst of EngHsh kings. In a war
with the French ruler, Philip Augustus, John lost Normandy
and some of the other English possessions on the Continent.^
In a dispute with Innocent HI he ended by making an abject
submission to the Papacy .^ Finally, John's oppressive govern-
ment provoked a revolt of his Enghsh subjects, and he was
compelled to grant the famous charter of privileges known as
Magna Carta.
The Norman Conquest had made the king so strong that his
Winning of authority could be resisted only by a union of all
Magna classes of the people. The feudal lords were
Carta. 1215 obUged to unite, with the clergy and the com-
mons,^ in order to save their honor, their estates, and their
1 See page 209. 2 gee page 158.
3 A term which refers to all freemen in town and comitry below the rank of
nobles.
The Great Charter 199
heads. Matters came to a crisis in 121 5, when the nobles,
supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, placed their de-
mands for reform in writing before the king. John refused
to make any concessions. The nobles at once formed the
"army of God and the Holy Church," as it was called, and
occupied London, thus ranging the townspeople on their side.
Deserted by all except the hired troops which he had brought
from the Continent, John was compelled to yield. At Run-
Extract from the Great Charter
Fascimile of the opening lines. Four copies of Magna Carta, sealed with the great seal
of King John, as well as several unsealed copies, are in existence. The British Museum
possesses two of the sealed copies; the other two belong to the cathedrals of Lincoln and
Salisbury, respectively.
nimede on the Thames, not far from Windsor, he set his seal
to the Great Charter.
Magna Carta does not profess to be a charter of liberties for
all Englishmen. Most of its sixty-three clauses merely guaran-
tee to each member of the coalition against John character
— nobles, clergy, and commons — those special of Magna
privileges which the Norman rulers had tried to
take away. Very little is said in this long document about the
serfs, who composed probably five-sixths of the population of
England in the thirteenth century.
But there are three clauses of Magna Carta which came to
have a most important part in the history of EngUsh freedom.
200 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
The first declared that no taxes were to be levied on the
nobles — besides the three recognized feudal "aids" — except
Sienificance ^^ consent of the Great Council of the realm,
of Magna By this clause the nobles compelled the king to
^*^* secure their approval of any proposed taxation.
The second set forth that no one was to be arrested, imprisoned,
or punished in any way, except after a trial by his equals and
in accordance with the law of the land. The third said simply
that to no one should justice be sold, denied, or delayed. These
last two clauses contained the germ of legal principles on which
the Enghsh people reUed for protection against despotic kings.
They form a part of our American inheritance from England
and have passed into the laws of all our states.
83. Parliament in the Thirteenth Century
The thirteenth century, which opened so auspiciously with
the winning of the Great Charter, is also memorable as the
Henry HI, time when England developed her Parliament ^
1216-1272 into something Hke its present form. The first
steps in parliamentary government were taken during the reign
of John's son, Henry III.
It had long been the custom in England in all important
matters for the ruler to act only with the advice and con-
sent of his leading men. The Anglo-Saxon kings
The Wite- , , , . i r i • ttt-
nagemot and sought the advice and consent of their Witenage-
the Gre'at mot,^ a body of nobles, royal officers, bishops.
Council
and abbots. It approved laws, served as a court
of final appeal, elected a new monarch, and at times deposed
him. The Witenagemot did not disappear after the Norman
Conquest. Under the name of the Great Council it continued
to meet from time to time for consultation with the king. This
assembly was now to be transformed from a feudal body into a
parHament representing the entire nation.
1 The word "parliament," from French parler, "to speak," originally meant a
talk or conference. Later, the word came to be applied to the body of persons
assembled for conference.
2 See page io6 and note i.
3 5 2.
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202 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
The Great Council, which by one of the provisions of Magna
Carta had been required to give its consent to the levying of
Simon de taxes, met quite frequently during Henry Ill's
ParUament reign. On one occasion, when Henry was in
1265 urgent need of money and the bishops and lords
refused to grant it, the king took the significant step of calling
to the council two knights from each county to declare what
money they would
give him. These
knights, so ran
Henry's summons,
were to come "in
the stead of each
and all," in other
words, they were to
act as representa-
tives of the coun-
ties. Then in 1265,
when the nobles
were at war with
the king, a second
and even more sig-
nificant step was
taken. Their
leader, Simon de
Montfort, sum-
moned to the coun-
cil not only two
knights from each
A Queen Eleanor Cross
After the death of his wife Eleanor, Edward I caused a
memorial cross to be set up at each place where her funeral cOUntV but
procession had stopped on its way to London. There were
originally seven crosses. Of the three that still exist, the
Geddington cross is the best preserved. It consists of
three stories and stands on a platform of eight steps.
also
two citizens from
each of the more
important towns.
The custom of selecting certain men to act in the name
and on the behalf of the community had existed during Anglo-
Saxon times in local government. Representatives of the
counties had been employed by the Norman kings to assess
Parliament in the Thirteenth Century 203
and collect taxes on land and personal property. As we have
just learned, the "juries" of Henry II also con- ^j^^ jepj-e-
sisted of such representatives. The EngHsh people, sentative
in fact, were quite familiar with the idea of repre- ^^^ ^^
sentation long before it was applied on a larger scale to Parlia-
ment.
Simon de Montfort's Parliament included only his own sup-
porters, and hence was not a truly national body. But it made
a precedent for the future. Thirty years later ,,
T- 1 1 T n 1 1 TTT . Model
Edward I called together at Westmmster, now a ParUament"
part of London, a Parliament which included all ®^ Edward I,
1295
classes of the people. Here were present earls and
barons as representatives from the nobility; bishops, abbots,
and other representatives of the clergy; two knights from every
county; and two townsmen to represent each town in that
county. After this time all these classes were regularly sum-
moned to meet in assembly at Westminster.
The separation of Parliament into two chambers came in
the fourteenth century. The House of Lords contained the
nobles and higher clergy, the House of Commons, Lords and
the representatives from counties and towns. Commons
This bicameral arrangement, as it is called, has been followed
in the parliaments of most modern countries.
The early English Parhament was not a law-making but a
tax-voting body. The king would call the two houses in session
only when he needed their sanction for raising Powers of
money. Parliament in its turn would refuse to Parliament
grant supplies until the king had corrected abuses in admin-
istration or had removed unpopular officials. This control
of the public purse in time enabled Parliament to grasp other
powers. It became generally recognized that royal officials
were responsible to Parliament for their actions, that the king
himself might be deposed for good cause, and that bills, when
passed by Parliament and signed by the king, were henceforth
the law of the land. England thus worked out in the Middle
Ages a system of parliamentary government which nearly all
civiHzed nations have held worthy of imitation.
204 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
84. Expansion of England under Edward I, 1272-1307
Our narrative has been confined until now to England, which
forms, together with Wales" and Scotland, the island known as
The Great Britain. Ireland is the only other important
British Isles division of the United Kingdom. It was almost
inevitable that in process of time the British Isles should have
come under a single govern-
ment, but political unity has
not yet fused English, Welsh,
Scotch, and Irish into a single
people.
The conquest of Britain by
the Anglo-Saxons drove many
of the Welsh, as
Wales .
the invaders called
the Britons, into the western
part of the island. This district,
henceforth known as Wales,
was one of the last strongholds
of the Celts. Even to-day a
variety of the old Celtic lan-
guage, called Cymric, is still
spoken by the Welsh people.
The Welsh long resisted all
attempts to subjugate them.
Conquest Harold exerted some
of Wales authority over Wales;
William the Conqueror entered
part of it; and Henry II induced the local rulers to acknowl-
edge him as overlord; but it was Edward I who first brought
all the country under English sway. Edward fostered the
building of towns in his new possession, divided it into coun-
ties or shires, after the system that prevailed in England,
and introduced the Common law. He called his son, Ed-
ward II, who was born in the country, the "Prince of Wales,"
and this title has ever since been borne by the heir apparent to
Coronation Chair, West-
minster Abbey
Every English ruler since Edward I has
been crowned in this oak chair. Under the
seat is the " Stone of Scone," said to have
been once used by the patriarch Jacob.
Edward I brought it to London in 1291, as
a token of the subjection of Scotland.
Expansion of England under Edward I 205
the English throne. The work of uniting Wales to England
went on slowly, and two centuries elapsed before Wales re-
ceived representation in the House of Commons.
SCOTLAND
In the 13th Century
DfEDglish Miles
n r II
Longitude VTest 4 from Greenwic
Scotland derives its name from the Scots, who came over
from Ireland early in the fifth century. The northern High-
lands, a nest of rugged mountains washed by cold „ , ^
1 11 i_ • J • Scotland
and stormy seas, have always been occupied m
historic times by a Celtic-speaking people, whose language,
called Gaelic, is not yet extinct there. This part of Scotland,
like Wales, was a home of freedom. The Romans did not
2o6 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
attempt to annex the Highlands, and the Anglo-Saxons and
Danes never penetrated their fastnesses. On the other hand,
the southern Lowlands, which include only about one-third of
Scotland, were subdued by the Teutonic invaders, and so this
district became thoroughly Enghsh in language and culture.^
One might suppose that the Lowlands, geographically only
an extension of northern England and inhabited by an EngUsh-
The Scottish speaking people, would have early united with the
kingdom southern kingdom. But matters turned out other-
wise. The Lowlands and the Highlands came together under a
line of Celtic kings, who fixed their residence at Edinburgh and
long maintained their independence.
Edward I, having conquered Wales, took advantage of the
disturbed conditions which prevailed in Scotland to interfere
Scotland ^^ ^^^ affairs of that country. The Scotch offered
annexed by a brave but futile resistance under Wilham Wallace.
Edward I rpj^-^ j^^^qJ^, leader, who held out after most of his
countrymen submitted, was finally captured and executed.
His head, according to the barbarous practice of the time, was
set upon a pole on London Bridge. The Enghsh king now
annexed Scotland without further opposition.
The Scotch soon found another champion in the person of
Robert Bruce. Edward I, now old and broken, marched
against him, but died before reaching the border.
Robert Bruce _° ' ^ , . _ , , ° .^.
and Ban- The weakness of his son, Edward II, permitted
nockbum, ^]^g Scotch, ably led by Bruce, to win the signal
victory of Bannockburn, near Stirhng Castle.
Here the Scottish spearmen drove the Enghsh knights into
ignominious flight and freed their country from its foreign
overlords.
The battle of Bannockburn made a nation. A few years
afterwards the Enghsh formally recognized the independence
Independence of the northern kingdom. The great design of
of Scotland Edward I to unite all the peoples of Britain under
one government had to be postponed for centuries.-
1 See the map, page 28.
* In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as James I.
Unification of France 207
No one kingdom ever arose in Ireland out of the numerous
tribes into which the Celtic-speaking inhabitants were divided.
The island was not troubled, however, by foreign , , ,
, Ireland
invaders till the coming of the Northmen in the
ninth century. The English, who first entered Ireland during
the reign of Henry II, for a long time held only a small district
about Dublin known as the Pale.^ Ireland because of its situ-
ation could scarcely fail to become an appanage of Great Britain,
but the dividing sea has combined with differences in race,
language, and religion, and with English misgovernment, to
prevent anything like a genuine union of the conquerors and
the conquered.
85. Unification of France, 987-1328
Nature seems to have intended that France should play a
leading part in European affairs. The geographical unity of
the country is obvious. Mountains and seas Physical
form its permanent boundaries, except on the north- France
east, where the frontier is not well defined. The western coast
of France opens on the Atlantic, now the greatest highway of
the world's commerce, while on the southeast France touches
the Mediterranean, the home of classical civilization. This
intermediate position between two seas helps us to understand
why French history should form, as it were, a connecting link
between ancient and modern times.
But the greatness of France has been due, also, to the qualities
of the French people. Many racial elements have contributed
to the population. The blood of prehistoric Racial
men, whose monuments and grave mounds are ^^^^^ce
scattered over the land, still flows in the veins of Frenchmen.
At the opening of historic times France was chiefly occupied
by the Gauls, whom Juhus Caesar found there and subdued.
The Gauls, or Celtic people, formed in later ages the main stock
of the French nation, but their language gave place to Latin
after the Roman conquest. In the course of five hundred years
the Gauls were so thoroughly Romanized that they may best be
^ See the map on page 388.
2o8 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
described as Gallo-Romans. The Burgundians, Franks, and
Northmen afterwards added a Teutonic element to the pop-
ulation, as well as some infusion of Teutonic laws and customs.
Unification of France during the Middle Ages
France, again, became a great nation because of the greatness
of its rulers. Hugh Capet, who assumed the French crown in
TheCapetian 987, was fortunate in his descendants. The
dynasty Capetian dynasty was long lived, and for more
than three centuries son followed father on the throne without
Unification of France 209
a break in the succession. During this time the French sov-
ereigns worked steadily to exalt the royal power and to unite
the feudal states of medieval France into a real nation under
a common government. Their success in this task made
them, at the close of the Middle Ages, the strongest monarchs
in Europe.
Hugh Capet's duchy — the original France — included only
a small stretch of inland country centering about Paris on the
Seine and Orleans on the Loire. His election to France and
the kingship did not increase his power over the ^*^ ^®^^
great lords who ruled in Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, and
other parts of the country. They did homage to the king for
their fiefs and performed the usual feudal services, but other-
wise regarded themselves as independent.
The most considerable additions to the royal domains, or
territories under the king's control, were effected by Philip II,
called Augustus. Reference has already been pj^j. jj
made to his contest with Pope Innocent III and Augustus,
to his participation in the Third Crusade.^ The ^^^^^223
English king, John, was Philip's vassal for Normandy and other
provinces in France. A quarrel between the two rulers gave
Philip an opportunity to declare John's fiefs forfeited by feudal
law. Philip then seized all the English possessions north of
the river Loire. The loss of these possessions abroad had the
result of separating England almost completely from Con-
tinental interests; for France it meant a great increase in
territory and population. Philip made Paris his chief residence,
and that city was henceforth the capital of France.
During the long reign of Philip's grandson, Louis IX, rich
districts to the west of the Rhone became a part of the
royal domains. This king, whose Christian vir- louJs ix the
tues led to his canonization, distinguished himself Saint, 122&-
1270
as an administrator. His work in unifying France
may be compared with that of Henry II in England. He
decreed that only the king's money was to circulate in the
provinces ruled directly by himself, thus limiting the right of
1 See pages 157 and 171.
2IO Europe During the Later Middle Ages
coinage enjoyed by feudal lords. He restricted very greatly
the right of private war and forbade the use of judicial duels.
Louis also provided that important cases could be appealed
from feudal courts to the king's judges, who sat in Paris and
followed in their decisions the principles of Roman law. In
these and other ways he laid the foundations of absolute mon-
archy in France.
The grandson of St. Louis, Philip IV, did much to organize
a financial system for France. Now that the kingdom had
Philio IV the become so large and powerful, the old feudal dues
Fair, 1285- were insufl&cient to pay the salaries of the royal
^^^* officials and support a standing army. Philip
resorted to new methods of raising revenue, by imposing various
taxes and by requiring the feudal lords to substitute payments
in money for the military service due from them.
Philip also called into existence the Estates-General, an
assembly in which the clergy, the nobles, and representatives
The Estates- from the commons (the Third Estate) met as separ-
General ^^q bodies and voted grants of money. The Estates-
General arose almost at the same time as the English Parliament,
to which it corresponded, but it never secured the extensive
authority of that body. After a time the kings of France
became so powerful that they managed to reign without once
summoning the nation in council. The French did not suc-
ceed, as the English had done, in founding political liberty
upon the vote and control of taxation.
86. The Hundred Years* War between France and England,
1337-1453
The task of unifying France was interrupted by a deplorable
war between that country Imd England. It continued, in-
Pretext for eluding periods of truce, for over a century. The
the war pretext for the war was found in a disputed suc-
cession. In 1328 the last of the three sons of Philip IV passed
away, and the direct hne of the house of Capet, which had
reigned over France for more than three hundred years, came
to an end. The EngUsh ruler, Edward III, whose mother was
The Hundred Years' War
211
the daughter of PhiHp IV, considered himself the next Hneal
heir. The French nobles were naturally unwilling to receive
a foreigner as king, and gave the throne, instead, to a nephew
of Philip IV. This decision was afterwards justified on the
ground that, by the old law of the
Salian Franks, women could neither
inherit estates nor transmit them to a
son.^
Edward III at first accepted
situation. But Philip VI, the
king, irritated Edward by Reasons for
constant encroachments on *^® ^^
the territories which the English still
kept in France. Philip also allied
himself with the Scotch and interfered
with English trade interests in the
county of Flanders. This attitude of
hostility provoked retaliation,
now reasserted his claim to the crown
the
new
Royal Arms of
Edward III
Edward III, having in 1340
Edward set up a claim to the throne of
France, proceeded to add the
French lihes (fleurs-de-lis) to his
of France and prepared by force of coat of arms. He also took as
arms to make it good.
his motto Dieu et mon Droit
("God and my Right"). The
Edward led his troops across the Hlies of France remained in the
y-,1 1 J i. /^ ' • J ■ royal arms till 1801; the motto
Channel and at Crecy gamed a com- i3 ^tiii retained.
plete victory over the knighthood of
France. Ten years later the English at Poitiers almost anni-
hilated another French force much superior in numbers.
These two battles were mainly won by foot
soldiers armed with the longbow, in the use of
which the English excelled. Ordinary iron mail
could not resist the heavy, yard-long arrows,
which fell with murderous effect upon the bodies of men and
horses alike. Henceforth infantry, when properly armed and
led, were to prove themselves on many a bloody field more
than a match for feudal cavalry.
Edward's son, the Prince of Wales, when only sixteen years
1 Hence the name "Salic law" applied to the rule excluding women from suc-
cession to the French throne.
Battles of
Crecy, 1346,
and Poitiers,
1356
212 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
of age won his spurs by distinguished conduct at Crecy. It
was the "Black Prince,"^ also, who gained the day at
The " Black Poitiers, where he took prisoner the French king,
Prince " John. Toward his royal captive he behaved in
chivalrous fashion. At supper, on the evening of the battle,
he stood behind John's chair and waited on him, praising the
Battle of Crecy
From a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
king's brave deeds. But this "flower of knighthood," who
regarded warfare as only a tournament on a larger scale, could
be ruthless in his treatment of the common people. On one
occasion he caused three thousand inhabitants of a captured
town — men, women and children — to be butchered before
his eyes. The incident shows how far apart in the Middle
Ages were chivalry and humanity.
1 Probably so called from the black armor which he wore. It may still be seen
above his tomb in Canterbury CathedraL
3 S.S
re a.
i ^ ° o
ore
re 3 fo
I §' 2.
O rt- 3
(n o
re o 2
<^ "1 o
o- K- i^
c 3 re
" S. 2.
On p orq
8 O
The Hundred Years' War 213
The English, in spite of their victories, could not conquer
France. The French refused to fight more pitched battles and
retired to their castles and fortified towns. The Renewal of
war almost ceased for many years after the death *^® ^^
of Edward III. It began again early in the fifteenth century,
and the English this time met with more success. They gained
possession of almost all France north of the Loire, except the
important city of Orleans. Had the Enghsh taken it, French
resistance must have collapsed. That they did not take it
was due to one of the most remarkable women in history —
Joan of Arc.^
Joan was a peasant girl, a native of the little village of Dom-
remy. Always a devout and imaginative child, she early began
to see visions of saints and angels and to hear ^j^^ "Maid
mysterious voices. At the time of the siege of of Orleans,"
Orleans the archangel Michael appeared to her,
so she declared, and bade her go forth and save France. Joan
obeyed, and though barely seventeen years of age, made her
way to the court of the French king. There her piety, simplic-
ity, and evident faith in her mission overcame all doubts. Clad
in armor, girt with an ancient sword, and with a white banner
borne before her, Joan was allowed to accompany an army for
the relief of Orleans. She inspired the French with such enthu-
siasm that they quickly compelled the English to raise the siege.
Then Joan led her king to Reims and stood beside him at his
coronation in the cathedral.
Though Joan was soon afterwards captured by the English,
who burned her as a witch, her example nerved the French
to further resistance. The EngUsh, gradually End of
lost ground and in 1453, the year of the fall of *^® ^^^
Constantinople, abandoned the effort to conquer a land much
larger than their own. They retained of the French territories
only the port of Calais and the Channel Islands.^
Few wars have had less to justify them, either in their causes
1 In French, Jeanne d'Arc.
2 Calais went back to the French in 1558. ' The Channel Islands are still English
possessions.
214 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
or in their consequences, than this long contest between Eng-
land and France. It was a calamity to both lands. For
Effects of England it meant the dissipation abroad of the
the war energies which would have been better employed at
home. For France it resulted in great destruction of property,
untold suffering, famines, and much loss of life. The war, how-
ever, did help to arouse national self-consciousness in both coun-
tries. The awakening of a sentiment of patriotism was especially
marked in France, which had fought so long for independence.
Shortly after the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War the
two branches of the English royal family became involved in a
England after desperate struggle for the crown. This was known
the Hundred as the War of the Roses, because the house of
ears ar York took as its badge a white rose and the house
of Lancaster, a red rose. The contest lasted until 1485, when
the Lancastrians conquered, and their leader, Henry Tudor,
ascended the throne as Henry VII. He married a Yorkist
wife, thus uniting the two factions, and founded the Tudor
dynasty. The War of the Roses arrested the progress of
English freedom. It created a demand for a strong monarchy
which could keep order and prevent civil strife between the
nobles. The Tudors met that demand and ruled as absolute
sovereigns.
France also issued from the Hundred Years' War with an
absolute government. Strengthened by victory over the
France after English, the French kings were able to reduce
the Hundred both the nobility and the commons to impotence.
ears War ^^ ^j^^ same time they steadily enlarged the
royal domains, until by the end of the fifteenth century the
unification of France was almost complete.
87. Unification of Spain to (1492)
The Spanish peninsula, known to the Romans as Hispania,
is sharply separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees
The Spanish Mountains. The proximity of Spain to Africa
peninsula j^g^g always brought it into intimate relations
with that continent. Just as Russia has formed a link between
Unification of Spain
215
Asia and Europe, so Spain has served as a natural highway
from Africa to Europe.
The first settlers in Spain, of whom we know anything, were
the Iberians. They may have emigrated from northern Africa.
After them came the Celts, who overran a large The Spanish
part of the peninsula and appear to have mingled People
with the Iberians, thus forming the mixed people known as
Celtiberians. In historic times Spain was conquered by the
Territory added
At beginning of to the end of liit'
I'.'tb Century Century (1402)
Castile 111 ESSJ.P
Aragon ^^^
Navarre
THE M.-N. WORKS
The dates are those of Christian Portuo-al f \ H^
oConquest of Moorish Territory ^„ ^ \.>....^^\ L_^
Unification of Spain during the Middle Ages
Carthaginians, who left few traces of their occupation; by
the Romans, who thoroughly Romanized the country; by
the Visigoths, who founded a Teutonic kingdom; and lastly
by the Moors,^ who introduced Arabian culture and the faith
of Islam. These invaders were not numerous enough greatly
to affect the population, in which the Celtiberian strain is still
predominant.
^ The name Moor (derived from the Roman province of Mauretania) is applied
to the Arab and Berber peoples who occupied North Africa and Spain.
2i6 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
The Moors never wholly conquered a fringe of mountain
territory in the extreme north of Spain. Here a number of
Christian small Christian states, including Leon, Castile,
states of Navarre, and Aragon, came into being. In the
^^^ west there also arose the Christian state of Por-
tugal. Geographically, Portugal belongs to Spain, from which
it is separated only by artificial frontiers, but the country has
usually managed to maintain its independence.
Acting sometimes alone and sometimes in concert, the
Christian states fought steadily to enlarge their boundaries at
Recovery of ^^^ expense of their Moslem neighbors. The
Spain from contest was blessed by the pope and supported
®®^^ by the chivalry of Europe. Periods of victory al-
ternated with periods of defeat, but by the close of the thirteenth
century Mohammedan Spain had been reduced to the king-
dom of Granada at the southern extremity of the peninsula.
The long struggle with the Moors made the Spanish a patri-
otic people, keenly conscious of their national unity. The
achievements of Christian warriors were recited
The Cid
in countless ballads, and especially in the fine
Poem of the Cid. It deals with the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz,
better known by the title of the Cid (lord) given to him by the
Moors. The Cid of romance was the embodiment of every
knightly virtue; the real Cid was a bandit, who fought some-
times for the Christians, sometimes against them, but always
in his own interests. The Cid's evil deeds were forgotten
after his death, and he became the national hero of Spain.
Meanwhile, the separate Spanish kingdoms were coming
together to form a nation. Leon and Castile in 1230 com-
bined into the one kingdom of Castile, so named
Union of , . r . 1 • 1 1 • 1 1
Castile and because its frontiers bristled with castles against
Aragon, ^j^g Moors. The most important step in the
making of Spain was the marriage of Ferdinand of
Aragon to Isabella of Castile, leading in 1479 to the union of
these two kingdoms. About the same time the Castihan
language began to crowd out the other Spanish dialects and
to become the national speech.
Austria and the Swiss Confederation 217
The king and queen of Spain aimed to continue the unifica-
tion of the peninsula by the conquest of Granada. Nothing
was done by the Ottoman Turks, who shortly conquest
before had captured Constantinople, to defend of Granada,
this last stronghold of Islam in the West. The ^*^^
Moors, though thrown upon their own resources, made a gallant
resistance. At least once Ferdinand wearied of the struggle,
but Isabella's determination never wavered. Granada sur-
rendered in 1492, and the silver cross of the crusading army
was raised on the highest tower of the city. Moslem rule in
Spain, after an existence of almost eight centuries, now came to
an end.
Ferdinand and Isabella belong in the front rank of European
sovereigns. They labored with success to build up an abso-
lute monarchy. Spain had found, as England j^^g ^^
and France had found, that feudalism spelled Ferdinand
disorder, and that only a strong central govern- ^ isabeUa
ment could keep the peace, repress crime, and foster trade and
commerce. Ferdinand and Isabella firmly estabhshed the
supremacy of the crown. By the end of the fifteenth century
Spain had become a leading European power. Its importance
in the councils of Europe was soon to be increased by the
marriage of a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella to the heir
of the Austrian house of Hapsburg.
88. Austria and the Swiss Confederation, 1273-1499
The name Austria — in German Oesterreich — means simply
the eastern part of any kingdom. It came to be apphed par-
ticularly to the territory on the Danube east of Rise of
Bavaria, which Otto the Great had formed into Austria
a mark or border province for defense against the Magyars.
This mark, soon to be known as Austria, gained an important
place among German states. The frontiers were pushed down
the Danube valley, and the capital was finally located at Vienna,
once a Roman city. Frederick Barbarossa raised Austria to
the rank of a duchy. Rudolf of Hapsburg, who became emperor
in 1273, made it a Hapsburg possession.
2i8 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
The Hapsburgs had great success in building up the Austrian
state. At the end of the fourteenth century their do-
minions included a large part of eastern Germany,^
reaching from beyond the Danube southward to
the Adriatic. Early in the sixteenth century they
secured Bohemia, a Slavic land thrust like a wedge
into German territory, as well as part of the Magyar land of
Growth of
Austria
under the
Hapsburgs
Hapsburg Possessions, 1273-1526 a.d.
Hungary. The possession of these two kingdoms gave Austria
its special character of a state formed by the union under one
ruler of several wholly distinct nations. Meanwhile the right
of election as Holy Roman Emperor became hereditary in
the Hapsburg family .^
1 The duchies of Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and
the county of Tyrol.
2 The seven German princes who chose the emperor were the archbishops of
Mayence (or Mainz), Treves (or Trier), and Cologne, the margrave of Branden-
burg, the count palatine of the Rhine, the duke of Saxony, and the king of Bohemia.
This electoral college continued to exist until the dissolution of the Holy Roman
Empire in 1806.
Austria and the Swiss Confederation
219
Switzerland
Switzerland, during the earlier period of the Middle Ages,
formed a part of the German duchy of Swabia and belonged to
the Holy Roman Empire.^ About two thirds of
the population of Switzerland remain German in
speech and feeling, though now the country includes districts
in which French or Italian are spoken. All Swiss laws are still
proclaimed in the three languages.
The Original Three "Forest Cantofc
The Ten Cantons added, 1291-1513\
Lake of
tance
Scale of Miles i\
10 20 30 40 )
THE M.-M. WORKS
The Swiss Confederation, 1291-1513 a.d.
Swiss history is closely bound up with that of Austria. The
little mountain communities of Schwyz,^ Uri, and Unterwalden,
on the shores of beautiful Lake Lucerne, were Switzerland
possessions of the counts of Hapsburg. In 1291, *^^ Austria
the year when Rudolf of Hapsburg died, these three "Forest
Cantons" formed a confederation for resistance to their Haps-
burg overlords. Additional cantons joined the league, which
now entered upon a long struggle, dear to all lovers of liberty,
against Austrian rule. Nowhere did the old methods of feudal
warfare break down more conspicuously than in the battles
gained by Swiss pikemen over the knights of Austria. The
1 See the map facing page 158. 2 From Schwyz comes the name Switzerland.
220 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
struggle closed in 1499, when Switzerland became practically
a free state.^
Switzerland has two heroes of her war for independence.
William Tell is a wholly mythical character, for the story of a
skillful marksman who succeeds in striking off
Tell and some small object placed on a child's head is found
Arnold yon jj^ England, Norway, Denmark, and other coun-
tries. The Swiss have localized it in Uri. Another
popular hero has a better claim to historical existence. It is
said that at a critical moment in the battle of Sempach, when
the Swiss with their short weapons failed to break the Austrian
ranks, Arnold von Winkelried, a man of Unterwalden, came to
the rescue. Rushing single-handed upon the enemy, he seized
all the spears within reach and turned them upon his own body.
He thus opened a gap in the line, through which the Swiss pressed
on to victory. " Winkelried's deed might well have been per-
formed, though the evidence for it is very scanty.
Little Switzerland, lying in the heart of the Alps and sur-
rounded by powerful neighbors, is one of the most interesting
The Swiss States in Europe. The twenty-two communities,
Confedera- or cantons, which make up the Swiss Confedera-
tion, differ among themselves in language, religion
(Roman Catholic or Protestant), and customs, according to
their nearness to Germany, France, or Italy. Nevertheless
the Swiss form a patriotic and united nation. It is remarkable
that a people whose chief bond of union was common hostility
to the Austrian Hapsburgs, should have established a federal
government so strong and enduring.
89. Expansion of Germany
An examination of the map shows how deficient Germany is
in good natural boundaries. The valley of the Danube affords
Lines of • ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ southeast, a road which the
German early rulers of Austria followed as far as Vienna
expansion ^^^ ^j^^ Hungarian frontier. Eastward along
the Baltic no break occurs in the great plain stretching from
1 The independence of the country was not formally recognized till 1648.
Expansion of Germany 221
the North Sea to the Ural Mountains. It was in this direction
that German conquests and colonization during medieval times
laid the foundation of modern Prussia.
The Germans, when descending upon the Roman Empire, had
abandoned much of their former territories to the Slavs. In
the reign of Charlemagne nearly all the region The German
between the Elbe and the Vistula belonged to and the Slav
Slavic tribes. To win it back for Germany required several
centuries of hard fighting. The Slavs were heathen and bar-
barous, so that warfare with them seemed to be a kind of
crusade. In the main, however, German expansion east-
ward was a business venture, due to the need for free land.
The hope of gain thus combined with religious zeal and the
spirit of adventure to ' stihiulate emigration into the ''Great
East" of the Middle Ages.
German expansion began early in the tenth century, when
Henry the Fowler invaded Brandenburg between the Elbe
and the Oder. Subsequently much of the terri- Brandenburg
tory between the Oder and the Vistula, including and
Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic, o^^^^ama
came under German control. The Slavic inhabitants were
exterminated or reduced to slavery. Their place was taken
by thousands of German colonists, who introduced Christianity,
built churches and monasteries, cleared the woods, drained the
marshes, and founded many cities destined to become centers
of German trade and culture.
Beyond the Vistula lay the lands of the Prussians, a non-
Teutonic people closely related to the Slavs. The conquest
and conversion of the Prussians was accom- pj^gsia and
plished by the famous order of Teutonic Knights, the Teutonic
It had been founded in Palestine as a military-
religious order, at the time of the Third Crusade. The de-
cline of the crusading movement left the knights with no duties
to perform, and so they transferred their activities to the
Prussian frontier, where there was still a chance to engage in
a holy war. The Teutonic Order flourished throughout the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, until its grand-master
222 Europe During the Later Middle Ages
ruled over the entire Baltic coast from the Vistula to the Gulf
of Finland. The knights later had to relinquish much of this
region to the Slavs, but they sowed there the seeds of
I I Germans
Slavs
THE M.-nT'WORKS
Longitude 15f East from
20° Greenwich
German Expansion Eastward during the Middle Ages
civilization. The Baltic countries — Courland, Livonia, and
Esthonia — rank to-day among the richest and most advanced
parts of eastern Europe.
Germany at the close of the Middle Ages was not a united,
intensely national state, such as had been formed in England,
Expansion of Germany 223
France, and Spain. It had split into hundreds of principalities,
none large, some extremely small, and all practically indepen-
dent of the feeble German kings. This weakness Political
of the central power condemned the country to Germany
a minor part in the affairs of Europe as late as the nineteenth
century. Yet Germany found some compensation for political
backwardness in the splendid city life which it developed
during the later Middle Ages. The German cities, together
with those of Italy and other European lands, now call for our
attention.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate (a) William the Conqueror's French dominions
and (b) additional dominions of the Plantagenet kings in France. 2. Prepare a
chart showing the leading rulers mentioned in this chapter. Arrange yom material
in parallel columns with dates, one column for England, one for France, and one
for the other European countries. 3. Locate the following places: Crecy; Calais;
Poitiers; Stirling; Edinburgh; Orleans; and Granada. 4. What happened in
987? in 1066? in 1215? in 1295? in 1346? in 1453? in 1485? and in 1492? 5. Dis-
tinguish between a nation, a government, and a state. 6. Are unity of race, a
common language, a common religion, and geographical unity of themselves suffi-
cient to make a nation? May a nation arise where these bonds are lacking?
7. "The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them."
Comment on this statement. 8. Account for the rise of national feeling in France,
Spain, Scotland, and Switzerland. 9. "Good government in the Middle Ages was
only another name for a public-spirited and powerful monarchy." Comment on
this statement. 10. What advantages has trial by jury over the older forms of
trial, such as oaths, ordeals, and the judicial duel? 11. Explain the difference
between a grand jury and a trial, or petty jury. 12. Compare the extent of terri-
tory in which Roman law now prevails with that which follows the Common law.
13. Why was the Parliament of 1295 named the "Model Parliament"? 14. Dis-
tinguish between England and Great Britain. Between Great Britain and the
United Kingdom. 15. What were the Roman names of England, Scotland, and
Ireland? 16. "Islands seem dedicated by nature to freedom." How does the
history of Ireland illustrate this statement? 17. Trace on the map the main
water routes in France between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. 18. Show
that Paris occupies an exceptionally good location for a capital city. 19. What
French kings did most to form the French nation? 20. Why have queens never
ruled in France? 21. How did the methods of fighting at Crecy contrast with
those at Hastings? 22. Why has Joan of Arc become "the embodiment of the
soul of France for all time"? 23. "Beyond the Pyrenees begins Africa." What
does this statement mean? 24. Why was Spain inconspicuous in European
politics before the opening of the sixteenth century? 25. Look up in an ency-
clopedia the story of William Tell and prepare an oral report upon it. 26. Why
was the German system of elective rulers politically less advantageous than the
settled hereditary succession which prevailed in England and France?
CHAPTER XI
EUROPEAN CITIES DURING THE LATER MIDDLE AGES
90. Growth of tlie Cities
Civilization has always had its home in the city. The state-
ment appHes as well to medieval times as to the present day.
The civic Nothing marks more strongly the backwardness
revival ^f ^^j^g early Middle Ages than the absence of
large and flourishing cities throughout western Europe. The
growth of trade in the later Middle Ages led, however, to a civic
revival beginning in the eleventh century. This change from
rural to urban life was scarcely less significant for European
history than the change from the feudal to the national state.
A number of medieval cities stood on the sites, and even within
the walls, of Roman municipalities. Particularly in Italy,
Cities of southern France, and Spain, and also in the Rhine
Roman and Danube regions, it seems that some ancient
ongin miinicipia had never been entirely destroyed dur-
ing the German invasions. They preserved their Roman names,
their streets, aqueducts, amphitheaters, and churches, and pos-
sibly vestiges of their Roman institutions. Among them were
such important centers as Milan, Florence, Venice, Lyons,
Marseilles, Paris, Vienna, Cologne, London, and York.
Many medieval cities were new foundations. Some began
as small communities which increased in size because of ex-
Origin of ceptional advantages of situation. A place where
other cities g^ river could be forded, where two roads met, or
where a good harbor existed, would naturally become the re-
sort of traders. Some, again, started as fortresses, behind
whose ramparts the peasants took refuge when danger threat-
ened. A third group of cities developed from villages on the
manors. A thriving settlement was pretty sure to spring up
224
Growth of the Cities
225
near a monastery or castle, which offered both protection and
employment to the common people.
The city at first formed part of the feudal system. It arose
upon the territory of a feudal lord and naturally owed obedience
to him. The citizens ranked not much higher The city and
than serfs, though they were traders and artisans feudalism
instead of farmers. They enjoyed no political rights, for their
Walls of Carcassonne
The fortifications of Carcassonne, an ancient city of southern France., are probably unique
in Europe for completeness and strength. They consist of a double line of ramparts, pro-
tected by towers and pierced by only two gates. A part of the fortifications is attributed to
the Visigoths in the skth century; the remainder, including the castle, was raised during the
Middle Ages (eleventh to thirteenth centuries).
lord collected the taxes, appointed officials, kept order, and
punished offenders. In short, the city was not free.
But the city from the first was the decided enemy of feudal-
ism. As its inhabitants became more numerous and wealthy,
they refused to submit to oppression. Sometimes The civic
they won their freedom by hard fighting; more ^^^o^t
often they purchased it, perhaps from some noble who needed
money to go on a crusade. In France, England, and Spain,
where the royal power was strong, the cities obtained exemp-
tion from their feudal burdens, but did not become entirely
self-governing. In Germany and Italy, on the other hand,
226 European Cities During the Middle Ages
the weakness of the central government permitted many cities
to secure complete independence. They became true repubhcs,
like the old Greek city-states.
The contract which the citizens extorted from their lord was
known as a charter. It specified what taxes they should be
required to pay and usually granted to them
various privileges, such as those of holding assem-
blies, electing magistrates, and raising miUtia for local defense.
Charters
f^-^^
A Scene in Rothenburg
Rothenburg ob-der-Tauber in Bavaria has preserved its old ramparts, narrow streets, town
hall, and picturesque wooden houses of the Middle Ages. Nuremberg, another German
town, and Chester in England are also very medieval in appearance.
The revolt of the cities gradually extended over all western
Europe, so that at the end of the fourteenth century very
few of them lacked a charter.
The free city had no room for either slaves or serfs. All
servile conditions ceased inside its walls. The rule prevailed
Civic that any one who had lived in a city for the term
freedom q£ ^ ygg^j. ^^^ ^ ^^y could no longer be claimed by a
lord as his serf. This rule found expression in the famous
saying, "Town air renders free."
City Life 227
The freedom of the cities naturally attracted many immi-
grants to them. There came into existence a middle class of
city people, between the clergy and nobles on the j^jg^ ^^
one side and the peasants on the other side — the Third
what the French call the bourgeoisie.^ As we have
learned,^ the kings of England and France soon began to sum-
mon representatives of this middle class to sit in assemblies
by the side of the clergy and the nobles. Henceforth the mid-
dle class, or bourgeoisie, distinguished as it was for wealth,
intelligence, and enterprise, exerted an ever-greater influence
on European affairs.
91. City Life
The visitor approaching a medieval city through miles of
open fields saw it clear in the sunlight, unobscured by coal
smoke. From without it looked like a fortress, a city from
with walls, towers, gateways, drawbridges, and without
moat. Beyond the fortifications he would see, huddled together
against the sky, the spires of the churches and the cathedral,
the roofs of the larger houses, and the dark, frowning mass of
the castle. The general impression was one of wealth and
strength and beauty.^
Once within the walls the visitor would not find things so
attractive. The streets were narrow, crooked, and ill-paved,
dark during the day because of the overhanging a city from
houses, and without illumination at night. There within
were no open spaces or parks except a small market place. The
whole city was cramped by its walls, which shut out light, air,
and view, and prevented expansion into the neighboring coun-
try. Medieval London, for instance, covered an area of less
than one square mile.
A city in the Middle Ages lacked all sanitary arrangements.
The only water supply came from polluted streams and wells.
Sewers and sidewalks were quite unknown. People unsanitary
piled up their refuse in the backyard or flung it into conditions
the street, to be devoured by the dogs and pigs which served
^ From French bourg, "town." 3 gee frontispiece.
2 See pages 203 and 210.
228 European Cities During the Middle Ages
as scavengers. The holes in the pavement collected all manner
of filth, and the unpaved lanes, in wet weather, became quag-
mires. We can understand why the townspeople wore over-
shoes when they went out, and why even the saints in the pic-
tures were represented wearing them. The living were crowded
together in many-
storied houses, airless
and gloomy; the dead
were buried close at
hand in crowded
churchyards. Such
unsanitary conditions
must have been re-
sponsible for much of
the sickness that was
prevalent. The high
death rate could only
be offset by a birth
rate correspondingly
high, and by the con-
stant influx of country
people.
The inhabitants of
the city took a just pride in their public buildings. The
Public market place, where traders assembled, often con-
buUdings tained a beautiful cross and sometimes a market
hall to shelter goods from the weather. Not far away rose
the city hall,^ for the transaction of public business and the
holding of civic feasts. The hall might be crowned by a high
belfry with an alarm bell to summon the citizens to mass
meeting. There were also a number of churches and abbeys
and, if the city was the capital of a bishop's diocese, an imposing
cathedral.
The small size of medieval cities — few included as many as
ten thousand inhabitants — simplified the problem of governing
them. The leading merchants usually formed a council pre-
A London Bellman
Title-page of a tract published in 1616. It was part
of the duties of a bellman, or night-watchman, to call out
the hours, the state of the weather, and other information
as he passed by.
1 In French hotel de ville; in German Ralhhaus.
Civic Industry: The Guilds 229
sided over by a head magistrate, the burgomaster ^ or mayor,^
who was assisted by aldermen. ^ In some places Municipal
the guilds chose the officials and managed civic government
affairs. These associations had many functions and held a
most important place in city life.
92. Civic Industry: The Guilds
The Anglo-Saxon word ''guild," which means "to pay,"
came to be applied to a club or society whose members made
contributions for some common purpose. This Formation
form of association is very old. Some of the ®^ ^"^^^^
guilds in imperial Rome had been established in the age of the
kings, while not a few of those which flourish to-day in China
and India were founded before the Christian era. Guilds ex-
isted in Continental Europe as early as the time of Charle-
magne, but they did not become prominent till after the crusades.
A guild of merchants grew up when those who bought and
sold goods in any place united to protect their own interests.
The membership included many artisans, as well Merchant
as professional traders, for in medieval times a guilds
man often sold in the front room of his shop the goods which he
made in the back rooms. He was often both shopkeeper and
workman in one.
The chief duty of a merchant guild was to preserve to its
own members the monopoly of trade within a town. Strangers
and non-guildsmen could not buy or sell there Commercial
except under the conditions imposed by the guild, monopoly
They must pay the town tolls, confine their dealings to guilds-
men, and as a rule sell only at wholesale. They were forbidden
to purchase wares which the townspeople wanted for them-
selves or to set up shops for retail trade. They enjoyed more
freedom at fairs, which were intended to attract outsiders.
After a time the traders and artisans engaged in a particular
occupation began to form an association of their own. Thus
1 German bilr germeister, from burg, "castle."
2 French maire, from Latin major, "greater."
3 Anglo-Saxon ealdorman {eald means "old").
230 European Cities During the Middle Ages
Craft guilds
arose the craft guilds, composed of weavers, shoemakers,
bakers, tailors, carpenters, and so on, until almost every
form of industry had its separate organization.
The names of the various occupations came to
be used as the surnames of those engaged in them, so that
to-day we have such common family names as Smith, Cooper,
Fuller, Potter, Chandler, and
many others. The number of
craft guilds in an important
city might be very large.
London and Paris at one time
each had more than one
hundred, and Cologne in Ger-
many had as many as eighty.
The members of a particular
guild usually lived in the same
street or quarter of the city,
not only for companionship
but also for better supervision
of their labor.^
Just as the merchant guild
regulated town trade, so the
Industrial craft guilds had
monopoly charge of town
industry. No one could engage
in any craft without becoming
a member of the guild which
controlled it and submitting
to the guild regulations. A man's hours of labor and the prices
at which he sold his goods were fixed for him by the guild.
He might not work elsewhere than in his shop, because of the
difficulty of supervising him, nor might he work by artificial
light, lest he turn out badly finished goods. Everything made
by him was carefully inspected to see if it contained shoddy
materials or showed poor workmanship. Failure to meet the
test meant a heavy fine or perhaps expulsion from the guild.
^ A map of London still shows such names as Shoe Lane, Distaff Lane^ Cornhill,
and many other similar designations of streets.
House of the Butchers' Guild,
HiLDESHEiM, Germany
Hildesheim, near Hanover, is perhaps the
richest of all German towns in fine wooden-
framed houses. The house of the Butchers'
Guild has been recently restored, with all its
original coloring carefully reproduced.
Civic Industry: The Guilds 231
The industrial monopoly possessed by the craft guild thus
gave some protection to both producer and consumer.
Full membership in a guild was reached only by degrees. A
boy started as an apprentice, that is, a learner. He paid a
sum of money to his master and agreed to serve Organization
him for a fixed period, usually seven years. The °^ ^^^^^ guUds
master, in turn, promised to provide the apprentice with food,
lodging, and clothing, and to teach him all the secrets of the
craft. At the end of the seven years the apprentice had to pass
an examination by the guild. If he was found fit, he then
became a journeyman and worked for daily wages. As soon
as he had saved enough money, he might set up as a master in
his own shop. A master was at once workman and employer,
laborer and capitalist.
Like the old Roman guilds, those of the Middle Ages had their
charitable and religious aspects. Each guild raised large
benefit funds for the relief of members or their Activities
widows and orphans. Each guild had its private of craft
altar in the cathedral, or often its own chapel, ^^^^^ ^
where masses were said for the repose of the souls of deceased
members, and where on the day of its patron saint religious
services were held. The guild was also a social organization,
with frequent meetings for a feast in its hall or in some inn. The
guilds in some cities entertained the people with an annual
play or procession.^ It is clear that the members of a craft
guild had common interests and shared a common life.
As the craft guilds prospered and increased in wealth, they
tended to become exclusive organizations. Membership fees
were raised so high that few could afford to pay Dissolution
them, while the number of apprentices that a of craft
master might take was strictly limited. It also ^^^^^ ^
became increasingly difficult for journeymen to rise to the
station of masters; they often remained wage-earners for life.
The mass of workmen could no longer participate in the bene-
fits of the guild system. In the eighteenth century most of
^ See page 274. The civic procession in London on Lord Mayor's Day is the
last survival in England of these yearly shows.
232 European Cities During the Middle Ages
the guilds lost their monopoly of industry, and in the nineteenth
century they gave way to trade unions.
93. Trade and Commerce
Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or
semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in
the churchyard. Marketing often occurred on
Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecra-
tion of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce
for sale in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the
town authorities or sometimes to a neighboring nobleman.
These market dues still survive in the ''octroi" collected at the
gates of some European cities.
People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted
competition. It was thought wrong for any one to purchase
goods outside of the regular market (''forestalling")
" Just price" ^ 1 , • , •.• 1
or to purchase them m larger quantities than nec-
essary ("engrossing"). A man ought not to charge for a thing
more than it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear.
The idea prevailed that goods should be sold at their "just
price," which was not determined by supply and demand, but
by an estimate of the cost of the materials and the labor that
went into their manufacture. Laws w^ere often passed fixing
this "just price," but it was as difficult then as now to prevent
the "cornering of the market" by shrewd and unscrupulous
traders.
Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs
once or twice a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or
more. They were especially necessary in medieval
Europe, because merchants did not keep large
quantities or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could
intending purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they
wanted. The more important English fairs included those at
Stourbridge near Cambridge, Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston.
Fairs were numerous on the Continent, and in some places, such
as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, they are
still kept up.
Trade and Commerce
^2>2>
Land Routes. . . j —
Hanse Water Routes
Principal Hanseatic Cities
are underlined
^'i^9-
^/
R^ga
1^ \ I Basle
Munich
-vnnc )&^i ^^ ^ > \^Verona^ \j^fC^
Ly>o
Marseilles
I MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
sarcelona the m.-n. works'^ / lo
A> ^Bolpgnaxi)
Pisa\o^^^^\ \ V
Trade Routes between Northern and Southern Europe
IN the 13TH and 14TH Centuries
A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought
from the most distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance,
attracted Venetians and Genoese with silk, pepper, Fairs and
and spices of the East, Flemings with fine cloths commerce
and linens, Spaniards with irpn and wine, Norwegians with
tar and pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with
234 European Cities During the Middle Ages
furs, amber, and salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce,
helped to make the various European peoples better acquainted
with one another.
Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a
result of the Teutonic invasions and the establishment of feu-
^ ,. ^ dahsm. What little commercial intercourse there
Decline of
commerce was encountered many obstacles. A merchant who
M'dd! A went by land from country to country might expect
to find bad roads, few bridges, and poor inns.
Goods were transported on pack-horses instead of in wagons
Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried
arms and usually united in bands for better protection. The
feudal lords, often themselves not much more than highway-
men, demanded tolls at every bridge and ford and on every
road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he must face, in
addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the danger
from the ill-Hghted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No
wonder commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and
for a long time lay chiefly in the hands of Byzantines ^ and
Arabs.2
Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the
Roman Empire, some trade with the Orient had been carried
Commercial ^^ ^X ^^^ cities of Italy and southern France. The
revival after crusades, which brought East and West face to
e crusa es f^^^^^ greatly increased this trade.^ The Mediter-
ranean lands first felt the stimulating effects of intercourse with
the Orient, but before long the commercial revival extended to
the rest of Europe.
Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices,
drugs, incense, carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of
Asiatic trade India, China, and the East Indies reached the
routes West by three main routes. All had been used in
ancient times. The central and most important route led up
the Persian Gulf and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city
goods went by caravan to Antioch or Damascus. The southern
route reached Cairo and Alexandria by way of the Red Sea
1 See page 39. ^ See page 83. ^ See page 177.
40° Longitude 50°
Money and Banking 235
and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a mer-
chant ship could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about
three months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to
ports on the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. It tra-
versed high mountain passes and long stretches of desert, and
hence was profitably used only for the transport of valuable
articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman Turks
greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians
after the middle of the fifteenth century.
Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be
transported by water to northern Europe. Every year the
Venetians sent a fleet loaded with eastern products European
to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most *^*^® routes
important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandi-
navia. Bruges also formed the terminus of the main overland
route leading from Venice over the Alps and down the Rhine.
Many other commercial highways also linked the Mediterranean
with the North Sea and the Baltic.
94. Money and Banking
We have seen that business in the Middle Ages was chiefly
of a retail character and was conducted in markets and fairs.
One reason for the small scale of business enter- Lack of
prise is found in the inadequate supply of money. ™oney
From the beginning of the Christian era to the twelfth century
there seems to have been a steady decrease in the amount of
specie in circulation, partly because so much moved to the
Orient in payment for luxuries, and partly because the few
mines in western Europe were not worked during the period
of the invasions. The scarcity of money helped directly to
build up the feudal system, since salaries, wages, and rents
could be paid only in personal services or in produce. The
money supply increased during the latter part of the Middle
Ages, but it did not become sufficient for the needs of business
till the discovery of the New World enabled the Spaniards to
tap the wealth of the silver mines in Mexico and Peru.
236 European Cities During the Middle Ages
Medieval currency was not only small in amount but also
faulty in character. Many great nobles enjoyed the privilege
Faults of ^^ keeping a mint and issuing coins. Since this
medieval feudal money passed at its full value only in the
currency locality where it was minted, a merchant had to
be constantly changing his money, as he went from one district
to another. Kings and nobles for their own profit would often
debase the currency by putting silver into the gold coins and
copper into the silver coins. Every debasement, as it left
the coins with less pure metal, lowered their purchasing power
and so raised prices unexpectedly. Even in countries like
England, where debasement was exceptional, much counterfeit
money circulated, to the constant impediment of trade.
The prejudice against ''usury," as any lending of money at
interest was called, was another reason for the small scale of
"Usury" business enterprise. It seemed wrong for a
laws person to receive interest, since he lost nothing by
the loan of his money. Numerous Church laws condemned
the receipt of interest as unchristian. If, however, the lender
could show that he had suffered any loss, or had been prevented
from making any gain, through not having his money, he might
charge something for its use. Ultimately, people began to dis-
tinguish between interest moderate in amount and an excessive
charge for the use of money. The latter alone was henceforth
prohibited as usurious. Most modern states still have usury
laws which fix the legal rate of interest.
The business of money lending, denied to Christians, fell into
the hands of the Jews. In nearly all European countries popu-
The Tews ^^^ prejudice forbade the Jews to engage in agricul-
as money ture, while the guild regulations barred them from
lenders industry. They turned to trade and finance for
a livelihood and became the chief capitahsts of medieval times.
But the law gave the Jews no protection, and kings and nobles
constantly extorted large sums from them. The persecutions
of the Jews date from the era of the crusades, when it was as
easy to excite fanatical hatred against them as against the
Moslems. Edward I drove the Jews from England, and Fer-
Money and Banking
237
dinand and Isabella expelled them from Spain, from which
they are still excluded; and in some other countries they are
not granted all the privileges which Christians enjoy.
The Jews were least persecuted in the commercial cities of
northern Italy. Florence, Genoa, and Venice in the thirteenth
century were the financial centers of Europe. The Italian
banking companies in these cities received deposits banking
and then loaned the money to foreign governments and great
nobles. It was the Florentine bankers, for instance, who
Baptistery, Cathedral, and "Leaning Tower" of Pisa
These three buildings in the piazza of Pisa form one of the most interesting architectural
groups in Italy. The baptistery, completed in 1278, is a circular structure, 100 feet in diameter
and covered with a high dome. The cathedral was consecrated in 11 18 .A..D. The finest part
of the building is the west front with its four open arcades. The campanile, or bell tower,
reaches a height of 179 feet. Owing to the sinking of the foundations, it leans from the per-
pendicular to a striking extent (now about 165 feet).
provided the English king, Edward III, with the funds to
carry on his wars against France. The Italian banking houses
had branches in the principal cities of Europe.^ It became
possible, therefore, to introduce the use of bills of exchange
as a means of balancing debts between countries, without
^Lombard Street in London, the financial center of England, received its name
from the Italian bankers who established themselves in this part of the city.
238 European Cities During the Middle Ages
the necessity of sending the actual money. This system of
international credit was doubly important at a time when
so many risks attended the transportation of the precious
metals. Another Florentine invention was bookkeeping by
double-entry.^
95. Italian Cities
The cities of northern Italy owed their prosperity, as we have
learned, to the commerce with the Orient. It was this which
The city gave them the means and the strength to keep up
repubUcs ^i j^j^^g struggle for freedom against the German
emperors. The end of the struggle, at the middle of the thir-
teenth century, saw all North Italy divided into the dominions
of various independent cities. Among them were Milan,
Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.
Milan, a city of Roman origin, lay in the fertile valley of the
Po, at a point where the trade routes through several Alpine
passes converged. Milan early rose to importance,
and it still remains the commercial metropolis of
Italy. Manufacturing also flourished there. Milanese armor
was once celebrated throughout Europe. The city is rich in
works of art, the best known being the cathedral, which, after
St. Peter's at Rome and the cathedral of Seville, is the largest
church in Europe. Though the Milanese were able to throw
off the imperial authority, their government fell into the hands
of the local nobles, who ruled as despots. Almost all the
Italian cities, except Venice, lost their freedom in this manner.
Pisa, like Milan, was an old Roman city which profited by
the disorders of the barbarian invasions to assert its inde-
pendence. The situation of Pisa on the Arno
PisA
River, seven miles from the sea, made it a mari-
time state, and the Pisan navy gained distinction in warfare
against the Moslems in the Mediterranean. The Pisans joined
in the First Crusade and showed their valor at the capture of
Jerusalem. They profited greatly by the crusading movement
1 Among Italian words having to do with commerce and banking which have
come into general use are conto, disconto, risico, netto, deposito, folio, and bilanza.
Italian Cities
239
and soon possessed banks, warehouses, and trading privileges
in every eastern port. But Pisa had bitter rivals in Florence
and Genoa, and the conflicts with these two cities finally brought
about the destruction of its power.
Florence, Pisa's neighbor on the Arno, was renowned for
manufactures. The fine wool, silk cloths, golden brocades,
DuoMo AND Campanile of Florence
The cathedral (Duomo) of Florence, though begun in i2g8, was not completed until the
fifteenth century, when the famous architect Brunelleschi added the huge dome, 300 feet high.
Close by the Duomo is the campanile or bell tower, adorned with bas-reliefs and colored
marbles.
jewelry, and metal work of Florence were imported into all
European countries. The craft guilds were very strong there
and even the neighboring nobles, who wished to
become citizens, had first to enroll themselves in
some guild. It was from banking, however, that Florence
gained most wealth. In the fifteenth century the city con-
tained eighty great banking houses, in addition to numerous
branches outside of Italy. The Florentines combined with
their commercial spirit a remarkable taste for art and literature.
Florence
240 European Cities During the Middle Ages
Their city, whose population never exceeded seventy thousand,
gave birth to some of the most illustrious poets, prose writers,
architects, sculptors, and painters of medieval times. It was
the Athens of Italy.^
Genoa, located on the gulf of the same name, possesses a safe
and spacious harbor. During the era of the crusades the city
carried on a flourishing trade in both the Mediter-
ranean and the Atlantic. After the fall of the
Latin Empire of Constantinople - the Genoese almost monop-
olized Oriental commerce along the Black Sea route. The
closing of this route by the Ottom.an Turks was a heavy blow
to their prosperity, which also suffered from the active com-
petition of Venice.
Almost alone among Italian cities Venice was not of Roman
origin. Her beginning is traced back to the period of barbarian
Situation of inroads, when fugitives from the mainland sought
Venice ^ ^^^ home on the islands at the head of the
Adriatic. These islands, which lie about five miles from the
coast, are protected from the outer sea by a long sand bar.
They are little more than mud-banks, barely rising above the
shallow water of the lagoons. The oozy soil afforded no sup-
port for buildings, except when strengthened by piles; there
was scarcely any land fit for farming or cattle-raising; and the
only drinking water had to be stored from the rainfall. Yet
on this unpromising site arose one of the most splendid of
European cities.
The early inhabitants of Venice gained their living from the
sale of sea salt and fish, two commodities for which a constant
Venetian demand existed in the Middle Ages. Large quan-
commerce titles of salt were needed for preserving meat in
the winter months, while fish was eaten by all Christians on
the numerous fast days and in Lent. The Venetians exchanged
these commodities for the productions of the mainland and so
built up a thriving trade. From fishermen they became mer-
chants, with commercial relations which gradually extended
to the Orient. The crusades vastly increased the wealth of
1 See page 280. " See page 188.
Italian Cities 241
Venice, for she provided the ships in which troops and suppHes
went to the Holy Land, and she secured the largest share of
the new eastern trade. Venice became the great emporium
of the Mediterranean.
Venice also used the crusading movement for her poHtical
advantage. The capture of Constantinople in the Fourth
Crusade extended Venetian control over the Pelo- Venetian
ponnesus,^ Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, and many possessions
smaller islands in the eastern Mediterranean. Even before
this time Venice had begun to gain possessions upon the Italian
mainland and along the eastern side of the Adriatic. Event-
ually, she ruled a real empire.^
The commerce and possessions of Venice made it necessary
for her to maintain a powerful fleet. She is said to have
once had over three thousand merchant vessels, in Venetian
addition to forty-five war galleys. Her ships went sea-power
out in squadrons, with men-of-war acting as a convoy against
pirates. One fleet traded with the ports of western Europe,
another proceeded to the Black Sea, while others visited Syria
and Egypt to meet the caravans from the Far East. Venetian
sea-power humbled Genoa and for a long time held the Mediter-
ranean against the Ottoman Turks.
The visitor to modern Venice can still gain a good impression
of what the city n;iust have looked like in the fourteenth century,
when ships of every nation crowded its quays and Venice
strangers of every country thronged its squares or described
sped in light gondolas over the canals which take the place of
streets. The main highway is the Grand Canal, nearly two
miles long and lined with palaces and churches. The Grand
Canal leads to St. Mark's Cathedral, brilliant with mosaic pic-
tures, the Campanfle, or bell tower, and the Doge's Palace. The
''Bridge of Sighs" connects the ducal palace with the state
prison. The Rialto in the business heart of Venice is another
famous bridge. But these are only a few oif the historic and
beautiful buildings of the island city.
V
^ Known in the Middle Ages as the Morea.
* For the Venetian possessions in 1453, see the map, page 189.
242 European Cities During the Middle Ages
96. German Cities: the Hanseatic League
The important trade routes from Venice and Genoa through
the Alpine passes into the valleys of the Rhine and Danube were
responsible for the prosperity of many fine cities in
southern and southern and central Germany. Among them were
central Augsburg, which rivaled Florence as a financial
Germany & o' ...
center, Nuremberg, famous for artistic metal
work, Ulm, Strassburg, and Cologne. The feeble rule of the
German kings compelled the cities to form several confederacies,
for the purpose of resisting the extortionate tolls and downright
robberies of feudal lords.
It was the Baltic commerce which brought the cities of
northern Germany into a firm union. The Baltic region fur-
Cities of nished large quantities of dried and salted fish,
northern especially herring, wax candles for church services,
ermany skins, tallow, and lumber. Furs were also in
great demand. Every one wore them during the winter, on
account of the poorly heated houses. The German cities which
shared in this commerce early formed the celebrated Hanse-
atic ^ League for protection against pirates and feudal lords.
The league seems to have begun with an alliance of Ham-
burg and Liibeck to safeguard the traffic on the Elbe. The
growth of the league was rapid. At the period
Membership ^ ^ ^
of the of its greatest power, about 1400, there were up-
Hanseatic wards of eighty Hanseatic cities along the Baltic
and in the inland districts of northern Germany.
The commercial importance of the league extended far beyond
the borders of Germany. Its trading posts, or "factories,"
Hanseatic at Bergen in Norway and Novgorod in Russia, con-
" factories " trolled the export trade of those two countries.
Similar establishments existed at London, on the Thames
just above London Bridge, and at Bruges in Flanders. Each
factory served as a fortress where merchants could be safe
from attack, as a storehouse for goods, and as a general market.
The Hanseatic Lesigj^ ruled over the Baltic Sea very much
1 From the old German hansa, a "confederacy." See the map on page 235.
The Cities of Flanders 243
as Venice ruled over the Adriatic. In spite of its monopolistic
tendencies, so opposed to the spirit of free intercourse be-
tween nations, the league did much useful work by ^ ^
. , , . , . Influence
suppressmg piracy and by encouragmg the art of of the
navigation. The Hanseatic merchants were also Hanseatic
League
pioneers in the half-barbarous lands of northern
and eastern Europe, where they founded towns, fostered in-
dustry, and introduced comforts and luxuries previously
unknown. Such services in advancing civilization were com-
parable to those performed by the Teutonic Knights.
After several centuries of usefulness the league lost its mon-
opoly of the Baltic trade and began to decline. Moreover
the Baltic, like the Mediterranean, sank to minor ^ ,.
. , , , Decline
importance as a commercial center, when the of the
Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India Hanseatic
League
and the Spaniards had opened up the New World.
City after city gradually withdrew from the league, until only
Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bremen remained. They are still
called free and independent cities, though in the nineteenth
century they entered the German Empire.
97. The Cities of Flanders
In the Middle Ages the Netherlands, or "Low Countries,"
now divided between Holland and Belgium, consisted of a num-
ber of feudal states, nominally under the control County of
of German and French rulers, but really quite Glanders
independent. Among them was the county of Flanders. It
included the coast region from Calais to the mouth of the
Scheldt, as well as a considerable district in what is now north-
western France. The inhabitants of Flanders were partly of
Teutonic extraction (the Flemings) and partly akin to the
French (the Walloons).
Flanders enjoyed a good situation for commerce. • The coun-
try formed a convenient stopping place for mer- pianders
chants who went by sea between the Mediterranean commercial
and the Baltic, while important land routes led ^""^ industrial
there from all parts of western Europe. Flanders was also an
244 European Cities During the Middle Ages
industrial center. Its middle classes early discovered the fact
that by devotion to manufacturing even a small, sterile region
may become rich and populous.
The leading indus-
try of Flanders was
Flemish weaving,
wool trade England
in the Middle Ages
raised great flocks of
sheep, but lacking
skilled workmen to
manufacture the wool
into fine cloth, sent it
across the Channel to
Flanders. A medi-
eval writer declared
that the whole world
was clothed in EngUsh
wool manufactured by
the Flemings. The
wool trade made Flan-
ders the ally of Eng-
land in the Hundred
Years' War, thus be-
ginning that historic
friendship between the
two countries which
still endures.
Among the thriving communities of Flanders three held an
exceptional position. Bruges was the mart where the trade of
southern Europe, in the hands of the Venetians, and the trade
of northern Europe, in the hands of the Hanseatic merchants,
came together. Ghent, with forty thousand workshops, and
Bruges Ypres, which counted two hundred thousand work-
men within its walls and suburbs, were scarcely less
prosperous. When these cities declined in wealth,
Antwerp became the commercial metropohs of the Netherlands.
Belfry of Bruges
Bruges, the capital of West Flanders, contains many
fine monuments of the Middle Ages. Among these is the
belfry, which rises in the center of the facade of the market
hall. It dates from the end of the thirteenth century.
Its height is 352 feet. The belfry consists of three stories,
the two lower ones square, and the upper one, octagonal.
Ghent, and
Ypres
The Cities of Flanders
245
Town Hall of Louvain, Belgium
One of the richest and most ornate examples of Gothic architecture.
Erected in the fifteenth century. The building consists of three stories
above which rises the lofty roof crowned with graceful towers. The interior
decorations and arrangements are commonplace.
Flanders during the fourteenth century was annexed by
France. The Flemish cities resisted bravely, and on more than
one occasion their citizen levies, who could handle Flanders
the sword and axe, as well as the loom, defeated the ^^ ^^^^ce
French armies, thus demonstrating again that foot soldiers were
a match for mailed cavalry. Had the cities been able to form
246 European Cities During the Middle Ages
a lasting league, they might have estabUshed an independent
Flanders, "but the bitter rivalry of Ghent and Bruges led to for-
eign domination, lasting into the nineteenth century.^
The great cities of Flanders, Germany, and Italy, not to
speak of those in France, Spain, and England, were much
The cities niore than centers of trade, industry, and finance,
and Within their walls learning and art flourished to
ci za on ^^ extent which had never been possible in earlier
times, when rural life prevailed throughout western Europe.
We shall now see what the cities of the Middle Ages contrib-
uted to civilization.
Studies
I. Indicate on the map (page 235) the Italian, German, and Flemish cities
mentioned in this chapter. 2. Look up the derivation of the words "city," "town,"
and "village." 3. Why does an American city have a charter? Where is it
obtained? What privileges does it confer? 4. Who comprised the Third Estate
in Middle Ages? What class corresponds to it at the present time? 5. Why has
the medieval city been called the "birthplace of modem democracy"? 6. Com-
pare the merchant guild with the modern chamber of commerce, and craft guilds
with modern trade unions. 7. Look up the origin of the words "apprentice,"
"journeyman," and "master." 8. Why was there no antagonism between labor
and capital under the guild system? 9. Compare the medieval abhorrence of
"engrossing" with the modem idea that "combinations in restraint of trade" are
wrong. 10. Why were fairs a necessity in the Middle Ages? Why are they not
so useful now? Where are they still found? 10. Compare a medieval fair with
a modern exposition. 12. What would be the effect on trade within an American
state if tolls were levied on the border of every county? 13. What is meant by
a "robber baron"? 14. How did the names "damask" linen, "chinaware,"
"japanned" ware, and "cashmere" shawls originate? 15. Why was the purchas-
ing power of money much greater in the Middle Ages than it is now? 16. Why
are modern coins always made perfectly round and with "milled" edges? 17. Are
modern coins "debased" to any considerable extent? What is the use of alloys?
18. Why was the money-changer so necessary a figure in medieval business?
19. How is it easy to evade laws forbidding usury? 20. Look up in an encyclo-
pedia the legend of the "Wandering Jew." How does it illustrate the medieval
attitude toward Jews? 2 1 . Write out the English equivalents of the Italiari words
mentioned in the footnote on page 238. 22. Compare the Italian despots with
the Greek tyrants. 23. Show that Venice in medieval times was the seaport
nearest the heart of commercial Europe. 24. Why was Venice called the " bride
of the sea"?
1 In 1 83 1 the two provinces of East Flanders and West Flanders became part
of the kingdom of Belgium.
CHAPTER XII
MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION 1
98. Formation of National Languages
Throughout the Middle Ages Latin continued to be an inter-
national language. The Roman Church used it for papal bulls
and other documents. Prayers were recited, , ,
* -' ' Latin as
hymns were sung, and sometimes sermons were an inter-
preached in Latin. It was also the language of Ji^tionai
men of culture everywhere in western Christendom.
University professors lectured in Latin, students spoke Latin,
lawyers addressed judges in Latin, and the merchants in different
countries wrote Latin letters to one another. All learned books
were composed in Latin until the close of the sixteenth century.
This practice has not yet been entirely abandoned by scholars.
Each European country during the Middle Ages had also
its own national tongue. The so-called Romance languages,
including modern French, Italian, Spanish, Por- ^j^^
tuguese, and Rumanian, were derived from Romance
the Latin spoken by the Romanized inhabitants *^suages
of the lands now known as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and
Rumania. Their colloquial Latin naturally lacked the ele-
gance of the literary Latin used by Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, and
other ancient authors. The difference between the written
and spoken forms of the language became more marked from
the fifth century onward, in consequence of the barbarian
invasions. Gradually in each country new and vigorous
tongues arose, related to, yet different from, the old classical
Latin in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.
The popular Latin of the Gallo-Romans gave rise to two
groups of languages in medieval France. The first was used
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xvii, "Medieval
Tales"; chapter xviii, "Three Medieval Epics."
247
248 Medieval Civilization
in the southern part of the country; it was called Provencal
(from Provence). The second was spoken in the
French • i i • , •
north, particularly in the region about Pans. The
unification of the French kingdom under Hugh Capet and his
successors gradually extended the speech of northern France
over the entire country. Modern French contains less than a
thousand words introduced by the German invaders of Gaul,
while the words of Celtic origin are even fewer in number.
Nearly all the rest are derived from Latin.
The Teutonic peoples who remained outside what had been the
limits of the Roman world continued to use their native tongues
The Teutonic during the Middle Ages. From them have come
languages modern German, Dutch, Flemish, and the various
Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and
Icelandic ^). All these languages in their earliest known forms
show unmistakable traces of a common origin.
Britain was the only Roman province in the west of Europe
where a Teutonic language took root and maintained itseK.
Here the rough, guttural speech of the Anglo-
Saxons completely drove out the popular Latin.
In course of time Anglo-Saxon underwent various changes.
Christian missionaries, from the seventh century onward,
introduced many new Latin terms for church offices, services,
and observances. The Danes, besides contributing some place-
names, gave us that most useful word are, and also the habit
of using to before an infinitive. The coming of the Normans
deeply affected Anglo-Saxon. Norman-French influence helped
to make the language simpler, by ridding it of the cumbersome
declensions and conjugations which it had in common with
all Teutonic tongues. Many new Norman-French words also
crept in, as the hostility of the English people toward their
conquerors disappeared.
Anglo-Saxon, by the middle of the thirteenth century, had
so far developed that it may now be called English. In the
poems of Chaucer (about 1340-1400), especially his Canterbury
^ Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of Scandinavian. Danish and Nor-
wegian are practically the same, in fact, their literary or book-language is one.
Development of National Literatures 249
Tales,^ English wears quite a modern look, though the reader
is sometimes troubled by the old speUing and „
by certam words not now m use. The changes m
the grammar of the language have been so extremely shght
since 1485 — the beginning of the reign of Henry VII ^ — that
any EngHshman of ordinary education can read without dif-
ficulty a book written more than four hundred years ago.
What in medieval times was the speech of a few millions of
Englishmen on a single small island is now spoken by at least
one hundred and sixty millions of people all over English as
the world. English is well fitted for the role of a a universal
universal language, because of its absence of ^^^uage
inflections and its simple sentence-order. The great number of
one-syllabled words in the language also makes for ease in
understanding it. Furthermore, English has been, and still is,
extremely hospitable to new words, so that its vocabulary has
grown very fast by the adoption of terms from Latin, French,
and other tongues. These have immensely increased the ex-
pressiveness of English, while giving it a position midway
between the very different Romance and Teutonic languages.
99. Development of National Literatures
Medieval literature, though inferior in quahty to that of
Greece and Rome, nevertheless includes many notable produc-
tions. In the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries ^ . ^
Lann n3mins
Latin hymns reached their perfection. The sub-
lime Dies IrcB ("Day of Wrath") presents a picture of the final
judgment of the wicked. The pathetic Stahat Mater, which
describes the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the Cross, has been
often translated and set to music. St. Bernard's Jesu Dulcis
Memoria ("Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee") forms part of a
beautiful hymn nearly two hundred lines in length. Part of
another hymn, composed by a monk of Cluny, has been rendered
into English as "Jerusalem the Golden." Latin hymns made
use of rhyme, then something of a novelty, and thus helped to
popularize this poetic device.
1 See page 293. 2 gge page 214.
250
Medieval Civilization
A pleasant glimpse of secular society is afforded by the songs
of the troubadours. These professional poets flourished in the
The French south of France, but many of them traveled from
^^ court to court in other countries. Their verses,
composed in the Provencal language, were always sung to the
accompaniment of some musical instrument, generally the lute.
Romantic love and deeds of chivalry were the two themes which
most inspired the troubadours. They, too, took up the use of
rhyme, using it so skillfully as to become the teachers of Europe
in lyric poetry.
Northern France gave birth to epic or narrative poems,
describing the exploits of mythical heroes and historic kings.
The French For a long time the poems were recited by minstrels,
®P^^ who did not hesitate to modify and enlarge them
at will. It was not until late in the eleventh century that any
of these epics were written down. They enjoyed high esteem
in aristocratic circles and penetrated all countries where
feudahsm prevailed.
Many of the French epics dealt with Charlemagne and the
twelve peers of France. The
oldest, and at the same time
Song of the finest, of these
Roland productions is
called the Song of Roland, after
its principal hero. When
leading the rearguard of Char-
lemagne's army out of Spain,
Roland is suddenly attacked
in the pass of Roncesvalles by
the treacherous Moors.^ He
slays the enemy in heaps with
his good sword, Durendal, and
only after nearly all the Franks
have perished sounds his magic
horn to summon aid. Charle-
magne, fifteen leagues distant, hears its notes and returns quickly.
1 See page 13, note i.
Roland at Roncesvalles
From a thirteenth -century window of
stained glass in Chartres Cathedral. At the
right Roland sounding his horn; at the left
Roland endeavoring to break his sword
Durendal.
Development of National Literatures 251
But before help arrives, Roland has fallen. He dies on the field
of battle, with his face to the foe, and k prayer on his lips that
''sweet France" may never be dishonored. This stirring poem
appealed strongly to the martial Normans. A medieval chroni-
cler relates that just before the battle of Hastings a Norman
minstrel rode out between the lines, tossing his sword in air and
catching it again, as he chanted the song "of Roland and of
Charlemagne, of Oliver and many a brave vassal who lost his
life at Roncesvalles."
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were also
important figures in medieval legend. Arthur was said to have
reigned in Britain early in the sixth century and to j^^
have fought against the Anglo-Saxons. Whether Arthurian
he ever lived or not we do not know. In the Arthu- ^°°^*^^®^
rian romances this Celtic king stands forth as the model knight,
the ideal of noble chivalry. The Norman conquerors of England
carried the romances to France, and here, where feudalism was
so deeply rooted, they found a hearty welcome. Sir Thomas
Malory's Morte d' Arthur, one of the first books to be printed in
England, contains many of the narratives from which Tennyson,
in his Idylls of the King, and other modern poets have drawn
their inspiration.
The greatest epic composed in Germany during the Middle
Ages is the Nihelungenlied. The poem begins in Burgundy,
where three kings hold court at Worms, on the The Nibe-
Rhine. Thither comes the hero, Siegfried, ruler of lungenlied
the Netherlands. He had slain the mysterious Nibelungs and
seized their treasure, together with the magic cloud-cloak which
rendered its wearer invisible to human eyes. He had also killed
a dragon and by bathing in its blood had become invulnerable,
except in one place where a hnden leaf touched his body. Sieg-
fried marries Kriemhild, a beautiful Burgundian princess, and
with her lives most happily. But a curse was attached to the
Nibelung treasure, and Siegfried's enemy, the ''grim Hagen,"
treacherously slays him by a spear thrust into the one spot where
he could be hurt. Many years afterwards Kriemhild marries
Attila, king of the Huns, on condition that he help her to ven-
252 Medieval Civilization
geance. Hagen and his Burgundians are invited to Hunland,
where Kriemhild causes them all to be put to death. The name
of the poet who compiled and probably wrote much of the
Nibelungenlied remains unknown, but his work has a place
among the classics of German hterature.
No account of medieval hterature ought to omit a reference
to Reynard the Fox. This is a long poem, first written in Latin,
Reynard and then turned into the chief languages of Europe,
the Fox 'pjie characters are animals: Reynard, cunning and
audacious, who outwits all his foes; Chanticleer the Cock;
Bruin the Bear; Isengrim the Wolf; and many others. But
they are animals in name only. We see them worship like
Christians, go to mass, ride on horseback, debate in councils,
and amuse themselves with hawking and hunting. Satire often
creeps in, as when the villainous Fox confesses his sins to the
Badger or vows that he will go to the Holy Land on a pil-
grimage. The special interest of this work lies in the fact that
it expressed the feelings of the common people, groaning under
the oppression of feudal lords.
The same democratic spirit breathes in the old English bal-
lads of the outlaw Robin Hood. According to some accounts
The Robin he flourished in the second half of the twelfth cen-
Hood ballads ^-^j-y^ when Henry II and Richard the Lion-
hearted reigned over England. Robin Hood, with his merry
men, leads an adventurous Ufe in Sherwood Forest, engaging
in feats of strength and hunting the king's tall deer. Bishops,
sheriffs, and gamekeepers are his only enemies. For the com-
mon people he has the greatest pity, and robs the rich to endow
the poor. Courtesy, generosity, and love of fair play are some
of the characteristics which made him a popular hero. If King
Arthur was the ideal knight, Robin Hood was the ideal yeoman.
The ballads about him were sung or recited by country folk
for centuries.
100. Romanesque and Gothic Architecture; the Cathedrals
The genius of the Middle Ages found its highest expression,
not in books, but in buildings. For several hundred years after
Romanesque and Gothic Architecture 253
the barbarian invasions architecture had made little progress
in western Europe, outside of Italy, which was j^^ g^^^d-
subject to Byzantine influence,^ and Spain, which tecturai
1 stylss
was a center of Moslem culture.^ Beginning about
800 came a revival, and the adoption of an architectural
Plan of Salisbury Cathedral, England
I Principal west doorway; 2, 3 aisles of nave; 4 north porch; 5 tower;
6, 6 pulpits; 7 throne; 8 altar; 9 font; 10, 11 choir aisles; 12, 13 east or
choir transept; 14 sacristy; 15 cloister; 16 chapter house.
Style called Romanesque, because it went back to Roman prin-
ciples of construction. Romanesque architecture arose in
northern Italy and southern France and gradually spread to
other European countries. It was followed about iioo by the
1 See page 39. * See page 86.
254 Medieval Civilization
Gothic style of architecture, which prevailed during the next
four centuries.
The church of the early Christians seems to have been mod-
eled upon the Roman basilica, with its arrangement of nave
The Roman- and aisles, its circular arched recess (apse) at one
esque style q^^^^^ g^^d its flat, wooden ceiling supported by
columns. The Romanesque church departed from the basih-
can plan by the introduction of transepts, thus giving the build-
ing the form of a Latin cross. A dome, which might be covered
by a pointed roof, was generally raised over the junction of the
nave and transepts. At the same time the apse was enlarged
so as to form the choir, a place reserved for the clergy.
The Romanesque church also differed from a basihca in the
use of vaulting to take the place of a fiat ceiling. The old
Vaulting Romans had constructed their vaulted roofs and
and the domes of concrete, which forms a rigid mass and
roun arc rests securely upon the walls like the lid of a
box. Medieval architects, however, built of. stone, which in a
vaulted roof exerts an outward thrust and tends to force the
walls apart. Consequently, they found it necessary to make
the walls very thick and to strengthen them by piers, or but-
tresses, on the outside of the edifice. It was also necessary
to reduce the width of the vaulted spaces. The vaulting,
windows, and doorways had the form of the round arch, that
is, a semicircle, as in the ancient Roman monuments.^
Gothic architecture arose in France in the country around
Paris, at a time when the French kingdom was taking the lead
The Gothic in European affairs. Later it spread to England,
^*y^® Germany, the Netherlands, and even to southern
Europe. As an old chronicler wrote, ''It was as if the whole
world had thrown off the rags of its ancient time, and had
arrayed itself in the white robes of the churches." The term
Gothic was apphed to this architectural style by writers of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who regarded every-
thing non-classical as barbarous. They believed it to be an
invention of the barbarian Goths, and so they called it Gothic.
1 See the illustrations, pages 156 and 237.
REIMS CATHEDRAL
The cathedral of Notre Dame at Reims in northwestern France stands on the site where
Clovis was baptized by St. Remi. Here most of the French kings were consecrated with holy
oil by the archbishops of Reims. Except the west front, which was built in the fourteenth
century, the cathedral was completed by the end of the thirteenth century. The towers,
267 feet high, were originally designed to reach 394 feet. The facade, with its three arched
portals, exquisite rose window, and "gallery of the kings," is justly celebrated. The
cathedral — walls, roof, statues, and windows — has been terribly damaged by the German
bombardment during the late war.
Romanesque and Gothic Architecture 255
, The Gothic style formed a natural development of the Ro-
manesque style. The architects of a Gothic church wished
to retain the vaulted ceiling, but at the same time
to do away with thick, soHd walls, which had so vaulting and
Uttle window space as to leave the interior of the *^® ^^^s
building dark and gloomy. They solved this
problem, in the first place, by using a great number of stone
ribs, which rested on pillars and
gathered up the weight of the
ceiling. Ribbed vaulting made
possible higher ceilings, spanning
wider areas, than in Romanesque
churches.^ In the second place,
the pillars supporting the ribs
were themselves connected by
means of flying buttresses with
stout piers of masonry outside
the walls of the church. ^ These
walls, relieved from the pressure
of the ceiling, now became a
mere screen to keep out the
weather. They could be built
of light materials and opened up
with high, wide windows.
Ribbed vaulting and tlie flying
buttress are the distinctive
features of Gothic The pointed
architecture. A third ^^'^^
feature, noteworthy but not so
important, is the use of the
pointed arch. It was not
Christian in origin, for it had long been known to the Arabs
in the East and the Moslem conquerors of Sicily. The semi-
Cross Section of Amiens
Cathedral
A, vaulting; B, ribs; C, flying but-
tresses; D, buttresses; E, low windows;
F, clerestory.
1 The interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, shows the ribs and the
beautiful tracery of the ceiling of a Gothic building. See the plate facing page 260.
2 The flying buttress is shown in the view of Cologne Cathedral,
facing page 253.
See the plate
256
Medieval Civilization
circular or round arch can be only half as high as it is wide, but
the pointed arch may vary greatly in its proportions. The use
of this device enabled the Gothic builder to bridge over different
widths at any required height. It is also lighter and more
graceful than the round arch.
The labors of the Gothic architect were admirably seconded
by those of other artists. The sculptor cut figures of men,
.. . ^ Gothic animals, and
f ''- ' ~~^ ornament plants in the
utmost profusion. The
painter covered vacant
wall spaces with brilliant
frescoes. The w o o d-
carver made exquisite
choir stalls, pulpits,
altars, and screens.
Master workmen filled
the stone tracery of the
windows with stained
glass unequaled in color-
ing by the finest modern
work. Some rigorous
churchmen like St. Ber-
nard condemned the ex-
pense of these magnificent
cathedrals, but most men found in their beauty an additional
reason to praise God.
Gothic architecture, though at first confined to churches,
came to be used for other buildings. Among the monuments of
The secular the secular Gothic are beautiful town halls, guild
Gothic halls, markets, and charming private houses.^ But
the cathedral remained the best expression of the Gothic style.
Gargoyles on the Cathedral of
Notre Dame, Paris
Strange, grotesque figures and faces of stone, used
as ornaments of Gothic buildings and as spouts to
carry ofiE rainwater. They represent beasts, demons,
and other creations of medieval fancy.
101. Education; the Universities
The universities developed from the monastic and cathedral
schools where boys were trained to become monks or priests.
^ See the illustrations, pages 244 and 245 .
Education; The Universities 257
Such schools had been created or restored by Charlemagne.
The teaching, which lay entirely in the hands of Common
the clergy, was elementary in character. Pupils schools
learned enough Latin grammar to read religious books, if not
always to understand them, and enough music to follow the
services of the Church. They also studied arithmetic by means
of the awkward Roman notation and geometry in Euclid's
propositions without the demonstrations, received a smattering
of astronomy, and sometimes gained a little knowledge of such
subjects as geography, law, and philosophy. Besides these
monastic and cathedral schools, others were maintained by the
guilds and also by private benefactors. Boys who had no reg-
ular schooling often received instruction from the parish priest.
Illiteracy was. common enough in medieval times, but the mass
of the people were by no means entirely uneducated.
Between 11 50 and 1500 at least eighty universities were
estabhshed in western Europe. Some speedily became extinct,
but there are still about fifty European institutions Rise of
of learning which date from the Middle Ages, universities
They arose, as it were, spontaneously. Western Europe in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries felt the thrill of a great in-
tellectual revival. It was stimulated by intercourse with the
highly cultivated Arabs in Spain, Sicily, and the East, and with
the Greek scholars of Constantinople during the crusades. The
desire for instruction became so general that the church schools
could not satisfy it. Other schools were then opened in the
cities, and to them flocked eager learners from every quarter.
How easily a university might grow up about the personality
of some eminent teacher is shown by the career of Abelard. The
eldest son of a noble family in Brittany, Abelard
would naturally have entered upon a military ^®*®^
career, but he chose instead the life of a scholar 1079-1142
and the contests of debate. When still a young
man he went to Paris and attended the lectures given by a master
of the cathedral school of Notre Dame. At the early age of
twenty-two Abelard himself set up as a lecturer. Few teachers
have ever attracted so large and so devoted a following. His
258
Medieval Civilization
classroom under the shadow of the great cathedral was filled
with a crowd of youths and men drawn from all countries.
The fame of Abelard led to an increase of masters and students
at Paris and so paved the way for the establishment of the uni-
University versity there, later in the twelfth century. Paris
of Paris gQQj^ became such a center of learning, particularly
in theology and philosophy, that a medieval writer referred to it
View of New College, Oxford
New College, despite its name, is one of the oldest of the Oxford collegiate foundations
It was established in 1379 by William of Wykeham. The illustration shows the chapel, the
cloisters, consecrated in 1400, and the detached tower, a tall, massive structure on the line
of the city wall.
as "the mill where the world's corn is ground, and the hearth
where its bread is baked." The university of Paris, in the time
of its greatest prosperity, had over five thousand students. It
furnished the model for the English university of Oxford, as
well as for the learned institutions of Scotland, Denmark,
Sweden, and Germany.
The institutions of learning in southern Europe were modeled,
more or less, upon the university of Bologna. At this ItaHan
University city, in the middle of the twelfth century, a cele-
of Bologna brated teacher named Irnerius gathered about him
thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code. The
Education; The Universities 259
university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the
center from which the Roman system of jurisprudence made its
way into France, Germany, and other Continental countries.
From Bologna, also, came the monk Gratian, who drew up
the accepted text-book of canon law, as followed in all Church
courts.^ What Roman law was to the Empire canon law was
to the Papacy.
The word ''university" ^ meant at first simply a union or
association. In the Middle Ages all artisans were organized in
guilds,^ and when masters and pupils associated University
themselves for teaching and study they naturally organization
copied the guild form. This was the more necessary since the
student body included many foreigners, who found protection
against annoyances only as members of a guild.
A university consisted of masters (the professors), who had
the right to teach, and students, both elementary and advanced,
who corresponded to apprentices and journeymen.
After passing part of his examination, a student
became a ''bachelor of arts" and might teach certain elementary
subjects to those beneath him. Upon the completion of the full
course — usually six years in length — the bachelor took his
final examinations and, if successful, received the coveted de-
gree of "master of arts." Many students, of course, never
took a degree at all.
A university of the Middle Ages did not need an expensive
collection of libraries, laboratories, and museums. Its only
necessary equipment consisted of lecture rooms ^,
, r ■.. T 1 , . The teachers
for the professors. Not even benches or chairs
were required, for students often sat on the straw-strewn floors.
The high price of manuscripts compelled professors to give all
instruction by lectures. This method of teaching has been
retained in modern universities, because even the printed book
is a poor substitute for a scholar's inspiring words.
Since the universities were under the protection of the Church,
it was natural that those who attended them should possess
some of the privileges of clergymen. Students did, not pay
^ Seepage 141. 2 Latin universitas. 3 See page 231.
26o
Medieval Civilization
The students
taxes or serve as soldiers. They also enjoyed the right of trial
in their own courts. This was an especially valu-
able privilege, for medieval scholars were constantly
getting into trouble with the city authorities. The sober annals
of many a university are relieved by tales
of truly Homeric conflicts between Town
and Gown. When the students were
dissatisfied with their treatment in one
place, it was always easy for them to go
to another university. Sometimes
masters and scholars made off in a body.
Oxford appears to have owed its existence
to a large migration of EngUsh students
from Paris; Cambridge arose as the result
of a migration from Oxford; and the
German university of Leipzig sprang
from that of Prague in Bohemia.
The members of a university usually
lived in a number of colleges. These
seem to have been at first
little more than lodging-
houses, where poor students were cared
for at the expense of some benefactor.
In time, however, as the colleges increased
in wealth, through the gifts made to them,
they became centers of instruction under
the direction of masters. At Oxford and
Cambridge, where the collegiate system
has been retained to the present time,
each college possesses its separate build-
ings and enjoys the privilege of self-
government.
The studies in a medieval university
were grouped under the four faculties of arts, theology, law,
and medicine. The first-named faculty taught
the "seven hberal ?rts," that is, grammar, rhet-
oric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.
Tower of Magdalen
College, Oxford
Magdalen (pronounced
Maudlin) is perhaps the
most beautiful college in
Oxford. The bell tower
stands on High Street, the
principal thoroughfare of
Oxford, and adjoins Mag-
dalen Bridge, built across
the Cherwell. Begun in
1492; completed in 1505.
From its summit a Latin
hymn is sung every year on
the morning of May Day.
This graceful tower has been
several times imitated in
American collegiate struct-
ures.
Facilities
Colleges
INTERIOR OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE
The chief architectural ornament of King's College, founded by King Henry VI, is the chapel
in the Gothic perpendicular style. This building was begun in 1446 a.d., but was not completed
until nearly seventy years later. The finest features of the interior are the fan-vaulting which
extends throughout the chapel, the stained-glass windows, and the wooden organ screen.
Scholasticism 261
These subjects were a legacy from Roman education. Theol-
ogy, law, and medicine then, as now, were professional studies,
taken up after the completion of the Arts course. Owing to
the constant movement of students from one university to
another, each institution tended to specialize in one or more
fields of learning. Thus, Paris came to be noted for theology,
Montpelher, Padua, and Salerno for medicine, and Orleans,
Bologna, and Salamanca for law.
102. Scholasticism
Theology formed the chief subject of instruction in most
medieval universities. Nearly all the celebrated scholars of
the age were theologians. They sought to arrange Theological
the doctrines of the Church in systematic and ^^^^
reasonable form, in order to answer those great questions con-
cerning the nature of God and of the soul which have always
occupied the human mind. For this purpose it was necessary
to call in the aid of philosophy. The union of theology and
philosophy produced what is known as scholasticism.^
The philosophy on which the scholastics relied was chiefly
that of Aristotle. Christian Europe read him at first in Latin
translations from the Arabic, but versions were study of
later made from Greek copies found in Constant!- Aristotle
nople and elsewhere in the East. This revival of Aristotle,
though it broadened men's minds by acquainting them with the
ideas of the greatest of Greek thinkers, had serious drawbacks.
It discouraged rather than favored the search for fresh truth.
Many scholastics were satisfied to appeal to Aristotle's author-
ity, rather than take the trouble of finding out things for them-
selves. The story is told of a medieval student who, having
detected spots in the sun, announced his discovery to a learned
man. "My son," said the latter, "I have read Aristotle many
times, and I assure you there is nothing of the kind mentioned
by him. Be certain that the spots which you have seen are in
your eyes and not in the sun."
^ The method of the school (Latin schola).
262 Medieval Civilization
There were many famous scholastics, or "schoolmen," but
easily the foremost among them was the Italian monk, Thomas
Aquinas. He taught at Paris, Cologne, Rome, and
St. Thomas Bologna, and became so celebrated for learning
1227^1274 as to be known as the "Angelic Doctor." Though
Aquinas died at an early age, he left behind him
no less than eighteen folio volumes. His Summa TheologicB
("Compendium of Theology"), as the name indicates, gathered
up all that the Middle Ages beheved of the relations between
God and man. The Roman Church has placed him among
her saints and still recommends the study of his writings as
the foundation of all sound theology.
Enough has been said to show that the method of study in
medieval Universities was not that which generally obtains
ry, to-day. There was ahnost no original research,
scholastic Law students memorized the Justinian code,
method Medical students learned anatomy and physiol-
ogy from old Greek books, instead of in the dissecting room.
Theologians and philosophers went to the Bible, the Church
Fathers, or Aristotle for the solution of all problems. They
often debated the most subtle questions, for instance, "Can
God ever know more than He knows that He knows? " Mental
gymnastics of this sort furnished a good training in logic, but
added nothing to the sum of human knowledge. Scholasticism,
accordingly, fell into disrepute, in proportion as men began to
substitute scientific observation and experiment for speculation.
103. Science and Magic
Not all medieval learning took the form of scholasticism.
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were marked by a healthy
Scientific interest in science. Long encyclopedias, written
inventions jj^ Latin, collected all available information about
the natural world. The study of physics made conspicuous
progress, partly as a result of Arab influence. Various scientific
inventions, including magnifying lenses (for eyeglasses) and
clocks, were worked out. The mariner's compass, perhaps
derived from the Arabs, also came into general use.
Science and Magic
263
We may take the Englishman, Roger Bacon, as a representa-
tive of this scientific interest. He studied at Paris, where his
attainments secured for him the title of the " Won- t>
Roger Bacon,
derful Doctor, and lectured at Oxford. At a about 1214-
period when Aristotle's influence was unbounded, ^^^*
Bacon turned away from scholastic philosophy to mathematics
and the sciences. No great discoveries
were made by him, but it is interesting
to read a passage in one of his works
where some modern inventions are
distinctly foreseen. In time, he wrote,
ships will be moved without rowers,
and carriages will be propelled without
animals to draw them. Machines
for flying will also be constructed,
"wherein a man sits revolving some
engine by which artificial wings are
made to beat the air like a flying bird."
Even in Bacon's day it would appear
that men were trying to make steam-
boats, automobiles, and airplanes.
The discovery of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter, char-
coal, and sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably
incorrectly. Bacon and other men of his time
seem to have been familiar with the composition
of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort of firework,
producing a sudden and briUiant flame. They httle suspected
that in a confined space the expansive power of its gases could
be used to hurl projectiles. Gunpowder was occasionally manu-
factured during the fourteenth century, but for a long time it
made more noise than it did harm. Small brass cannon, throw-
ing stone balls, began at length to displace the medieval siege
weapons, and stifl later muskets took the place of the longbow,
the cross-bow, and the pike. The revolution in the art of war-
fare introduced by gunpowder had vast importance. It de-
stroyed the usefulness of the castle and enabled the peasant to
fight the mailed knight on equal terms. Gunpowder, accord-
Roger Bacon
From the original picture in
the possession of Lord Sack-
ville, at Knole, England.
Gunpowder
264 Medieval Civilization
ingly, must be included among the forces which brought about
the downfall of feudalism.
The study of chemistry also engaged the attention of medieval
investigators. It was, however, much mixed up with alchemy.
Chemistry a false science which the Middle Ages had received
and alchemy fj-Qj^ the Arabs and they in turn from the Greeks.
The alchemists believed that minerals possessed a real life of
their own and that they were continually developing in the
ground toward the state of gold, the perfect metal. It was
necessary, therefore, to discover the "philosopher's stone,"
which would turn all metals into gold. The alchemists never
found it, but they learned a good deal about the various metals
and discovered a number of compounds and colors. In this
way alchemy contributed to the advance of chemistry.
Astronomy in the Middle Ages was the most advanced of any
natural science, though the telescope and the Copernican theory
Astronomy were as yet in the future. Astronomy, the wise
and astrology mother, had a foohsh daughter, astrology, the
origin of which can be traced back to Babylonia. Medieval
students no longer regarded the stars as divine, but they be-
lieved that the natural world and the lives of men were controlled
by celestial influences. Hence astrologers professed to predict
the fate of a person from the position of the planets at the time
of his birth. Astrological rules were also drawn from the signs
of the zodiac. A child born under the sign of the Lion will be
courageous; one born under the Crab will not go forward well
in life; one born under the Waterman will probably be drowned,
and so forth. Such fancies seem absurd enough, but in the
Middle Ages educated people entertained them.
Alchemy and astrology were not the only instances of medie-
val credulity. The most improbable stories found ready ac-
Medieval ceptance. Roger Bacon, for instance, thought
credulity |-j^a,t "flying dragons" still existed in Europe and
that eating their flesh lengthened human life. Works on
natural history soberly described the lizard-hke salamander,
which dwelt in fire, and the phoenix, a bird which, after living
for five hundred years, burned itself to death and then rose
Popular Superstitions
265
Magicians
again full grown from the ashes. Various plants and minerals
were credited with marvelous powers. Thus, the nasturtium,
used as a liniment, would keep one's hair from faUing out, and
the sapphire, when powdered and mixed with milk, would heal
ulcers and cure headache. Such quaint beliefs linger to-day
among uneducated people, even in civilized lands.
Magicians of every sort flourished in the Middle Ages. Onei-
romancers ^ took omens
from dreams.
Palmists read
fortunes in the lines and
irregularities of the hand.
Necromancers ^ professed
to reveal the future by
pretended communica-
tions with departed spirits.
Other magicians made
talismans or lucky objects
to be worn on the person,
mirrors in which the images
of the dead or the absent were reflected, and various powders
which, when mixed with food or drink, would inspire hatred
or affection in the one consuming them. Indeed, it would be
easy to draw up a long hst of the devices by which practi-
tioners of magic made a Hving at the expense of ignorant and
superstitious people.
Magician Rescued from the Devil
Miniature in a thirteenth-century manuscript in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The Devil, at-
tempting to seize a magician who had formed a
pact with him, is prevented by a lay brother.
Folk tales
104. Popular Superstitions
Many medieval superstitions are preserved in folk tales, or
''fairy stories." Every child now reads these tales in books,
but until the nineteenth century very few of them
had been collected and written down.^ They lived
on the lips of the people, being told by mothers and nurses
1 Greek oneiros, "dream." 2 Greek nekros, "corpse."
' Charles Perrault's Tales of Passed Times appeared at Paris in 1697. It in-
cluded the now-familiar stories of "Bluebeard," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty,"
and "Little Red Riding Hood." In 1812 the brothers Grimm pubUshed their
Household Tales, a collection of stories current in Germany.
266 Medieval Civilization
to children and by young and old about the firesides during the
long winter evenings. Story-telling formed one of the chief
amusements of the Middle Ages.
The fairies who appear so commonly in folk tales are known
by such different names as bogies, brownies, goblins, pixies,
kobolds (in Germany), and trolls (in Denmark).
The Celts, especially, had a lively faith in fairies,
and it was from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that many
stories about them became current in Europe after the tenth
century. Some students have explained the behef in fairies
as due to memories of an ancient pygmy people dwelling in
underground homes. But most of these supernatural beings
seem to be the descendants of the spirits which in savage fancy
haunt the world.
A comparison of European folk tales shows that fairies have
certain characteristics in common. They hve in palaces under-
Character- neath the ground, from which they emerge at twi-
istics light to dance in mystic circles. They are ruled
by kings and queens and are possessed of great
wealth. Though usually invisible, they may sometimes be seen,
especially by people who have the faculty of perceiving spirits.
To mortals the fairies are generally hostile, leading wanderers
astray, often blighting crops and cattle, and shooting arrows
which carry disease and death. They are constantly on the
watch to carry off human beings to their realm. A prisoner
must be released at the end of a certain time, unless he tastes
fairy food, in which event he can never return. Children in
cradles are frequently snatched away by the fairies, who leave,
instead, imps of their own called "changehngs." A changeling
may always be recognized by its peevishness and backwardness
in learning to walk and speak. If well treated, the fairies will
sometimes show their gratitude by bestowing on their favorites
health, wealth, and long life. Lucky the child who can count
on a ''fairy god-mother."
Stories of giants are common in folk tales. Giants are often
represented as not only big but also stupid, and as easily over-
come by keen-witted human foes like "Jack the Giant-killer."
Popular Superstitions
267
It may be that traditions of prehistoric peoples have sometimes
given birth to accounts of giants. Another source Giants
of stories concerning them has been the dis- *^^ os^^s
covery of huge fossil bones, such as those of the mammoth or
mastodon, which were formerly supposed to be bones of gigantic
men. The ogres, who sometimes figure in folk tales, are giants
with a taste for human flesh. They recall the cannibals of the
savage world.
The Witches' Sabbath
Werewolves
Werewolves were persons who, by natural gift or magic art,
were thought to have the power of turning themselves for a time
into wild beasts (generally wolves or bears). In
this animal shape they ravaged flocks and de-
voured young children. A werewolf was said to sleep only two
nights in the month and to spend the rest of the time roam-
ing the woods and fields. Trials of persons accused of being
werewolves were held in France as late as the end of the six-
teenth century. Even now the belief is found in backward parts
of Europe.
268 Medieval Civilization
The medieval superstition of the evil eye endowed certain
persons with the power of bewitching,, injuring, or kilHng others
^, ., by a sinsfle dance. Children and domestic ani-
The evil eye -^ ^ , i i - ^ ^
mals were thought to be particularly susceptible
to the effects of "fascination." In order to guard against it,
charms of various sorts, including texts from the Bible, were
carried about. The belief in the evil eye came into Europe from
pagan antiquity. It survived the Middle Ages and lingers yet
among uneducated people.
The behef in witchcraft, which prevailed in ancient times,
was also strongly held during the Middle Ages. Witches were
„,. , , supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil,
Witchcraft . . . , , . ^ '
receiving m return the power to work magic. They
could change themselves or others into animals, they had
charms against the hurt of weapons, they could raise storms
and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, and other
objects into their victims' bodies, thus causing sickness and
death. At night they rode through the air on broomsticks
and assembled in some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild
revels. The Devil himself attended these "Witches' Sabbaths"
and taught his followers their diabolic arts. There were various
tests for the discovery of witches, the most usual being the
ordeal by water.^
The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark
page in history. Thousands of harmless old men and women
Witchcraft were put to death on the charge of being leagued
persecutions ^.^^h the Devil. Even the most intelligent and
humane people believed in the realit}^ of witchcraft and found
a justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command,
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." ^ The witch epidemic
which broke out in America during the seventeenth century,
reaching its height at Salem, Massachusetts, was simply a
reflection of the European fear and hatred of witches.
The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of
unlucky days. These v/ent under the name of "Egyptian
days," so called because it was held that on one of them the
1 See page iig. ^ Exodus, xxii, i8.
Popular Amusements and Festivals
269
plagues had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt and on
another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed
Unlucky days
up in the Red Sea. At least twenty-four days
in the year were regarded as very unlucky. At such times one
ought not to buy or sell, to build a house, to plant a field, to
travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important. After
the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but
there still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to
fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or do-
mestic servants to enter a new place, on a Friday.
Indoor games
105. Popular Amusements and Festivals
It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle
Ages to the games, sports, and festivals which helped to make
life agreeable alike for rich and poor, for nobles
and peasants. Some indoor games are of eastern
origin. Chess, for instance, arose in India as a war game.
On each side a king
and his general, with
chariots, cavalry,
elephants, and in-
fantry, met in battle
array. These survive
in the rooks, knights,
bishops, and pawns
of the modern game.
Checkers is a sort of
simplified chess, in
which the pieces are
all pawns, till they get across the board and become kings..
Playing cards are another Oriental invention. They were
introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by
the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been
for telling fortunes.
Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medie-
val times. How one kind of game may become the parent of
Chess Pieces of Charlemagne
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
The figures are carved in ivory.
270
Medieval Civilization
many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients
tossed and caught balls as children do now. They also had a
Outdoor game in which each side tried to secure the ball and
games throw it Over the adversary's goal line. This game
lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has de-
scended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat
in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball
on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and intro-
duced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan
name of pulu (''ball") it found its way into Europe. When
once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it
could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various
games in which balls are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey,
golf, cricket, and croquet.
The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport"
Baiting
bears,
and those of our ancestors is shown by the popu-
larity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls,
and even horses were baited. Cock-fighting formed
another common
amusement. It
was not till the
nineteenth cen-
tury that an Eng-
lish society for
the prevention of
cruelty to animals
succeeded in get-
ting a law passed
which forbade
these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now
followed England's example.
No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some
reference to the celebration of festivals. For the peasant and
artisan they provided relief from physical exertion,
and for all classes of society the pageants, pro-
cessions, sports, feasts, and merry-makings which accompanied
them furnished welcome diversion. Medieval festivals included
Bear Baiting
From the Luttrell Psalter.
Festivals
Popular Amusements and Festivals 271
not only those of the Christian Year/ but also others which had
come down from pre-Christian times.
Many festivals not of Christian origin were derived from the
ceremonies with which the heathen peoples of Europe had been
accustomed to mark the changes of the seasons. Seasonal
Thus, April Fool's Day formed a relic of festivities festivities
held at the vernal equinox. May Day, another festival of
spring, honored the spirits of trees and of all budding vegetation.
The persons who acted as May kings and May queens repre-
sented these spirits. According to the original custom a new
May tree was cut down in the forest every year, but later a
permanent May pole was set up on the village common. On
Midsummer Eve (June 23), which marked the summer solstice,
came the fire festival, when people built bonfires and leaped
over them, walked in procession with torches round the. fields,
and rolled burning wheels down the hillsides. These curious
rites may have been
once connected
with sun worship.
Hallow Eve, so
called from being
the eve of All
Saints' Day (No-
vember i), also
seems to have been
a survival of a
heathen celebra-
tion. On this
night witches and
fairies were sup-
posed to assemble.
Hallow Eve does
not appear to have
been a season for
pranks and jokes, as in its present degenerate form. Even the
festival of Christmas, coming at the winter solstice, kept some
1 See page 48.
Mummers
From a manuscript now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
It was written and illuminated in the reign of Edward IH.
272
Medieval Civilization
heathen features, such as the use of mistletoe with which Celtic
priests once decked the altars of their gods. The Christmas
tree, however, is not a relic of heathenism.
A Miracle Play at Coventry, England
The rude platform on wheels, which served as a stage, was drawn by apprentices to the
market place. Each guild had its own stage.
Young and old took part in the dances which accompanied
village festivals. Very popular in medieval England was the
The Morris Morris dance. The name, a corruption of Moor-
dance jgj^^ refers to its origin in Spain. The Morris dance
was especially associated with May Day and was danced round
a May pole to a lively and capering step. The performers
represented Robin Hood, Maid Marian, his wife, Tom the
Piper, and other traditional characters. On their garments
they wore bells tuned to different notes, so as to sound in
harmony.
Manners and Customs 273
Mumming had a particular association with Christmas.
Mummers were bands of men and women who disguised them-
selves in masks and skins of animals and then „
Mumming
serenaded people outside their houses. Often
the mummers performed little dramas, in which Father Christ-
mas, Old King Cole, and St. George were familiar figures.
Besides these village amusements, many plays of a religious
character came into vogue during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. The earliest were the miracle plays. ,,. , ,
^, 1 . 1 . r r 1 Miracle plays
They presented in dramatic form scenes from the
Bible and stories of the saints or martyrs. The actors at first
were priests, and the stage was the church itself or the church-
yard. This religious setting did not prevent the introduction
of clowns and buffoons. After a time the miracle play passed
from the clergy to the guilds. All the guilds of a town usually
gave an exhibition once a year. Each guild presented a single
scene in the story. An exhibition might last for several days
and have as many as fifty scenes, beginning at Creation and
ending with Doomsday.^
The miracle plays were followed by the "moralities." They
dealt with the struggle between good and evil, rather than with
religious history. Characters such as Charity, Morality
Faith, Prudence, Riches, Confession, and Death p^^^^
appeared and enacted a story int-ended to teach moral lessons.
Out of the rude "morality" and its predecessor, the miracle
play, has grown the drama of modern times.
106. Manners and Customs
A previous chapter ^ described some features of domestic
life in castle and village during the age of feudalism. In Eng-
land, where the Norman kings discouraged castle ^ „.
, . '. , , r T 1 ,. Dwellmgs
building, the manor house formed the ordinary
residence of the nobility. Even in Continental Europe many
castles were gradually made over into manor houses after the
1 The Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau in Germany is the modern representa-
tive of this medieval religious drama.
^ Chapter vi.
274
Medieval Civilization
cessation of feudal warfare. A manor house, however, was
only less bare and inconvenient than a castle. It was still
poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, and in winter scarcely warmed by
the open wood fires. Among the improvements of the four-
teenth century were the building of a fireplace at one or both
ends of the manor hall, instead of in the center, and the substi-
tution of glass windows for wooden shutters or oiled paper.
SuLGRAVE Manor
Sulgrave, in Northhamptonshire, was the ancestral home of the Washington family.
The manor house, built by Lawrence V/ashington about the middle of the sixteenth
century, bears the family coat-of-arms on the porch. This historic dwelling has been
purchased by an English committee for- preservation as a memorial of the friendship
and blood-relationship between England and the United States.
People in the Middle Ages, even the well-to-do, got along with
little furniture. The great hall of a manor house contained a
long dining table, with benches used at meals,
and a few stools. The family beds often occupied
curtained recesses in the walls, but guests might have to sleep
on the floor of the manor hall. Servants often slept in the
stables. Few persons could afford rugs to cover the floor; the
poor had to put up with rushes. - Utensils were not numerous,
and articles of glass and silver were practically unknown, except
in the houses of the rich.
The pictures in old manuscripts give us a good idea of medieval
dress. Naturally it varied with time and place, according
Fximiture
Manners and Customs 275
to the social position of the wearer. Sometimes laws were
passed, without much result, to regulate the quahty,
shape, and cost of the costumes to be worn by dif- ^'*^*"°'®
ferent orders of society. The moralists of the age were shocked
when tightly fitting garments, which showed the outhnes of the
body, became fashionable. The inconvenience of putting them
Interior of AxN English Manor House
Shows the great hall of a manor house at Penshurst, Kent. The screen with the
minstrels gal ery over it is seen at the end of the hall, and in the center, the brazier
for fire. Built about 1340.
on led to the use of buttons and buttonholes. Women's head-
dresses were often of extraordinary height and shape. Not
less remarkable were the pointed shoes worn by men. The
points finally got so long that they hindered walking, unless
tied to the knees by a ribbon.
The medieval noble of the twelfth century as a rule went clean
shaven. To wear a beard was regarded as a sign of effeminacy
m a man. The Bayeux Tapestry,i for instance,
shows the Normans mostly clean-shaven, while the ^^^"^^
Enghsh wear only moustaches. The introduction of long beards
* See the illustration, page 107.
276
Medieval Civilization
seems to have been due to contact with the East during the
crusading period.
Regular bathing was not by any means neglected during the
later Middle Ages. In the country districts river, lake, or pool
Baths and met the needs of people used to outdoor Hfe. The
bathing j^q^- g^jj. g^j^^j vapor baths of the Byzantines were
adopted by the Moslems and later, through the Moors and cru-
saders, were made known to western Europe. After the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century .few large cities lacked public
bathing places.
Costumes of Ladies during the Later Middle Ages
Food
Medieval cookbooks show that people of means had all sorts
of elaborate and expensive dishes. Dinner at a nobleman's
house might include as many as ten or twelve
courses, mostly meats and game. Such things as
hedgehogs, peacocks, sparrows, and porpoises, which would
hardly tempt the modern palate, were relished. Much use
was made of spices in preparing meats and gravies, and also
for flavoring wines. Over-eating was a common vice in the
Middle Ages, but their open-air life and constant exercise en-
abled men and women to digest the huge quantities of food
they consumed.
Manners and Customs 277
People in medieval times had no knives or forks and conse-
quently ate with their fingers. Daggers also were employed to
convey food to the mouth. Forks date from the Table
end of the thirteenth century, but were adopted etiquette
only slowly. As late, as the sixteenth century German preach-
ers condemned their use, for, said they, the Lord would not
have given us fingers if he had wanted us to rely on forks.
Napkins are another table convenience unknown in the Mid-
dle Ages.
Anglo-Saxon Drinking Horn
Horn of Ulphus (Wulf) in the cathedral of York.
In the absence of tea and coffee, ale and beer formed the
drink of the common people. The upper classes regaled them-
selves on costly wines. Drunkenness was as com- ^ , , .
Drinking
mon and as little reprobated as gluttony. The
monotony of hfe in medieval Europe, when the nobles had little
to do but hunt and fight, may partly account for the prevailing
inebriety. But doubtless in large measure it was a Teutonic
characteristic. The Northmen were hard drinkers, and of the
ancient Germans a Roman writer states that ''to pass an entire
day and night in drinking disgraces no one." ^ This habit
of intoxication survived in medieval Germany, and the Anglo-
Saxons and Danes introduced it into England.
Studies
I. Look up on the map between pages 62-63 the following places where
Gothic cathedrals are found: Canterbury, York, Salisbury, Reims, Amiens, Char-
tres, Cologne, Strassburg, Burgos, Toledo, and Milan. 2. Look up on the map
facing page 342 the location of the following medieval universities: Oxford, Mont-
^ Tacitus, Germania, 22.
278 Medieval Civilization
pellier, Paris, Orleans, Cologne, Leipzig, Prague, Naples, and Salamanca. 3. Explain
the following terms: scholasticism; canon law; alchemy; troubadours; Provenjal
language; transept; choir; flying buttress; werewolf; and mumming. 4. Who
were St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, Gratian, Irnerius, and Roger Bacon? 5. Show
how Latin served as an international language in the Middle Ages. Name two
artificial languages which have been invented as a substitute for Latin. 6. What
is meant by saying that "French is a mere patois of Latin"? 7. In what parts
of the world is English now the prevailing speech? 8. Why has Siegfried, the
hero of the Nibelungenlied, been called the "Achilles of Teutonic legend "? 9. What
productions of medieval literature reflect aristocratic and democratic ideals, re-
spectively? 10. Distinguish between the Romanesque and Gothic styles of archi-
tecture. What is the origin of each term? 11. Contrast a Gothic cathedral with
a Greek temple, particularly in regard to size, height, support of the roof, windows,
and decorative features. 12. Why is there some excuse for describing a Gothic
building as "a wall of glass with a roof of stone"? 13. Do you see any resemblance
in structural features between a Gothic cathedral and a modern "sky-scraper"?
14. Mention some likenesses between medieval and modern universities. 15. Men-
tion some important subjects of instruction in modem universities which were not
treated in those of the Middle Ages. 16. Why has scholasticism been called
"a sort of Aristotelian Christianity"? 17. Look up the original meaning of the
words "jovial," "saturnine," "mercurial," "disastrous," "contemplate," and
"consider." 18. Show the indebtedness of chemistry to alchemy and of astronomy
to astrology. 19. Mention some common folk tales which illustrate medieval
superstitions. 20. Why was Friday regarded as a specially unlucky day? 21. Enu-
merate the most important contributions to civilization made during the Middle
Ages.
CHAPTER XIII
THE RENMSSANCEi
107. Meaning of the Renaissance
The French word Renaissance means Rebirth or Revival.
It is a convenient term for all the changes in society, law, and
government, in science, philosophy, and religion, i^i^^
and in hterature and art which gradually trans- of the
formed medieval civilization into that of modern enaissance
times. The Renaissance, just because of its transitional
character, cannot be exactly dated. In general, it covers the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Some Renaissance move-
ments, however, started before 1300. For instance, the study
of Roman law, as a substitute for Germanic custom, was well
advanced in the twelfth century. The commercial develop-
ment of the crusading era began during the same period. Other
Renaissance movements, again, extended beyond 1500. Among
these were the expansion of geographical knowledge, resulting
from the discovery of the New World, and the revolt against
the Papacy, known as the Protestant Reformation. The
Middle Ages, in fact, came to an end at different times in dif-
ferent fields of human activity.
The name Renaissance applied, at first, only to tne rebirth
or revival of men's interest in the literature and art of classical
antiquity. Italy was the original home of this original
Renaissance. There it first appeared, there it home of the
found widest acceptance, and there it reached its ^^^^^^sance
highest development. From Italy the Renaissance gradually
spread beyond the Alps, until it had made the round of western
Europe.
Italy was a land particularly favorable to the growth of
^ Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xix, "A Scholar of
the Renaissance"; chapter xx, "Renaissance Artists."
279
28o The Renaissance
learning and the arts. In northern Italy the great cities of
Italian cities Milan, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and many
of the others had early succeeded in throwing off their
Renaissance fg^^jai burdens and had become independent,
self-governing communities. Democracy flourished in them,
as in the old Greek city-states. Noble birth counted for little;
a man of ability and ambition might rise to any place. The
fierce party confhcts within their walls stimulated mental
activity and helped to make life full, varied, and intense. Their
widespread trade and thriving manufactures made them pros-
perous. Wealth brought leisure, bred a taste for luxury ^nd
the refinements of life, and gave means for the gratification of
that taste. People wanted to have about them beautiful
pictures, statuary, furniture, palaces, and churches; and they
rewarded richly the artists who could produce such things. It
is not without significance that the birthplace of the Italian
Renaissance was democratic, industrial, and wealthy Florence.^
Italy enjoyed another advantage over the other European
countries in its nearness to Rome. Admiration for the ancient
Influence of Roman civilization, as expressed in literature, art,
the classic and law, was felt by all Italians. Wherever they
tra ition looked, they were reminded of the great past which
once had been theirs. Nor was the inheritance of Greece
wholly lost. Greek traders and the descendants of Greek
colonists in Italy still used their ancient language; all through
the medieval centul-ies there were Italians who studied Greek.
The classic tradition survived in Italy and defied oblivion.
In the Middle Ages Italy formed a meeting place of several
civilizations. Byzantine influence was felt both in the north
„ . and in the south. The conquest of Sicily by the
Byzantine, . ...
Arabic, and Arabs made the Italians familiar with the science,
Norman ^^^ ^^^ poetry of this cultivated people. After
influence 7 r- ^ x- r-
the Normans had established themselves in south-
ern Italy and Sicfly, they in turn developed a briUiant civi-
lization. From all these sources flowed streams of cultural
influence which united in the Renaissance.
^ See pages 239-240.
Revival of Learning in Italy
281
108. Revival of Learning in Italy
The literature of Greece and Rome did not entirely disappear
in western Europe after the Teutonic invasions. The monas-
tery and cathedral schools of the Middle Ages had jj^^ classics
nourished devoted students of ancient books. The in the
Benedictine monks labored zealously in copying ^ ^ ^^^
the works of pagan as well as Christian authors. The rise of
universities made it possible for the student to pursue a fairly
extended course in Latin literature at more than one institu-
tion of learning. Greek literature, however, was little known
in the West. The poems of Homer were read only in a
Latin summary, and even Aristotle's
writings were studied in Latin
translations.
Reverence for the classics finds
constant expression in the writings
of the Italian poet Dante
Dante. He was a Alighieri,
native of Florence, but
passed many years of his life in
exile. Dante's most famous work,
the Divine Comedy, describes an
imaginary visit to the other world.
Vergil guides him through the
realms of Hell and Purgatory until
he meets his lady Beatrice, who conducts him through Paradise.
The Divine Comedy gives in artistic verse an epitome of all that
medieval men knew and hoped and felt: it is a mirror of the
Middle Ages. At the same time it drew much of its inspiration
from Graeco-Roman sources. Homer, for Dante, is the "loftiest
of poets"; and Aristotle is the ''master of those who know."
Dante exerted a noteworthy influence on the Italian language.
He wrote the Divine Comedy, not in Latin, but in the vernacular
Italian as spoken in Florence. The popularity pante and
of this work helped to give currency to the Floren-
tine dialect, and. in time it became the • literary
language of Italy.
Mask of Dante
the Italian
language
2«2
The Renaissance
Petrarch, a younger contemporary of Dante, and like him a
native of Florence, has been called the £rst modern scholar and
Petrarch, man of letters. He devoted himseK with tireless
1304-1374 energy to classical studies. Writing to a friend,
Petrarch declares that he has read Vergil, Horace, Livy, and
Cicero, ''not once, but a thousand times, not cursorily, but
studiously and intently, bringing to them the best powers of
my mind. I tasted in the morning
and digested at night. I quaffed as a
boy, to ruminate as an old man.
These works have become so familiar
to me that they cling not to my mem-
ory merely, but to the very marrow of
my bones."
Petrarch himself composed many
Latin works and did much to spread a
Petrarch knowledge of Latin au-
as a Latin thors. He traveled widely
revivalist • Xi. i -r^ j
m Italy, France, and
other countries, searching everywhere
for ancient manuscripts. When he
found in one place two lost orations
of Cicero and in another place a col-
lection of Cicero's letters, he was transported with dehght.
He kept copyists in his house, at times as many as four, busily
making transcripts of the manuscripts that he had discovered
or borrowed. Petrarch knew almost no Greek. His copy of
Homer, it is said, he often kissed, though he could not read it.
Petrarch's friend and disciple, Boccaccio, was the first to
bring to Itah^ manuscripts of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Having
Boccaccio, learned some Greek, he wrote out a translation
1313-1375 Qf those epic poems. But Boccaccio's fame to-day
rests on the Decameron. It is a collection of one hundred
stories written in Italian. They are supposed to be told by a
merry company of men and women, who, during a plague at
Florence, have retired to a villa in the country. The Decameron
is one of the first important works in Italian prose. Many
Petrarch
From a miniature in the Lau-
rentian Library, Florence.
Revival of Learning in Italy 283
English writers, notably Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, have
gone to it for ideas and plots. The modern short story may
be said to date from Boccaccio.
The renewed interest in Latin hterature, due to Petrarch,
Boccaccio, and others, was followed in the fifteenth century by
the revival of Greek literature. In 1396 Chrys- study of
oloras, a scholar from Constantinople, began to Greek in
lecture on Greek in the university of Florence. *^
He afterwards taught in other Italian cities and further aided
the growth of Hellenic studies by preparing a Greek grammar
— the first book of its kind. From this time, and especially
after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, many learned Greeks
came to Italy, transplanting in the West the culture of the
East. "Greece had not perished, but had emigrated to Italy."
The classics opened up a new world of thought and fancy
to the scholars of the fifteenth century. They were delighted
by the fresh, original, and human ideas which „
^ > & 5 Humanism
they discovered in the pages of Homer, Plato,
Cicero, Horace, and Tacitus. Their enthusiasm for the classics
came to be known as humanism, ^ or culture. • The Greek and
Latin languages and literatures were henceforth the "humani-
ties," as distinguished from scholastic philosophy and theology.
From Florence, as from a second Athens, humanism spread
throughout Italy. At Milan and Venice, at Rome and Naples,
men fell to poring over the classics. A special spread of
feature of the age was the recovery of ancient humanism
manuscripts from monasteries and cathedrals, "* ^
where they had often lain neglected and blackened with the
dust of centuries. Libraries were established for their safe-keep-
ing, professorships of the ancient languages were endowed, and
scholars were given opportunities to pursue researches. Even
the popes shared in this zeal for humanism. One of them founded
the Vatican Library at Rome, which has the most valuable
collection of manuscripts in the world. At Florence the wealthy
family of the Medici vied with the popes in the patronage of
classical literature.
1 Latin humanitas, from homo, "man."
284
The Renaissance
109. Paper and Printing
The revival of learning was greatly hastened when books
printed on paper took the place of manuscripts laboriously
Introduction Copied by hand. The Chinese at a remote period
of paper made paper from some fibrous material, but the
Arabs seem to have been the first to make it out of flax and rags.
The manufacture of paper
in Europe was estabhshed
by the Moors in Spain.
The Arab occupation of
Sicily introduced the art
into Italy. Paper found a
ready sale in Europe, be-
cause papyrus and parch-
ment, which the ancients
had used as writing materi-
als, were both expensive
and bulky. Men now had
a material moderate in
price, durable, and one
that would easily receive
the impression of movable
type.
The first step in the de-
velopment of printing was
the use of engraved blocks.
Single letters, separate
words, and sometimes entire pages of text were cut in hard
wood or metal. When inked and appUed to Development
paper, they left a clear impression. The second of movable
step was to cast the letters in separate pieces of ^^®
metal, all of the same height and thickness. These could then
be arranged in any desired way for printing.
Movable type had been used for centuries by the Chinese,
Japanese, and Koreans in the East, and in Europe several
printers have been credited with their invention. A German,
An Early Printing Press
Enlarged from the printer's mark of I. B.
Ascensius. Used on the title pages of books printed
by him between 1507-1535.
Paper and Printing 285
Johaim Gutenberg of Mainz, set up the first printing press
with movable type about 1450, and from it issued
the first printed book. This was a Latin transla-
tion of the Bible.
Printing met an especially warm welcome in Italy, where
people felt so keen a desire for reading and instruction. By
the end of the fifteenth century Venice alone had Aldus and
more than two hundred printing presses. Here C^*o^
Aldus Manutius maintained a famous establishment for print-
ing Greek and Latin classics. In 1476 the English printer,
^tm fmtM mmt^ 9at»t^ of e^ m Fftc
\A^.Mw^t QDOM ft#<e/(Bt6notbetbtn
H^m t^ mnummkTge^ttti^^ «nb tmtse/C^ Cut;
Tenne beganne agayne the bataylle of the one parte/And of the
other Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. Lordes why doo ye fyghte/^
Ye knowe well that the couuenaunte ys deuysed and made/ That Turnus
and I shall fyghte for you alle/
Facsimile of Part of Caxton's "^neid" (reduced)
With the same passage in modern type.
William Caxton, set up his wooden presses within the precincts
of Westminster Abbey. We owe to him editions of Chaucer's
poems. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur,^ jEsop^s Fables,
and many other works.
The books printed in the fifteenth century go by the name of
incunabula} Of the seven or eight million volumes which
appeared before isoo, about thirty thousand , ^ ,
, ^. , 1 M, . • 1.^ r Incunabula
are believed to be still m existence. Many 01
these earliest books were printed in heavy, ''black letter"
type, an imitation of the characters used in monkish manu-
scripts. It is still retained for most books printed in Germany.
The clearer and neater ''Roman" characters, resembhng the
letters employed for ancient Roman inscriptions, came into
^ Seepage 251. 2 a Latin word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace," and so
the beginning of anything.
286 The Renaissance
use in southern Europe and England. The Aldine press at
Venice originated ''itaUc" type, said to be modeled after
Petrarch's handwriting, to enable the printer to crowd more
words on a page. Aldus Manutius also has the credit for the
introduction of punctuation marks. In ancient writings
words were run together successively, without any indication
of pause or break in the sentence.
It is easy to see that printed books could be multiplied far
more rapidly than manuscripts copied by hand. They could
Importance also be far more accurate than manuscripts, for
of printing g^j^ entire edition might be printed from the same
type, thus eliminating mistakes in the different copies. Further-
more, the invention of printing destroyed the monopoly of
learning possessed by the universities and people of wealth.
Books were now the possession of the many, not the luxury of
the few. Any one who could read had opened to him the gate-
way of knowledge; he became a citizen, henceforth, of the
republic of letters. Printing, which made possible popular
education, public libraries, and ultimately cheap newspapers,
ranks with gunpowder as an emancipating force.
110. Revival of Art in Italy
Gothic architecture, with its pointed arches, flying buttresses,
and traceried windows, never struck deep roots in Italy. The
architects of the Renaissance went back to Greek
temples and Roman domed buildings for their
models, just as the humanists went back to Greek and Latin
literature. Long rows of Ionic or Corinthian columns, spanned
by round arches, became again the prevaiHng architectural
style. Perhaps the most important feature of Renaissance
architecture was the use of the dome, instead of the vault,
for the roofs of churches. The majestic cupola of St. Peter's
at Rome, which is modeled after the Pantheon, has become
the parent of many domed structures in the Old and the
New World.^ Architects, however, did not limit themselves
1 For instance, the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London, and the Capitol at
Washington.
Revival of Art in Italy 287
to churches. The magnificent palaces of Florence, as well as
some of those in Venice, are monuments of the Renaissance era.
Henceforth architecture became more and more a secular art.
The development of architecture naturally stimulated the
other arts. Italian sculptors began to copy the ancient bas-
reliefs and statues preserved in Rome and other
..*,.. 1 1 , Sculpture
cities. At this time glazed terra cotta came to be
used by sculptors. Another Renaissance art was the casting
of bronze doors, with panels which represented Bible scenes.
The greatest of Renaissance sculptors was Michelangelo.
Though a Florentine by birth, he lived for most of his life in
Rome. A colossal statue of David, who looks Michelangelo,
like a Greek athlete, and another of Moses, seated 1475-1564
and holding the tables of the law, are among his best-known
works. Michelangelo also won fame in architecture and paint-
ing. The dome of St. Peter's was finished after his designs.
Having been commissioned by one of the popes to decorate the
ceiling of the Sistine chapel ^ in the Vatican, he painted a series
of scenes which presented the Bibhcal story from the Creation
to the Flood. These frescoes are unequaled for sublimity and
power. On the end wall of the same chapel Michelangelo
produced his fresco of the "Last Judgment," one of the most
famous paintings in the world.
The early Italian painters contented themselves, at first,
with imitating Byzantine mosaics and enamels.^ Their work
exhibited little knowledge of human anatomy: j^-g^ ^^
faces might be hfelike, but bodies were too slender Italian
and out of proportion. The figures of men and P^^"*"^^
women were posed in stiff and conventional attitudes. The
perspective also was false: objects which the painter wished to
represent in the background were as near as those which he
wished to represent in the foreground. In the fourteenth cen-
tury, however, Italian painting abandoned the Byzantine style;
achieved beauty of form, design, and color to an extent hitherto
unknown; and became at length the supreme art of the
Renaissance.
^ In this chapel the election of a new pope takes place. 2 See page 39.
288 The Renaissance
Italian painting began in the service of the Church and
always remained religious in character. Artists usually chose
Characteris- subjects from the Bible or the Hves of the saints,
tics of Italian They did not trouble themselves to ,. secure cor-
painting rectness of costume, but painted ancient Jews,
Greeks, and Romans in the garb of ItaUan gentlemen. Many
of their pictures were frescoes, that is, the colors were mixed
with water and apphed to the plaster walls of churches and
palaces. After the process of mixing oils with the colors was
discovered, pictures on wood or canvas (easel paintings) be-
came common. Italian painters excelled in portraiture. They
were less successful with landscapes.
Among the "old masters" of Itahan painting four, besides
Michelangelo, stand out with special prominence. Leonardo
The "old da Vinci (1452-15 19) was architect, sculptor,
masters" musician, and engineer, as well as painter. His
finest work, the "Last Supper," a fresco painting at Milan, is
much damaged, but fortunately good copies of it exist. Paris
has the best of his easel pictures — the "Monna Lisa." Leo-
nardo spent four years on it and then declared that he could
not finish it to his satisfaction. Leonardo's contemporary,
Raphael (1483-15 20), died before he was forty, but not before
he had produced the "Sistine Madonna," now at Dresden, the
"Transfiguration," in the Vatican Gallery at Rome, and many
other famous compositions. Another artist, the Venetian
Titian (1477? -1576), painted portraits unSOTpassed for glowing
color. His "Assumption of the Virgin" ranks among the great-
est pictures in the world. Lastly must be noted the exquisite
paintings of Correggio (i 494-1 534), among" them the "Holy
Night" and the "Marriage of St. Catherine."
Another modern art, that of music, arose in Italy during the
Renaissance. In the sixteenth century the three-stringed
rebeck received a fourth string and became the violin, the
most expressive of all musical instruments. A
forerunner of the pianoforte also appeared in the
harpsichord. A papal organist and choir-master, Palestrina
(15 26-1 594), was the first of the great composers. He gave
w
GHIBERTI'S BRONZE DOORS AT FLORENCE
The second or northern pair of bronze doors of the baptistery at Florence. Completed by
Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1452 a.d., after twenty-seven years of labor. The ten panels represent
scenes from Old Testament history. Michelangelo pronounced these magnificent creations
worthy to be the gates of paradise.
Assumption of the Virgin — Titian
SiSTiNE Madonna — Raphael
Marriage or St. Catherine
CORREGGIO
MoNNA Lisa Gioconda
Leonardo da Vinci
ITALIAN PAINTINGS OF THE RENAISSANCE
Revival of Learning and Art beyond Italy 289
music its fitting place in worship by composing melodious
hymns and masses still sung in Roman Catholic churches.
The oratorio, a religious drama set to music but without action,
scenery, or costume, had its beginning at this time. The opera,
however, was Uttle developed until the eighteenth century.
111. Revival of Learning and Art beyond Italy
About the middle of the fifteenth century fire from the Italian
altar was carried across the Alps, and a revival of learning
began in northern lands. Italy had led the way spread of
by recovering the long-buried treasures of the humanism in
classics and by providing means for their study. ^^**P®
Scholars in Germany, France, and England, who now had the
aid of the printing press, continued the intellectual movement
and gave it widespread currency.
The foremost humanist of the age was Desiderius Erasmus.
Though a native of Rotterdam in Holland, he lived for a time
in Germany, France, England, and Italy, and died Desiderius
at Basel in Switzerland. His travels and exten- Erasmus,
sive correspondence brought him in contact with ^'^
most of the leading scholars of the day. Erasmus wrote
many Latin works which were read and enjoyed by educated
men. He might be called the first really popular author in
Europe. Like Petrarch, he did much to encourage the human-
istic movement by his precepts and his example. '^When I
have money," said this devotee of the classics, "I will first
buy Greek books and then clothes."
Erasmus performed his most important service as a Biblical
critic. In 15 16 he published the New Testament in the original
Greek, with a Latin translation and a dedication The Greek
to the pope. The only accessible edition of the Testament
New Testament up to this time was the old Latin version known
as the Vulgate, which St. Jerome had made near the close of
the fourth century. The work of Erasmus led to a better under-
standing of the New Testament and also prepared the way for
translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular tongues.
"I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to
290
The Renaissance
himself as he follows the plough," wrote Erasmus, "that the
weaver should hum them to the tune. of his shuttle, and that
the traveler should beguile with their stories the weariness of
his journey." Another edition of the Greek New Testament
was issued at Alcala in Spain
by Cardinal Jimenes, six years
after the appearance of the
text by Erasmus.
Italian architects found a
cordial reception in France,
The artistic Spain, the Nether-
revival in lands, and other
Europe , • 1
countries, where
they introduced Renaissance
styles of building and orna-
mentation. The celebrated
palace of the Louvre in
Paris, which is used to-day as
an art gallery and museum,
dates from the sixteenth cen-
tury. At this time the French
nobles began to replace their
somber feudal dwellings by ele-
gant country houses. Renais-
sance sculpture also spread beyond Italy throughout Europe.
Painters in northern countries at first followed ItaUan models,
but afterwards produced masterpieces of their own.
Desiderius Erasmus
Louvre, Paris
A portrait by the German artist, Hans
Holbein the Younger (i4g7-i543). Prob-
ably an excellent likeness of Erasmus.
112. The Renaissance in Literature
The renewed interest in classical studies for a while retarded
the development of national languages and literatures in Europe.
To humanists only Latin and Greek seemed worthy of
notice. Petrarch, for instance, composed in Italian
beautiful sonnets which are still much admired,
but he himself expected to gain literary immor-
tality through his Latin works. Another ItaHan humanist
went so far as to call Dante "a poet for bakers and cobblers,"
Humanism
and the
vernacular
The Renaissance in Literature 291
and the Divine Comedy was indeed translated into Latin a few-
years after the author's death.
But a return to the vernacular was bound to come. The
common people understood httle Latin, and Greek not at all.
Yet they had learned to read and they now had jj^^
the printing press. Before long many books com- vernacular
posed in Italian, Spanish, French, English, and ^^""^^
other national languages made their appearance. This revival
of the vernacular meant that henceforth European literature
would be more creative and original than was possible when
writers merely imitated or translated the classics. The models
provided by Greece and Rome still continued, however, to
furnish inspiration to men of letters.
The Florentine historian and diplomat, Machiavelli, by his
book. The Prince, did much to found the modern science of
politics. Machiavelli, as a patriotic Italian, felt Machiavelli,
keen distress at the divided condition of Italy, 1469-1527
where numerous petty states were constantly at war. In
The Prince he tried to show how a strong, despotic ruler might
set up a national state in the peninsula. He thought that
such a ruler ought not to be bound by the ordinary rules of
morality. He must often act "against faith, against charity,
against humanity, and against religion." The end would justify
the means. Success was everything; morality, nothing. This
dangerous doctrine has received the name of "Machiavellism."
Spain during the sixteenth century gave to the world in
Cervantes the only Spanish writer who has achieved a great
reputation outside his own country. Cervantes's Cervantes,
masterpiece, Don Quixote, seems to have been 15*7-1616
intended as a burlesque upon the romances of chivalry once so
popular in Europe. The hero, Don Quixote, attended by his
shrewd and faithful squire, Sancho Panza, rides forth to per-
form deeds of knight-errantry, but meets, instead, the most
absurd adventures. The work is a vivid picture of Spanish
life. Nobles, priests, monks, traders, farmers, innkeepers,
muleteers, barbers, beggars — all these pass before our eyes as
in a panorama. Don Quixote immediately became popular,
292
The Renaissance
and it is even more read now than it was three centuries
ago.
The Flemish writer, Froissart, deserves notice as a historian
Froissart, and as one of the founders of French prose. His
1337 (?)-l4io Chronicles present an account of the fourteenth
century, when the age of feudaHsm was fast drawing to an
end. He admired
chivahy and painted
it in glowing colors.
He hked to describe
tournaments, battles,
sieges, and feats of
arms. Kings and
nobles, knights and
squires, are the actors
on his stage. Froissart
traveled in many
countries and got
much of his informa-
tion at first hand from
those who had made
history. Out of what
he learned he com-
posed a picturesque
and romantic story,
which still captivates
the imagination.
A very different sort
of writer was the Frenchman, Montaigne. He lives to-day as
Montaigne, the author of one hundred and seven essays, very
1533-1592 delightful in style and full of wit and wisdom.
Montaigne popularized the essay, a form of literature in which
he has had many imitators.
Geoffrey Chaucer, who has been called the ''morning star" of
Chaucer, the EngUsh Renaissance, was a story-teller in
1340 (?)-l400 verse. His Canterbury Tales are supposed to be
told by a company of pilgrims, as they journey from London
Geoffrey Chaucer
From an old manuscript in the British Museum,
London. The only existing portrait of Chaucer.
The Renaissance in Literature
293
to Canterbury. Chaucer describes freshly and with unfaiHng
good spirits the Hfe of the middle and upper classes. He does
not reveal, any more than his contemporary Froissart, the labor
and sorrows of the down- trodden peasantry. But Chaucer was
a true poet, and his name stands high in England's long roll of
men of letters.
,1
Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon
The house in which Shakespeare was bom has been much altered in exterior apfiearance
since the poet's day. The timber framework, the floors, most of the interior walls, and the
cellars remain, however, substantially imchanged. The illustration shows the appearance of
the house before the extensive restoration made in 1857.
This survey of the national authors of the Renaissance may
fitly close with William Shakespeare, whose genius transcended
geographical boundaries and made him a citizen Shakespeare,
of all the world. His life is known to us only in 1564-1616
barest outline. Born at Stratford-on-Avon, of humble parent-
age, he attended the village grammar school, where he learned
"small Latin and less Greek," went to London as a youth, and
became an actor and a playwright. He prospered, made money
both from his acting and the sale of his plays, and bought him-
self a country home at Stratford. Here he died at the early
age of fifty-two, and here his grave may still be seen in the
village church. During his residence in London he wrote, in
whole or in part, thirty-six or thirty-seven dramas, both trage-
294 The Renaissance
dies and comedies. They were not collected and published
until several years after his death. Shakespeare's plays were
read and praised by his contemporaries, but it has remained for
modern men to see in him one who ranks with Homer, Vergil,
Dante, and Goethe among the great poets of the world.
Renaissance poets and prose writers revealed themselves in
their books. The sculptors and painters of the Renaissance
Personality in ^^^^ worked out their own ideas and emotions
Renaissance in their masterpieces. This personal note affords
a sharp contrast to the anonymity of the Middle
Ages. We do not know the authors of the Song of Roland,
the Nihelungenlied, and Reynard the Fox, any more than we
know the builders of the Gothic cathedrals. Medieval litera-
ture subordinated the individual; that of the Renaissance
expressed the sense of individuality and man's interest in him-
self. It was truly "humanistic."
113. The Renaissance in Education
The universities of the Middle Ages emphasized scholastic
philosophy, though in some institutions law and medicine also
Humanism received much attention. Greek, of course, was
and educa- not taught, the vernacular languages of Europe
were not studied, and neither science nor history
enjoyed the esteem of learned men. The Renaissance brought
about a partial change in this curriculum. The classical lan-
guages and literatures, after some opposition, gained an en-
trance into university courses and displaced scholastic philosophy
as the chief subject of instruction. From the universities the
study of the "humanities" descended to the lower schools.
An ItaUan humanist, Vittorino da Feltre, was the pioneer of
Renaissance education. In his private school at Mantua, the
"House of Delight," as it was called, Vittorino aimed to develop
Vittorino da ^^ ^^ same time the body, mind, and character
Feltre, 1378- of his pupils, SO as to fit them to "serve God
in Church and State." Accordingly, he gave
much attention to religious instruction and also set a high
value on athletics. The sixty or seventy young men under his
The Renaissance in Education
295
care were taught to hunt and fish, to run and jump, to wrestle
and fence, to walk gracefully, and above all things to be
temperate. For intellectual training he depended on the
Latin classics, as the best means of introducing students to
the literature, art, and philosophy of ancient times. Vit-
torino's name is not widely known to-day; he left no writings,
preferring, as he said, to live in the lives of his pupils; but
there is scarcely
a modern teacher
who does not
consciously or un-
consciously follow
his methods.
More than any one
else, he is respon-
sible for the edu-
cational system
which has pre-
vailed in Europe
almost to the pres-
ent day.
A Moravian
bishop named
Comenius, who gave his long life almost wholly to teaching,
stands for a reaction against humanistic education. Comenius,
He proposed that the vernacular tongues, as well 1592-1671
as the classics, should be made subjects of study. For this
purpose he prepared a reading book, which was translated
into a dozen European languages, and even into Arabic,
Persian, and Turkish. Comenius also believed that the cur-
riculum should include the study of geography, world history,
and government, and the practice of the manual arts. He
was one of the first to advocate the teaching of science.
Perhaps his most notable idea was that of a national system
of education, reaching from primary grades to the university.
"Not only," he writes, "are the children of the rich and noble
to be drawn to school, but all alike, rich and poor, boys and
Boys' Sports
An illustration in an old English edition (1659) of Come-
nius's Or bis Picius ( Illustrated World). This was the first
picture book ever made for children, and for a century it re-
mained the most popular school text in Europe.
296 The Renaissance
girls, in great towns and small, down to the country villages."
The influence of this Slavic teacher is more and more felt in
modern systems of education.
114. The Scientific Renaissance
The Middle Ages were not by any means ignorant of science,
but its study naturally received a great impetus when the
Renaissance brought before educated men all that Humanism
the Greeks and Romans had done in mathematics, and
physics, astronomy, medicine, and other subjects.
The invention of printing also fostered the scientific revival by
making it easy to spread knowledge abroad in every land. The
pioneers of Renaissance science were Italians, but students in
France, England, Germany, and other countries soon took up
the work of enlightenment.
The names of some Renaissance scientists stand as land-
marks in the history of thought. The first place must be given
to Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy. Copernicus,
He was a Pole, but lived many years in Italy. 1*73-1543
Patient study and calculation led him to the conclusion that
the earth turns upon its own axis, and, together with the planets,
revolves around the sun. The book in which he announced
this conclusion did not appear until the very end of his life.
A copy of it reached him on his deathbed.
Astronomers before Copernicus generally accepted the
doctrine, formulated by Ptolemy in the second century, that
the earth was the center of the universe. Some The Coper-
students had indeed suggested that the earth and nican theory
planets might rotate about a central sun, but Copernicus first
gave scientific reasons for such a behef. His new theory met
much opposition, not only in the universities, which clung to
the time-honored Ptolemaic system, but also among theologians,
who thought that it contradicted statements in the Bible.
Moreover, people could not easily reconcile themselves to the
idea that the earth is only one member of the solar system, that
it is, in fact, only one of many worlds.
An ItaHan scientist, GaUleo, made one of the first telescopes
The Scientific Renaissance 297
— it was about as powerful as an opera glass — and turned it on
the heavenly bodies with wonderful results. He Galileo,
found the sun moving unmistakably on its axis, 156^-1642
Venus showing phases according to her position in relation to
the sun, Jupiter accompanied by revolving moons, or satellites,
and the Milky Way composed of a multitude of separate stars.
Galileo rightly believed that these discoveries confirmed the
theory of Copernicus.
Another man of genius, the German Kepler, worked out the
mathematical laws which govern the movements of the planets.
He made it clear that the planets revolve around Kepler,
the sun in elliptical instead of circular orbits. 1571-1630
Kepler's investigations afterwards led to the discovery of the
principle of gravitation.
Two other scientists did epochal work in a field far removed
from astronomy. Vesalius, a Fleming, who studied in Italian
medical schools, gave to the world the first careful ,, ,.
Vesahus,
description of the human body based on actual 1514-1564,
dissection. He was thus the founder of human and Harvey,
X- T , c 1 1578-1657
anatomy. Harvey, an Englishman, after ob-
serving living animals, announced the discovery of the circu-
lation of the blood. He thereby founded human physiology.
Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Vesalius, Harvey, and their
fellow workers built up the scientific method. Students in the
Middle Ages had mostly been satisfied to accept r^^ie
what Aristotle and other philosophers had said, scientific
without trying to verify their statements. Kepler, ™®
for instance, was the first to disprove the Aristotelian idea that,
since all perfect motion is circular, therefore the heavenly bodies
must move in circular orbits. Similarly, it was necessary to
wait many centuries before Harvey showed Aristotle's error in
supposing that the blood arose in the liver, went thence to
the heart, and by the veins was conducted over the body. The
new scientific method rested on observation and experiment.
As Lord Bacon,^ ane of Shakespeare's contemporaries and a
^ Not to be confused with his countryman, Roger Bacon, who lived in the thir-
teenth century. See page 263.
298 The Renaissance
severe critic of the old scholasticism, declared, "All depends on
keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of nature, and so
receiving their images simply as they are, for God forbid that
we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern
of the world." Modern science, to which we owe so much, is
a product of the Renaissance.
115. The Economic Renaissance
The Renaissance thus far. has been studied as an intellectual
and artistic movement, which did much to liberate the human
An economic mind and brought the Middle Ages to an end in
change ^^^^ [^ literature, and in science. It is necessary,
however, to consider the Renaissance era from another point of
view. During this time an economic change of vast significance
was taking place in rural life all over western Europe. We
refer to the decline and ultimate extinction of medieval serfdom.
Serfdom imposed a burden only less heavy than the slavery
which it had displaced. The serf, as has been shown,^ might
Decline of not leave the manor on which he was born, he
serfdom might not sell his holding of land, and, finally,
he had to give up a large part of his time to work without pay
for the lord of the manor. This system of forced labor was at
once unprofitable to the lord and irksome to his serfs. After
the revival of trade and industry in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries had brought more money into circulation,^ the lord
discovered how much better it was to hire men to work for
him, as he needed them, instead of depending on serfs who
shirked their tasks as far as possible. The latter, in turn,
were glad to pay the lord a fixed sum for the use of land, since
now they could devote themselves entirely to its cultivation.
Both parties gained by an arrangement which converted the
manorial lord into a landlord and the serf into a free tenant-
farmer paying rent.
The emancipation of the peasantry was hastened, strangely
The "Black enough, as the result of perhaps the most terrible
Death" calamity that has ever afflicted mankind. About
the middle, of the fourteenth century a pestilence of Asiatic
^ See page 134. 2 See page 235.
The Economic Renaissance 299
origin, now known to have been the bubonic plague, reached
the West. The ''Black Death," so called because among its
symptoms were dark patches all over the body, moved- steadily
across Europe. The way for its ravages had been prepared by
the unhealthful conditions of ventilation and drainage in towns
and cities. After attacking Greece, Sicily, Italy, Spain, France,
and Germany, the plague entered England in 1349 and within
less than two years swept away probably half the population of
that country. The mortahty elsewhere was enormous, one
estimate, perhaps excessive, setting it as high as twenty-five
milHons for all Europe.
The pestilence in England, as m other countries, caused a
great scarcity of labor. For want of hands to bring in the
harvest, crops rotted on the ground, while sheep ^^^^^^ ^^
and cattle, with no one to care for them, strayed the^" Black
through the deserted fields. The free peasants ^^^**'"
who survived demanded and received higher wages. Even
the serfs, whose labor was now more valued, found themselves
in a better position. The lord of a manor, in order to keep
his laborers, would often allow them to substitute money
payments for personal services. When the serfs secured no
concessions, they frequently took to flight and hired themselves
to the highest bidder.
The governing classes of England, who at this time were
mainly landowners, beheved that the peasantry was taking an
unfair advantage of the situation. So in 1351 ^.^^^ g
Parliament passed a law fixing the maximum o^Laborwl!
wage in different occupations and punishing with ^^^^
imprisonment those who refused to accept work when it was
offered to them. The fact that Parliament had to reenact this
law thirteen times within the next century shows that it did not
succeed in preventing a general rise of wages.
A few years after the first Statute of Laborers the restlessness
and discontent among the masses led to a serious outbreak. It
was one of the few attempts at violent revolution which the
Enghsh working people have made. One of the inspirers of
the rebellion was a wandering priest named John Ball. He
300
The Renaissance
The
Peasants'
Rebellion,
1381
went about preaching that all goods should be held in common
and the distinction between lords and serfs wiped
away. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who
was then the gentleman?" asked John Ball. Up-
risings occurred in nearly every part of England,
but the one in Kent had most importance. The rioters marched
on London and presented their demands to the youthful king,
Richard 11. He promised to abolish serfdom and to give them
a free pardon. As soon,
however, as Richard had
gathered an army, he put
down the revolt by force
and hanged John Ball and
about a hundred of his
followers.
The rebellion in Eng-
land may be compared
with the far more terrible
Jacquerie ^ in France, a
few years earlier. The
^jjg French peas-
Jacquerie, ants, who suf-
1358 r J r
f ered from
feudal oppression and the
effects of the Hundred
Years' War, raged through
the land, burning the
castles and murdering
their feudal lords. The
movement had scarcely
any reasonable purpose; it was an outburst of blind passion.
The nobles avenged themselves by slaughtering the peasants
in great numbers.
Nevertheless the emancipation of the peasantry went steadily
Extinction on throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
of serfdom turies. Serfdom by 1 500 had virtually disappeared
in Italy, in most parts of France, and in England: Some less
^ From Jacques, a common French name for a peasant.
Richard
After an engraving based on the original in West-
minster Abbey. Probably the oldest authentic
portrait in England.
The Economic Renaissance 301
favored countries retained serfdom much longer. Prussian,
Austrian, and Russian serfs did not receive their freedom until
the nineteenth century.
The extinction of serfdom was, of course, a forward step in
human freedom, but the lot of the English and Continental
peasantry long remained wretched. The poem Condition of
of Piers Plowman, written in the time of Chaucer, *^® peasantry
shows the misery of the age and reveals a very different picture
than that of the holiday-making, merry England seen in
the Canterbury Tales. One hundred and fifty years later, the
English humanist. Sir Thomas More, a friend of Erasmus,
published his Utopia as a protest against social abuses. Utopia,
or "Nowhere," is an imaginary country, whose inhabitants
choose their own rulers, hold all property in common, and work
only nine hours a day. In Utopia a pubhc system of education
prevails, cruel punishments are unknown, and every one enjoys
complete freedom to worship God. " This remarkable book,
though it pictures an ideal commonwealth, really anticipates
many social reforms of the present time.
Studies
I. Prepare a chronological chart showing the leading men of letters, artists,
scientists, and educators mentioned in this chapter. 2. For what were the follow-
ing persons noted: Chrysoloras; Vittorino da Feltre; Gutenberg; Boccaccio;
Machiavelli; Harvey; and Galileo? 3. How did the words " machiavellism "
and "Utopian" get their present meanings? 4. Distinguish and define the three
terms, "Renaissance," "Revival of Learning," and "Humanism." 5. "Next to
the discovery of the New World, the recovery of the ancient world is the second
landmark that divides us from the Middle Ages and marks the transition to modern
life." Comment on this statement. 6. Why did the Renaissance begin as "an
Italian event"? 7. "City-states have always proved favorable to culture." Illus-
trate this remark. 8. Why was the revival of Greek more important in the history
of civilization than the revival of Latin? 9. Show that printing was an "emanci-
pating force." 10. With what paintings by the "old masters" are you familiar?
II. How does the opera differ from the oratorio? 12. Why has Froissart been
styled the "French Herodotus"? 13. How many of Shakespeare's plays can you
name? How many have you read? 14. Can you mention any of Shakespeare's
plays which are founded on Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy? 1 5 . Why
did the classical scholar come to be regarded as the only educated man? 16. In
what respects is the American system of education a realization of the ideals of
Comenius? 17. Did the medieval interest in astrology retard or further astro-
nomical research? 18. How did the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirm the
Copernican theory? 19. What is meant by the emancipation of the peasantry"?
CHAPTER XIV
GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION IN THE
FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES i
116. Medieval Geography
There was also a geographical Renaissance. The revival of
exploration brought about the discovery of ocean routes to the
Revival of Far East and the Americas. In consequence,
exploration commerce was vastly stimulated, and two con-
tinents, hitherto unknown, were opened up to civilization.
The geographical Renaissance, which gave man a New World,
thus cooperated with the other movements of the age in bring-
ing about the transition from medieval to modern times.
The Greeks and Romans had become familiar with a large
part of Europe and Asia, but much of their learning was either
Medieval forgotten or perverted during the early Middle
ignorance of Ages. Even the wonderful discoveries of the
geography Northmen in the North Atlantic gradually faded
from memory. The Arabs, whose conquests and commerce
extended over so much of the Orient, far surpassed the Chris-
tian peoples of Europe in knowledge of the world.
The alliance of medieval geography with theology had some
curious results. Map makers, relying on a passage in the Old
Geographical Testament,^ usually placed Jerusalem in the cen-
myths ^ej- Qf i^jjg world. A Scriptural reference to the
"four corners of the earth "^ was sometimes thought to imply
the existence of a rectangular world. From classical sources
came stories of monstrous men, one-eyed, headless, or dog-
headed, who were supposed to inhabit remote regions. Equally
monstrous animals, such as the unicorn and dragon, kept
^ Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxi, "The Travels
of Marco Polo " ; chapter xxii, "The Aborigines of the New World."
* Ezekiel, v, 5. ^ Isaiah, x, 12.
302
Medieval Geography
303
them company. Sailors' "yarns" must have been responsible
for the behef that the ocean boiled at the equator and that in
the Atlantic — the "Sea of Darkness" — lurked serpents huge
enough to sink ships. To the real dangers of travel by land
and water people thus added imaginary terrors.
The crusades first extended geographical knowledge by fos-
tering pilgrimages and missions in Oriental lands, opening up
With the pilgrims and missionaries went nu- °^ ^^^*
merous merchants, who brought back to Europe the wealth of
the East. The result, by
1300, was to open up
countries beyond the Eu-
phrates which had re-
mained sealed to Europe
for centuries. This dis-
covery of the interior of
Asia had only less impor-
tance than that of the
New World two hundred
years later.
What specially drew
explorers eastward was
the belief that somewhere
in the center of Asia existed a great Christian kingdom
v/hich, if allied to European Christendom, might Legend of
attack the Moslems from the rear. According Prester John
to one^ form of the story, the kingdom consisted of the Ten
Tribes of Israel, who had been converted to Christianity by
Nestorian missionaries.^ Over them reigned a priest-king
named Prester (or Presbyter) John. The popes made several
attempts to communicate with this mythical ruler. In the
thirteenth century, however, Franciscan friars did penetrate
to the heart of Asia. They returned to Europe with mar-
velous tales of the wealth and splendor of the East under the
Mongol emperors.
The most famous of all medieval travelers were Nicolo and
Geographical Monsters
From an early edition of Sir John Mandeville's
Travels. Shakespeare {Othello, I, iii, 144-145) re-
fers to
" The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."
1 See page 50.
304 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
Maffeo Polo, and Nicolo's son, Marco. These Venetian mer-
The Polos chants made an adventurous journey through the
in the East, heart of Asia to the court of Kublai Khan at
1271-1295 Peking.^ The Mongol ruler, who seems to have
been anxious to introduce Christianity and European culture
among his people, received them in a friendly manner, and they
amassed much wealth by trade. Marco entered the khan's
service and went on several expeditions to distant parts of
the Mongol realm. Many years passed before Kublai would
allow his useful guests to return to Europe. They sailed at
length from Zaitun, a Chinese seaport, skirted the coast of
southeastern Asia and India, and then proceeded overland to
the Mediterranean. When the travelers reached Venice after
an absence of twenty-four years, their relatives were slow to
recognize in them the long-lost Polos. ^
The story of the Polos, as written down at Marco's dictation,
became one of the most popular works of the Middle Ages.
Marco In this book people read of far Cathay (China),
Polo's book ^[■^i^ ji-g wealth, its huge cities, and swarming
population, of mysterious and secluded Tibet, of Burma, Siam,
and Cochin-China, with their palaces and pagodas, of the East
Indies, famed for spices, of Ceylon, abounding in pearls, and of
India, httle known since the days of Alexander the Great. Even
Cipango (Japan) Marco described from hearsay as an island
whose '^inhabitants were white, civilized, and so rich in gold
that the royal palace was roofed and paved with that metal.
The accounts of these countries naturally made Europeans more
eager than ever to reach the East.
117. Aids to Exploration
The new knowledge concerning the land routes of Asia was
accompanied by much progress in the art of ocean navigation.
The most important invention was that of the
The compass , , "^ . , i
marmer s compass to guide explorers across the
waters of the world. The Chinese appear to have discovered
1 See page 183.
2 For Marco Polo's route see the map between pages 234-235.
The Earth beyond the Ocean where men dwelt before the Flood
The Earth beyond the Ocean.
The World according to Cosmas Indicoeleustes, 535 A.D.
^^fi£i^oRDMAr,Vi^^
Geographical Knowledge during the Middle Ages
The Cosmas map exhibits the earth as a rectangle, surrounded by an ocean with four deep
gulfs. The rivers flowing from the lakes of Paradise are also shown. The Hereford map'
exhibits the earth as a circular disk, with the ocean surrounding it. Paradise lies on the
extreme east; Jerusalem occupies the center; and below it comes the Mediterranean.
3o6 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
that a needle, when rubbed with a lodestone, has the mysterious
power of pointing to the north. The Arabs may have intro-
duced this rude form of the compass among Mediterranean
sailors. The instrument, improved by being balanced on a
pivot so that it would not be affected by choppy seas, seems to
have been generally used by Europeans as early as the thir-
teenth century. It greatly aided sailors by enabling them to
find their bearings in murky weather and on starless nights.
The compass, however, was not indispensable; without its
help the Northmen had made their
distant expeditions in the Atlantic.
The astrolabe, which the Greeks
had invented and used for astro-
Nautical in- nomical purposes, also
struments came into Europe
through the Arabs. It was em-
ployed to calculate latitudes by
observation of the height of the
sun above the horizon. Other
instruments that found a place on
shipboard were the hour-glass,
minute-glass, and sun-dial. A rude
form of the log was used as a
means of estimating the speed of a
vessel, and so of finding roughly the longitude.
The charting of coasts became a science during the last cen-
turies of the Middle Ages. A sailor might rely on the ''handy
Other im- rnaps" (portolani), which outUned with some ap-
provements proach to accuracy the bays, islands, and head-
in navigation j^j^^g ^f ^^le Mediterranean and adjacent waters.
Manuals were prepared to give information about the tides,
currents, and other features of sea routes. The increase in
size of ships made navigation safer and pennitted the storage
of bulky cargoes. For long voyages the saihng vessel replaced
the medieval galley rowed by oars. As the result of all these
•improvements, navigators no longer found it necessary to keep
close to shore, but could push out into the ocean.
An Astrolabe
To the Indies Eastward 307
Many motives prompted exploration. Scientific curiosity,
bred of the Renaissance spirit of free inquiry, led men to set
forth on voyages of discovery. The crusading Motives for
spirit, which had not died out in Europe, thrilled exploration
at the thought of spreading Christianity among heathen peoples.
And in this age, as in all epochs of exploration, adventurers
sought in distant lands opportunities to acquire wealth and
fame and power. .
Commerce formed perhaps the most powerful motive for ex-
ploration. Eastern spices — cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nut-
meg, and ginger — were used more freely in ^j^^
medieval times than now, when people lived on commercial
salt meat during the winter and salt fish during °^° ^^
Lent. Even wine, ale, and medicines had a seasoning of spices.
When John Ball ^ wished to contrast the easy life of the lords
with the peasants' hard lot, he said, ''They have wines, spices,
and fine bread, while we have only rye and the refuse of the
straw." 2 Besides spices, all kinds of precious stones, drugs,
perfumes, gums, dyes, and fragrant woods came from the East.
Since the time of the crusades these luxuries, after having been
brought overland or by water to Mediterranean ports, had been
distributed by Venetian and Genoese merchants throughout
Europe.^ Two other European peoples — the Portuguese and
Spaniards — now appeared as competitors for this Oriental
trade. Their efforts to break through the monopoly enjoyed
by the Italian cities led to the discovery of the sea routes to
the Indies. The Portuguese were first in the field.
118. To the Indies Eastward: Prince Henry and Da Gama
Few names rank higher in the history of the fifteenth cen-
tury than that of Prince Henry, commonly called the Navigator,
because of his services to the cause of exploration.
The son of a Portuguese king, he devoted himself Henry the
during more than forty years to organizing scien- Navigator,
tific discovery. Under his direction better maps
were made, the astrolabe was improved, the compass was
^ See page 299. ^ Froissart, Chronicles, ii, 73. 3 ggg page 235.
3o8 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
placed on vessels, and seamen were instructed in all the nautical
learning of the time. The problem which Prince Henry studied
and which Portuguese sailors finally solved was the finding of
a maritime route around Africa to the Indies.
Exploration
of the
African
coast
Portuguese Exploration of the African Coast
The expeditions sent out by Prince Henry began by redis-
covering the Madeira and Azores Islands, first visited by
Europeans in the fourteenth century. Then the
Portuguese turned southward along the uncharted
African coast. In 1445 they got as far as
Cape Verde, or "Green Cape," so called because
of its luxuriant vegetation. The discovery was important, for
it disposed of the idea that the Sahara desert extended in-
definitely to the south. Later voyages brought the Portuguese
to Sierra Leone, then to the great bend in the African coast
formed by the Gulf of Guinea, then across the equator, and at
length to the mouth of the Congo. In 1487 Bartholomew Diaz
rounded the southern extremity of Africa. The story goes that
To the Indies Eastward
309
1497-1499
he named it the Cape of Storms, and that the king of Portugal,
recognizing its importance as a stage on the route to the East,
rechristened it the Cape of Good Hope.
A daring mariner, Vasco da Gama, opened the sea-gates to
the Indies. With four tiny ships he set sail from Lisbon in
July, 1497, and after leaving the Cape Verde jj^ oama's
Islands made a wide sweep into the South Atlantic, voyage,
Five months passed before Africa was seen again.
Having doubled the Cape of Good Hope in safety. Da Gama
skirted the eastern shore of Africa
and then secured the services of
a Moslem pilot to guide him
across the Indian Ocean. In
May, 1498, he reached Calicut,
an important commercial city on
the southwest coast of India.
When Da Gama returned to
Lisbon, after an absence of over
two years, he brought back a
cargo which repaid sixty times
the cost of the expedition. The
Portuguese king received him
with high honor and created him
Admiral of the Indies.
The story of Da Gama's
memorable voyage
#--sy
Vasco de Gama
From a manuscript in the British Museum.
Camoens,
was sung by the 1524-1580,
Portuguese poet, and the
^ LfUSiads
Camoens, m the
Lusiads. It is the most successful of all modern epics. The
popularity of the Lusiads has done much to keep alive the
sense of nationality among the Portuguese, and even to-day
it forms a bond of union between Portugal and her daughter-
nation across the Atlantic — Brazil.
The discovery of an ocean passage to the East came at the
right moment. Just at this time the Ottoman Turks, by their
conquests in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, were beginning to
3IO Geographical Discovery and Colonization
block up the old trade routes. The Ottoman advance struck
Significance ^ mortal blow at the prosperity of the Italian
of the mari- cities, which had so long monopolized Oriental
time route trade. But the misfortune of Venice and Genoa
was the opportunity of Portugal.
119. The Portuguese Colonial Empire
After Da Gama's voyage the Portuguese made haste to
appropriate the wealth of the Indies. Fleet after fleet was
Portuguese ^^^^ ^^^ ^° establish trading stations upon the
ascendency coasts of Africa and Asia. The great viceroy,
"* ® ^^ Albuquerque, captured the city of Goa and made
it the center of the Portuguese dominions in India. Goa still
belongs to Portugal. Albuquerque also seized Malacca, at.
the end of the Malay Peninsula, and Ormuz, at the entrance
to the Persian Gulf. The possession of these strategic points
enabled the Portuguese to control the commerce of the Indian
Ocean. They also estabhshed trading relations with China,
through the port of Macao, and with Japan, which was ac-
cidentally discovered in 1542. By the middle of the sixteenth
century they had acquired almost complete ascendancy through-
out southern Asia and the adjacent islands.^
. The Portuguese came to the East as the successors of the
Arabs, who for centuries had carried on an extensive trade in
Portuguese ^^^ Indian Ocean. Having dispossessed the Arabs,
trade the Portuguese took care to shut out all European
^°^° ^ competitors. Only their own merchants were al-
lowed to bring goods from the Indies to Europe by the Cape
route. Lisbon, the capital, formed the chief depot for spices
and other eastern commodities. The French, EngUsh, and
Dutch came there to buy them and took the place of Italian
merchants in distributing them throughout Europe.
The triumph of Portugal was short-hved. This small
^ The Portuguese colonial empire included many trading posts in Africa, Ormuz,
the west coast of India, Ceylon, Malacca, and various possessions in the Malay
Archipelago (Sumatra, Java, Celebes, the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, and New
Guinea). The Portuguese also colonized Brazil, which one of their mariners dis-
covered in 1500.
To the Indies Westward 311
country, with a population of not more than a million, lacked
the strength to defend her claims to a monopoly
of the Oriental trade. During the seventeenth of°^Sr*
century the French and English broke the power Portuguese
of the Portuguese in India, while the Dutch drove ^""^^"^
them from Ceylon and the East Indies. Though the Portu-
guese soon lost most of their possessions, they deserve a tribute
of admiration for the energy, enthusiasm, and real heroism
with which they built up the first of modern colonial empires.
120. To the Indies Westward: Columbus and MageUan
Six years before Vasco da Gama cast anchor in the harbor of
Cahcut, another intrepid sailor, seeking the Indies by a west-
ern route, accidentally discovered America. It ^j^
does not detract from the glory of Columbus to globular
show that the way for his discovery had been ^^^"^
long in preparation. In the first place, the theory that the
earth is round had been famihar to the Greeks and Romans,
and to some learned men even in the darkest period of the
Middle Ages. By the opening of the thirteenth century it
must have been commonly known, for Roger Bacon ^ refers
to it, and Dante, in the Divine Comedy,^ plans his Inferno on
the supposition of a spherical world. The awakening of in-
terest in Greek science, as a result of the Renaissance, naturally
called renewed attention to the statements by ancient geog-
raphers. Eratosthenes, for instance, had clearly recognized
the possibihty of reaching India by saihng westward on the
same parallel of latitude. After the revival of Ptolemy's works
m the fifteenth century, scholars very generally accepted the
globular theory; and they even went so far as to calculate
the circumference of the earth.
In the second place, men had long believed that west of
Europe, beyond the strait of Gibraltar, lay mysterious lands.
This notion first appears in the writings of the Myth of
Greek philosopher, Plato, who repeats an old Atlantis
tradition concerning Atlantis. According to Plato, Atlantis
' See page 263. 2 See page 281.
312 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
had been an island continental in size, but more than nine
thousand years before his time it had sunk beneath the sea.
Medieval writers accepted this account as true and found
support for it in traditions of other western islands, such as
Behaim's Globe
The outlines of North America and South America do not appear on the original globe.
the Isles of the Blest, where Greek heroes went after death,
and the Welsh Avalon, whither King Arthur,^ after his last
battle, was borne to heal his wounds.' A widespread legend
of the Middle Ages also described the visit made by St. Brandan,
an Irish monk, to the "promised land of the Saints," an earthly
paradise far out in the Atlantic. St. Brandan's Island was
^ See page 251.
To the Indies Westward
313
marked on early maps, and voyages in search of it were some-
times undertaken.
The ideas of European geographers in the period just pre-
ceding the discovery of America are represented on a map,
or rather a globe, which dates from 1492. It Behaim's
was made by a German navigator, Martin Behaim, ^lobe
for his native city of Nuremberg, where it is still preserved.
Behaim shows the mythical island of St. Brandan, lying in
mid-ocean, and beyond it Ci-
pango, the East Indies, and
Cathay. It is clear that he
greatly underestimated the
distance westward between Eu-
rope and Asia. The error was
natural enough, for Ptolemy
had reckoned the earth's cir-
cumference to be about one-
sixth less than it is, and Marco
Polo had given an exaggerated
idea of the distance to which
Asia extended on the east.
When Columbus set out on his
voyage, he firmly believed that
a journey of four thousand miles
would bring him to Cipango.
Christopher Columbus was
a native of Genoa, where his
father followed the humble trade of a weaver. He seems to
have obtained some knowledge of astronomy and Columbus,
geography as a student in the university of Pavia, ^^*® (?)-i506
but at an early age he became a sailor. Columbus knew the
Mediterranean by heart; he once went to the Guinea coast;
and he may have visited Iceland. He settled at Lisbon as a
map maker and married a daughter of one of Prince Henry's
sea-captains. As Columbus pored over his maps and charts
and talked with seamen about their voyages, the idea came to
him that much of the world remained undiscovered and that
Christopher Columbus
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid
No one of the many portraits of Columbus
that have come down to us is surely
authentic.
314 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
of
Columbus
the distant East could be reached by a shorter route than the
one which led around Africa.
Columbus was a well-read man, and in Aristotle, Ptolemy,
and other ancient authorities he found apparent confirmation
Researches ^^ ^^^ gi;and idea. Columbus also owned a printed
copy of Marco Polo's book, and from his comments,
written on the margin, we know how interested
he was in Polo's statements referring to Cathay and Cipango.
Furthermore, Columbus
brought together all the
information he could get
about the fabled islands of
the Atlantic. If he ever
went to Iceland, some vague
traditions may have reached
him there of Norse voyages
to Greenland and Vinland.
Such hints and rumors
strengthened his purpose to
sail toward the setting sun
in quest of the Indies.
All know the story. How
Columbus first laid his plan
before the king of Portugal,
only to meet with rebuffs;
how he then went to Spain and after many discouragements
First voyage found a patron in Queen Isabella; how with three
of Columbus, small ships he set out from Palos, August 3, 1492;
how after leaving the Canaries he sailed week after
week over an unknown sea; and how at last, on the early
morning of October 12, he sighted in the moonlight the ght-
tering coral strand of one of the Bahama Islands.^ It was the
outpost of the New World.
Columbus made three other voyages to the New World, in
the course of which he explored the Caribbean Sea, the mouth
1 Named San Salvador by Columbus and usually identified with Wathng Island.
See the map on page 321.
Isabella
Palacio Real, Madrid
PORTUGUESE AND
• COLONIAL EMJ
IN THE SIXTEENTH
I I Portuguese I I Spanish
140 Longitude 12(
00° from 80 Greenwich 60
0°Longitude :
East 40° from 60°Greenwich 80°
To the Indies Westward
315
of the Orinoco River, and the eastern coast of Central America.
He lived and died in the belief that he had actu- subsequent
ally reached the mainland of Asia and the realms voyages of
of the Great Khan of Cathay. The name West ^°^^^"^
Indies still remains as a testimony to this error.
The New World was named for a Florentine navigator,
Amerigo Vespucci.^ While in the Spanish service, he made
several western voyages and printed an account Naming of
of his discovery of the mainland of America in America
1497. Scholars now generally reject his statements, but they
found acceptance at the time, and
it was soon suggested that the
new continent should be called
America, "because Americus dis-
covered it." The name appHed
at first only to South America,
but eventually it spread over the
whole New World.
Shortly after the return of
Columbus from his first voyage.
Pope Alexander VI, in ^he demar-
response to a request cation line,
by Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, issued a bull granting these
sovereigns exclusive rights over the
newly discovered lands. In order
that the Spanish possessions should be clearly marked off from
those of the Portuguese, the pope laid down an imaginary line
of demarcation in the Atlantic, three hundred miles west of
the Azores. All new -discoveries west of the Une were to belong
to Spain; all those east of it, to Portugal.^ But this arrange-
ment, which excluded France, England, and other European
countries from the New World, could not be long maintained.
Caravel of the Fifteenth
Century
^ In Latin, Americus Vespucius.
2 In 1494 the demarcation line was shifted about eight hundred miles farther
to the west. Six years later, when the Portuguese discovered Brazil, that country
was found to lie within jtheir sphere of influence.
3i6 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
The demarcation line had a good deal to do in bringing
about the first voyage around the globe. So far no one had
yet reaHzed the dream of Columbus to reach the
Ferdinand lands of spice and silk by sailing westward. Ferdi-
148?(?H521 nand Magellan, formerly one of Albuquerque's
lieutenants but now in the service of Spain, be-
heved that the Spice Islands lay within the Spanish sphere of
influence and that an all-Spanish route to them through some
strait at the southern end of South America, could be found.
Nunc vcro &hef partes Cintlatius hslBtntx/SC
alia quarta pars per Amcridi Vcfpuriumc vt irifc^
j[^^ quentibus audietur)inucnta eftrqua non video cut
J\me^ quis iure vetet ab Americo inucntorc fagads inge
wo xiij viro Amcrigen quafi Amcrid.terram/fiuc Ame
licam dicendamtcum SC Europa & Afia a mulienV
bus fuafortitafint nomma.Eius fitu & gentis mo^
X€S exJ}isl>ims.Ameridnauigatioiiibus quf ieqaS
turliquideintelligLdadit.
The Name "America"
Facsimile of the passage in the Cosmographies Introductio (1507). by Martin
Waldseemiiller, in which the name "America" is proposed for the New Worid.
The Spanish ruler, Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who
had supported Columbus, looked with favor upon Magellan's
ideas and provided a fleet of five vessels for the
Circixmnavi- , , . » ^ 1 • 1 r
gation of undertakmg. After explormg the east coast oi
*^i ^1522 South America, Magellan came at length to the
strait which now bears his name. He sailed
boldly through this strait into an ocean called by him the
Pacific, because of its peaceful aspect. Magellan's sailors
begged him to return, for food was getting scarce, but the
navigator rephed that he would go on, ''if he had to eat the
leather off the -rigging." He did" go on, for ninety-eight days,
until he reached the Ladrone Islands.^ By a curious chance,
in all this long voyage across the Pacific, Magellan came upon
1 Also known as the Mariannes. Magellan called them the Ladrones (Spanish
ladrdn, a robber), because of the thievish habits of the natives.
The Indians
317
only two islands, both of them uninhabited. He then proceeded
to the Philippines, where he was killed in a fight with the natives.
His men, however, managed to reach the Spice Islands, the goal
of the journey, "Afterwards a
single ship, the Victoria, carried
back to Spain the few sailors
who had survived the hardships
of a journey lasting nearly three
years.
Magellan's voyage forms a
landmark in the history of geog-
raphy. It proved Importance
that America, at of Magellan's
least on the south, ^^^^^^
had no connection with Asia; it
showed the enormous extent of
the Pacific Ocean; and it led
to the discovery of many large
islands in the East Indies.
Henceforth men knew of a certainty that the earth was round
and in the distance covered by Magellan they had a rough
estimate of its size. The circumnavigation of the globe ranks
with the discovery of America among the most significant
events in history. Magellan stands beside Da Gama and
Columbus in the company of great explorers.
Ferdinand Magellan
From a portrait formerly in the
Versailles Gallery, Paris.
121. The Indians
The natives of America, whom Columbus called Indians,
resemble Asiatics in some physical features, such as the reddish-
brown complexion, the hair, uniformly black and jj^^
lank, the high cheek-bones, and the short stature American
of many tribes. On the other hand, the large, * o"gi°es
aquiline nose, the straight eyes, never oblique, and the tall
stature of some tribes are European traits. It seems safe to
conclude that the American aborigines, whatever their origin,
became thoroughly fused into a composite race during long
centuries of isolation from the rest of mankind.
3i8 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
The Indians, because of their isolation, had to work out by
themselves many arts, inventions, and discoveries. They
Indian spoke over a thousand languages and dialects;
culture ^^^ jjqI- Qj^g j^g^g yg|- i,QQY\ traced outside of America.
Their implements consisted of polished stone, occasionally of
unsmelted copper, and in Mexico and Peru, of bronze. They
cultivated Indian
corn, or maize,
but lacked the
other great
cereals. They
domesticated the
Aztec Sacrificial Knife j j ^i
dog and the
British Museum, London ■, ■, r ^ •,
llama or the
Length, twelve inches. The blade is of yellow, opalescent a j t^u
chalcedony, beautifully chipped and polished. The handle is AnCleS. iiiey
of light-colored wood carved in the form of a man masked with lived in clanS and
a bird skin. Brilliant mosaic settings of turquoise, malachite, ^ -i^ 1 ^ K
and shell embellish the figure. triDCS, rUled by
headmen or
chiefs. Their religion probably did not involve a belief in a
single ''Great Spirit," as is so often said, but rather recognized
in all nature the abode of spiritual powers, mysterious and
wonderful, whom man ought to conciliate by prayers and
sacrifices. In short, most of the American Indians were not
savages but barbarians.
Indian culture attained its highest development in Mexico
and Central America, especially among the Mayas of Yucatan,
The Guatemala, and Honduras. The remains of their
Mayas cities — the Ninevehs and Babylons of the New
World — he buried in the tropical jungle, where Europeans
first saw them four hundred years ago. The temples, shrines,
altars, and statues in these ancient cities show that the Mayas
had made much progress in the fine arts. They knew enough
astronomy to frame a solar calendar of 365 days, and enough
mathematics to employ numbers exceeding a million. The
writing of the Mayas had reached the rebus stage and prom-
ised to become alphabetic. When their hieroglyphics have been
fully deciphered, we shall learn more about this gifted people.
The Indians
319
Several centuries before the arrival of Europeans in America,
the so-called Aztecs came down from the north and established
themselves on the Mexican plateau. Here they The
formed a confederacy of many tribes, ruled over Aztecs
by a sort of king, whose capital was Tenochtitlan, on the site
of the present city of Mexico. The Aztecs appear to have
borrowed much of their art, science, and knowledge of writing
from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and temples
of stone or sun-dried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads.
SI,.._I_L
Aztec Sacrificial Stone
Now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico.
bridges, and irrigation ditches, excelled in the dyeing, weaving,
and spinning of cotton, and made most beautiful ornaments of
silver and gold. They worshiped numerous gods, to which the
priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite
of these bloody rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest
people, respectful of the rights of property, brave in battle,
and obedient to their native rulers.
The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of an
advanced Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish con-
quest the greater part of what is now Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under
the sway of the Incas, the "people of the sun." The Inca
power centered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the shores
320 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
of Lake Titicaca, which lies twelve thousand feet above sea-
level. In this region of magnificent scenery the traveler views
with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices, apparently never
completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the Indians
whom they conquered and displaced. The Incas displayed
great skill in the manual arts; they were expert goldsmiths,
silversmiths, and potters; while as cultivators and engineers
they surpassed their European conquerors.
122. Spanish Explorations and Conquests in America
The discoverers of the New World were naturally the pioneers
in its exploration. The first object of the Spaniards had been
Objects of trade with the Indies, and for a number of years,
the Spaniards ^J^|-jl Magellan's voyage, they sought vainly for
a passage through the mainland to the Spice Islands. When,
however, the Spaniards learned that America was rich in de-
posits of gold and silver, these metals formed the principal
object of their explorations.
The Spaniards at first had confined their settlements to the
Greater Antilles in the West Indies,^ but after the gold of these
Ponce de islands was exhausted, they began to penetrate the
Leon and mainland. In 15 13 Ponce de Leon, who had
Balboa, 1513 i^^^^ ^-^j^ Columbus on his second voyage, dis-
covered the country which he named Florida. It became the
first Spanish possession in North America. In the same year
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, from the isthmus of Panama, sighted
the Pacific. He entered its waters, sword in hand, and took
formal possession in the name of the king of Spain.
The overthrow of the Aztec power was accomplished by
Hernando Cortes, with the aid of Indian alhes. Many large
Conquest towns and half a thousand villages, together
of Mexico, ^j^j^ immense quantities of treasure, fell into the
1519-1521, , , , , ^ Tx i- , TiT •
and Peru, hands of the conquerors. Henceforth Mexico, or
1531-1537 '^New Spain," became the most important Spanish
possession in America. Francisco Pizarro, who invaded Peru
1 Cuba, Hispaniola (now divided between the republics of Haiti and Santo Do-
mingo), Porto Rico, and Jamaica.
Spanish Explorations and Conquests in America 321
with a handful of soldiers, succeeded in overthrowing the Incas.
Pizarro founded in Peru the city of Lima. It replaced Cuzco
as the capital of the country and formed the seat of the Spanish
government in South America.
The Spaniards, during the earlier part of the sixteenth cen-
tury, heard much of a fabled king whom they called El Dorado. ^
This kinff, it was said, used to smear himself with ^, _
^' ' . , El Dorado
gold dust at an annual religious ceremony. In .
time the idea arose that somewhere in South America existed
a fabled country marvelously rich in precious metals and gems.
These stories stirred the imagination of the Spaniards, who
fitted out many expeditions to find the gilded man and his
gilded realm. The quest for El Dorado opened up the valleys
of the Amazon and Orinoco and the extensive forest region
east of the Andes. Spanish explorers also tried to find El
Dorado in North America. De Soto's expedition led to the
discovery of the Mississippi in 1541, and Coronado's search
for the ''Seven Cities of Cibola" not only added greatly to
geographical knowledge of the Southwest, but also resulted in
the extension of Spanish dominion over this part of the American
^ Spanish for the "gilded one."
322 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
continent. About 1605 the Spaniards founded Santa Fe and
made it the capital of their government in New Mexico.
123. The Spanish Colonial Empire
The wonderful exploits of the conquistadores (conquerors)
laid the foundations of the Spanish colonial empire. This in-
Spain in cluded Florida, New Mexico, California, Mexico,
the New Central America, the West Indies, and all South
°^ America except Brazil.^ The rule of Spain over
these dominions lasted nearly three hundred years. During
this time she gave her language, her government, and her
religion to hah the New World.
The Spaniards brought few women with them and hence
had to find their wives among the Indians. Intermarriage
Intermar- of the two peoples early became common. The
riage of result was the mixed race which one still finds
Spaniards
and throughout the greater part of Spanish America.
Indians jj^ ^j^js race the Indian strain predominates, be-
cause almost everywhere the aborigines were far more numer-
ous than the white settlers.
The Spaniards treated the Indians of the West Indies most
harshly and forced them to work in gold mines and on sugar
Treatment plantations. The hard labor, to which the In-
of the dians were unaccustomed, broke down their health,
*^^ and almost the entire native population disap-
peared within a few years after the coming of the whites.
This terrible tragedy was not repeated on the mainland, for
the Spanish government stepped in to preserve the aborigines
from destruction. It prohibited their enslavement and gave
them the protection of humane laws. Though these laws
were not always well enforced, the Indians of Mexico and
Peru prospered under Spanish rule and often engaged in agri-
culture, trade, and industry.
The Spaniards succeeded in winning many of the Indians to
^ The Philippines, discovered by Magellan in 1521, also belonged to Spain,
though by the demarcation line these islands lay within the Portuguese sphere of
influence.
The Spanish Colonial Empire
323
Christianity. Devoted monks penetrated deep into the wilder-
ness and brought to the aborigines, not only the conversion
Christian religion, but also European civilization, of the
In many places the natives were gathered into
permanent villages, or ''missions," each one with its church and
^^yX^f^. llJEW FRANCE k-^ ^^^^^^^^-^^-^
Sffi
-U(^^^^^yr^l.yZ<^=^^^>i^J^^'^ WORLD ^^^^^^g:
g^/;^^e/W^i^^,^,^^^^^^^^^^;
An Early Map of the New World (1540 a.d.)
school. Converts who learned to read and write sometimes
became priests or entered the monastic orders. The monks also
took much interest in the material welfare of the Indians and
taught them how to farm, how to build houses, and how to spin
and weave and cook by better methods than their own.
The most familiar examples of the Spanish missions are those
in the state of CaKfornia. During the last quarter of the
eighteenth century Franciscan friars erected many ^j^^ Qg^i-
mission stations along the Pacific coast from San fornia
Diego to San Francisco. The stations were con- "^^^^^^^
nected by the "King's Road," ^ which still remains the principal
1 In Spanish El Camino Real.
324 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
highway of the state. Some of the mission buildings now He
in ruins and others have entirely disappeared. But such a well-
preserved structure as the mission of Santa Barbara recalls
a Benedictine monastery, with its • shady cloisters, secluded
courtyard, and timbered roof covered with red tiles. It is a
bit of the Old World transplanted to the New.
The civihzing work of Spain in the New World is sometimes
forgotten. Here were the earUest American hospitals and
s • h- asylums, for the use of Indians and negroes as
American well as of Spaniards. Here were the earUest
civiUzation American schools and colleges. Twelve institu-
tions of higher learning, all modeled upon the university of
Salamanca, arose in Spanish America during the colonial
period. Eight of these came into existence before the foundation
of Harvard University, the oldest in the United States. The
pioneer printing press in the Western Hemisphere was set up
at Mexico City in 1535; no printing press reached the English
colonies till more than one hundred years later. To the valu-
able books by Spanish scholars we owe much of our knowledge
of the Mayas, Aztecs, and other Indian tribes. The first Ameri-
can newspaper was published at Mexico City in 1693. The
fine arts also flourished in the Spanish colonies, and architects
of the United States have now begun to copy the beautiful
churches and public buildings of Mexico and Peru.
The government of Spain administered its colonial dominions
in the spirit of monopoly. As far as possible it excluded French,
S anish English, and other foreigners from trading with
colonial Spanish America. It also discouraged ship-build-
poUcy -^g^ manufacturing, and even the cultivation of
the vine and the olive, lest the colonists should compete with
home industries. The colonies were regarded only as a work-
shop for the production of the precious metals and raw materials.
This unwise policy partly accounts for the economic back-
wardness of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish- American countries.
Frequent revolutions during the past century also retarded
their progress. It is only within recent times that their
rich natural resources have begun to be utilized.
English and French Explorations in America 325
124. English and French Explorations in America
The English based their claim to the right to colonize North
America on the discoveries of John Cabot, an Italian mariner
in the service of the Tudor king,
Henry VII. In 1497 ^he Cabot
Cabot sailed from Bristol voyages,
across the northern Atlan- ^^^'^~^^^^
tic and made land somewhere between
Labrador and Nova Scotia. The fol-
lowing year he seems to have under-
taken a second voyage and to have
explored the coast of North America
nearly as far as Florida. Cabot, like
Columbus, beheved that he had reached
Cathay and the dominions of the
Great Khan. Because Cabot found
neither gold nor opportunities for
profitable trade, his expeditions were
considered a failure, and for a long
time the English took no further
interest in exploring the New World.
The discovery by Magellan of a
strait leading into the Pacific aroused Cabot Memorial Tower
hope that a similar pas- cartier's
sage, beyond the regions voyages,
controlled by Spain, might
exist in North America. In 1534 the
French king, Francis I, sent Jacques
Cartier to look for it. Cartier found
the gulf and river which he named after St. Lawrence, and
also tried to establish a settlement near where Quebec now
stands. The venture was not successful, and the French did
not undertake the colonization of Canada until the first decade
of the seventeenth century.
English sailors also sought a road to India by the so-called
Northwest Passage. It was soon found to be an impracticable
Erected at Bristol, England, in
memory of John Cabot and his
sons. The foundation stone was
laid on June 24, iSgy, the four-
hundredth anniversary of John
Cabot's first sight of the continent
of North America.
326 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
route, for during half the year the seas were frozen and during
^, the other half they were filled with icebergs.
Northwest However, the search for the Northwest Passage
Passage added much to geographical knowledge. The
names Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Baffin Land still pre-
serve the memory of the navigators who first explored the
channels leading into the Arctic Ocean.
When the Enghsh reahzed how little profit was to be gained
by voyages to the
cold and desolate
north, they
turned southward
to warmer waters.
Here, of course,
they came upon
the Spaniards,
who had no dis-
position to share
The English with
" sea dogs" for-
eigners the profit-
able trade of the
New World.
Though England
and Spain were
not at war, the
English "sea
dogs," as they
English Battleship of the Sixteenth
Century
The Great Harry, built by Henry Mil. After an old print.
called themselves, did not scruple to ravage the Spanish colonies
and to capture the huge, clumsy treasure-ships carrying gold
and silver to Spain. The most famous of the ''sea dogs,'*
Sir Francis Drake, was the first EngUshman to sail round
the world (1577-1580).
Four years after Drake had completed his voyage, another
The Raleigh EngHsh seaman, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent out an
expedition to find a good site for a settlement in
North America. The explorers reached the coast
colonies.
1584-1590
The Old World and the New 327
of North Carolina and returned with glowing accounts of the
country, which was named Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the
"Virgin Queen." But Raleigh's colonies in Virginia failed
miserably, and the EngUsh made no further attempt to settle
there until the reign of James I, early in the seventeenth centurv.
125. The Old World and the New
The New World contained two virgin continents, very rich
in natural resources and capable of extensive colonization.
The native peoples, comparatively few in number Expansion
and barbarian in culture, could not offer much ®^ Europe
resistance to the explorers, missionaries, traders, and colo-
nists from the Old World. The Spanish and Portuguese in
the sixteenth century, followed by the French, English, and
Dutch in the seventeenth century, repeopled America and
brought to it European civilization. Europe expanded into a
Greater Europe beyond the ocean.
In the Middle Ages the Mediterranean and the Baltic had
been the principal highways of commerce. The discovery of
America, followed immediately by the opening of shifting of
the Cape route to the Indies, shifted commercial *^*^® routes
activity from these inclosed seas to the Atlantic Ocean. Venice,
Genoa, Hamburg, Liibeck, and Bruges gradually gave way, as
trading centers, to Lisbon and Cadiz, Bordeaux and Cherbourg,
Antwerp and Amsterdam, London and Liverpool. One may
say, therefore, that the year 1492 inaugurated the Atlantic
period of European history. The time may come, perhaps even
now it is dawning, when the Pacific will assume almost as much
importance as the Atlantic in the commerce of the world.
The discovery of America revealed to Europeans a new
source of the precious metals. The Spaniards soon secured
large quantities of gold by plundering the Indians increased
of Mexico and Peru of their stored-up wealth, production
of the
The output of silver much exceeded that of gold precious
as soon as the Spaniards began to work the ^^^^^
wonderfully rich silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia. It is esti-
mated that, by the end of the sixteenth century, the American
328 Geographical Discovery and Colonization
mines had produced at least three times as much gold and
silver as had been current in Europe at the beginning of the
century.
The Spaniards could not keep this new treasure. Having
few industries themselves, they were obliged to send it out,
as fast as they received it, in payment for their
quences of imports of European goods. Spain acted as a
the enlarged Yi^ge sieve through which the gold and silver of
America entered all the countries of Europe.
Money, now more plentiful, purchased far less than in former
times; in other words, the prices of all commodities rose, wages
advanced, and manufacturers and traders had additional capital
to use in their undertakings. The Middle Ages had suffered
from the lack of sufficient money with which to do business; ^
from the beginning of modern times the world has been better
supplied with the indispensable medium of exchange.
But America was much more than a treasury of the precious
metals. Many commodities, hitherto unknown, soon found
j^g^ their way from the New World to the Old. Among
commodities these were maize, the potato, which, when culti-
importe vated in Europe, became the "bread of the poor,"
chocolate and cocoa made from the seeds of the cacao tree,
Peruvian bark, or quinine, so useful in malarial fevers, cochineal,
the dye-woods of Brazil, and the mahogany of the West Indies.
America also sent large supplies of cane-sugar, molasses, fish,
whale-oil, and furs. The use of tobacco, which Columbus first
observed among the Indians, spread rapidly over Europe and
thence extended to Africa and Asia. These new American
products became common articles of consumption and so raised
the standard of living in European countries.
To the economic effects of the discoveries must be added their
effects on politics. The Atlantic Ocean now formed, not only
the commercial, but also the political center of the
effects of world. The Atlantic-facing countries, first Portu-
the dis- gal and Spain, then Holland, France, and England,
COVeneS f , r t- rr^l • ^ j
became the great powers of Europe. Their trade
* See page 235.
The Old World and the New 329
rivalries and contests for colonial possessions have been potent
causes of European wars for the last four hundred years.
The sixteenth century in Europe was the age of that revolt
against the Roman Church called the Protestant Reformation.
During this period, however, the Church won her
victories over the American aborigines. What she the discov-
lost of territory, wealth, and influence in Europe was ®"f ^ "P®°
more than offset by what she gained in America. ^°^
Furthermore, the region now occupied by the United States
furnished in the seventeenth century an asylum from religious
persecution, as was proved when Puritans settled in New
England, Roman Catholics in Maryland, and Quakers in Penn-
sylvania. The vacant spaces of America offered plenty of room
for all who would worship God in their own way. The New
World became a refuge from the intolerance of the Old.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate those parts of the world known in the time of
Columbus (before 1492). 2. On an outline map indicate the voyages of discovery
of Vasco da Gama, Columbus (first voyage), John Cabot, and Magellan. 3. What
particular discoveries were made by Cartier, Drake, Balboa, De Soto, Ponce de
Leon, and Coronado? 4. Why has Marco Polo been called the "Columbus of the
East Indies"? 5. On the map between pages 234-235 trace Marco Polo's route.
6. " Cape Verde not only juts out into the Atlantic, but stands forth as a promon-
tory in human history." Comment on this statement. 7. How did Vasco da
Gama complete the work of Prince Henry the Navigator? 8. Show that Lisbon
in the sixteenth century was the commercial successor of Venice. 9. "Had Colum-
bus perished in mid-ocean, it is doubtful whether America would have remained
long undiscovered." Comment on this statement. 10. Why did no one suggest
that the New World be called after Columbus? 11. Show that Magellan achieved
what Columbus planned. 12. Why did Balboa call the Pacific the "South Sea"?
13. Why is Roman law followed in all Spanish- American countries? 14. In what
parts of the world is Spanish still the common language? 15. Why did the Ger-
mans fail to take part in the work of discovery and colonization? 16. Show that
the three words "gospel, glory, and gold" sum up the principal motives of Euro-
pean colonization in the sixteenth century. 17. Compare the motives which led
to the colonization of the New World with those which led to Greek colonization.
18. "The struggle for the Spice Islands of the East is the key that unlocks the
mysteries of the European political contests of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries." Comment on this statement. 19. "The opening of the Atlantic to
continuous exploration is the most momentous step in the history of man's occu-
pation of the earth." Does this statement seem to be justified?
CHAPTER XV
THE REFORMATION AND THE RELIGIOUS WARS,
1517-1648 1
126. Decline of the Papacy
The Papacy, victorious in the long struggle with the Holy
Roman Empire, reached during the thirteenth century the
height of its temporal power. The popes at this
The Papacy . ^ . . . • • tt t-u
in the time were the greatest sovereigns in Europe, iney
thirteenth ruled a large part of Italy, had great influence
ry .^ ^^^ affairs of France, England, Spain, and
other countries, and in Germany named and deposed em-
perors. From their capital at Rome they sent forth legates
to every European court and issued laws binding on western
Christendom.
The universal dominion of the Church proved useful and
even necessary in feudal times, when kings were weak and
nobles were strong. The Church of the early
between Middle Ages served as the chief unifying force in
Chtirch and Europe. When, however, the kings had repressed
feudalism, they took steps to extend their author-
ity over the Church as well. They tried, therefore, to restrict
the privileges of ecclesiastical courts, to impose taxes on the
clergy as on their own subjects, and to dictate the appoint-
ment of bishops and abbots to office. This policy naturally
led to much friction between popes and kings, between Church
and State.
The Papacy put forth its most extensive claims under Boniface
VIII. The character of these claims is shown by two bulls
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxiii, "Martin
Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation"; chapter xxiv, "England in the
Age of Elizabeth."
330
Decline of the Papacy 331
which he issued. The first forbade all laymen, under penalty
of excommunication, to collect taxes on Church _ _
11,, 1 rr^, , Pontificate
lands, and all clergymen to pay them. The second of Boniface
announced in unmistakable terms both the spiritual ^^^^' 1294-
^ 1303
and the temporal supremacy of the popes.
"Submission to the Roman pontiff," declared Boniface, "is
altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature."
Boniface had employed the exalted language of Gregory VII
in dealing with Henry IV, but he found an opponent in a mon-
arch m'ore resolute and resourceful than any Holy Boniface
Roman Emperor. This was Philip the Fair,^ and Philip
king of France. Philip answered the first bull by
refusing to allow any gold and silver to be exported from France
to Italy. The pope, thus deprived of valuable revenues, gave
way and acknowledged that the French ruler had a Umited
right to tax the clergy. Another dispute soon arose, however,
as the result of Philip's imprisonment and trial of an obnoxious
papal legate. Angered by this action, Boniface prepared to
excommunicate the king and depose him from the throne.
Philip retaliated by calling together the Estates-General and
asking their support for the preservation of the "ancient liberty
of France." The nobles, the clergy, and the Third Estate
rallied around Philip, accused the pope of heresy and tyranny,
and declared that the French king was subject to God alone.
The last act of the drama was soon played. Philip sent his
emissaries into Italy to arrest the pope and bring him to trial
before a general council in France. At Anagni, Anagni,
near Rome, a band of hireling soldiers stormed the ^^^^
papal palace and made Boniface a prisoner. The citizens of
Anagni soon freed him, but the shock of the humihation broke
the old man's spirit and he died soon afterwards. The poet
Dante, in the Divine Comedy, speaks with awe of the outrage:
"Christ had been again crucified among robbers; and the
vinegar and gall had been again pressed to his lips." ^ The
historian sees in this event the end of the temporal power of the
Papacy.
1 See page 210. * Purgatorio, xx, 88-90.
332 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
Soon after the death of Boniface, Philip succeeded in having
the archbishop of Bordeaux chosen as head of the Church.
The new pope removed the papal court to Avignon,
"Babylonian a town just outside the French frontier of those
Captivity," days. The popes Uved in Avignon for nearly
seventy years. This period is usually described
as the ''Babylonian Captivity" of the Church, a name which
recalls the exile of the Jews from their native land. The
The Great Schism, 1378-1417 a.d.
long absence of the popes from Rome lessened their power,
and the suspicion that they were the mere vassals of the French
crown seriously impaired the respect in which they had been
held.
Following the ''Babylonian Captivity" came the "Great
Schism." Shortly after the return of the papal court to Rome,
Decline of the Papacy 333
an Italian was elected pope as Urban VI. The cardinals in
the French interest refused to accept him, de-
clared his election void, and named Clement VII as V^f^. " ^f®**
pope. Clement withdrew to Avignon, while Urban 1378-1417
remained in Rome. Western Christendom could
not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for
Urban, while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle
of two rival popes, each holding himself out as the only true
successor of St. Peter, continued for nearly forty years and
injured the Papacy more than anything else that had happened
to it.
The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the
Council of Constance. There were three ''phantom popes" at
this time, but they were all deposed in favor of council of
a new pontiff, Martin V. The CathoHc world now Constance,
had a single head, but it was not easy to revive i^-^^i^
the former loyalty to him as God's vicar on earth.
The Papacy became henceforth more and more an Italian
power. The popes no longer strove to be the leaders in
European pohtics and gave their chief attention ^.^^
to the States of the Church. A number of the Renaissance
popes took much interest in the Renaissance p^^®®
movement and became its enthusiastic patrons. They kept up
splendid courts, collected manuscripts, paintings, and statues,
and erected magnificent palaces and churches in Rome. Some
European peoples, especially in Germany, looked askance at
such luxury and begrudged the heavy taxes which were neces-
sary to support it. This feeling against the papacy also helped
to provoke the Reformation.
The worldHness of some of the popes was too often reflected
in the lives of the lesser clergy. Throughout the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the Church complaints
encountered much criticism from reformers. Thus against the
the famous humanist, Erasmus, wrote his Praise ^^^^^
of Folly to expose the vices and temporal ambitions of bishops
and monks, the foolish speculations of theologians, and the ex-
cessive reliance which common people had on pilgrimages,
334 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
festivals, relics, and other aids to devotion. So great was the
demand for this work that it went through twenty-seven large
editions during the author's lifetime. Erasmus and others like
him were loyal sons of the Church, but they believed that they
could best serve her interests by effecting her reform. Some
men went further, however, and demanded wholesale changes
in Catholic belief and worship. These men were the heretics.
127. Heresies and Heretics
During the first centuries of our era, when the Christians
had formed a forbidden sect, they claimed toleration on the
Persecution ground that religious behef is voluntary and not
of heretics something which can be enforced by law. This
view changed after Christianity triumphed in the Roman
Empire and enjoyed the support, instead of the opposition, of
the government. The Church, backed by the State, no longer
advocated freedom of conscience, but began to persecute people
who held heretical beliefs.^
It is difficult for those who live in an age of religious tolera-
tion to understand the horror which heresy inspired in the
Middle Ages. A heretic was a traitor to the
Medieval .
attitude Church, for he denied the doctrines believed to be
toward essential to salvation. It seemed a Christian
duty to compel the heretic to recant, lest he imperil
his eternal welfare. If he persisted in his impious course, then
the earth ought to be rid of one who was a source of danger to
the faithful and an enemy of the Almighty.
Although executions for heresy had occurred as early as the
fourth century, for a long time milder penalites were usually
Punishment inflicted. The heretic might be exiled, or im-
of heresy prisoned, or deprived of his property and his rights
as a citizen. The death penalty was seldom invoked by the
Church before the thirteenth century. Since ecclesiastical
law forbade the Church to shed blood, the State stepped in to
seize the heretic and put him to death, most often by fire. ■ We
must remember that in medieval times cruel punishments were
1 See page 47.
Heresies and Heretics 335
imposed for even slight offenses, and hence men saw nothing
wrong in inflicting the worst of punishments for what was re-
garded as the worst of crimes.
In spite of all measures of repression, heretics were not un-
common during the later Middle Ages. Some heretical move-
ments spread over entire communities. The most The
important was that of the Albigenses, so called Aibigenses
from the town of Albi in southern France, where many of them
lived. Their doctrines are not well known, but they seem to
have believed in the existence of two gods — one good (whose
son was Christ), the other evil (whose son was Satan). The
Albigenses even set up a rival church, with its priests, bishops,
and councils.
The failure of attempts to convert the Albigenses by peaceful
means led the pope, Innocent III,^ to preach a crusade against
them. Those who entered upon it were promised
the usual privileges of crusaders.^ A series of against the
bloody wars now followed, in the course of which ^^^^20^*
thousands of men, women, and children perished.
But the Albigensian sect did not entirely disappear for more
than a century, and then only after numberless trials and
executions for heresy.
The followers of Peter Waldo, who lived in the twelfth cen-
tury, made no effort to set up a new religion in Europe. They
objected, however, to certain practices of the The
Church, such as masses for the dead and the Waidenses
invocation of saints. They also condemned the luxury of the
clergy and urged that Christians should live like the Apostles,
charitable and poor. For the Waidenses the Bible was a suffi-
cient guide to the reHgious life, and so they translated parts of
the Scriptures and allowed every one to preach, without distinc-
tion of age, or rank, or sex. The Waidenses spread through
many European countries, but being poor and lowly men they
did not exert much influence as reformers. The sect survived
severe persecution and now forms a branch of the Protestant
Church in Italy.
1 See page 157. =^ See page 164.
336
Heresies and Heretics
John
Wycliffe,
1320-1384
Beliefs very similar to those of the Waldenses were enter-
tained by John Wycliffe/ master of an Oxford college and a
popular preacher. He, too, appealed from the
authority of the Church to the authority of the
Bible. With the assistance of two friends Wycliffe
produced the first Enghsh translation of the Scriptures. Man-
uscript copies of the work
had a large circulation,
until the government sup-
pressed it. Wycliffe was
not molested in life, but
the Council of Constance
denounced his teaching
and ordered that his bones
should be dug up, burned,
and cast into a stream.
Wycliffe had organized
bands of "poor priests"
The to spread the
LoUards simple truths
of the Bible through all
England. They went out,
staff in hand and clad in
long, russet gowns, and
preached to the common
people in the English
language, wherever an
audience could be found.
The Lollards, as Wycliffe's followers were known, not only
attacked many behefs and practices of the Church, but also
demanded social reforms. For instance, they declared that
all wars were sinful and were but plundering and murdering
the poor to win glory for kings. The Lollards had to endure
much persecution for heresy. Nevertheless their work lived
on and sowed in England and Scotland the seeds of the
Reformation.
John Wycliffe
A small woodcut from a book published in 1548.
The oldest known picture of Wycliffe and possibly
reproduced from a contemporary sketch of him.
He is represented preaching or lecturing from a
pulpit.
Or Wyclif .
Martin Luther and the Reformation 337
The doctrines of Wycliffe found favor with Anne of Bohemia,
wife of King Richard 11/ and through her they reached that
country. Here they attracted the attention of John Huss,
John Huss,^ a distinguished scholar in the uni- ^^"^^ (?)-i4i5
versity of Prague. WycHife's writings confirmed Huss in his
criticism of many doctrines of the Church. He attacked the
clergy in sermons and pamphlets and also objected to the
supremacy of the pope. The sentence of excommunication
pronounced against him did not shake his reforming zeal.
Huss was finally cited to appear before the Council of Con-
stance, then in session. Relying on the safe conduct given
hun by the German emperor, he appeared before the council,
only to be declared guilty of teaching ''many things evil,
scandalous, seditious, and dangerously heretical." The em-
peror then violated the safe conduct — no promise made to a
heretic was considered binding — and allowed Huss to be
burnt outside the walls of Constance.
The flames which burned Huss set all Bohemia afire. The
Bohemians, a Slavic people, regarded him as a national hero
and made his martyrdom an excuse for rebelling The Hussite
against the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite ^^^
wars, which followed, thus formed a political rather than a
religious struggle. The Bohemians did not gain freedom, and
their country until recently remained a Hapsburg possession.
But the sense of nationalism continued to exist there, and
Bohemia in our time has become an independent state.
m
128. Martin Luther and the Beginning of the Reformation
in Germany, 1517-1522
Though there were many reformers before the Reformation,
the beginning of that movement is "rightly associated with the
name of Martin Luther. He was the son of a Martin
German peasant, who, by industry and frugality, Luther,
had won a small competence. Thanks to his
father's self-sacrifice, Luther enjoyed a good education in
scholastic philosophy at the university of Erfurt. Having
^ See page 300. * Or Hus.
338 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
taken the degrees of bachelor and master of arts, Luther began
to study law, but an acute sense of his sinfulness and a desire
to save his soul soon drove him into a monastery. There he
read the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers and found
at last the peace of mind he sought. A few years later Luther
paid a visit to Rome, which opened his eyes to the worldliness
and general laxity of life
in the capital of the
Papacy. He returned to
Germany and became a
professor of theology in
the university of Witten-
berg, newly founded by
Frederick the Wise, elector
of Saxony. Luther's ser-
mons and lectures at-
tracted large audiences;
students began to flock to
Wittenberg; and the elec-
tor grew proud of the
rising young teacher who
Martin Luther was making his university
A portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder of Luther lamOUS.
in 1526. Now in the possession of Richard voa g^t Luther WaS SOOn tO
Kaufmann, Berlin. - , . , .
emerge from his academic
retirement and to become, quite unintentionally, a reformer.
Tetzel and In 1517 there came into the neighborhood of
indulgences Wittenberg a Dominican friar named Tetzel,
granting indulgences for the erection of the new St. Peter's at
Rome.i An indulgence, according to the teaching of the Church,
formed a remission of the, temporal punishment, or penance,^
due to sin, if the sinner had expressed his repentance and had
promised to atone for his misdeeds. Indulgences were granted
for participation in crusades, pilgrimages, and other good works.
Later on they were granted for money, which was expected
to be applied to some pious purpose. Many of the German
1 See page 151. ^ See page 139.
Martin Luther and the Reformation 339
princes opposed this method of raising funds for the Church,
because it took so much money out of their dominions. Huss
and Erasmus had also condemned them on reUgious grounds.
Luther began his reforming career by an attack upon indul-
gences. He did not deny their usefulness altogether, but
pointed out that they lent themselves to grave
abuses. Common people, who could not under- the ninety-
stand the Latin in which they were written, often five theses,
thought that they wiped away the penalties of sin,
even without true repentance. Luther set forth his criticisms
in ninety-five theses or propositions, which he offered to de-
fend against all opponents. In accordance with the custom of
medieval scholars, Luther posted the theses on the door of the
church at Wittenberg, where all might see them. They were
composed in Latin, but were at once translated into German,
printed, and spread broadcast over Germany. Their effect
was so great that before long the granting of indulgences in
that country almost ceased.
The scholarly critic of indulgences soon passed into an open
foe of the Papacy. Luther found that his theological views
bore a close resemblance to those of Wycliffe Buying of
and Huss, yet he refused to give them up as the papal
heretical. Instead, he wrote three bold pam-
phlets, in one of which he appealed to the "Christian nobility
of the German nation" to rally together against Rome. The
pope, at first, had paid little attention to the controversy about
indulgences, declaring it ''a mere squabble of monks," but he
now issued a bull against Luther, ordering him to recant within
sixty days or be excommunicated. The papal bull did not
frighten Luther or withdraw fron^ him popular support. He
burnt it in the market square of Wittenberg, in the presence of
a concourse of students and townsfolk. This dramatic answer
to the pope deeply stirred all Germany.
The next scene of the Reformation was staged at Worms, at
an important assembly, or Diet, of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Diet summoned Luther to appear before it for examina-
tion, and the emperor, Charles V, gave him a safe conduct.
340 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
Luther's friends, remembering the treatment of Huss, advised
Diet of ^^^ ^^^ ^^ accept the summons, but he declared
Worms, that he would enter Worms "in the face of the
gates of hell and the powers of the air." In the
great hall of the Diet Luther bravely faced the princes, nobles,
and clergy of Germany. He refused to retract anything he
had written, unless his statements could be shown to con-
tradict the Bible. "It is neither right nor safe to act against
conscience," Luther said. "God help me. Amen."
Only one thing remained to do with Luther. He was ordered
to return to Wittenberg and there await the imperial edict
declaring him a heretic and outlaw. But the
the Wart- elector of Saxony, who feared for Luther's safety,
burg, 1521- 1^0^^ j^jj^ carried off secretly to the castle of the
1522
Wartburg. Luther remained here for nearly a
year, engaged upon a German translation of the New Testa-
ment. There had been many earlier translations into German,
but Luther's was the first from the Greek original. His version,
simple, forcible, and easy to understand, enjoyed wide popu-
larity and helped to fix for Germans the form of their Hterary
language. Luther afterwards completed a translation of the
entire Bible, which the printing press multiplied in thousands
of copies throughout Germany.
Though still under the ban of the empire, Luther left the
Wartburg in 1522 and returned to Wittenberg. He lived
Luther's there, unmolested, until his death, twenty-four
leadership years later. During this time he flooded the country
with pamphlets, wrote innumerable letters, composed many
fine hymns,^ and prepared a catechism, "a right Bible," said
he, "for the laity." Lu then- in this way became the guide and
patron of the reformatory movement which he had started.
^ His hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott ("A mighty fortress is our God") has
been called "the Marseillaise of the Reformation."
Charles V and the German Reformation 341
129. Charles V and the Spread of the German Reformation,
1519-1556
The young man who as Holy Roman Emperor presided at
the Diet of Worms had assumed the imperial crown only two
years previously. A namesake of Charlemagne, ru 1 x,
/^u 1 17- 1- ij 1 • . Charles V,
Lnarles V held sway over dommions even more emperor,
extensive than those which had belonged to the ^^^^"^556
Prankish king. Through his mother, a daughter of Ferdmand
and Isabella,^ he inherited
Spain, Naples, Sicily, Sar-
dinia, and the Spanish
possessions in the New
World. Through his
father, a son of the em-
peror Maximilian I, he
received the Netherlands
and the extensive posses-
sions of the Hapsburgs in
central Europe. Charles
was thus the most power-
ful monarch of his time.
Charles, as a devout
Roman Catholic, had no
sympathy for charles V
the Reforma- and the
tion. At ^""^^'^^
Worms, on the day fol-
lowing Luther's refusal to
recant, the emperor had
expressed his determina-
tion to stake "all his dominions, his friends, his body and
blood, his life and soul" upon the extinction of the Lutheran
heresy. This might have been an easy task, had Charles
undertaken it at once. But a revolt in Spain, wars with the
French king, Francis I, and conflicts with the Ottoman Turks
* See page 217.
Charles V
Pinakothek, Munich
A portrait of the emperor at the age of forty-
eight, by the Venetian painter, Titian
342 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
led to his long absence from Germany and kept him from pro-
ceeding effectively against the Lutherans, until it was too late.
The Reformation in Germany made a wide appeal. To
patriotic Germans it seemed a revolt against a foreign power —
Tjjg the Italian Papacy. To men of pious mind it
"Reformed offered the attractions of a simple faith which
gion ^^^j^ ^j^^ Bible as the rule of life. Worldly-minded
princes saw in it an opportunity to despoil the Church of
lands and revenues. Luther's teachings, accordingly, found ac-
ceptance among many people. Priests married, Luther him-
self setting the example, monks left their monasteries, and the
"Reformed Religion" took the place of Roman Catholicism in
most parts of northern and central Germany. South Germany,
however, did not fall away from the pope and has remained
Roman Catholic to the present time.
Though Germany had now divided into two religious parties,
the legal position of Lutheranism remained for a long time in
Tijg doubt. One Diet tried to shelve the question by
Protestants, allowing each German state to conduct its re-
ligious affairs as it saw fit. But at another Diet,
held in 1529, a majority of the assembled princes decided that
the Edict of Worms against Luther and his followers should be
enforced. The Lutheran princes at once issued a vigorous
protest against such action. Because of this protest those who
separated from the Roman Church came to be called Protestants.
It was not until the year of Luther's death that Charles V
felt his hands free to suppress the rising tide of Protestantism.
Peace of ^^^ Lutheran princes by this time had formed a
Augsburg, league for mutual protection. Charles brought
Spanish troops into Germany and tried to break
up the league by force. Civil war raged till 1555, when both
sides agreed to the Peace of Augsburg. It was a compromise.
The ruler of each state — Germany then contained over three
hundred states — was to decide whether his subjects should be
Lutherans or Catholics. The peace thus failed to establish
religious toleration, since all Germans had to beUeve as their
princes believed. However, it recognized Lutheranism as a
The Reform in Switzerland
343
legal religion and ended the attempts to crush the German
Reformation.
Meanwhile, Luther's doctrines spread into Scandinavian
lands. The rulers of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden closed
the monasteries and compelled the Roman CathoHc Lutheranism
bishops to surrender ecclesiastical property to the in Scandi-
crown. Lutheranism became henceforth the of- °*^*
ficial rehgion of these three countries.^
130. The Reformation in Switzerland; Zwingli and Calvin
The Reformation in Switzerland began with the work of
Zwingli. He was the contemporary, but not the disciple
of Luther. From his pulpit in the cathedral of Huldreich
Zurich, Zwingli proclaimed the Scriptures as the ZwingU,
sole guide of faith and denied the supremacy of
the pope. Many of the Swiss cantons accepted his teaching
and broke away from obedience
to Rome. Civil war soon fol-
lowed between Protestants and
Roman Catholics, and Zwingli
fell in the struggle. After his
death the two parties made a
peace which allowed each canton
to determine its own rehgion.
Switzerland has continued to
this day to be part Roman
Catholic and part Protestant.
The Protestants in Switzer-
land soon found another leader
in John Calvin, a john Calvin,
Frenchman who 1509-1564
settled in Geneva. His most
important work was the Institutes of the Christian Religion,
which set forth in an orderly, logical manner the main prin-
ciples of Protestant theology. Calvin also translated the Bible
John Calvin
After an old print
1 In Finland, which formerly belonged to Sweden (see page loo), nearly all the
inhabitants are Lutherans.
344 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
into French and wrote valuable commentaries on nearly all the
Scriptural books.
Calvin at Geneva was sometimes called the Protestant pope.
During his long residence there he governed the people with a
Calvin at rod of iron. There were no more festivals, no
Geneva j^ore theaters, no more dancing, music, and mas-
querades. All the citizens had to attend two sermons on Sun-
day and to yield at
least a lip-assent to
the reformer's doc-
trines. On a few
occasions Calvin pro-
ceeded to terrible ex-
tremities, as when he
caused the Spanish
physician, Michael
Servetus, to be
burned to death, be-
cause of heretical
views concerning
the Trinity. Never-
theless, Geneva pros-
pered under Calvin's
rule and became a
Christian common-
wealth, sober and
industrious. That
city still reveres the
memory of the man
who founded her
university and made
her, as it were, the sanctuary of the Reformation.
Calvin's influence was not confined to Geneva or even to
Switzerland. The men whom he trained and on whom he set
Diffusion of the Stamp of his stern, earnest, God-fearing char-
Calvinism a^(>^gj. spread Calvinism over a great part of Europe.
In Holland and Scotland it became the prevailing type of
Henry VIII
After a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger
The English Reformation 345
Protestantism, and in France and England it deeply affected
the national life. During the seventeenth century the Puritans
carried Calvinism across the sea to New England, where it
formed the dominant faith in colonial times.
131. The EngUsh Reformation, 1533-1558
The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland started as a
national and popular movement; in England it began as the
act of a despotic sovereign, Henry VIII. This ^^^^ yj^
second Tudor ^ was handsome, athletic, finely king, 1509-
educated, and very able; but he was also selfish, ^^^^
sensual, and cruel. His father had created a strong monarchy
in England by humbling both Parliament and the nobles.
When Henry VIII came to the throne, the only serious obstacle
in the way of royal absolutism was the Church of Rome.
Henry showed himself at first a devoted Roman Catholic.
He took an amateur's interest in theology and wrote with his
own royal pen a book attacking Luther. The pope
rewarded him with the title of "Defender of the f^^^'^
Faith," a title which English sovereigns still bear. Royalty to
Henry at this time did not question the authority * ^^^^^
of the Papacy. He even chose as his chief adviser, Cardinal
Wolsey, the most conspicuous ecclesiastic in the kingdom.
The Church, at the beginning of Henry's reign, was still
strong in England. Probably most of the people were sincerely
attached to it. Still, the labors of WycHffe and
the Lollards had weakened the hold of the Church fov^th?^''''
upon the masses, while Erasmus and the Oxford English
scholars who worked with him, by their criticism of ^ o"^*^®^
ecclesiastical abuses, had done much to undermine its influence
with the intellectual classes. In England, as on the Continent,
the worldliness of the Church prepared the way for the
Reformation.
The actual separation from Rome arose out of Henry's
matrimonial difficulties. He had married a Spanish princess,
Catherine of Aragon, the aunt of the emperor Charles V
^ See page 214.
346 The Reformation and the ReUgious Wars
and widow of Henry's older brother. The marriage required a
Henry an dispensation ^ from the pope, because canon law
Catherine forbade a man to wed his brother's widow. After
of Aragon living happily with Catherine for eighteen years,
Henry suddenly announced his conviction that the union was
sinful. This, of course, formed simply a pretext for the divorce
which Henry desired. Of his children by Catherine only a
daughter survived, but Henry wished to have a son succeed
him on the throne. Moreover, he had grown tired of Catherine
and had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, a pretty maid-in-
waiting at the court.
Henry first tried to secure the pope's consent to the divorce.
The pope did not hke to set aside the dispensation granted by
The divorce, his predecessor, nor did he wish to offend the
1533 mighty emperor Charles V. Failing to get the
papal sanction, Henry obtained his divorce from an Enghsh
court presided over by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canter-
bury. Anne Boleyn was then proclaimed queen, in defiance
of the papal bull of excommunication.
Henry's next step was to procure from his subservient Parlia-
ment a series of laws abolishing the pope's authority in England.
Act of ^^ these, the most important was the Act of Su-
Supremacy, premacy. It declared the English king to be
1534 u^i^g Qj^jy supreme head on earth of the Church
of England." At the same time a new treason act imposed the
death penalty on any one who called the king a "heretic,
schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper." The great majority
of the EngUsh people seem to have accepted this new legislation
without much objection; those who refused to do so perished
on the scaffold.
The suppression of the monasteries soon followed the separa-
tion from Rome. Henry declared to Parliament that they
^jjg deserved to be abolished, because of the ''slothful
monasteries and ungodly lives" led by the inmates. In some
suppresse instances this accusation may have been true, but
the real reason for Henry's action was his desire to crush the
1 See page 149.
The English Reformation
347
monastic orders, which supported the pope, and to seize their
extensive possessions. The beautiful monasteries were torn
down, and the lands attached to them were sold for the benefit
of the Crown or granted to Henry's favorites. The nobles who
accepted this monastic wealth naturally became zealous advo-
cates of Henry's anti-papal policy.
Ruins of Melrose Abbey
The little town of Melrose in Scotland contains the ruins of a very beautiful
monastery church built about the middle of the fifteenth century. The princi-
pal part of the present structure is the choir, with slender shafts, richly carved
capitals, and windows of exquisite stone-tracery. The beautiful sculptures
throughout the church were defaced at the time of the Reformation. The
heart of Robert Bruce is interred near the site of the high altar.
Though Henry VIII had broken with the Papacy, he re-
mained Roman Catholic in doctrine to the day of his death.
Under his successor, Edward VI, the Reformation progress
made rapid progress in England. The young
king's guardian allowed reformers from the Con-
tinent to come to England, and the doctrines of
Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were freely preached
there. All paintings, statuary, wood carvings, and stained
glass were removed at this time from church edifices. The use
of tapers, incense, and holy water was also discontinued. In
order that religious services might be conducted in the language
of the people. Archbishop Cranmer and his co-workers prepared
of the
Reformation
under
Edward VI,
1547-1553
34^ The Reformation and the Rehgious Wars
the Book of Common Prayer. It consisted of translations into
noble English of various parts of the old Latin service books.
With some changes, it is still used in the Church of England
and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States.
The short reign of Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of
Aragon, was marked by a temporary setback to the Protestant
The Catholic cause. The queen prevailed on Parliament to
reaction secure a reconciliation with Rome. She also
under Mary
Tudor, married her Roman Catholic cousin, Philip of
1553-1558 Spain, the son of Charles V. Mary now began a
severe persecution of the Protestants. It gained for her the
epithet of "Bloody," but it did not succeed in stamping out
heresy. Many eminent reformers perished, among them
Cranmer, the former archbishop. Mary died childless, after
ruling about five years, and the crown passed to Anne Boleyn's
daughter, Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth Anglicanism again re-
placed Roman Catholicism as the religion of England.
132. The Protestant Sects
The Reformation was practically completed before the close
of the sixteenth century. In 1500 the Roman Church em-
Extent of braced all Europe west of Russia and the Balkan
Protestantism peninsula. By 157s nearly half of its former
subjects had renounced their allegiance. The greater part of
Germany and Switzerland and all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Holland, England, and Scotland became independent of the
Papacy. The. unity of western Christendom, which had been
preserved throughout the Middle Ages, thus disappeared and has
not since been revived.
The reformers agreed in substituting for the authority of
popes and church councils the authority of the Bible. They
Common ^ent back fifteen hundred years to the time of the
features of Apostles and tried to restore what they believed
to be apostolic Christianity. Hence they rejected
such doctrines and practices as were supposed to have devel-
oped during the Middle Ages. These included belief in purga-
tory, veneration of relics, invocation of saints, devotion to the
The Protestant Sects
349
Virgin, indulgences, pilgrimages, and the greater number of
the sacraments. The Reformation also abolished the monastic
system and priestly celibacy. The sharp distinction between
clergy and laity disappeared; for priests married, lived among
the people, and no longer formed a separate class. In general,
Extent of the Reformation, i 524-1 572 a.d.
Protestantism affirmed the ability of every man to find salvation
without the aid of ecclesiastics. The Church was no longer
the only "gate of heaven."
But the Protestant idea of authority led inevitably to dif-
ferences of opinion among the reformers. There divisions
were various ways of interpreting that Bible to among
which they appealed as the rule of faith and
conduct. Consequently, Protestantism split up into many sects
Protestants
350 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
or denominations, and these have gone on muhiplying to the
present day. Nearly all, however, are offshoots from the three
main varieties of Protestantism which appeared in the sixteenth
century.
Lutheranism and Anglicanism presented some features in
common. Both were state churches, supported by the govern-
Lutheranism "^^nt; both had
and
Anglicanism
a book of com-
mon prayer; and
both recognized the sacra-
ments of baptism, the Eu-
charist, and confirmation.
The Church of England also
kept the sacrament of ordina-
tion. The Lutheran churches
in Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden, as well as the Church
of England, likewise retained
the episcopate.
Calvinism departed much
more widely from Roman
Catholicism. It
did away with
the episcopate and had only
one order of clergy — the
presbyters.! It provided for
a very simple form of wor-
ship. In a Calvinistic church
the service consisted of Bible
reading, a sermon, extemporaneous prayers, and hymns sung
by the congregation. The Calvinists kept only two sacra-
ments, baptism and the Eucharist. They regarded the first,
however, as a simple undertaking to bring up the child in a
Christian manner, and the second as merely a commemoration
of the Last Supper.
1 Churches governed by assemblies of presbyters were called Presbyterian;
those which allowed each congregation to rule itself were called Congregational.
Calvinism
Chained Bible
In the Church of St. Crux, York
The Catholic Counter Revolution 351
The break with Rome did not introduce religious liberty into
Europe. Nothing was further from the minds of Luther,
Calvin, and other reformers than the toleration of
beliefs unlike their own. The early Protestant Reformation
sects punished dissenters as zealously as the and freedom
Roman Church punished heretics. Lutherans ^
burned the followers of Zwingli in Germany, Calvin put Serve-
tus to death, and the EngKsh government, in the time of Henry
VIII and Elizabeth, executed many Roman Catholics. Com-
plete freedom of conscience and the right of private judgment
in religion have been secured in most countries of Europe only
within the last hundred years.
The Reformation, however, did deepen the moral Hfe of
European peoples. The faithful Protestant or Roman Catholic
vied with his neighbor in trying to show that his ^^^
particular belief made for better hving than any Reformation
other. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, *^ ^^^ ^
in consequence, were more earnest and serious, if also more
bigoted, than the centuries of the Renaissance.
133. The Catholic Counter Reformation
The rapid spread of Protestantism soon brought about a
^Catholic-Conn ter Rpfnrraa^on in those parts of Europe which
remained faithful to Rome. The popes now ^^^
turned from the cultivation of Renaissance art reforming
and literature to the defense of their threatened ^^P®^
faith. They made needed changes in the papal court and
appointed to ecclesiastical offices men distinguished for virtue
and learning. This reform of the Papacy dates from the time
of Paul III, who became pope in 1534. He opened the col-
lege of cardinals to Roman Cathohc reformers, even offering
a seat in it to Erasmus. Still more important was his support
of the famous Society of Jesus, which had been established in
the year of his accession to the papal throne.
The founder of the new society was a Spanish nobleman,
Ignatius Loyola. He had seen a good deal of service in the
wars of Charles V against the French. While in a hospital
352 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
recovering from a wound, Loyola read devotional books, and
St Ignatius these produced a profound change within him. He
Loyola, now donned a beggar's robe, practiced all the
kinds of asceticism which his books described, and
went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. ^ Still later he became a
student of theology at Paris, where he met the six devout and
talented men who became the first
members of his society. They
intended to work as fnissionaries
among the Moslems, but, when
this plan fell through, they visited
Rome and placed their energy and
enthusiasm at the disposal of the
pope.
Loyola's mihtary training deeply
affected the character of the new
The Society order. The Jesuits,
of Jesus as their Protestant
opponents styled them, were to
form an army of spiritual soldiers,
living under the strictest obedience
to their head, or general. Like
soldiers, again, they were to re-
St. Ignatius Loyola
After the painting by Sanchez de
Coello in the House of the Society of
Jesus at Madrid. No authentic portrait main in the world and there fight
manfully for the Church and
of Loyola has been preserved. Coello's
picture was made with the aid of a wax
cast of the saint's features taken after agaiust hcreticS. The SOCicty grCW
'*^*^- rapidly; before Loyola's death it
included over a thousand members; and in the seventeenth
century if became the most influential of all the religious
orders.^ The activity of the Jesuits as preachers, confessors,
teachers, and missionaries did much to roll back the rising tide
of Protestantism in Europe.
The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they
realized the importance of winning over the young people to
1 The pope suppressed the society in 1773, on the ground that it had outgrown
its usefulness. It was revived in many European countries during the nineteenth
century.
The Catholic Counter Revolution 353
the Church. Their schools were so good that even Protestant
children often attended them. The popularity Jesuit
of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact schools
that they ajways tried to lead, not drive their pupils. Light
punishments, short lessons, many holidays, and a liberal use
of prizes and other distinctions formed some of the attrac-
tive features of their system of training. It is not surprising
that the Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman CathoHc
world. They called their colleges the "fortresses of the faith."
The missions of the Jesuits were not less important than their
schools. The Jesuits worked in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia,
and other countries where Protestantism threat- Jesuit
ened to become dominant. Then they invaded °^ssions
all the lands which the great maritime discoveries of the preced-
ing age had laid open to European enterprise. In India,
China, the East Indies, Japan, the Philippines, Africa, and the
two Americas their converts from heathenism were numbered
by hundreds of thousands.
The most eminent of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis
Xavier, had belonged to Loyola's original band. He was a
little, blue-eyed man, an engaging preacher, an g^ Francis
excellent organizer, and possessed of so attractive Xavier,
a personality that even the ruffians and pirates ^^^^^^^^
with whom he had to associate on his voyages became his friends.
Xavier labored with such devotion and success in the Portuguese
colonies of the Far East as to gain the title of "Apostle to the
Indies." He also introduced Christianity in Japan, where it
flourished until a persecuting emperor extinguished it with fire
and sword.
Another agency in the Counter Reformation was the great
Church Council summoned by Pope Paul III. The council
met at Trent, on the borders of Germany and council of
Italy. It continued, with intermissions, for nearly Trent, 1545-
twenty years. The Protestants, though invited ^^^^
to participate, did not attend, and hence nothing could be done
to bring them back within the Roman Catholic fold. This was
the last general council of the Church for over three centuries.
354 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
The Council of Trent made no essential changes in Roman
Catholic doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas ^
Work of and other theologians had set them forth in
the councU ^i^q Middle Ages. It declared that ^he tradition
of the Church possessed equal authority with the Bible
and reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over Christen-
dom. The council also passed decrees forbidding the sale of
ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates
to attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent
the Roman Church has been distuictly a religious organization,
instead of both a secular and a religious body, as was the
Church in the Middle Ages.
The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw
up a Ust, or Index, of works which Roman CathoHcs might not
read. This action did not form an innovation.
The Index The Church from an early day had condemned
heretical writings. However, the invention of
printing, by giving greater currency to new and dangerous
ideas, seemed to increase the necessity for the regulation of
thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books" still exists, and
additions to the fist are made from time to time. It was
matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained
in Protestant countries.
Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted
of the Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the
Xhe discovery and punishment of heretics. Such
Inquisition courts had been set up in the Middle Ages, for
instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council
of Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the
Netherlands, and Spain.
The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance
of Protestantism in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked
I fl ence ^^^^ great severity, it only aroused exasperation
of the and hatred and helped to provoke a successful
Inquisition ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ j^^^^^ people. The Spaniards, on
the other hand, approved of the methods of the Inquisition and
1 See page 262.
Spain under Philip II 355
welcomed its extermination of heretics. The Spanish In-
quisition was not aboUshed until the nineteenth century.
134. Spain under PhiUp II, 1556-1598
In 1555, the year of the Peace of Augsburg, Charles V de-
termined to abdicate his many crowns and seek the repose of
a monastery. The plan was duly carried into
effect. His brother, Ferdinand I, succeeded to the of Charles
title of Holy Roman Emperor and the Austrian ^' ^^^^~
territories, while his son, Philip II, received the
Spanish possessions in Italy, Sicily, the Netherlands, and
America. There were now two branches of the Hapsburg
family — one in Austria and one in Spain.
The new king of Spain was a man of unflagging energy,
strong will, and deep attachment to the Roman Church. As
a ruler he had two great ideals: to make Spain
the foremost state in the world and to secure the
triumph of Roman CathoHcism over Protestantism. His efforts
to realize these ideals largely determined European history
during the second half of the sixteenth century.
The Spanish monarch won renown by becoming the champion
of Christendom against the Ottoman Turks. The Turks at
this time had a strong navy, by means of which g^^^ ^^
they captured Cyprus from the Venetians and Lepanto,
ravaged Sicily and southern Italy. Grave danger
existed that they would soon control all the Mediterranean. To
stay their further progress one of the popes preached what was
really the last crusade. The fleets of Genoa and Venice united
with those of Spain, and under Don John of Austria, Philip's
half-brother, totally defeated the Turkish squadron in the
Gulf of Lepanto, off the western coast of Greece. The battle
gave a blow to the sea-power of the Turks from which they never
recovered and ended their aggressive warfare in the Mediter-
ranean. Lepanto is one of the proud names in the history of
Spain.
PhiHp had inherited an extensive realm. He further widened
it by the annexation of Portugal, thus completing the unification
356 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
Philip II
Prado Museum, Madrid
A portrait of Philip at the age of twenty-four, by the Venetian
painter, Titian.
of the Spanish peninsula. The Portuguese colonies in Africa,
^ Asia, and America also passed into Spanish hands.
Annexation ' '■
of Portugal, The union of Spain and Portugal under one crown
^^^^ never commanded any affection among the
Portuguese, who were proud of their nationahty and of their
Revolt of the Netherlands 357
achievements as explorers and empire-builders. Portugal
separated from Spain in 1640 and has since remained an in-
dependent state.
t^
The Escorial
This remarkable edifice, at once a convent, a church, a palace, and a royal mausoleum,
is situated in a sterile and gloomy wilderness about twenty-seven miles from Madrid. It
was begun by Philip II in 1563 and was completed twenty -one years later. The
Escorial is dedicated to St. Lawrence, that saint's day (August 10, 1557) being the day
when the Spanish king won a great victory over the French at the battle of St. Quentin.
The huge dimensions of the Escorial may be inferred from the fact that it includes eighty-
six staircases, eighty-nine fountains, fifteen cloisters, 1,200 doors, 2,600 windows, and miles
of corridors. The building material is a granite-like stone obtained in the neighborhood.
The Escorial contains a library of rare books and manuscripts and a collection of valuable
paintings. In the royal mausoleum under the altar of the church lie the remains of Charles
V, Philip II, and many of their successors.
But the successes of Philip were more than offset by his
failures. Though he had vast possessions, enormous revenues,
mighty fleets, and armies reputed the best of the Philip's
age, he could not dominate western Europe. His failures
attempt to conquer England, a stronghold of Protestantism
under EHzabeth, resulted in disaster. Not less disastrous was
his hfe-long struggle with the Netherlands.
135. Revolt of the Netherlands
The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands occupied the
flat, low country along the North Sea — the Holland, Belgium,
358 The Reformation and the Rehgious Wars
and northern France of the present day. They became Haps-
The burg possessions during the fifteenth century and
Netherlands ^j^ug formed a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
As we have learned, Charles V received them as his in-
heritance, and he, in turn, transmitted them to Philip II.
The inhabitants of the Netherlands were not racially united.
Celtic blood and Romance speech prevailed in the southern-
Condition most provinces, while farther north dwelt peoples
of the of Teutonic extraction, who spoke Flemish and
e eran s j^^^^-^h^ Each province likewise kept its own
government and customs. The prosperity which had marked
the Flemish cities during the Middle Ages extended in the
sixteenth century to the Dutch cities also. Rotterdam, Leyden,
Utrecht, and Amsterdam profited by the geographical discov-
eries and became centers of extensive commerce with Asia and
America. The rise of the Dutch power, in a country so exposed
to destructive inundations of both sea and rivers, is a striking
instance of what can be accomplished by a frugal, industrious
population.
The Netherlands were too near Germany not to be affected
by the Reformation. Lutheranism soon appeared there, only
Protestantism ^° encounter the hostiUty of Charles V, who in-
in the troduced the terrors of the Inquisition. Many
ether ands jiej-g^ics ^ere burned at the stake, or beheaded, or
buried alive. But there is no seed like martyrs' blood. The
number of Protestants swelled, rather than lessened, especially
after Calvinism entered the Netherlands.
In spite of the cruel treatment of heretics by Charles V,
both Flemings and Dutch remained loyal to the emperor, be-
PoUcy of cause he had been born and reared among them
Phihp II ^j^(j always considered their country as his own.
Philip II, a Spaniard by birth and sympathies, seemed to them,
however, only a foreign master. The new ruler did nothing to
conciliate the people, but governed them despotically through
Spanish officials supported by Spanish garrisons. Arbitrary
taxes were levied, cities and nobles were deprived of their
cherished privileges, and the activity of the Inquisition was
Revolt of the Netherlands
359
redoubled. Philip intended to exercise in the Netherlands the
same absolute power enjoyed by him in Spain.
The religious persecution which by Philip's orders raged
through the Netherlands everywhere aroused intense indigna-
tion. The result was rioting by mobs of Protes- .
a1v£L S6Xlt
tants, who wrecked churches and monasteries and to the
carried off the treasure they found in them. Philip Netherlands,
replied to these acts by sending his best army,
under the duke of Alva, his best general, to reduce the turbulent
provinces to submission.
Alva carried out with thoroughness the policy of his royal
master. A tribunal, popularly
known as the " Coun- Outbreak of
cil of Blood," was set ^^^ ^^^o^*
up for the punishment of treason
and heresy. Hundreds, and prob-
ably thousands, perished; tens
of thousands fled to Germany and
England. Alva, as governor-
general, also raised enormous
taxes, which threatened to destroy
the trade and manufactures of
the Netherlands. Under these
circumstances Roman Catholics
and Protestants, nobles and
townsfolk, united against their
Spanish oppressors. A revolt began which Spain could never
quell.
The Netherlands found a leader in William, Prince of Orange,
later known as William the Silent, because of his customary
discreetness. He was of German birth, a convert William the
to Protestantism, and the owner of large estates Silent, 1533-
in the Netherlands. William had fair ability as a
general, a statesmanlike grasp of the situation, and above all a
stout, courageous heart which never wavered in moments of
danger and defeat. To rescue the Netherlands from Spain he
sacrificed his high position, his wealth, and eventually his life.
William the Silent
After a painting at Delft
360 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
The United
Netherlands
The ten southern provinces of the Netherlands, mainly
Roman Catholic in population, soon, effected a reconciliation
The Spanish with Philip and returned to their allegiance. They
Netherlands remained in Hapsburg hands for over two centuries.
Modern Belgium has grown out of them.
The seven northern provinces, where Dutch was the language
and Protestantism
the re-
ligion,
came together in
1579 in the Union
of Utrecht. Two
years later they de-
clared their inde-
pendence of Spain.
In this way the
Dutch Republic, or
sunply ''Holland,"
took its place among
European nations.
The struggle of
the Dutch for
Course of freedom
the revolt forms
one of the most
notable episodes in
history. At fi r s t
they were no match
for the disciplined Spanish soldiery, but they fought bravely
behind the walls of their cities and on more than one occasion
repelled the enemy by cutting the dikes and letting in the sea.
Though William the Silent perished in a dark hour by an
assassin's bullet, the contest continued. England now came
to the aid of the hard-pressed republic with money and a
small army. Philip turned upon his new antagonist and sent
against England the great fleet called the "Invincible Ar-
mada." Its destruction interfered with further attempts
FRANCE
The Netherlands at the Truce of 1609
England under Elizabeth 361
to subjugate the Dutch, but the Spanish monarch, stubborn
to the last, refused to acknowledge their independence.
His successor, in 1609, consented to a twelve years' truce with
the revolted provinces, but their freedom was not recognized
officially by Spain until many years later.
The long struggle bound the Dutch together and made
them one nation. During the seventeenth century they took
a prominent part in European affairs. The re- The Dutch
public which they founded ought to be of special R^pubUc
interest to Americans. Holland had the earliest system of
common schools supported by taxation, early adopted the
principles of religious toleration and freedom of the press,
and in the Union of Utrecht gave to the world the first
written constitution of a modern state. In these and other
matters the Dutch were pioneers of modern democracy.
136. England under Elizabeth, 1558-1603
Queen Elizabeth, who reigned over England during the
period of the Dutch Revolt, came to the throne when about
twenty-five years old. She was tall and com- ^,. ^ ,
,. . ^ ^ ^ • ^ Ehzabeth
mandmg m presence and endowed with great
physical vigor and endurance. After hunting all day or dancing
all night she could still attend unremittingly to public business.
Elizabeth had received an excellent education; she spoke
Latin and several modern languages; knew a little Greek;
and displayed some skill in music. To her father, Henry VIII,
she doubtless owed her tactfulness and charm of manner, as
well as her imperious will; she resembled her mother, Anne
Boleyn, in her vanity and love of display. As a ruler Elizabeth
was shrewd, far-sighted, a good judge of character, and willing
to be guided by the able counselors who surrounded her. Above
all, Elizabeth was an ardent patriot. She understood and
loved her people, and they, in turn, felt a chivalrous devotion
to the "Virgin Queen," to "Good Queen Bess."
The daughter of Anne Boleyn had been born under the ban
of the pope, so that opposition to Rome was the natural course
for her to pursue. Two acts of Parliament now separated
362 The Reformation and the Religious Wars
England once more from the Papacy and gave the Anghcan
Protestantism Church practically the form and doctrines which it
in England retains to-day. The church was intended to include
every one in England, and hence all persons were required to
attend religious exercises
on Sundays and holy
days. Refusal to do so
exposed the offender to a
fine.
The great body of the
people soon conformed
Treatment ^O the state
of Roman church, but
Roman Cath-
olics could not con-
scientiously attend its
services. The laws
against them do not seem
to have been strictly
enforced at first, but in
the later years of EHza-
beth's reign real or sus-
pected plots by Roman
CathoHcs against her
throne led to a poHcy of
repression. Those who
said or heard mass were heavily fined and imprisoned; those
who brought papal bulls into England or converted Protestants
to Roman Catholicism were executed as traitors. Several
hundred priests, mostly Jesuits, suffered death, and many more
languished in jail. This persecution, however necessary it
may have seemed to Elizabeth and her advisers, is a blot on
her reign.
The Reformation made little progress in Ireland. Henry
Protestantism VIII, who had extended EngUsh sway over most
in Ireland ^f ^^j^g island, suppressed the monasteries, de-
molished shrines, relics, and images, and placed English-speaking
Elizabeth
Windsor Castle
A portrait of Elizabeth as a princess, about i547.
England under Elizabeth
3^2,
priests in charge of the churches. The Irish people, neverthe-
less, remained loyal to Rome and regarded these measures as
the tyrannical acts of a foreign government. During Eliza-
beth's reign there were several dangerous revolts, which her
generals put down with great cruelty. The result was to widen
the breach between England and Ireland.
Many of the plots against Elizabeth centered about Mary
Stuart, the ill-starred Queen of Scots. She was a grand-
daughter of Henry VII, and extreme Roman
Catholics claimed that she had a better right to anTiviary
the Enghsh throne than EHzabeth, because the Q"®®° o*
Scots
pope had declared the marriage of Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn null and void. Mary, a fervent Roman CathoUc,
did not please her
Scotch subjects,
who had adopted
Calvinistic doc-
trines. She also
discredited herself
by marrying the
man who had
murdered her
former husband.
An uprising of the Scottish nobles compelled Mary to abdicate
the throne in favor of her infant son ^ and to take refuge in
England. Elizabeth kept her rival in captivity for nearly
twenty year^ and finally had her put to death.
Philip II, the king of Spain, also threatened Elizabeth's
security. At the outset of her reign Philip had made her an
offer of marriage, but she refused to give herself, Elizabeth and
or England, a Spanish master. As time went on, ^^^^P ^^
he turned into an open enemy of the Protestant queen and did
his best to stir up sedition among her Roman CathoHc subjects.
It must be admitted that Philip could plead strong justifica-
tion for his attitude. Elizabeth allowed the English " sea dogs " ^
1 James VI of Scotland. On Elizabeth's death he became king of England as
James I. See page 206, note i. .
2 See page 325.
Silver Crown of Elizabeth's Reign
364 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
to plunder Spanish colonies and seize Spanish vessels laden with
the treasures of the New World. Moreover, she aided the re-
bellious Dutch, at first secretly and at length openly, in their
struggle against Spain. Philip put up with these aggressions
for many years, but finally came to the conclusion that he could
never subdue the Nether-
lands or end the piracy
and smuggling in Spanish
America without first con-
quering England. The
execution of Mary Stuart
removed his last doubts,
for Mary had left him
her claims to the English
throne. He at once made
ready to invade England.
Philip seems to have be-
Heved that, as soon as a
Spanish army landed in
the island, the Roman
Catholics would rally to
his cause. But the Spanish
king never had a chance
to verify his belief; the
decisive battle took place
on the sea.
Philip had no t completed
his preparations before Sir
Francis Drake sailed into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast
amount of naval stores and shipping. This exploit,
"Invincible which Drake called "singeing the king of Spain's
Armada," beard," delayed the expedition for a year. The
" Invincible Armada" ^ set out at last in 1588. The
Spanish vessels, though somewhat larger than those of the
English, were inferior in number, speed, and gunnery to their
adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the
1 Armada was a Spanish name for any armed fleet.
Mary Stuart
After a portrait in the possession of the Earl of
Norton.
England under Elizabeth
365
sea, were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh,
the best rnariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely
in a nine-days' fight in the Channel, and many vessels which
escaped the Enghsh guns met shipwreck off the Scotch and
Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in safety
to Spain.
England in the later Middle Ages had been an important
The Spanish Armada in the English .Channel
After an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in the
House of Lords.
naval power, as her ability to carry on the Hundred Years'
War in France amply proved. During the six- English
teenth century she was over-matched by Spain, sea-power
especially after the annexation of Portugal added the naval
forces of that country to the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the
Armada showed that a new people had arisen to claim the
supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began to
build up what was to be a sea-power greater than any other
known to history.
366 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
137. The Huguenot Wars in France
France, by the close of the fifteenth century, had become a
centraUzed state under a strong monarchy.^ Francis I, who
France under reigned in the first half of the sixteenth century,
Francis I, still further exalted the royal power. He had
1515-1547 many wars with Charles V, whose extensive
dominions nearly surrounded the French kingdom. These
wars prevented the emperor from making France a mere de-
pendency of Spain. As we have learned,^ they also interfered
with the efforts of Charles V to crush the Protestants in
Germany.
Protestantism in France dates from the time of Francis I.
The Huguenots,^ as the French Protestants were called, naturally
The accepted the doctrines of Calvin, who was himself
Huguenots ^l Frenchman and whose books were written in the
French language. Though bitterly persecuted, the Huguenots
gained a large following, especially among the prosperous
middle class of the towns. Many nobles also became Hugue-
nots, sometimes because of rehgious conviction, but often be-
cause the new movement offered them an opportunity to recover
their feudal independence and to plunder the estates of the
Church. In France, as well as in Germany, the Reformation
had its worldly side.
During most of the second half of the sixteenth century,
fierce conflicts raged in France between the Roman Catholics
Civil war and the Huguenots. Philip II aided the former,
in France g^j^^j Queen Elizabeth gave some assistance to the
latter. France suffered terribly in the struggle, not only from
the constant fighting, but also from the pillage, burnings,
and other barbarities in which both sides indulged. The
wealth and prosperity of the country visibly declined, and
all patriotic feeling disappeared in the hatreds engendered
by a civil war.
The episode known as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's
^ See page 214. ^ See page 341.
3 The origin of the name is not known with certainty.
The Huguenot Wars in France
367
Day illustrates the extremes to which political ambition and
religious bigotry could lead. The massacre was Massacre
an attempt to extirpate the Huguenots, root and ^ ^*-
branch, at a time when peace prevailed between mew's Day,
them and their opponents. The person primarily ^^"^^
responsible for it was Catherine de' Medici, an Italian by
birth and mother of
the youthful king of
France. The king
had begun to cast off
the sway of his
mother and to come
under the influence of
Admiral de Coligny,
the most eminent of
the Huguenots. To
regain her power
Catherine first tried
to have Coligny
murdered. When the
plot failed, she in-
vented the story of a
great Huguenot upris-
ing and induced her
weak-minded son to
authorize a wholesale
butchery of Hugue-
nots. It began in
Paris in the early
morning of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 24) and ex-
tended to the provinces, where it continued for several
weeks. At least ten thousand Huguenots were slain, in-
cluding Coligny himself. The deed was a blunder as well
as a crime. The Huguenots took up arms to defend them-
selves, and France again experienced all the horrors of in-
ternecine strife.
The death of Coligny transferred the leadership of the Hugue-
Henry IV
After an old engraving. The king wears a hat
with plumes and an aigrette, a ruff, and an embroid-
ered cloak. On his breast is the order of Saint Esprit.
368 The Reformation and the ReUgious Wars
Henry IV
nots to Henry Bourbon, king of Navarre.^ Seventeen years
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, he
inherited the French crown as Henry IV, the first
of the Bourbon kings. The Roman Cathohcs would not ac-
cept a Protestant ruler and continued the conflict. Henry soon
realized that only his conversion to the faith of the majority
of his subjects would bring a lasting peace. Religious opinions
had always sat Hghtly upon him,
and he found no great difficulty
in becoming a Roman Catholic.
''Paris," said Henry, "was well
worth a mass." Opposition to
the king soon collapsed, and the
Huguenot wars came to an end.
Though now a Roman Catholic,
Henry did not break with the
Huguenots. He now
issued in their in-
terest the celebrated
Edict of Nantes. The Huguenots
henceforth were to enjoy freedom
of private worship everywhere
in France, and freedom to wor-
ship publicly in a large number
of villages and towns. Only
Roman Catholic services, how-
ever, might be held in Paris and at the royal court. Though
the edict did not grant complete rehgious liberty, it marked
an important step in that direction. A great European state
had recognized for the first time the principle that two rival
faiths might exist peaceably side by side within its borders.
Having settled the rehgious difficulties, Henry could take up
the work of restoring prosperity to distracted France. His
interest in the welfare of his subjects gained for him the name
Edict of
Nantes,
1598
Cardinal Richelieu
Louvre, Paris
After the portrait of the Belgian artist
Philippe de Champaigne.
1 Navarre originally formed a small kingdom on both sides of the Pyrenees
The part south of these mountains was acquired by Spain in 15 13. See the map
on page 215.
The Thirty Years' War 369
of ^'Good King Henry." With the help of Sully, his chief
minister, the king reformed the finances and France under
extinguished the public debt. He opened roads, Henry iv,
, -iT-i jj 1TTI A 1589-1610
built bridges, and dug canals. He also encouraged
commerce by royal bounties for shipbuilding. The French at
this time began to have a navy and to compete with the Dutch
and English for trade on the high seas. Henry's work of
renovation was cut short by an assassin's dagger. Under his
son, Louis XIII (1610-1643), a long period of disorder fol-
lowed, until an able minister, Cardinal RicheUeu, assumed the
guidance of public affairs. Richelieu for many years was the
real ruler of France. His foreign policy led to the interven-
tion of that country in the international conflict known as
the Thirty Years' War.
138. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648
The Peace of Augsburg ^ gave repose to Germany for more
than sixty years, but it did not form a complete settlement of
the religious question in that country. There Religious
was still room for bitter disputes, especially over antagonisms
the ownership of Church property which had been secularized
in the course of the Reformation. Furthermore, the peace
recognized only Roman Catholics and Lutherans and allowed no
rights whatever to the large body of Calvinists. The failure
of Lutherans and Calvinists to cooperate weakened German
Protestantism just at the period when the Counter Reformation
inspired Roman Cathohcism with fresh energy and enthusiasm.
Pohtics, as well as religion, also helped to bring about the
great conflagration. The Roman Catholic party relied for
support on the Hapsburg emperors, who wished PoUtical
to unite the German states under their control, ^"ction
thus restoring the Holy Roman Empire to its former proud
position in the affairs of Europe. The Protestant princes, on
the other hand, wanted to become independent sovereigns.
Hence they resented aU efforts to extend the imperial authority
over them.
1 See page 342.
370 The Reformation and the ReHgious Wars
The Thirty Years' War was not so much a single conflict as a
series of conflicts, which uhimately involved nearly all western
j^^ Europe. It began in Bohemia, where Protestant-
Bohemian ism had not been extinguished by the Hussite
'®^°" wars.^ The Bohemian nobles, many of whom
were Calvinists, revolted against Hapsburg rule and proclaimed
the independence of Bohemia. The German Lutherans gave
them no aid, however, and the emperor, Ferdinand II, easily
put down the insurrection. Many thousands of Protestants
were now driven into exile. Those who remained in Bohemia
were obliged to accept Roman Catholicism. Thus one more
country was lost to Protestantism.
The failure of the Bohemian revolt aroused the greatest alarm
in Germany. Ferdinand threatened to follow in the footsteps
Danish of Charles V and to crush Protestantism in the land
intervention ^f j^s birth. When, therefore, the king of Den-
mark, who as duke of Holstein had a great interest in German
affairs, decided to intervene, both Lutherans and Calvinists
supported him. Wallenstein, the emperor's able general,
proved more than a match for the Danish king, who at length
withdrew from the contest.
So far the Roman Catholic and imperial party had triumphed.
Ferdinand's success led him to issue the Edict of Restitution,
Edict of which compelled the Protestants to restore all the
Restitution, Church property which they had taken since the
1629 Peace of Augsburg. The enforcement of the edict
brought about renewed resistance on the part of the Protestants.
There now appeared the single heroic figure on the stage of
the Thirty Years' War. This was Gustavus Adolphus, king of
Gustavus Sweden, and a man of military genius. He had
Adolphus ^j^g deepest sympathy with his fellow-Protestants
intervention in Germany and regarded himself as their divinely
of Sweden appointed deliverer. Gustavus also hoped to
conquer the coast of northern Germany. The Baltic would
then be a Swedish lake, for Sweden already possessed Finland
and what later became the Russian provinces on the Baltic.^
1 See page 337. ^ See page 222.
The Thirty Years' War
371
Gustavus entered Germany with a strong force of disciplined
soldiers and tried to form alliances with the Protestant princes.
They received him coolly at first, for the Swedish
king seemed to them only a foreign invader. Just Adoiphus in
at this time the imperialists captured Magdeburg, Germany,
the largest and most prosperous city in northern
Germany. At least twenty thousand of the inhabitants
perished miserably amid the smok-
ing ruins of their homes. This
massacre turned Protestant senti-
ment toward Gustavus as the "Lion
of the North" who had come to pre-
serve Germany from destruction.
With the help of his allies Gus-
tavus reconquered most of Germany
for the Protestants, but he fell at
the battle of Liitzen in the moment
of victory. His work, however, was
done. The Swedish king had saved
the cause of Protestantism in Ger-
many.
After the death of Gustavus the
war assumed more and more a poli-
tical character. The German Pro-
testants found an ally, strangely enough, in Cardinal Richelieu,
the all-powerful minister of the French king.
Richelieu entered the struggle in order to humble and the"
the Austrian Hapsburgs and extend the bound- intervention
aries of France toward the Rhine, at the expense
of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the Spanish Hapsburgs
were aiding their Austrian kinsmen, Richelieu naturally fought
against Spain also. The Holy Roman Emperor had to yield
at last and consented to the treaties of peace signed at two
cities in the province of Westphalia.
The Peace of Westphalia ended the long series of wars which
followed the Reformation. It practically settled the religious
question, for it allowed Calvinists in Germany to enjoy the
Gustavus Adolphus
Munich Gallery
After the portrait by the Flemish
artist, Sir Anthony Van Dyck.
372 The Reformation and the Rehgious Wars
same privileges as Lutherans and also withdrew the Edict of
Peace of Restitution. Nothing was said in the treaties
WestphaUa, about liberty of conscience, but from this time
^^^ the idea that religious differences should be settled
by force gradually passed away from the minds of men.
The territorial readjustments made by the Peace of West-
phaUa have deeply affected the subsequent history of Europe.
Territorial France received from the Holy Roman Empire a
readjust- large part of Alsace, in this way obtaining a foot-
ments j^^^ ^^ ^^iq upper Rhine. She also secured the
recognition of her old claims to the bishoprics of Metz, Toul,
and Verdun in Lorraine.^ Sweden gained the western half
of Pomerania and the bishopric of Bremen. These posses-
sions enabled her to control the mouths of the rivers Oder,
Elbe, and Weser, which were important arteries of German
commerce. Brandenburg — the future kingdom of Prussia —
acquired eastern Pomerania and several bishoprics, thus be-
coming the leading state in North Germany. The independ-
ence of Switzerland 2 and of the United Netherlands ^ was
also recognized.
The Peace of Westphalia left Germany more divided than
ever. Each one of the larger states was free to coin money.
Disruption of raise armies, make war, and negotiate treaties
Germany without consulting the emperor. The Holy Roman
Empire, in fact, had become a mere phantom. The Haps-
burgs from now on devoted themselves to their Austrian do-
minions, which included more Magyars and Slavs than Germans.
The failure of the Hapsburgs in the Thirty Years' War long
postponed the unification of Germany.
During the Thirty Years' War Germany had seen most of
the fighting. She suffered from it to the point of exhaustion.
Exhaustion The population dwindled from about sixteen
of Germany miUions to one-half, or, as some beheve, to one-
third that number. The loss of life was partly due to fearful
epidemics, such as typhus fever and the bubonic plague, which
spread over the land in the wake of the invading armies. A
1 See the map on page 402. 2 See page 220. ^ See page 361.
The Thirty Years' War 373
great many villages were destroyed or were abandoned by their
inhabitants. Much of the soil went out of cultivation, while
trade and manufacturing nearly disappeared. Added to all
this was the decline of education, hterature, and art, and the
brutalizing of the people in mind and morals. It took Germany
at least one hundred years to recover from the injury inflicted
by the Thirty Years' War; complete recovery, indeed, came
only in the nineteenth century.
The savagery displayed by all participants in this long
struggle could not but impress thinking men with the
necessity of formulating rules to protect non- ^^^^ ^^
combatants, to care for prisoners, and to do away international
with pillage and massacre. The worst horrors of *^
the war had not taken place, before a Dutch jurist, named
Hugo Grotius, pubhshed at Paris in 1625 a work On the Laws
of War and Peace. It may be said to have founded inter-
national law. The success of the book was remarkable.
Gustavus Adolphus carried a copy about with him during his
campaigns, and its leading doctrines were recognized and acted
upon in the Peace of Westphalia.
The great principle on which Grotius based his recommenda-
tions was the independence of sovereign states. He gave up
the medieval conception of a temporal and spiritual ^j^^ ^^^^_
head of Christendom. The nations now recog- pean state
, ^1 system
nized no common superior, whether emperor or
pope, but all were equal in the sight of international law. The
book of Grotius thus marked the profound change which had
come over Europe since the Middle Ages.
studies
I. On an outline map indicate the European countries ruled by Charles V.
2. On an outline map indicate the principal territorial changes made by the Peace
of Westphalia. 3. Identify the following dates: 1648; 15 19; 1517; 1588; 1598;
and 1555. 4. For what were the following persons noted: Cardinal Wolsey;
Admiral de Coligny; duke of Alva; RicheUeu; St. Ignatius Loyola; Boniface
VIII; Frederick the Wise; Gustavus Adolphus; and Mary Queen of Scots?
5. Compare the scene at Anagni with the scene at Canossa. 6. On the map,
page 332, trace the geographical extent of the "Great Schism." 7. Name three
important reasons for the lessened influence of the Roman Church at the opening
374 The Reformation and the Rehgious Wars
of the sixteenth century. 8. Explain the difference between heresy and schism.
Q. Why has Wycliffe been called 'the "morning star of the Reformation '? lo. Com-
pare Luther's work in fixing the form of the German language with Dante's service
to Italian through the Divine Comedy, ii. What is the origin of the name "Prot-
estant"? 12. Why was Mary Tudor naturally a Catholic and Elizabeth naturally
a Protestant? 13. On the map, page 349, trace the geographical extent of the Ref-
ormation in the sixteenth century. 14. Why did the reformers in each country
take special pains to translate the Bible into the vernacular? 15. What is the
chief difference in mode of government between Presbyterian and Congregational
churches? 16. "The heroes of the Reformation, judged by modem standards,
were reactionaries." What does this statement mean? 17. Why is the Council
of Trent generally considered the most important church council since that of
Nicaea? 18. Mention some differences between the Society of Jesus and earlier
monastic orders. 19. Compare the Edict of Nantes with the Peace of Augsburg.
20. Show how political, as well as religious, motives affected the revolt of the Neth-
erlands, the Huguenot wars, and the Thirty Years' War. 21. Compare the effects
of the Thirty Years' War on Germany with the effects of the Hundred Years'
War on France. 22. What would you say of Holbein's success as a portrait painter
(illustrations on pages 290 and 344)? Of Titian's success in the same art (illus-
trations on pages 341 and 356)?
CHAPTER XVI
ABSOLUTISM IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE, 1603-17151
139. The Divine Right of Kings
Most European nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries accepted the principle of absolutism in government.
Absolutism was as common then as democracy is
to-day. The rulers of Europe, having triumphed
over the feudal nobles, proceeded to revive the autocratic
traditions of imperial Rome. Like the later Roman emperors,
they posed as absolute sovereigns, who held their power, not
from the choice or consent of their subjects, but from God.
Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old
belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard
their chiefs as holy and give to them the control Divinity of
of peace and war, of Hfe and death. Oriental ^^^s
rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the life-
time of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and
offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew mon-
arch was the Lord's anointed. The Hellenistic kings of the East
and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their
subjects. An element of sanctity also attached to medieval
sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a
magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural
banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which
*'doth hedge a king." 2
The Reformation in Germany tended to emphasize the
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxv, " Characters
and Episodes of the Great RebeUion"; chapter xxvi, "Oliver Cromwell"; chap-
ter xxvii, "English Life and Manners under the Restoration"; chapter xxviii,
"Louis XIV and his Court."
2 Hamlet, IV, v, 123. Compare King Richard the Second, III, ii, 54-57.
375
376 Absolutism in England and France
sacred character of royalty. Luther and his followers set up
Lutheranism ^^^ authority of the State against the authority
and divine of the Church, which they condemned and re-
"^^* jected. Providence, they argued, had never sanc-
tioned the Papacy, but Providence had really ordained the
State and had placed over it a ruler whom it was a rehgious
duty to obey. The Lutherans, therefore, defended the divine
right of kings.
A very different principle' found acceptance in those parts
of Europe where Calvinism prevailed. In his Institutes^ one
Calvinism ^^ ^^^ most widely read books of the age, Calvin
and popular declares that magistrates and parliaments are the
sovereignty guardians of popular hberty ''by the ordinance of
God." ^ Calvin's adherents, developing this statement, argued
that rulers derive their authority from the people and that those
who abuse it may be deposed by the will of the people. The
Christian duty of resistance to royal tyranny became a cardinal
principle of Calvinism among the French Huguenots, the Dutch,
the Scotch, and most of the American colonists of the seventeenth
century. We shall now see how influential it was in seven-
teenth-century England.
140. Absolutism of the Stuarts, 1603-1642
Absolutism in England dated from the time of the Tudors.
Henry VII humbled the nobles, while Henry VIII and Elizabeth
Tudor ab- brought the Church into dependence on the Crown,
soiutism These three sovereigns, though despotic, were ex-
cellent rulers and were popular with the influential middle class
in town and country. The Tudors gave England order and
prosperity, if not political liberty.
The English Parliament in the thirteenth century had be-
come a body representative of the different estates of the realm,
Parliament ^^^ ^^ ^^^ fourteenth century it had separated into
under the the two houses of Lords and Commons. Parlia-
Tuaors ment enjoyed considerable authority at this time.
The kings, who were in continual need of money, often sum-
1 Institutes, IV, xx, 31.
Absolutism of the Stuarts
377
moned it, sought its advice upon important questions, and
readily listened to its requests. The despotic Tudors, on the
other hand, made Parliament their servant. Henry VII called
it together on only five occasions during his reign; Henry VIII
persuaded or frightened it into doing anything he pleased; and
Elizabeth consulted it as infrequently as possible. Parliament
under the Tudors did not abandon its old claims to a share in
the government, but it had little chance to exercise them.
The death of Elizabeth in 1603 ended the Tudor dynasty
and placed the Stuarts on the English throne in the person of
James I.^ England and Scotland were now james I
joined in a personal union, though each country king, 1603-
retained its own Parliament, laws, and state
Church.^ The new king was well described by a contemporary
as the ''wisest fool in Christendom." He had a good mind and
abundant learning, but
throughout his reign he
showed an utter inability
to win either the esteem
or the affection of his
subjects. This was a
misfortune, for the Eng-
lish had now grown weary
of despotism and wanted
freedom. They were not prepared to tolerate in James, an
alien, many things which they Had overlooked in ''Good
Queen Bess."
One of the most fruitful sources of discord between James and
the English people was his exalted conception of monarchy.
The Tudors, indeed, claimed to rule by divine james I on
right, but James went further and argued for divine divine right
hereditary right. Providence, he declared, had chosen the
principle of heredity in order to fix the succession to the throne.
Gold Coin of James I
The first coin to bear the legend " Great Britain.
1 See pages 206, note i, and 363, note i.
2 The Act of Union (1707) gave to England and Scotland a common Parliament.
After this date it is proper to speak of the kingdom of Great Britain, and of the
English, Welsh, and Scotch as forming the British people.
378 Absolutism in England and France
This principle, being divine, lay beyond the power of man to
alter. Whether the king was fit or unfit to rule. Parliament
might not change the succession, depose a sovereign, or Hmit
his authority in any way. James rather neatly summarized
his views in a Latin epigram, a deo rex, a rege lex — "the king
is from God, and law is from the king."
The extreme pretensions of James encountered much op-
position from Parhament. That body felt httle sympathy for
ParUament a ruler who proclaimed himself the source of all
and James I \^^ When James, always extravagant and a poor
financier, came before it for money. Parliament insisted on its
right to withhold supplies until grievances were redressed.
James would not
yield, and got along as
best he could by levy-
ing customs duties,
seUing titles of nobil-
ity, and imposing ex-
cessive fines, in spite
of the protests of Par-
Uament. This situa-
tion continued to the
end of the king's
reign.
A reUgious contro-
versy helped to em-
bitter the dispute between James and Parliament. The king,
who was a devout Anglican, made himself very unpopular
with the Puritans, as the reformers within the
Church of England were called. The Puritans
had at first no intention of separating from the national or
established Church, but they wished to "purify" it of certain
customs which they described as "Romish." Among these
were the use of the surplice, of the ring in the marriage ser-
vice, and of the sign of the cross in baptism. Some Puritans
wanted to get rid of the Book of Com?non Prayer altogether.
Since the Puritans had a large majority in the House of
A Puritan Family
Illustration in an edition of the Psalms
published in 1563. -
Puritanism
Absolutism of the Stuarts
379
Charles I
A painting by Daniel My tens, in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Commons, it was inevitable that the parliamentary struggle
against Stuart absolutism should assume in part a religious
character.
The political and rehgious difficulties which marked the
reign of James I did not disappear when his son, Charles I,
came to the throne. Charles was a true Stuart in his devotion
380 Absolutism in England and France
to absolutism and divine right. Almost immediately he began
Charles I ^^ quarrel with Parliament. When that body
king, 1625- withheld supplies, Charles resorted to forced loans
^^*^ from the wealthy and even imprisoned a number
of persons who refused to contribute. Such arbitrary acts
showed plainly that Charles would play the tyrant if he could.
The king's attitude at last led Parliament to a bold assertion
of its authority. It now presented to Charles the celebrated
Petition of Petition of Right. One of the most important
Right, 1628 clauses provided that loans without parliamentary
sanction should be considered illegal. Another clause de-
clared that no one should be arrested or imprisoned except
according to the law of the land. The Petition thus repeated
and reinforced two of the leading principles of Magna Carta.^
The people of England, speaking this time through their elected
representatives, asserted once more their right to limit the
power of kings.
Charles signed the Petition, as the only means of securing
parhamentary consent to taxation; but he had no intention of
Personal rule observing it. For the next eleven years he man-
of Charles I, aged to govern without calling Parliament in
session. The conduct of affairs during this period
lay largely in the hands of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards
earl of Strafford, and Wilham Laud, who later became arch-
bishop of Canterbury. The king made these two men his
principal advisers and through them carried on his despotic
rule. Arbitrary courts, which tried cases without a jury,
punished those who resisted the royal will. A rigid censorship
of the press prevented any expression of popular discontent.
PubHc meetings were suppressed as seditious riots. Even
private gatherings were dangerous, for the king had swarms of
spies to report disloyal acts or utterances.
TohnHamp- Since Charles ruled without a Parliament, he
den and had to adopt all sorts of devices to fill his treas-
s p-money ^^^ q^^ ^£ these was the levying of "ship-
money." According to an old custom, seaboard towns and
1 See page 200.
Absolutism of the Stuarts
381
counties had been required to provide ships or money for the
royal navy. Charles revived this custom and extended it to
towns and counties lying inland. It seemed clear that the
king meant to impose a permanent tax on all England without
the assent of Parliament. The demand for ''ship-money"
aroused much opposition, and John Hampden, a wealthy
squire of Buckinghamshire, refused to pay the twenty shiUings
Execution of the Earl of Strafford
After a contemporary print. The Tower of London is seen in the background.
levied on his estate. Hampden was tried before a court of the
royal judges and was convicted by a bare majority. He be-
came, however, a popular hero.
Archbishop Laud, the king's chief agent in ecclesiastical
matters, detested Puritanism and aimed to root it out from the
Anghcan Church. He put no Puritans to death, baud's ec-
but he sanctioned cruel punishments of those who clesiastical
would not conform to the estabHshed reHgion. ^°^'^^
While the restrictions on Puritans were increased, those af-
fecting Roman Cathohcs were relaxed. Many people thought
382 Absolutism in England and France
that Charles, through Laud and the bishops, was preparing to
lead the Church of England back to Rome. They therefore
opposed the king on religious grounds, as well as for political
reasons.
But the personal rule of Charles was now drawing to an end.
In 1637 the king, supported by Archbishop Laud, tried to in-
The Long troduce a modified form of the English prayer
Parliament, book into Scotland. The Scotch, Calvinistic to
the core, drew up a national oath, or Covenant,
by which they bound themselves to resist any attempt to
change their rehgion. Rebellion quickly passed into open war,
and the Covenanters invaded northern England. 'Charles was
then obliged to summon Parliament in session. It met in 1640
and did not formally dissolve until twenty years later.
The Long Parliament no sooner assembled than it assumed
the conduct of government. The leaders, including John
Reforms of Hampden, John Pym, and Oliver Cromwell,
the Long openly declared that the House of Commons, and
ar ament ^^^ ^-^^ king, possessed supreme authority in the
state. Parliament began by sending Strafford and subse-
quently Laud to the scaffold and by abolishing the arbitrary
courts. It forbade the imposition of "ship-money" and other
irregular taxes. It also took away the king's right of dissolv-
ing Parliament at his pleasure and ordered that at least one
parhamentary session should be held every three years. These
measures ^tripped the Crown of the despotic powers acquired
by the Tudors and the Stuarts.
141. OUver CromweU and the Civil War, 1642-1649
The Long Parliament thus far had acted along the line of
reformation rather than revolution. Had Charles been content
to accept the new arrangements, there would have
Outbreak of , ,.^, . ^ ^ \ 1 1 •
the Great been little more trouble. But the proud and im-
Rebellion, perious king was only watching his chance to strike
a blow at Parliament. Taking advantage of some
differences of opinion among its members, Charles summoned
his soldiers, marched to Westminster, and demanded the sur-
Olver Cromwell and the Civil War
383
render of five leaders, including Pym and Hampden. Warned
in time, they made their escape, and Charles did not find them
in the chamber of the Commons. "Well, I see all the birds
are flown," he exclaimed, and walked out baffled. The king's
attempt to intimidate the Commons was a grave blunder. It
showed beyond doubt that he would resort to force, rather
than bend his neck to Parliament. Both Charles and Parlia-
ment now began to gather troops and prepare for the inevitable
conflict.
The opposing parties seemed to be very evenly matched.
Around the king rallied nearly all the nobles, « cavaliers"
the Anglican clergy, the Roman CathoHcs, a and " Round-
majority of the ''squires," or country gentry, and ^^
the members of the universities. The royahsts received the name
of "Cavaliers." The parliamen-
tarians, or "Roundheads," ^ were
mostly recruited from the trading
classes in the towns and the small
landowners in the country. The
working people remained as a
rule indifferent and took little
part in the struggle.
Both Pym and Hampden died
in the second year of the war,
and henceforth the Oliver
leadership of the Cromwell,
parliamentarians fell
to Oliver Cromwell. He was a Oliver Cromwell
country gentleman from the east
of England, and Hampden's
cousin. Cromwell represented the university of Cambridge
in the Long Parliament and displayed there great audacity in
opposing the government. An unfriendly critic at this time
describes "his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp
and untuneable, and his eloquence full of fervor." Though
^ So called, because some of them wore closely cropped hair, in contrast to the
flowing locks of the "Cavaliers."
A painting by Robert Walker, in the
National Portrait Gallery, London.
384 Absolutism in England and France
3 /j ISLE OF
/ J MAf*
ENGLAND
AND W ALES
THE ClVlL WARS
OF THE 17th century
Scale of English Miles
L^6*0
0 10 20 30 60
j^t^ftW'' EXPLANATION
.^'"'^ Parts held by Charles I. pr^snii^
at the end •f 1043 KSaKiid
Pans held by Parliament j
Portland Bill ^'^""^
> ■ ^_ \ '--vTartsbrook Castle
n ^
4 Longitude Vp'est
from Greenwich 0 Longitude Ea
Oliver Cromwell and the Civil War 385
a zealous Puritan, who believed himself in all sincerity to be
the chosen agent of the Lord, Cromwell was not an ascetic.
He hunted, hawked, played bowls and other games, had an ear
for music, and valued art and learning. In pubHc life he showed
himself a statesman of much insight and a military genius.
Fortune favored the royalists, until Cromwell assumed com-
mand of the parliamentary forces. To him was due the for-
mation of a- cavalry regiment of "honest, sober
^, . . „ , , , ' The " Iron-
Lnristians, whose watchwords were texts from sides " and
Scripture and who charged in battle singing psalms. *^® ",^,®^
These "Ironsides," as Cromwell said, "had the
fear of God before them and made some conscience of what
they did." They were so successful that Parhament permitted
Cromwell to reorganize a large part of the army into the " New
Model," (a body of professional, highly disciplined soldiers.
The "New Model" defeated Charles decisively at the battle of
Naseby, near the center of England (1645). Charles then sur-
rendered to the Scotch, who soon turned him over to Parha-
ment.
The surrender of the king ended the Great Rebellion, but
left the political situation in doubt. The Puritans by this time
had divided into two rival parties. The Presby- Presbyterians
terians wished to make the Church of England, and
like that of Scotland, Presbyterian 1 in faith and independents
worship. Through their control of Parliament, they were able
to pass acts doing away with bishops, forbidding the use of the
Book of Common Prayer, and requiring every one to accept
Presbyterian doctrines. The other Puritan party, known as
the Independents,^ felt that rehgious beliefs should not be a
matter of compulsion. They rejected both Anghcanism and
Presbyterianism and desired to set up churches of their o\vn,
where they might worship as seemed to them right. The In-
dependents had the powerful backing of Cromwell and the
"New Model," so that the stage was set for a quarrel between
Parhament and the army.
^ See page 350, note i.
* Also called Separatists, and later known as Congregationalists.
386
Absolutism in England and France
King Charles, though a prisoner in the hands of his enemies,
hoped to profit by their divisions. The Presbyterian majority
"Pride's ^^ ^^^ House of Commons was wiUing to restore
Purge," the king, provided he would give his assent to
^^^^ the estabhshment of Presbyterianism in England.
But the army wanted no reconciliation with the captive monarch
and at length took matters into its own hand. A party of
Interior of Westminster Hall
Next to the Tower and the Abbey, Westminster Hall, adjoining the Houses of Parliament,
is the most historic building in London. The hall was begun by \\'illiam Rufus in logj,
and was enlarged by his successors. Richard II in 1397 added the great oak roof, which has
lasted to this day. Here were held the trials of Strafford and Charles I.
soldiers, under the command of a. Colonel Pride, excluded the
Presbyterian members from the floor of the House, leaving the
Independents alone to conduct the government. This action is
known as "Pride's Purge." Cromwell approved of it, and from
this time he became the real ruler of England.
The Rump Parliament, as the remnant of
the House of Commons was called, immediately
brought the king before a High Court of Justice
composed of his bitterest enemies. He refused to acknowledge
Execution of
Charles I,
1649
The Commonwealth and the Protectorate 387
the right of the court to try him and made no defense what-
ever. Charles was speedily convicted and sentenced to be be-
headed, ''as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to
the good of the people." He met death with quiet dignity and
courage on a scaffold erected in front of Whitehall Palace in
London. The king's execution went far beyond the wishes of
most Englishmen; "cruel necessity" formed its only justifica-
tion ; but it established once for all in England the principle that
rulers are responsible to their subjects.
142. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate,
1649-1660
The Rump Parliament aboHshed the House of Lords and
the office of king. It named a Council of State, most of whose
members were chosen from the House of Commons, England a
to carry on the government. England now be- ^epubUc
came a commonwealth, or national republic. It is clear that
this republic was the creation of a minority. Anglicans, Pres-
byterians, and Roman Catholics were ready to restore the
monarchy, but as long as the power lay with the army, the small
sect of Independents could impose its will on the great majority
of the English people.
Cromwell had to deal with a serious uprising in Ireland,
where Prince Charles, the oldest son of the dead sovereign, had
been proclaimed king. Invading the country with Subjection
his trained soldiers, Cromwell captured town after °^ Ireland
town, slaughtered many royalists, and shipped many more to
the West Indies as slaves. This time Ireland was completely
subdued. Cromwell confiscated the estates of those who had
supported the royaUst cause and planted colonies of English
Protestants in Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. The Roman
CathoHc gentry were compelled to remove beyond the Shannon
River to unfruitful Connaught. Even there the public exer-
cise of their reHgion was forbidden them. Cromwell's harsh
measures brought peace to Ireland, but only intensified the
hatred felt by Irish Roman Catholics for Protestant England.^
^ See pages 207 and 363.
388
Absolutism in England and France
8 AVeet from 7 Greenwich
While Cromwell was still in Ireland, Prince Charles came to
Scotland and by promising to be a Presbyterian king secured
Scotland the support of the whole nation. Cromwell, how-
subdued ever, destroyed the Scotch armies in two pitched
battles. Prince Charles escaped capture and after thrilHng
adventures as a fugitive took refuge in France.
Meanwhile, the Rump Parliament had become more and
The Commonwealth and the Protectorate 389
more unpopular. The army, which had saved England from
Stuart despotism, did not relish the spectacle of a Dissolution
small group of men, many of them selfish and ^ *^®
corrupt, presuming to govern the country. Crom- Parliament,
well found them ''horribly arbitrary," and at last ^^^^
resolved to have done with them. He entered the House of
Commons with a band of musketeers and ordered the members
Great Seal of England under the Commonwealth (Reduced)
The reverse represents the House of Commons in session.
home. "Come, come," he cried, 'T will put an end to your
prating. You are no Parliament. I say you are no Parlia-
ment. I will put an end to your sitting." Another Parliament
proved equally incapable. After a few months it resigned its
authority into the hands of Cromwell.
Cromwell, by force of circumstances, had become a virtual
390 Absolutism in England and France
dictator, but he had no love of absolute power. He therefore
The instru- accepted a so-called Instrument of Government,
ment of drawn up by some of his officers. It provided
Government • ^^^^ Cromwell should be Lord Protector for hfe,
with the assistance of a Council and a Parliament. The In-
strument is notable as the only written constitution which
England has ever had.
The Lord Protector governed England for five years. His
successful conduct of foreign affairs gave to that country an
importance in the councils of Europe which it
Cromwell as , . , . , . ^ ^,. ,
Lord Pro- had not enjoyed since the time of Ehzabeth.
tector, 1653- jje died in 1658. Two years later the nation,
1658
weary of military rule, recalled Prince Charles,
who mounted the throne as Charles IL
It seemed, indeed, as if the Puritan Revolution had been a
complete failure. But this was hardly true. The revolution
The Puritan arrested the growth of absolutism in England.
Revolution j^- created among Englishmen a lasting hostility
to despotic rule, whether exercised by King, Parliament, Pro-
tector, or army. Furthermore, it sent forth into the world
ideas of popular sovereignty, which, during the eighteenth
century, helped to produce the American and Fjench
revolutions.
143. The Restoration and the ** Glorious
Revolution," 1660-1689
Charles II pledged himself to maintain Magna Carta, the
Petition of Right, and other statutes limiting the royal power.
Reign of ^^^ people of England wished to have a king, but
Charles II, they also wished their king to govern by the advice
1660— IfiS*! <-! <j ^
of Parliament. Charles, less obstinate and more
astute than his father, recognized this fact, and, when a conflict
threatened with his ministers or Parhament, always avoided it
by timely concessions. Whatever happened, he used to say,
he was resolved "never to set out on his travels again."
Charles's charm of manner, wit, and genial humor made him a
popular monarch, in spite of his grave faults of character. He
The Restoration and the ''Glorious Revolution" 391
was one who ''never said a foolish thing and never did a wise
one."
4-
The period of the Restoration was characterized by a reaction
against the austere scheme of Hfe which the Puritans had im-
posed on society. Puritanism not only deprived Reaction
the people of evil pleasures, such as bear-baiting, against
cock-fighting, and tippling, but it also prohibited ^^*a^sm
the Sunday dances and games, the village festivals, and the
popular drama. When
Puritanism disappeared,
the people went to the
opposite extreme and cast
off all restraint. England
was never more merry and
never less moral than un- o r> r^ tt
<< ,, Silver Crown of Charles II
dents Merry Monarch.
The Restoration brought back the Church of England,
together with the Stuarts. Parliament, more intolerant than
the king, passed an Act of Uniformity, which made The Dis-
the use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory centers
and required ministers to express their consent to everything
contained in it. Nearly two thousand clergymen resigned their
positions rather than obey the act. Among them were found
Presbyterians, Independents (or CongregationaHsts) , Baptists,
and Quakers. The members of these sects, since they did not
accept the national church, -were henceforth classed as Dis-
senters.^ They might not hold meetings for worship, or teach
in schools, or accept any public office. The Dissenters for many
years had to endure harsh persecution.
One of the most important events belonging to the reign of
Charles II was the passage by Parliament of the Habeas
Habeas Corpus Act. The writ of habeas corpus ^ Corpus Act,
is an order, issued by a judge, requiring a person
held in custody to be brought before the court. If upon
1 Or Noncomformists. This name is still applied to English Protestants not
members of the Anglican Church.
2 A Latin phrase meaning "You may have the body."
392 Absolutism in England and France
examination good reason is shown for keeping the prisoner, he
is to be remanded for trial; otherwise he must either be freed
or released orTbail. t This writ had been long used in England,
and one of the clauses of Magna Carta expressly provided against
arbitrary imprisonment. It had always been possible, however,
for the king or his ministers to order the arrest of a person con-
sidered dangerous to the state, without making any formal
charge against him. The Habeas Corpus Act estabhshed the
principle that every man, not charged with or convicted of a
known crime, is entitled to his liberty. Most of the British
possessions where the Common law prevails have accepted the
act, and it has been adopted by the federal and state legislatures
of the United States.
The reign of Charles II also saw the beginning of the modern
party system in Parliament. Two opposing parties took shape,
Whigs and very largely out of a religious controversy. The
Tones king, from his long life in France, was partial to
Roman Catholicism, though he did not formally embrace that
faith until at the moment of death. His brother James, the
heir to the throne, became an avowed Roman Catholic, much
to the disgust of many members of Parliament. . A bill was now
brought forward to exclude Prince James from the succession,
because of his conversion. Its supporters received the nick-
name of Whigs, while those who opposed it were called Tories.^
The bill did not pass the House of Lords, but the two parties
in Parliament continued to divide on other questions. They
survive to-day as the Liberals and the Conservatives, and still
dispute the government of England between them.
James II lacked the attractive personality which had made
his brother a popular ruler; moreover, he was an avowed Roman
Reign of Catholic and a staunch believer in the divine right
James II, of kings. During his three years' reign, James
managed to make enemies of most of his Protestant
subjects. He "suspended" the laws against Roman Catholics
and appointed them to positions of authority and influence.
1 Whig had originally been applied to rebelUous Presbyterians in Scotland;
Tory had designated Roman CathoUc outlaws in Ireland,
The Restoration and the ''Glorious Revolution" 393
He also dismissed Parliament and supported himself with sub-
sidies from the French king. FAt last a number of Whig and
Tory leaders, representing both parties in Parliament, invited
Wilham of Orange, stadholder or governor-general of Holland,
to rescue England from Stuart absolutism.^
William landed in England with a smalTarmy and marched
unopposed to London. The wretched king, deserted by his
retainers and his soldiers, soon found himself .
Accession of
alone. He fled to France, where he Hved the re- William m
mainder of his days as a pensioner at the French f?£j^^^'
court. Parliament granted the throne conjointly
to WilHam and Mary, Wilham to rule during his lifetime and
Mary to have the succession, should she survive him.
At the same time Parliament took care to safeguard its own
authority and the Protestant religion by enacting the Bill of
Rights, which has a place by the side of Magna The Bill of
Carta and the Petition of Right among the great ^s^*s
documents of EngHsh constitutional history. This act decreed
that the sovereign must henceforth be a member of the Anglican
Church. It forbade him to '' suspend " the operation of the laws,
or to levy money or maintain a standing army except by con-
sent of Parliament. It also declared that election of members
of Parliament should be free; that they should enjoy freedom
of speech and action within the two Houses; and that ex-
cessive bail should not be required, or excessive fines imposed,
or cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Finally, it affirmed
the right of subjects to petition the sovereign and ordered the
holding of frequent Parhaments. These were not new prin-
ciples of political liberty, but now the English people were
strong enough to give them the binding form of laws. They
reappear in the first ten amendments to the Constitution of
the United States.
Parliament also passed a Toleration Act, conceding to Dis-
senters the right of pubUc worship, though not The Toiera-
the right of holding any civil or mihtary ofl&ce. ^^^ ^^^
The Dissenters might now worship as they pleased, with-
^ William, who was a Protestant, had married James's eldest daughter, Mary.
394
Absolutism in England and France
out fear of persecution. Unitarians and Roman Catholics, as
well as Jews, were expressly excluded from the benefits of the act.
The passage of this measure did much to remove religion from
English politics as a vital issue.
The Revolution of 1 688-1689 thus struck a final blow at ab-
solutism and divine right in England. An English king be-
The " Glori- Came henceforth the servant of Parhament, holding
ous Revolu- office only on good behavior. An act of Parlia-
^°° ment had made him and an act of Parliament
might depose him. It is well to remember, however, that the
revolution did not form a popular movement. It was a suc-
cessful struggle for parHamentary supremacy on the part of the
upper classes. England henceforth had a ''limited" or "con-
stitutional" monarchy controlled by the aristocracy.
144. England in the Seventeenth Century
The population of England at the close of the seventeenth
century exceeded five millions, of whom at least two-thirds
Social lived in the country. Except for London, there
England ^gj-g Q^ly four towns of more than ten thousand
inhabitants. London counted half a million people within its
Coach and Sedan Chair
Title-page of a tract published in 1636.
limits and had become the largest city in Europe. Town life
still wore a medieval look, but the increase of wealth gradually
introduced many new comforts and luxuries. Coal came into
use instead of charcoal; tea, coffee, and chocolate competed
England in the Seventeenth Century 395
with wiiie, ale, and beer as beverages; the first newspapers ap-
peared, generally in weekly editions; amusements multiplied;
and passenger coaches began to ply between London and the
provincial centers. The highways, however, were wretched and
infested with robbers. The traveler found some recompense
for the hardships of a journey in the country inns, famous for
their plenty and good cheer. The transport of goods was chiefly
by means of pack horses, because of the poor roads and the
absence of canals. Postal arrangements also remained very
primitive, and in remote districts letters were not delivered
more than once a week. The difficulties of travel and communi-
cation naturally made for isolation ; and country people, except
the wealthy, rarely visited the metropolis.
As the population of England increased, old industries de-
veloped and new ones sprang up. The chief manufacture was
that of wool, while that of silk flourished after Economic
the influx of Huguenots which followed the revo- England
cation of the Edict of Nantes.^ The absence of large textile
mills made it necessary to carry on spinning and weaving in
the homes of the operatives. Coal mines and iron mines,
which in later times became so important a source of England's
prosperity, were then little worked. Farming and the raising
of sheep and cattle still remained the principal occupations.
Agriculture, however, was retarded by the old system of com-
mon tillage and open fields, just as manufacturing was fettered
by the craft guilds. These survivals of the Middle Ages had
not yet disappeared.
Seventeenth-century England produced no very eminent
painters or sculptors, though foreign artists, such as Rubens and
Van Dyck, were welcomed there. Among archi-
tects the most famous was Sir Christopher Wren,
who did much to popularize the Renaissance style of building.^
A great fire which destroyed most of old London during the
reign of Charles II gave Wren an opportunity to rebuild about
fifty parish churches, as well as St. Paul's Cathedral.
English literature in the seventeenth century covered many
1 See page 408. 2 ggg p^ge 286.
396
fields.
Absolutism in England and France
Literatxire
Shakespeare and Bacon, the two chief hterary orna-
ments of EUzabeth's reign, did some of their best
work during the reign of James I. In 1611 ap-
peared the Authorized Version of the Bible, sometimes called
the King James Version because it was dedicated to that mon-
arch. The simphcity, dignity, and
eloquence of this translation have
never been surpassed, and it still
remains in ordinary use among
Protestants throughout the Eng-
hsh-speaking world. ^ The Puritan
poet, John Milton, composed his
epic of Paradise Lost during the
reign of Charles II. About the
same time another Puritan, John
Bunyan, wrote the immortal Pil-
grim's Progress, a book which gives
an equal though different pleasure
to children and adults, to the
But these are only a few of the
John Milton
A portrait of the poet at the age of
twenty-one.
ignorant and the learned.
eminent poets and prose writers of the age.
145. Absolutism of Louis XIV, 1661-1715
France in the seventeenth century furnished the best ex-
ample of an absolute monarchy supported by pretensions to
Cardinal divine right. French absolutism owed most of
RicheUeu ^\\ to Cardinal Richeheu, the chief minister of
Louis XIII. Though a man of poor physique and in weak
health, he possessed such strength of will, together with so
thorough an understanding of pohtics, that he was able to
dominate the king and through the king to govern France for
eighteen years (1624-1642).
Policies of Richelieu's foreign policy — to aggrandize France
Richelieu ^t the expense of the Hapsburgs — led to his in-
tervention on the side of the Protestants at a decisive
1 Many important corrections were embodied in the Revised Version, pubUshed
in 1 881-1885 by a committee of EngUsh scholars.
Absolutism of Louis XIV
397
Cardinal
Mazarin
moment in the Thirty Years' War.^ His domestic poHcy — to
make the French king supreme — was equally successful.
Though the nobles were still rich and influential, Richelieu beat
down their opposition by forbidding the practice of dueling,
that last remnant of private warfare, by ordering many castles
to be blown up with gun-
powder, and by bringing
rebellious dukes and counts
to the scaffold. The nobles
henceforth were no longer
feudal lords but only
courtiers.
Richelieu died in 1642,
and the next year Louis
XIII, the mas-
ter whom he
had served so faithfully,
also passed away. The
new ruler, Louis XIV, was
only a child, and the man-
agement of affairs for a
second period of eighteen
years passed into the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. He was
an Italian by birth, but he became a naturalized French-
man and carried out Richelieu's policies. Mazarin continued
the war against the Hapsburgs, upon which Richelieu had en-
tered, and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion. The Peace
of Westphalia 2 was Mazarin's greatest triumph. He also crushed
a formidable uprising against the Crown, on the part of discon-
tented nobles. Having achieved all this, the cardinal could
truly say that "if his language was not French, his heart was."
His death in 1661 found the royal authority more firmly es-
tablished than ever before.
Louis XIV, who now in his twenty-third year Louis XIV,
took up the reins of government, ranks among the **^® ™*°
ablest of French monarchs. He was a man of handsome
Cardinal Mazarin
A miniature by Petitot, in the South Kensington
Museum, London.
^ See pages 369 and 371.
2 See page 372.
398
Absolutism in England and France
Louis XIV
A portrait by J. Gale, in the Sutherland Collection, London.
presence, slightly below the middle height, with a prominent nose
and abundant hair, which he allowed to fall over his shoulders.
In manner he was dignified, reserved, courteous, and as majestic,
it is said, in his dressing-gown as in his robes of state. A con-
temporary wrote that he would have been every inch a king,
''even if he had been born under the roof of a beggar." Louis
Absolutism of Louis XIV 399
possessed much natural intelligence, a retentive memory, and
gr-eat capacity for work. It must be added, however, that his
general education had been neglected, and that throughout his
life he remained ignorant and superstitious. Vanity formed a
striking trait in the character of Louis. He accepted the most
fulsome compliments and delighted to be known as the "Grand
Monarch" and the "Sun-king."
Louis gathered around him a magnificent court at Versailles,
near Paris. Here a whole royal city, with palaces, parks,
groves, and fountains, sprang into being at his qq^^^ ^f
order. Many French nobles now spent little time Louis XIV
on their country estates; they preferred to remain ^ ^^^^^ ®^
at Versailles in attendance on the king, to whose favor they owed
offices, pensions, and honors. The king's countenance, it was
said, is the courtier's supreme felicity; "he passes his life look-
ing on it and within sight of it."
The famous saying, "I am the State," ^ though not uttered
by Louis, accurately expressed his conviction that in him were
embodied the power and greatness of France. Louis XIV,
Few monarchs have tried harder to justify their *^® ^^s
despotic rule. He was fond of gayety and sport, but he never
permitted himself to be turned away from the punctual dis-
charge of his royal duties. Until the close of his reign — one
of the longest in the annals of Europe — Louis devoted from
five to nine hours a day to what he called the " trade of a king."
Conditions in France made possible the absolutism of Louis.
Richelieu and Mazarin had labored with great success to
strengthen the Crown at the expense of the nobles Absolutism
and the commons. The nation had no Parliament ^^ France
to represent it and voice its demands, for the Estates-General
had not been summoned since 16 14. It did not meet again till
1789, just before the outbreak of the French Revolution. In
France there was no Magna Carta to protect the liberties of the
people by limiting the right of a ruler to impose taxes at will.
The French, furthermore, lacked independent law courts which
could interfere with the king's power of exiling, imprisoning,
1 "L'Etai, c'est moi."
400 Absolutism in England and France
1 The view shows the rear of the palace, a part of the gardens, and the grand stairway
leading to the Fountain of Latona. The palace now forms a magnificent picture gallery
of French historical scenes and personages, while the park, with its many fine fountains,
is a place of holiday resort for Parisians. It is estimated that Louis XIV spent one hundred
million dollars on the buildings and grounds of Versailles.
The Wars of Louis XIV 401
or executing his subjects. Absolute monarchy thus became so
firmly rooted in France that a revolution was necessary to
overthrow it.
146. The Wars of Louis XIV
How unwise it may be to concentrate all authority in the hands
of one man is shown by the melancholy record of the wars of
Louis XIV. To make France powerful and crain .
. . Ambitious
fame for himself, Louis plunged his country into designs
a series of struggles from which it emerged com- y,^°"^^
pletely exhausted. He dreamed of dominating all
western Europe, but his aggressions provoked against him a
constantly increasing number of allies, who in the end proved to
be too strong even for the king's able generals and fine armies.
Louis himself lacked military talent and did not take a prom-
inent part in any campaign. He was served, however, by excel-
lent commanders. Vauban, an accomplished engi- French
neer, especially developed siege-craft. It was said militarism
of Vauban that he never besieged a fortress without taking it
and never lost one which he defended. Louvois, the war min-
ister of the king, recruited, equipped, and provisioned larger
bodies of troops than ever before had appeared on European
battle-fields. It was Louvois who introduced the use of distinc-
tive uniforms for soldiers and the custom of marching in step.
He also established field hospitals and ambulances and placed
camp life on a sanitary basis. The labors of these men gave
Louis the best standing army of the age.
Of the four great wars which filled a large part of Louis's
reign, all but the last were designed to extend the dominions of
France on the east and northeast as far as the The Rhine
Rhine. That river in ancient times had separated boundary
Gaul and Germany, and Louis, as well as Richelieu and Mazarin
before him, regarded it as a "natural boundary" of France.
Some expansion in this direction had already been made by
the Peace of Westphalia, when France gained much of Alsace,
as well as certain bishoprics in Lorraine.^ A treaty which
1 See page 372.
402 Absolutism in England and France
Amsterdam 4—^ ^
Acquisitions of Louis XIV
Acquisitions of Louis XV
Scale of Miles
100 150
THE M.-N. WORKS
Acquisitions of Louis XIV and Louis XV
Mazarin negotiated with Spain in 1659 also gave to France
possessions in Artois and Flanders. Louis thus had a good
basis for further advance toward the Rhine.
The French king began his aggressions by an effort to annex
the Belgian or Spanish Netherlands, which then belonged to
Three wars Spain. A triple alliance of Holland, England,
and Sweden forced him to relinquish all his con-
quests, except some territory in Flanders (1668).
Louis blamed the Dutch for his setback and determined to
punish them. Moreover, the Dutch represented everything to
which he was opposed, for Holland was a republic,- the keen rival
for the
Rhine
The Wars of Louis XIV 403
of France in trade, and Protestant in religion. By skillful
diplomacy he persuaded England and Sweden to stand aloof,
while his armies entered Holland and drew near to Amsterdam.
At this critical moment William, prince of Orange,^ became
the Dutch leader. He was a descendant of that William the
Silent, who, a century before, had saved the Dutch out of the
hands of Spain. By William's orders the Dutch cut the dikes
and interposed a watery barrier to further advance by the
French. William then formed another Continental coalition,
which carried on the war till Louis signified his desire for peace.
The Dutch did not lose a foot of territory, but Spain was obliged
to cede to France the important province of Franche Comte
(1678). A few years later Louis sought additional territory
in the Rhinelands, but again an alliance of Spain, Holland,
England, and the Holy Roman Empire compelled him to sue
for terms (1697).^
The treaty of peace concluding the third war for the Rhine
confirmed the French king in the possession of Strassburg, to-
gether with other cities and districts of Alsace Alsace and
which he had previously annexed. Alsace was Lorraine
now completely joined to France, except for some territories
of small extent which were acquired about a century later.
The Alsatians, though mainly of Teutonic extraction, in process
of time considered themselves French and lost all desire for
union with any of the German states. The greater part of
Lorraine was not added to France until 1766, during the reign
of Louis's successor. The Lorrainers, likewise, became thor-
oughly French in feeling.
The European balance of power had thus far been preserved,
but it was now threatened in another direction. The king of
Spain lay dying, and as he was without children The Spanish
or brothers to succeed him, all Europe wondered succession
what would be the fate of his vast possessions in Europe and
America. Louis had married one of his sisters, and the Holy
Roman Emperor another, so both the Bourbons and the Aus-
^ Subsequently William III of England. See page 393.
2 In America this third war was known as "King William's War."
404 Absolutism in England and France
trian Hapsburgs could put forth claims to the Spanish throne.
When the king died, it was found that he had left his entire
dominions to one of Louis's grandsons, in the hope that the
French might be strong enough to keep them undivided.
Though Louis knew that acceptance of the inheritance would
involve a war with Austria and probably with England, whose
ruler, William III, was Louis's
old foe, ambition triumphed over
fear and the desire for glory
over consideration for the welfare
of France. Louis proudly pre-
sented his grandson to the court
at Versailles, saying, "Gentle-
men, behold the king of Spain."
In the War of the Spanish Suc-
cession France and Spain faced
, , the Grand Alliance,
War of the ,.,.,,, ^ '
Spanish which mcluded Eng-
?l'«%^'?i'' land, Holland, Aus-
1702-1713 ' '
tria, several of the
German states, and Portugal.
Europe had never known a war
that concerned so many coun-
tries and peoples. William III
died shortly after the outbreak
of hostihties, leaving the con-
tinuance of the contest as a
'legacy to his sister-in-law. Queen Anne.^ England supplied the
coalition with funds, a fleet, and also with the ablest com-
mander of the age, the duke of Marlborough. In Eugene,
prince of Savoy, the Allies had another skillful and daring
general. Their great victory at Blenheim ^ in 1 704 was the
first of a series of successes which finally drove the French out
of Germany and Italy and opened the road to Paris. But
dissensions among the Allies and the heroic resistance of
1 In America the war was known as "Queen Anne's War."
* See Southey's poem After Blenheim.
Marlborough
A miniature in the possession of the
Duke of Buccleugh.
5' o- »^
CL "-» cr
p o
f^ o ►^
o- > O
p ;:^ ?
(D re jTj
P p O
4o6 Absolutism in England and France
France and Spain enabled Louis to hold the enemy at bay,
until the exhaustion of both sides led to the conclusion of the
Peace of Utrecht.
This peace ranks with that of WestphaHa among the most
important diplomatic arrangements of .modern times. First,
Peace of Louis's grandson was recognized as king of Spain
Utrecht, and her colonies, on condition that the Spanish
1713
and French crowns should never be united. Since
this time Bourbon sovereigns have continued to rule in Spain.
Next, the Austrian Hapsburgs gained most of the Spanish
dominions in Italy, as well as the Belgian or Spanish Netherlands
(henceforth for a century called the Austrian Netherlands).
Finally, England obtained from France certain possessions in
North America,^ and from Spain the island of Minorca and the
rock of Gibraltar, commanding the narrow entrance to the
Mediterranean.
Two of the smaller members of the Grand Alliance likewise
profited by the Peace of Utrecht. The right of the elector of
Brandenburg- Brandenburg to enjoy the title of king of Prussia
Prussia and was acknowledged. This formed an important
*^°^ step in the fortunes of the Hohenzollern dynasty.
The duchy of Savoy also became a kingdom and received the
island of Sicily (shortly afterwards exchanged for Sardinia).
The house of Savoy in the nineteenth century provided Italy
with its present reigning family.
France lost far less by the war than at one time seemed prob-
able. Louis gave up his dream of dominating Europe, but he
Position of kept all the Continental acquisitions made earlier in
France j^jg ^eign. And yet the price of the king's warlike
policy had been a heavy one. France paid it in the shape of
famine and pestilence, excessive taxes, heavy debts, and the
impoverishment of the people. Louis, now a very old man,
survived the PeacQ of Utrecht only two years. As he lay dying,
he turned to his httle heir ^ and said, "Try to keep peace with
^ See page 468.
^ His great-grandson, then a child of five years. The reign of Louis XV covered
the period 171 5-1 774.
France under the ''Grand Monarch" 407
your neighbors. I have been too fond of war; do not imitate
me in that, nor in my too great expenditure." These words
showed an appreciation of the errors which robbed his long
•reign of much of its glory.
147. France under the ** Grand Monarch "
No absolute ruler, however conscientious and painstaking,
can shoulder the entire burden of government. Louis XIV-
necessarily had to rely very much on his ministers, _ ,,
Colbert
of whom Colbert was the most eminent. Colbert
gave France the best administration it had ever known. His
reforming hand was especially felt in the finances. He made
many improvements in the methods of tax-collection and turned
the annual deficit in the revenues into a surplus. One of his
innovations, now adopted by all European states, was the
budget system. Expenditures had previously been made at
random, whether the treasury was full or empty. Colbert drew
up careful estimates, one year in advance, of the probable re-
ceipts and expenses, so that outlay should never exceed income.
Colbert realized that the chief object of a minister of finance
should be the increase of the national wealth. Hence he tried
in every way to foster manufactures and com- Econoinic
merce. Among other measures, Colbert placed measures of
hea\y duties on the importation of foreign products, ° ^^*
as a means of protecting the ''infant industries" of France.
This was the beginning of the protective system, since followed
by many European countries and from Europe introduced into
America. Colbert regarded protectionism as only a temporary
device, however, and spoke of tariffs as crutches by the help of
which manufacturers might learn to walk and then throw them
away.
Colbert shared the erroneous Views of many economists of
his age in supposing that the wealth of a country is measured
by the amount of gold and silver which it possesses, colbert and
He wished, therefore, to provide the French with colonial ex-
colonies, where they could obtain the products p^^*^^
which they had previously been obliged to purchase from the
4o8
Absolutism in England and P>ance
Spaniards, Dutch, and English. At this time many islands in
the West Indies were acquired, Canada was developed, and
Louisiana, the vast territory drained by the Mississippi, was
opened up to settlement. France thus became one of the lead--
ing colonial powers of Europe.
As long as Colbert lived, he kept on good terms with the
Huguenots, who formed such useful and industrious subjects.
_ . Louis, however, had no love for the Huguenots,
Revocation , ' 11, • 1 , V^ ,
of the Edict whom he regarded as heretics, and whose Calvm-
?L'^^^*^^* istic principles, he knew, endowed them with
1685
scant respect for absolute monarchy. Accordingly,
the king revoked the Edict of Nantes,^ after the French for
almost a cen-
tury had en-
joyed rehgious
toleration. The
Huguenots were
denied freedom
of worship and
were also de-
prived of their
rights as citi-
zens. They con-
tinued to be an
outlawed and
persecuted sect until shortly before the French Revolution.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes resulted in a con-
siderable emigration of Huguenots from France. What was a
Emigration ^°^^ ^^ ^^^^ country was a gain to England and
Holland, where they introduced their arts and
trades. Prussia, also, profited by the emigration
of the Huguenots. Many of them went to Berlin, and that
capital owed the beginning of its importance to its Huguenot
population. Louis by his bigotry thus strengthened the chief
Protestant foes of France.
Louis was a generous patron of art. One of his architects,
^ See page 368.
Medal of Louis XIV
Commemorates the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The
obverse bears a representation of " Louis the Great, the Most Chris-
tian King," the reverse contains a legend meaning " Heresy Ex-
tinguished."
of the
Huguenots
France under the "Grand Monarch"
409
Louis XIV
Mansard, invented the mansard roof, which has been largely
used in France and other European countries. Art under
This architectural device makes it possible to ^°^^ ^^V
provide extra rooms at a small expense, without adding an
additional story to the building. Among the monuments of
Louis's reign are the Hotel des
Invalides,^ now the tomb of
Napoleon, additions to the
Louvre,^ and the huge palace
of Versailles. Louis also
founded the Gobelins manu-
factory, so celebrated for fine
carpets, furniture, and metal
work.
The long list of French au-
thors who flourished at this time
includes Moliere, Literature
the greatest of under
French dramatists,
La Fontaine, whose fables are
still popular, Perrault, now
remembered for his fairy tales,
and Madame de Sevigne, whose
letters are regarded as models
of French prose. Probably the
most tamous work composed at this time is the Memoirs of
Saint-Simon. It presents an intimate and not very flattering
picture of the king and his court.
Louis and his ministers believed that the government should
encourage research and the diffusion of knowledge. Richelieu'
founded and Colbert fostered the French Academy. Learning
Its forty members, sometimes called the ''Im-
mortals," are chosen for their eminent contribu-
tions to language and literature. The great dictionary of the
French language, on which they have labored for more than
two centuries, is still unfinished. The academy now forms a
^ See page 286, note i. 2 See page 290.
MOLIERE
A bust by J. A. Houdon in the
Theatre Franfaise, Paris.
under
Louis XIV
4IO Absolutism in England and France
section of the Institute of France. The patronage of Colbert
also did much to enrich the National Library at Paris, which
contains the largest collection of books in the world.
The brilUant reign of Louis XIV cast its spell upon the rest
of Europe. Other sovereigns looked to him as the model of
The age of what a king should be, and set themselves to
Louis XIV imitate the splendor of his court. During this
period the French language, manners, dress, art, hterature, and
science became the accepted standards of good society in all
civilized lands. France still retains in large measure the
preeminent position which she secured under the ''Grand
Monarch."
Studies
I. Give dates for (a) Peace of Utrecht, (b) execution of Charles I, (c) the
" Glorious Revolution," and (d) revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 2. For what
were the following men notable: Pym; Duke of Marlborough; Louvois; Hampden;
Mazarin; William III; and Colbert? 3. Explain and illustrate the following
terms: (a) budget system; {b) absolutism; (c) writ of habeas corpus; {d) mili-
tarism; and (e) "ship-money." 4. Compare the theory of the divine right of
kings with the medieval theory of the papal supremacy. 5. Do any European
monarchs still claim to rule by divine right? 6. What is the essential distinction
between a "limited" or "constitutional" monarchy and an "absolute" or "auto-
cratic" monarchy? 7. Explain: "Rump Parliament"; "Pride's Purge"; the
"New Model"; the "Ironsides"; "Cavalier"; and "Roundhead." 8. What
circumstances gave rise to (a) the Petition of Right; (b) the Instrument of Govern-
ment; (c) the Habeas Corpus Act; and (J) the Bill of Rights? 9. Why were the
reformers within the Church of England called "Puritans"? 10. Contrast the
Commonwealth as a national republic with the medieval Italian cities, the Swiss
Confederation, and the United Netherlands. 11. Under what circumstances does
the Constitution of the United States provide for the suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus? 12. Why has the Bill of Rights been called the "third great charter
of English liberty"? 13. Show that the Revolution of i688-8g was a "preserv-
ing" and not a "destroying" revolution. 14. By reference to the map on page 402
show how far the "natural boundaries" of France were attained during the reign
of Louis XIV. 15. How did the condition of Germany after the Thirty Years'
War facilitate the efforts of Louis XIV to extend the French frontiers to the Rhine?
16. Read Southey's poem After Blenheim. Does it rightly appreciate the sig-
nificance of this battle in European history? 17. Show that in the Peace of
Utrecht nearly all the contestants profited at the expense of Spain. 18. "The
age of Louis XIV in France is worthy to stand by the side of the age of Pericles in
Greece and of Augustus in Italy." Does this statement appear to be justified?
CHAPTER $£yil
THE EUROPEAN BALANCE OF POWER, 1715-1789
148. The Eighteenth Century in Politics
The death of Louis XIV, shortly after the Peace of Utrecht,
brought one historical epoch to a close and began another.
Seventy-four years were to intervene before the Limits of
meeting of the Estates-General ushered in the *^® century
French Revolution, which has so profoundly affected all modern
Europe to the present day. These seventy-four years from
1 71 5 to 1789 really constitute the eighteenth century, a period
preparatory to the revolutionary period by which it was suc-
ceeded.
A cardinal principle of eighteenth-century diplomacy was that
of the balance of power. After the Peace of Westphalia states-
men generally agreed that the various European ^j^^ ^^_
nations, so unlike in size, population, and resources, ance of
ought to form a sort of federal community in P°^®^
which the security of all was ensured. If any nation became so
strong as to overshadow the others, then they must combine
against it and treat it as a common enemy. Louis XIV, who
ignored this principle, had repeatedly to face the coaHtions of
his weaker neighbors.
But the balance of power too often remained only an ideal,
in an age when diplomacy was corrupt and international im-
morality was universal. Rulers schemed and xerritorial
plotted and fought bloody wars solely to enlarge aggrandize-
their dominions. From now on territorial ag- ^^^
grandizement replaced religious dissension as the main cause of
European strife.
The interests of dynasties, rather than those of peoples, were
chiefly considered in the diplomacy of the eighteenth century.
412 The European Balance of Power
Monarchs paid little heed to racial limits or national bound-
Dynastic aries, but cut and pared countries "as if they
interests ^^^e Dutch cheeses." The idea — now so preva-
lent — that each people should determine its own destiny was
then unrecognized.
The special interest of this age in political history lies in the
emergence of new European states. Three great nations of
jjg^ the seventeenth century, namely, Spain, Sweden,
European and Holland, retired to the background and in
their place arose the empire of Russia and the
kingdom of Prussia. Together with France, Great Britain, and
Austria, they formed the leading powers.
149. Rise of Russia
The influence of geographical conditions is clearly seen in
Russian history. European Russia forms an immense, un-
Geography broken plain, threaded by numerous rivers which
in Russian facilitate movement into every part of the country.
^ °^ While western Europe, with its mountain ranges
and deep inlets of the sea, tended to divide into many separate
states, Russia just as naturally became a single state.
In historic times Goths, Huns, Avars, Finns, Bulgarians,
Northmen, and Mongols occupied Russian territory, but the
The Russian bulk of the population at the end of the medieval
people period belonged to the Slavic branch of the Indo-
European race. The Russians, therefore, were closely related
in both language and blood to the Bohemians and Poles of
central Europe and to the Serbians of the Balkan peninsula.^
Yet the Russians at the opening of modern times seemed to
be rather an Asiatic than a European people. Three hundred
Backward- years of Mongol rule had isolated them from their
ness of the Slavic neighbors and had interrupted the stream
ussians ^£ civilizing influences which in earlier days flowed
into Russia from Scandinavia and from the Byzantine Empire.
After the expulsion of the Mongols, Russia continued to be
^ For Russian history in the Middle Ages see pages loo and 185.
Rise of Russia
413
shut out from the Baltic by the Swedes and Poles and from the
Black Sea by the Turks. The lack of seaports discouraged
foreign commerce, through which European ideas and customs
GROWTH OF BUS^
to the end of the
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Scale of Miles
The Grand Principality of
I I Moscow, or Muscovy,
' ' inH62A.D.
I I Acquisitions 1462-1C89 -^~lk~-J
j 1 Acquisitions under Peter/'
I 1 the Great, 1G89-1725 A.Di—
□Acquisitions under Peter's
Successors, 1720-1790 A.D.
^.
o
might have entered Russia, while at the same time the nature
of the country made agriculture rather than industry the prin-
cipal occupation. Most of the Russians were ignorant, super-
stitious peasants, who led secluded lives in small farming villages
scattered over the plains and throughout the forests. Even
the inhabitants of the towns lacked the education and en-
Ughtened manners of the western peoples, whose ways they
414 The European Balance of Power
disliked and whose religion, whether Protestantism or Catholi-
cism, they condemned as heretical. Russia, in short, needed
to be restored to Europe and Europe needed to be introduced
to Russia.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Russians
began to spread southward over the region watered by the
The Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga. Many emigrants
Ukraine settled in the border country called the Ukraine,^
which lay on both sides of the lower Dnieper. The Ukrainians
(Little Russians) speak a Slavic dialect unlike that of the
northern or Great Russians and nourish an independent spirit.
The vanguard of the Ukrainian colonists was led by the
mounted warriors known as Cossacks.^ Like the frontiersmen
The of the American West, the Cossacks lived a wild and
Cossacks independent hfe, now as herdsmen and farmers,
now as hunters and fighters. They became in time subjects of
the tsar, but still preserve a warlike organization, the tenure
of land by military service (a form of feudalism), and the
privilege of electing their own hetman, or supreme leader.
The Russian plain, between the Ural Mountains and the
Caspian Sea, merges insensibly into the steppes of northern
. Asia. A steady stream of emigrants passed along
this route into Siberia, much of which the Mongols
had earlier subdued. Their power declined, however, and the
Cossacks had little difficulty in capturing Sibir, the Mongol
capital from which the whole region takes its name. Before
the middle of the seventeenth century the Russians had pene-
trated to the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk. By the
close of the century they occupied Kamchatka and faced the
Pacific. The foundations of Russian supremacy were thus laid
throughout northern Asia, a vast wilderness previously inhab-
ited only by half-savage, heathen tribes.
Over these dominions in Europe and Asia reigned the monarch
who called himself the tsar and autocrat of all Russia. The
family of tsars, descended from the Northman Ruric, became
1 From the Russian krai, a frontier.
2 From the Turkish word, kazak, an adventurer or freebooter.
Russia under Peter the Great 415
extinct at the close of the sixteenth century, and disputes over
the succession led to civil wars and foreign in- Accession
vasions. The Russians then proceeded to select °^ *^®
Romanov
a new tsar, and for this purpose a general assem- dynasty,
bly of nobles and delegates from the towns met ^®^^
at Moscow. Their choice fell upon one of their own number,
Michael Romanov by name, whose family was related to the
old royal line. He proved to be an excellent ruler in troublous
times. His grandson was the celebrated Peter the Great.
150i Russia under Peter the Great, 1689-1725
Peter became sole ruler of Russia when only seventeen years
of age. His character almost defies analysis. An English
contemporary, who knew him well, described him
as "a man of a very hot temper, soon inflamed,
and very brutal in his passion." Deeds of fiendish cruelty were
congenial to him. After a mutiny of his bodyguard he edified
the court by himself slicing off the heads of the culprits. In
order to quell opposition in his family, he had his wife whipped
by the knout and ordered his own son to be tortured and ex-
ecuted. He was coarse, gluttonous, and utterly without
personal dignity. The companions of his youth were profligates;
his banquets were orgies of dissipation. Yet Peter could be
often frank and good-humored, and to his friends he was as
loyal as he was treacherous to his foes. At heart, too, he was
deeply religious, for he believed himself to be an instrument for
good in the hands of God. Whatever his weaknesses, few men
have done more than Peter to change the course of history, and
few have better deserved the appellation of "the Great."
Peter grew up wild and undisciplined, and he had to educate
himself. The practical bent of his mind disclosed itself in the
interest he took in mechanics, ship-building, Peter's
siege-craft, and military drill. Association with education
foreigners at Moscow gave him some knowledge of European
arts and sciences and first suggested to him the need of" intro-
ducing western culture into Russia.
4i6
The European Balance of Power
Soon after becoming tsar Peter sent fifty young Russians of
the best families to England, Holland, and Venice to absorb
Peter in ^^^ ^^^^ could of European ideas. Afterwards he
western came himself, traveling incognito as "Peter Mi-
^°^® khailov." He spent two years abroad, particularly
in Holland and England, where he studied ship-building and
navigation. He also collected miners, mechanics, engineers,
architects, and experts of
every sort for the roads
and bridges, the ships and
palaces, the schools and
hospitals which were to
arise in Russia.
Many of Peter's re-
forms were intended to
Europeaniza- introduce the
tion of customs of
Russia , T-'
western Eu-
rope into Russia. The
long Asiatic robes of Rus-
sian nobles had to give
way to short German
jackets and hose. Long
Painted bcards, which the people
considered sacred, had to
be shaved, or else a tax paid for the privilege of wearing one.
Women, previously kept in seclusion, were permitted to appear
in public without veils and to mingle at dances and entertain-
ments with men. A Russian order of chivalry — that of St.
Andrew — was founded. The Bible was translated into the ver-
nacular and sold at popular prices. Peter adopted the "Julian
calendar," in place of the old Russian calendar, which began
the year on the first of September, supposed to be the date of
the creation. He also improved the Russian alphabet by omit-
ting some of its cumbersome letters and by simplifying others.
Such innovations were accepted only by the upper classes.
The peasants clung tenaciously to their old ways and remained
Peter The Great
A portrait of the tsar in Russian dress,
in England in 1698.
Russia under Peter the Great 417
little affected by the sudden inrush of European ideas and
manners.
Peter found in Russia no regular army; he organized one
after the German fashion. The soldiers (except the Cossacks)
were uniformed and armed like European troops. Rgcon-
He found no fleet; he built one, modeled upon stmction of
that of Holland. He opened mines, cut qanals, "^^^*
laid out roads, introduced sheep breeding, and fostered by
protective tariffs the growth of silk and woolen manufactures.
He instituted a police system and a postal service. He estab-
Hshed schools of medicine, engineering, and navigation, as well
as those of lower grade. He also framed a code of laws based
upon the legal systems of western Europe.
The tsar's reforming measures encountered much opposition
on the part of the clergy. He endeavored, therefore, to render
them harmless by making the Russian Church Peter an
entirely a state institution. All ecclesiastical autocrat
authority was vested in the Holy Synod, whose members were
chosen by himself. The head of the Russian state thus became,
in effect, the head of the Russian Church as well. Like the
clergy, the old nobility had opposed Peter's innovations. He
consequently transformed it into an aristocracy of office-
holders whose rank depended, not upon their birth or wealth,
but upon their service to the tsar. Any family which for two
generations had not taken part in the government ceased to
be noble. In place of an ancient assembly (Duma) of nobles,
Peter instituted a Council of State, directly responsible to him-
self. Peter in these ways established an absolutism as un-
limited as that of his contemporary Louis XIV.
Very different views have been expressed as to the value of
Peter's work. It is said, on the one side, that Russia could
only be made over by such measures as he used; value of
that the Russian people had to be dragged from Peter's
their old paths and pushed on the broad road of ^°'
progress. On the other side, it is argued that Peter's reforms
were too sudden, too radical, and too httle suited to the Slavic
national character. The upper classes acquired only a veneer
41 8 The European Balance of Power
of western civilization, and with it many vices. The nobles
continued to be indolent, corrupt, and indifferent to the public
welfare. The clergy became merely the tools of the tsar.
The common people remained as ignorant and oppressed as
ever and without any opportunity of self-government. What-
ever may be the truth as to these two views, no one disputes
the fact that in a single reign, by the action of one man, Russia
began to pass from semi-barbarism to civilization.
As the ancient capital, Moscow, formed a stronghold of con-
servatism, Peter determined to build a new capital, less Asiatic
St. Peters- in character and more susceptible to European
burg, 1703 influence. The site chosen was an unhealthy
swamp on the river Neva, not far from the Gulf of Finland.
The laborers perished by thousands, but Peter cared little for
human life and with resistless energy urged forward the work
of draining the marshes and digging canals to carry away the
stagnant waters. Russian traders were forced to settle in the
city and all the great landowners were required to build mansions
there. To this northern Venice Peter gave the German name
of (St.) Petersburg.^
The remaking of Russia according to European models
formed only a half of Peter's program. His foreign poHcy was
Peter's equally ambitious. He realized that Russia needed
foreign readier access to the sea than could be found
^° ^^ through the Arctic port of Archangel. Peter
made little headway against the Turks, who controlled the
Black Sea, but twenty years of intermittent warfare with the
Swedes enabled him to carry the western frontier of Russia to
the Baltic. Russian history at this point connects closely with
the history of Sweden.
151. Sweden and the Career of Charles XII
The Baltic has som'etimes been called a secondary Mediter-
ranean. It resembles that sea in its narrow entrance, numerous
^ In 1914, at the outset of the World War, the name was changed to the Slavic
equivalent, Petrograd. In 191 8 the Bolsheviki government of Russia removed the
capital back to Moscow.
Sweden and the Career of Charles XII 419
Scandinavia in the Seventeenth Century
islands, and deeply indented shores. But the lands adjoining
the Baltic are less fertile than those which surround „. ^ .
xlistonc
the Mediterranean; it is of much smaller size; and importance
many of its harbors are icebound during half the ^ ^^^
year. For these reasons the historic importance
of the Baltic cannot compare with that of the Mediterranean,
except in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Sweden
became a great power.
The inhabitants of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, though
one in blood and almost one in speech, have never coalesced
into a single nation. The Union of Calmar, which ^^e three
thev formed in i^gv, gave them a common ruler, Scandinavian
^ • J 11- J.I ■. kingdoms
but permitted each kmgdom to keep its own con-
stitution and laws. Even this feeble confederation broke down
420
The European Balance of Power
Greatness
of Sweden
during the storms of the Reformation. It was finally dis-
solved in 1524, and Sweden again became independent.
The kings of Sweden were both patriotic and able, and under
them the country, though thinly populated and poor in natural
resources, rose to a leading place among European
states. Finland had been a Swedish dependency
since the twelfth century. Esthonia, on the
southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, was conquered in the
sixteenth century. Three other provinces, namely, Karelia,
Ingria, and Livonia, were ac-
quired by Gustavus Adolphus.
His participation in the Thirty
Years' War also secured for
Sweden, at the Peace of West-
phalia, western Pomerania and
other possessions in the north of
Germany. Sweden at this time
controlled all the islands and
nearly all the coast of the Baltic.
The mouths of the Neva, Dlina,
Oder, Elbe, and Weser were
under the Swedish flag.
The greatness of Sweden cul-
minated and then declined during
the spectacular reign of Charles
Charles XII
Reign of
Charles XII,
1697-1718
^ XII. His youth was prophetic of his career. Indoors he
read the exploits of Alexander the Great; out of doors he
devoted himself to hunting and warhke exercises.
He came to the throne a lad of only fifteen, but
already daring, ambitious, and eager for military
glory. Events soon thrust into his hand the sword he was never
to relinquish.
Sweden could not be mistress of the Baltic without provoking
the jealousy of various neighboring states, in particular, Russia,
Exploits of Poland, and Denmark. Shortly after the ac-
Charies cession of Charles XII they formed a coahtion to
seize and dismember the Swedish possessions. The boy-king,
Sweden and the Career of Charles XII 421
far from being dismayed by the odds against him, turned
fiercely upon his enemies before they could unite. He invaded
Denmark, appeared before the walls of Copenhagen, and com-
pelled the terrified Danes to conclude a separate peace. He
won almost fabulous victories in Russia and Poland, at one time
overthrowing a Russian army five times as large as his own.
The Poles, also badly beaten, were required to depose their
ruler and accept the nominee of the Swedish king.
But Charles was like a meteor which flashed across the
European sky to disappear as quickly as it came. Rejecting
all overtures for peace, he determined to march Battle of
on Moscow and dictate terms to Peter the Great. Poltava,
The Russian resistance stiffened as the Swedes ^^^^
approached the capital along much the same route which the
French under Napoleon followed one hundred years later.
Charles had to turn south to the Ukraine, where he hoped to
raise the Cossacks against the tsar. Here, however, he was
defeated by Peter in the decisive battle of Poltava. Charles
afterwards returned to his kingdom, but soon perished in an
obscure conflict in Norway.
Exhausted Sweden had now no choice but to make terms
with her foes. She lost nearly all her foreign possessions except
Finland.^ The greater part of western Pomerania partition of
went to Prussia, which thus secured valuable Swedish
territory at the mouth of the Oder. Russia profited ^^"'^"""^''^^
even more, for she took the four Swedish provinces on the eastern
shores of the Baltic. Much of this region had been colonized
in the Middle Ages by the knights of the Teutonic Order.^
It was now to become a Slavic land. Here Peter the Great
founded his new capital, thus realizing a long-cherished dream
of opening a ''window" through which the Russian people
might look into Europe.
1 A small part of Finland, lying along the gulf of that name, was ceded to Russia.
The rest of the country did not enter the Russian Empire until 1809.
2 See page 222.
422
The European Balance of Power
152. Russia under Catheriae II, 1762-1796;
the Decline of Turkey
Shortly after the death of Peter the Great, at the early age of
fifty- three, the male line of the Romanov dynasty became ex-
Tsarina tinct. The succession now passed to women, who
Catherine intermarried with German princes and thus in-
creased enormously the German influence in Russia. It was a
German princess, Catherine II, who completed Peter's work
of remaking Russia into a European state. She, also, has been
called "the Great," a title possibly merited by her achieve-
ments, though not by her character. Catherine came to Russia
as the wife of the heir-apparent. Once in her adopted country,
she proceeded to make
herself in all ways a
Russian, learning the
language and even con-
forming, at least out-
wardly, to the Orthodox
Church. Her husband
was a weakling, and
Catherine managed to
get rid of him after he
had reigned only six
months. She then
mounted the throne and
for thirty - four years
ruled Russia with a firm
hand.
The overthrow of
Sweden left Poland and
Turkey as the two coun-
tries which still blocked the path of Russia toward the sea.
Catherine's Catherine warred against them throughout her
foreign reign. She took the lion's share of Poland, when
^° ^^ that unfortunate kingdom, as we shall shortly
learn, was divided among Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Cath-
Catherine II
A painting by Van Wilk.
Russia under Catherine II 423
erine also secured from the Turks an outlet for Russia on the
Black Sea, though she never realized her dream of expelling
them from European soil.
When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, their Eu-
ropean dominions already included a considerable part of the
Balkan peninsula. The two centuries following
witnessed the steady advance of the Ottoman of the
arms. What are now Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Ottoman
Bosnia, Albania, and Greece were incorporated
within the Turkish Empire. Only tiny Montenegro, protected
by mountain ramparts and a heroic soldiery, preserved its
independence. Pressing northward, the Turks conquered part
of Hungary and made the rest of that country a depend-
ency. They overran the Crimea and bestowed it upon a
Mongol khan as a tributary province. They annexed Egypt,
Syria, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and the coast of northern
Africa. The Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean became
Turkish lakes.
Two dramatic events showed that the Christian peoples of
Europe could still oppose a successful resistance to the war-
riors of the Crescent. The first was the battle of
Lepanto (15 71), which checked the further ad- of the
vance of Turkey in Mediterranean waters.^ The ottoman
oowcr
second was the defeat suffered by the Turks under
the walls of Vienna (1683). They marched on the Austrian
capital, two hundred thousand strong, laid siege to it, and
would have taken it but for the timely appearance of a relieving
army under the Polish king, John Sobieski. Poland at that time
saved Austria from destruction and earned the praise of Christian
Europe. A few years later all Hungary shook off the Turkish
yoke.
Catherine's two wars with the Turks mark a further stage in
the decline of the Ottoman power. Russia secured Russian
the Crimea, as well as the northern coast of the acquisitions
Black Sea. Russian merchant ships were also ^^°°^ Turkey
granted free access through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles
1 See page 355-
424 The European Balance of Power
to the Mediterranean. Catherine in this way opened another
''window" on Europe.
Turkey lost more than territory. The Sultan gave to Russia
the right to control a new Russian church in Constantinople,
rpjjg thus recognizing the claim of the tsars to be the
** Eastern natural protectors of Orthodox Christians through-
on ^^^ j^.^ dominions. Russia from this time in-
terfered constantly in Turkish affairs. The Sultan became the
"sick man" of Europe, the disposition of whose possessions
among his envious neighbors would henceforth form one of the
thorny problems of European diplomacy. In a word, what is
called the "Eastern Question" began.,
153. The Partitions of Poland, 1772-1795
Our first glimpse of the Poles reveals them as a Slavic people,
still wild and heathen, who occupied the region between the
Poland in upper waters of the Oder and the Vistula. They
the Middle began to adopt Roman Christianity toward the
^^^ close of the tenth century, thus coming into con-
tact with the more civilized nations of the West. Poland
suffered terribly from the Mongol invasions, but, unlike Russia,
never bowed to the yoke of the Great Khan. The Poles in the
fourteenth century united with the Lithuanians, under a com-
mon king. After the union the ancient Polish capital of Cracow
gave way to Warsaw, novr one of the largest and finest cities of
eastern Europe.
Poland was geographically badly made. It formed an im-
mense, monotonous plain, reaching from the Baltic almost to
Geography the Black Sea. No natural barriers of rivers or
of Poland mountains separated the country from Russia on
the east and Austria and Prussia on the west.
Poland was not racially compact. Besides Poles and Lithu-
anians, the inhabitants included many Russians, a considerable
Inhabitants number of Germans and Swedes, and a large
of Poland Jewish population in the towns. The differences
between them in race and language were accentuated by
The Partitions of Poland
425
The Partition of Poland
A contemporary cartoon which represents Catherine II, Joseph II, and
Frederick II pointing out on the map the boundaries of Poland as divided
between them. Stanislaus II, the Polish king, is trying to keep his crown
from falling off his head.
religious dissensions. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians
belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, the Germans and
Swedes adhered to Lutheranism, while the Russians accepted
the Greek Orthodox faith.
Feudahsm, though almost extinct in western Europe, flour-
ished in Poland. There were more than a million PoUsh
426 The European Balance of Power
nobles, mostly very poor, but each one owning a share of
S cial ^^^ land. No large and wealthy middle class
conditions existed. The peasants were miserable serfs over
in Poland ^hom their lords had the power of life and death.
The Polish monarchy was elective, not hereditary, an ar-
rangement which converted the kings into mere puppets of
P litical ^^^ noble electors. A Polish sovereign could
conditions neither make war or peace, nor pass laws, nor
in Poland ^^^^ ^^^^^ without the consent of the Polish
national assembly. In this body, which was composed of
representatives of the nobility, any member by his single
adverse vote — '*I object" — could block proposed legisla-
tion. The result was that the nobles seldom passed any
measures except those which increased their own power and
privileges. The wonder is, not that Poland collapsed, but that
it survived so long under such a system of government.
Russia, Austria, and Prussia had long interfered in the choice
of Pohsh rulers. Now they began to annex PoHsh territory.
First ^^ ^^^ ^^^ necessary to conquer the country, but
partition, only to divide it up like a thing ownerless and dead.
^^^^ In 1772 Catherine II joined with the Austrian
empress, Maria Theresa, and the Prussian king, Frederick the
Great, in the first partition of Poland. Russia took a strip
east of the Diina and Dnieper rivers inhabited entirely by
Russians. Austria took Galicia and neighboring lands occu-
pied by Poles and Russians. Prussia received the coveted
West Prussia, whose inhabitants were mainly Germans. Alto-
gether Poland lost about one-third of its territory.
The first partition opened the eyes of the Polish nobles to the
ruin which threatened their country. Something like a patriotic
spirit now developed, and efforts began to remove
Second and f n . , ,. . -. i if
third the glarmg absurdities of the old government.
partitions, jj^g reform movement encountered the opposition
of the neighboring sovereigns, who wished to keep
Poland as weak as possible in order to have an excuse for further
spoliation. The second partition (1793), in which only Russia
and Prussia shared, cut deeply into Poland. Two years later
The Partitions of Poland
427
came the final dismemberment of the country among its three
neighbors. The brave though futile resistance of the Polish
patriots, led by Kosciuszko, who had fought under Washington
THE M-N. WORKS/
Partitions of Poland, 1772, 1793, 1795 a.d.
in the Revolutionary War, threw a gleam of glory upon the last
days of the expiring kingdom.
The suggestion for the dismemberment of Poland came from
Frederick the Great, who with his usual frankness admitted
that it was an act of brigands. In Catherine II ResponsibU-
he found an ally as unprincipled as himself. Maria ity for the
1 • i_ 1. i_ partitions
Theresa expressed horror at the crime, but her
scruples were easily overcome. Indeed, her chief complaint
428 The European Balance of Power
was that the other two monarchs had taken the best shares of
the plunder.
This shameful violation of international law produced a
''Polish Question." From the eighteenth century to the twen-
The " Polish tieth century the Poles never ceased to be rest-
Question" less ^^(^ unhappy under foreign overlords. They
developed a new national consciousness after the loss of
their freedom, and the severest measures of repression failed
to break their spirit. One happy result of the World War
has been the restoration of Poland as an independent
country.
154. Rise of Prussia
Germany, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, was merely
a geographical name for a collection of more than three hundred
Prussia in States owing only a nominal allegiance to the
German Holy Roman Empire. Yet the German people,
^^ °^^ who had once formed such efficient organizations
as the Teutonic Order and the Hanseatic League, were mani-
festly destined for union under a single government. They
could not always remain weak and defenseless, with their
country the battle-ground of Europe. It was to be the work
of Prussia to achieve the unification of the Fatherland.
Prussia, the creator of modern Germany, was the creation
of the HohenzoUerns.i Excepting Frederick the Great, no
The Hohen- HohenzoUern deserves to be ranked as a genius;
zoUerns ^^^ j^ would be hard to name another dynasty
with so many able, ambitious, and unscrupulous rulers. The
Hohenzollerns prided themselves on the fact that almost every
member of the family enlarged the possessions received from his
ancestors. They did this by purchase, by inheritance, by
shrewd diplomacy, and, most of all, by hard fighting.
Margraviate ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ obscurity hanging over the early
of Brand en- history of the Hohenzollerns lifts early in the
"'^' fifteenth century, when one of them received the
mark of Brandenburg from the Holy Roman Emperor, as
1 The name is derived from that of their castle on the heights of ZoUern in medie-
val Swabia. Emperor WiUiam II was the twenty-fourth ruler of the line.
Rise of Prussia 429
compensation for various sums of money advanced to him.
Brandenburg in earlier days had formed a German colony
planted among the Slavs beyond the Elbe.^ With the mar-
graviate went the electoral dignity, that is to say, the ruler of
Brandenburg was one of the seven German princes who
enjoyed the privilege of choosing the emperor.^
The Hohenzollerns as yet had no connection with Prussia.
That country received its name from the Borussi, a heathen
people who once occupied the Baltic coast east of jjuchy of
the Vistula. Prussia was conquered in the thir- Prussia,
teenth century by the knights of the Teutonic
Order, who exterminated many of the original inhabitants and
kept the rest in subjection by force and terrorism.^ The domi-
nant class of Prussian nobles {Junkers) largely descended from
these hard-riding, hard-fighting, fierce, cruel knights. They
made Prussia a thoroughly German land in speech, customs,
and religion. The decline of their order in the fifteenth century
enabled the king of Poland to annex West Prussia. During
the Reformation the Teutonic grand master, who was a near
relative of the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, dissolved the
order and changed East Prussia into a secular duchy. His
family became extinct early in the seventeenth century, and the
duchy then passed to the elector of Brandenburg.
The period between the close of the Thirty Years' War
and the accession of Frederick the Great saw many additions
to the HohenzoUern domains. The most impor- Kingdom of
tant were eastern Pomerania, the acquisition of Prussia,
which extended Brandenburg to the Baltic (1648); ^^^^ .
certain districts along the lower Rhine (1666); and most of
western Pomerania, which was secured after the defeat of
Sweden (1720). The Hohenzollerns were now powerful enough
to aspire to royal dignity. At the outbreak of the War of the
Spanish Succession, the emperor, who was anxious to receive
the elector's support, allowed him to assume the title of
''king." Prussia, rather than Brandenburg, gave its name
to the new kingdom, because the former was an independent
■^ Seepage 19. ^ See page 218, note 2. ^ See pages 221-222,
430 The European Balance of Power
state, while the latter was a member of the Holy Roman
Empire.
Only a strong government could hold together the scattered
possessions of the Hohenzollerns. Such a government they
Prussian supplied. No rulers of the age exercised a more
absolutism unlimited authority. They exacted passive obe-
dience from their subjects; nicht raisonniren — "no reasoning
here" — was their motto. According to the Hohenzollern
principle a monarchy could not be too absolute, provided it
was efficient. The king, working through his ministers, who
were merely his clerks, must foster agriculture, industry, and
commerce, promote education, and act as the guide of his
people in matters of religion and morals.
This type of Prussian ruler was well exemplified in the person
of Frederick William, commonly called the Great Elector.
The Great Unattractive in character, cunning and deceitful.
Elector, he showed, nevertheless, a single-hearted de-
votion to the interests of the state and spared
neither himself nor others in its service. His long reign of
forty-eight years marked out the paths which Prussia hence-
forth followed. He suppressed such representative assemblies
as existed in his dominions, replacing them by a central council
of his ministers and provincial governors. A Hohenzollern
could not tolerate free institutions; the will of the ruler must
be supreme. In religious matters the Great Elector adopted
a wise policy of toleration. Though Brandenburg was staunchly
Protestant, he opened it to Jews from Austria and Huguenots
from France and thus added many useful citizens to the popu-
lation. His domestic measures were equally wise. By build-
ing roads, draining marshes, cutting canals, and encouraging
scientific farming, he did much to develop the resources of a
country little favored by nature. Finally, he managed to form
a standing army, supported by taxation and entirely dependent
on himself.
Prussian The Hohenzollerns, from the time of the Great
militarism Elector, devoted themselves consistently to the
upbuilding of their military forces. Prussia was to have
Prussia under Frederick the Great 431
an army sufficiently strong to defend a kingdom without
natural boundaries and stretching in detached provinces all
the way from the Rhine to the Niemen. The soldiers at first
were volunteers, recruited in different parts of Germany,
but it became necessary to fill up the gaps in the ranks by com-
pulsory levies among the peasants. This marked the begin-
ning of universal military service in Prussia. Carefully trained
officers, appointed from the nobility and advanced only on
merit, enforced an iron discipline. The soldiers, it was said,
feared their commanders more than they did the enemy.
The Great Elector's grandson, Frederick William I, may
stand as the representative of Prussian militarism. His
brother monarchs were greatly amused when he Frederick
formed a company of giant grenadiers, whom he William I,
treated as his pets and for whom he ransacked
Europe. It was the king's sole indulgence; otherwise he
lived with the utmost frugality and saved every possible penny
for his army and his war chest. At the end of Frederick Wil-
liam's reign, Prussia, with a population of only two and a half
millions, could put eighty thousand men in the field, half as
many as France and nearly as many as Austria. The king
himself did almost no fighting. He was too fond of his well-
drilled regiments, his ''blue children," as he called them, to
risk them in battle. What could be done with them was shown
by his son and successor, Frederick the Great.
155. Prussia under Frederick the Great,
1740-1786
As crown prince of Prussia Frederick had led a hard life.
His stern and crabbed father wished to make him only a soldier
and discouraged every pursuit which did not con- ^j^^
tribute to this end. But the young man developed youthful
other tastes. He learned to play the flute, re- ^^®^®"*=^
ceived secret lessons in Latin, read French plays, and filled his
mind with the speculations of French philosophers. WiUiam,
seeing his son apparently absorbed in frivolity^ treated him
432
The European Balance of Power
with such harshness that he even tried to run away. The
attempt failed, and the crown prince lay for a time under
sentence of death as a deserter. His punishment took the
form of an arduous,
slavehke training for the
duties of future kingship.
"If he kicks or rears
again," said his father,
''he shall forfeit the suc-
cession to the crown, and
even Hfe itself." But
Frederick did not kick
or rear again. Hence-
forth he labored so dili-
gently as to win back
the esteem of his father,
who no longer feared to
leave the throne to one
unworthy of occupying it.
^ ^ . , , Frederick
Fredenck's
personality became kmg
»^^ at the age
character ^
of twenty-
eight. He was rather be-
low the average height and inclined to stoutness, good look-
ing, with the fair hair of North Germans and blue-gray eyes
of extraordinary brilliancy. His character had been shaped
by the stern experiences of his youth, which left him selfish
and unsympathetic, cynical and crafty. He was not a man
to inspire affection among his intimates, but with the mass
of his subjects he was undeniably popular. Innumerable
stories circulated in Prussia about the simpHcity, good humor,
and devotion to duty of old "Father Fritz."
In the same year, 1740, in which Frederick became king of
Maria Prussia, the Hapsburg emperor died, leaving no
Theresa g^j^ qj. brother to succeed him. The emperor,
however, had secured the solemn promise of Prussia and the
Frederick the Great
A painting by H. Pataky.
Prussia under Frederick the Great
433
other European powers to recognize his daughter, Maria
Theresa, as the sole heir of his undivided dominions. She
was a strikingly handsome woman, deeply religious, and
unusually able; in every respect a worthy antagonist to
Frederick, who became her almost lifelong foe.
The Hapsburg possessions, scattered over a great part of
pT^ Hapsburg Lands 1526 A.D.
|^:,iCM Acquisitions 1526-1789 A.D.
Territory lost 1526-1789
A.D. is shown by heavy
black outline
Hapsburg Possessions, 1526-1789 a.d.
Europe and inhabited by Hungarians, Bohemians, Nether-
landers, Italians, and Germans, seemed ready Acquisition
to break up when Maria Theresa assumed the ®^ Silesia
crown. Frederick chose as his share of the spoils the large
and rich province of Silesia, whose population was mainly
German. He suddenly led his army into Silesia and overran
the country without much difficulty. It was sheer robbery,
without a shadow of justification. As the king afterwards
confessed in his Memoirs, "Ambition, interest, and the desire
of making people talk about me carried the day; and I de-
cided for war."
Frederick's action precipitated a general European conflict.
434
The European Balance of Power
Outbreak of
the Seven
Years' War
1756
France, Spain, and Bavaria allied themselves with Prussia,
in order to dismember the Hapsburg possessions,
Austrian while Great Britain and Holland, anxious to pre-
Succession, serve the balance of power, took the side of Austria.
Things might have gone hard with Maria Theresa
but for the courage and energy which she displayed and the
support of her Hungarian subjects. She had to cede Silesia to
Frederick, but lost no other territory. In 1748 all the warring
countries agreed to a mutual restoration of conquests (with the
exception of Silesia) and signed
the Peace of ALx-la-Chapelle.^
Maria Theresa still hoped
to recover her lost province.
As most of the
European sover-
eigns were either
afraid or jealous
of Frederick, she found no
great difficulty in forming a
coalition against him. Russia,
France, Sweden, and Saxony
all entered it. Most of Europe
thus united in arms to dis-
member the small Prussian
state.
It happened, however, that
at the head of this small state
was a man of military genius,
capable of infusing into others his own undaunted spirit and
Course supported by subjects disciplined, patient, and
of the war loyal. Furthermore, Great Britain in the Seven
Years' War was an ally of Prussia. British gold subsidized
the Prussian armies, and British troops, by fighting the French
in Germany, India, and America, weakened Prussia's most
dangerous enemy. Frederick conducted a purely defensive
warfare, thrusting now here and now there against his slower-
^ For the War of the Austrian Succession outside of Europe, see pages 447 and 469.
Maria Theresa
%
\j
.-" 1
(n
(:'
^o
A
n II
^
- ( ii
Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain 435
•moving adversaries, who never learned to act in concert and
exert their full force simultaneously. Even so, the struggle
was desperately unequal. The Russians occupied East
Prussia, penetrated Brandenburg, and even captured
Berlin. Faced by the gradual wearing-down of his armies,
an empty treasury, and an impoverished country, Frederick
more than once meditated suicide. What saved him was the
accession of a new tsar. This ruler happened to be a warm
admirer of the Prussian king and at once withdrew from the
war. Maria Theresa, deprived of her eastern ally, now had
to come to terms and leave Frederick in secure possession of
Silesia. Soon afterwards the Peace of Paris between France
and Great Britain brought the Seven Years' War to an end
(1763).^
This most bloody contest, which cost the lives of nearly a
million men, seemed to settle little or nothing in Europe except
the Silesian question. Yet the Seven Years' issue of
War really marks an epoch in European history. *^® ^"
The young Prussian kingdom appeared henceforth as one of the
great powers of the Continent and as the only rival in Ger-
many of the old Hapsburg monarchy. From this time it was
inevitable that Prussia and Austria would struggle for pre-
dominance, and that the smaller German states would group
themselves around one or the other. Frederick, of course,
like all the Hohenzollerns, fought simply for the aggrandize-
ment of Prussia, but the results of his work became manifest
a century later when the German Empire came into being,
156. Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain
At a time when absolute monarchs held sway in Prussia,
Russia, Austria, France, and other Continental countries,
the people of Great Britain had a constitutional ^^^ ^^
monarchy, limited by Parliament and the courts. Settlement,
The concessions which they had wrung from their
reluctant sovereigns were embodied in various state papers, such
^ For the Seven Years' War outside of Europe, see pages 448 and 469.
436 The European Balance of Power
as the Great Charter, the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus
Act, and the Bill of Rights. To these documents of pohtical
Hberty there was now added the Act of Settlement. It pro-
vided that in case William III or his sister-in-law Anne died
without heirs, the crown should pass to Sophia, electress of
Hanover, and her descendants. She was the granddaughter of
James I and a Protestant. This arrangement deliberately
excluded a number of nearer representatives of the Stuart house
from the succession, because they were Roman Catholics.
Parliament thus asserted in the strongest way the right of the
British people to choose their o\vn rulers.
Queen Anne died in 17 14, and in accordance with the Act of
Settlement the son of Sophia of Hanover, George I, ascended
Accession the throne. He was the first member of the Han-
of the overian dynasty, which has continued to reign in
Hanoverian ^ ^ . . , , ^ . ^ t
dynasty, Great Britam to the present tmie. George I
1714 could not speak English and preferred Hanover
to his adopted country. His son, George II, was also much
more a German than an Englishman. Both these kings took
little interest in British affairs and gave to their ministers a
free hand in the conduct of the government.
During the reigns of the first two Georges the cabinet system
assumed very much its present form. The cabinet consists of
Development ^ small number of ministers, who sit in Parliament
of the and form what is really a parliamentary committee.
cabinet rj.^^^ ^^^^ received its name because it met, not
in the larger council chamber, but in a ''cabinet," or smaller
room, apart. The rise of political parties made it desirable for
the king to select all his cabinet ministers from that party —
either Whigs or Tories — which commanded a majority in the
House of Commons, for otherwise the royal measures would be
pretty sure to be frustrated. Until the accession of George I
the king always attended cabinet meetings; George did not do
so because he could not either understand or be understood in
the deliberations. Since his time the British sovereign has not
been a member of the cabinet.
The first two Hanoverians naturally favored the Whigs,
Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain 437
The Whig
ascendancy
The Tories
who had brought about the "Glorious Revolution" and passed
the Act of Settlement. The Whig party included
the great lords, most of the bishops and town clergy,
the Nonconformists, and the merchants, shop-
keepers, and other members of the middle class,
at this time were
very unpopular, being
supposed to desire a
second restoration of
the Stuarts. England
now came under the
rule of the Whigs, who
had a large majority
in the House of Com-
mons.
The most eminent
of the Whig leaders
was Wil- Ministry of
Ham Pitt William Pitt,
the Elder, """""
a fiery orator, an
ardent patriot, and an
incorruptible states-
man. He became the
real, though not the
nominal, head of the
cabinet shortly after
the opening of the
Seven Years' War. It was a dark hour for the British. Fred-
erick the Great, their ally on the Continent, had met severe
reverses, and the French under Montcalm threatened to over-
run the American colonies. But Pitt had confidence in his
ability. "I am sure," he said, "that I can save the country,
and that no one else can." Save it he did. The "Great
Commoner" infused new vigor into the conduct of the war;
aroused the martial spirit of the nation; and selected the
commanders who gained victory after victory over the French
William Pitt, Earl of Qhatham
A painting by Richard Brompton in the possession
of Earl Stanhope at Chevening, England.
438 The European Balance of Power
on the sea, in India, and in America. Great Britain, as
Frederick the Great said, had at length "borne a man."
Thanks to Pitt's memorable ministry, that country emerged
from the Seven Years' War a world-power and great imperial
state.
The accession in 1760 of George III marked a notable at-
tempt to revive in Great Britain the ideas of personal rule
Personal associated with the Stuarts. "George, be a king,"
rule of his German mother had told him, and this advice
^^^^® he tried his best to follow. Taking advantage
of a House of Commons then utterly unrepresentative of the
people and packed with his supporters (the "king's
friends"), George III set about the restoration of absolutism.
His money, patronage, and influence were liberally used
to bribe and reward the men who would do the royal
bidding.
After ten years of unremitting effort the triumph of George
III appeared to be complete. The Whigs retired to the back-
Lord North's ground, and a Tory ministry, headed by Lord
ministry, North, came into office. North was a mere figure-
head; behind the scenes and moving them as he
willed stood the sinister figure of the king. To this would-be
despot, therefore, belongs the chief responsibility for the meas-
ures of oppression which provoked the resistance of the
Thirteen Colonies and resulted in their separation from the
mother country. The American Revolution was to a large
extent the work of George III.
The failure of George III and his subservient Parliament to
subdue the colonists led to a political upheaval. Lord North's
ministry resigned, and the discredited king be-
Restoration i 1 r • %
of constitu- came the most unpopular 01 sovereigns. Great
tional Britain now returned to the principles of constitu-
monarchy . ^ ,. . , ^ ^ • ^ ^
tional or limited monarchy, which have smce
been adopted by so many countries in the Old World. In the
New World, as we shall shortly learn, the American Revolution
gave birth to a nation dedicated to the principles of republican
government.
Constitutional Monarchy in Great Britain 439
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the territorial gains made by Russia in Europe
under Peter the Great. 2. On an outline map indicate the additions to the Hohen-
zoUern dominions made by Frederick the Great. 3. What illustrations of inter-
national immoraUty are found in this chapter? 4. Who were Charles XII, Maria
Theresa, William Pitt the Elder, and the Great Elector? 5. How was Russia
until the time of Peter the Great rather an "annex of Asia" than a part of Europe?
6. What did Peter the Great mean by saying, "It is not land I want, but water"?
7. "The Dnieper made Russia Byzantine, the Volga made it Asiatic. It was for
the Neva to make it European." Can you explain this statement? 8. Why has
Charles XII been called the "last of the Vikings"? 9. Why has the defeat of
Charles XII at Poltava been included among the world's decisive battles? 10. Com-
pare the respective boundaries of the Arabian and Ottoman empires (maps facing
pages 78 and 424). 11. How did Russia's share of Poland compare in size with
the shares of Austria and Prussia (map on page 427)? 12. Show that the geo-
graphical situation of West Prussia made it an extremely important addition to
the Hohenzollern possessions. 13. Account for the development of both absolut-
ism and militarism in Prussia. 14. How did Frederick II win the designation of
"the Great"? 15. In what respects does the President's cabinet in the United
States differ from the British cabinet? 16. What are some of the accusations against
George III as set forth in the Declaration of Independence?
CHAPTER XVIII
COMMERCE AND COLONIES IN THE SEVENTEENTH
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES ^
157. Mercantilism and Trading Companies
Until 1600 Spain and Portugal had chiefly profited by the
geographical discoveries and colonizing movements of the
„ . , preceding century. The decline of these two
for colonial countries enabled other European nations to step
empire -^^^ ^^^-j, p^^^^g g^g rivals for colonial empire and
the sovereignty of the seas. The Dutch were the first in the
field, followed later by the French and the English.
Many motives inspired the colonizing movement of the
seventeenth century. Political aims had considerable weight.
Both France and England, for instance, desired
Motives fo^ colonial dependencies in order to restrict the
overweening power of Spain in America. The
religious impulse also played a part, as when Jesuit mis-
sionaries penetrated the American wilderness to convert the
Indians to Christianity and when the Pilgrim Fathers sought
in the New World a refuge from persecution. But the main
motive for colonization was economic in character. Colonies
were planted in order to furnish the home land with raw mate-
rials for its manufactures, new markets, and favorable oppor-
tunities for the investment of capital in commerce and industry.
Most European statesmen in the seventeenth century ac-
^jjg • cepted the principles of the mercantile system,
mercantile Mercantilism ^ is the name given to an economic
system doctrine which emphasized the importance of
manufactures and foreign trade, rather than agriculture and
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxix, "The Ab-
origines of the Pacific."
^ Latin mercans, "merchant."
440
Mercantilism and Trading Companies 441
domestic trade, as sources of national wealth. Some Mercantilists
even argued that the prosperity of a nation is in exact proportion
to the amount of money in circulation within its borders. They
urged, therefore, that each country should so conduct its deal-
ings with other countries as to attract to itself the largest pos-
sible share of the precious metals. This could be most easily
done by fostering exports of manufactures, through bounties
and special privileges, and by discouraging imports, except
of raw materials. If the country sold more to foreigners than
it bought of them, then there would be a "favorable balance of
trade," and this balance the foreigners would have to make up
in coin or bullion.
Large and flourishing colonies seemed essential to the success
of the mercantile system. Colonies were viewed simply as
estates to be worked for the advantage of the Mercantilism
country fortunate enough to possess them. The and colonial
home government did its best to prevent other ^°^^^
governments from trading with its dependencies. At the same
time it either prohibited or placed serious restrictions on colonial
manufactures which might compete with those of the mother
country. Portugal and Spain in the sixteenth century, and now
Holland, France, and England in the seventeenth century,
pursued this colonial policy.
The home government did not itself engage in colonial
commerce. It ceded this privilege to private companies organ-
ized for the purpose. A company, in return for
the monopoly of trade with the inhabitants of a compares
colony, was expected to govern and protect them.
The first form of association was the regulated company.
Each member, after paying the entrance fee, traded with his
own capital at his own risk and kept his profits „
1 . ir w . , . 1 • . Regulated
to himself. After a time this loose association and joint-
gave way to the joint-stock company. The ^*°^^ .
, ., * , r 1 1 . companies
members contributed to a common fund and, in-
stead of trading themselves, intrusted the management of the
business to a board of directors. Any one who invested his
capital would then receive a "dividend" on his "shares" of the
442 Commerce and Colonies
joint stock, provided the enterprise was successful. The
joint-stock companies of the seventeenth century thus formed
a connecting link with modern corporations.
Trading companies were very numerous. For instance, Hol-
land, France, England, Sweden, and Denmark, as well as Scot-
Examoies of ^^^^ ^^^ Prussia, each chartered its own ''East
trading India Company." There were English companies
companies organized for trade with Russia, the Baltic lands,
Turkey, India, China, Morocco, Guiana, the Bermudas, the
Canaries, and Hudson Bay. Still other companies colonized
North America.
158. The Dutch Colonial Empire
Holland hes at the mouths of the largest rivers of western
Europe, the Scheldt, Meuse, and Rhine, thus securing easy
communication with the interior. It is not far
HoUand as distant from Denmark and Norway and is only
a commer- ^ fg^ hours' sail from the French and English
^° coasts. These advantages of position, combined
with a small, infertile territory, never capable of supporting
more than a fraction of the inhabitants by agriculture, naturally
turned the Dutch to the sea. They began their maritime career
as fishermen, "exchanging tons of herring for tons of gold,"
and gradually built up an extensive carrying trade between the
Mediterranean and Baltic lands. After the discovery of the
Cape route to the Indies, Dutch traders met Portuguese mer-
chants at Lisbon and there obtained spices and other eastern
wares for distribution throughout Europe.
But the Dutch were soon to become seamen on a much more
extensive scale. The union of Portugal with Spain in 1580 ^
enabled Philip II to close the port of Lisbon to
Srjeditions the Netherlanders, who had already begun their
to the East revolt against the Spanish monarch. Philip also
seized a large number of Dutch ships lying in
Spanish and Portuguese harbors, thus disclosing his purpose
1 See page 355.
'The Dutch Colonial Empire
443
to destroy, if possible, the profitable commerce of his enemies.
The Dutch now began to make expeditions directly to the East
Indies, whose trade had been monopolized by Portugal for
almost a century. They captured many Portuguese and Span-
ish ships, obtained ports on the coasts of Africa and India, and
soon established themselves securely in the Far East.
East Indies
In 1602 the Dutch government chartered the East India
Company and gave to it the monopoly of trade and rule from
the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Strait Dut^h
of Magellan. The company operated chiefly East India
in the rich islands of the Malay Archipelago. o^^P^^y
Here much bitter fighting took place with the Portuguese,
who were finally driven from nearly all of their eastern posses-
sions. Ceylon, Malacca, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and the Mo-
luccas, or Spice Islands, passed into the hands of the Dutch.
The headquarters of the Dutch East India Company were
located at Batavia in Java. This city still remains one of the
leading commercial centers of the East Indies.
444 Commerce and Colonies •
The Dutch possessions included the Cape of Good Hope,
which they took from the enfeebled Portuguese in 1652. At
The Dutch ^^^^ there was no intention of founding a colony,
in South for the Cape region seemed valuable only as a
^"*^* way-station on the route to the Indies. Before
long, however, Dutch emigrants began to arrive in increasing
numbers, together with Huguenots from France after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes. These farmer-settlers, or
Boers, passed slowly into the interior and laid there the foun-
dation of Dutch sway in South Africa. The Cape of Good
Hope became a British possession at the end of the eighteenth
century, but the Boer republics retained their independence
until our own day.
Fired by their success and enriched by their gains in the
East, the Dutch started out to form another colonial empire
jj^g in the West. It was an agent of the Dutch East
Dutch in India Company, Henry Hudson, who, seeking a
™®"*^* northwest passage to the East Indies, discovered in
1609 the river which bears his name. The Dutch sent out
ships to trade with the natives and built a fort on Manhattan
Island. In 162 1 the Dutch West India Company received a
charter for commerce and colonization between the west
coast of Africa and the east coast of the Americas. The
company's little station on Manhattan Island became the
flourishing port of New Amsterdam, from which the Dutch
settlement of New Netherland spread up the Hudson River.
The company also secured a large part of Guiana, as well as
some of the West Indies. New Netherland before long passed
into the hands of the English, but Holland has still a foothold
in America in the island of Curasao and the rich province
of Surinam or Dutch Guiana.
The Dutch in the seventeenth century were the leaders of
commercial Europe. They owned more merchant ships than
Commercial ^^^ Other people and almost monopoHzed the
decUne of carrying trade from the East Indies and between
HoUand ^^^ Mediterranean and the Baltic. Yet with the
advent of the eighteenth century the Dutch had clearly begun
Rivalry of France and England in India 445
to fall behind their French and English rivals in the race for
commerce and colonies. Their possessions were trading posts
for merchants rather than real colonies. They also suffered
from trade warfare with England during the Commonwealth
and the reign of Charles II. The War of the Spanish Suc-
cession,^ in which Holland was a member of the Grand Alliance
against Louis XIV, struck a further blow at Dutch prosperity.
Though Holland fell from the first rank of commercial states,
it has kept most of its dominions overseas to the present time.
159. Rivalry of France and England in India (to 1763)
The Indian Ocean forms a vast gulf of crescent shape, having
on the western side Africa and Madagascar and on the eastern
side Australia and the Malay Islands, while directly The Indian
opposite its northern extremity lies Asia. The Ocean
Red Sea and Persian Gulf, which form the two most important
offshoots of the Indian Ocean, approach within a short distance
of the Mediterranean. These maritime thoroughfares furnished
the Mediterranean peoples with the shortest and most con-
venient routes to India, until the discovery of the Cape route
by the Portuguese.
The Portuguese and Dutch enjoyed a profitable trade with
India, which supplied them with cotton, indigo, spices, dyes,
drugs, precious stones, and other articles of luxury India and
in European demand. In the seventeenth century, Europe
however, the French and English became the principal competi-
tors for Indian trade, and in the eighteenth century the rivalry
between them led to the defeat of the French and the secure
establishment of England's rule over India. A region half as
large as Europe, with a population of about two hundred millions,
began to pass under the control of a single European power.
The conquest of India was made possible by the decline of the
Mogul Empire, founded by the Turkish chieftain India under
Baber.2 That empire, though renowned for its the Moguls
luxury and magnificence, never achieved a real unification
1 See page 404. ^ See page 184.
446
Commerce and Colonies
Rivalry of France and England in India 447
of India. The country continued to be a collection of separate
provinces whose inhabitants were isolated from one another by
differences of race, language, and religion. The Indian peoples
had no feeling of nationality, no spirit of resistance to foreign
rule, and when the Mogul Empire broke up they were ready,
with perfect indifference, to accept any other government able
to keep order among them.
Neither France nor England began by making annexations
in India. Each country merely established an East India
company, giving to it a monopoly of trade between j^^ ^^g^
India and the home land. The French com- India
pany, chartered during the reign of Louis XIV, ^°°^P^"^®^
had its headquarters at Pondicherry, on the southeastern
coast of India. The English company, which received its
first charter from Elizabeth in 1600, possessed three widely
separated settlements at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.
The French were the first to attempt the task of empire-
making in India, under the leadership of Dupleix, the able
governor-general of Pondicherry. Dupleix saw
clearly that the dissolution of the Mogul Empire
and the defenseless condition of the native states opened the
way to the European conquest of India. In order that the
French should profit by this unique opportunity, he entered
into alliance with some of the Indian princes, fortified Pondi-
cherry, and managed to form an army by enlisting native sol-
diers ("sepoys"), who were drilled by French officers. The
English afterwards did the same thing, and to this day ''se-
poys" comprise the bulk of the Indian forces of Great Britain.
Upon the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession the
French captured Madras, but it was restored to the Enghsh
by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Dupleix continued, however,
to extend French influence in the south and east of India.
The English could not look unconcernedly upon the progress
of their French rivals, and it was a young Englishman, Robert
Clive, whose genius checkmated Dupleix's am-
bitious schemes. To Clive, more than any other
man, Great Britain owes the beginning of her present Indian
448
Commerce and Colonies
Empire. Clive had been a clerk in the employ of the East
India Company at Madras, but he soon exchanged his office
stool for an ensign's commission and entered upon a miUtary
career. His first success was gained in southeastern India.
Here he managed to overthrow an upstart prince whom Du-
pleix supported and to restore Enghsh influence in that part of
the peninsula. Dupleix was recalled in disgrace to France,
where he died a disappointed man.
Clive soon found an opportunity for even greater service.
The native ruler of Bengal, a man ferocious in temper and con-
Battle of sumed with hatred of the English, suddenly
Piassey, captured Calcutta. He allowed one hundred and
^^^^ forty-six prisoners to be confined in a tiny room,
where they passed the sultry night without water. Next morn-
ing only twenty-three came
forth alive from the ''Black
Hole." This atrocity was
sufficiently avenged by the
wonderful victory of Pias-
sey, in which Clive with a
handful of soldiers over-
threw an Indian army of
fifty thousand men. Piassey
showed conclusively that
native troops were no match
for Europeans and made
the English masters of
Bengal, with its rich delta,
mighty rivers, and teeming
population.
Meanwhile, the outbreak
of the Seven Years' War in
Europe renewed the contest between France and England on
The Seven Indian soil. The EngHsh were completely successful,
Years' War for their control of the sea prevented the French
^ ^* government from sending reinforcements to India.
France recovered her territorial possessions b}^ the Peace of
Robert, Lord Clive
A painting by Nathaniel Dance. In the Council
Chamber of Government House, Calcutta.
I r
Settlement of Virginia and Massachusetts 449
Paris in 1763, but agreed not to fortify them. This meant that
she gave up her dream of an empire in India. England hence-
forth enjoyed a free hand in shaping the destinies of that vast
region.
160. The English Settlement of Virginia and
Massachusetts
Enghshmen, under the Tudors, had done very Httle as colo-
nists of the New World. Henry VII, indeed, encouraged
John Cabot to make the discoveries of 1497-98, on Lateness of
which the English claims to North America were English
based. During Elizabeth's reign Sir Martin Frob- ^^^l^^^^^tion
isher explored the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and
another "sea-dog," Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sought without
success to colonize Newfoundland. Gilbert's half-brother,
Sir Walter Raleigh, planned a settlement in the region then
called Virginia, but lack of support from home caused it to
perish miserably.^ The truth was that sixteenth-century
Englishmen had first to break the power of Spain in Europe
before they could give much attention to America. The
destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 ^ at length enabled
them to establish American colonies without interference from
Spain.
Having found the task of private colonization too great for
his energies and purse, Raleigh assigned his interests in Virginia
to a group of merchants and adventurers. Noth- The London
ing was done for several years, but at last in 1606 ^^^
.1 1 • J r XX 1 r . Plymouth
they obtamed from James I a charter for the companies,
incorporation of two joint-stock companies, one ^®®^
centering in London and the other in Plymouth. The charter
claimed for England all the North American continent from
the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree, north latitude.
The London Company had the exclusive right to colonize the
territory between Cape Fear and the Potomac River, and the
Plymouth Company had a similar right in the area between
the Hudson River and the Bay of Fundy. Both companies
1 See page 327. 2 See page 365.
450
Commerce and Colonies
might occupy the intervening region, but neither was to estab-
lish a colony within one hundred miles of a settlement made by
the other.
The London Company promptly took steps to colonize its
share of Virginia. A party of one hundred and twenty men
left the shores of
Jamestown England on New
settlement. Year's Day, 1 607,
1607
and after four
wearisome months on the
ocean reached the capes of
Chesapeake Bay.^ They en-
tered the bay, and on a
peninsula in the broad river
which they named after the
king who gave them their
charter founded Jamestown,
the first permanent settle-
ment of Englishmen in the
New World.
Colonization in the seven-
teenth century formed a
death-struggle with nature; and the privations endured by the
settlers of Virginia are a famiUar story in American
history. Of more than six thousand people who
arrived between 1607 and 1624, four-fifths died of hunger and
disease or at the hands of the Indians. The future of Virginia
was not assured until the colonists turned to tobacco raising,
for which the yellow soil is unsurpassed. "The weed," as King
James called it in derision, brought a high price abroad, and its
cultivation quickly became the principal industry of Virginia.
It was the only staple product which the colony exported to
England.
The London Company did not long enjoy the favor of James I.
He had no liking for the Puritans who controlled it and
turned the meetings of the stockholders into poUtical gath-
^ Named Cape Henry and Cape Charles, for the two sons of James I.
Virginia
Virginia
Settlement of Virginia and Massachusetts 451
erings for resistance to the king's measures. James finally
brought suit against the company in the courts
and had its charter annulled. Virginia now be- royal
came a royal province and so remained throughout province,
the colonial period, except for a few years of
Puritan supremacy in England. The English king appointed
Ruins of the Brick Church at Jamestown
Jamestown is now an island, for the sandy beach which once connected
it with the mainland has disappeared. Only the ruins of the brick church
erected in 1639 and some of the tombs in the churchyard remain.
the governor, but as a rule allowed the settlers to manage
their own affairs.
The colonization of New England was begun by the Pil-
grims, who belonged to the sect of Independents or Separatists.^
Persecuted by Elizabeth and James I, many ^, .
TT 11 T T i-i r The Pilgrims
Separatists went to Holland, where liberty of
conscience was allowed. The prospect of losing their English
speech and customs among the Dutch did not please them,
and presently the exiles began to long for another home, where
"they might more glorify God, do more good to their country,
better provide for their posterity, and live to be more refreshed
1 See page 385 and note 2.
452
Commerce and Colonies
by their labors, than ever they could do in Holland." One
congregation, dwelling at Leyden, decided to emigrate to
America. Having obtained from the London Company a
patent to colonize within the Umits of Virginia, a party of one
hundred and two men, women, and children set sail in the
Mayflower. They intended to settle somewhere south of the
fc^-.ge
Captain John Smith's Map of New England
In 1614 Captain John Smith explored the American coast from Maine to Cape
Cod and called the country New England. On the map which he drew, the young son of
James I, afterward Charles I, gave English and Scottish names to more than thirty places.
Of these, Charles River, Cape Ann, and Plymouth still remain as originally designated.
Hudson River, but when they sighted land it was the peninsula
of Cape Cod. After exploring the coast, the emigrants came to
the sheltered harbor which John Smith had already named
Plymouth on his map, and here they landed.
The Pilgrims found themselves outside the territory granted
Settlement of Virginia and Massachusetts 453
to the London Company and hence could not use their patent
for colonization. Before leaving the Mayflower, ^j^^
therefore, they took steps to provide for the Mayflower
orderly rule of their little community. The ^^^^^
leaders of the party signed their names to an agreement estab-
lishing a "civil body poHtic," and they promised to obey all
laws necessary for the
''general good." The
Mayflower Compact
reveals the Pilgrim in-
stinct for self-govern-
ment.
To settle on the
New England coast in
mid-winter ^.
The
w^as a grim Plymouth
business. J^^i^"'^^*'
1620
More than
half of the Pilgrims
died before spring
came, and after ten
years they had in-
creased to little more
than three hundred. Yet the Pilgrims did not despair, for
they were determined to found a religious asylum in the
American wilderness. "Let it not be grievous to you," said
their friends in England, " that you have been instruments to
break the ice for others; the honor shall be yours to the
world's end." Instruments they were. The Pilgrim settle-
ment at Plymouth formed the forerunner of that great Puritan
exodus which in the third decade of the seventeenth century
colonized Massachusetts.
The colony of Massachusetts ^ had its origin in the desire
of the Puritans to found a self-governing community far re-
moved from Stuart absolutism in poHtics and religion. Some
Puritan leaders purchased a large tract of land from the
1 An Algonkin Indian word meaning "Great Hills."
The " Mayflower
From the model in the Smithsonian Institution
at Washington.
454 Commerce and Colonies
Plymouth Company and obtained from Charles I a charter
Massa- incorporating them as the Company of Massa-
chusetts, chusetts Bay. The ''great emigration" began in
1630 under the guidance of John Winthrop, who
served as the first governor. The settlers established them-
selves at Salem, Boston, Charlestown, and other places on
Massachusetts Bay. More than twenty thousand Puritans
^/^na^t'^iJ^^y^nCTi. JfTvAofi^a^ts are -^^^ct-^^./c^
J^y -f^tfc ^t^cje-rt-ff Sofc-m*t.(y (s_'i*<^-f^cc^ -^JV^^fi-^cc 0/ /{oif^etn^
^cv-ocnce-, offcnis ff^^cc<(Jl:; ^>cnJ(: ^y Vcrfvut /^^*^of A t^ai^t..
The Mayflower Compact
Facsimile from History of Plimoth Plantation by Governor Bradford; State House, Boston.
left England for America during the next ten years. This was
the period when Charles I ruled without a Parhament, and
when Archbishop Laud harried so cruelly all who did not
conform to the Anglican Church. After the opening of the
Long Parliament in 1640 the Puritans found enough to do at
home, and Massachusetts received few more immigrants during
the colonial period.
The charter which Charles I gave to the Puritans did not
require that the seat of government should be in England,
The Thirteen Colonies 455
as had been the case with previous grants. Accordingly, the
company decided to take its charter to Massa- „
, . , , . , Massachu-
chusetts and to found there an almost mdependent setts a royal
state. King Charles was too busy with domestic 5*^°^^^^®'
problems to interfere with these bold Puritans
overseas, and their friend, Cromwell, after his rise to power,
did not molest them. Charles II, however, took away their
cherished charter, and James II treated the liberties of English-
men in America with the same contempt with which he treated
their liberties at home. Soon after his accession William III
granted them a new charter. It allowed the people to have a
representative assembly, but required them to accept a governor
appointed by the king. Massachusetts henceforth formed a
royal province.
161. The Thirteen Colonies
Massachusetts was the foremost of the Puritan settlements.
Before the end of the seventeenth century it had absorbed
Plymouth and had thrown out the offshoots which ^^^ j^^^
presently became Rhode Island, Connecticut, and England
New Hampshire.i These four New England ^'"^"'^^^
colonies formed a distinct geographical group, while the cir-
cumstances of their foundation also gave them a political and
religious character unlike that of the other colonies.
Another group of colonies grew up around Virginia as their
center. To the north of Virginia arose the colony of Maryland,
which Charles I granted to George Calvert, Lord
Baltimore. He died before the charter was
actually issued, and it was given to his son, Cecil, who estab-
hshed the first settlement. Maryland, so called in honor of
the queen of England, became a refuge for persecuted Roman
Catholics, as well as a great family estute of the barons of
Baltimore. The charter conferred upon them the rights and
privileges of feudal lords. They owned the land, appointed
^ The territory now included within Vermont was claimed by both New York
and New Hampshire in colonial times. Maine continued to be a part of Massa-
chusetts until 1820.
456
Commerce and Colonies
The Exploration of North America by the Middle of the
Seventeenth Century
The Thirteen Colonies 457
officers, and made the laws with the assistance of the free
settlers. Maryland, therefore, stands as the type of a pro-
prietary colony.
To the south of Virginia arose the colony of Carolina, out
of a grant by Charles II to a number of nobles whose property
had been confiscated in the Great Rebellion. The
The charter created a proprietary form of govern- Carolinas
ment similar to that of Maryland. It proved to be very un-
popular, however, and in the eighteenth century the two
Carolinas — for they had now divided — voluntarily put them-
selves under the king's protection as royal colonies.
The most important colonial achievement of the reign of
Charles II was the filling up of the gap between the northern
and southern colonies. English settlement in j^^^ york
this central region began as the result of conquest and New
from another European power. New York was ^^^^^^
originally New Netherland, a Dutch colony planted by the
Dutch West India Company. In 1664 the colony passed into
the hands of the English. Charles II granted it to his brother
James, duke of York and Albany, who afterwards became king
of England. James, in turn, bestowed the region between the
Hudson and Delaware rivers to two court favorites, and it
received the name of New Jersey. The EngUsh possessions
now stretched without a break along the whole Atlantic
coast from Nova Scotia to Florida.
The colony of Pennsylvania likewise dated from the time of
Charles II, who granted it to William Penn, the Quaker, as
an asylum for his sect. Penn was made proprietor, Pennsylvania
with much the same rights which Lord Baltimore and
possessed in Maryland. The small Swedish settle- ® *^"®
ment on the Delaware had been established by the South Com-
pany of Sweden, under the auspices of Gustavus Adolphus, who
hoped that it would become the ''jewel of his kingdom." The
Dutch soon annexed New Sweden, only to relinquish it, together
with their own colony, to the English. William Penn secured a
grant of the Delaware country, but at the opening of the eight-
eenth century it became a separate colony.
458 Commerce and Colonies
The southernmost of the Thirteen Colonies was also the last
to be settled. James Oglethorpe, a gallant Enghsh soldier,
founded Georgia in 1733, partly as a miHtary
outpost against the Spaniards, but chiefly as a
resort for poor debtors. The colony received its name in honor
of the reigning king,
A brief Account of the George 11.
Lately Cranccd by the
KING.
Under the GREAT .
Seal of England,
WILLIAM PENN
Both New England
and the southern colo-
Anglo-Saxon nies were
expansion chiefly
English in blood.
Under the GREAT . Many immigrants also
came from other parts
of the British Isles,
X o especially the so-called
Scotch -Irish — really
Englishmen who had
y^ND HIS settled in the Low-
H\ \ rr lands of Scotland and
eirS and Alllgns. afterwards in north-
Since (by the good Providence ol C,J. and ihe Favour of the K.u^) « CaStem irelanCl. i UC
Country in jlntncs is fallen to my Lot, 1 thought it not kf$ any • j. r /~»
Duty, then my Honeft Intf reft, to give fomc poblick notice of )c to emigrants irOm L^On-
ibc World, that ihofe of our own or other Niliuns, that are inclin'd . .
toTranrport Thetnrelves or Families beyond the Seas, may find ano- tlueUtal EurODe lU-
ther Country added to their Choice ; that if they fhall happen to like ^
the Place, Conditions, and Government, (fo far as the prcfent Infancy of ihirgt rl 1 1 H pH Ti'rpn r Vi T-Tl 1 frn P-
will allow us My profpe«; they tnay, if they pleafe. fix with me in the Pro- ^^UUCU ± iClH.ll XXU^UC
Vince. hereafter dc.cr.bcd. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^_
I The KlUC^ Title to thu Country before he granted ii. -T'J' ... £
It IS the Jm Ctnt'ium. or Law of Nations, that what ever Wafte. or uncut- CatlOU Ol tlie xL<CllCt 01
ted Country, it the Dlfcovery of any Prince, it is the right of that Prince that
was at the Charge of the DiCravery : Now this frtvimt is a Member of that IVTantpc: QnH rxPrmanci
p»rt of W«rrif4, which the King o/lr^UnJ, Anceftors have been at the aarge ^> ^^A LCb, ctllU VJCl lllctllS
t^Sr'"^' '"" """ "** "' '* *"'• "'" ''"' "" '" '"'"' '"* from the Rhenish Pal-
II. William ^. ^ ^, ,
atmate. The popula-
FiRST Page of Penn's "Account of .. r ., • , i,
Pennsylvania" ^lon of the middle
Reduced facsimile. colonies was f ar more
mixed. Besides Eng-
lish and a sprinkling of Celtic Scotch and Irish, it comprised
Dutch in New York, Swedes in Delaware, and Germans in Penn-
sylvania. But neither France, Holland, Sweden, nor Germany
contributed largely to the settlement of the Thirteen Colonies.
Transit of Civilization from England to America 459
162. Transit of Civilization from England to America
The English language prevailed almost everywhere in the
colonies, not, however, without quaint modifications of spelling
and. pronun- Language
and folk-
literature
Poor Richard y 173^,
A N
Almanack
FortheYearofChrift
7241
5742
y<J82
5494
ciation mtro-
duced by emi-
grants from different parts
of the mother country.
The emigrants also
brought many proverbs
and traditional sayings,
some of which were after-
wards printed by Benja-
min Franklin in Poor
Richard'' s Almanac. Old
ballads, once sung in me-
dieval England, were
chanted in colonial Amer-
ica. Old fairy tales and
nursery rhymes, which
had delighted generations
of English children, found
equally appreciative au-
diences in the American
wilderness. These varie-
ties of folk-literature were
not at first written down,
but were carried in the
memory by young and
old.
Nearly all the popular
festivals of the colonists came from England. The only im-
portant exception was Thanksgiving Day, which pop^iar
the Pilgrims began to celebrate immediately after festivals and
their first harvest. Many superstitions of the ^^P^^^titions
Middle Ages, including those relating to astrology, unlucky
Being the Firft after LEAP YEAR:
JrA makes fine* tf>e Creation Ye«rs
By the Account of the Eaftcrn Cretks
By the Latin Church, when O cm. y
By Hie Computation of ff^'ly
By the Roman CKronology
By the Jeivllb Rabbies
PVhereiti is contained
The Lunations, EcHpfes, Judgment cf
the Weather, Spring Tides, Planets Motions &
mutual Afpefts, Sun and Nloon's Ri(7ng and Set-
ting, Length of Days, Time of High Water,
Fairs, CourtJ, and obfcrvable Days
Fitted tothc Latitude of Forty Degrees^
and a Meridian of Five Hours Weft from Lmden^
but may without fcnfihic Error, fervc all the ad-
jacent Placcs» even from NewfoimdjAnd to Soatb'
Canlhia.
Jtfy RICHJRD SJUNDERS,?hilom,
PHILADELPHIA;
Printed and fold by B. FR^NKUN, at the New
Printing Office near tl»e Market.
Tbc Third Impicflion.
A Title-page of Poor Richard's
Almanac
Reduced facsimile.
460 Commerce and Colonies
days, demons, and magic, crossed the Atlantic to the New
World. The belief in witchcraft was likewise very common,
and at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, twenty persons suffered
death for this supposed crime. Witchcraft persecutions also
occurred in several other colonies.
Almost every variety of Protestantism was represented in the
colonies. The Church of England from the start had its strong-
. holds in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas,
and later in New York. After the Revolutionary
War it took the name of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but
retained nearly all the Anglican doctrines and ceremonies.
Puritanism flourished in New England, especially in Massa-
chusetts and Connecticut. The Puritan churches usually had
the Congregational form. Baptists were numerous in Rhode
Island, and Quakers in Pennsylvania. Wherever the Scotch-
Irish settled, they established Presbyterian churches.
The Toleration Act of 1689 ^ commended itself to the colonists,
many of whom were Dissenters or Nonconformists. ^ It was
Religious generally reenacted by the colonial assemblies,
toleration including those of Massachusetts, New York,
and Virginia. Religious toleration, however, did not extend
to Roman Catholics, who encountered much suspicion. Rhode
Island, which Roger Williams had founded as ''a shelter for
persons distressed for conscience," disfranchised Roman Catho-
lics in the eighteenth century. Maryland began with a broad
measure of toleration, for Lord Baltimore had opened the colony
to Anglicans and Puritans, as well as to members of his own
faith. Later, when the Protestants became a majority in
Maryland, severe anti-Catholic laws were passed. Outside
of these two colonies, Roman Catholics were under riiany
disabilities until after the Revolution. Jews were never numer-
ous in colonial America. They enjoyed freedom of worship,
but did not possess poHtical rights.
The Puritan clergy were generally well educated; and some
of them were very learned. They introduced into the New
World the English tradition in favor of higher education.
1 See pages 393-394- ^ See page 391.
Transit of Civilization from England to America 461
Harvard College was founded as early as 1636, and Yale, in
1 701. Before the Revolution colleges or universi- Higher
ties also existed in Rhode Island (Brown), New education
Hampshire (Dartmouth), New York (King's, later Columbia),
New Jersey (Rutgers and Princeton), Pennsylvania (University
of Pennsylvania),
and Virginia (Wil-
liam and Mary ^).
These institutions
devoted themselves
chiefly to the train-
ing of ministers.
New England led
the other colonies
in popular educa-
tion. A Massa-
chuse t ts law,
enacted as early
as 1647, required
every town of fifty
families to estabhsh
an elementary
school where chil-
dren could learn
to read and write.
The teachers were
to be paid either by
Time euts down all
Boch great andfmai).
tTf/iiVibeauteoiftWirc
M«dc David feck Ills
Life.
WhaUr in the Sea
God*s Voice obey^
Xtrxts the great did
die,
And {0 mult you & L
Touib forward flips
Death fooneit tiipv
Zacbeus he
Did climb tht Tret
Hrt Lord to fee,
A Page from the "New England Primer"
the parents of the children or by public taxation. Every town
of one hundred families was further required- to set Common
up a grammar school, in which students might schools
be prepared for college. This law became the model for similar
legislation throughout the United States. The middle and
southern colonies did not have a system of popular education.
A Virginia governor could even thank God that there were no
free schools or printing presses in the colony. Learning, he
believed, bred heresies, and books spread them.
^ Named after King William III and his queen.
462 Commerce and Colonies
All the colonists possessed the private rights which English-
men had won during centuries of struggle against despotic
The private kings. Free speech, freedom from arbitrary im-
rights of prisonment as secured by the writ of habeas corpus,
EngUshmen ^^^ ^^.^^ 1^^ j^^.^ formed part of our legal inheri-
tance from England. These and other private rights were
embodied in the Common law,^ as introduced into colonial
America. At the time of the Revolution the Common law
was adopted by the several states, thus becoming the foun-
dation of our own system of jurisprudence.
The English principle of representation was also carried to
the New World. Each colony had a representative assembly
Repre- modeled after the House of Commons. Virginia
sentative early led the way. The Puritans, who had gained
assem es control of the London Company, permitted the
Virginia colonists to form an assembly consisting of two depu-
ties freely elected by the inhabitants of each settlement. The
House of Burgesses, as it soon came to be called, met for the
first time in 161 9, in the chancel of the Httle church at James-
town. A few years later (1634) the freemen of each Massa-
chusetts town were allowed to send two deputies to act for them
at the General Court of the colony. New York, which had
been a Dutch possession, was the last of the colonies to receive
representative self-government (1684).
The separation of Parliament into two houses, which had
prevailed in England since the fourteenth century,^ accustomed
The bi- ^^^ colonists to the bicameral system. In all
camerai but two of the colonies the legislature consisted of
sys em ^ representative assembly, forming a lower house,
and a small council, forming an upper house.^ The council
assisted the governor and had some power of amending the
acts of the assembly.
The governor served as the link between the colonists and
England. In Rhode Island and Connecticut he was elected
1 See page 198. ^ See page 203.
' Pennsylvania and Georgia did not adopt the two-house arrangement until
after the Revolution.
Transit of Civilization from England to America 463
by the people; in Maryland and Pennsylvania he was ap-
pointed by the hereditary proprietor; and m the The
other (royal) colonies he was named by the king, governor
The governor might veto the bills passed by a colonial legis-
lature. Just as quarrels between king and Parliament were
frequent in England, so in colonial America there was constant
wrangling between governor and assembly, especially over
money matters. The assembly held the purse-strings, however,
and usually triumphed by refusing to grant supplies until the
governor came to its terms.
The unit of representation in the assemblies of the southern
colonies was the county, corresponding to the English shire.
The county also formed a judicial area. Justices county and
of the peace, chosen from the more important town
landowners of the county, met regularly as a sovernmen
court to try cases and assess taxes. The citizens of a New
England town, or township, governed themselves directly and
sent their own representatives to
the colonial assemblies. In fre-
quent town meetings they dis-
cussed all local affairs, made
appropriations for all local expen-
ses, and chose the town officials.
The titles of these officials, as well
as their functions, were often
borrowed from the mother-land,
showing that the colonists repro-
duced on American soil the char-
acteristic features of old English
local government.^ The middle
colonies adopted a mixture of the New England and southern
systems. Here both town and county were found, each with
its elective officers. This mixed system now prevails in per-
haps most of the American states.
No close political ties united the colonies. The differences
between them in industries, rehgion, manners, and customs
1 See page 132.
Join or Die
A device printed in Franklin's news-
paper, the " Pennsylvania Gazette."
Shows a wriggling rattlesnake cut into
pieces, with the initial letter of a
colony on each piece.
464 Commerce and Colonies
prevented their effective cooperation. Yet preparations for
union there had been, and signs of its coming. As early as
Disunion of 1643 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven (then
the colonists g^ separate colony), and Plymouth entered into a
league "for mutual help and strength in all our future concern-
ments." This league, known as the United Colonies of New
England, held together for forty years. Delegates from seven
colonies met in the Albany Congress of 1754 and discussed
Benjamin Frankhn's plan for forming a defensive union of all
the colonies. The plan fell through, but it set men to thinking
about the advantages of federation. After the close of the
"French and Indian War" the colonists, who had learned the
value of concerted action against a common foe, began to unite
in defense of their rights against king and Parliament.
163. French Settlements in Canada and
Louisiana
The French at the opening of the seventeenth century had
gained no foothold in the New World. For more than fifty
Lateness of Y^ars after the failure of Cartier's settlement,^
French they were so occupied with the Huguenot wars that
coomzation ^^^^ ^^^^ j.^^^^ thought to colonial expansion.
The single exception was the ill-starred colony which Admiral
de Coligny^ attempted to establish in Florida (1564). The
Spaniards quickly destroyed it, not only because the settlers
were Protestants, but also because a French settlement in Florida
directly threatened their West Indian possessions. The grow-
ing weakness of Spain, together with the cessation of the reli-
gious struggle, made possible a renewal of the colonizing
movement. The French again turned to the north, attracted by
the fur trade and the fisheries, and founded Canada during the
same decade that the English were founding Virginia.
The first great name in Canadian history is that of Samuel
Champiain de Champlain, who enjoyed the patronage of
and Canada Henry IV. Champlain explored the coast of Maine
and Massachusetts as far south as Plymouth, discovered the
1 See page 325. 2 See page 367.
French Settlements in Canada and Louisiana 465
beautiful lake now called after him, traced the course of the
St. Lawrence River, and also came upon lakes Ontario and
Huron. He set up a permanent French post at Quebec in
1608 and three years later founded Montreal. Champlain
served as the first governor of Canada.
The seventeenth century was an era of missionary zeal in
the Roman CathoHc Church, and Canada became the favorite
mission field. Champlain brought in the Francis- j^^^^
cans, who were followed in greater numbers by the missions in
Jesuits. The story of the Jesuits in North ^^^^^
America is an inspiring record of self-sacrifice and devotion.
Many of them suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Indians.
The journeys made by the Jesuits in the wilderness of the
Northwest added much to geographical knowledge, while their
mission stations often grew into flourishing towns. After
Cardinal Richelieu had forbidden the Protestants to settle in
Canada, the Jesuit influence became dominant there. It has
not yet entirely disappeared, in spite of a century and a half
of English rule.
When Colbert, the able minister of Louis XIV, came to power,
the exploration of Canada went on with renewed energy.
The French, hitherto, had been spurred by the ^^ g^^
hope of finding in the Great Lakes a western pas- and
sage to Cathay. Joliet, the fur trader, and Mar- ^^^^^^^^
quette, the Jesuit missionary, believed they had actually
found the highway uniting the Atlantic and the Pacific when
their birchbark canoes first glided into the upper Mississippi.
It was reserved for the most illustrious of French explorers,
Robert de La Salle, to discover the true character of the "Father
of Waters" and to perform the feat of descending it to the sea
(1682). He took possession of all the territory drained by the
Mississippi for Louis XIV, naming it Louisiana.
Where La Salle had shown the way, missionaries, fur traders,
hunters, and adventurers quickly followed. The French
now began to realize the importance of the Missis-
.,,-,, 1 • 1 . 1 New France
sippi Valley, which time was to prove the most
extensive fertile area in the world. Efforts were made to occupy
466
Commerce and Colonies
.^v^^^-tf-NEW ORLEANS
S15t, ST. LOUIS "^ -^
G U L F^^O^F^.^ MEXICO
'■^^^^'^ ^'^S^Ui'L^J^U'km^
-t-Route of LaSalle's
great voyage of
discovery.
La Salle's Explorations
it and to connect it with Canada by a chain of forts reaching
from Quebec and Montreal on the St. Lawrence to New Or-
leans ^ at the mouth of the Mississippi. All of the continent
west of the AUeghenies was to become a New France, a Roman
Cathohc and despotic empire after the pattern of the mother
country.
1 Founded in 1718 and named after the Due de Orleans, who was regent of
France during the minority of Louis XV. See page 406, note 2.
Rivalry of France and England in America 467
However audacious this design, it seemed not impossible
of fulfillment. New France, a single royal province under one
military governor, offered a united front to the strength and
divided EngHsh colonies. The population, though weakness^f
small compared with the number of the EngHsh ^®^ France
colonists, consisted mostly of men of miHtary age, good fighters,
and aided by numerous Indian allies. Lack of home support
offset these real advantages. While the French were contend-
ing for colonial supremacy, they were constantly at war in
Europe. They wasted on European battle-fields the resources
which might otherwise have been expended in America. The
failure of France at this time to become a world-power must be
ascribed, therefore, chiefly to the mistaken policies and bad
government of Louis XIV and Louis XV.
164. Rivalry of France and England in North
America (to 1763)
The struggle between France and England began, both in
the Old World and the New, in
1689, when the ''Glorious Revo-
lution" drove out .
A new
James II and placed Hundred
William of Orange on ^^^^' ^"
the English throne as William III.
The Dutch and English, who had
previously been enemies, now be-
came friends and united in resist-
ance to Louis XIV. The French
king not only threatened the
Dutch, but also incensed the
English by receiving the fugitive
James and aiding him to win back
his crown. England at once
joined a coaHtion of the states of
Europe against France. This
was the beginning of a new Hundred Years' War between the
Montcalm
After the portrait in possession of
the^ present Marquis of Montcalm,
Chateau d'Aveze, France.
468
Commerce and Colonies
/\» "^ 75° LoDgitude
North America after The Peace of Utrecht, 1713 a.d.
two countries.^ The struggle extended beyond the Continent,
for each of the rivals tried to destroy the commerce and annex
the colonies of the other.
The first period of conflict closed in 17 13, with the Peace of
Provisions of Utrecht, which was as important in the history
the Peace of of colonial America as in the history of Europe.
' England secured Newfoundland, Acadia (rechris-
tened Nova Scotia), and the extensive region drained
^ War of the League of Augsburg, 1 689-1 697 ("King William's War").
War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-17 13 ("Queen Anne's War").
War of the Austrian Succession,! 740-1 748 ("King George's War").
Seven Year's War, 1 756-1 763 ("French and Indian War").
War of the American Revolution, 1776-1783.
by
Rivalry of France and England in America 469
the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. France, however, kept
the best part of her American territories and retained control
of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi. The possession of
these two waterways gave her a strong strategic position in the
interior of the continent.
The two great European wars which came between 1740 and
1763 were naturally reflected in the New World. The War of
the Austrian Succession, known
in American history u^ing
as '' King George's George's
War," proved to be ^"rprench
indecisive. The Seven and Indian
Wax "
Years' War, similarly
known as the ** French and Indian
War," resulted in the expulsion of
the French from North America.
It began as a contest for the
Ohio Valley. The French wanted
it, in order to join Canada
and Louisiana; the English also
wanted it, in order not to be shut
out from the fertile region imme-
diately west of the AUeghenies.
France had no resources to cope with those of England in
America, and the EngHsh command of the sea proved decisive.
One French post after another was captured: Louisburg, on
Cape Breton Island, commanding the Gulf of St. Lawrence;
Fort Duquesne,^ at the junction of the Allegheny and Ohio
rivers; Fort Niagara, which guarded the route between Lake
Ontario and Lake Erie; and Fort Ticonderoga between Lake
George and Lake Champlain. In 1759 Wolfe defeated the
gallant Montcalm under the walls of Quebec, and the fall of
that stronghold quickly followed. A year later what remained
of the French army surrendered at Montreal. The British flag
was now raised over Canada, where it has flown ever since.
The second period of conflict closed in 1763, with the Peace
James Wolfe
After the portrait by Schaak in the
National Portrait Gallery, London.
^ Renamed Fort Pitt after William Pitt, whence the modern Pittsburg.
Commerce and Colonies
NORTH AMERICA
after the
PEACE OF PARIS,
1763 A. D.
'ikiuf
\
iFt.N
iStroit
Fojt-Buquesnej4 PEtJN
Oswego-) ,-j^-JPc.C'J'J
■f I'^W -\*4t>l«moutn
^Or/e
Hay
HAYT
IBBEAN SEA JJ,:^%)
GRENADA,,-
GRENADA-
90 Longitude West 80 from Greenwich 70
of Paris. France ceded to England all her North American
possessions east of the Mississippi, except two
Provisions „ . , , , - ^ , . n- i
of the small islands kept for iishmg purposes on the coast
of Newfoundland. Spain, which had also been
involved in the war, gave up Florida to England,
receiving as compensation the French territories west of the
Peace of
Paris, 1763
Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies 471
Mississippi. New France was now only a memory. But
modern Canada has two millions of Frenchmen, who still hold
aloof from the British in language and religion, while Louisiana,
though shrunk to the dimensions of an American state, still
retains in its laws and in many customs of its people the French
tradition.
The Peace of Paris marked a turning point in the history
of the Thirteen Colonies. Relieved of pressure from without
and free to expand toward the west and south, England and
they now felt less keenly their dependence on the Thirteen
England. Close ties, the ties of common interests, ° °^®^
common ideals, and a common origin, still attached them to the
mother country; but these were soon to be rudely severed
during the period of disturbance, disorder, and violence which
culminated in the American Revolution.
165. Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies, 1776-1783
Englishmen in the New World for a long time had been
drawing apart from Englishmen in the Old World. The politi-
cal training received by the colonists in their local preoaration
meetings and provincial assemblies fitted them for for inde-
self-government, while the hard conditions of life p®°^®°<^®
in America fostered their energy, self-reliance, and impatience of
restraint. The important part which they played in the con-
quest of Canada gave them confidence in their military
abilities and showed them the value of cooperation. Renewed
interference of Great Britain in what they deemed their private
concerns before long called forth their united resistance.
Some of the grievances of which the colonists complained
were the outcome of the British colonial policy. The home
government discouraged the manufacture in the Restrictions
colonies of goods that could be made in England, on colonial
ParHament, for instance, prohibited the export ™*°"^actures
of woolens, not only to the British Isles and the Continent,
but also from one colony to another, and forbade the colonists
to set up mills for making wrought iron or its finished products.
472 Commerce and Colonies
Such regulations aimed to give British manufacturers a monop-
oly of the colonial markets.
The home government also interfered with the commerce of
the colonies. As early as 1660 Parliament passed a "Navi-
Restrictions g^tion Act" providing that sugar, tobacco, cotton,
on colonial and indigo might not be exported direct from the
commerce colonies to foreign countries, but must be first
brought to England, where duties were paid on them. A
subsequent act required all imports to the colonies from Con-
tinental Europe to have been actually shipped from an English
port, thus compelling the colonists to go to England for their
supplies. These acts, however, were so poorly enforced for
many years that smuggling became a lucrative occupation.
All this legislation was not so repressive as one would suppose,
partly because it was so constantly evaded and partly because
Alleviations Great Britain formed the natural market for most
and com- colonial products. Moreover, the home govern-
pensations ^lent gave some special favors in the shape of
"bounties," or sums of money to encourage the production of
food and raw materials needed in Great Britain. Twenty-
four colonial industries were subsidized in this manner. Colo-
nial shipping was also fostered, for ships built in the colonies
enjoyed the same exclusive privileges in the carrying trade as
British-built ships. In fact, the regulations which the American
colonists had to endure were light compared with the shackles
laid by Spain and France upon their colonial possessions. It
must always be remembered, finally, that Great Britain de-
fended the colonists in return for trade privileges. As long
as her help was needed against the French, they did not protest
seriously against the legislation of Parliament.
After the close of the Seven Years' War George III and his
ministers determined to keep British troops in America as a
protection against outbreaks by the French or
The Stamp ^ ° , . ^ r
Act and Indians. The colonists, to whose safety an army
the Town- would add, were expected to pay for its partial
shend Acts ' ,. [ j. 1 . i /
support. Parliament, accordingly, took steps to
enforce the laws regulating colonial commerce and also passed
Capt. Cook's Voyages
" Endeavour," 1768- 1771 A.D.
"Resolution," 1772- 1775 A.D.
"Resolution," 1776 -1780 A.D.
__l I I
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Portuguese I I Spanish I I Dutch I— —
ErenchL
] British H
140 120 Longitude 100
Note: On the map the conditions are shown
as they existed before the change in 1763 A.D.
Scale of Miles along Equator
1000 2000 3000 4000
THE M.-N. WORKS
80 from 60 Greenwich 40
0 Longitude 20 East 40 from 20 Greenwich I
Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies 473
the Stamp Act (1765). The protests of the colonists led to the
repeal of this obnoxious measure, but it was soon replaced by
the Townshend Acts (1767), levying duties on certain commodi-
ties imported into America. These acts, in turn, were repealed
three years later. Parhament, however, kept a small duty on
t--^ ,— ^ ^..wr^-wv.
V ^ ^"^^' "^' '' ' ^^^^^-
xJKicM. c^nv^Vfet nUn\.'to Hv iMt yi ^^wi/wl;^^;^.
Opening Lines of the Declaration of Independence
A reduced facsimile of the first lines of Jefferson's original draft.
tea, in order that the colonists might not think that it had
abandoned its assumed right to tax them.
The Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts thus brought up
the whole question as to the extent of parliamentary control
over the colonists. They argued that taxes could ^^
be rightfully voted only by their own representative ation
assemblies. It was a natural attitude for them without rep-
. . . , resentation"
to take, smce Parliament, sittmg three thousand
miles away, had little insight into American affairs. The
English view was that Parliament "virtually'* represented all
Englishmen and hence might tax them where v^er they lived.
This view can also be understood, for the " Glorious Revolution"
had definitely estabHshed the supremacy of Parliament in
England.^ In any case, however, taxation of the colonies
1 See page 394.
474
Commerce and Colonies
was clearly contrary to custom and very impolitic in the face
of the popular feeHng which it aroused in America.
Some British statesmen themselves espoused the cause of
the colonists. Edmund Burke, the great Irish orator, declared
Attitude ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^ virtual representation of
of British America in Parliament was " the most contemptible
statesmen .^^^ ^-^^^ ^^^^^ entered the head of a man." Even
William Pitt (then earl of Chatham), while maintaining the
right of Parlia-
ment to legislate
for America, ap-
plauded the
"manly wisdom
and calm resolu-
tion" displayed
by the colonists
in their resistance
to arbitrary
power. But these
were the voices
of a minority, of
a helpless minor-
ity. Parliament,
then under the
thumb of George
III and the
A medal designed and engraved by C. C. Wright. The reverse, ^mg S irienClS,
here figured, is copied from Trumbull's picture of the signing of nreciDitatcd al-
the Declaration of Independence.
most light-heart-
edly, the catastrophe which severed the two chief branches of
English-speaking peoples.
No colony at first contained a large majority in favor of
separation, and even after the Declaration of Independence
The numerous loyalists, or "Tories," continued to
••Tories" espouse the British cause. Some of them even
fought against their native land, while others did everything
1 See page 438.
Medal Commemorating the Declaration
OF Independence
Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies 475
they could to prevent the success of the Revolution by sowing
sedition, spreading false news, concealing spies, and seUing goods
to the enemy. It was necessary to adopt the sternest measures
in dealing with men whom Washington called "execrable
parricides," and many were imprisoned or confined in con-
centration camps. After the conclusion of peace the "Tories"
emigrated in great numbers to Canada, where they formed the
first English settlers. They prospered in their new home, and
their descendants, who form a considerable part of the Canadian
population, are to-day among the most devoted members of
the British Empire.
Even had the colonists been unanimous in resistance to
Great Britain, they stood httle chance of winning against a
wealthy country with a population nearly three -pj^^ French
times their own, trained armies supported by alliance,
German mercenaries, and a powerful navy. When, ^'^'^^
however, the resources of France were thrown into the scale,
the issue became less doubtful. France, still smarting from
the losses incurred in the Seven Years' War, desired to recover
as much as possible of her colonial possessions and secretly
aided the Americans with money and supplies for some time
before the victory at Saratoga led her to enter into a formal
alliance with them. It must never be forgotten, also, that many
Frenchmen felt a genuine sympathy for the colonists in their
struggle for liberty. The Marquis de Lafayette was only
the most illustrious of the French nobles who crossed the
Atlantic to fight side by side with American soldiers.
The war now merged into a European conflict in which
France was joined by Spain and Holland. Great Britain
needed all her reserve power to prevent rebellion
in Ireland, defend Gibraltar, and keep her pos- Se^Revo-
sessions in the West Indies and India. The strug- lutionary
gle in America practically closed in 1781, when
Cornwallis, blockaded at Yorktown by a French fleet and
closely invested by the combined French and American armies,
surrendered the largest British force still in the colonies. Nearly
two years passed, however, before the contestants made peace.
476 Commerce and Colonies
The Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the United
States recognized the independence of the former Thirteen
Colonies and fixed their boundaries at Canada
Paris and and the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean, Florida,
VersaiUes, ^nd the Mississippi River. The Treaty of Ver-
sailles between Great Britain, France, and Spain
restored to France a few colonial possessions and gave to Spain
the island of Minorca and the Florida territory. Holland,
which concluded a separate peace with Great Britain, was
obliged to cede to that country some stations in India and to
throw open to British merchants the valuable trade of the
East Indies.
The successful revolt of the Thirteen Colonies dealt a stagger-
ing blow at the old colonial policy. The Americans con-
Eff ts of tinued to trade with the mother country from
American self -interest, although they were no longer com-
independence ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ j^^^ ^j^^ ^.^^^j^ ^^^ ^^^^
British commerce with the United States doubled within fifteen
years after the close of the Revolutionary War. This formed
an object-lesson in the futility of commercial restrictions.
The American War of Independence reacted almost at
once on Europe. The Declaration of Independence, setting
America forth the ''unalienable rights of man" as against
teaching feudal privilege and oppression, provided ardent
by examp e spirits in France with a formula of liberty which
they were not slow in applying to their own country. The
French Revolution of 1789 was the child of the American
Revolution. Early in the nineteenth century still another
revolutionary movement stripped Spain and Portugal of all
their continental possessions in the New World. America
was, indeed, teaching by example.
166. Progress of Geographical Discovery
Great Britain soon found at least partial compensation for
the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in the occupation of Australia
and the islands of the Pacific. That vast ocean, covering
Progress of Geographical Discovery 477
more than one-third of the globe, remained Httle known to
Europeans until the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Soon after Magellan's voyao^e in i ^20 the Spaniards
1 T 1 , 1 • , , Early ex-
estabnsned a regular commercial route between pioration
Mexico and the Philippines and gradually dis- °^ ^^
covered some of the innumerable archipelagoes
which stud the intervening seas. Sir Francis Drake's circum-
navigation of the world (i 577-1 580) first drew the attention of
Englishmen to the Pj^cific Ocean, but a long time passed before
they began, its 'systematic exploration.
The unveiling of the Pacific was closely connected with the
Antarctic problem. Geographers from the time of the Greeks
had a vague idea that a region of continental ^j^^ „ Great
proportions lay to the southeast of the Indian South
Ocean. The idea found expression in Ptolemy's *°
map of the world, and Marco Polo during his stay in China
heard about it. After the Dutch became established in the
East Indies, they made renewed search for the ''Great South
Land" and carefully explored the western coast of Australia
or "New Holland."
In 1642 the Dutch East India Company sent Abel Tasman
from Batavia to investigate the real extent of Australia. Tas-
man's voyage — one of the most notable on record jasman's
— led to the discovery of Van Diemen's Land voyage,
(Tasmania) and New Zealand, and proved con- ^^^
clusively that Australia had no connection with the supposed
Antarctic continent. The Dutch, however, manifested Httle
interest in the regions which they had found, and more than
one hundred years elapsed before Tasman's work was continued
by Captain James Cook.
This famous navigator, the son of a farm laborer, entered the
British navy at an early age and by his unaided
efforts rose to high command. Cook's first voy- yo^^lls
age in the Pacific resulted in the exploration of in the
the coast of New Zealand and the eastern shore 1768-1779
of Australia. The second voyage finally settled
the question as to the existence of a southern continent,
478
Commerce and Colonies
for Cook sailed three times across the Pacific Ocean without
finding it. At the instance of George III, Cook undertook
a third voyage to locate, if possible, an opening on the coast of
Alaska which would lead into Hudson Bay. He followed the
American coast through Bering Strait until an unbroken ice-
field barred further progress.
On the return from the
Arctic region Cook visited
the Hawaiian Islands, where
he was murdered by the
natives. Thus closed the
career of one who, more
than any other explorer, re-
vealed to European gaze the
island world of the Pacific.
Captain Cook on his third
voyage was the first British
navigator to sight Alaska.
Here, however, he had been
preceded by the Russians,
who reached the Pacific by
way of Siberia and the
Arctic Ocean. It still re-
mained uncertain whether Siberia did not join on to the
„ . . northern part of the New World. Peter the
Bering's ^
voyages, Great, who showed a keen interest in geographi-
iTdi"^"^^^' ^^^ discovery, commissioned Vitus Bering, a Dane
in the Russian service, to solve the problem.
Bering explored the strait and sea named after him and made
clear the relation between North America and Asia.
The eighteenth century thus added greatly to man's knowl-
edge of the world, especially in the Pacific area. Cook's voy-
Scientific ages, in particular, left the main outlines of the
exploration southern part of the globe substantially as they
are known to-day. From this time systematic exploration for
scientific purposes more and more took the place of voyages
by private adventurers for the sake of warfare or plunder.
Captain James Cook
A painting by Nathaniel Dance ; now in
Greenwich Hospital, England.
Progress of Geographical Discovery 479
Geographical discovery must be included, therefore, among the
influences which made the eighteenth century so conspicuously
an age of enlightenment.
Studies
I . On outline maps represent the division of North America (a) after the Peace
of Utrecht and {b) after the Peace of Paris. 2. Locate these places: Calcutta;
Batavia; Sidney; Madras; Sitka; Bombay; and Pondicherry. 3. Identify these
dates in American colonial history: 1607; 1620; 1664; 1713; and 1763. 4. Ac-
cording to the mercantile theory, what constituted a " favorable" and what an "un-
favorable" balance of trade? 5. How was the colonial policy based on mercantilism
opposed to modern ideas of commercial freedom? 6. What was meant by the saying
that colonies were "like so many farms of the mother country"? 7. Why was the
joint stock company a more successful method of fostering colonial trade than the
regulated company? 8. Show that the seventeenth century belonged commercially
to the Dutch, as the sixteenth century had belonged to the Portuguese and Spaniards.
9. On the map (page 443) indicate what East Indian islands still rerriain Dutch
possessions. 10. Why was it possible for European powers to secure dominions
in India? 11. State the basis of the claims of England, France, Spain, Hol-
land, and Sweden to territory in North America during the seventeenth century.
12. "The breaking of Spain's naval power is an incident of the first importance in
the history of the English colonies." Comment on this statement. 13. Why
was the acquisition of New Netherland an important step in the building up of
colonial America? 14. Show how the Stuart kings fostered England's expansion
in North America. 15. "The expansion of England in the New World and in
Asia is the formula which sums up for England the history of the eighteenth century."
Comment on this statement. 16. Set forth the importance of the Seven Years*
War in the history of India and of colonial America. 17. Show that "no taxation
without representation" was a slogan which could hardly have arisen in any but an
EngUsh country. 18. "The Declaration of Independence was the formal announce-
ment of democratic ideas that had their tap-root in English soil." Comment on
this statement. 19. How did the American Revolution become a world war?
20. In what sense was the American Revolution "a civil war within the British
Empire"? 21. From what Dutch source were the names Tasmania, Van Die-
men's Land, and New Zealand derived? 22. Trace on the map (between pages
472-473) the three voyages of Captain Cook.
CHAPTER XIX
THE OLD REGIME IN EUROPE
167. The Eighteenth Century in Culture
Previous chapters have set forth some of the more significant
transformations of European society between 1300 and 1700.
. f The revival of classical literature, art, and learning,
enUghten- the progress of geographical discovery, and the
™®^* Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter
Reformation were all movements which helped to complete the
transition from the medieval to the modern world.. To these
three movements we may now add the extraordinary awaken-
ing of the European mind in the eighteenth century. It was
an age of reason, an age of enhghtenment.
The thinkers of the eighteenth century pursued knowledge
not so much for its own sake as for its social usefulness. They
The reform- felt that the time had come when mankind might
ing spirit ^q\\ discard many ideas and customs, once serv-
iceable, perhaps, but now outworn. To them the chief obstacle
in the way of progress was found in human ignorance, prejudice,
and unreasoning veneration for the past. Systematic and ac-
curate knowledge, they beheved, would destroy this attachment
to ''the good old days" and would make it possible to create
more reasonable and enhghtened institutions. In other words,
thinkers were animated by the reforming spirit.
Reform was sorely needed. Absolute monarchies claiming
to rule by the will of God, aristocracies in the possession of
The Old special rights, privileges, and honors, the masses
Regime Qf the people excluded from any part in the govern-
ment and burdened with taxes and feudal dues — such were
some of the survivals of medievalism which formed the Old
Regime.^ The eighteenth century aboHshed it in France;
1 In French, ancien regime.
480
The Privileged Classes 481
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have done much to
abolish it in other European countries. Let us examine it more
closely.
168. The Privileged Classes
Where absolutism prevailed, everything depended upon the
personal character of the sovereign. A Peter the Great might
set his country upon the road to civilization; The
a Louis XIV, on the contrary, might plunge his monarchy
people into indescribable misery as the result of needless wars
and extravagant expenditures. As time went on, it began to
appear more and more unreasonable that a single person should
have the power to make the laws, levy the taxes, spend the
revenues, declare war, and conclude peace according to his own
inclination. England in the seventeenth century had shown
that a divine-right monarchy might be replaced by a constitu-
tional monarchy and parliamentary control of legislation.
The reformers wished to secure for France and other Conti-
nental countries at least an equal measure of political liberty.
Not less insistent was their demand for social equality.
The feudal system had bequeathed as part of its heritage to
modern Europe a system of class distinctions which -^j^^ -p-^^^^
honeycombed society. The highest place was and Second
occupied by the clergy and the nobility, who con-
stituted the First and Second Estates, respectively. These
two privileged classes formed a very small minority of the
population in any European country. Of twenty-five million
Frenchmen, for instance, less than half a million were clerics
or nobles.
The clergy, especially in Roman Catholic lands, retained much
of the power that they had exercised throughout the Middle
Ages. Reverence felt by kings and lords for
mother Church had dowered her representatives
with rich and broad domains. In France, Spain, Italy, and
those parts of Germany where Church property had not been
confiscated by Protestants, the archbishops, bishops, abbots,
and cardinals ruled as veritable princes and paid few or no
482 The Old Regime in Europe
taxes to the government. ' These members of the higher clergy-
were recruited mainly from the noble famiUes and naturally
took the side of the absolute monarchs. The lower clergy,
the thousands of parish priests, who came from the common
people, just as naturally espoused the popular cause. They
saw the abuses of the existing system and supported the de-
mands for its reform.
The nobiUty consisted, in part, of the descendants of feudal
lords. By the eighteenth century, however, the old military
The nobility had largely disappeared from Europe,
nobility except in Germany. A new aristocracy arose, con-
sisting of those who had been ennobled by the king for various
services or who had held certain offices which conferred noble
rank. The nobles, like the higher clergy, were great landed
proprietors, though without the military obligations which
rested on feudal lords during the Middle Ages.
England is almost the only modern state where the nobility
still keeps an important place in the national life. There are
English several reasons for this fact. In the first place,
nobles British nobles are few in number in consequence
of the rule of primogeniture.^ Only the eldest son of a peer
inherits his father's title and estate; the younger sons are
commoners. Even the eldest son during his father's Hfetime
is styled "Lord" simply by courtesy. In the second place, the
social distinction of the nobihty arouses Httle antagonism,
because a peer is not bound to marry into another noble family
but may take his wife from the ranks of commoners. Finally,
nobles in Great Britain are taxed as are other citizens and are
equally amenable to the laws.
Very different was the situation in eighteenth-century France.
Here there were as many as one hundred thousand nobles, for
French the French did not observe the rule of primogeni-
nobles ^ure. Their "gentle birth" enabled them to
monopolize the important offices in the government, the army,
and the Church. They claimed, and largely secured, exemption
from taxation. The result was that most of the expense of the
* See page 116, note i.
The Unprivileged Classes 483
wars, the magnificent palaces, and gorgeous ceremonial of
Louis XIV and Louis XV was borne by the middle and lower
classes of France. The provincial nobles, who lived on
their country estates, usually took more or less part in local
affairs and felt an interest in the welfare of the peasantry.
But many members of the nobility were absentee landlords,
leading a fashionable existence at the court and dancing attend-
ance on the king. Nobles of this type were ornamental rather
than useful. Their luxury and idleness made them objects of
odium in the minds of all who wished to renovate society. As
one reformer declared, "Through all the vocabulary of Adam,
there is not such an animal as a duke or a count."
169. The Unprivileged Classes
Such were the two privileged orders, or estates. Beneath
them came the unprivileged order known as the The Third
Third Estate in France. It consisted of three Estate
main divisions.
The middle class, or bourgeoisie,^ included all those who
were not manual laborers. Professional men, such as magis-
trates, lawyers, physicians, and teachers, together The
with bankers, manufacturers, wholesale merchants, bourgeoisie
and shopkeepers, were bourgeois. The British middle class
enjoyed representation in Parliament and frequently entered
the nobility. The French bourgeoisie, on the contrary, could
not hold the positions of greatest honor in the government.
Though well educated and often wealthy, they were made to
feel in every way their inferiority to the arrogant nobles. They
added their voices, therefore, to those who demanded political
liberty and social equality.
The next division of the Third Estate comprised the artisans
living in the towns and cities. They were not very numerous,
except in Great Britain, France, western Germany, The
and northern Italy, where industrial life had artisans
reached a much higher development than elsewhere in Europe.
1 See page 227 and note i.
484 The Old Regime in Europe
The craft guilds, which formed so useful a feature of urban
Hfe in the Middle Ages, had not disappeared in the eighteenth
century. In many places, however, the masters,
Survivals , 1,1 ■, - 1,
of the who owned the shops, machmes, or tools, alone
S"^^ belonged to the guilds. Even where journeymen
and apprentices became members, they were not
admitted to all the privileges of the craft. This exclusive
policy of the masters provoked much opposition on the part of
the poorer workmen and led to a demand for the abolition of
their monopoly of industry.
The last and by far the largest division of the Third Estate
was that of the peasants. In Prussia, Austria, Hungary,
The Poland, Russia, and Spain they were still serfs.
peasants They might not leave their villages or marry with-
out their lord's consent; their children must serve in his family
for several years at a nominal wage; and they themselves had
to work for a number of days each week on their lord's land.
It is said that this forced labor sometimes took so much of the
peasant's time that he could only cultivate his own holding by
moonlight. Conditions were better in Italy and western Ger-
many, though it was a Hessian prince who sold his subjects to
Great Britain to fight as mercenaries in the American War of
Independence. In France, serfdom still existed only in Alsace,
Lorraine, and Franche Comte,^ three provinces which had been
acquired by Louis XIV and Louis XV. The great majority
of the French peasants enjoyed complete freedom, and many
of them owned their own farms.
But even the free peasants of France carried a heavy burden.
The king taxed their lands and dwellings, and the taxes were
increased arbitrarily upon any sign of the owner's
Survivals . ^, ,111., , • ,
of the prosperity. Ihe clergy aemandea tithes, which
manorial amounted to perhaps a thirteenth of the produce.
The nobles exacted various feudal dues for the
use of oven, mill, and wine press, and tolls for the use of roads
and bridges. The game laws were especially vexatious, for
farmers were obliged to allow the game of neighboring lords to
^ See the map on page 402.
Liberal Ideas of Industry and Commerce 485
invade their fields and destroy the crops. SUght wonder that
the peasants also formed a discontented class, anxious for any
reforms which would better their hard lot.
170. Liberal Ideas of Industry and Commerce;
the Economists
We have mentioned some of the abuses of the Old Regime.
They were not greater in the eighteenth century than for
hundreds of years before, but now they were to political
be seriously attacked by thinkers who applied economy, or
the test of reasonableness to every institution. ®^o^°°"<^s
It was at this time that pohtical economy, or economics, came
into being. Economic science, which investigates such sub-
jects as the production of wealth and its distribution as rent,
interest, profits, and wages, the functions of money and credit,
and the methods of taxation, had been studied in earlier times
by those, whose chief motive was to increase the riches of mer-
chants and fill the treasuries of kings. Students in the eigh-
teenth century took a wider view and began to search for the
true causes of national well-being.
The economists who flourished in France received the name
of Physiocrats,^ because they believed that natural laws ruled
in the economic world. In opposition to the The
Mercantilists, who held that the wealth of a nation Physiocrats
comes from industry and commerce, some of the Physiocrats
declared that it comes from agriculture. Manufacturers,
said they, merely give a new form to materials extracted from
the earth, while traders do nothing more than transfer com-
modities from one person to another. Farmers are the only
productive members of society. It was a striking doctrine to
enunciate at a time when the peasantry formed, as has been
said, the ''beast of burden" of the Old Regime. This group
of Physiocrats did a ■ real service in insisting upon the
importance of agriculture, even though they erred in assuming
that it is the sole source of wealth.
^ A term derived from two Greek words meaning " nature " and " to rule."
486
The Old Regime in Europe
Another group of Physiocrats protested against the burden-
some restraints imposed upon industry by the guilds and upon
Laissez- commerce by the governments. They advocated
faire economic freedom. Any one should be allowed
to make what things he hkes ; all occupations should be open to
everybody; trade between different parts of the country should
not be impeded by tolls and
taxes; customs duties should
not be levied on the impor-
tation of foreign goods. The
Physiocratic teaching was
summed up in the famous
phrase laissez-faire — ''let
alone."
A Scotch professor of phi-
losophy, Adam Smith, who had
Adam Smith, visited France and
1732-1790 knew th^ Physi-
ocrats, carried their ideas
across the Channel. His
famous work on the Wealth
of Nations appeared in 1776,
the year of American independence. It formed a new decla-
ration of independence for industry and commerce. Smith set
forth the doctrine of laissez-faire so clearly and persuasively as
to make a profound impression upon business men and states-
men. His arguments against monopohes, bounties, and pro-
tective tariffs did much to secure the subsequent adoption of
free trade by Great Britain and even affected Continental
legislation. Thus the Wealth of Nations, judged by its
results, is one of the most important books which has ever
been written.
171. The Scientists
Arithmetic, geometry, and algebra (elementary mathematics)
had been studied in the schools and universities
of the later Middle Ages. It remained to create
the higher mathematics, including analytic geometry, loga-
Adam Smith
A medallion by James Tassie.
Mathematics
The Scientists
487
rithms, the theory of probabihties, and the infinitesimal cal-
culus. Knowledge of the calculus, which deals with quantities
infinitely small, has been of immense service in engineering
and other applied sciences. Credit for its discovery is divided
between the German Leibniz (1646-17 16) and his English con-
temporary, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).
The profound mind of Newton formulated the so-called law
of gravitation. He showed by mathematical
calculation that the motion of the
1 11 1 r 1 Astronomy
planets about the sun, and of the
moon about the earth, can be explained as due
to the same mysterious force of gravity which
makes the apple fall to the ground. This dis-
covery that all the movements of the heav-
enly bodies obey one simple physical law forms
perhaps the greatest achievement in the his-
tory of science. Scarcely less important was
the nebular hypothesis of the French astron-
omer Laplace (1749-1827). He conjectured
that our own and other solar systems had been
produced by the condensation of nebulous mat-
ter once diffused through space; in other words,
that the nebulae were stages in the formation
of stars. The further achievements of eigh-
teenth-century astronomy include the discovery
beyond Saturn of a new planet, Uranus, the
computation of the distance between the
earth and the moon, and the proof that our solar system
as a whole is moving toward a point in the constellation
Hercules.
Various investigators at this time laid the foundation of
modern physics, particularly in the departments of electricity
and magnetism. Benjamin Franklin, by his kite , .
• 1 11 ,. '. . „ Physics
experiment, demonstrated that lightnmg is really
an electrical phenomenon. The memory of the Italian Volta
is perpetuated whenever an electrician refers to a "voltaic cell"
or uses the term "volt." French scientists invented the
Death Mask
OF Sir Isaac
Newton
In the possession of
the Royal Society
of London.
488
The Old Regime in Europe
Chemistry
balloon, thus beginning the conquest of the air. The first
successful ascents in balloons took place at Paris in 1783.
Chemical research made rapid progress. Greek philosophers
had taught that earth, air, water, and fire comprise the original
"elements" out of which everything else was made.
The chemists now disproved this idea by decom-
posing water into the two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. The
Frenchman Lavoisier (i 743-1 794)
also showed that fire is really a
union of oxygen with earthy car-
bon. Until his time it had been
supposed that objects burn be-
cause they contain a combustible
substance known as "phlogiston."
We further owe to Lavoisier the
modern doctrine of the indestruc-
tibihty of matter.
Eighteenth - century explorers
brought back to Europe from
^ , America and the Pa-
Biology . -
cmc many new species
of animals and plants, thus
greatly encouraging biological
study. Here the most eminent
name is that of the Swede Linnaeus (1707-1778), whose careful
description and classification of plants established botany as a
science. In medicine the introduction of vaccination as a
preventive of smallpox marked the first step toward securing
immunity by inoculation against certain dread diseases. The
invention of the compound microscope, following soon after
the discovery of the telescope, revealed the existence of" a
hitherto unsuspected realm of minute life in earth and air and
water.
Scientific investigations, in previous times pursued by lonely
Learned thinkers, now began to be carried on systemati-
societies ^ally by the members of learned societies. Italy
led the way with the foundation at Naples and Rome of the
LlNN^US
A painting by Roslin.
Liberal Ideas of Religion and Politics 489
first academies of science, and her example was followed at
Paris, Berlin, and other European capitals. Shortly after the
"Glorious Revolution" a group of English investigators ob-
tained a charter forming them into the Royal Society of London.
It still exists and enrolls the most distinguished scientists of
Great Britain. Never before had there been so much interest
in science and so many opportunities to uncover the secrets of
nature.
172. Liberal Ideas of Religion and Politics;
the English Philosophers
The advance of science, which immensely broadened men's
conceptions of the universe, could not fail to affect their atti-
tude toward religion. The idea of the reign of Rationalism
natural law in the physical world was now extended "^ religion
to the spiritual world. Thinking men began to argue that the
doctrines 9f Christianity should not be accepted on the author-
ity either of the Chuirch or of the Bible, but must be submitted
to free inquiry. These champions of reason — the rationalists
— especially flourished in England, where thought was less
fettered than on the Continent. They were not all of one
mind. Some of them, such as John Locke (1632-1704), de-
fended Christianity as being the most reasonable of all
religions.
Other rationalists questioned the special claims of Christi-
anity. They declared that the questions over which Christian
sects had disputed for centuries were really of
, . , , . -^ , The Deists
mmor importance; the essential thing was the
doctrine common to all mankind. Thus they arrived at the
conception of "natural religion," which included simply the be-
Hdf in a personal God and in man's immortal soul. These
thinkers received the name of Deists.^
By casting doubt on the efficacy of particular religions,
the Deists gave an impetus to the demand for influence of
toleration of all. Their speculations found a warm *^® Deists
welcome in France, where they helped to undermine reverence
^ Latin Deus, "God."
490 The Old Regime in Europe
for the Church among the more intelUgent classes. Deism
in this way acted as a revolutionary ferment.
Rationahsm also invaded politics. EngHsh thinkers, of
whom Locke formed the most prominent representative, de-
Rationalism veloped a theory of government which, like the
in poUtics Calvinistic theory,^ was utterly opposed to the
old doctrine of the divine right of kings. According to Locke,
all men possess certain natural rights to life, liberty, and the
ownership of property. To preserve these rights they have
entered into a contract with one another, agreeing that the
majority shall have power to make and execute all necessary
laws. If the government, thus created, breaks the contract
by violating man's natural rights, it has no longer any claim
to the allegiance of its subjects and may be legitimately over-
thrown.
To say that all government exists, or should exist, by the
consent of the governed is to set up the doctrine ©f popular
Popular sovereignty. How influential it was may be seen
sovereignty fj-Q^i passages in the Declaration of Independence
which reproduce the very words of Locke and other English
writers. But their ideas found the heartiest reception in
France. Enlightened members of the nobihty and bour-
geoisie, weary of royal despotism, took them up, expounded
them, and spread them among the people.
173. The French Philosophers
France during the eighteenth century had not been able to
maintain the high position among European states to which she
Intellectual ^^^ ^^^^ raised by Louis XIV, and in the struggle
leadership for colonial empire she had been defeated by Grqat
of France Britain. Her intellectual leadership compensated
for all that she had lost. Throughout this century France gave
birth to a succession of philosophers whose ideas fell like ferti-
Hzing rain upon the arid soil of the Old Regime. Some of them
had lived for a time in England as refugees from the persecution
1 See page 376.
The French Philosophers
491
which too bold thinking involved at home. Their life there
made them acquainted with the British system of constitutional
monarchy — so unlike the absolutism of French kings — with
the political theories of Locke, and with the ideas of the Deists,
from whom they learned to submit time-honored beliefs to
searching examination.
A nobleman, lawyer, and judge, Montesquieu, spent twenty
years in composing a single book on the Spirit of Laws. It is
a classic in political science. There was nothing Montesquieu,
revolutionary in Montesquieu's conclusions. He 1689-1755
examined each form of government in order to determine its
excellencies and defects.
The British constitution
seemed to him most
admirable, as combining
the virtues of monarchy,
aristocrac)^, and democ-
racy. Montesquieu es-
pecially insisted upon
the necessity of sepa-
rating the executive, leg-
islative, and judicial
functions of govern-
ment, instead of com-
bining them in the
person of a single ruler.
This idea influenced the
French revolutionists
and also had great
weight with the framers of the Constitution of the United
States.
The foremost figure among the philosophers was Voltaire,
who sprang from the bourgeoisie. He was not a deep thinker
like Montesquieu, but was rather a brilliant and Voltaire,
somewhat superficial man of letters. For more 1694-1778
than half a century he poured forth a succession of poems,
dramas, essays, biographies, histories, and other works, so
Voltaire
A statue by J. A. Houdon in the Comedie
Frangaise, Paris.
492
The Old Regime in Europe
clearly written, so witty, and so satirical as to win the applause
of his contemporaries.
Voltaire devoted a long life to the preaching of enlighten-
ment. He was in no sense a revolutionist, and favored reform
V itaire ^^ royal decree as being the simplest and most
and the expeditious method. He made it his particular
Church work to bring discredit on ecclesiastical authority.
The Church he regarded as an invention of self-seeking priests.
A typical Deist, Voltaire in-
sisted on the need of toleration.
" Since we are all steeped in error
and folly," he said, ''we must
forgive each other our follies."
His exposure of bigotry and
fanaticism was needed in the
eighteenth century. It has
helped to create the freer atmos-
phere in which religious thought
moves to-day.
If Voltaire was the destroyer
of the old, Rousseau was the
jrophet of the new. This son
of a Geneva watchmaker, who
wandered from one European
capital to another, made a fail-
ure of everything he undertook
and died poverty-stricken and
demented. The discouragements and miseries of his career
Rousseau, found expression in what he wrote. Rousseau felt
1712-1778 Qj^iy contempt for the boasted civilization of the
age. He loved to picture what he supposed was once the
"state of nature," before governments had arisen, before the
strong had begun to oppress the weak, when nobody owned
the land, and when there were no taxes and no wars. ''Back
to nature" was Rousseau's cry.
Such fancies Rousseau applied to politics in what was his
most important book, the Social Contract. Starting with the
Jean Jacques Rousseau
A portrait by Ramsay made in 1766.
The Enlightened Despots . 493
assertion that "man was born free and is everywhere in
chains," he went on to describe a purely ideal ^j^^ „ g^^.^j
state of society in which the citizens are ruled Contract,"
neither by kings nor parliaments, but themselves
make the laws directly. The only way to reform the world,
according to Rousseau, was to restore the sovereignty of the
people, with "Liberty, Equahty, Fraternity" for all. As we
have just learned, the idea that governments and laws arise
by voluntary agreements among men, who may overthrow
them for just cause, was not new; but Rousseau first gave it
wide currency. Frenchmen of every class read the Social
Contract with avidity, and during the Revolution they pro-
ceeded to put its democratic teachings into effect.
Jlousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu were among the con-
tributors to the famous Encyclopedia, a work in seventeen
volumes which appeared after the middle of the The En-
eighteenth century. As the name indicates, it cydopedists
formed a repository of all the scientific and historical knowl-
edge of the age. But it was more than a monument of learning.
The Encyclopedists, as its editors are known, were radical
thinkers who combined in a great effort to throw the light of
reason on the dark places of the social order. They set in
motion a current of revolt which did much to undermine both
Church and State in France.
174. The Enlightened Despots
The ideas of the philosophers spread throughout those parts
of Europe where French models were followed. Even kings
and statesmen began to be affected by the spirit _
-r. 1 T 1 . f Paternalism
of reform. European rulers did not mtend to
surrender the least fraction of absolute power; they were still
autocrats who believed in government by one strong man
rather than by the democratic many; but with their despotism
they combined a paternal solicitude for the welfare of their
subjects. They took measures to secure religious toleration,
to relieve poverty, to codify the laws, to provide elementary
494 The Old Regime in Europe
education, and to encourage scientific research. These activities
have won for them the name of the "enhghtened despots."
In Russia Catherine the Great posed as an enhghtened despot.
Catherine was a learned woman, at least for an empress. She
Catherine wrote flattering letters to Voltaire and the Ency-
the Great clopedists and conferred on them gifts and pen-
sions. Montesquieu she especially admired, saying that were
she the pope she would canonize him. But Catherine paid
little more than lip-service to the ideas of the French
philosophers. If she aboHshed torture, she did not do away
with the knout; for capital punishment she only substituted
the living death of exile in Siberia. Her toleration of dis-
senters from the Orthodox Church stopped short of allowing
them to build chapels for public worship, and her passion for
legislative reform grew cold when she found that she must begin
by freeing the serfs. Catherine's real attitude is exhibited in
a letter to the governor of Moscow: "My dear prince, do not
complain that the Russians have no desire for instruction;
if I institute schools it is not for us, it is for Europe, where we
must keep our position in public opinion. But the day when
our peasants shall wish to become educated both you and I
will lose our places."
Catherine's contemporary, Frederick the Great, was a despot
more sincere and more enlightened. He worked harder and had
Frederick fewer pleasures than any other king of his day.
the Great "Monarchs," he once wrote, "are not invested
with authority that they may riot in voluptuousness." Al-
though Frederick's resources had been so completely drained
by the Seven Years' War that it was necessary for him to melt
the silver in the royal palaces and debase the currency, his
vigorous measures soon restored the national prosperity. He
labored in a hundred ways to make Prussia the best-governed
state in Europe. Thus, he founded elementary schools so that
his subjects could learn at least to read and write, and reformed
the courts so that everybody from high to low might be assured
of impartial justice. A Deist in religion, the correspondent
and friend of Voltaire, Frederick declared that every one should
The Enlightened Despots 495
be allowed to get to heaven in his own way, and backed up his
declaration by putting Roman Catholics on an equality with
Protestants throughout the Prussian dominions. No less than
thirty volumes, all in French, contain the poems, letters, and
treatises on history, poHtics, and military matters which Fred-
erick managed to compose in the spare moments of a busy life.
This philosopher on the throne held the attention of his gen-
eration in the world of ideas as well as in that of diplomacy
and war.
In Austria, Joseph 11,^ the eldest son of Maria Theresa,
presented a less successful type of the enlightened despot.
Joseph regarded Frederick the Great as the ideal
r 1 1 Tx . t 1 r , Joseph II
of a modern ruler. He wished to transform the
various peoples in the Hapsburg realm, with all their differences
of race, speech, reUgion, and aspirations, into a single unified
nation. German officials sent out from Vienna were to ad-
minister the affairs of each province. The army was to be
built up by compulsory service after the Prussian model.
German was to be used everywhere as the official language.
Most unwisely, however, Joseph tried to accomplish in a short
lifetime what all the Hapsburg rulers have not succeeded in
doing to this day. The result was that his measures to German-
ize Hungarians, Bohemians, ItaHans, and Netherlanders only
aroused hostility and did not survive his death. The sentence
that the king himself proposed as his epitaph was a truthful
summary of his reign: "Here lies the man who, with the best
intentions, never succeeded in anything."
Paternal government had two serious weaknesses. First,
the despots could not determine the policy of their successors.
An able and liberal-minded ruler might be fol- Failure of
lowed by a ruler who was indolent, extravagant, paternalism
and unprogressive. In Prussia, for instance, the weak reign
of Frederick the Great's successor undid much of his work.
The same thing happened in Spain and Portugal. Second,
the despots, however enlightened, treated their subjects as
^ Holy Roman Emperor, 1765-1790, and sole ruler of the Austrian realm, 1780-
1790.
49^ The Old Regime in Europe
children and enacted reforms without first discovering whether
reformation was popularly desired. Because of these weak-
nesses, the eighteenth-century conception of absolute monarchs
ruling for their people's good was certain to be superseded by
the modern idea of the people ruling themselves. But to
bring this about, a revolution was necessary.
Studies
I. Do monarchy and autocracy necessarily mean the same thing? 2. Compare
the European estates or privileged classes with the castes of ancient and modern
India. 3. Contrast the leading ideas of mercantilism and physiocracy. 4. Look
up in an encyclopedia some account of the life and writings of Adam Smith.
5. What do you understand by laws of nature? Give some examples of such laws.
6. Mention some instances of the international character of science in the eighteenth
century. 7. Distinguish between deism (or theism) and atheism. 8. How did
Locke's theory of the social contract provide the intellectual justification for the
"Glorious Revolution"? 9. Is there any reason to suppose that Rousseau's
"state of nature" ever existed anywhere? 10. WTiy has Rousseau's Social Contract
been called "the Bible of the French Revolution" and "the gospel of modern
democracy"? 11. Show that Rousseau's ideas of government were far more
radical than the ideas of Montesquieu. 12. Why did not the reforms of the en-
lightened despots make a revolution unnecessary? 13. "No reform can produce
real good unless it is the work of public opinion, and unless the people themselves
take the initiative." Discuss the justice of this statement. 14. Describe those
features of the Old Regime which led to the demand for "Liberty, Equality, Frater-
nity." 15. How do the facts presented ip this chapter support the statement that
"Great thinkers control the affairs of men, and by their discoveries regulate the
march of nations"?
i,
CHAPTER XX
THE REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC ERA, 1789-18151
175. Preparation for the French Revolution
What we call the French Revolution refers to a series of
events in France, between 1789 and 1799, by which divine-
right monarchy gave way to a repubUc and class Rey^iu.
distinctions and privileges disappeared in favor tionary
of social equahty. This revolution started in
France, not because the misery of the people had become more
intolerable there than in other parts of the Continent, but
precisely because France was then the most advanced of Con-
tinental countries. French peasants and artisans were free
enough and intelligent enough to be critical of their govern-
ment. Next to Great Britain, France contained the most
numerous, prosperous, and influential bourgeoisie. Members
of this class furnished the Revolution with its principal leaders.
Even the nobility and clergy included many men who realized
the abuses of the Old Regime and wished to aboHsh them.
In short, the revolutionary impulse stirred all ranks of French
society.
That impulse came in part from across the Channel. The
spectacle of the Puritan Revolution and the "Glorious Revo-
lution" in the seventeenth century affected England
Frenchmen in the eighteenth century. The Eng- and the
lish had put one king to death and had expelled
another; they had estabhshed the supremacy of Parliament
in the state. It was the example of parliamentary England
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxx, "France
on the Eve of the Revolution"; chapter xxxi, "Scenes of the French Revolu-
tion"; chapter xxxii, "Letters and Proclamations of Napoleon"; chapter xxxiii,
"Napoleon."
497
498 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
which Montesquieu held up to the emulation of his country-
men. And it was the political philosophy of the Enghshman,
John Locke, upon which Rousseau founded his doctrine of the
sovereignty of the people.
A second impulse came from across the Atlantic. After
the close of the War of American Independence, the French
America common soldiers, together with Lafayette and
and the other ofhcers, returned home to spread republican
Revolution doctrines. It is significant that in 1783 a French
nobleman translated and pubhshed all thirteen of the consti-
tutions of the American states. Very important was the work
of Benjamin Franklin, who for nearly a decade represented the
American government in Paris. His engaging manners, practi-
cal wisdom, and high principles won general admiration. The
portrait of the Philadelphia printer hung in every house, and
at republican festivals his bust figured side by side with that
of Rousseau. '' Homage to Franklin," cried an enthusiastic
Frenchman, ''he gave us our first lessons in liberty."
To understand the outbreak of the French Revolution it is
necessary to go back to the long reign of Louis XV. France
Louis XV ^^^ never had so unkingly a sovereign as this
king, successor of the "Grand Monarch." All his life
1715-1774 -^^ ^^g ^^ idler. He hunted, he gambled, he sank
deep in the frivolities and immoralities of Versailles, he did
everything but rule. The government fell more and more into
the hands of courtiers and adventurers, whose main concern
was to line their own pockets at the expense of the public
treasury.
The foolish alliances and fatal wars upon which Louis XV
was persuaded to enter reduced France to the position of a
Decline of second-rate power. In the Seven Years' War
France French armies were repeatedly vanquished on
Continental battle-fields, and French fleets were swept from the
high seas. When the Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, the
French flag ceased to fly in North America, -and it flew in India
only by permission of England. The annexation of Lorraine
(3/766) and Corsica (1768) did not compensate for the loss of
Preparation for the French Revolution 499
a colonial empire. ^ The military failures of the king's reign
humiliated his subjects and undermined their loyalty to him.
The wars and extravagance of Louis XV added to the legacy
of debt with which his predecessor on the throne had saddled
France. The treasury every year faced a chronic Financial
deficit. It could only be met by the dangerous ex- distress
pedient of fresh loans, involving still larger outlays for interest
charges. As long as the government refused to take proper
measures of economy and continued to exempt the clergy and
nobihty from their share of taxation, it was impossible to put
the finances of France in a satisfactory condition. A country
in natural resources the richest in Europe, with a population
greater than that of any rival state, became virtually bankrupt.
The French monarchy, so despised abroad, had to face
a growing volume of complaints at home. Louis XV did his
best to stifle them. A rigid censorship muzzled complaints
the press. Postofhce officials opened letters pass- against the
ing through the mails and revealed their contents "^°°"*^ ^
to the king. Books and pamphlets, obnoxious to the govern-
ment, were, burned by the common hangman, and their authors
were imprisoned. No man's personal liberty was safe, for the
police, if provided with an order of arrest signed by the king
i^lettrede cachet), could send any one to jail. Suspected per-
sons sometimes remained prisoners for years without trial.
Yet in spite of all measures of repression, opposition to the
monarchy steadily increased.
Louis XV was able to read the signs of the times. He knew
that the Old Regime could not last much longer; "After me,
but he felt sure that it would last his lifetime, the deluge"
"After me, the deluge," he said. The deluge soon came.
176. Eve of the French Revolution
Louis XVI, the grandson of Louis XV, mounted the throne
when only twenty years old. Virtuous, pious, and well-
meaning, he was the sort of ruler who in quiet times might
^ See the map on page 402.
500 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Marie
Antoinette
have won the esteem of the French people. He was, however,
Louis XVI, weak, indolent, slow of thought, and very slow of
king, 1774-1792 (decision. It has been well said that Louis XVI
** could love, forgive, suffer, and die," but that he did not
know how to reign.
At his side, presiding over the gay court of Versailles, stood
Marie Antoinette of
Austria,
daughter
of Maria Theresa.
This beautiful and
lovable, though friv-
olous and light-mind-
ed, woman exerted a
most unfortunate in-
fluence on Louis XVI,
whom she surpassed
in ability. She con-
stantly interfered in
matters of state to
support some mis-
taken policy or an in-
competent minister.
The queen had many
enemies in France
because of her nation-
ality, and she in-
creased them by lav-
ish expenditures on
herself and on her
Marie Antoinette . . ^, , . -
favorites. The chief
After a painting by Mme. Vigee le Brun, at Versailles. i . ^ i
charge later to be
hurled against " Madame Deficit" was that she had wasted
the resources of France.
The youthful king began his reign auspiciously by appoint-
ing a new ministry, in which Turgot held the most responsible
position. He was a friend of Voltaire, a contributor to the
Eve of the French Revolution 501
Encyclopedia, an economist of the Physiocratic school, and a
successful administrator. Turgot drew up a Turgot's
comprehensive program of reforms. He would ^^e^fofm,
allow complete freedom of the press, establish a 1774-1776
national system of education, recall the Huguenots, and admit
the bourgeoisie to all public offices.
Turgot summed up his financial policy in the three maxims,
''No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, no loans." Expenses
were to be reduced by cutting off the pensions to Financial
those whose only merit was, in the words of a policy of
contemporary writer, "to have taken the trouble ^^°*
to be born." The taxes bearing most heavily on the Third
Estate were to be replaced by a general tax on all landowners.
Peasants were to be no longer forced to work without pay on
public highways and bridges. The old guilds, which hampered
industry, were to be abolished. The vexatious tolls and duties
on the passage of grain from one province to another were to
be swept away. Could such reforms have been carried out,
France would have had a bloodless and orderly revolution.
But they were not carried out. The privileged classes would
not surrender their privileges, nor favorites their pensions, nor
monopolists their unjust gains, without a struggle. Fall of
The weak king, who once declared that "the only Turgot
persons who truly love the people are Monsieur Turgot and
myself," failed to support him against the intrigues of Marie
Antoinette and the court party. Turgot's dismissal from
office after two years of power removed the one man who could
have saved absolutism in France.
The finances of the government went from bad to worse
after the fall of Turgot. His successors in the ministry relied
mainly on fresh loans to cover the deficits of the Financial
treasury and avert bankruptcy. From the stand- ^^^^^
point of French interests Louis XVI committed a fatal error
in allowing himself to be persuaded to intervene in the War
of American Independence. America was freed; Great Britain
was humbled; but the war forced up the public debt by leaps and
bounds. When at last it became impossible to borrow more
502 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
money, the king yielded reluctantly to the popular demand for
the convocation of the Estates-General. He appealed to the
nation for aid, thereby confessing the failure of absolutism.
177. The Estates-General, 1789
The Estates-General, the old feudal assembly of France, had
not met for one hundred and seventy-five years.^ Suddenly
awakened from their long slumber, the represen-
The Estates- . , , , , ,i i .i rr^i • i
General tatives of the clergy, the nobles, and the Third
convenes, Estate appeared at Versailles to take counsel with
May 5, 1789 , , . ^i
the kmg. The written instructions drawn up
in every part of the country for the guidance of each represen-
tative, though not revolutionary in wording, set forth a long
Hst of abuses to be removed. While Louis XVI would have
been satisfied with measures to increase the revenues, most
Frenchmen wanted thoroughgoing reforms.
Not quite half of the twelve hundred odd members of the
Estates- General belonged to the two privileged orders. About
Membership two-thirds of the delegates of the Third Estate
Estates- ^^^^ members of the legal profession. A few
General were liberal nobles. Less than a dozen came from
the lower classes. As a whole, the Estates-General represented
the most prosperous and the most intelligent people of
France.
The Third Estate possessed two very competent leaders, in
Count Mirabeau and the Abbe Sieyes. The former belonged
Mirabeau by birth and the latter by office to^ the privileged
and Sieyes classes, but both gladly accepted election as
representatives of the Third Estate. Mirabeau, a born s-tates-
man and orator, had a sincere belief in constitutional govern-
ment. He wished to set up in France a strong monarchy,
limited by a constitution after the English model. Sieyes,
a cleric more devoted to poUtics than to theology, had recently
stirred all Frenchmen by a remarkable pamphlet entitled
What is the Third Estate? He answered, " Everything." " What
1 See pages 210 and 399.
The Estates- General
503
Organization
would of the
Estates-
General
one for the
has it been hitherto?" "Nothing." "What does it desire?"
"To be something."
The three estates in former days sat as separate chambers
and voted by orders. If this usage were now followed, the
clergy and the
nobihty
have two votes
to
Third Estate. The com-
moners insisted, however,
that the new Estates-Gen-
eral no longer represented
feudal France, but the united
nation. They wished, there-
fore, that it should organize
as a single body, in which
the members voted as in-
dividuals. Since the Third
Estate had been permitted
to send twice as many del-
egates as either the clergy or
the nobility, this arrangement would enable it to outvote the
privileged orders and carry any reforming measures desired.
The debate over the organization of the Estates- General
continued for several weeks and resulted in a deadlock. At
last, on the motion of Sieyes, the Third Estate The National
cut the Gordian knot by boldly declaring itself Assembly
the National Assembly. Then and there it as- june 17,'
serted its right to act for the nation as a whole. ^'^^^
Representatives of the clergy and nobility might come in if they
pleased, but the National Assembly could do without them.
Louis XVI, left to himself, might have been too inert for
resistance, but his wife, his two brothers, and the ,, ^
111- 1 1 Tennis-
court party persuaded him to make a stand, court Oath,"
Troops were now posted before the doors of the J"^® ^0,
hall which had been set apart in the palace of Ver-
sailles for the Third Estate. Finding their entrance barred, the
MiRABEAU
After a miniature (1791) by J Lemoine in
the possession of M. F. Flameng.
504 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
The
National
Assembly
recognized,
June 27,
1789
undaunted commoners adjourned to a building nearby, which
had been used as a tennis court. Here they took a solemn
oath never to separate, but to continue to meet, under all
circumstances, until they had drawn up a constitution for
France. This resolute action brought to their side the repre-
sentatives of the lower clergy
{cures), who were inclined to
the popular cause.
But the king persisted in his
opposition. Sunlmoning the
three estates be-
fore him, he made
known the royal
will that they
should deliberate
apart. The higher clergy and
nobility immediately withdrew
to their separate chambers.
The Third Estate, with its
clerical supporters, did not stir.
When the master of ceremo-
nies repeated the king's com-
mand, Mirabeau retorted, "We
are assembled by the national will; force alone shall disperse
us." Louis XVI did not dare to use force, especially after
many of the nobles, headed by the Marquis de Lafayette,
joined the commoners. The king now gave way and requested
the rest of the clerical and noble representatives to unite with
the Third Estate in the National Assembly.
Lafayette
A portrait by Court, at Versailles.
178. Outbreak of the French Revolution
Thus far we have been following a constitutional movement
confined to the upper and middle classes of French society.
Now, however, the lower classes began to make their
influence felt upon the course of events, first in
Paris and later in the provinces. Paris was a
manufacturing center, with a large population of artisans, very
Revo-
lutionary
Paris
Outbreak of the French Revolution
505
poor, often idle, and inclined to be turbulent. Their ranks
were swelled at this time by crowds of peasants, whom the
bad harvests and severe winter of the preceding year had driven
into the city. Here, in fact, were all the elements of a dangerous
The Storming of the Bastille
A picture by a contemporary artist. Lafayette sent the key of the Bastille to Washington
at Mount Vernon, with these words: " It is a tribute which I owe as a son to my adopted
father, as an aide-de-camp to my general, as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch."
mob, on whose ignorance and passion reformers, agitators, and
demagogues could play what tunes they willed.
Soon came ominous news. Louis XVI had hardly accepted
the National Assembly before he changed his Fall of the
mind and determined to dissolve that body. A j^jy ^^
large number of troops, mainly German and Swiss 1789
regiments in the service of France, were massed near Paris,
5o6 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
•
obviously with intent of awing, perhaps seizing, the repre-
sentatives of the people. It was then that the Parisians made
the cause of the National Assembly their own. Rioting broke
out in the capital, and for several days anarchy prevailed.
Reinforced by deserters from the army, the mob attacked and
captured the Bastille, a fortress where poHtical offenders had
been often confined on lettres de cachet. The Bastille at this
time contained only seven prisoners, all there for just cause,
but it symbolized the tyranny of the Old Regime and its fall
created an immense sensation throughout France and in other
countries, Louis XVI, on hearing the news, exclaimed, "Why
this is a revolt!" ''No, Sire," replied a courtier, ''this is a
revolution."
Now that Paris was practically independent of royal control,
the more prominent and well-to-do citizens took steps to secure
The 3,n orderly government. They formed a municipal
Commune council, or Commune, made up of representatives
National elected from the different wards of the city. A
Guard miUtia force, called the National Guard, was also
organized, and the popular Lafayette was selected as com-
mander. Meanwhile, Louis XVI had seen the necessity of
submission. He withdrew the troops, got rid of his reactionary
ministers, and paid a visit of reconciliation to the Parisians.
In token of his good intentions, the king put on a red, white
and blue cockade, red and blue being the colors of Paris and
white that of the Bourbons. This was to be the new tricolor
of France.
The example set by Paris was quickly copied by the prov-
inces. Many cities and towns set up communes and formed
Revolution national guards. In the country districts the
in the peasants sacked and burned those local bastilles,
provinces ^^^ chdteaux, taking particular pains to destroy
the legal documents by which the nobles exercised their
manorial rights. Monasteries, also, were often pillaged. The
government showed itself unable to maintain order or to pro-
tect life and property. Troops in the garrison towns refused
to obey their officers and fraternized with the populace. Royal
Outbreak of the French Revolution
507
officials quitted their posts. Courts of justice ceased to act.
Public works stopped, and the collection of taxes became
almost impossible. From end to end of France the Old Regime
collapsed amid universal confusion.
The revolution in the provinces led directly to one of the
The Destruction of Feudalism
A contemporary cartoon representing the French people hammering to pieces with their
flails all the emblems of the feudal system, including the knight's armor and sword and the
bishop's crosier and miter.
most striking scenes of French history. On the night of Au-
gust 4-5, while the National Assembly had under consideration
measures for stilling the unrest in France, one August 4-5,
of the nobles — a relative of Lafayette — urged ^"^^^
that it remove the feudal burdens still resting on the peasantry.
Then, amid hysterical enthusiasm, noble after noble and cleric
after cleric arose in his place to propose equality of taxation,
the repeal of the game laws, the freeing of such serfs as were
still to be found in France, the abolition of tithes, tolls, and
pensions, and the extinction of all other ancient privileges.
A decree "abolishing the feudal system" was passed by the
National Assembly within the next few days and was signed by
5o8 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
the king. The reforming measures which Turgot labored
in vain to secure thus became accompHshed facts. It is well
to remember, however, that the Old Regime had already fallen
in France; the decree of the National Assembly did Httle more
than formally outlaw it.
Times were hard in Paris. Employment was scarce, and
food was dear. The discontent grew in proportion, especially
October 5-6, among the women, who had to stand in line many
1789 hours at a time waiting to purchase a few loaves
of bread at the bakeries. Rumor accused the court and the
aristocrats of deliberately causing famine, nay, of plotting to
overturn the revolution by force. A newspaper published the
statement — quite unfounded — that during a banquet of
army officers at Versailles the national cockade had been
insulted and trampled under foot. Here was the spark which
caused the explosion. On October 5 a mob of hungry women,
armed with every sort of weapon, even scythes and pitchforks,
set out for Versailles to demand bread of the king. It was a
strange procession that straggled along the twelve miles of
highway from Paris to Versailles; an eyewitness declares that
it reminded him of an army of crusaders. Early in the morning
of October 6, some of the women made their way into the palace,
killed the sentinels, and entered the apartments of Marie
Antoinette, who escaped with difficulty. Only the arrival of
Lafayette at the head of the National Guard prevented further
rioting and bloodshed. The women were finally quieted by
the king's promise to remove to Paris with his wife and children.
That afternoon the royal family set out on their sorrowful
journey to the capital, accompanied by a mob which yelled,
"We are bringing the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's
little boy." Henceforth Louis XVI lodged in the palace of
the Tuileries, where he found himself, in effect, a prisoner in
the hands of the Parisians.
179. The National Assembly, 1789-1791
The National Assembly declared itself inseparable from the
king's person and followed him to Paris. It remained in session
The National Assembly
509
there for the next two years. One of its most important un-
dertakings was the reform of local government. During the
eight centuries between Hugh Capet and Louis The depart-
XVI, France had been built up by the gradual weld- nients
ing together of a number of provinces varying greatly in size,
and each with its own customs and laws. The old provincial
distinctions now gave way to a division of the country into
eighty-three departments, approximately uniform in size and
population and named after some river, mountain, or other
natural feature. A map of contemporary France still shows
these departments.
The National Assembly next undertook a reorganization
of the Church. It ordered that all Church lands should be
declared national property, broken up into small Ecclesiastical
lots, and sold to the peasants at a low price, legislation
By way of partial indemnity, the government agreed to pay
fixed salaries to the clergy. All appointments to ecclesiasti-
cal positions were
m
ll<>i}iainc&Miad(mcwac.
Assig^nat
pa^ablevatuporteur.
Serie
6329'"^
taken from the @
hands of king and
pope and placed
in the hands of the
people. The elec-
tors of a depart-
ment chose their
bishop, and those
of a district their
cure. The National
Assembly also sup-
pressed the monasteries, but undertook to pension the monks
and nuns.
The desperate condition of the finances led to the adoption
of a desperate remedy. The National Assembly passed a
decree authorizing the issue of notes to the value The
of four hundred milHon francs on the security of assignats
the former Church lands. To emphasize this security the title
of as signals was given to the notes. If the issue of as signals
An Assignat
5IO The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
could have been restricted, as Mirabeau desired, to less than
the value of the property pledged to pay for them, they might
have been a safe means of raising a revenue; but the continued
needs of the treasury led to their multiplication in enormous
quantities. Then followed the inevitable consequences of
paper money inflation. Gold and silver disappeared from
circulation, while prices rose so high that the time came when
it needed a basket of assignats to buy a pair of boots. The
assignats in the end became practically worthless. The finances
of the government, instead of being bettered by this resort to
paper money, were left in a worse state than before.
The National Assembly gave to France in 1791 the written
constitution which had been promised in the ''Tennis-Court
The Con- Oath."^ The constitution established a legis-
stitution of lative assembly of a single chamber with wide
powers over every branch of the government.
The hereditary monarchy was retained, but it was a monarchy
in little more than name. The king could not dissolve the
legislature, and he had only a "suspensive veto" of its measures.
A bill passed by three successive legislatures became a law
even without his consent. Mirabeau wished to accord the
king greater authority, but the National Assembly distrusted
Louis XVI as a possible traitor to the Revolution and took every
precaution to render him harmless. The distrust which the
bourgeois framers of the constitution felt toward the lower
classes was shown by the clause limiting the privilege of voting
to those who paid taxes equivalent to at least three days'
wages. About a fourth of the citizens, some of them peasants
but most of them artisans, were thus excluded from the
franchise.
The National Assembly prefixed to the constitution a Decla-
ration of the Rights of Man, rights which for the
Declaration , , , • i • 1 i ^ i
of the most part had been ignored or violated under the
Rights of Old Regime. No person, so ran the Declaration,
shall be arrested or imprisoned except according
to law. Any 'one accused of wrongdoing shall be presumed
1 Hence the National Assembly is also called the Constituent Assembly.
The First French RepubHc 511
innocent until he is adjudged guilty. Every citizen may
freely speak, write, and ^print his opinions, subject only to
responsibility for the abuse of this freedom. All the citizens
have the right to decide what taxes shall be paid and how they
are to be used. No one shall be deprived of his property,
except for public purposes, and then only after indemnification.
These and other clauses of the Declaration of Rights followed
the precedents set in some of the constitutions of the American
states. The document, as a whole, formed a working pro-
gram of revolution in France.
180. The First French Republic, 1792
The first phase of the French Revolution was now ended.
Up to this point it has appeared rather as a reformation,
which abolished the Old Regime and substituted phases of
a limited monarchy for absolutism and divine the revo-
right. Many men believed that under the new "*^°"
constitution France would henceforth enjoy the blessings of
peace and prosperity. They were quickly undeceived. The
French people, unfortunately, lacked all training in the difficult
art of self-government. Between their political incapacity
and the opposition of the reactionaries and the radicals, the
revolutionary movement drifted into its second and more
violent phase, which was marked by the estabhshment of a
republic.
The reactionaries consisted, in part, of nobles who had
hastily quitted the country upon the outbreak of the Revo-
lution. Their emigration continued for several The
years, until thousands of voluntary exiles (emi- emigres
gres) had gathered along the northern and eastern frontier of
France. Headed by the king's two brothers, the count of
Provence 1 and the count of Artois,^ they kept up an un-
ceasing intrigue against the Revolution and even organized
a little army to recover by force their titles, privileges, and
property.
1 Afterwards Louis XVIII (1814-1824). 2 Afterwards Charles X (1824-1830).
512 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Had the reactionaries included only the emigres beyond
the borders, they might not have proved very troublesome.
The non- "^^^ ^^^^ found support in France. The Consti-
juring tution of 1 79 1 had made the clergy state officials,
c ergy elected by the people and paid by the government.
Such an arrangement could not be acceptable to sincere Roman
CathoUcs, because it separated the Church from papal control.
The pope, who had already protested against the confiscation
of Church property and the dissolution of the monasteries,
forbade the clergy to take the oath of fidehty to the new con-
stitution. Nearly all the bishops and perhaps two-thirds of
the cures obeyed him; these were called the non-juring clergy.
Until this time the parish priests had generally supported the
revolutionary movement. They now turned against it, carry-
ing with them their peasant flocks. The Roman CathoUc
Church, with all its spiritual influence, was henceforth
arrayed against the French Revolution.
To Louis XVI, practically a prisoner in the Tuileries, the
new order of things could not but be most distasteful. The
Opposi- constitution, soon to be put into effect, seemed
tionof to him a violation of his rights as a monarch,
Louis XVI 1 ., , r 1 1 1 1 /v 1 1
and Marie while the treatment of the clergy deeply offended
Antoinette j^j^i as a Christian. As long as Mirabeau lived,
that statesman had always been able to dissuade the king from
seeking foreign help, but Mirabeau's premature death deprived
him of his only wise adviser. Louis's opposition to the revolu-
tionists was strengthened by Marie Antoinette, who keenly
felt the degradation of her position.
The king and queen finally resolved to escape by flight.
Disguising themselves, Marie Antoinette as a Russian lady
Flight of and Louis as her valet, they drove away in the
the king evening from the Tuileries and made straight for
and queen, . . .
June 20-21, the eastern frontier. But Louis exposed himself
^"^^^ needlessly on the way; recognition followed;
and at Varennes, near the border, excited crowds stopped the
royal fugitives and turned them back to Paris. This ill-starred
adventure greatly weakened the loyalty of the French people
The First French RepubHc
513
The Radicals
for Louis XVI, while Marie Antoinette, the ''Austrian woman,"
became more detested than ever.
Besides the reactionaries who opposed the Revolution, there
were the radicals who thought that it had not gone far enough.
The radicals secured their chief following among
the poverty-stricken workingmen of the cities,
those without property and with no steady employment.
Of all classes in France, the
urban proletariat,^ as they
may henceforth be called,
seemed to have gained the
least by the Revolution. No
chance of future betterment
lay before them, for the bour-
geois Constitution of 1791
expressly provided that only
tax-payers could vote or hold
public office. The proletariat
might well believe that, in
spite of all high-sounding
phrases .about the "rights of
man," they had merely ex-
changed one set of masters for
another, the rule of the priv-
ileged classes for that of the
bourgeoisie.
The radical movement naturally centered in Paris, the brain
and nerve center of France. It was fostered by inflammatory
newspapers and pamphlets, by the bitter speeches Radical
of popular orators, and especially by numerous propaganda
political clubs. The control of these clubs lay largely in the
hands of young lawyers, who embraced the cause of the masses
and soon became as hostile to the bourgeoisie as to the aristoc-
racy. The famous Jacobin Club, so named from a former
monastery of the Jacobin monks where its meetings were held,
Danton
Presumably a portrait by J. L. David,
painted either in 1792 or 1793. Id the
possession of Dr. Robinet.
^ From Latin proles, "oflfspring,"
wealth is in their children.
progeny" — referring to those whose only
514 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
had hundreds of branches throughout France, all engaged in
radical propaganda.
The leaders of the Jacobin Club included two men who were
destined to influence profoundly the subsequent course of the
Danton and Revolution. One was Danton, who sprang from
Robespierre ^j^g middle class. Highly cultivated, a successful
advocate at the bar, Danton with his loud voice and forcible
gestures could arouse his audience to wild enthusiasm. The
WM9:^
The Lion of Lucerne
This celebrated work at Lucerne in Switzerland was designed by the Danish sculptor
Bertel Thonvaldsen and was dedicated in 1821. It represents a dying lion, which, pierced
by a lance, still guards with its paw the Bourbon lilies. The figure is hewn out of the
natural sandstone. The monument commemorates the ofi&cers and men of the Swiss Guard
who were slain in 1792, while defending the Tuileries against the Parisian mob.
other was Robespierre, also a middle-class lawyer with demo-
cratic sympathies. This austere, precise httle man, whose
youth had been passed in poverty, early became a disciple
of Rousseau and the oracle of the Jacobins. Mirabeau once
prophesied of Robespierre that he would "go far; he believes
all that he says." We shall soon see how far he went.
A new influence began at this point to affect the course
of the French Revolution. Continental monarchs, however
The First French Republic
515
"enlightened," felt no sympathy with a popular movement
which threatened the stability of their own „^
, , . . . , War with
thrones. If absolutism and divme right were Austria
overthrown in France, they might before long be ^"Jy^^gg*
overthrown in Austria and Prussia. The Austrian
emperor, a brother of Marie Antoinette, now joined with the
Prussian king in a state-
ment to the effect that the
restoration of the old mon-
archy in France formed an
object of "common inter-
est to all sovereigns of
Europe." The two rulers
also agreed to prepare
their armies for active ser-
vice abroad. Their an-
nounced intention to sup-
press the Revolution by
force provoked the French
people into a declaration
of war. Though directed
only at the Austrian emperor, it also brought his Prussian ally
into the field against France.
The French began the contest with immense enthusiasm.
They regarded themselves as armed apostles to spread the
gospel of freedom throughout Europe. But their
troops, poorly organized and disciplined, suffered rising of
severe reverses, one result of which was further j2i^^* ^^'
to exasperate pubUc opinion against the monarchy.
Suspicion pointed to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as the
traitors who were secretly revealing the French plan of cam-
paign to the enemies of France. Suspicion passed into hatred,
when the alhed commander-in-chief, as he led his army across
the frontier, issued a proclamation threatening Paris with
destruction if the slightest harm befell the royal family. At
this juncture the Jacobins under Danton organized an uprising
of the Parisian proletariat. The mob stormed the Tuileries,
Seal of the French Republic,
I 792 -I 804
5i6 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
massacred the Swiss Guard, and compelled the National As-
sembly to suspend the king from office. A new assembly,
to be called the National Convention, was summoned to pre-
pare another constitution for France.
Then followed the next scene in the bloody drama. The
Commune of Paris, now controlled by the Jacobins, emptied
Proclamation the prisons of suspected royahsts and butchered
of the them without mercy. More than one thousand
republic,
September. persons perished in the ''September massacres."
22, 1792 Shortly afterwards the National Convention held its
first meetings and by a unanimous vote decreed the abolition
of the monarchy. All pubhc documents were henceforth to be
dated from September 22, 1792, the beginning of "the first
year of the French Republic."
181. The National Convention, 1792-1795
The National Convention contained nearly eight hundred
members, all republicans, but republicans of diverse shades of
opinion. One group was that of the Girondists,
in the so-called because its leaders came from the de-
National partment of the Gironde. The Girondists repre-
sented largely the bourgeoisie; they desired a
speedy return to law and order. Opposite them sat the far
more radical and far more resolute group of Jacobins, who
leaned for support upon the turbulent populace of Paris. The
majority of the delegates belonged to neither party and voted
now on one side and now on the other. Eventually, however,
they fell under Jacobin domination.
The feud between the two parties broke out in the first days
of the National Convention. The Jacobins clamored for the
death of Louis XVI as a traitor; most of the
execution Girondists, less convinced of the king's guilt, would
of Louis iiave spared his hfe. Mob influence carried through
XVI 1793
the assembly, by a small majority, the vote
which sent "Citizen Louis Capet" to the guillotine.
The king's accusers did not have the evidence, which we now
The National Convention
517
possess, proving that he had been in constant communication
with the foreign invaders. His execution was a poHtical
measure. ''Louis must die," urged Robespierre, "that the
country may Uve." Dan ton, raihng against the enemies of
France, could now declare, ''We have thrown them as gage of
battle the head of a king."
Meanwhile, the tide of foreign invasion receded rapidly.
France, 1793
Execution of Louis XVI
After a contemporary print.
Two days before the inauguration of the repubhc the French
stayed the advance of the allies in the important battle of
Valmy. The revolutionary troops then took the coalition
offensive and invaded the Austrian Netherlands, against
Fired by these successes, the National Conven-
tion offered the aid of France to all nations which were
striving after freedom ; in other words, it proposed to propagate
the Revolution by force of arms throughout Europe. This
was a blow in the face to autocratic rulers and privileged
classes everywhere. After the execution of Louis XVI
Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain leagued
together to overthrow republican France.
5i8 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
The repubUc at the same time was threatened by domestic
insurrection. The peasants of La Vendee, a district to the
Domestic south of the lower Loire, were royalists in feeling
insurrection ^nd deeply devoted to Roman Cathohcism. When
an attempt was made to draft them as soldiers, they refused to
serve and broke out in open rebellion. The important naval
station of Toulon, a royalist center, surrendered to the British.
A tremor of revolt also ran through the great cities of Lyons,
Marseilles, and Bordeaux, whose bourgeoisie resented the radi-
calism of the Parisian proletariat.
The peril to the republic, without and within, showed the
need of a strong central government. The National Con-
C "ttee vention met this need by selecting twelve of its
of PubUc members to serve as a Committee of Public
^^^^^ Safety, in which at first Danton, and later Robes-
pierre, was the leading figure. The committee received almost
unlimited authority over the life and property of every one in
France. It proceeded to enforce a general levy or conscription,
which raised three-quarters of a million men for the national
defense. Carnot, another member of the committee, the
''organizer of victory" as he came to be called, drilled and dis-
ciphned them and sent them forth, singing the Marseillaise,^
to battle.
The mercenary troops of old Europe could not resist the
French citizen soldiers, who soon carried the war into enemy
territory. The grand coalition dissolved under
the coali- the shock, and France enlarged her boundaries
tion, 1794- ^q include the Austrian Netherlands and that
1795
part of Germany lying on the left, or west, bank
of the Rhine. Holland was also overrun by the revolutionary
armies. The country now became a republic, nominally
independent but really subject to French influence.
The Committee of Pubhc Safety likewise dealt effectively
with domestic insurrection. It resorted to a policy of terrorism
as a means of suppressing the anti-revolutionary elements.
1 A patriotic song, the words and music of which were composed in 1792 by
Rouget de Lisle.
The National Convention 519
A law was passed which declared "suspect" every noble,
every office-holder before the Revolution, every person who
had had any dealings with an emigre, and every
1 11 1 -n . . . Terrorism
person who could not produce a certificate of citi-
zenship. No one could feel safe under this law. As a wit
afterward remarked, all France in those days went about
conjugating, ''I am suspect, thou art suspect, he is suspect,"
etc. Special courts were set up in Paris and the provincial
cities to try the "suspects" and usually to order them to the
guillotine.
France endured the Reign of Terror for over a year. During
this time seventeen thousand persons, it has been estimated,
were executed under form of law, while many Rgjgjj ^f
more were massacred without the pretense of a Terror,
1793—1794
trial. The carnage spread beyond the non-juring
clergy and the aristocracy to include the bourgeoisie and even
many artisans and peasants. Among the distinguished victims
at Paris were Marie Antoinette, the sister of Louis XVI, and
the principal Girondist leaders. Then the Terror began to
consume its own authors. Danton, who had wearied of the
bloodshed and counseled moderation, suffered death. ''Show
my head to the people," he said to the executioner, "they do
not see the like every day." The fanatical Robespierre now
became the virtual dictator of France. He continued the
slaughter for a few months until his enemies in the National
Convention secured the upper hand and hurried him without
trial to the death to which he had sent so many of his fellow-
citizens.
Robespierre's execution ended the Reign of Terror. The
policy of terrorism, however effective in crushing the enemies
of the republic, had long since been perverted to ^j^g q^^_
party and personal ends. The inevitable reaction stitution of
against Jacobin tyranny followed. The bourgeoisie
gained control of the National Convention, which now resumed
its task of preparing a constitution for republican France.
The new instrument of government provided for a legislature
of two chambers and vested the executive authority in a
520 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Directory of five members, with most of the powers of the
former Committee of Pubhc Safety.
Before the constitution went into effect, Paris became the
scene of another mob outburst. Royalists and radicals joined
„ , forces and advanced to the attack of the Tuileries,
Napoleon , tvt • i ^ • • •
and the where the JNationai Convention was sittmg.
National Here the rioters met such a cannonade of grape
Convention .. ,,. r
shot that they fled precipitately, leaving many of
their number dead in the streets. The man who most dis-
tinguished himself as the defender of law and order was the
young artillery general. Napoleon Bonaparte.
182. The Directory and Napoleon, 1795-1799
Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, in 1769,
only a year after that island became a French possession.
He was the second son of an
Italian lawyer of noble birth but
Early life decayed fortunes.
of Napoleon Napoleon attended
a preparatory school in France
and went through the ordinary
curriculum with credit, showed
proficiency in mathematics, and
devoted much of his leisure to
reading history. After a brief
military training in Paris, he
entered an artillery regiment,
thus realizing his boyish desire
to be a soldier. He was then a
youth of sixteen years, poor,
friendless, and without family
influence.
Napoleon took a keen interest in the reform movement then
stirring France. A devoted admirer of Rousseau's philosophy,
Rise of he hated aU privfleges, all aristocracy, and for a
Napoleon ^jj^ie, at least, he became a Jacobin. The Revolu-
tion gave him his first opportunities. He commanded the
Napoleon
After a painting made in 1803 by
B. Greathead. It was considered by Na-
poleon's mother the best likeness of her son.
In the possession of Sir Edward Durand.
The Directory and Napoleon 521
artillery which compelled the British to evacuate Toulon in
1794 and two years later he helped defend the National
Convention against the Parisian mob. Shortly afterwards
Carnot, who divined Napoleon's genius, persuaded his col-
leagues- on the Directory to intrust the young man with the
command of the French army in Italy.
When the Directory assumed office, France still numbered
Great Britain and Austria among her foes. Great Britain
could not be attacked, because of the weakness «„ ,
' riapoleon
of the French navy, but Austria offered a front in Italy,
vulnerable to an advance both through Germany ^'^^^^'^^^
and Italy. It was Napoleon's task, with a small and shabbily
equipped army, to drive the Austrians from their strong posi-
tions in Lombardy. He accomplished this task in a campaign
of spectacular brilliancy, which only ended when the French
were within a hundred miles of Vienna. The Hapsburg em-
peror, unprepared 'to withstand a siege of his own capital, then
stooped to make terms with the republican general.
Austria ceded to France the Austrian Netherlands, which
had already been occupied by the republican armies, agreed
to the annexation by France of the Germanic
lands west of the Rhine, and recognized the es- Campo
tablishment of a sphere of French influence in Formio,
1797
northern Italy. In return for these concessions,
Austria received most of the Venetian territories conquered
by Napoleon. Thus passed away the republic of Venice,
which had managed through nearly a thousand years to pre-
serve its independence.
Great Britain now remained the only country to contest
French supremacy in Europe. Napoleon determined to strike
at her through her Oriental possessions. It was Napoleon
necessary, first of all, to wrest Egypt from the in Egypt,
Ottoman Turks, for, as Napoleon never tired of
asserting, ''the power that is master of Egypt is master of
India." Napoleon easily persuaded the Directory to give him
the command of a strong expedition, which set sail from Toulon
and reached Alexandria in safety. The Egyptian campaign
522 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Directory,
1799
had hardly begun before Lord Nelson, the British admiral,
destroyed most of the French fleet at the battle of the Nile,
thus severing the communications of the army with France.
Napoleon soon overran Egypt, but met a severe check when he
carried the war into Syria.
Faced by the collapse of his
Oriental dreams, he secretly
returned to France. Here his
highly colored reports of
French victories caused him to
be greeted as the conqueror of
the East.
Affairs had gone badly for
France during Napoleon's ab-
^ , sence in Eg\T3t.
Overthrow ^ . ^ .
of the Great Britain,
Austria, and
Russia formed
another coalition against the
republic, put large armies in
the field, and drove the French
This misfortune
sapped the authority of the
Directory and turned the eyes
of most Frenchmen to Napoleon as the one man who could
guarantee victory abroad and order at home. He took advantage
of the situation to plan with Sieyes and other politicians a coup
d'etat} Three of the five directors were induced to resign; the
other two were placed under miHtary guard; and the bayonets
of Napoleon's devoted soldiers forced the assemblies to dissolve.
Napoleon now became virtually master of France. 'T found
the crown of France lying on the ground," he once remarked,
*'and I picked it up with the sword." Thus, within little
more than ten years from the meeting of the Estates-General
at Versailles, popular government gave way to the rule of one
man. MiUtarism supplanted democracy.
1 French for a "stroke of state."
Horatio, Lord Nelson
National Portrait Gallery, London
A painting by L. F. Abbott of Nelson in . .
1797. He wears on his breast the Order of the IfOm Italy.
Bath and round his neck suspended by a rib-
bon the gold medal for the battle of St.Vincent,
The Consulate 523
183. The Consulate, 1799-1804
After the coup d'etat Napoleon proceeded to frame a consti-
tution. It placed the executive power in the hands of three
consuls, appointed for ten years. The First ^j^^ p
Consul (Napoleon himself) was really supreme, stitution of
To him belonged the command of the army and
navy, the right of naming and dismissing all the chief state
officials, and the proposal of all new laws. Napoleon then
submitted the constitution to the people for ratification. The
popular vote, known as a plebiscite, showed an overwhelming
majority in favor of the new government.
The French accepted Napoleon's rule the more readily
because of the threatening war-clouds in Italy and on the
Rhine. Though Russia soon withdrew from the
second coalition, Austria and Great Britain Marengo
remained in arms against France. Napoleon unden, I800
now led his troops across the Alps by the pass of
the Great St. Bernard, a feat rivaling Hannibal's performance,
descended unexpectedly into Italy in the rear of the Austrian
forces, and won a new triumph at Marengo. A few months
later the French general, Moreau, inflicted a crushing defeat
on the Austrians at Hohenlinden in Bavaria.^ These reverses
brought the Hapsburg emperor to his knees, and he agreed to
a peace which reaffirmed the provisions of the Treaty of Campo
Formio;
Great Britain and France now took steps to end the long war
between them. The one country was all-powerful on the sea,
the other on the land; but neither could strike pe^ce of
a vital blow at the other. The Peace of Amiens, Amiens,
which they concluded, proved to be a truce rather
than a peace. However, it enabled the First Consul to drop
the sword for a time and take up the less spectacular but more
enduring work of administration. He soon showed himself "
as great in^tatecraft as in war.
1 Read Campbell's poem, Hohenlinden.
524 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
One of Napoleon's most important measures put the local
government of all France directly under his control. He
France placed a prefect over every department and a
centralized subprefect Over every subdivision of a depart-
ment. Even the mayors of the larger towns and cities owed
their positions to the First Consul. This arrangement enabled
Napoleon to make his will felt promptly throughout the length
and breadth of France. It has surxdved in that country to the
present time.
The same desire for unity and precision led Napoleon to
undertake the codification of French law. Voltaire had once
The law remarked that a traveler through France changed
codified j^jg laws as often as he changed his post-horses.
This multiplicity of laws — Frankish, Roman, feudal, royal, and
revolutionary — was now replaced by a single uniform code
to which Napoleon gave his name. The Code Napoleon pre-
vails to-day, not only in France, but also in Belgium, Holland,
Italy, and western Germany.
Napoleon also healed the religious schism which had divided
France since the Revolution. Though not himself an ad-
The Church herent of any form of Christianity, he felt the
restored necessity of conciliating the many French Catho-
lics who remained faithful to Rome. An agreement, called
the Concordat, was now drawn up, providing for the restoration
of Catholicism as the state religion. Napoleon reserved to
himself the appointment of bishops and archbishops, and the
pope gave up all claims to the confiscated property of the
Church. The Concordat formed a singularly politic measure,
for by confirming the peasantry in their possession of the
ecclesiastical lands it bound up their interests with those of
Napoleon. It continued to regulate the relations between
France and the Papacy for more than a century .^
Nor did Napoleon forget the emigres. A law was soon
The emigres passed extending amnesty to the nobles who had
repatriated flg^j fj-om France. More than forty thousand
families now returned to their native land.
^ From 1802 to 1905.
The First French Empire 525
A long list might be drawn up of the other measures which
exhibit Napoleon's quahties as a statesman. Thus, he founded
the Bank of France, still one of the leading « , ,
financial institutions of the world. He established other
a system of higher education to take the place ™®^^^®s
of the colleges and universities which had been aboHshed
by a decree of the National Convention. Like the Roman
emperors, he constructed a system of military highways radi-
ating from the capital city to the remotest departments, in
addition to two wonderful Alpine roads connecting France
with Italy. Like the Romans, also, he had a taste for build-
ing, and many of the monuments which make Paris so
splendid a city belong to the Napoleonic era.
184. The First French Empire, 1804
Napoleon's victories in war and his policies in peace gained
for him the support of all Frenchmen except the Jacobins,
who would not admit that the Revolution had w ,
rJapoleon,
ended, and the royahsts, who wished to restore emperor of
the Bourbon monarchy. When in 1802 the people *^® French
were asked to vote on the question, ^' Shall Napoleon Bona-
parte be consul for life?" the answering ''ayes" numbered
over three and a half millions, the ''noes" only a few thousands.
Another plebiscite in 1804 decided, by an equally large majority,
that the First Consul should become emperor. Before the
high altar of Notre Dame Cathedral at Paris and in the presence
of the pope, the modern Charlemagne placed a golden laurel
wreath upon his own head and assumed the title of Napoleon I,
emperor of the French.
Napoleon also proceeded to erect a monarchy on Italian soil.
At Milan he crowned himself king, as Charle- -^ ,
magne had done, with the "Iron Crown" of the king of
Lombards. North Italy thus became practically ^^
an annex of France.
The emperor-king set up again at the Tuileries the etiquette
and ceremonial of the Old Regime. Already he had estab-
526 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
The
imperial
glory
lished the Legion of Honor to reward those who most indus-
triously served him. Now he created an imperial
nobility. His relatives and ministers became
princes, dukes, and counts; his ablest generals
became marshals of France. ''My titles," Napoleon declared,
"are a sort of civic crown; one can
win them through one's own efforts."
France, intoxicated with the im-
perial glory, forgot that she had
^jjg come under the rule of
imperial one man. What hostile
despotism ... • -r-^ 1
criticism rrenchmen
might have leveled against Napoleon
was stifled by the secret police, who
arrested and imprisoned hundreds
of persons obnoxious to the emperor.
The censorship of books and news-
papers prevented any expression of
public opinion. Many journals were
suppressed; the remainder were
allowed to publish only articles ap-
proved by the government. Even
the schools and churches were made
pillars of the new order, and Napo-
to prepare a
catechism setting forth the duty of
love, respect,
and obey their emperor. In all
these ways he established a despotism as unqualified as that of
Louis XIV.
185. Napoleon at War with Europe, 1805-1807
The wars of the French Revolution, beginning in a conflict
between democracy and monarchy, gradually became a means
^jjg of gratifying the French lust for territorial ex-
Napoleonic pansion. With" the advent of Napoleon they
^"^ appeared still more clearly as wars of conquest.
The "successor of Charlemagne," who carried the Roman
Cross of the Legion
OF Honor
Instituted by Napoleon in 1802;
given to both soldiers and civilians for
distinguished sen-ices to the state. In leOU WCUt SO far aS
the present order of the French Repub
lie the symbolical head of the repub
lie appears in the center and a laurel gOOd Christians tO
wreath replaces the imperial crown
Napoleon at War with Europe
527
Hostility of
Great
Britain to
Napoleon
eagles on his military standards, dreamed of universal sov-
ereignty. Supreme in France, he would also be supreme in
Europe. No lasting peace was possible with such a man,
unless the European nations submitted tamely to his will.
They would not submit, and as a result the Continent for ten
years was drenched with blood.
Austria in the revolutionary wars had been the chief opponent
of France; in the wars of Napoleon Great Britain became his
most persistent and relentless enemy. That island-
kingdom, which had defeated the grandiose
schemes of Philip II and Louis XIV, could never
consent to the creation of a French empire domi-
nating western Europe. .To preserve the European balance
of power Great
Britain formed
coalition after
coalition, using
her money, her
ships, and her
soldiers unspar-
ingly, and at
length success-
fully, in the
effort.
The Peace of
Amiens lasted little over a year. The war between Great
Britain and France being then renewed. Napoleon made
every preparation to overthrow "perfidious Al- Trafalgar,
bion." He collected an army and a flotilla of ^^®^
flat-bottomed boats near Boulogne, apparently intending
to "jump the ditch," as he called the Channel, and lead his
soldiers to London. If this was ever his intention, it became
impossible of accomplishment after Lord Nelson's victory off
Cape Trafalgar, over the combined French and Spanish fleets.
Nelson received a mortal wound in the action, but he died with
the knowledge that his country would henceforth remain in
undisputed control of the seas.
A Napoleonic Medal
A medal prepared by Napoleon to be issued at London in honor
of his expected triumph. It represents Hercules overthrowing a
merman and bears the legend Frappee a Londres — "Struck in
London" — 1804. After a cast in the British Museum.
528 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Meanwhile, the British prime minister, Wilham Pitt (son of
the earl of Chatham), had succeeded in forming still another
ui nd coalition. Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and
AusterUtz, Sweden came together with the declared purpose
^^^^ of forcing France back to her old territorial limits.
Before they could strike a blow, Napoleon suddenly broke up
his camp at Boulogne, moved swiftly into Germany, captured
The "Victory"
Nelson's flagship at the battle of Trafalgar. Now moored in Portsmouth Harbor, England.
an entire Austrian army at Ulm, and entered Vienna. These
successes were followed by .the celebrated battle of Austerlitz,
a masterpiece of strategy, at which Napoleon with inferior
numbers shattered the Austro-Russian forces. With his
capital lost, his territory occupied, his armies destroyed, the
Hapsburg emperor once more consented to an ignominious
peace. The Venetian lands which Austria acquired by the
Peace of Campo Formio, were now added to Napoleon's
kingdom of Italy.
Prussia was next to feel the mailed fist of Napoleon. Rely-
Tena 1806 ^^§ upon the help of Saxony and Russia, she at-
and Fried- tempted to stay his victorious progress, only to
*° ' suffer the loss of two armies in the double battle of
Jena. Napoleon soon entered Berlin in triumph. Russia still
Eg-
;Li >
<T> n>
&-- I
j3 p fO
f iz:
a. ii, 5-
3 ^
1
5 -•
1^
The Napoleonic Reorganization of Europe 529
remained formidable, until a bad defeat at Friedland induced
the tsar, Alexander I, to make overtures for peace.
The two emperors met on a raft in the middle of the river
Niemen at Tilsit and concluded a bargain for the partition of
Europe. The tsar agreed to throw over his allies Peace of
and allow Napoleon a free hand in the West, ^^^^t* ^^^
Napoleon permitted the tsar to seize Finland from Sweden
and promised French aid in expelling the Turks from Europe.
When, however, the tsar asked for the Turkish capital, Napo-
leon exclaimed, "Constantinople! Never! That would be the
mastery of the world."
No sovereign in modem times was ever so powerful as Napo-
leon after TiLsit. If he had failed on the sea, he had won
complete success on the land, and the triumphs of ^-^^
Ulm, of Austerlitz, of Jena, and of Friedland hid Napoleonic
from view the disaster of Trafalgar. Napoleon's ^^"^^^^
victories are explained only in part by his mastery of the art of
war. The emperor inherited the splendid citizen-soldiery
of the revolutionary era, a whole nation under arms and filled
with the idea of carrying "Liberty, EquaHty, Fraternity"
throughout Europe. The hired troops of the absolute mon-
archies, on the contrary, had little enthusiasm for their cause.
Slight wonder that in conflict with them Napoleon's legions
always gained the day.
186. The Napoleonic Reorganization of Europe
Napoleon at the zenith of his power ruled directly over an
empire that was much more extensive than the former French
kingdom. During the years which followed the imperial
Peace of Tilsit, he annexed Holland, all the Ger- ^^^^^e
man coast as far as Denmark, what remained of the States of
the Church, including Rome, and the Illyrian provinces east
of Italy. Imperial France touched the Baltic on the north, and
on the south she faced the Adriatic.
Beyond the empire stood a belt of dependent states. North-
ern Italy, including Lombardy and the ancient possessions of
Venice, formed a separate kingdom, held by Napoleon himself,
530 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
Confedera-
tion of the Rhine. This
Rhine. 1806
and administered by his stepson, Eugene Beauharnais.^ His
Dependent brother Joseph governed in central and southern
states Italy (the kingdom of Naples). Switzerland was
a vassal republic ruled by Napoleon with the title of Medi-
ator. The sections of Pohsh territory which Prussia and Austria
had seized in the second and third partitions went to form the
Grand Duchy of Warsaw; not,
however, under a Polish ruler,
but under Napoleon's new ally,
the king of Saxony. "Roll up
the map of Europe," William
Pitt had cried, when he heard
the news of Austerlitz, "it will
not be needed these ten years."
Napoleon's power in central
Europe rested upon the Con-
federation of the
or-
ganization included
Bavaria, Baden, and Wlirtem-
berg, and in its final form all
the German states except Aus-
tria and Prussia. As sovereign
of the league, under the title of
Protector, Napoleon disposed of
its military forces and conducted its foreign relations.
The formation of the Confederation of the Rhine gave the
death-blow to the Holy Roman Empire. That venerable
institution, which went back to Otto the Great
and Charlemagne, had by this time become little
more than a name, an empty form, a shadow
without substance. When Napoleon declared that
he would recognize it no longer, the Hapsburg ruler laid down
the crown and contented himself with the title of emperor
of Austria.
Almost all the European states not actually dependent on
^ Son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine, by her first husband.
William Pitt, the Younger
After a painting by John Hoppncr in the
possession of Lord Rosebery.
Extinction
of the Holy
Roman
Empire, 1806
The Continental System
531
Napoleon were allied with him. They included Spain, which
subsequently became a dependency, Denmark, Norway, the
kingdom of Prussia, now reduced to about a half
of its former size, and the weakened Austrian
Empire. But Great Britain, mistress of the seas, still held out
against the master of the Continent.
Longitude East 10 from Greenwich
First French Empire, 1812 a.d.
187. The Continental System
The failure of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, as a result
of the battle of the Nile, prevented him from striking at Great
Britain through her possessions in the East. His Economic
hope of invading her vanished at Trafalgar. His warfare
efforts to destroy her commerce by sending out innumerable
privateers to prey upon it were foiled when British merchant-
men sailed in convoys under the protection of ships of war.
One alternative remained. If British manufacturers could be
deprived of their Continental markets and British ship-owners
532 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
and sailors of their carrying trade, it might be possible to compel
the "nation of shopkeepers"^ to makepeace with him on his
own terms.
Napoleon's extraordinary successes on land enabled him to.
devise a scheme for the strangulation of Great Britain. By
two decrees issued at Berlin and Milan he
Berlin and
MUan placed that country under a commercial interdict.
decrees, British ships and goods were to be excluded from
loOo — Xww •
France and her dependencies, while neutral ves-
sels sailing from any British port were to be seized by French
warships or privateers.
Napoleon endeavored to enforce these decrees in the French
Empire, the Italian kingdom, the Confederation of the Rhine,
and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Russia and
Extent _, .
of the Prussia agreed to enforce them by the terms of the
Continental Peace of Tilsit. At one time or another all the
System
states of Europe, except Great Britain and Turkey,
came into the Continental System.
The British government replied to the Berlin and Milan
decrees by various Orders in Council, which forbade neutral
The Orders ships from trading with France, her dependencies,
in CouncU qj- j^gj. allies under penalty of capture. As Napo-
leon sought to exclude Great Britain from Continental markets,
so that country sought to shut out Napoleon from maritime
commerce. The sea-power of Great Britain made it possible
for her to blockade the Continent with some degree of effec-
tiveness.
Napoleon, on the other hand, could not make the Continental
System really effective. British merchants always managed
to smuggle large quantities of goods into the Euro-
of the pean countries. Some goods which the French
Continental absolutely required, such as woolens, had to be
System .^ n ' ?
admitted into France under special license. Napo-
leon clad his own armies in British cloth, and his soldiers marched
in British shoes. Though Great Britain suffered acutely
from the emperor's interference with her trade, the Continental
1 A Napoleonic phrase.
Revolt of the Nations 533
nations, deprived of needed manufactures and colonial wares,
suffered still more. The result was to excite great bitterness
against Napoleon. Nevertheless, he persisted in the attempt
to humble his only rival by this economic warfare; as we shall
now see, he staked his empire on the success of the Continental
System.
188. Revolt of the Nations, 1808-1814
Napoleon hitherto had been fighting kings, not nations;
and he had been uniformly victorious. A change came after
Tilsit. His extortions from the conquered coun- National
tries, his despotic government, and the hardships resistance
imposed by the Continental System all tended to ° *^° ®°°
produce the utmost hatred of the French emperor. Hence-
forth our chief interest is with the various nations which one
after another rose up against their common oppressor. France
in arms made Napoleon; Europe in arms overthrew him.
The little kingdom of Portugal had been linked to Great
Britain by close commercial ties for more than a century.
When the Portuguese refused to close their ports Napoleon's
to British ships, as Napoleon demanded, he sent ^^^^^^^^^^
an army into the country, seized Lisbon, and and Spain,
drove the royal family to Brazil. Napoleon then I807-I8O8
proceeded to deprive his friend and ally, Ferdinand VII, of
the Spanish crown and gave it to his brother Joseph. These
high-handed acts enabled the emperor to extend the Con-
tinental System over the Iberian peninsula. 'What he gained
there was more than offset elsewhere. As soon as the Portu-
guese government removed to Brazil, it opened that country
to British trade, and after the Spanish monarchy fell, its colonies,
revolted from the mother country and admitted British goods.
Napoleon thus unwittingly created lucrative markets in Latin
America for his rival.
Furthermore, Napoleon found that he had stirred up a veri-
table hornet's nest in the peninsula. The Portu- Revolt of
guese and Spanish decHned to accept their French Portugal
overlords and everywhere rose in revolt. Great ^ ^^°
Britain took a lively interest in the situation and sent an
534 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
army commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, better known
by his subsequent title of duke of WelHngton, to help the
insurgents. The French were soon driven out of Portugal,
nor could they maintain themselves securely in Spain. The
Peninsular War, as it is called, dragged on for years, consuming
men and money which Napoleon
might have employed much more
profitably elsewhere.
Encouraged by the Spanish resist-
ance, Austria tried to throw off the
^j^g Napoleonic yoke. The
Austrian effort proved to be pre-
revoit, 1809 ^^^ture, though Austria
fighting this time alone gave Napoleon
far more trouble than when previously
she had the help of aUies. The
French again occupied Vienna and
won the hard battle of Wagram.
The peace which followed cost the
Hapsburg ruler additional territory
Josephine ^^^^ ^ heavy indemnity. It also cost
After a pencil drawing retouched y^^ J^^g daughter Maria Louisa,
in water color. Made in 1798 by ° i i •
J. B. isabey. In the possession of whosc hand Napolcou demanded m
E. Taigny. marriage after divorcing Josephine.
When Maria Louisa presented the emperor with a son and
heir,^ it must have seemed to him that his dynasty was at
length firmly fixed on the French throne.
Europe, except in Spain and on the seas, now enjoyed peace
for two years. It was a brief breathing-spell, while Napoleon
made ready for a new and much more terrible
contest. Until now he had induced tsar Alexan-
der to adhere to the Continental System, which
pressed with special severity upon Russia, an agricultural
country needing large imports of British manufactures. The
tsar at length decided to break his shackles and renew trade
relations between Russia and Great Britain. This decision
War with
Russia, 1812
The so-called "king of Rome" or "Napoleon II," who died in Vienna in 1832.
Revolt of the Nations
535
left Napoleon no choice but go to war with him, if the Continen-
tal System was to be preserved. Rather than give up the hope
of humbUng Great Britain, the emperor, against the advice of
his wisest counselors, threw down the gage of battle.
More than half a million men formed the Grand Army with
which Napoleon began the invasion of Russia. About one-
third of the soldiers were French; the rest were Ger- -pjjg
mans, Italians, Poles, and other subjects of the advance
empire. All western Europe had banded together
under the leadership of one man to overthrow the only great
state remaining unconquered on the Continent. The Russians
Napoleon's Russian Campaign
offered at first little resistance, and the Grand Army reached
the river Borodino before they turned at bay. A murderous
conflict followed; the French won; and eight days later Napo-
leon entered the ancient capital of Moscow.
But to occupy Moscow was not to conquer Russia. The
French did not dare to follow their enemy farther into the
wilderness, nor could they remain for the winter The retreat
in Moscow, owing to the scarcity of food for men ^^^^ Moscow
and horses. Moreover, a great fire, perhaps kindled by the
Russians themselves, had destroyed much of the city just as
the French entered it. Napoleon lingered for a month among
the ruins of Moscow in the belief that Alexander would open
negotiations for peace. But no message came from the tsar,
536 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
and at last the emperor gave orders for the retreat. A southerly
route, which the army attempted to follow, was blocked, and
the troops had to return by the way they had come, through
a country eaten bare of supplies. Famine, cold, desertions,
and the incessant raids of the Cossacks thinned their ranks;
and at last only twenty thou-
sand broken fugitives recrossed
the Niemen to safety. The
Grand Army had ceased to exist.
This disaster, unparalleled in
military annals, thrilled Prussia
jjjg with hopes of
Prussian freedom. Thanks
revolt. 1813 ^^ ^^^^ ,^^^j.^ ^j
Baron vom Stein and other states-
men, it was a new Prussia which
confronted Napoleon. Serfdom
had been declared illegal, all
occupations and professions had
been opened to noble, commoner,
Baron vom Stein and peasant alike, and the army
had been reorganized on the basis
of military service for all classes. These reforms gave to
Prussia many of the advantages of the French Revolution
and aroused a patriotic spirit which united the entire nation
in a common love of country. Prussia now joined forces
with Russia and began the War of Liberation.
Yet so vast were Napoleon's resources that he was soon able
to recruit a new army and take the offensive in Germany.
Battle of -^^ gained fresh victories, but could not follow
Leipzig, them up, because of the lack of cavalry. Austria
1813
then threw in her lot with the allies. Outnum-
bered and outmaneuvered, Napoleon fell back on Leipzig, and
there in a three days' '^Battle of the Nations" suffered a san-
guinary defeat. All Germany now turned against him, and he
withdrew his shattered troops across the Rhine.
The aUies would have made peace with Napoleon, had he
Downfall of Napoleon 537
«
been willing to give up his claims to the overlordship of Europe.
They ofifered him the "natural boundaries" of Abdication
France — the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and of Napoleon,
the Atlantic — but he refused to accept the terri-
torial limits that would have satisfied the ambitions of Louis
XIV. Napoleon's campaigns during the early months of 1814
against three armies, each one larger than his own, are justly
celebrated; they postponed but did not prevent his overthrow.
After Paris surrendered, the emperor gave up the useless struggle
and signed an act of abdication renouncing for himself and for
his heirs the thrones of France and Italy.
189. Downfall of Napoleon, 1814-1815
The AUies treated Napoleon with marked consideration.
They allowed him to retain the title of emperor and assigned
him the island of Elba as a possession. He spent Napoleon
ten months in this tiny principality and ruled ** ^^^*
it with all his accustomed energy, meanwhile keeping a watchful
eye upon the course of events in France.
Suddenly Europe heard with amazement that Napoleon had
returned to France and that Louis XVIII,^ his Bourbon suc-
cessor on the throne, was once more an exile. The The
enthusiastic welcome which greeted the emperor, "Hundred
as he advanced to Paris with only a small body- March- June,
guard, bore witness at once to the magnetism of ^^^^
his personality and to the unpopularity of the Bourbons.
The Allies refused to accept the restoration of one whom they
very properly described as the "enemy and destroyer of the
world's peace." The four great powers, Great Britain, Russia,
Austria, and Prussia, declared Napoleon an outlaw and set
their armies in motion toward France.
Napoleon had only a gambler's chance, but he made the most
of it. Before the alHes could concentrate their overwhelming
masses, he moved rapidly into Belgium, between the Prussians
under Bllicher and a mixed force of British, Belgians, Dutch,
^ See page 511 and note lo. The young son of Louis XVI ("Louis XVII") is
supposed to have died in a revolutionary prison in 1795.
538 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
and Germans under the Duke of Wellington. Bliicher's defeat
compelled Wellington to fall back on a strong
Waferioo, defensive position near Waterloo, twelve miles
June 18, south of Brussels. Here, all through a hot Sun-
1815
day in June, Napoleon hurled his infantry and
cavalry in fierce but ineffectual attacks against the "Iron
Duke's" lines. The timely arrival of the Prussians, late in the
afternoon, compelled the French to fight a double battle;
their situation soon became desperate; and even a last charge
Plan of the Battle of Waterloo
of the Old Guard failed to restore the day. Repulse soon
turned into a rout, and Napoleon's splendid army broke up
into a mob of fugitives. The emperor himself escaped with
difficulty to Paris. ^
Napoleon abdicated a second time and to avoid the Prussians
(who had orders to take him dead or alive) threw himself upon
the generosity of the British government. Then
followed exile to the desolate rock of St. Helena,
where the fallen emperor lived for six years, without
1 Victor Hugo has a famous though inaccurate description of the battle in Les
Misirables (part ii, book i). See also Byron's lines, "The Eve of Waterloo," in
Childe Harold (canto iii, stanzas 21-28).
The
Napoleonic
legend
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
539
wife or child but surrounded by a few intimate friends to whom
he dictated his memoirs. After his death, at the early age of
fifty- two, France forgot the sufferings he had caused her and
remembered only his glory. Poets, painters, and singers created
out of the ''Little Corporal" a purely legendary figure. The
world-despot appeared as the
heir of the Revolution, a cru-
sader for liberty, the foe of
tyrants; and in this guise he
found his way irresistibly to
the hearts of the French
people.
It must be admitted that
Napoleon, who depended solely
on his own genius Napoleon's
for advancement, ^^^^
climbed dizzier heights of fame
than the heroes of any other
age. Alexander, Caesar, Char-
lemagne, Frederick the Great
— he outstrips them all. "I
have fought fifty pitched
battles," he once said, "almost
all of which I have won. I have framed and carried into effect
a code of laws that will bear my name to the most distant
posterity. I raised myself from nothing to be the most power-
ful monarch in the world."
The Duke of Wellington
After a painting by Goya in the possession
of the duke of Leeds.
190. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
The French Revolution differed sharply from previous revolu-
tionary movements. The Puritan Revolution and the "Glori-
ous Revolution" in England were carried out by Principles
men of the upper and middle classes, who wished °^ ^"^^^
to limit the royal power and establish the supremacy of Parlia-
ment. Even the American Revolution was guided by con-
servative statesmen, at least as solicitous for the rights of
property as for the rights of man. The French Revolution
540 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
*' Liberty "
also began as mainly a middle-class movement, but it soon
reached the lower classes. Their principles found expression
in the famous' motto, "Liberty, EquaHty, Fraternity."
"Liberty" meant the recognition of popular sovereignty.
Government was to be no longer the privilege
of a divine-right ruler, however benevolent or "en-
lightened"; henceforth, it was to be conducted constitutionally
in accordance with
the will of the
people. Since the
first constitution
(that of 1 791) the
French have often
changed their form
of government, but
they have always
had a written con-
stitution. Napo-
leon's plebiscites
show that he paid
at least lip homage
to the principle of
popular sover-
eignty, and it is
certain that during
both the consulate
and the empire he
enjoyed the sup-
port of the great
majority of French-
men. On the other
hand, he did not
respect all the
"rights of man"
which the revolu-
tionists had proclaimed with such enthusiasm. Freedom of
thought and freedom of worship prevailed under Napoleon,
The Tomb of Napoleon
In 1840 Napoleon's body was removed from St. Helena,
taken with great pomp to Paris, and deposited in a sarco-
phagus of red Finland granite under the gilded dome of the
Hotel des Invalides. Twelve colossal statues, representing the
chief victories of Napoleon, surround the tomb, and between
the figures are battleflags captured at Austerlitz. Two of the
emperor's brothers are buried in adjoining chapels.
''Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'' 541
but the emperor allowed neither free speech nor a free press.
''What the French people want," he declared, "is equality,
not liberty."
"Equality" meant the abolition of privilege. The Revo-
lution made all citizens equal before the law. It opened to
every one the positions in the civil service, the ^ ,,
Church, and the army. It aboUshed serfdom and
manorial rights, thus destroying the last vestiges of feudalism.
It suppressed the guilds, thus releasing industry from medie-
val shackles. It canceled all exemptions from taxation and
substituted for the unfair and burdensome arrangements of
the Old Regime a new fiscal system which taxed men according
to their means. Most Frenchmen were content to accept
Napoleon's rule largely because he retained and extended
these achievements of the Revolution.
"Fraternity" meant a new consciousness of human brother-
hood. The revolutionists set out to make France a better
place for every one to live in. This fraternal feel- ,,„ . ..
^ •' "Fraternity"
ing inspired all ranks and classes of the people.
It led to a great outburst of patriotic and national senti-
ment which enabled the French, singlehanded, to withstand
Europe in arms.
The principles of 1789 were not confined to France. The
revolutionary and Napoleonic soldiers passed from land to land
bringing in their train the overthrow of serfdom The spirit
and privilege. The effect was profound in the °^ ^"^^^
Netherlands, in western Germany, and in northern Italy,
countries where the masses of the people had grievances and
aspirations like those of the French. During the nineteenth
century the revolutionary spirit permeated other European
countries, resulting everywhere in a demand for the abolition
of the established privileges of wealth, birth, and social position.
Such has been the service of France as a liberator.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the Napoleonic Empire at its height, showing
also the states dependent on Napoleon and those allied with him. 2. Locate on
542 The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era
the map all the Napoleonic battle-fields mentioned in this chapter. 3. Identify
the following dates: 1789; 1792; 1799; 1804; 1807; 1812; and 1815. 4. Ex-
plain the following expressions: "Tennis Court Oath"; Reign of Terror; Con-
tinental System; the "Hundred Days"; plebiscite, and coup d'etat. 5. Write a
character sketch (400 words) of Napoleon Bonaparte, based partly on the state-
ments in the text and partly on your outside reading. 6. "The principal cause of
the ruin of royalty in France was the lack of a King." What does this statement
mean? 7. Why is July 14th observed by the French as the "birthday of the nation"?
8. Compare the assignals with the paper, money issued by the Confederacy during
the Civil War. 9. Read a translation of the Marseillaise and compare the senti-
ments expressed in it with those of Hail Columbia and The Star Spangled Banner.
10. In your opinion was there greater or less justification for the execution of
Louis XVI than for that of Charles I? 11. In what sense is the word Jacobin
now frequently used? 12. What excuse can be offered for the poUcy of terrorism
adopted by the Jacobins in 1793? 13. Prepare a class-room report dealing with
the story of Charlotte Corday. 14. Mention four conspicuous instances of mob
action during the French Revolution. WTiy are mobs so often cruel and blood-
thirsty? 15. How did the First Consul, to use his own words, "close" the French
Revolution and "consoUdate" its results? 16. WTiy was Napoleon styled by the
lawyers a new Justinian and by the clergy a new Constantine? 17. Is it correct
to call Napoleon an "enlightened" despot? Is it incorrect to call him a "usurper"?
18. Compare as to results the battle of Trafalgar with the destruction of the Spanish
Armada. 19. Show that the poUtical weakness of central Europe in Napoleon's
day contributed to his success as a conqueror. 20. How did the Continental
System help to bring about the downfall of Napoleon? 21. How did the physical
features of Spain facilitate the Spanish resistance to Napoleon? 22. Why is
Waterloo included among the world's "decisive battles"? Would it have been
equally decisive if Napoleon, and not Wellington, had won? 23. It has been said
of Napoleon that "he was as great as a man can be without virtue." Does this seem
to be a fair judgment? 24. "England is the mother of Uberty, France the mother
of equality." Explain this statement. 25. What was meant by describing the
French revolutionary armies as "equality on the march"? 26. "The two most
striking and important events in the history of the eighteenth century are the
estabUshment of the United States of America and the outbreak of the French
Revolution." Justify this statement.
CHAPTER XXI
THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT IN EUROPE, 1815-1871 1
191. Modern Nationalism
We have already learned how national states, first England,
then Scotland and France, finally Spain, Portugal, and Switzer-
land, arose in Europe during the later Middle what makes
Ages. From this time, and especially since the * nation?
close of the eighteenth century, nationalism has been a potent
influence in molding modern history. What makes a nation?
Not necessarily unity of race: the English include Celtic
Britons and Teutonic Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans.
Not necessarily unity of language: the Swiss use three lan-
guages. That which makes a nation is above all a common
heritage of memories of the past and hopes for the future.
Ireland has long been joined to England, but Irish nationality
has not disappeared. Bohemia, long subject to the Hapsburgs,
never lost her national spirit. The Polish nation still lives,
though one may search in vain upon the map for Poland. The
Jews have been scattered throughout the world for over eighteen
centuries, yet they still look forward to their reunion in the
Holy Land. As long as national sentiment endures, a nation
cannot perish.
The French Revolution did most to develop modern national-
ism. The revolutionists created the "fatherland," as we under-
stand that term to-day. They substituted the
French nation for the French kingdom; for loyalty and**the ^™
to a monarch they substituted love of country. French
When an attempt was made to crush the Revolu-
tion, they rose as one man, and to the inspiring strains of the
Marseillaise drove the invaders from the "sacred soil" of France.
^ Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxxiv, "Bismarck
and the Unification of Germany."
543
544 The National Movement in Europe
But not satisfied with defending the Revolution at home,
the French started to spread it abroad, and in doing so
Napoleon became aggressive. They posed as hberators;
and very speedily they proved to be subjugators. A
nation sm repubhcan general, Napoleon Bonaparte, trans-
formed their citizen levies into professional soldiers devoted
to his fortunes and led them to victory on a score of battle-
fields. Napoleon, himself a man without a country, felt no
sympathy for nationahsm. Out of a Europe composed of
many independent and often hostile states, he washed to create
a unified Europe after the model suppHed by the Carolingian
Empire. He even intended, had he been successful in the Rus-
sian campaign, to move the capital of his dominions, and by the
banks of the Tiber to revive the glories of imperial Rome.
Napoleon carried all before him until he came into conflict
with nations instead of sovereigns. The sentiment of national-
Reaction of ism, which had saved republican France, now
nationalism inspired the English in their long contest with the
French emperor, spurred the Portuguese and Spaniards to
revolt against him, and strengthened the will of Austrians,
Prussians, and Russians never to accept a foreign despotism.
What the Hapsburgs, Hohenzollerns, and Romanovs failed to
do, their subjects accomphshed. The national resistance to
Napoleon, aroused throughout the Continent, destroyed his
empire.
The patriotic feelings so deeply stirred during the revolu-
tionary and Napoleonic era put renewed emphasis on the
Rights of rights of nationalities. Patriots in one country
nationaUties ^fter another boldly declared that no nation,
however small or weak, should be governed by foreigners.
Every nation, on the contrary, ought to be free to choose its
own form of government and manage its own affairs. How
little the enlightened despots of the eighteenth century re-
spected this principle is shown by the partitions of Poland.
A similar contempt for the rights of nationalities was exhib-
ited by the crowned heads of Europe at the Congress of
Vienna.
Congress of Vienna
545
192. Congress of Vienna
The close of the revolutionary and Napoleonic era found
Europe in confusion. The French Revolution had destroyed
the Old Regime in France, and Napoleon Bona-
parte had given new boundaries or new rulers to the^^ctmgress
every Continental state except Russia and Turkey.
While the fallen emperor was still at Elba, a great international
congress met at Vienna to restore the old dynasties, remake
the European map, and
prevent future aggressions
on the part of France.
The congress formed a
brilliant assemblage of em-
perors, kings, • Character
princes of of the
1 congress
every rank,
and titled diplomats. A
single drawing room some-
times held Alexander I, tsar
of Russia ; Francis I, emperor
of Austria; Frederick Wil-
liam III, king of Prussia;
the duke of Wellington, the
German patriot Stein, the
Austrian minister Metter-
nich, and the French rep-
resentative Talleyrand. The final decision as to all questions
obviously lay with the four powers whose alliance had over-
thrown Napoleon, until Talleyrand's skillful management
secured the admission of France to their councils as a fifth
great power. When the wheels of diplomacy had been well
oiled by banquets and balls, the monarchs and their advisers
proceeded to take the necessary measures for the reconstruction
of Europe.
First, the congress restored the dynasties overturned by
Napoleon. In accordance with the principle which Talleyrand
Talleyrand
A picture showing Talleyrand in middle age
under Napoleon I.
546 The National Movement in Europe
dignified under the name of ''legitimacy,'' the Bourbons went
back to their thrones in France and Spain. The house of
, . . „ Orange recovered Holland. The king of Sardinia
regained his possessions in Savoy and Piedmont.
Sicily and Naples were again combined to form the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies, under a Bourbon ruler. The pope, whom
Napoleon had deprived of temporal power, was restored to the
States of the Church.
Second, the congress redistributed various European terri-
tories, in accordance with the principle of "compensations."
♦* Compen- Austria secured Lombardy and Venetia to com-
sations " pensate her for the cession of the Austrian Nether-
lands to Holland. Sweden, which had ceded Finland to Russia,
found compensation in taking Norway from Napoleon's old
ally, the kingdom of Denmark.^ Prussia absorbed about half
of Saxony, another state formerly allied with Napoleon, and
annexed much additional territory on the lower Rhine. Russia
took the lion's share of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. For her
exertions against Napoleon Great Britain received payment in
colonial possessions, including Helgoland in the North Sea,
Malta and the Ionian Islands in the Mediterranean, Ceylon,
Cape Colony, and most of Guiana.
Third, the congress reestabhshed the balance of power in
Europe. Though France was not dismembered, she was re-
Balance of duced to substantially her old boundaries before
power ii^Q Revolution. There now remained, as in the
eighteenth century, two great states in the west (France and
Great Britain) and three in the east (Russia, Prussia, and Aus-
tria). No one of them was strong enough to dominate the
others. Together they maintained the peace of Europe for
the next forty years.
However successful as peacemakers, the rulers and diplo-
mats at Vienna left, nevertheless, a heritage of trouble to
Europe. They willfully disregarded all national aspirations
and treated the European peoples as so many pawns in the
1 The union of Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905. Finland remained joined
to Russia until the Russian Revolution of 1917-
Congress of Vienna 547
game of diplomacy. The Austrian Netherlands, contrary to
the wishes of the inhabitants, were united with Holland, in
order to form an effective barrier against French _,
The
aggression. Norway was joined to Sweden, congress
althouerh the Norwegians preferred to be inde- *"^
1 XT 1 T^ 1 1 • • • 1 nationalism
pendent. Unhappy roland was agam partitioned.
In Italy and Germany the Viennese mapmakers also failed to
recognize the principle of nationality.
The settlement of Vienna left Italy a mosaic of nine states.^
Of these, Sardinia formed an independent kingdom. Lom-
bardy and Venetia were Austrian provinces. Disunion
Modena, Parma, Tuscany, and Lucca were duchies, of Italy
all but the last under Hapsburg rulers. Austrian ^^
influence also prevailed in the States of the Church and in the
Two Sicilies. Thus Austria, a foreign power, fixed its grip
upon the Italian peninsula. Italy, in Metternich's contemp-
tuous phrase, was only "a, geographical expression."
Germany after the settlement of Vienna included thirty-
nine states, of which the most extensive were the Austrian
Empire and the five kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, disunion of
Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Hanover. Stein and Germany
his fellow-patriots wished to bring them all into ^
a strongly knit union. This proposal encountered the opposi-
tion of Metternich, who feared that a united Germany would
not serve Austrian interests. Metternich found support
among the German rulers themselves, not one of whom would
surrender any particle of his authority. The outcome was the
creation of the Germanic Confederation, a loose association
under the presidency of Austria.
The rulers and diplomats at Vienna disregarded another
sentiment besides that of nationalism. The congress was a
congress of aristocrats, conservative, reactionary,
and opposed to all the democratic or liberal congress
feelings which had been awakened in Europe since ^"^
^, ^ 1 x^ 1 • 11 democracy
1789. The French Revolution appeared to them
as merely a revolt against authority, a revolt which had over-
1 Eleven, if Monaco and San Marino be included.
548 The National Movement in Europe
turned the social order, destroyed property, sacrificed countless
human lives, and introduced confusion everywhere. Blind
to the true significance of the demand for Hberty and equality,
they sought to restore the Old Regime of absolutism, privilege,
and divine right. Their ideal was Europe before 1789.
193. The Reaction under Metternich, 1815-1830
The Austrian Empire, now the leading Continental state,
consisted of more than a score of territories inhabited by un-
Reactionary congenial Germans, Magyars, Slavs, and Italians.
Austria ^o keep them united under a single scepter, the
Hapsburgs deliberately repressed all aspirations for independ-
ence or self-government. The Hapsburgs felt it equally neces-
sary to discourage every popular movement, which, starting
in Italy or Germany, might spread Uke an infection to their
own realm. Force of circumstances thus placed Austria
at the forefront of the reaction against nationalism and
democracy.
The spirit of reactionary Austria seemed incarnate in Prince
Clemens Metternich. An aristocrat to his finger-tips, poHshed,
courtly, tactful, clever, this man for nearly forty
Metternich -^ ' ,, 1 1 j r .i. a . •
years was the real head 01 the Austrian govern-
ment and the most influential diplomat in Europe. To the rule
of Napoleon succeeded the rule of Metternich. The German
word Metternichismus has been coined to express the ideas which
he championed and the measures which he enforced.
Metternich regarded absolutism and divine right as the pillars
of stable government. Democracy, he declared, could only
Metter- '' change daylight into darkest night." All de-
nichismus mands for constitutions, parliaments, and repre-
sentative institutions must consequently be opposed to the
uttermost. In order to stamp out the ''disease of liberalism,"
let spies and secret police be multiplied, press and pulpit kept
under gag-laws, the universities sharply watched for dangerous
teachings, and all agitators exiled, imprisoned, or executed.
Metternich first established this system in Austria and then
The Reaction under Metternich
549
found in the Concert of Europe the means of extending it to
other parts of the Continent.
The states whose coalitions had overthrown Napoleon took
his place in 1815 as arbiters of Europe. Great Britain, Russia,
Austria, and Prussia renewed their alliance, in Concert' of
order to preserve the dynastic and territorial Europe
arrangements made by the Congress of Vienna. France under
Louis XVIII also be-
came a member of the
European Concert in
1 818. These five great
powers, as long as they
worked in harmony,
could impose theit will
on all the minor states.
It was an approach,
though only an approach,
to the idea of a con-
federated Europe, of a
commonwealth of na-
tions.
One of the clauses of
the treaty of alliance
between the international
powers pro- congresses
vided that they should
hold congresses from time
to time, for the discus-
sion of matters affecting
their common interests.
Four such congresses were convoked by Metternich, whose
diplomatic genius turned them into agencies of reaction. He
even succeeded in inducing the Congress of Troppau (1820) to
formally outlaw all revolutions. According to the principle
there announced, a state which underwent a revolutionary
change of government was to be brought back, peacefully or
by force, ''into the bosom of the Great Alliance."
Metternich
After a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the pos-
session of Prince Richard Metternich- Winneburg.
550 The National Movement in Europe
The first instance of armed intervention on the part of the
European Concert occurred in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies,
Armed in- whose sovereign had been compelled by the
tervention liberals to grant a constitution. An Austrian
army, sent by Metternich, quickly restored "order" and abso-
lutism. The troops of Austria likewise suppressed a liberal
uprising in the kingdom of Sardinia. When the Spaniards
rose against their Bourbon ruler, French soldiers were dispatched
to quell the revolt. The great powers, acting together, thus took
it upon themselves to police the whole Continent for the sup-
pression of nationalism and democracy. Soon, however, another
revolution in France struck a deadly blow at Metternichismus.
194. France and the **July Revolution," 1830
The restoration of Louis XVIII did not mean the restoration
of the Old Regime. This cool, cautious Bourbon wished to
The enjoy his power in peace; hke Charles II of Eng-
Bourbon land, he had no desire to set out on his travels
under again. He realized that to most Frenchmen
Louis XVIII absolutism had become intolerable and that the
main results of the Revolution must be preserved. Accord-
ingly, Louis XVIII granted a charter, or constitution, modeled
upon that of Great Britain. It established a legislature of two
houses, the upper a Chamber of Peers appointed for life, the
lower a Chamber of Deputies elected for a term of years. A
high property qualification for the suffrage restricted the right
of voting for deputies to less than one hundred thousand per-
sons out of a population of twenty-nine million. The new
government was thus far removed from democracy.
As long as Louis XVIII lived, he kept some check upon the
royalists, who wished to get back all their old wealth, position,
Reaction ^^^ privileges. The accession in 1824 of his
under brother, the count of Artois,^ under the title of
Charles X Charles X, put the reactionary elements in the
saddle. It was well said of Charles X that after long years of
exile he had "learned nothing and forgotten nothing." A
1 See page 511 and note 2,
The ''July Revolution" in Europe 551
thorough believer in absolutism and divine right, he tried to
rule as though the French Revolution had never taken place.
His disregard of the constitution soon provoked an uprising.
Paris in July, 1830, as in July, 1789, was the storm-center
of the revolutionary movement. Workingmen and students,
few in numbers but organized and armed, hastily Diyj^g
constructed barricades in the narrow streets and right over-
defied the government. After three days of ^^^
fighting against none- too-loyal troops, the revolutionists gained
control of the capital. Charles X fled to England, and the
tricolor once more flew to the breeze in France.
Those who carried through the uprising in Paris wanted a
repubhc, but they found Uttle support among the liberal bour-
geoisie. Men of this class feared that a republi- constitu-
can France would soon be at war with monar- tionalism
chical Europe. Largely influenced by the aged p^®^®""^®
Lafayette, the Republicans agreed to accept another king, in the
person of Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans. He took the crown
now offered to him by the Chamber of Deputies, at the same
time promising to respect the constitution and the liberties of
Frenchmen.
The new sovereign belonged to the younger, or Orleans,
branch of the Bourbon family. He had taken an active part
in the events of 1789, had joined the Jacobin -j-j^^
Club, had fought in revolutionary battles, and "Citizen
during a visit to the United States had become °^
acquainted with democratic ideals and principles. To this
"Citizen King," who reigned ''by the grace of God and by the
will of the people," France now gave her allegiance.
195. The *• July Revolution " in Europe
The events in France created a sensation throughout Europe.
The reactionaries were horrified at the sudden outburst of a
revolutionary spirit which for fifteen years they Effect of
had striven to suppress; the liberals were encour- the " July
aged to renewed agitation for nationalism and
self-government. Widespread disturbances in the Netherlands,
552 The National Movement in Europe
Poland, Italy, and Germany compelled Metternich to abandon
all thought of intervening to restore "legitimacy" in France.
The union between the former Austrian Netherlands and
Holland, made by the Congress of Vienna, proved to be very
j^^ unfortunate. Differences of language, religion,
Belgian and culture kept the two countries apart. Though
situation about one-half of the Belgians were Flemings and
hence closely akin to the Dutch in blood and speech, the other
half were French-speaking Walloons.^ Both Flemings and
Palais de Justice, Brussels
This huge building, for the use of the law courts of Brussels, was erected during the years
1866-1883 at a cost of $12,000,000. The architectural style combines Assyrian and Renais-
sance features.
Walloons felt a religious antipathy to the Protestant Dutch.
Both alike had French sympathies and looked toward Paris
for inspiration rather than toward The Hague. The antagonism
between the two peoples might have lessened in time, had not
the government of Holland incensed the Belgian patriots by
imposing upon them Dutch law, Dutch as the official language,
and Dutch control of the army, the civil service, and the
schools.
1 See page 243.
The "July Revolution" in Europe 553
Just a month after the uprising in Paris, Brussels responded to
the revolutionary signal. The insurrection soon spread to the
provinces and led to a demand for complete independent
separation from Holland. France favored this and neutral
course, and Great Britain, a champion of small ® ^"°^
nationalities, also gave it her approval. The other powers
would gladly have intervened to prevent such a breach of the
Vienna settlement, but Russia and Austria had disorders of
their own to quell and Prussia did not dare, singlehanded, to
take action which might lead to a European conflict. Accord-
ingly, an international conference was held at London in 1831.
It decided that Belgium should be "a state independent and
perpetually neutral," with Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as its ruler.
The independence and neutrality of Belgium were further
guaranteed by a treaty in 1839, to which Great Britain, France,
Russia, Austria, and Prussia solemnly pledged their faith.
Thus a new state, under a new dynasty, was added to the
European family of nations.
What the Belgians gained so easily the Poles could not
secure by a bloody war. Their struggle for independence
against Russia, beginning at Warsaw in 1830, The Polish
naturally found no support with the Austrian situation
and Prussian governments, while Great Britain and France
were too far away to lend effective aid. Having crushed the
revolt, the tsar ^ determined to uproot all sense of nationahty
among the Poles. He revoked their constitution, suppressed
their flag, and executed or exiled thousands of Polish patriots.
Poland became, as far as force could make her, simply
another Russian province.
The national and democratic movement in Italy and Ger-
many was likewise abortive. The States of the Church rose
against the pope, and Parma and Modena against The
their Hapsburg sovereigns. Metternich's Aus- fituation
trian troops quickly extinguished these insur- and
rectionary fires. Popular outbreaks in Saxony, Germany
Hanover, and other German states only succeeded in wringing
1 Nicholas I (1825-1855). He was a brother of Alexander I.
554 The National Movement in Europe
a few concessions, or the promise of concessions, from their
rulers. Germany, in fact, had not acquired the revolutionary
habit.
The year 1830 saw a marked change in the European Con-
cert. Great Britain had already begun to oppose its reac-
The " July tionary program, and now the ''July Revolution"
Revolution" made France as well an opponent of Metternich-
Colcwt of ismus. Together they safeguarded Belgian m-
Europe dependence, expressed sympathy for the Poles,
and encouraged Italian efforts to achieve freedom. They
could be counted upon, henceforth, to uphold oppressed peoples
against the forces of reaction.
196. The ** February Revolution " and the
Second French Republic, 1848
Louis Philippe posed as a thorough democrat. He liked to
be called the "Citizen King," walked the streets of Paris un-
attended, sent his sons to the public schools, and
Orleans opened the royal palace to all who wished to come
monarchy ^^^ ^j^^j^^ ^^^^^ ^j^j^ ^^^ j^^^^ ^f ^^e state. It
soon became clear, however, that under an exterior of republican
simpUcity Louis Philippe had all the Bourbon ambition for
personal power. He did little to give the lower classes a larger
share in the government. The property qualification for the
suffrage was somewhat lowered, but not sufficiently to disturb
the bourgeois monopoly of office and law-making. The great
majority of the French people remained excluded from politi-
cal life.
In spite of the support of the bourgeoisie, Louis Philippe sat
on a rickety throne. Both the Legitimists, as the adherents
of Charles X were called, and the Bonapartists,
to^thr °" who wished to restore the Napoleonic dynasty,
Orleans cordially hated him. The Republicans, who had
monarc y brought about the "July Revolution" and felt
themselves cheated by its outcome, held him in even greater
detestation. No less than six attempts to assassinate the
"Citizen King" were made in the course of his reign.
The "February Revolution" in Europe 555
The growing discontent produced a succession of plots and
insurrections, but affairs did not become critical until 1848.
In February of that year mobs of Parisian working- a revolution
men armed themselves, threw up barricades, and ^egun
raised the ominous cry, "Long live the republic!" Louis
Philippe, losing heart and fearing to lose head as well, at once
abdicated the throne and as plain "Mr. Smith" sought an asy-
lum in England.
His abdication and departure did not save the Orleans mon-
archy. The revolutionists in Paris proclaimed a republic and
summoned a national assembly, to be elected by a republic
the votes of all Frenchmen above the age of twenty- proclaimed
one, to draw up a constitution. Their action found favor in
the departments, which as on previous occasions followed the
lead of the capital city.
The constitution of the second French Republic vested the
executive power in a president. The voters elected to this
office Louis Napoleon, a nephew of the great
11 ^ ^ . r ■, . LouiS
emperor and the eldest representative of his Napoleon,
family. During the reactionary rule of the President
Bourbons and the dull, middle-class monarchy
of Louis Philippe, the legend ^ of a Napoleon who was at once
a democrat, a soldier, and revolutionary hero had grown apace.
The stories of every peasant's fireside, the pictures on every
cottage wall, kept his memory alive. To the mass of the
French people the name Napoleon stood for prosperity at home
and glory abroad; and their votes now swept his nephew into
the presidency.
197. The ** February Revolution " in Europe
France had once more lighted the revolutionary torch, and
this time eager hands took it up and carried it ^q^^^ ^f ^^
throughout the Continent. Within a few months " February
half of the monarchs of Europe were either deposed ^^° "*^°^
or forced to concede liberal reforms. No less than fifteen
1 See page 539-
5S6
The National Movement in Europe
separate revolts marked the year 1848. Those in the Aus-
trian Empire, Italy, and the German states assumed most
importance.
Vienna, the headquarters of reaction, was one of the first
scenes of a popular uprising. Mobs, which the civic guard
FaU of refused to suppress, fired Metternich's palace
Mettemich g^j^,^ compelled that white-haired, old minister to
resign ofiice and flee the capital. The Hapsburg ruler,^ who
so hated the very word
"constitution" that he is said
to have forbidden its use in
his presence, had to grant a
constitution, a parliament,
and universal suffrage for his
entire empire.
What had begun as a
democratic movement among
, , the Germans of
Revolts in
Hungary Vienna speedily
*^? became a na-
Bohenua
tional move-
ment in Hungary and
Bohemia. The Magyars re-
volted and established a free
Hungarian state, with the
The Czechs, as the Slavic in-
habitants of Bohemia are called, also demanded a large measure
of independence.
The Austrian Empire was saved from dissolution by the
bitter conflicts of its various nationalities among themselves,
by the loyalty of the army to the Hapsburg
Czechs and crown, and by foreign intervention. The Bo-
Magyars .
suppressed hemian revolt first collapsed. The Magyars,
however, resisted so sternly that Francis Joseph I
had to enlist the aid of his brother-monarch and brother-
Louis Kossuth
patriot Kossuth as president.
^ Ferdinand I. He succeeded Francis I in 1835 and thirteen years later ab-
dicated in favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph I (1848-1916).
The ''February Revolution" in Europe 557
reactionary, the tsar. Nicholas I, fearing lest an independent
Hungary should be followed by an independent Poland, joined
his troops to those of the Austrians, and together they over-
whelmed the Magyar armies. Hungary became again a mere
province of Austria.
The revolutionary flood also spread over the Italian penin-
sula. Milan, the capital of Lombardy, expelled an Austrian
garrison. Venice did the same and proclaimed Revolts
herself a republic. Charles Albert, king of Sar- "^ ^^^y
dinia, believing that the hour of deliverance had arrived, declared
war on hated Austria. To his aid came troops from the duchies
of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, from the States of the Church,
and from the Two Sicilies.
The splendid dream of a free, united Italy quickly faded
before the realities of war. The patriotic parties would not
act together and failed to give the king of Sardinia Sardinia
hearty support. The pope, Pius IX, fearing a defeated
schism in the Church, decided that he could not afford to attack
Catholic Austria. The Bourbon ruler of the Two Sicilies also
withdrew his troops. Badly beaten in the battle of Novara
(1849), the Sardinian king abdicated in favor of his son, Victor
Emmanuel II, who then made peace with Austria.
A republic set up in Rome by the revolutionary leader,
Joseph Mazzini, likewise came to grief. Pius IX, who had
been deprived of his temporal possessions, called ^^j^^ R^man
in the assistance of Catholic France. To the RepubUc
pope's appeal Louis Napoleon lent a willing ear, ^^^^ °^^
especially since he did not wish to allow all Italy to be subju-
gated by the Austrians. A French army soon expelled the
republican leaders and restored the pope to the States of the
Church. The revolution in Italy thus brought only disappoint-
ment to patriotic hearts.
Almost all the German states experienced revolutionary
disturbances during 1848. The cry rose every-
where for constitutions, parliaments, responsible democratic
ministries, a free press, and trial by jury. Berlin movement
followed the example of Vienna and threw up
558 The National Movement in Europe
barricades. Frederick William IV ^ bowed before the storm.
He promised a constitutional government for Prussia and
even consented to ride in state through the streets of the pacified
capital wearing the colors of the triumphant revolution.
The German people at this time also took an important step
toward unification. A national assembly, chosen by popular
vote, with one representative for every fifty
national thousand inhabitants, met at Frankfort to estab-
movement \[^\^ g^ iorm of government for the united Father-
in Germany ^ ,
land. It was decided to set up an imperial
federation, including Prussia, but excluding the non-Germanic
territories of Austria. Rights which no German citizen then
possessed, such as freedom of speech, of press, of petition,
of m^eeting, were expressly guaranteed by the proposed con-
stitution.
The Frankfort Assembly offered the title and office of em-
peror to Frederick William IV. He declined both. That
Prussian ruler had no desire to exchange his
refusai^^* monarchy by divine right for a sovereignty resting
on the votes of the people; he would not accept
a ^' crown of shame" from the hands of a popular assembly.
Moreover, he knew that the house of Hapsburg would never
consent willingly to the assumption of the imperial dignity
by a Hohenzollern. Prussia thus made ''the great refusal"
which destroyed the hope of creating by peaceful means a
democratic German empire.
Rebuffed by Prussia and faced with the opposition of Aus-
tria, the Frankfort Assembly dwindled out of existence. Noth-
Faiiure of ing remained but to restore the weak Germanic
nationalism Confederation, completely under Austrian infiu-
and democ- ' r \
racy in ence. The collapse of the national movement
Germany drove some of the more radical Germans in Saxony,
Baden, and the Rhenish Palatinate to attempt to estabhsh
a republic by force of arms. Prussian troops bloodily suppressed
the uprising.
The revolts of 1848 died down, seemingly without advancing
1 A son of Frederick William III (1797- 1840).
The Second French Empire 559
the cause of either nationalism or democracy. Bohemia and
Hungary continued to be subject to the Haps- significance
burgs; Italy and Germany remained disunited. °* *^^
rr.!. A . • • . 1,1 " February
The Austrian constitution was revoked when Revolution"
Francis Joseph I, an apt pupil of Metternich, ^° Europe
came to the throne. The constitution which Frederick William
IV granted to Prussia in 1850 turned out to be a very illiberal
document. In France, also, the new republic soon drifted on
the rocks of reaction.
198. The Second French Empire, 1852-1870
Louis Napoleon, upon becoming president of France, swore
to remain faithful to the republic. Events soon showed how
well the oath was kept. His uncle had progressed ^^
by rapid strides from the consulate to the empire; ambitious
he himself determined to use the presidency as ^^^^^ ®-°*
a stepping-stone to the imperial crown. So successfully did
he curry favor with all groups of opinion among the French
people, so skillfully did he strike all the chords of national
memory evoked by the name Napoleon, that it was not long
before he attained his goal.
The republican constitution had limited the president's
term to four years, without the privilege of reelection. Louis
Napoleon did not intend to retire to private life and -j-j^^ ^
determined to carry through a coup d'etat. On d'etat,
the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz, loyal
troops occupied Paris, dissolved the legislature, and arrested
the president's chief opponents. The French people, when
called upon by a plebiscite to express an opinion as to these
proceedings, ratified them by a large majority. Louis Napoleon
then made over the government in such a way as to give him-
self well-nigh absolute power.
It needed only a change of name to transform the republic
into an empire. An almost unanimous popular
vote in 1852 authorized the president to accept the emperor,
title of Napoleon III,^ hereditary emperor of the ^ *^®
French.
See page, 534 note i.
560 The National Movement in Europe
France under her new sovereign had a constitution, repre-
sentative assembhes, universal suffrage, all the machinery of
Domestic popular rule. But she was free in appearance
poUcy of only. The emperor kept control of law-making,
apoeon diplomacy, the army and navy, and the entire
administrative system. The prosperity of the French people
under his "en-
lightened" despotism
helped to reconcile
them to the loss of
liberty. What dis-
content existed was
quieted by the press
censorship- and other
agencies of repression.
France for eighteen
years seemed like a
sickroom where no one
might speak aloud.
"The empire means
peace," Napoleon III
Napoleon hi and Eugenie u^H on
Foreign ^^^ ^^"
The French emperor married a Spanish lady, Eugenie policy of UOUnCcd
de Montijo. She is still living in England at an advanced Napoleon III i . ■,
ige. From a lithograph made in 1855. ^ ^^ r 1 1 y
before mounting the
throne. Nevertheless, when emperor, he proceeded to make
war. Successful warfare would win back for France her
primacy in Europe and at the same time would make his
own position secure. Napoleon III, like Napoleon I, believed
that all the French people wanted to satisfy them was
military glory. It was his aggressive foreign policy, particu-
larly in respect to Italy and Germany, which first involved
him in embarrassments and led to the ruin of his empire.
199. United Italy, 1859-1870
The extreme length of Italy in proportion to its breadth
and its division into two unequal parts by the Apennines are
United Italy 561
not favorable to national unity. Historical circumstances
have been even more unfavorable. In medieval obstacles
and modern times Lombards, Franks, Normans, to national
Germans, French, Spaniards, and Austrians — to ^^*^
say nothing of Moslems and Byzantines — had estabhshed
themselves in the peninsula. It was the settled policy of the
popes to keep Italy fragmentary, lest the papal territories
should become dependent on secular powers. The Italians,
furthermore, preserved from antiquity the tradition of small,
separate city-states, ruled, it may be, by despots or else self-
governing, but in any case independent. Such were the cities
of northern Italy during the Middle Ages.
In spite of all obstacles, the Italians in the nineteenth cen-
tury had made up their minds to be a free, united people.
National ideas reached them through the French Nationaiis
revolutionists, who set up republics in the penin- in Italy,
sula. Napoleon Bonaparte, himself of Italian ^"^^^^^^^
parentage, by forming a ''kingdom of Italy" and by annexing
the States of the Church, also turned their thoughts toward
unity and freedom.
The reaction which followed the Congress of Vienna gave
increased momentum to the national movement. A secret so-
ciety, the Carbonari ("charcoal burners"), spread Italian
over the peninsula and incited the first unsuccess- nationalism,
ful revolutions against Austria. The Carbonari ^^^^^^^^
later made way for ''Young Italy," an organization founded
by the ardent patriot, Mazzini. Its motto was "God and the
people"; its purpose, the creation of a republic. Many men
who did not favor republican principles hoped to form a fed-
eration of the Italian states under the presidency of the pope.
Many more pinned their faith to a constitutional monarchy
under the house of Savoy. All three groups were intensely
national; all three were determined to bring about the Re-
sorgimento, the "resurrection" of Italy.
The events of 1848-49 brought these groups together. The
pope had shown himself unwilling to head the national move-
ment. Mazzini had failed in his attempt to set up a Roman
562 The National Movement in Europe
republic. More and more, the nationaUsts turned to Victor
Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia/ as the most pro-
manuel n' mising leader in the struggle for independence.
Victor Emmanuel was a devoted Churchman. He
was also a thorough liberal. His father in 1848 had granted
a constitution to the
Sardinian kingdom; he
maintained it, in spite
of Austrian protests,
when aU the other Italian
princes relapsed into ab-
solutism. Patriots of
every sort, Cathohcs, re-
publicans, and consti-
tutionalists, could rally-
about such a king.
Victor Emmanuel had
a great minister in the
Piedmontese
noble. Count
Cavour. He
was a man of fine culti-
vation, who knew Eng-
land well, warmly
admired the English
system of free government, and felt a corresponding hatred
of absolutist principles. Upon becoming premier, he bent every
effort to make Sardinia a strong and liberal state; strong
enough to cope with the Austrians, liberal enough to' attract
to herself all the other states of Italy.
Cavour reahzed that Sardinia would need foreign aid in the
copiing struggle against Austria and sought the friendship of
Cavour and Napoleon III. The emperor seems to have felt
Napoleon III ^ genuine sympathy for oppressed Italy; more-
over, like his uncle, he thought to win glory on Italian battle-
^ The kingdom of Sardinia included not only the island of that name, but also
Savoy and Piedmont on the mainland. See page 546.
Camillo
di Cavour,
1810-1861
Count Cavour
The last portrait of Cavour.
United Italy
563
fields. In return for the duchy of Savoy and the port of Nice,
he now promised an army to help expel the Austrians from the
Alps to the Adriatic. The bargain once struck, Cavour had
next to provoke a conflict with Austria. Napoleon III hesi-
tated at the last moment, but Cavour insisted. "I will fire
the powder," he said, ''and
when Italy runs with blood,
you will have to march."
The war which followed
was over in a few months.
The allied vie- ^ , ,
Lombardy
tory of Magenta ceded to
compelled the ^^f^'""*'
Austrians to
evacuate Milan; that of Sol-
ferino, to abandon Lom-
bardy. Every one now
expected them to be driven
out of Venetia as well.
Napoleon III, however, con-
sidered that he had done
enough. He sought a per-
sonal interview with Francis
Joseph I and privately ar-
ranged terms of peace. The
Hapsburg emperor agreed to
cede Lombardy to Sardinia,
on condition that Venetia remained Austrian. Victor Em-
manuel and Cavour, thus left in the lurch, were obliged to
accept this treacherous treaty.
The people of Central Italy, unaided, took the next step
in unification. Already Modena, Parma, Tuscany,
and the Romagna ^ had expelled their rulers and itaiy
declared for annexation to Sardinia. Napoleon annexed,
I860
III, who did not relish a strong national state in
the peninsula, at first refused to sanction this arrangement.
^ The northern part of the States of the Church.
Giuseppe Garibaldi
After a portrait taken at Naples in i860.
564 The National Movement in Europe
Cavour secured his consent only by the cession of Savoy and
Nice to France. An ironical diplomat described the trans-
action as Napoleon's pourboire (waiter's tip).
The third step in unification was taken by Garibaldi, a native
of Nice, a soldier of liberty, and a picturesque, heroic figure.
He had already won renown in the defense of
The Two ,, . ., T^ , ,. 1 • 1
Sicilies Mazzini s Roman republic and m the recent
annexed, campaign against Austria. When the Sicilians
threw off Bourbon rule in i860. Garibaldi went to
their aid with one thousand red-shirted volunteers. It seemed
a desperate adventure,
but his march through
Sicily formed a tri-
umphal progress.
Having conquered the
island. Garibaldi
crossed to the main-
land and soon took
possession of Naples.
The Two Sicilies voted
for annexation to
Sardinia. Garibaldi
then handed over his
conquests to the Sar-
dinian king, and the
two liberators rode
through the streets of
Naples side by side,
amid the plaudits of
the people.
The diplomacy of
Cavour, the intervention of Napoleon III, Garibaldi's sword,
and the popular will thus united the larger part
Italy 1861 ^^ Italy within two years. A national parliament
met at Turin in 1861 and conferred the Italian
crown upon Victor Emmanuel. Cavour passed away soon
afterwards. "Let me say a prayer for you, my son," said a
"The Right Leg in the Boot at Last'
A cartoon which appeared in the English journal
Punch for November 17, i860.
United Italy
565
priest to the dying statesman. "Yes, father," was the reply,
"but let us pray, too, for Italy."
The new kingdom was not quite complete. Venice and the
14"
16°
-^•— . UNIFICATION OF ITAIT,
( 1815-1870 A.D.
,^(^^S *' ^ The dates are those of annexation
^"^^^ ~GtmV^> to the Kingdom of Sardinia,
,, (Kingdom of Italy in.l861)
Scale of Miles
25 50 78 100 125
adjoining region were held by Austria. Rome and a fragment
of the States of the Church were held by the pope, winning of
Two great European conflicts gave Victor Em- Ven^etia,
manuel both of these territories. Venetia fell
to Italy in 1866, as her reward for an alUance with Prussia m
the Austro-Prussian War.^ A plebiscite of the Venetians, with
1 See page 570.
566 The National Movement in Europe
Unre-
deemed
Italy "
only sixty-nine votes registered in the negative, approved this
action.
Four years later the Franco- German War ^ broke out, com-
pelling Napoleon III to withdraw the French garrison from
Winning of Rome. An Italian army promptly occupied the
Rome, 1870 (>j|-y^ 'pj^g inhabitants by an immense majority
voted for annexation to the monarchy. In 1871 the city of
the Seven Hills, once
the capital of imperial
Rome, became the
capital of the kingdom
of Italy.
Even these acquisi-
tions did not quite
round out
the Italian
kingdom.
There was still an
Italia Irredenta, an
''Unredeemed Italy."
The district about
Trent in the Alps (the
Trentino) and the dis-
trict about Trieste
at the head of the
Adriatic, though largely peopled by Italians, remained under
Austrian rule. The desire to recover her lost provinces led
Italy in 191 5 to espouse the cause of the Allies in the World War.
The temporal power of the Papacy, restored in 181 5 by the
The Congress of Vienna, disappeared when the States
Papacy of \]^q Church entered the Italian kingdom. Pius
IX, who was then pope, protested against the annexation of
his territories, refused to recognize the ItaHan government
as legitimate, and shut himself up in the palace of the
Vatican. His successors, Leo XIII, Pius X, and Benedict XV,
have followed the same policy. The pope is still an inde-
1 See page 572.
Leo XIII
Pinakothek, Munich
After a portrait by Franz von Lenbach, painted in i{
United Germany 567
pendent sovereign; he has his own court and diplomatic
representatives; but he rules only a small district in Rome
over which floats the papal flag.
200. United Germany, 1864-1871
The political unification of Germany formed another striking
triumph for nationalism, even though it did not involve, as
in the case of Italy, the removal of a foreign yoke, ^j^^ Germ
The German people had long desired to be one " crazy-
nation, but national unity could not be won as ^
long as a motley crowd of kingdoms, principalities, duchies,
counties, bishoprics, abbacies, and free cities encumbered Ger-
man soil. Most of these states, great and small, were inde-
pendent. Each made its own laws, held its own court,
conducted its own diplomacy, and had its own army, tariffs,
and coinage.
It is one of the ironies of history that Germany owes to
Napoleon Bonaparte the first measures which make possible
her later unification. By the Treaty of Campo Napoleon
Formio and subsequent treaties Napoleon secured and uni-
for France the Germanic lands west of the Rhine, ^^ °°
thus dispossessing nearly a hundred princes of their territories.^
He subsequently reorganized much of Germany east of the
Rhine, with the idea of setting up a few large states as a barrier
between France on the one side and Austria and Prussia on the
other.2 This work survived the emperor's downfall. Ger-
many in 181 5 included only thirty-nine independent states, as
compared with more than three hundred in 1789.
The impulse to German nationalism also came from the
outside, through Napoleon's tyranny. A wave of patriotism
swept over Prussia and the other states and led Napoleon
to the War of Liberation. The people rose in and
arms, not to seek foreign conquests, but to free "^ °° ^^
themselves from foreign domination. ''I have only one father-
land," wrote Stein in 1812, ''that is called Germany." Arndt's
1 See page 521. ^ See page 530.
568 The National Movement in Europe
famous war song, What is the German Fatherland ? expressed the
same patriotic spirit.
The hopes of German nationahsts were dashed by the Con-
gress of Vienna. The Germanic Confederation, which replaced
Xhe the Holy Roman Empire, was equally feeble,
Germanic equally futile. Each member of it continued to
tion, 1815- be independent, except in foreign affairs, which
1866 i\^Q j)iet of the confederation controlled. Metter-
nich's influence over the German princes, so successful in
preventing a real union of Germany, was also successful in
repressing all agitation for popular rights and representative
government. The rulers of Germany thus forgot or ignored
the sacrifices which their subjects had made in the cause of
freedom. The War of Liberation turned out to be a victory,
not for liberalism, but for reaction.
Germany, while still politically divided, became economically
one. The customs duties levied by so many states seriously
The interfered with commerce. To meet this diffi-
Zollverein culty Prussia formed a Zollverein (Customs Union),
which as early as 1^34 included eighteen states. All the others,
except Austria, afterwards joined it. Free trade prevailed
between the members of the Zollverein, while a common tariff
protected them against French and British competition.
The Zollverein showed the German people some of the advan-
tages of union and encouraged them to look to Prussia for its
Prussia and attainment. At the same time, the failure of the
German revolution of 1 848-49 revealed the fact that a
^^^ ^ united nation could not be founded by a popular
movement, for which the princes had only hostihty. The
revolutionists in the Frankfort Assembly wished to eliminate
Austria from their proposed union, because Austria was only
in part, and that the smaller part, a German state. Austria,
however, had no intention of surrendering her high place in
Germany. The Prussian kingdom remained as the natural
center of unity, but Prussia refused to merge herself in a Ger-
man nation. She would rule Germany; she would not serve
Germany. Rule it she very soon did.
United Germany
569
The death of Frederick William IV in 1861 called to the
throne his abler brother, William I. The new king had
industry and conscientiousness, as well as all the „^.„.
^ 1 • A r William I
HohenzoUern ambition to exalt Prussia. A firm
believer in divine right, he did not allow the constitution
granted by his predecessor to interfere with his authority.
Above everything a soldier, he set out to enlarge and reorganize
the Prussian army so that
it might again be, as in the
days of Frederick the
Great, the most formidable
weapon in Europe.
The king's policies met
the opposition of Prussian
Liberals, who ^^1^^^^ j
wished to and
r^ Parliament
unite Ger-
many, not by the sword,
but by the spread of
national ideas and the
force of public sentiment.
They commanded a
majority in Parliament
and refused to sanction
increased expenditures for the army. William I resolved to
abdicate rather than yield. At this critical juncture he sum-
moned Otto von Bismarck to be prime minister.
The man who crippled German liberalism and created mili-
taristic, imperial Germany belonged to the Junker class,^
which from the beginning had been the chief Qtto von
support of HohenzoUern absolutism. Birth, train- Bismarck,
. 1815—1898
ing, and inclination made him an aristocrat, an
enemy of democracy, a foe of parhamentary government,
a Prussian who would unify Germany by subjecting it to Prus-
sia. His intentions as minister were sufficiently indicated in
his own famous words: "Not by speeches and resolutions of
^ See page 429.
Bismarck
After a painting by Franz von Lenbach.
570 The National Movement in Europe
majorities are the great questions of the age to be decided,
but by blood and iron."
Where Charles I and Strafford had failed in England, Wil-
liam I and Bismarck succeeded in Prussia. With the king's
Bismark consent, his prime minister levied taxes arbi-
and Austria trarily and carried through the necessary military
reforms. Bismarck then made ready for the overthrow of
Austrian predominance in Germany. From his first entry
into office he had disclosed an anti-Austrian bias. He refused
to admit Austria to the Zollverein and recognized the new-
Italian kingdom with unfriendly haste; finally, he opposed
Austrian policy in the so-called Schleswig-Holstein question.
The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein — the one partly
Danish and partly German in population, the other entirely
^jjg German — had been united to Denmark by a
Danish War, personal union through its ruler. They remained
otherwise independent and stoutly resisted all
efforts to incorporate them in the Danish kingdom. At last
they broke away altogether, in order to unite with Ger-
many. This gave Bismarck an opportunity to propose
joint intervention by Austria and Prussia in the duchies. A
brief war followed, in which the Danes were overcome by weight
of numbers. As Bismarck anticipated, Austria and Prussia
could not agree as to what should be done with the conquered
duchies. The dispute between them furnished a pretext for
the conflict which he had determined to provoke between the
house of Hohenzollern and the house of Hapsburg.
Before hostihties began, the astute diplomacy of Bismarck
isolated Austria from foreign support. Napoleon III engaged
Austro- ^^ remain neutral on the strength of Bismarck's
Prussian vague promises (never meant to be kept) of
War, 1866 territorial compensations from a victorious Prus-
sia. Russia also preserved neutrahty. Italy became an
active ally of Prussia, in return for the coveted Venetia. Aus-
tria, on her side, had the support of Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria,
and lesser German states. Thanks to the careful organization
of the Prussian army by Roon and to Moltke's brilliant strategy,
United Germany 571
the war turned out to be a "Seven Weeks' War." The Prus-
sians at once took the offensive and crushed their Austrian
adversaries at Sadowa (Koniggratz) in Bohemia. Francis
Joseph I then sued for peace.
The negotiations which followed revealed Bismarck's states-
manship. His royal master wished to enter Vienna in triumph
and take a large slice of the Hapsburg realm; Peace with
Bismarck counseled moderation in order to secure -^-ustna
Austrian friendship in the future. By the Treaty of Prague
Austria lost no territory except Venetia. She consented, how-
ever, to the dissolution of the Germanic Confederation.
Bismarck had now a free hand in Germany. His first step
was the annexation to Prussia of the Schleswig-Holstein duchies,
together with Hanover and several other allies
of Austria north of the river Main. The Prussian German
dominions for the first time stretched without Confedera-
a break from Poland to the frontier of France.
All the independent states north of the Main were then re-
quired by Bismarck to enter a North German Confederation,
under the presidency of Prussia. The four states south of the
Main,^ which had thrown in their lot with Austria, did not
enter the new confederation. They secretly agreed, however,
to place their armies at the disposal of Prussia in the event of
war with France.
For Bismarck, a Franco- German War "lay in the logic of
history." He believed it inevitable, since France would never
willingly consent to the formation of a strong, Bismarck
united Germany. He also believed it necessary, ^^ France
for joint action by the north German and south German states
against a common foe would quicken national sentiment and
complete the work of unification under Prussia. Napoleon III,
for his part, did not shrink from a contest which would satisfy
French opinion and, if victorious, would firmly consolidate his
dynasty. After 1867 both sides prepared for war.
In 1870 a single spark set the two countries aflame. A
revolution had broken out in Spain, and the Liberals there had
^ Bavaria, Baden, Wiirtemberg, and Hesse.
572 The National Movement in Europe
offered the crown to a cousin of William I. Napoleon III at
The Spanish once informed the Prussian monarch that he
incident would regard the accession of a Hohenzollern as a
sufficient justification for war. William then gave way and
induced his cousin to refuse the crown. Thereupon Napoleon
went further and demanded Wilham's pledge never to allow
a Hohenzollern to become a
candidate in the future. This
pledge William declined to
make, and from the watering-
place of Ems, where he was
staying, telegraphed his deci-
sion to Bismarck at Berlin.
After learning from Roon and
Moltke of Prussia's complete
readiness for hostilities, Bis-
marck sent the king's state-
ment to the newspapers, not
in its original form, but so
abbreviated as to be insulting.
Bismarck himself said later
that the Ems dispatch was
intended to have "the effect
of a red flag upon the Galhc bull." Soon after receiving it,
France declared war.
What followed took away the breath of Europe. Fighting
began in mid- July; by mid-August a French army under
Bazaine was shut up in Metz; and on September 2
Franco- i]^q other army, commanded by Napoleon person-
German War, 1 o 1 -r. • 11
1870-1871 ally, was captured at Sedan. Bazame surrendered
Metz in October. Meanwhile, the Germans pressed
forward the siege of Paris. It held out for four months and
then capitulated (January, 1871) to cold and hunger rather
than to the enemy. The war now ended.
Bismarck's harsh treatment of France contrasts sharply
with his previous moderation toward Austria. By the Treaty
of Frankfort France agreed to pay an indemnity of one billion
MOLTKE
After a painting by Franz von Lenbach.
United Germany 573
dollars and ceded to Germany nearly the whole of Alsace,
including Strassburg, and part of Lorraine, includ-
ing the fortress of Metz. Prussia, as far back as p^^^® ^**^
181 5, had tried to secure these provinces, in order
to provide a better frontier for her Rhenish possesions. Bis-
marck took them in 187 1, ostensibly to regain what had once
been German territory,^ but really because of their value as a
barrier against France. Supposed military necessity thus
led to the action, which, more than anything else, unsettled
the peace of the world for nearly half a century.
Paris had not capitulated, the Treaty of Frankfort had not
been signed, before united Germany came into existence.
The four south German states yielded to the
national sentiment evoked by the war and agreed German
with Prussia to enter the North German Con- Empire,
1871
federation, rechristened the German Empire. On
January 18, 1871, in the great hall of Versailles, William I took
the title of German emperor.
Studies
I. On an outline map indicate the additions to the kingdom of Sardinia, 1859-
1870. 2. Locate the battle-fields of Novara, Solferino, Magenta, Sadowa (Konig-
gratz), and Sedan. 3. For what were the following persons famous: Talleyrand;
Kossuth; Mazzini; Garibaldi; and Moltke? 4. "The nineteenth century is
precisely the history of the work which the French Revolution left." Comment on
this statement. 5. How does the history of the nineteenth century in Europe il-
lustrate the statement that "nations are seldom born except on the field of battle"?
6. Why is nationality so hard to suppress by force? Why was so little attention
paid to the claims of nationaUty by the Congress of Vienna? 7. Why did Paris
and not the provinces play the chief part in the French revolutionary outbreaks
from i789toi87i? 8. Why has France been styled the ' ' magnetic pole of Europe ' ' ?
9. Compare the "July Revolution" in France with the "Glorious Revolution" in
England, and Charles X with James II. 10. Compare the coup d'etat of Louis
Napoleon with that of Napoleon Bonaparte. 11. Compare the advantages re-
ceived by France from the revolution of 1848 with those received from the revolutions
of 1830 and 1789. 12. Show that the Alps provide a less satisfactory natural
frontier for northern Italy than the Pyrenees for northern Spain. 13. Why has
the Po valley been called the "cockpit of Europe"? 14. Why should Garibaldi,
rather than Cavour, be the national hero of Italy? 15. Where is the repubUc of
San Marino? 16. What is Irredentism? 17. Why is the pope called the
^ See pages 372 and 403.
574 The National Movement in Europe
" prisoner of the Vatican " ? i8. Can Bismarck's action in altering the text of
the Ems dispatch be justified? 19. Why did Germany treat Austria mildly
in 1866 and France harshly in 187 1? 20. "The Seven Years' War may be
looked upon as the first act of the drama that was played out at Sadowa and Sedan."
Explain this statement. 21. What is meant by the saying that "Prussia was
hatched from a cannon ball"? 22. Show that the German Empire, as estab-
lished in 1 87 1, was in no sense a continuation or restoration of the Holy Roman
Empire. 23. Compare William I with Victor Emmanuel II and Cavour with
Bismarck.
CHAPTER XXII
THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN EUROPE, 1871-1914
201. Modern Democracy
The idea of democracy, so emphasized by the French Revo-
lution, has been not less potent than that of nationahsm in
making modern history. What is democracy? what is
The word comes from the Greek and means the democracy?
rule of the people. But all the people did not rule, even in
the most democratic of Greek cities. Ancient democracy was
exclusive. Slaves enjoyed no poHtical rights, while freedmen
and foreigners were seldom naturalized and allowed to take
part in public affairs. A thoroughly democratic state at the
present time does not recognize any slave class, freely admits
foreigners to citizenship, and grants the suffrage to all native-
born and naturalized men, and in some cases to women as well.
Democracy in antiquity was direct, while that of to-day is
representative. Every citizen of Athens or Rome had a right
to appear and vote in the popular assembly.
With the growth of national states this form of represent-
government became impossible. The population **^^®
IT r democracy
was too large, the distances were too great, for
all the citizens to meet in public gatherings. Voters now
simply choose some one to represent them in a parliament or
congress.
The representative system, though not unknown to the Greeks
and Romans, was little used by them. It developed during
the Middle Ages, when such countries as Denmark, ^ ,
° Develop-
Sweden, the Netherlands, France, and England ment of
established legislative bodies representing the representa-
three "estates" of clergy, nobility, and commoners.
Most of these medieval legislatures afterwards disappeared or
sank into insignificance, but the EngHsh Parliament continued
S7S
576 The Democratic Movement in Europe
to lead a vigorous existence. It thus furnished a model for
imitation, first by the American colonies, then by revolutionary
France, and during the past hundred years by nearly all Europe.
Modern democracy has also a constitutional character.
There is generally a written constitution to guarantee the'
Constitu- rights of the people. The first document of this
tionalism gQj.^ fQj. ^ national state was the Union of Utrecht,
drawn up by the revolting Dutch provinces in 1579. The
second was the Cromwellian Instrument of Government (1653).
The third was the Constitution of the United States (1787).
The French constitution which went into effect in 1791 became
the parent of the constitutional systems of contemporary
Europe.
The democratic and national movements have proceeded
side by side throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Democracy Between 1848 and 1871 the more conspicuous vic-
and national- tories were those won for nationalism in Italy
*^°* and Germany. Since 187 1 the advance of democ-
racy has been especially marked. Both autocracy, the rule of
one, and aristocracy, the rule of a few, seem fated everywhere
to disappear. It is a significant fact that nearly all the existing
governments of Europe have assumed their present democratic
form within the last fifty years.
202. The United Kingdom
The constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland ^ consists first, of royal charters, second, of parha-
mentary statutes, third, of the Common law as
Constitu-
tion of the expressed in court decisions, and fourth, of inter-
United national treaties. Besides such documents, it
Kingdom
includes a large mass of customs, traditions, and
precedents, which, though unwritten, are none the less binding
on Crown and Parliament. We shall now see how this very
flexible, ever-growing constitution was adapted to democratic
needs during the nineteenth century.
^ Ireland in 1801 was joined to Great Britain to form the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom
577
The personal government of George III broke down under
the shock of the American Revolution, and Parliament re-
covered its supremacy.^ A few years later came Tory
the Revolution in France, which promised at first reaction
to sweep away privilege and class distinctions in Great Brit-
I. England
2. Scotland
Great Britain
Ireland
Great Britain and
Ireland
The Union Jack
The Act of Union with Scotland (1707) required that England and Scotland
should have one flag made of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew combined.
After the union with Ireland (1801) the cross of St. Patrick was incorporated in the
flag. The name " Jack" comes from the French Jacques, referring to James I, the first
sovereign of Great Britain.
ain as on the Continent. But the excesses of the French rad-
icals filled conservative Englishmen with deep distrust of all
innovations in government or society. The long revolutionary
and Napoleonic wars also delayed reform movements in Great
1 See page 438.
578 The Democratic Movement in Europe
Britain. The Tories had a majority in the House of Commons
throughout the period from 1789 to 1815, and Tory statesmen
stood rock-Hke against everything that savored of democracy.
According to the representative system which had been
fixed in medieval times, each of the counties (shires) and most
of the towns (boroughs) of Great Britain and
reformed Ireland had two members in the House of Com-
House of mons. Representation, however, bore no relation
Commons , . . , . . . . .
to the size of the population m either case: a
large county and a small county, a large town and a small town,
sent the same number of representatives. Some flourishing
places, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield,
which had grown up since the Middle Ages, were without
representation. Other places — the so-called ''rotten" bor-
oughs — continued to enjoy representation long after they
had so decayed that nothing remained of them but a single
house, a green mound, a park, or a ruined wall. The electoral
system was equally antiquated. Only the small class of land-
owners could vote in the counties, while in most of the towns
a handful of persons possessed the franchise. There were even
some ''pocket" boroughs, where a rich man, usually a nobleman,
had acquired the right of naming the representatives. As the
Younger Pitt truly declared, "This House is not a representa-
tion of the people of Great Britain; it is the representation of
nominal boroughs, of ruined and exterminated towns, of noble
families, of wealthy individuals, of foreign potentates."
No improvement in these conditions took place until 1832.
The Whigs, who now had returned to power, passed a reform
Reform Act measure three times through the House of Com-
of 1832 mons. Twice the House of Lords, staunchly
Tory, threw it out and accepted it on the third occasion only
when riots and other popular demonstrations brought Great
Britain to the brink of revolution. The Reform Act abolished
many "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs and gave representation
to large places which had never possessed that privilege. It
also increased the number of voters to include shopkeepers in
the towns and renters as well as owners of lands in the country.
^1
2- ^
i o
8 g
g o
1 o o
^ ffi
S" &
580 The Democratic Movement in Europe
Reform Acts
of 1867 and
1884
The unre-
formed
House of
Lords
tocracy.
The next forward step came in 1867, when the prime minister,
Disraeli, carried through Parliament an act extending the
suffrage to workingmen in towns. Disraeli's
parliamentary rival, Gladstone, extended it in
1884 to agricultural laborers. While these meas-
ures did not establish complete manhood suffrage,
they went far toward making the House of Commons a truly
representative and
democratic body.
The House of Lords,
composed of nobles and
bishops,
remains
the last ref-
uge of aris-
In case of a
conflict between it and
the House of Commons,
the latter can require the
king to create enough
new peers to carry the
legislation desired. The
threat of such action
brought the Lords to
terms in 1832. In
191 1 a similar threat
induced them to accept the very unpalatable ParHament Act.
This measure deprived the upper chamber of all control of
money bills. It further provided that every other bill passed
by the Commons in three successive sessions (extending over
two years at least) and rejected by the Lords at each of the
three sessions should become law. The House of Commons
thus secured the final word in legislation. Many reformers
would like to see the House of Lords made an elective instead
of a hereditary body, while others would abolish it altogether.
The United Kingdom is a monarchy only in form. The
king neither makes nor enforces laws, and he must give his
Benjamin Disraeli
After a picture taken in 1867. In the possession of
Major Coningsby Disraeli.
The United Kingdom
S8i
The cabinet
consent to any measure passed by both the House of Commons
and the House of Lords. The last royal veto of q^^ ^^^^^
legislation was more than two centuries ago. Nor of Parlia-
may the courts set aside an act of Parliament °*®°*
as illegal, for every statute is a part of the constitution. All
authority thus resides in Parliament, and ParHament represents
the people.
Parliament works through a committee known as the cabinet. ^
This body exists purely by custom and has no place whatever
in the written consti-
tution of the United
Kingdom. The cabinet usually in-
cludes about twenty lords and
commoners belonging to the party
in power. They are selected by
the prime minister, who is the rec-
ognized leader of the majority
party. Members of the cabinet
hold the chief administrative posi-
tions and in secret sessions draft
the more important legislative
measures to be laid before Parlia-
ment. Should the cabinet lose the
support of a majority of the House
of Commons, it must either resign
or '' go to the country." In the lat- William E. Gladstone
ter case, the king dissolves Parliament and calls a general elec-
tion. The return of a majority favorable to the cabinet permits
it to remain in office; otherwise the prime minister and his associ-
ates give way to a cabinet formed by the opposition party.
This system of cabinet government clearly fixes responsibility.
In the first place, the cabinet ministers at every step are re-
sponsible to the House of Commons. They hold Cabinet
office and conduct affairs only as long as their government
policies find acceptance with a majority in the popular branch
of the legislature. In the second place, members of the House
1 See page 436.
582 The Democratic Movement in Europe
of Commons are themselves constantly responsible to the
nation. They are not elected for a definite term, and a new
general election must be held immediately after the dissolution
of ParHament.
The two. parties — Whigs and Tories — which arose in the
seventeenth century, continued to control Parliament in the
PoUtical eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Whigs
parties ^fter 1 83 2 took the name of Liberals, and the
Tories that of Conservatives.^ The union of Great Britain and
Ireland brought in over a hundred Irish members, most of whom
now form the Nationalist Party. It stands for Home Rule for
Ireland and allies itself with the Liberals. The Labor Party,
which in 19 14 had forty seats in the House of Commons, forms
another Liberal ally. It now appears possible that Great
Britain will develop the many-party system characteristic of
Continental governments.
203. The Third French Republic
The Third Republic was born in the midst of war. Two
days after Sedan, upon the receipt of a dispatch from Napoleon
III announcing his army captured and himself
lie pnT- " a- prisoner, Paris broke out in rebellion. The
claimed, empress Eugenie fled with her son to England,
and the revolutionists under Thiers and Gambetta
set up a republican Government of National Defense. Gam-
betta then escaped from Paris in a balloon, roused the fighting
spirit of the French people by his eloquence, and carried on
for several months a struggle against the German enemy.
The peace treaty with Germany had hardly been signed
before France went through a terrible experience. The Com-
Xhe mune,2 or municipal council of Paris, fell into the
•♦com- ^^ hands of radical repubhcans, socialists, and anar-
suppressed, chists, who raised the red flag. They formed
is'^i an independent government in the capital and
even proposed to break up all France into a loose federation of
1 Since 1886 generally called Unionists because they desire to retain the union of
Great Britain and Ireland. 2 See page 506.
The Third French Republic
583
self-governing communes. The French people this time did
not accept a revolution made in Paris. A civil war, lasting two
months, followed. Loyal troops finally entered Paris, fought
their way street by street, and suppressed the insurrection
amid scenes of blood-
shed unparalleled in the
annals of even that
turbulent city.
The " communard "
uprising thoroughly dis-
cr edited constitu-
radicalism tion of
J J 1875
and made
it certain that the Third
Repubhc would be
moderate and conserva-
tive in character. Four
years went by before
the new government
took final shape. Dur-
ing this time a National
Assembly met at Ver-
L. A. Thiers
After a portrait by Leon Bonnat painted in 1876.
sailles and passed the series of laws forming the present
constitution of France.
The constitution established a parliamentary system of
government, which resembles that of the United Kingdom.
The legislative power is vested in a Chamber of The
Deputies, containing (1914) 602 members, who are legislature
elected for four years by universal manhood suffrage, and a
Senate of 300 members, chosen indirectly for a term of nine
years. The Senate has less importance than the Chamber of
Deputies, principally because the premier and his associates
in the ministry are responsible to the latter body. The minis-
try must keep a majority in the Chamber of Deputies or resign.
The two chambers, meeting together, may revise the constitution
at any time.
The executive power is nominally vested in a president, who
584 The Democratic Movement in Europe
holds office for seven years. He is chosen, not by a popular vote,
The but by the legislature. The president selects
president ^^g premier, and with the consent of the Senate
may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the expiration
of its term and order a new election. He has no veto of
legislation, but may return a measure to the two chambers
for reconsideration. Every presidential act must be counter-
signed by some minister, who thereby assumes responsibiUty
for it. The president is thus largely a figurehead; the premier
is the actual head of the government.
There are in France no real parties, but only political groups.
These include a few Monarchists, who would like to restore
PoUticai the Bourbons; the Socialists, who are steadily
groups increasing in number; and many varieties of
Republicans, both conservative and radical. No ministry
can expect to live long unless it represents a coalition of several
groups. In fact, it never does live long. France since 1875
has averaged more than one ministry a year. In spite of what
seems an unstable government, the Third Republic has grown
stronger with the lapse of time and now enjoys the support of
almost every Frenchman.
204. Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium
The kingdom of Italy ranks next to the French RepubHc
among the Latin states of contemporary Europe. The Italian
c ftu- constitution is the liberal document granted by
tion of Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1848 and between
^*^y 1859 and 1870 extended by popular vote to the
entire peninsula. During these momentous years Italy thus
gained both national unity and democratic government.
Supreme authority resides in a parliament of two houses,
consisting of an elective Chamber of Deputies and an appointive
Italian Senate. A ministry conducts the government,
parliamen- subject to the will of the lower house. The
tary system ^^^^ holds essentially an ornamental position, not
unlike that of an English sovereign or a French president.
Property and educational qualifications for the suffrage
Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium 585
formerly limited the voters to less than two and a half per cent
of the population. Laws passed in 1882 and 191 2 Suffrage
have introduced almost complete manhood suffrage. "^ ^^^y
Only men under thirty years of age, who have neither performed
their military service nor learned to read and write, are now
denied the right to vote.
Spain during the nineteenth century had a checkered history.
Ferdinand VII, the Bourbon king who came back after Napo-
leon's downfall, ruled so wretchedly as to provoke Kingdom
an uprising. This led to intervention by the ^^ ^P^^
Concert of Europe and his second restoration.^ He died in
1833, and for the next four decades Spain suffered from revo-
lutions and civil wars. In 1873 the Spanish Liberals proclaimed
a repubhc, which lasted barely two years. The old dynasty of
the Bourbons then recovered the throne and still occupies it.
The present constitution, which dates from 1876, is liberal
in character. It provides for representative gov- ^j^
ernment, a parliament (Cortes) of two chambers, Spanish
and a responsible ministry. Manhood suffrage ^o^^t^t^tion
has prevailed since 1890. The king, as in Italy, enjoys
little real authority.
The history of Portugal in the nineteenth century duplicates
that of Spain. Misgovernment, insurrections, and armed
conflicts between rival factions kept the little Republic of
country in turmoil and long delayed the march of Portugal
democracy there. However, in 1910 the Portuguese overturned
their monarchy and set up a republic. The republican con-
stitution closely follows that of France.
Belgium, after the separation from Holland, became a hmited
monarchy of the modern type. "All powers," it is asserted
in the constitution of 1831, "emanate from the . Kingdom of
people." The constitution was amended in 1893 ^^^^^""^
to provide for manhood suffrage. At the same time, an inter-
esting system of plural voting went into effect. A Belgian
citizen who is the head of a family with children or who owns a
certain amount of property has two votes, and one who satisfies
1 See page 550.
586 The Democratic Movement in Europe
certain educational requirements has three votes. The law
makes voting obligatory and punishes a citizen for unexcused
absence from the polls.
205. The German Empire
The German Empire, as established in 187 1, was a federation.
It included twenty-five states: four kingdoms, six grand-
duchies, five duchies, seven principaHties, and three
of the free cities,^ besides the imperial territory of Alsace-
German Lorraine. The imperial constitution allowed each
state (but not Alsace-Lorraine until 191 1) to
manage its local concerns and specified what powers should be
exercised by the central government.
The king of Prussia was, ex officio, German emperor and presi-
dent of the federation. He commanded the army and navy,
chose ambassadors, and conducted foreign affairs.
The German -^ might also of his own motion declare a defensive
emperor o
war, but the declaration of an offensive war re-
quired the consent of the Bundesrat.
The Federal Council {Bundesrat) consisted of sixty-one
delegates from the various states. They always voted in
The accordance with instructions given to them by their
Btmdesrat respective governments. The result was that the
Bundesrat formed an aristocratic council of diplomats, repre-
senting (except in the case of the free cities) the hereditary
German princes. The Bundesrat, in practice, made all the
laws. It shaped in secret sessions the bills to be laid before
the Reichstag for approval, and it had a veto of any bill passed
by the latter body.
The Imperial Diet {Reichstag) contained 397 members,
elected for a term of five years by all men who had reached the
The age of twenty-five. Though democratic in com-
Reichstag position, the Reichstag exerted little influence on
legislation, as compared with the English House of Commons or
the French Chamber of Deputies. It might introduce meas-
ures, but few of them were likely to receive the assent of the
1 Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck. See page 243.
The German Empire
587
The German National Monument
Designed by Johannes Schilling; begun in 1877; completed in 1883. The monument
stands on a wooded hillside opposite Bingen and overlooking the Rhine valley. The great
base, 82 feet high, supports the impressive figure of Germania, 34 feet high, with the imperial
crown and the laurel-wreathed sword. On the side of the pedestal facing the river is a design
symbolizing " The Watch on the Rhine." The other sides of the pedestal bear designs repre-
senting various scenes in the Franco-German War.
Bundesrat. On the other hand, if the Reichstag refused to
pass a government measure, the Bundesrat and the emperor,
by mutual agreement, could dissolve it and order a new election.
588 The Democratic Movement in Europe
The Reichstag was thus little more than a debating society;
it discussed, it did not govern.
The emperor's representative in dealing with the legislature
was the chancellor. This official corresponded only in slight
The degree to the prime minister or premier in other
chancellor governmental systems. He was responsible solely
to the emperor, who appointed him and dismissed him at will.
The chancellor presided over the Bundesrat, and in the name
of the emperor laid before the Reichstag all measures which
the Bundesrat had framed. He also selected the chief federal
officers and supervised their activity.
It is clear that, while the German Empire was a constitutional
state, it was not a democratic state. The constitution, which
. , ^j showed Bismarck's hand in every section, failed to
cabinet provide for cabinet government. No ministry
government ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^.^j ^^ ^^^ Reichstag, and the
chancellor, the emperor's agent, held his position as long as he
retained the emperor's confidence.
It is equally clear that the imperial constitution gave to
Prussia a paramount position in Germany. The king of Prussia
Paramountcy was German emperor; the chancellor was usually
of Prussia ^ Prussian; Prussia generally controlled a majority
of votes in the Bundesrat; and Prussia kept a permanent
majority of representatives in the Reichstag. That state had
its own constitution, but one which did not seriously limit
the royal power. The Prussian kingdom formed, in effect, an
absolute monarchy. The Prussian king ruled by divine right.
Germany, like most Continental countries, had the many-
party system. The political groups included Conservatives
Political and Liberals of various shades of opinion, Roman
groups Catholic Clericals, or Centrists, so designated from
the seats which their representatives occupied on the floor of the
Reichstag, and the Social Democrats or SociaHsts. In 1914 the
Social Democrats were the largest party in Germany. Owing,
however, to an unfair and antiquated system of representation,
they possessed far fewer seats in the Reichstag than their
numbers entitled them to.
The Dual Monarchy
589
206. The Dual Monarchy
The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary stood next to the
German Empire among the Teutonic powers of Europe. It
was, of course, only in part Teutonic. Germans
formed about a third of the population of Austria nationalities
and about a tenth of that of Hungary. The ^^ Austria-
Hungary
Other nationalities included Magyars, Latin or
Romanic peoples (Rumanians and Itahans), and Slavs.^
These diverse nationalities had possessed a constitution since
1867. Taught by bitter experience, Francis Joseph
T • .1 . ^.' . , . 7 Constitution
I m that year gave his consent to an Ausgletch of the
(Compromise), which divided the Hapsburg realm ^^^
into two independent states — the empire of Aus-
tria and the kingdom
of Hungary. Each
had its own parlia-
ment, ministry, and
capital (Vienna and
Buda-Pest). Both
had one flag, one
army, and one sov-
ereign, who wore the
joint crown of Aus-
trian emperor and
Hungarian king.
There was also a
common administra-
tion of foreign affairs.
The government of
the. Dual Monarchy ^
was somewhat more Francis Joseph I
democratic than that of the German Empire. Laws in Austria
were made by a majority of the two houses of parliament
and were executed by a ministry nominally responsible to
^ Czechs and Slovaks in Bohemia, Moravia, and northern Hvingary, Poles and
Ruthenians in Galicia, Serbo-Croats in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, and Dalmatia,
and Slovenes in Styria and Camiola.
590 The Democratic Movement in Europe
both houses, but practically servants of the Crown. The
emperor, moreover, could often play off one parliamentary
faction against another and thus secure his own
of the way in legislation. Universal manhood suffrage
Dual prevailed since 1Q07. The law-making power in
Monarchy ^^ ,., . , • , • 1
Hungary was likewise vested in a bicameral par-
Hament with a nominally responsible ministry. Very illiberal
qualifications for the suffrage reduced the number of voters to
less than a fourth of the adult male population, and of these
most were Magyars.
The principle of nationality, so effective for union in Italy
and Germany, in Austria-Hungary worked for disunion. The
^ ^. ^ Germans in Austria and the Magyars in Hungary
Conflict of 1 1 • 1 1 •
nationalities were not only determined to preserve their own
m Austria- language and customs, but also to force them on
the Latins and the Slavs. Until 1867 German
repressed both Slav and Magyar; after that date he still
repressed Czech, Ruthenian, Slovene, and Italian. Magyar,
Uberated from German domination in 1867, continued to lord
it over Slovak, Rumanian, and Serbo-Croat. The result was
great bitterness between the dominant and subject nationalities
of the Dual Monarchy.
207. Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden
The Swiss cantons number twenty- two, of which fifteen are
Teutonic in language, five are French-speaking, and two are
Swiss Itahan-speaking. A constitution adopted in 1848
Confedera- and revised in 1874 joins them in a federal union
somewhat resembling the United States. There
is a legislature of two houses, the lower representing the people
directly, the upper, each canton. The two houses in joint
session name a committee to act as a kind of cabinet. The
President of the Confederation is merely the chairman of this
committee. He serves for one year.
The democratic character of the Swdss is shown by their use
of the initiative and referendum. Petitions signed by as many
THE PEOPLES OF
EUROPE
at the Begi nning of the ^^^
Twentieth Century «t^^
The Russian Empire 591
as 30,000 citizens make it obligatory for the legislature to sub-
mit a measure passed by it to a popular vote. „ ,
, . . , ^1 . . . Referendum
This IS the referendum. Any 50,000 citizens can and in-
compel the government to lay before the people ^t^^^ve in
, , , . . ^^f. Switzerland
proposed amendments to the constitution, ihis
is the initiative. The two devices give to the Swiss constant
control of federal law-making.
The Dutch constitution dates from 181 5. Successive revi-
sions since then, especially in the revolutionary year, 1848,
have made it a fairly liberal document. The xingdom
Crown is still powerful, but the royal ministers are of the
responsible to the States-General, or parliament. ® eran s
Property qualifications for voting, though lowered in recent
years, exclude a good many Dutchmen from the suffrage.
Holland is less democratic than her neighbor, Belgium.
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are monarchies, The
with written constitutions, bicameral parliaments, ^^^ "^^'
and substantially responsible ministries. Man- kingdoms
hood suffrage prevails in all three countries.
Norway, which the Congress of Vienna took from Denmark
and joined with Sweden, became independent in 1905. The
year 1914 saw the formation of the Scandivanian
League, an informal alHance of the three coun- scandina-
tries for defensive purposes. It recalls the earlier ^**^
Union of Calmar,^ and if maintained, promises to
give Scandinavia greater weight in the councils of Europe.
208. The Russian Empire
The Russian people form three groups, speaking different
Slavic dialects. The largest group is that of the Great Rus-
sians, who occupy the interior, the north, and the
east of the country. They are the true Musco-
vites, their historic center being the ancient capital of Moscow.
Next come the Little Russians (Ruthenians) of the Ukraine.
They center about Kiev. The Cossacks are mainly Ukrainian
colonists. The White Russians dwell to the west, in lands
^ See page 419.
592 The Democratic Movement in Europe
which once belonged to Lithuania. These three groups com-
prise more than half of the population of European Russia.
The non-Russians are found principally along the frontier.
Most of them entered the Russian Empire in the eighteenth
Non- century, during the reigns of Peter the Great and
Russians Catherine the Great.^ Early in the nineteenth
century Alexander I took Finland from Sweden (1809), wrested
Bessarabia from Turkey (181 2), and absorbed most of Poland
(181 5). Russia thus reached her territorial limits in Europe.
Her subject peoples included Lapps and Finns in Finland,
Esths, Letts, and Germans in the Baltic provinces, Poles, and
Lithuanians, Rumanians in Bessarabia, Mongols and other
Asiatics chiefly in the southeastern part of the empire, and
many Jews in the cities.
, Alexander I began as a monarch of liberal tendencies and
enlightened views. After Napoleon's downfall the tsar's
Alexander I, ardor for reform grew cold. He came under
1801-1825 Metternich's influence and faithfully supported
the reactionary policy of that minister.
Nicholas I never felt any sympathy for either nationalism
or democracy. We have already learned how he put down
Nicholas I, the Polish insurrection of 1830-31, and how in
1825-1855 jg^g he interfered to suppress the revolution in
Hungary .2 To prevent liberal ideas from spreading among
the Russians, the tsar relied on a strict censorship of the press,
a passport system which made it difficult for any one to enter
Russia or leave it, ^nd an army of spies and secret police.
During his reign of thirty years. Liberals by tens of thousands
languished in prisons or trod the path of exile to Siberia. Nicho-
las I was the most brutal autocrat on the Continent. .
The reign of Alexander II started with notable reforms,
especially those which freed the Russian serfs and created
Alexander elective provincial assemblies (zemsivos) for local
II, 1855- government. Reaction set in again after a second
Polish insurrection in 1863. It was at this time
that a revolutionary movement, commonly called Nihilism,^
1 See the map on page 413. - See pages 553 and 557.
3 Latin nihil, "nothing."
594 The Democratic Movement in Europe
began to threaten the existence of Russian autocracy. The
Nihihsts worked among both the artisans in the cities and the
peasants in the country. Not being able to agitate pubUcly,
some of them, together with anarchists, resorted to assas-
sination as the only means of ridding the country of reactionary
officials. The revolutionists acted on the principle that since
the government ruled by terror, it must be fought with
terror. Alexander II himself fell a victim to them in 1881.
Undeterred by his father's fate, Alexander III continued to
be "Autocrat of all the Russias." The tsar's reign is chiefly
Alexander significant for the efforts made by the govern-
in, 1881- ment to ''Russify" the whole empire, so that its
^®^ non-Russian inhabitants should have one law,
one language, and one religion. This policy led to severe
treatment of the Poles, Lithuanians, Esths, Letts, and Ger-
mans, and especially of the Jews. The persecution of the Jews
was followed by their emigration in great numbers to the
United States.
The Russian government under Nicholas II did not abandon
the policy of " Russification " which earned for it the hatred of
Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic provinces. To
these was now added the Grand-Duchy of Finland.
The Finns for ninety years had enjoyed self-government;
Nicholas II by a manifesto swept away their most cherished
privileges. Meanwhile, the opposition to autocracy developed
rapidly in Russia, not only among the working people and
peasants, but also among the middle classes and enlightened
members of the nobility. All the liberal and discontented
elements combined to demand for Russia the free institutions
which were now no longer novelties in western Europe. Revo-
lutionary disorders at length compelled the tsar to issue de-
crees in 1 905-1 906, granting a wide franchise and providing
for a representative assembly (Duma). The Duma met four
times and accompHshed some useful legislation. It did not
succeed, however, in winning liberty for the Russian people.
The corrupt and inefficient autocracy seemed in 19 14 to be as
firmly estabUshed as ever.
Turkey and the Balkan States 595
209. Turkey and the Balkan States
The racial situation in the Balkan peninsula is exceedingly
complex. Greeks, Thracians, and Illyrians were the earliest
known inhabitants. Goths, Huns, and Avars ^j^^
left few recognizable traces there. The settle- Balkan
ments of the Serbo-Croats, beginning in the sixth p®°p®^
century, spread Slavic speech and customs throughout the area
south of the Danube and between the Adriatic and the Black
Sea. The Bulgarians, a people of Asiatic origin, appeared in
the seventh century and in time adopted Slavic culture. Seven
hundred years later came the Ottoman Turks.
The empire of the Ottoman Turks formed a typical Oriental
despotism. The Sultan was not only lord of the Turkish realm,
but also the caliph,^ or spiritual head, of all Islam. ^^^
He lived shut up in his seraglio at Constantinople Ottoman
and depended on his vizier (prime minister) and
divan (council of ministers) to execute his will. Each province
had its pasha (ruler), nominally subject to the Sultan, but more
often than not practically independent of him. The pashas
did little but collect tribute; real government in the interest
of the people did not exist.
The Ottoman Empire was exclusively Moslem. Only those
who accepted Islam were citizens. Many Christians in the
Balkan peninsula adopted the faith of their con- Turks and
querors, in order to enjoy political rights and Christians
escape the heavy taxes laid on unbelievers. Even including
these converts, the Turks in southeastern Europe remained
a small minority of the population. Impassable barriers,
raised by differences of religion, race, language, and customs,
separated them from their Christian subjects.
After the fateful year, 1683,- the Turks lost ground in Europe.
Austria soon secured Hungary. Russia under Catherine II
seized the Crimea, with the adjoining territory, Dismember-
and under Alexander I took Bessarabia. Then, ment of
as the nineteenth century progressed, the Christian ^ ^^
peoples of the Balkans, stirred by the same enthusiasm for
^ See page 82 and note i. ^ See page 423.
596 The Democratic Movement in Europe
nationality which moved Itahans, Germans, Poles, and Bo-
hemians, threw off the Turkish yoke and declared for freedom.
The dismemberment of Turkey began.
The warlike Serbo-Croats of Montenegro never fully accepted
Turkish rule. A httle corner of the "Black Mountain" coun-
try always remained a free Christian state. The
Montenegro , / . . . , . , , ,
Montenegrm prmcipahty, enlarged by conquests
from the Turks, became a kingdom in 1910.
The Serbo-Croats in Serbia have a memorable history.
One of their rulers, Stephen Dushan, built up an empire cover-
ing a large part of the Balkan peninsula. He
aimed to unite Serbians, Greeks, and Bulgarians, in
order to expel the Turks from Europe. The defeat of the
Serbian army in the battle of Kossovo (1389) shook the empire
to its foundation and paved the way for Ottoman conquests.
The Serbians were Turkish subjects for three hundred and
fifty years. After two revolts early in the nineteenth century,
Serbia received self-government as a principality and later
complete independence. It became a constitutional monarchy
in 1882.
The Greeks had endured Turkish rule since the fifteenth
century. The French Revolution awakened their longing for
national independence, and in 182 1 they raised
the standard of revolt. Volunteers from every
European country, as well as a few Americans, came to help
them. The governments of Europe for a time stood coldly by,
while the Turks massacred or enslaved their Christian subjects.
Great Britain, France, and Russia at length decided to inter-
vene. The combined fleet of the allied powers destroyed the
Turkish navy at Navarino, and a Russian army moved upon
Constantinople. When the Russians w^ere almost at his gates,
the Sultan yielded and granted independence to central and
southern Greece (1829). Large parts of the ancient Greek
world, including Thessaly, Epirus, and Crete, remained under
Turkish sovereignty.
Greek patriots favored a republican government, but the
European powers in 1832 set up a monarchy. A Bavarian
Turkey and the Balkan States
597
prince occupied the throne for thirty years, until a revolution
drove him out with his German soldiers and Kingdom
German courtiers. A Danish prince then became °^ Greece
king under the title of George I. Greece at this time re-
ceived a new and entirely
democratic constitution.
Some years after the win-
ning of Greek freedom,
icholas I, who Crimean
often spoke of War, 1854-
the Sultan as
the "sick man" of Europe
and of his approaching
funeral, reopened the Eastern
Question by invading Turkey.
The result was the Crimean
War.* Great Britain sup-
ported the Sultan because of
the fear that the downfall of
Turkey would be followed
by Russian control of the
eastern Mediterranean, thus
menacing British communi-
cations with India. France
joined with Great Britain,
principally because Napoleon
III wished to pay off the
grudges against Russia which
his imperial uncle had ac-
cumulated. Count Cavour
added the Sardinian king-
dom to the alliance, in order
to further his plans for the unification of Italy. The war was
mainly confined to the Crimea, where the allied armies finally
took the fortress of Sevastopol after a long siege. Russia then
withdrew from the unequal contest.
^ Assassinated in 1913 and succeeded by his son, Constantine I.
Florence Nightingale
Miss Florence Nightingale (1820-igio) did re-
markable work during the Crimean War for the
relief of sick and wounded British soldiers. To
her self-sacrificing labors are also due many im-
provements in hospital management, sanitation,
and the training of nurses.
598 The Democratic Movement in Europe
The peace treaty gave a new lease of life to the Ottoman
Empire. The powers guaranteed the integrity of the Sultan's
Treaty of possessions, only exacting from him promises of
Paris, 1856 freedom of worship and better government for his
Christian subjects. The promises were never kept, and the
lot of Christians in Turkey became harder than ever. In their
anxiety to keep Russia out of Constantinople, Great Britain
and France thus attempted what future events clearly proved
to be an impossible solution of the Eastern Question. No more
short-sighted treaty was ever put on paper.
The process of state-making in the Balkans recommenced
soon after the Treaty of Paris. The two Danubian princi-
palities of Moldavia and Wallachia had been vir-
tually independent of Turkey since 1829. They
now united under the name of Rumania, taking Charles I,^
a member of the Hohenzollern family, as their prince. Ru-
mania secured complete independence in 1878, and three years
later Prince Charles assumed a kingly crown.
The Rumanians speak a language of Latin origin and claim
descent from Roman colonists north of the Danube. During
the Middle Ages, however, so many barbarian
waves — Goths, Huns, Slavs, Mongols, and others
— passed over the country that it is difficult to believe in the
survival of the original inhabitants. The Rumanians, more
likely, are a mixture of many peoples.
The desire of Russia to rescue the Christians of the Balkans
from oppression and, incidentally, to take Constantinople from
Turkey brought about another war between the
Turkish two Countries. Sufficient justification for it ex-
War, 1877- is|^g(j in the unspeakable atrocities committed by
the Turks in suppressing an insurrection of the
Bulgarians. This time western Europe remained neutral and
watched the duel. The Turks fought well, and their desperate
defense of Plevna is celebrated in military annals. The fall
of that stronghold allowed the tsar's troops to advance to San
Stefano, within sight of the Golden Horn. Here they paused,
1 Succeeded in 1 914 by his son, Ferdinand I.
u
Turkey and the Balkan States 599
for both Great Britain and Austria-Hungary threatened hos-
tilities in case Russia occupied Constantinople. At this juncture
the Sultan sued for peace and agreed to relinquish nearly all
his European possessions.
The western powers would not assent to so complete a dis-
memberment of European Turkey. Lord Beaconsfield,^ the
British prime minister, regarded the Treaty of Treaty of
San Stefano as far too favorable to Russia, ^e'^"' ^^'^^
Francis Joseph I, the Hapsburg emperor, who saw with dismay
the extension of Russian influence in the Balkans, also opposed
it. A general European conflict threatened, until the tsar agreed
to submit the treaty to revision by an international congress at
Berlin. There, under Bismarck's leadership, the diplomats
attempted another settlement of the Eastern Question. The
Treaty of Berlin recognized Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro
as sovereign states. That part of Bulgaria between the Danube
and the Balkans became a self-governing principality, but the
part south of the Balkans, called Eastern Rumelia, went back
to the Sultan. Greece was permitted to annex Turkish terri-
tory in Thessaly. Austria-Hungary was allowed to occupy
and administer the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herze-
govina. In spite of its losses, the Ottoman Empire thus
remained in Europe, a decadent empire propped up by Chris-
tian arms.
Diplomacy did not bring peace to the Balkans. Eastern
Rumelia in 1885 revolted against the Turks and united with the
northern Bulgarian province. The powers pro- ^^^^^
tested against this infraction of the Berlin treaty,
but took no aggressive action. Serbia, jealous of her now
powerful neighbor, declared war, only to be roundly beaten.
Bulgaria remained tributary to the Sultan until 1908, when
its ruler, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, became an inde-
pendent king (tsar).
The year 1908 saw also a revolution in the Sultan's dominions.
This was the work of the Young Turks, a group of patriotic
reformers who aimed to revive and modernize the Ottoman
1 Formerly Benjamin Disraeli. See page 580.
6oo The Democratic Movement in Europe
Empire. They won over the army and carried through a
Democratic sudden, ahnost bloodless, coup d'etat. The terrified
Turkey Sultan had to issue a decree restoring the constitu-
tion granted by him some years before but never put in force.
His despotism vanished, and the Ottoman Empire, with an
elective parliament, a responsible ministry, and a free press,
took its place among democratic states. .
It soon became evident, however, that the Young Turks
were nationalists as well as democrats. They intended to
Nationalist weld together all the peoples of the Ottoman
Turkey Empire into a single nation, with Turkish as the
official language and Islam the only pri\41eged faith. Just
as the Russian poHcy was one of ''Russification," so that of
the Young Turks was one of ''Ottomanization." Then fol-
lowed cruel oppression and massacres of Christians in various
parts of the empire, including Macedonia. This Turkish
province, the only one which remained in Europe, was peopled
by Greeks, Serbians, and Bulgarians. Large numbers of
them fled to their respective countries, carrying their grievances
with them, and agitated for war against Turkey.
The war soon came. Greece, IMontenegro, Serbia, and Bul-
garia, forgetting for the moment the jealousies which had
First and divided them, came together in the Balkan
Second "Alliance," issued to the Sultan an ultimatum
Balkan
wars, 1912- demanding self-government for Macedonia, and
1913 when this was refused, promptly began hostihties.
They were everywhere successful, and Turkey was compelled
to give up all her European possessions except Constantinople
and the adjacent territory. She likewise ceded Crete to Greece.
The allies then proceeded to quarrel over the disposition of
Macedonia. The quarrel resulted in a Second Balkan War, with
Serbia, IMontenegro, Greece, Rumania, and Turkey ranged
against Bulgaria. Tsar Ferdinand could not cope wdth so
many foes and sued for peace.
The treaty signed at Bucharest completely changed the
aspect of the Balkans. Bulgaria surrendered districts south
of the Danube to Rumania and allowed Greece, jMontenegro,
Turkey and the Balkan States 60 1
and Serbia to annex most of Macedonia. These three states
were now nearly doubled in size. The Turkish treaty of
province of Albania, half of whose people are Bucharest,
Moslems, became an independent principality.
Turkey, though ignored at the peace conference, escaped
dismemberment and even secured an accession of territory.
The Treaty of Bucharest thus left the Turk in Europe, and by
sowing seeds of enmity between Bulgaria and her sister states
helped further to postpone a satisfactory solution bi^the Easteri
Question.
Studies
I. On an outline map of Austria-Hungary in 1914 indicate th^^gions pre-
dominantly German, Slavic, Romanic, and Magyar in populad^ro. 2. jExplain
the following: "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs; Augsleickf Duma; ocrtes;
Social Democrats; "communards"; Nihilists; and referejraum and initiafiye.
3. Who is the reigning monarch of the house of OrangePyfl the house of Savoi^P
of the Hanoverian dynasty? of the Spanish Bourbons? ^'4. Give several examples
of essentially democratic monarchies in Europe. 5. Why is it better for a nation
to make mistakes in the course of self-government than to be ruled, however wisely,
by an irresponsible monarch? 6. Distinguish between England, Great Britain,
the United Kingdom, and the British Empire. 7. Why has England been called
the "mother of parliaments"? 8. Why is the British government sometimes
called a "crowned republic"? 9. Contrast the unlimited powers of the British
Parliament with the limited powers of the American Congress. 10. Mention
some noteworthy dLBferences between the British cabinet and the American cabinet.
11. Compare the French and Swiss presidents with the American president.
12. Why was the Reichstag described by its own members as merely a "hall
of echoes"? 13. Why was the Austrian Empire called a "ramshackle empire"?
14. Comment on the statement, "You Magyars are only an island in an ocean of
Slavs." 15. Why did Russia favor nationality in the Balkans and oppose it in
other parts of Europe? 16. "The two forces that have constantly undermined
the power of Turkey are religion and nationality." How does the history of the
nineteenth century illustrate this statement?
CHAPTER XXIII
COLONIAL EXPANSION AND WORLD POLITICS IN THE
NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
210. Greater Europe
The hundred-odd years since 1815 have witnessed an aston-
ishing movement of European peoples into every quarter of
Expansion the globe. This movement presents many aspects.
of Europe ^OT the mother country it has provided outlets
for surplus population, supplies of raw materials or the precious
metals, markets for manufactures, and sometimes revenue
from taxes and duties. For the daughter country it has meant
the introduction of European civilization, particularly as affected
by the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Revolution.
The languages, literatures, religions, laws, and customs of
Europe are thus being extended to almost all mankind.
The expansion of Europe is largely explained by the increase
of its population, which more than doubled in the nineteenth
European century. During this time overcrowding and
emigration overcompetition at home induced hundreds of
thousands of emigrants yearly to cross the seas to regions where
land was cheap, wages were high, and the government was
liberal and democratic. A new "wandering of peoples" began
on a colossal scale and still continues.
Emigrants to an independent country such as the United
States renounce their foreign allegiance, give up the use of their
European native language, and soon become absorbed in the
colonization population of their adopted fatherland. To pre-
vent the loss of so many intelligent and energetic citizens,
some European nations endeavor to secure colonial dependencies
into which their surplus numbers may overflow. The posses-
sion of large and flourishing colonies is also thought to increase
602
The Opening-Up of Africa 603
the national prestige and even the national wealth, through
the opportunities offered in them for agriculture, mining, and
commerce.
Great Britain in 181 5 was the leading world power. France
had been well-nigh eliminated as a colonial rival by the Seven
Years' War, and Holland had lost valuable pos- The British
sessions overseas in the revolutionary and Napo- ^n^pire
leonic wars. In America, Great Britain held Canada, some of
the West India islands, and part of Guiana; in Africa, Cape
Colony; in Asia, much of India and Ceylon; and in Australia,
the eastern coast. The British Empire continued to grow
throughout the nineteenth century, until it embraced in 19 14
approximately a fourth of the habitable area of the earth and
a fourth of the earth's population. No such wide dominion
had ever been built up before, either in ancient or medieval
times.
The spectacle of the British Empire, so populous, so rich in
natural resources, so far-flung, stirred the imagination and
aroused the envy of the witnessing nations. They,
too, became eager to secure dependencies in savage
or half-civilized lands. Africa, in particular, afforded attractive
opportunities for colonial enterprise.
211. The Opening-Up of Africa
Speaking broadly, Africa consists of an elevated plateau,
with a fringe of unindented coastal plain. Penetration of the
interior was long delayed by mountain ranges Physical
which approach close to the sea, by rapids and falls Af"ca
which hinder river navigation, by the barrier of dense forests
and extensive deserts, and by the unhealthiness of the climate
in many regions. Though lying almost in sight of Europe,
Africa reinained until our own time the ''Dark Continent."
As was the country, so were its inhabitants. Europeans
knew chiefly the Semitic and Hamitic peoples north and east
of the Sahara. The Black race, which occupies ^ . , .,
Racifl.! Africa.
nearly all Africa south of that desert, dwelt by
itself. Some negroes in the course of time blended more or
6o4 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
less with Hamites, giving rise to the Bantu-speaking peoples.
To these elements of the native population must be added the
curious Pygmies in the equatorial districts, together with the
Hottentots and Bushmen in the extreme south.^
Little more than the Mediterranean shore of Africa was
known in antiquity. Here were Egypt, the first home of
civiUzation, and Carthage, Rome's most formi-
^oric^mes dable rival for supremacy. During the earlier
Middle Ages all North Africa fell under Arab
dommation. The vast extent of the continent was revealed
to Europeans by the Por-
tuguese discoveries in the
fifteenth century, but three
hundred years elapsed be-
fore anything like syste-
matic exploration of the
interior began.
The penetration of Africa
has been mainly accom-
plished by fol-
lowing the
course of its
four great rivers. In the
last decade of the eighteenth
century the African Associa-
tion, then recently founded,
sent Mungo Park to the
Niger. He and his immediate successors explored the basin of
that river and revealed the existence of the mysterious city of
Timbuktu, an Arab capital never previously visited by Euro-
peans. The determination of the sources of the Nile — a prob-
lem which had interested, the ancients — met with success
shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century. Captain
Speke first saw the waters of the lake which he named
Victoria Nyanza, in honor of England's queen, and Sir Samuel
Baker found the smaller lake called by him Albert Nyanza,
1 See the map, page 637.
The Niger
and the
Nile basins
Henry M. Stanley
After a photograph taken in 1886.
The Partition of Africa 605
in honor of the Prince Consort. The discovery of snow-clad
mountains in this part of Africa confirmed what Greek geog-
raphers had taught regarding the "Mountains of the Moon."
Meanwhile, an intrepid Scotch missionary, David Living-
stone, had traced the course of the Zambesi. Starting from
the Cape, he worked his way northward, found Basins of the
the wonderful Victoria Falls, and crossed the Zambesi and
continent from sea to sea. Livingstone's work ^ °^^°
was carried further by Henry M. Stanley, a newspaper corre-
spondent who became one of the eminent explorers of modern
times. He discovered Lake Albert Edward Nyanza, showed
that Lake Tangan)dka drained into the Congo, and followed
that mighty stream all the way to its mouth. Stanley's fasci-
nating narrative of his travels ^ did much to arouse European
interest in Africa.
212. The Partition of Africa
The division of Africa among European powers followed
promptly upon its exploration. Spain, Portugal, Belgium,
Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain all
profited by the scramble for African territory, and Portu-
The Spanish possessions are small, compared with s^^.^e in
those of the other powers, and, except for the
northern coast of Morocco, not of great importance. Portugal,
however, controls the two valuable regions of Angola and
Portuguese East Africa.
The possessions of Belgium grew directly out of Stanley's
discoveries. He realized what sources of wealth might be
tapped in the rubber, ivory, and palm-oil of the The Belgians
vast Congo basin and persuaded Leopold II, ^ Africa
king of the Belgians, to supply the funds for the establishment
of trading stations in that part of Africa. The Congo Free
State, which thus came into being, formed practically Leopold's
private property. The forced labor demanded of the natives
and the cruel punishments inflicted upon them stirred up so
^ Especially How I Found Livingstone (1872), Through the Dark Continent (1878),
and In Darkest Africa (1890).
6o6 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
much criticism in Europe and America that Leopold finally
converted his African holdings into a colony now called the
Belgian Congo.
Soon after Germany attained national unity, she made her
appearance among colonial powers. Treaties with the native
The Germans chiefs and arbitrary annexations during the years
in Africa 1 884-1 885 resulted in the acquisition of extensive
territories in Southwest Africa, East Africa, and the Cameroons.
All these possessions, however, were conquered by the Allies
during the World War.
Italy was another late-comer on the African scene. She
secured Eritrea on the Red Sea and Italian Somaliland. An
The Italians Italian attempt to annex Abyssinia ended dis-
in Afnca astrously, and that ancient Christian ''empire"
still keeps its independence. Italy's most important African
colony is Libya,^ conquered from Turkey in 1911-1912. The
country in Turkish hands was misgoverned and undeveloped,
but its fertile coast is well adapted to agriculture, and even
the barren interior may become valuable through irrigation.
The beginnings of French dominion in Africa reach back to
the seventeenth century, when Louis XIV began to acquire
The French trading posts along the western coast and in
in Africa Madagascar. It was not until the nineteenth
century, however, that the French entered seriously upon
the work of colonization. The reign of Louis Philippe saw
the difficult conquest of Algeria from the warlike Turks, Arabs,
and Berbers. In 1881 France annexed Tunis, just east of
Algeria, and since 191 2 she has exercised a protectorate over
most of Morocco. A glance at the map shows that in
area the French possessions exceed those of any other power,
but they include the Sahara desert.
Great Britain has secured, if not the lion's share, at any rate
the most valuable share of Africa. Besides various posses-
sions on the west coast, she holds a solid block of
Cape Colony
territory all the way from the Cape of Good Hope
to Lake Tanganyika. Cape Colony was captured from the
1 Made up of the two former Turkish provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica.
The Partition of Africa
607
Dutch during the Napoleonic wars.^ Though small in extent,
it had great importance as a half-way station on the route to
both India and Australia and also as a convenient basis for
expansion northward into the African continent.
The Dutch farmers, or Boers, did not take readily to
British rule. Many of them, with their families and flocks,
moved from Cape Colony into the unknown
. . . Natal, Orange
country beyond. This wholesale emigration — Free State,
the ''Great Trek " — resulted in the formation and the
Transvaal
of the Boer republics of Natal, Orange Free State,
and the Transvaal. Natal was soon annexed by Great Britain,
but the other two
repubHcs remained in-
dependent. The dis-
covery of the world's
richest gold mines in
the Transvaal led to
a large influx of Eng-
lishmen, who, since
they paid taxes, de-
manded a share in
the government. The
Dutch settlers, under
the lead of President
Kruger of the Trans-
vaal, were just as de-
termined to keep the
government in their own hands. Disputes between the two
peoples culminated in the South African War (1899-1902), in
which the Boers were overcome by sheer weight of numbers.
The war had a happy outcome. Great Britain showed a
wise liberality toward her former foes and granted them self-
government. Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free ^nion of
State, and the Transvaal soon came together in South Africa,
the Union of South Africa. The Union has a ^^^'^^^^
Governor-General appointed by the British Crown, a common
1 See pages 444 and 546.
Paul Kruger
6o8 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
parliament, and a responsible ministry. Cape Town and
Pretoria are the two capitals, and both EngHsh and Dutch are
official languages. The loyalty of the majority of Boers to
Great Britain was demonstrated during the World War.
The Union will ultimately include the other British pos-
sessions in South Africa. Their acquisition was largely due to
Bechuanaland Cecil Rhodes, an Oxford student who found riches
and Rhodesia [^ t^g Kimberley diamond fields and rose to be
prime minister of Cape Colony. Rhodes helped to make
Bechuanaland a British pro-
tectorate and secured the
imperial domain now called
after him Rhodesia.
One of Cecil Rhodes's cher-
ished dreams seems likely to
be soon realized. This is the
construction of a trans-con-
The Cape-to- tinental railway
Cairo Railway connecting the
British possessions in South
Africa with Egypt. The line
starts from Cape Town,
crosses Bechuanaland and
Rhodesia, and now pene-
trates the Belgian Congo.
Farther north it will link up
with the line already in operation between Cairo and Khartum.
British East Beyond Rhodesia to the north are British
Africa and East Africa and the Uganda Protectorate. Both
^^ * districts contain much fertile land and because of
their generally healthy chmate offer a promising field for
European colonization.
Uganda forms the connecting link with the Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan. All 'this region of the Upper Nile was conquered by
The Sudan General Kitchener in the last decade of the nine-
and Egypt teenth century. Egypt has been practically a
British possession since 1882, though it remained nominally
Cecil Rhodes
The Opening-Up and Partition of Asia 609
a Turkish province until the outbreak of war between Great
Britain and Turkey in 19 14.
Great Britain first secured an interest in Egypt through
the purchase from its Khedive, or ruler, of a large number of
his shares of stock in the Suez Canal. This The Suez
famous engineering work had been completed in Canal, 1869
1869 by the French engineer, De Lesseps. The canal puts
Egypt on the main oceanic highway to the East and makes the
CANAL
occupation of that country vital to the security of the British
possessions in India.
213. The Opening-Up and Partition of Asia
British expansion in India, begun by Clive during the
Seven Years' War, has proceeded scarcely without interruption
to the present day. The conquest of India was Great Britain
almost inevitable. Sometimes the Indian princes "^ ^°^**
attacked the British settlements and had to be overcome;
sometimes the lawless condition of their dominions led to inter-
vention; sometimes, again, the need of finding defensible
frontiers resulted in annexations. The entire peninsula, cover-
ing an area half as large as the United States, is now under the
Union Jack.
The East India Company ^ continued to govern India until
after the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1857 came the
Sepoy mutiny, a sudden uprising of the native Government
soldiers in the northern part of the country. °^ ^°^^*
Bloodily conducted, it was as bloodily suppressed, some of the
1 See page 447.
6io Colonial Expansion and World Politics
ringleaders even being shot from the mouths of cannon as a
punishment. The mutiny disclosed the weakness of company
rule and brought about the transfer of all governmental func-
tions to the Crown. Queen Victoria assumed the title, Em-
press of India, in 1877. A viceroy, whose seat is the ancient
capital Delhi, and the ofi&cials of the Civil Service administer
the affairs of about two-thirds of the country. The remainder is
ruled by native princes under British oversight and protection.
Their contributions of both men and money during the World
War showed their loyalty to Great Britain.
The fact that a handful of foreigners has been able to subdue
and keep in subjection more than three hundred million Indian
Peoples of peoples is sufficiently explained by their disunion.
India They' are not one in blood and language. The
Hindus, who dwell in the river valleys of the Indus and the
The Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger
A cartoon by Sir John Teninel which appeared in the English journal Punch for
August 22, 1857.
Ganges (Hindustan), comprise no more than a majority of the
population. Southern India belongs chiefly to the primitive
Dravidians, who speak a non-Aryan tongue, and who probably
represent the aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula. The
slopes of the Himalayas are occupied by still other peoples,
the descendants of Arab, Afghan, Persian, and Turkish invaders.
Rehgion likewise acts as a divisive force. The Hindus
The Opening-Up and Partition of Asia '6ii
accept Brahmanism, a name derived from Brahma, the Supreme
Being or First Cause. In its original form, three ReUgions of
thousand years ago, Brahmanism appears to have ^^^**
been an elevated faith, but it has now so far declined that
its adherents generally worship a multitude of gods, venerate
idols, revere the cow as a sacred animal, and indulge in many
debasing rites. TheDra-
vidians are only nominal
Brahmanists; their real
worship is that of count-
less village deities. The
stronghold of Islam lies
in the northern fringe of
provinces, but Moslem
missionaries have pene-
trated almost every part
of the country.
Nor are the Hindus
themselves united. The
all-pervad- The caste
ing caste system
system splits them up
into several thousand
distinct groups, headed
by the Brahmans or
priests. Members of a given caste may not marry outside it;
may not eat with any one who does not belong to it; may not
do work of any sort unrecognized by it. Caste, in fact,
regulates a man's actions from the cradle to the grave. It has
lasted in India for ages.
The spread of European civilization in India promises to re-
move, or at least to lower, the barriers of race, religion, and
caste. Great Britain enforces peace throughout Indian
the peninsula, builds railways and canals linking nationalism
every part of it together, stamps out the famines and plagues
which used to decimate the inhabitants, and has begun their
education in schools of many grades. All this work tends to
Queen Victoria
6 1 2' Colonial Expansion and World Politics
foster a sense of nationality, something hitherto lacking in
India. Educated Hindus, familiar with the national and
democratic movements of the past century in Europe, now go
so far as to demand complete self-government for their own
country. This may come in time, but a united Indian nation
must necessarily be of slow development.
Farther India, or Indo-China, except for the independent
T ^mW^^'^"^^ I EXTENSION QF BRITISH RriE IN INDIA
AFGHAN mW~\ ^'^^( T:::::i^^^^i°r'''''''^^^T^^r^'''''
XSTANc'MT^^^X^^«J- SSlloHl'i^Tb. mProtected States
^ ai
Make and other names in itaZica=Etaich
state of Siam, is now under British and French control. Great
G t B -f • Britain holds Burma, annexed as recently as 1885,
and France in and the Straits Settlements at the tip of the Malay
As^f ^^^^^"^ Peninsula. France holds Tonkin, Anam, Laos,
Cambodia, and Cochin-China. All these pos-
sessions have been acquired at the expense of China, which
formerly exercised a vague sovereignty over southeastern Asia.
The Opening-Up and Partition of Asia 613
The Russians were established in Siberia before the close
of the seventeenth century.^ Their advance over this enormous
but thinly peopled region was facilitated by its Russia in
magnificent rivers, which furnished highways for northern Asia
explorers and fur traders. Northern Siberia is a waste of swamp
and tundra, where the terrible cHmate blocks the mouths of the
streams with ice and even in summer keeps the ground frozen
beneath the surface. Farther south comes one of the most
extensive areas of virgin forest to be found on the globe, and
■ still farther south extend treeless steppes, adapted in part to
agriculture and in part to herding. The country also contains
much mineral wealth. In order to secure an outlet for Siberian
products, Russia compelled China to cede the lower Amur
Valley with the adjoining seacoast. The Russians in their
newly acquired territory founded Vladivostok as a naval base.
Vladivostok is also the eastern terminus of the Trans-Siberian
Railway. The western terminus is Petrograd, three thousand
miles distant. The railway was completed in' ^j^^ xrans-
1900 by the imperial government, partly to facih- Siberian
tate the movement of troops and mihtary sup- R^way,i900
pUes in Siberia and partly to develop that region as a home
for Russian emigrants and a market for Russian manufactures.
A branch line extends to Port Arthur in Manchuria and another
branch to Tientsin in China.
During the past century Russia widened her boundaries in
central Asia. She conquered the Caucasus and absorbed
what remained of Turkestan east of the Caspian Russia and
and south of Lake Balkash and the Aral Sea. Great Britain
Alarmed by the advance of the Russian colossus, ^^^^^ ^^^
Great Britain took steps to increase her influence in Afghanistan,
through whose passes runs the one road over the mountains to ■
India. In 1907 the two European powers reached a friendly
agreement, and Afghanistan became a buffer state between
them. Great Britain meanwhile annexed Baluchistan, thus
carrying the northwestern frontier of her Indian possessions as
far as Persia.
^ See page 414
6 14 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
214. China
Between Russian Asia and British and French Asia Hes
China, with a larger area than Europe and probably quite as
populous. China proper consists of eighteen
China proper pj.^^-j^^gg ^ ^^^ fertile valleys of the Yangtse
and the Hoangho, or Yellow River. The great length of the
country accounts for the variety of its productions, which
range from hardy grains in the north to camphor and mulberry
trees, tea, and cotton in the south. The mineral wealth in-'
eludes deposits of copper, tin, lead, and iron, much oil, and
coal fields said to be the most extensive in the world.
The traditions of the Chinese throw no light on their origin.
They may have come from the west in prehistoric times, but
more probably developed out of the Mongolian
stock inhabiting China proper. In the course of
centuries they have pushed into Manchuria, MongoHa, Chinese
Turkestan (*Sinkiang) , and Tibet. Chinese farmers, laborers, and
traders are also numerous in Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula,
and the Malay Islands. The enterprising spirit of the people
is further shown by their recent emigration in large numbers
to the United States and other distant lands.
The Chinese boast a civilization already old when Rome was
young. They are famous for artistic work in wood and metal,
Chinese the manufacture of silk, and the production of
civiUzation porcelain or chinaware. Rudimentary forms of
such inventions as the compass, gunpowder, paper, and movable
type were early known to them. Though hampered by a
cumbrous, nonalphabetic system of writing, the Chinese have
managed to produce an extensive hterature. One of their
encyclopedias fills over five thousand volumes.
The government of China, until recently, has always been
a monarchy. The emperor, in theory absolute, was really
c . . ^ under the thumb of the office-holding or mandarin
Society and ° ,
religion in class, which took the place of a hereditary nobility.
^^^* Any one, high or low, could enter its ranks by
passing a rigid examination in the sacred books. These were
China 615
in part collected and edited by Confucius (551-478 B.C.), the
reformer who did so much to make reverence for ancestors and
imitation of their ways the Chinaman's cardinal virtues. Con-
fucianism is a code of morals rather than a religion. It has
not supplanted among uneducated people a hvely belief in
many spirits, good and bad. Buddhism, an Indian religion
now practically extinct in the land of its birth, has spread so
widely over China and the adjoining countries that to-day it
forms the creed of about one-third of mankind. Christianity
and Islam are also making some headway in China.
The rugged mountains and trackless deserts which bound
three sides of China long shut it off from much intercourse
with the western world. The proud disposition isolation of
of its people, to whom foreigners were only bar- ^*^*
barians ("foreign devils"), likewise tended to keep them
isolated. Before the nineteenth century the only Europeans
who gained an entrance into the ''Celestial Empire" were a few
missionaries and traders.^ The merchants of Portugal estab-
lished themselves at Macao, and those of Holland and Great
Britain at Canton. There was also some traffic overland
between Russia and China. Foreign trade, however, had no
attraction for the Chinese, who discouraged it as far as possible.
The difficulties experienced by merchants in China led at
length to hostiUties between that country and Great Britain.
The British, with their modern fleet and army, Foreign
had an easy victory and in 1842 compelled the aggression
Chinese government to open additional ports and cede the
island of Hongkong. Other nations now hastened to secure
commercial concessions in China. Many more ports were
opened to foreign merchants, Europeans were granted the
right to travel in China, and Christian missionaries were to be
protected in their work among the inhabitants. But all this
made little impression upon perhaps the most conservative
people in the world. The Chinese remained absolutely hostile
to the western civilization so rudely thrust upon them.
Foreign aggression soon took the form of annexations in
^ See pages 185 and 310.
6i6 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
oudying portions of Chinese territory. We have seen how
Great Britain appropriated Burma; France, Indo-
China; and Russia, the Amur district. Mean-
while, Japan, just beginning her national expansion, looked
enviously across the sea to Korea, a tributary kingdom of China.
The Chino-Japanese War (1894-1895) followed. Completely
defeated, the Chinese had not only to renounce all claim to
Korea, but also to surrender to Japan the island of Formosa
and the Liaotung peninsula in Manchuria.
Japan's gains aroused the jealousy of Russia, who saw the
road to an ice-free port on the Pacific blocked by the Japanese
occupation of the Liaotung peninsula. Russia
took her grievance to France and Germany, and
together the three powers induced the Japanese to give up their
acquisitions on the mainland. The coalition then seized
several Chinese harbors ^ and divided the country into "spheres
of influence." The partition of China seemed at hand.
But Europe was not to have its own way in China. A secret
society called the ''Boxers," whose members claimed to be
The "Boxers," invulnerable, spread rapidly through the provinces
1900 - and urged war to the death against the ''for-
eign devils." Encouraged by the government, the "Boxers"
murdered many traders and missionaries. The foreigners
in Peking took refuge within the legations, where after a des-
perate defense they were finally relieved by an international
army composed of European, Japanese, and American troops.
The allies then made peace with China and promised hence-
th to respect her territory. They insisted, however, on
the payment of a large indemnity for the outrages committed
during the anti-foreign outbreak.
Events now moved rapidly. Educated Chinese, many of
^1. ^v whom had studied abroad, saw clearly that their
The Chinese -^
Revolution, country must adopt western ideas and methods,
^^^^ if it was to remain a great power. The demand
for thorough reforms in the government soon became a revolu-
1 Russia took Port Arthur, Germany, Kiauchau, and France, Kwangchauwan.
Great Britain also acquired Weihaiwei.
Japan 617
tionary propaganda, directed against the unprogressive Manchu
(or Manchurian) dynasty, which had ruled China for nearly
three hundred years. The youthful emperor finally abdicated,
and the oldest empire in the world became the youngest re-
public.
This sudden awakening of China from her sleep of centuries
is a prodigious event in world history. Already China pos-
sesses many thousands of miles of railroads and china and
telegraph lines, besides numerous factories, mills, ^^ Occident
and mines equipped with machinery. She has begun the cre-
ation of a modern army. She has abolished long-established
customs, such as the torture of criminals and the foot-binding
of women. She has prohibited the consumption of opium,
a vice which sapped the vitality of her people. Her temples
have been turned into schools teaching the sciences and foreign
languages, and her students have been sent in large numbers to
foreign universities. Such reforms are rapidly bringing China
into the fellowship of Occidental nations. It remains to be
seen, however, whether China will allow her ancient culture to
be completely extinguished by that of Europe.
215. Japan
Nippon (''Rising Sun") is the name which the inhabitants
give to the six large islands and about four thousand smaller
ones stretching crescent-like ofif the coast of eastern The Japanese
Asia. Because of its generally mountainous char- archipelago
acter, little more than one-eighth of the archipelago can be
cultivated. Rice and tea form the principal crops, but fruit
trees of every kind known to temperate climates flourish, and
flowers bloom luxuriantly. The deep inlets of the coast pro-
vide convenient harbors, and the numerous rivers, though
neither large nor long, supply an abundance of water. Below
the surface lie considerable deposits of coal and nietals.
The modern Japanese are descended chiefly from Koreans
and Chinese, who displaced the original inhabitants of the
archipelago.^ The immigrants appear to have reached Japan
1 Now probably represented by the "hairy Ainu" of the island of Yezo.
6i8 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
in the early centuries of the Christian era. Except for their
shorter stature, the Japanese closely resemble the Chinese in
The Japanese physique and personal appearance. They are,
people however, more quick-witted and receptive to new
ideas than their neighbors on the mainland. Other quaHties
possessed by the Japanese in a marked degree include obedience,
the result of many centuries of autocratic government ; a martial
spirit; and an intense patriotism. *'Thou shalt honor the gods
and love thy country" is the first commandment of the national
faith.
The Japanese naturally patterned their civilization upon
that of China. They adopted a simplified form of Chinese
Japanese writing and took over the literature, learning,
civilization ^nd art of the "Celestial Empire." The moral
system of Confucius found ready acceptance in Japan, where
it strengthened the reverence for parents and the worship of
ancestors. Buddhism, introduced from China by way of
Korea, brought new ideas of the nature of the soul, of heaven
and hell, and of salvation by prayer. It is still the prevailing
reUgion in Japan. Like the Chinese, also, the Japanese had an
emperor (the mikado). He became in time only a puppet
emperor, and another official (the shogun) usurped the chief
functions of government. Neither ruler exerted much author-
ity over the nobles (daimios), who oppressed their serfs and
waged private warfare against one another very much as did
their contemporaries, the feudal lords of medieval Europe.
The first European visitors to Japan were Portuguese mer-
chants and Jesuit missionaries, who came in the sixteenth
European Century.^ The Japanese government welcomed
intercourse them at first, but the growing unpopularity of
wi japan ^^^ foreigners before long resulted in their expul-
sion from the country. Japan continued to lead a hermit life
until the middle of the nineteenth century. Foreign inter-
course began in 1 853-1 854, with the arrival of an American
fleet under Commodore Perry. He induced the shogun to
sign a treaty which opened two Japanese ports to American
1 See page 310.
.lA'
^
Japan
619
620 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
ships. The diplomatic ice being thus broken, various European
nations soon negotiated commercial treaties with Japan.
Thoughtful Japanese, however great their dislike of foreign-
ers, could not fail to recognize the superiority of the western
The Japanese nations in the arts of war and peace. A group
Revolution ^f reformers, including many prominent daimios,
now carried through an almost bloodless revolution. As the
first step, they compelled the shogun to resign his office, thus
making the mikado^ the actual as well as titular sovereign
(1867). Most of the daimios then voluntarily surrendered
their feudal privileges (1871). This patriotic act made possible
the abolition of serfdom and the formation of a national army
on the basis of compulsory miUtary service. In 1889 Japan
secured a written constitution, with a parliament of two houses
and a cabinet responsible to the mikado. He, however, is
guided in all important matters by a group of influential nobles
— the ''Elder Statesmen" — who thus form the real power
behind the throne.
The revolutionary movement affected almost every aspect
of Japanese society. Codes of civil, commercial, and criminal
European- ^^^ ^^^^^ drawn up to accord with those of western
ization of Europe. Universities and public schools were
Japan estabHshed upon Occidental models. Railroads
and steamship lines were multiplied. The abundant water
power, good harbors, and cheap labor of Japan facihtated the
introduction of European methods of manufacturing; factories
sprang up on every side; and machine-made goods began to
displace the artistic productions of handworkers. Japan thus
became a modern industrial nation.
Once in possession of European arts, sciences, and industries,
Japan entered upon a career of territorial expansion in eastern
Expansion Asia. Her merchants and capitahsts wanted
of Japan opportunities for money-making abroad; above
all, her rapidly increasing population required new regions
suitable for colonization beyond the narrow limits of the archi-
pelago. As we have learned, the Chino- Japanese War (1894-
1 The youthful Mutsuhito, who reigned 1867-1912.
The Opening-Up and Partition of Oceania 621
1895) brought Korea ^ under Japanese influence and added
Formosa to the empire. Just ten years later Japan and Russia
clashed over the disposition of Manchuria and the Liaotung
peninsula. The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) seemed a
conflict between a giant and a pygmy, but the inequahty of
the Japanese in numbers and resources was more than made up
by their preparedness for the conflict, by their irresistible
bravery, and by the strategic genius which their generals
displayed. After much bloody fighting by land and sea, both
sides accepted the suggestion of President Roosevelt to arrange
terms of peace. The treaty, as signed at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, recognized the claims of Japan in Korea, gave to
Japan a lease of the Liaotung peninsula, including Port Arthur,
and provided for the evacuation of Manchuria by both contest-
ants. Russia also ceded to Japan the southern half of the island
of Sakhalin. No indemnity was paid by either country.
The Russo-Japanese War raised Japan to the position of a
world power. Great Britain first recognized this fact and
hastened to conclude an offensive and defensive japan as a
alliance with the 'Tsland Empire." Each con- world power;
tracting party pledged itself to come to the other's assistance,
in case the possessions of either in eastern Asia and India were
attacked by another state. Both France and Russia also
entered into a friendly understanding with Japan for the preser-
vation of peace in the Far East. How loyally Japan observed
these agreements was soon shown upon the outbreak of the
World War.
216. The Opening-Up and Partition of Oceania
The term Oceania, or Oceanica, in its widest sense applies
to all the Pacific islands. The continental group includes, in
addition to the Japanese archipelago and Formosa,
the Philippines, the East Indies, New Guinea,
Australia, and Tasmania. Many of these islands appear to
have been connected at a remote period, and still more remotely
to have been joined to the Asiatic mainland. The oceanic
1 Known as Chosen since its formal annexation by Japan in igio.
62 2 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
group includes, besides New Zealand, a vast number of islands
and islets either volcanic or coralline in formation. They
fall into the three divisions named Melanesia, Micronesia, and
Polynesia.
The natives of Oceania exhibit a wide variety of culture,
ranging from the savage aborigines of Australia to the semi-
Oceanic civilized Malays, Filipinos, and Polynesians. The
peoples £j.st emigrants to the continental islands doubt-
less came from Asia and walked dryshod from one archipelago
to another. On the other hand, the oceanic islands could only
have been reached by water. Their inhabitants, at the time
of European discovery, were remarkable navigators, who sailed
up and down the Pacific and even ventured into the icy Antarc-
tic. No evidence exists, however, that they even once sighted
the coast of America.
The occupation of Oceania by European powers, beginning
in the sixteenth century, has been completed only in the twen-
Europe in tieth century. Portugal was the first in the field,
Oceania ]^^^ j^^j. £a,st Indian territories ultimately passed
to Holland.^ Spain ruled the Philippines for three hundred
and fifty years, relinquishing them to the United States as
recently as 1898. The United States has several other oceanic
possessions.^ Great Britain, besides colonizing Australia and
New Zealand, secured parts of New Guinea and Borneo and
many small island groups. France annexed several Poly-
nesian and Melanesian archipelagoes. The German possessions
in the Pacific ^ were surrendered to the Allies shortly after the
opening of the World War.
Much of Australia lies in the temperate zone and therefore
offers a favorable field for white settlement. Captain Cook,
on the first of his celebrated voyages, raised the
Australia ^ . . , r, , • 1 i . ^ 1 •
British flag over the island continent. Coloni-
zation began in 1787, with the foundation of Sidney on the
coast of New South Wales. For many years Australia served
1 See page 443. 2 gee page 630.
' The eastern half of New Guinea, some Melanesian and Micronesian islands,
and part of Samoa.
British North America 623
as a penal station, to which the British transported the con-
victs who had been previously sent to America. More sub-
stantial colonists followed, especially after the introduction of
sheep-farming and the discovery of gold in the nineteenth cen-
tury. They settled chiefly on the eastern and southern coasts,
where the climate is cool and there is plenty of water and
rich pasture land.
New South Wales, the original colony, had two daughter
colonies, Victoria and Queensland. Two other colonies —
South Australia and Western Australia — were a>v . x_ ,
Austral-
founded directly by emigrants from Great Britain, ian Common-
All these states, together with Tasmania, have ^^^th, 1900
now united into the Australian Commonwealth. This feder-
ation follows American models in its written constitution, its
senate and house of representatives, and its high (or supreme)
court. A Governor-General, sent from England, represents
the British Crown. The Commonwealth, however, is entirely
self-governing except in foreign affairs.
The two large islands of New Zealand, lying twelve hundred
miles southeast of Australia, were annexed by Great Britain
in 1839. Their temperate climate, abundant The Dominion
rainfall, and luxuriant vegetation soon attracted of New
settlers, who now number more than a million. ^®^^°^' ^^^^^
Because of her growing importance. New Zealand in 1907 was
raised from the rank of a colony to that of a dominion. It
thus takes a place beside South Africa, Australia, and Canada
among the great self-governing divisions of the British Empire.
217. British North America
The population of Canada in 1763 was almost entirely French.
After the American Revolution Canada received a large influx
of ''Tories" from the Thirteen Colonies,^ together upper and
with many emigrants from Great Britain. The Lower Canada
new settlers had so many quarrels with the French Canadians
that Parliament in 1791 passed an act dividing the country
into Upper Canada for the British and Lower Canada for the
1 See page 475.
624 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
French, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland
remained separate provinces.
When Great Britain, in retaliation for Napoleon's Con-
tinental System, issued the Orders in Council,^ the United
War of States, as the chief neutral, was also the chief
1812-1814 sufferer. The injury to American trade, coupled
with the quarrel over the impressment of seamen, provoked
the second war with Great Britain. It seemed to furnish a
good opportunity for the conquest of Canada, but British and
French Canadians united in defense of their country and drove
out the American armies. The treaty of peace left matters
as they were before the war, except for a heritage of unfriendly
feeling on the part of the contestants. Even this has dis-
appeared in the course of a century unbroken by the clash of
arms. The unfortified boundary from the Atlantic to the
Pacific is an eloquent testimony to the good relations between
Canada and the United States.
Canada had done her duty to the British Empire during the
War of i8 1 2-1 814, but she waited more than thirty years for
The Durham her reward in the shape of self-government.
Report, 1839 Great Britain, after losing the Thirteen Colonies,
did not favor any measures which might result in Canadian
independence as well. Finally, Parliament sent over a wise
statesman. Lord Durham, to investigate the pohtical discontent
in Canada. Lord Durham in his Report urged that the only
method of keeping distant colonies is to allow them to rule
themselves. If the Canadians received freedom to manage
their domestic affairs, they would be more, and not less, loyal,
for they would have fewer causes of complaint against the
mother country. The Durham Report produced a lasting
effect on British colonial policy. Not only did Great Britain
grant parliamentary institutions and self-government to the
Canadian provinces, but she also bestowed the same privileges
upon her Australasian and South African dominions. All
these colonies, though virtually independent, continue to enjoy
the protection of the British Empire and share in its glory.
» See page 532.
British North America
625
Canada, the United States, and Mexico
With Alaska and its islands laid down on the United States.
Another of Lord Durham's recommendations led to the
union in 1840 of Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada
(Quebec). In 1867 Ontario and Quebec formed ^j^^ jjonun-
with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the con- ion of
federation known as the Dominion of Canada. ^^"^^^' ^^^"^
It has a Governor-General, representing the British sovereign,
a senate whose members hold ofhce for life, and an elective
house of commons, to which the cabinet of ministers is
626 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
responsible. Each Canadian province also maintains a parlia-
ment for local legislation.
The new Dominion expanded rapidly. It purchased from
the Hudson Bay Company the extensive territories out of which
Territorial the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and
expansion Alberta have been created. British Columbia
and Prince Edward Island soon came into the confederation. •
All the remainder of British North America, except Newfound-
land, which still holds aloof, was annexed in 1878 to the Domin-
ion of Canada. One government now holds sway over the
whole region from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Circle.
Equally rapid has been the development of the Dominion
in wealth and population. The western provinces, formerly
Economic left to roving Indian tribes and a few white traders,
development ^^e attracting a large emigration from the United
States and Europe. Two transcontinental railroads — the
Canadian Pacific, completed in 1886, and the more recent
Grand Trunk Pacific — make accessible the agricultural re-
sources of the Dominion, its forests, and its deposits of coal
and minerals. Canada now ranks as the largest, richest, and
most populous member of the British Empire.
218. Latin America
The Spanish colonies in the New World, at the opening of
the nineteenth century, were even more extensive than those
G • vances of ^^ Great Britain. Spain had ruled them as de-
the Spanish pendencies for nearly three hundred years. She
provmces crippled trade by requiring the inhabitants to buy
only Spanish goods and to sell only to Spaniards. She pro-
hibited such manufactures as might compete with those at
home. Furthermore, she filled all the offices in Church and
State with Spaniards born in the mother country, to the ex-
clusion of the Creoles, or those born in the colonies.
This restrictive system made the colonists long for freedom,
especially after they heard the stirring story of the revolutions
which had created the United States and republican France.
When Napoleon invaded Spain, forced the abdication of
Latin America
627
Ferdinand VII, and gave the crown to his own brother
Joseph,^ the colonists set up practically independ- preparation
ent states throughout Spanish America. For six for
years — 1808-1814 — they enjoyed liberty. independence
Ferdinand VII, who returned to his throne after Napoleon's
overthrow, was a genuine Bourbon, incapable of learning
anything or of forgetting anything. His refusal The revolt
to satisfy the demands of the colonists for equal against Spain
rights with the mother country precipitated the revolt against
Spain. Its greatest hero is Simon Bolivar, who, in addition to
freeing his native Ven-
ezuela, helped to free
the countries now
known as Colombia,
Ecuador, Bolivia, and
Peru. One by one all
the colonies in South
America, together with
Central America and
Mexico, threw off the
Spanish yoke. Great
Britain, anxious to es-
tablish trading relations
with the colonists and
also sentimentally in-
terested in their strug-
gle for liberty, helped
them with money, ships,
and munitions of war. She recognized their independence in
1825. A year later the Spanish flag was finally lowered on the
American continents.
Brazil also took part in the revolutionary movement. The
Brazilian people felt that the time had come for ^j^^ ^.^^^j^
their enormous country to sever the ties binding against
it to weak httle Portugal. In 1822 they set up ^°^*"S^
an independent empire, with the oldest son of the Portuguese
1 See page 533.
Simon Bolivar
After a Spanish painting in Lima, Peru.
628 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
king as its first ruler. This monarchy gave way to a republican
form of government as recently as 1889.
At the present time there are eleven republics in South
America, including little Panama, which seceded from Colombia
South in 1903. AU possess constitutions and the forms
America Qf democratic government. Frequent revolutions
and civil wars long retarded their development. Recently,
however, foreign capitalists have begun to invest heavily in
South American railroads, lands, and factories; and a large
immigration,- chiefly of Europeans, has set in. Due to this
stimulus, such states as Argentina, Brazil, and Chile — the so-
called A-B-C powers — are becoming very prosperous.
A Central American Federation, which was created in 182 1,
Central soon disintegrated into five diminutive republics.
America They still maintain a separate existence, often
vexed by factional strife and insurrections.
Mexico, with some fifty revolutions, has had an even more
checkered history. Porfirio Diaz ruled the country as a virtual
. dictator for many years, until an uprising in 191 1
compelled him to withdraw to Europe. Civil
conflict between rival generals and their followers then ensued.
It has now died down, leaving Venustiano Carranza as the
recognized president. The problems before him are difficult.
Mexico needs not only a stable government, but also land re-
forms which will raise the oppressed "peons" — mostly ignorant
Indians — from their condition of practical serfdom to that of
free men. Whether these problems will be solved or not re-
mains to be seen.
Many of the smaller West India islands ^ are still held by
Great Britain, France, and Holland. Haiti, once a possession
The West of France, declared its independence at the time
Indies Qf ^^^ French Revolution and successfully resisted
Napoleon's efforts at reconquest. It is now divided between
the two negro republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Cuba,
thanks to American intervention during the Spanish-American
War, also forms a republic. The United States took Porto
1 See the map on page 321.
The United States
629
Rico from Spain in 1898 and in 191 7 purchased three neighbor-
ing islands ^ from Denmark. Their acquisition reflects the
increased importance of the West Indies to the American people.
219. The United States
The expansion of the United States beyond the limits fixed
by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ^ began with the purchase of
the Louisiana territory between the Mississippi The Louisiana
and the Rocky Mountains. This immense region, purchase, 1803
originally claimed by France in virtue of La Salle's discoveries,
had passed to Spain at the close of the Seven Years' War and
SCALE OF MILES
The Louisiana Purchase
had been reacquired for France by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The French emperor, about to renew his conflict with Great
Britain,^ reaHzed that he could not defend Louisiana against
the mistress of the seas. Rather than make a forced present
of the country to Great Britain, he sold it to the United States
for the paltry sum of $15,000,000.
1 St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix.
2 See page 476.
' See page 527.
630 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
The possession of Louisiana gave the United States an out-
let upon the Gulf of Mexico. This was greatly extended by
Acquisitions, the purchase of Florida from Spain in 18 19 and
1803-1867 ii^Q annexation of Texas in 1845. The settlement
of the dispute with Great Britain as to the Oregon country
(1846) and the Mexican Cession (1848) brought the United
States to the Pacific. Every part of this western territory is
now linked by transcontinental railroads with the Mississippi
Valley and the Atlantic-facing states.
Alaska had been a Russian province since Bering's voyages
in the eighteenth century. Russia, however, never realized
Purchase of the value of her distant dependency and in 1867
Alaska, 1867 sold it to the United States for $7,200,000. Since
then Americans have taken from Alaska in gold alone many
times the original cost of the territory. Its resources in coal,
lumber, agricultural land, and fisheries are also very great,
though as yet little has been done to exploit them.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century the United
States began to secure possessions overseas. The Hawaiian
Acquisitions, Islands, lying about two thousand miles off the
1867-1917 coast of California, were annexed in 1898. The
same year saw the acquisition of the Philippines, Guam, and
Porto Rico as the result of the war with Spain. Part of the
Samoan archipelago and the Danish West Indies have also
come into American hands.
The United States, though not unwilling to obtain colonies
in the New World, denies the right of any European nation to
The Monroe acquire additional territory here. This poUcy
Doctrine, 1823 ^f ''America for Americans" is known as the
Monroe Doctrine. It was first formulated partly to stave
off any attempt of the Old World monarchies, led by Metter-
nich, to aid Spain in the reconquest of her colonies, and partly
to prevent the further extension southward of the Russian
province of Alaska. The interests of Great Britain in both
these directions coincided with those of the United States.
Relying on the support of the British government. President
Monroe in 1823 sent his celebrated message to Congress in
The United States
631
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
OCEAN
Relief Map of the Panama Canal
which he declared that the American continents were hence-
forth "not to be considered as subjects for future colonization
by any European powers."
The solemn protest of the United States, backed as it was
by Great Britain, removed for a time the danger ^ ,
•^ ' . ° Enforcement
of European interference in America. Durmg the of the
Civil War, however, Napoleon III took advan- ^°'^^
tage of our difficulties to send a French army
to Mexico. It conquered the country and set up an Austrian
632 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
prince ^ as emperor. The American government protested vig-
orously against this high-handed proceeding, and after the
close of the Civil War required Napoleon III, under threat of
hostilities, to withdraw his soldiers. The French empire in
Mexico now quickly collapsed.
The enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine makes it necessary
for the United States not only to defend the Latin- American
Pan- republics against foreign aggression, but also to
Americanism intervene from time to time in their domestic
affairs. Our warships and soldiers have been repeatedly sent
to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America for the purpose
of protecting American and European citizens and their prop-
erty from rioters or revolutionists. Though grateful to her
mighty neighbor for help, Latin America has trembled lest our
intervention to restore order might pass into downright con-
quest. The benevolent purposes of this country are now being
better understood. It has inaugurated a series of Pan-American
conferences, composed of delegates from all the independent
nations of the New World. With the assistance of the Latin-
American republics, it has also established the Pan-American
Union "at Washington, which seeks to spread information about
the resources and trade of the different countries and also
to cultivate friendly relations between them. The coopera-
tion of most of the Central American and South American
nations with the United States, during the World War, cannot
fail to strengthen the bonds between the repubHcs of the New
World.
The completion of the Panama Canal (1914) is also certain
to have a profound effect upon the relations of North and
The Panama South America. The canal greatly shortens the
Canal, 1914 distance between the Atlantic, the Gulf, and the
Pacific coasts of the New World. This means lower freight
rates and improvement in the passenger and mail service.
Increased commerce, travel, and communication will do much
to bring together and keep together the two Americas.
1 Maximilian, the brother of Francis Joseph I. He was captured and shot by
the Mexicans in 1867.
The United States
633
634 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
220. Close of Geographical Discovery
Half the globe was still unmapped in 1800. Canada, Alaska,
and the Louisiana territory were so little known that a geog-
Unmapped raphy published at this time omits any reference
regions, 1800 ^q ^^g Rocky Mountains. South America, though
long settled by white men, continued to be largely unexplored.
Scant information existed about the Pacific islands and Aus-
tralia. Much of Asia remained sealed to Europeans. Accurate
knowledge of Africa did not reach beyond the edges of that
continent. The larger part of the Arctic realm had not yet
been discovered, and the Antarctic realm had barely been
touched.
Discoveries and explorations during the nineteenth century
carried far the geographical conquest of the world. The
Filling in great African rivers were traced to their sources
the map [^ |-]^g heart of what had once been the "Dark
Continent." In Asia, the headwaters of the Indus and the
Ganges were reached; the
Himalayas measured and shown
to be the loftiest of mountains;
Tibet, the mysterious, pene-
trated; and the veil of darkness
shrouding China, Korea, Far-
ther India, and other Asiatic
countries lifted. Travelers pene-
trated the deserts of inner Aus-
tralia and finally crossed the
entire continent from south to
north. The journeys of Alex-
ander von Humboldt (1799-
1804) inaugurated the system-
atic exploration of South
America, while those of Lewis
and Clark (1804- 1806) opened up the Louisiana territory. Still
later, Alaska, the Northwest Territories of Canada, and Lab-
rador began to emerge from their obscurity. Even Greenland
Robert E. Peary
Close of Geographical Discovery 635
was crossed by Nansen, a Norwegian, and its coast was charted
by Danish geographers and the American Peary.
Voyages in search of the Northwest Passage ^ had aheady
revealed the labyrinth of islands, peninsulas, and ice-bound
channels north of the American continent. Many Arctic
heroic but fruitless attempts had also been made exploration
to reach the North Pole. Nansen in 1 892-1 895 utilized the
ice drift to carry his ship, the Fram, across the polar sea. Find-
ing that the drift would not take him to the pole, he left the
Fram and with a single companion advanced to 86° 14' N.,
the highest latitude which had been yet attamed. An Italian
expedition, a few years later, got still farther north. The
honor of actually reaching the pole was carried off by Peary
in 1909. He traveled the last stages of the journey by sledge
over the ice and reached his goal in company with a colored
servant and several Eskimos. Nansen's and Peary's journeys
showed that no land exists in the north polar basin, only a
sea of great but unknown depth.
The south polar region, on the other hand, is a land mass of
continental dimensions. First approached by Captain Cook
on his second voyage, ^ it has since been visited by Antarctic
many explorers. They have traced the course of exploration
the great ice barrier, discovered extensive mountain ranges,
and even found two volcanoes belching forth lava amidst the
snows. Amundsen, who attained the pole in 191 1, was soon
followed by Scott, but this gallant EngHshman and his four
companions died of cold and starvation on the return journey.
The records of polar exploration are, indeed, full of tragedies.
Considerable spaces of the earth's surface still await scientific
investigation. The Antarctic continent and Greenland offer
many problems to geographers. The enormous Regions still
basin of the Amazon is still httle known. Practi- "niiiapped
cally no knowledge exists of the interior of New Guinea, the
largest of islands, if Australia be reckoned as a continent.
1 See page 325. The Northwest Passage was first completely navigated by the
Norwegian Amundsen between 1903 and 1906.
2 See pages 477-478.
636 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
Australia itself has not been completely explored. In Asia,
there is still much information to be gained concerning the
great central plateau, the Arctic coast, and inner Arabia.
Equatorial Africa affords another promising field for dis-
covery. It thus remains for the twentieth century to complete
the geographical conquest of the world.
221. Inter-racial Problems
The number of people on the earth is estimated to ex-
ceed 1,600,000,000. Asia has perhaps 900,000,000; Europe,
Population of 400,000,000; America, 150,000,000; Africa, 140,-
the world 000,000; and Oceania, 10,000,000. These figures
are only approximate, since many countries either do not
take a census or take it quite inaccurately.
The world's inhabitants are distributed in three great races,
each of which occupies, roughly speaking, distinct geographical
G a hical ^.reas. The Yellow or Mongolian race holds the
distribution north, east, and center of Asia, whence it has
of races spread into the Malay Archipelago, over the
Pacific, and into the Americas.^ The Black or Negro race
holds most of Africa south of the Sahara. The Dravidians of
India, the aborigines of AustraHa, and the Papuans of New
Guinea and the adjacent islands, are negroid (negro-like)
peoples. The White or Caucasian race is found in Europe,
northern and eastern Africa, and southwestern Asia. It also
forms the bulk of the population of the New World, as well as
of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
The wonderful expansion of Europeans during the last four
centuries has been largely confined to the temperate and sparsely
Limits of settled regions of the globe, where they have
the White gone as home-seekers. The few Europeans settling
^^^® in tropical and sub-tropical parts of Africa, Asia,
Oceania, and America go as soldiers, officials, clerks, and agents
sent out for a term of years. They seek, not new homes,
but the profits of trade or rule over subject peoples. Such
1 The so-called Brown race (Malays, Polynesians) and the so-called Red race
(American Indians) must be considered branches of the Yellow race.
Inter-racial Problems
637
638 Colonial Expansion and World Politics
are the seventy-five thousand Enghshmen in India and the
still fewer Dutch who control the East India dependencies of
Holland. Men of the White race languish in hot, moist cli-
mates, nor will they perform hand labor where there are natives
to work for them. Europeans may long continue to exploit
the tropics and sub-tropics, but it seems unlikely that they can
ever live there in large numbers. Even where the climate is
favorable, as in China, Japan, and parts of Indo-China and
India, the teeming population of those countries precludes their
colonization by Europeans.
The hmitation of the White man to the temperate zone will
make it necessary for him henceforth to associate more and
Racial more with the Yellow man and the Black man in
prejudice ^j^g common work of civilization. Cooperation
between them can only be secured in proportion as each one
learns to appreciate the others. In place of the unreasoning
antipathy which has kept the races apart so long, must come a
recognition of their common humanity. Racial prejudices
must give way to a decent regard for the value of human beings
everywhere.
Studies
I. Draw up a list of the chief colonial possessions of Great Britain, France,
Italy, and the United States. 2. What parts of the world are to-day occupied
or colonized by Anglo-Saxon peoples? By Latin peoples? By Slavic peoples?
3. What is the origin of the names Liberia, Rhodesia, Tasmania, Alberta, Colombia,
Venezuela, Bolivia, and Louisiana? 4. Trace the routes followed by the Cape-
to-Cairo, Trans-Siberian, and Canadian Pacific railroads. 5. Show how Africa has
become "an annex of Europe." 6. Look up in an encyclopedia an account of the
negro republic of Liberia. 7. Where are the Spanish possessions in Africa? Where
were the German possessions there? 8. \\That is unplied in calling the Suez Canal
the "heel of Achilles" of the British Empire? 9. What possessions in India are
still kept by Portugal and France? 10. Look up in an encyclopedia an account of the
life and teachings of the Buddha. 11. Do the Chinese form a genuine nation?
How is it with the Japanese? 12. Show that the Chino- Japanese and Russo-
Japanese wars contributed to the "awakening of China." 13. Compare the Euro-
peanization of Japan in the nineteenth century with that of Russia in the eighteenth
century. 14. What are the possessions of European powers in the East Indies?
15. Compare the combined area of Australia and Tasmania with that of the United
States (excluding Alaska), and the area of New Zealand with that of Great Britain.
16. Why are the Hawaiian Islands called the "crossroads of the Pacific"?
17. Why has Lord Durham's Report been styled the "Magna Carta of the British
colonies"? 18. Name and locate the twenty Latin-American republics. 19, What
Inter-racial Problems 639
European powers have possessions in South America? 20. Name the prin-
cipal transcontinental railroads in the United States. .21. Compare the westward
expansion of the United States with Russian expansion eastwards. 22. How was
the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine a check to Metier nichismus? 23. On
the map, page 633, tract the routes in the polar regions followed by Nansen, Peary,
and Amundsen.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
222. Modem Industrialism
The year 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence
and of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, also marks, approxi-
Period of mately, the commencement of the Industrial
the Industrial Revolution. No other word except ''revolution"
evoution ^^ ^^^i describes those wholesale changes in
manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and other industries
which, within a century and a half, have transformed modern
life. This revolution originated in Great Britain, spread after
1815 to the Continent and the United States, and now
extends throughout the civiUzed world.
The rapid expansion of European peoples over Africa, Asia,
Australia, and America, as described in the preceding chapter,
was itself largely an outcome of the Industrial
Colonial ^ , . ? • i-
expansion and Revolution, improvements m means 01 trans-
the Industrial portation — railroads, canals, steam navigation —
Revolution ,,.,.. , . , ^
by facilitatmg travel permitted an extensive
emigration from Europe into other continents. Improved
communication — the telegraph and the telephone — by anni-
hilating distance made easier the occupation and government
of remote dependencies. The growth of manufacturing in
Europe also gave increased importance co colonies as sources
of supply for raw materials and foodstuffs, as markets for
finished goods, and as places of investment for the surplus
wealth accumulated by the capitahsts whom the Industrial
Revolution created.
The Industrial Revolution also created a numerous body of
wage-earners, who moved from rural districts and villages
into the factories, sweatshops, and tenements of the great
cities. There, in spite of a crowded, miserable existence they
640
The Great Inventions 641
gradually learned the value' of organization. They formed
trade unions in order to secure higher wages and shorter hours.
They read newspapers, Ustened to speeches by agi-
tators, and began to press for laws which would and the
improve their lot. Then they went further and Industrial
1 111-1 1 1 1 rv Revolution
demanded the right to vote, to hold oihce, to
enjoy all the liberty and equality which the bourgeoisie or
middle class had won from monarchs and aristocrats. The
Industrial Revolution furnished much of the driving power
for the revolutionary outbreaks of 1830 and 1848, and especially
for that democratic movement which has been so marked in
Europe since 187 1. It thus reinforced the new ideas of de-
mocracy introduced into the world by the American and French
revolutions.
Great Britain took the lead in the Industrial Revolution.
Her damp climate proved to be very favorable to the manu-
facture of textiles, her swift streams supplied
abundant water power for machinery, and beneath trial Revoiu-
her soil lay stores of coal and iron ore. There ^^^ ^ Great
1 r • . T 1 • Britain
were other lavormg circumstances. Industry m
Great Britain was less fettered by guild restrictions than on the
Continent. She possessed more surplus capital for investment,
more skilled laborers, and a larger merchant marine than any
other country. Furthermore, Great Britain had emerged from
the Seven Years' War victorious over all her rivals for maritime
and commercial supremacy. Her trade in the markets of the
world grew by leaps and bounds after 1763. The enormous
demand for British goods in its turn stimulated the mechanical
genius of British artisans and so produced the era of the great
inventions.
223. The Great Inventions
Man has advanced from the lowest savagery to the height
of civilization chiefly through invention. Beginning in pre-
historic times, he slowly discovered how to ,
Invention
supplement hands and feet and teeth and nails
by the use of tools. From the tool it was a forward step to the
642 The Industrial Revolution
machine, which, when suppHed with muscular energy, only
needed to be directed by man to do his work. The highest
type of machine is that driven by the stored-up forces of nature
— by wind, waterfall, steam, gas, or electricity. Such ma-
chines have been well described as non-human slaves, working
without wages and without fatigue.
A Hst of prehistoric tools and machines would include many
kinds of implements, first of stone and then of metal; levers.
Development rollers, and wedges; bows-and-arrows, slings, and
of invention lassos; oars, sails, and tudders; fishing nets,
Hues, and hooks; the plow and the wheeled cart; the needle,
bellows, and potter's wheel; the distaff and spindle for spinning;
and the hand loom for weaving. Few important additions
were made to this hst in antiquity, even by such cultivated
peoples as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans.
The Middle Ages were also singularly barren of inventions.
It was only toward the close of the medieval period that gun-
powder, the mariner's compass, paper, and movable type
reached Europe from Asia. More progress took place during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which produced the
telescope, microscope, thermometer, and barometer, clocks and
watches run by weights, sawmills driven by wind or water,
an improved form of the windmill, and the useful though
humble wheelbarrow. Manufacturing, transportation, and
agriculture continued, however, to be carried on in much the
same rude way as before the dawn of history.
The revolution in manufacturing began with the textile
industry. Old-fashioned spinning was a slow, laborious process.
Old-fashioned The wool, flax, or cotton, having been fastened to
spinning ^ stick called the distaff, was twisted by hand into
yarn or thread and wound upon a spindle. The spinning wheel
— long known in India and not unknown in Europe as early as
the fourteenth century — afterwards came into general use.
It enabled the operator by working a treadle to make two
threads at once, one in each hand.
Weaving was done on the hand loom, a wooden frame to
which vertical threads (the "warp") were attached. Hori-
The Great Inventions
643
zontal threads (the "wooi'') were then inserted by means of
an enlarged needle or shuttle. The invention of the ''flying
shuttle" (1733) enabled the operator by pulHng oid-fasiiioned
a cord to jerk the shuttle back and forth without weaving
the aid of an assistant. This device not only saved labor but
also doubled the speed
of weaving.
The demand for
thread and yarn
quickly The
outran
the sup-
ply, for the spinners
could not keep up with
the weavers. Prizes
were then offered for a
spin-
ning jenny,"
1770
Hargrea yes's "Spinning Jenny"
better machine than the spinning wheel. At length, in 1770
James Hargreaves, a poor workman of Lancashire in north-
ern England, patented
what he named the
"spinning jenny," in
compliment to his in-
dustrious wife. It
was a very simple
affair, operated by a
hand wheel, but it
carried (at first) eight
Spindles and thus
spun eight threads
simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Richard
Arkwright, a barber,
obtained ^, ,,
The "water
a patent frame " 1769,
for a spinning machine run by water power and *^^ *^®,
hence called the "water frame." In this machine
the cotton was drawn out by rollers to the requisite fineness
Arkwright's Spinning Machine
644 The Industrial Revolution
and was then twisted into thread by revolving spindles. Samuel
Crompton, ten years later, combined the essential features of
the Hargreaves and Arkwright machines into what became
popularly known as the "mule," because of its hybrid origin.
It has been steadily improved; and at present a spinning
machine may carry as many as two thousand spindles.
These three inventions again upset the balance in the textile
industry, for the spinners could produce more thread and yarn
The power than the weavers could convert into cloth. The
loom, 1785 invention which revolutionized weaving was made
by Edward Cartwright, an English clergyman, who had never
even seen a weaver at work. He constructed a loom with an
automatic shuttle operated by water power. Improvements
in this machine now enable a single operator to produce more
cloth than two hundred men could weave on the old-fashioned
hand loom.
Both spinners and weavers needed for the new machinery
an abundant supply of raw material. They found it in cotton,
The cotton which previously had been much less used than
gin, 1794 either wool or flax. Eli Whitney's cotton gin,
patented in 1794, separated the seeds from the cotton fibers
more rapidly than fifty negro slaves could do it by hand, thus
stimulating enormously the production of cotton for the mills
of Great Britain. Cotton manufacture soon became and still
remains the leading industry of that country.
Many inventors working independently in England, France,
and the United States produced the sewing machine. Elias
The sewing Howe, 6f Cambridge, Massachusetts, patented
machine, 1846 t^g ^j-g^ effective lockstitch machine in 1846.
Henceforth it was rapidly improved and adapted to every
variety of work, from making button-holes to the manufacture
of carpets and shoes. The sewing machine run by hand or
foot keeps an indispensable place in the home, but in factories
steam or electricity provides the motive power.
The expansive force of steam, though known in antiquity,
had been first put to practical use at the close of the seventeenth
century. The earliest steam engine was simply a pump for
The Great Inventions 645
ridding mines of water. James Watt, a Scotchman of mechan-
ical genius, patented an improved steam pump ^j^^ gteam
in 1769, a year also memorable for the birth of engine, 1769,
17R5
Napoleon and WelHngton. Watt subsequently
adapted his engine to propel machinery for spinning and
weaving, and in 1785 it began to be used in factories.
The nineteenth century has been called the age of steam.
The steamboat, the steam locomotive, and the steam printing
press are some of the children of Watt's epochal The age
invention. Toward the close of the century ^^ steam
electricity began to compete with steam as a motive force, and
in the twentieth century the gas engine, as applied to auto-
mobiles, airplanes, tractors, and other machines, continued
the Industrial Revolution.
The growing use of machinery called for an increased produc-
tion of iron. Northern and north-central England contained
vast deposits of iron ore, but until the latter part- The age
of the eighteenth century they had been Httle ^^ ""^^
worked. Improved methods of smelting with coal and coke,
by means of the blast furnace, were then adopted. Steel,
a product of iron, whgse toughness and hardness had been
prized for ages, was not manufactured on a large scale until
after 1850. Better methods of manufacture now enable the
poorest iron to be converted into excellent steel, thus opening
up extensive fields of low-grade ore in France, Germany, and
other countries. Used in every form, from building-girders
to watch springs, steel is now the mainstay of modern industry.
The manufacture of iron and the operation of the new ma-
chinery required an abundant, inexpensive fuel. Coal had
long been burned in small quantities for domestic The age
purposes; applied to the steam engine and the ^^ ^^^
blast furnace it was to become an almost boundless source of
power and heat. Various improvements in mining cheapened
its production, one of the most notable being Sir Humphry
Davy's 'safety lamp (181 5), which protected miners against
the deadly fire damp and thus allowed the most dangerous
mines to be worked with comparative safety. Great Britain
646 The Industrial Revolution
furnished nearly all the coal for manufacturing until the middle
of the nineteenth century; later, much of the world's supply
has come from the mines of France, Germany, and the United
States.
224. Effects of the Great Inventions
The great inventions, besides hastening the transition from
hand-labor to machine-labor, also did much to separate labor
and capital. No such separation was possible
in the Middle Ages. A master who belonged to a
craft guild purchased his raw materials at the city market or at
a fair, manufactured them in his own house, assisted by the
members of his family and usually by a few journeymen and
apprentices, and himself sold the finished article to the person
who had ordered it. This guild system, as it is called, has not
entirely disappeared. One may still have a pair of shoes made
by a "custom" shoemaker or a suit of clothes made by a "cus-
tom" tailor."
The growing exclusiveness of the craft guilds, toward the
close of the medieval period,^ prevented many apprentices and
Domestic journeymen from ever becoming masters. Con-
system sequently, workers often left the cities and settled
in the country or in villages where there were no guild re-
strictions. The movement gave rise to the domestic system,
as found, for example, in the British cotton industry. A middle-
man with some capital would purchase a supply of raw cotton
and distribute it to the spinners and weavers to convert into
cloth on their own spinning wheels and hand looms. They
worked at home and usually eked out their wages by cultivating
a small garden plot. Something akin to the domestic system
still survives in the sweatshops of modern cities where clothing
is made on "commission."
It is clear that under the domestic system the middleman
provided the raw materials, took all the risks, and received all
Factory the profits. The workers, on the other hand, had
system to accept such wages and labor upon such con-
ditions as he was willing to offer. The separation of labor and
1 See pages 231-232 and 484.
Effects of the Great Inventions 647
capital which thus began under the domestic system became
complete under the factory system. Arkwright's, Crompton's,
and Cartwright's machines were too expensive for a single
family to own; too large and heavy for use in private houses;
and they needed water power or steam power to operate them.
The consequence was that the domestic laborer abandoned his
household industry and went with hundreds of others to work
in a mill or factory. The capitalist employer now not only
provided the raw materials and disposed of the finished product,
but he also owned the machinery and the workshop. The
word "manufacturer"^ no longer applied to the hand- worker,
but to the person who employed others to work for him.
The factory system introduced a minute division of labor into
industry. Thus, there are forty operations involved in the
manufacture of ready-made clothing; nearly Division
one hundred in the manufacture of shoes; and °^ ^^^^^
over a thousand in the construction of a fine watch. Many
men, working together, may turn out in a few minutes an article
which one man in former times required weeks or months to
produce. The division of labor, besides saving time, also
increased output. A single instance will show this. Adam
Smith, writing in 1776, contrasted the one pin which an artisan
might make in a day, if he did all the work himself, with the
five thousand pins which he could produce each day in a factory.
Now, however, when pins are made by automatic machinery,
the average daily output for each operative totals over a million.
Machinery, the factory system, and the division of labor
made it possible to manufacture on a large scale and in enormous
quantities for world-wide markets. For example, Large-scale
the value of British cotton goods rose from one production
million dollars in 1760 to six hundred times that amount in 1910.
Similar increases were registered in other textile manufactures
and in the iron industry of Great Britain.
The Industrial Revolution soon changed the face of Great
Britain. Instead of farms, hamlets, and an occasional small
^ Latin manu, facere, to make by hand. Manufacture by machinery has been
well named machinofacture.
648
The Industrial Revolution
INDUSTRIAL.
ENGLAND
IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Principal Manufacturing Districts are indic-
ated by showing Important Industrial Cen-
ters having a population of 100,000 or over
in 1911 • ,„«g55za.
Coal Fields ^^^
Densest Population in 1911 ..... (_ j
Densest Population in 1750 . ■ i^'"'''-"li' °{_
\ Scale of Milea
\ 0 25 50 75 100
NORTH
ENGL I S H
C H A N N E
THE M.-N. WORKS, BUFFALO, N.V
4° Longitude West 2° from Greenwich O'
Improvements in Transportation 649
town, appeared great cities crowded with workers who had
left their rural homes to seek employment in factories. The
movement of population was especially toward the northern
and northwestern counties, where there were industrial
many streams to furnish water power and abundant ^^®** Britain
suppHes of coal and iron. Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and
Birmingham sprang up as centers for the manufacture of tex-
tiles and hardware, while Liverpool, little more than a village
at the opening of the nineteenth century, became a commercial
metropolis. Aside from London, it is northern England and
southern Scotland which to-day form the chief seat of British
trade and industry.
The Industrial Revolution began later on the Continent
than in Great Britain, partly because of the opposition of the
guilds, which feared that the new machinery primacy of
would deprive workers of employment; partly Great Britain
because Continental manufacturers showed less "^ ^ "^^^
enterprise than their British rivals; but chiefly because the
revolutionary and Napoleonic wars left France and Germany
too exhausted to compete in manufacturing. Great Britain
thus became by 181 5 the world's workshop and the richest
of European nations. It was only toward the close of the
nineteenth century that her industrial primacy began to be
seriously threatened by Germany and the United States.
225. Improvements in Transportation
Civilized man until the Industrial Revolution continued to
use the conveyances which had been invented by uncivilized
man in prehistoric times. Travel and transport oid-fashioned
were still on horseback, or in litters, wheeled carts, conveyances
rowboats, and sailboats. Various improvements produced the
sedan chair, the stagecoach, and large ocean-going ships,
without, however, finding any substitutes for muscles or wind
as the motive power.
The roads in western Europe scarcely deserved that name;
they were little more than track ways, either deep with mud or
dusty and full of ruts. Passengers in stagecoaches seldom
650
The Industrial Revolution
Roads
Canals
made more than fifty miles a day, while heavy goods had to
be moved on pack horses. Conditions in Great Britain im-
proved during the latter part of the eighteenth century, for the
enormous quantity of goods produced by the new
machinery increased the need for cheap and rapid
transport. The turnpike system, allowing tolls to be charged
for the use of roads, encouraged the investment of capital by
private companies in these undertakings; and it was not long
before Telford, Macadam, and other engineers covered the
country with well bottomed, well drained, and well surfaced
highways. The splendid highways which attract the attention
of Americans on the Continent were all built in the nineteenth
century, chiefly before the era of railroads.
The expense of transportation by road led people in antiquity
and the Middle Ages
to send their goods by
river routes, whenever
possible.
Canal-
building began toward
the close of tlie medi-
eval period, especially
after the invention of
locks for controlling
the flow and level of
the water. The great
era of the canal was
between 1775 and 1850,
not only in Great Brit-
ain and on the Con-
ROBERT Fulton ^-^^^^^ ^^^ ^1^^ -^ ^^^
After a portrait by Benjamin West painted in 1805. U^[^^^ gtatCS. Cauals
relieved the highways of a large part of the growing trafiic,
but the usefulness of both decHned after the introduction of
railroads. Ship canals, however, have begun to be constructed
within recent years, as a result of the general adoption of steam
navigation on the ocean.
Improvements in Transportation
651
George Stephenson
The earliest successful steamboat appears to have been a
tug built in Scotland for towing canal boats. Robert Fulton,
an American en- The steam-
gineer who had ^°**
lived in England and France,
adapted the steamboat to river
navigation. His side-wheeler,
the Clermont, equipped with a
Watt engine, began in 1807 to
make regular trips on the
Hudson between New York
and Albany. Twelve years
later an American vessel, pro-
vided with both sails and
a steam engine, crossed the
Atlantic in twenty-nine days.
The first ship to cross without
using sails or recoaling on the
way was the Great Western,
in 1838. The trip took her fifteen days.
Various' improvements since the middle of the nineteenth
century added greatly to the efficiency of ocean steamers.
Iron, and later steel, replaced wood in their construction, with
a resulting gain in strength and buoyancy, steam
Screw propellers were substituted for clumsy navigation
paddle wheels. The size of steamers, also, has so increased
that the Great Western, a boat of 1378 tons and 212 feet in length,
would appear a pygmy by the side of the fifty-thousand ton
''leviathans" which now cross the Atlantic in less than six
days.
Wooden or iron rails had long been used in mines and
quarries to enable horses to draw heavy loads with ease, and
as early as 1803 a horse-car line was opened to The steam
general traffic in the suburbs of London. George locomotive
Stephenson, who profited by the experiments of other inventors,
produced in 18 14 a successful locomotive for hauling coal from
the mine to tide-water. He improved his model and eleven
652
The Industrial Revolution
years later secured its adoption on the Stockton and Darlington
Railway, the first line over which passengers and freight were
carried by steam power. Stephenson also built the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, which was opened in 1830 and on
which his famous engine, the Rocket, made its maiden trip.
Many technical improvements — the increased size of loco-
motives and cars, air brakes, and the use of steel rails in place
Railroad o^ iron rails which supported only light loads and
transportation -yyore out rapidly — have extended the usefulness
of the railroad far beyond the dreams of its earlier promoters.
Railroad construction began on an extensive scale after the middle
The "Rocket," 1830
Built by Stephenson to compete in a trial of locomotive engines for the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The greatest speed it attained in the
trial was ag miles an hour, but some years later it ran at the rate of 53
miles an hour. The total weight of the engine and tender was only
about 7i tons.
of the nineteenth century. The year 1854 saw the first line
over the Alps; 1869, the first transcontinental line in the
United States (the Union Pacific and Central Pacific); and
1900, the Trans-Siberian line. Western Europe and the United
States are now covered with a network of railroads.
On the Continent (Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany,
Austria, and Russia) railroads are mostly state-owned and
state-managed. Nearly all the French lines are privately
Improvements in Transportation 653
owned, but they will revert to the State upon the expiration
of their franchises. Great Britain and the United States took
over their railroads for miUtary purposes during Railroads and
the World War. Whether this step will be fol- ^^ State
lowed by the permanent nationalization of the lines in each
country remains to be seen.
Modern electric traction dates from the early 'eighties of the
last century, when the overhead trolley began to supplant
horse cars and cable cars in cities. The develop- Electric
ment of the electric locomotive promises to bring ^^^^^^^ and
• 1 , . . r o the auto-
about a partial substitution of electricity for mobUe
steam on railroads through tunnels and over heavy grades.
Automobiles have been built for more than a hundred years,
but it was the gas or ''internal conbustion" engine (as patented
in 1895), which made them a commercial success.
The gas engine is likewise responsible for the airplane. Its
history illustrates the truth that great inventions do not spring
fully developed from the brain of one man, but,
on the contrary, represent the long and patient ^ airplane
experimentation of many men. An American scientist, S. P.
Langley, who himself owed much to the work of others, pro-
duced in 1903 a heavier- than-air machine which only needed
skillful guidance to be successful. The accidents attending the
first trials of the machine caused it to be abandoned. Other
inventors followed in Langley 's footsteps, and in 1908 the
Wright brothers made the public flights which showed that
the problem of aviation had finally been solved.
As far back as the Revolutionary War, an American inventor
constructed a tiny submarine and tried, without success, to
sink a British warship. Robert Fulton, encour- The
aged by Napoleon, made several submarines. In ^"^^arine
one of them he descended to a depth of twenty-five feet, re-
mained below for four hours, and succeeded in blowing up a
small vessel with a torpedo. Under- water boats, propelled
by steam power, were used by the Confederates in the Civil
War. From about this time inventors in several countries
worked on the problem of the submarine. One of the most
654 The Industrial Revolution
successful was an Irish-American, J. P. Holland, who sold the
boat named after him to the United States in 1898. The
rapid development of the submarine since then parallels that
of the airplane. Thus, in the course of about a century, man
has completed the conquest of land and air and sea.
226. Improved Communications
The means of communication which we employ daily would
have been inconceivable to our ancestors less than a hundred
years aero. Scientists in the eighteenth century were
The telegraph f ° ;u .^. -a ( • 1 f • v
mdeed famihar with the idea of using electricity
to communicate at a distance, but it was not until the 'thirties
of the nineteenth century that Samuel F. B. Morse, an American,
constructed a practicable apparatus for this purpose. He also
devised the "Morse alphabet." The telegraph found an
immediate application on the railroads and in the transmission
of government messages. Later, it made its way into the
business world.
Hardly any one at first believed that a telegraph line could
be carried across the ocean. Experiments soon showed, how-
Submarine ever, that wire cords, protected by wrappers of
cables guttapercha, would conduct the electric current
under water. The first cable was laid from Dover to Calais
in 185 1. A group of American promoters, including Cyrus
W. Field, then took up the project of an Atlantic cable and
after discouraging failures laid it in 1866. No less than fourteen
lines now stretch across the Atlantic, while all the other oceans
have been electrically bridged.
Experimentation with rude forms of the telephone began
in the same decade which produced the telegraph. Little
progress took place until 1875, when Alexander
Graham Bell, a native of Edinburgh but later
a resident of Boston, patented his first instrument. Many
improvements have since been made in it by Bell himself,
Edison, and others.
The wonderful invention of wireless telegraphy by William,
(Gughelmo) Marconi may be said to date from 1899, when
Improved Communications 655
wireless messages were sent between France and England
across the Channel. A trans-Atlantic service by "wireless"
began eight years later, and since then the range tireless
of Marconi's apparatus has been greatly extended, telegraphy
The still more recent introduction of wireless ^^ telephony
telephony promises to work another revolution in the methods
of communication.
A regular postal service under government management
existed in Europe as early as the seventeenth century, but it
was slow, expensive, and little used. Stamps
were unknown, prepayment of The postal
postage was considered an insult, service
and rates increased according to distance.
The modern postal service began in Great
Britain in 1840, with the adoption of a uniform
charge irrespective of distance (penny postage),
prepayment, and the use of stamps. These Penny^Pos^tage
reforms soon spread to the Continent and the Stamp
United States and everywhere led to greatly The design, a con-
increased use of the mails. The postal service Zr^i^:\f.
is now a necessity of civilized life. used without change
Weekly and daily newspapers also began to ^"" "''° '" '''°-
appear in the seventeenth century, but they were luxuries
reserved for subscribers of the middle and upper classes. The
cheap newspaper for the masses is a product of the Industrial
Revolution. The London Times installed the first
steam printing press in 1814. A paper-making ^^^"p^p^"
machine, which produced wide sheets of unlimited length, came
into use soon after. To these inventions must now be added
the linotype machine. In newspaper offices, where rapid com-
position is necessary, it has largely superseded hand-work in
setting type.
Many inventions in communication — the instantaneous
camera, the phonograph, the cinematograph or ^,
,. . , ox- xue new
motion picture, the automatic piano — are so new communi-
that we have scarcely as yet begun to realize their *^^*'°''
possibiHties. Properly directed, they will furnish the common
656 The Industrial Revolution
people in civilized countries with an education in art, music,
and the drama which in former days could be secured only
by persons of wealth and leisure. Their great service promises
to be that of democratizing culture, as cheap newspapers and
books have democratized knowledge.
227. Commerce
A tremendous expansion of commerce followed the improve-
ments in transportation and communication. Macadamized
Commercial roads, inland and ship canals, ocean steamships,
expansion g^^fj railroads reduced freight rates to a mere
fraction of those once charged, while the telegraph, telephone,
cheap postage, and newspapers made possible the rapid spread
of information relating to crops and markets. It is estimated
that the commerce of the world (including even backward
countries) increased over twelve hundred per cent in the nine-
teenth century. Rapid as was the growth of the world's
population during this period, commerce grew much faster;
so that the average share of each human being in international
trade amounted in 1900 to a sum six times that in 1800. During
the first two decades of the twentieth century commercial
expansion has been on a still more colossal scale.
The organization of commerce shows wonderful changes
since the Middle Ages. There is now so steady a flow of com-
Commercial modities from producers through wholesalers and
organization retailers to consumers that the old system of
weekly markets and annual fairs is all but obsolete.^ Dis-
tinctively modern are produce exchanges for trade in the great
staples (wheat, cotton, wool, sugar, etc.) and stock exchanges
for buying and selling the stocks and bonds of corporations.
Modern insurance companies also perform a notable service in
the organization of commerce.
A commercial bank, as distinguished from a savings bank or
a trust company, may be defined as an institution which deals
in money and credit. It attracts the deposits of many per-
sons, thus gaining control of enormous sums available for loans
1 See page 232.
Commerce 657
to manufacturers and merchants. Banks do not increase the
amount of capital (factory buildings, machinery, raw materials,
etc.) in a community, but they help to put it at the disposal of
active business men; in other words, banks make
capital fluid. Furthermore, bank checks, drafts,
and foreign bills of exchange provide a cheap and elastic sub-
stitute for money. It is possible through their use to discharge
a large volume of indebtedness without the transfer of cash.
The earliest medieval banks were the private establishments
of moneyed men in Italian cities.^ Venice and Genoa sub-
sequently founded public or state banks, and during Development
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries similar °^ banking
institutions arose in many European capitals. The Bank of
England received its charter from the government as late as
1694. The Bank of France was the creation of Napoleon Bona-
parte.2 The Imperial Bank of Germany (Reichsbank) came into
existence only in 1876. All these great European banks, as
well as the national banks of the United States, have the privi-
lege of issuing redeemable notes which circulate in place of
gold.
In spite of the extensive use of checks and bank notes, the
growth of commerce continues to absorb immense quantities of
gold, the money metal. The supply has kept The gold
pace with the demand. The mines of California, supply
AustraHa, South Africa, Alaska, and other countries produced
in the second half of the nineteenth century nine times as much
gold as had been produced between 1800 and 1850.
The supply of silver increased during the nineteenth century
far in excess of the demand. Its declining value led the principal
commercial states to diminish or suspend silver The gold
coinage. Great Britain in 1816 abandoned the standard
double or bimetalHc standard and adopted the single gold
standard. Her example has since been followed by the Con-
tinental nations, the British colonies, Japan, the South American
republics, and, in 1900, the United States. China and Mexico
are the only important countries which remain on a silver basis.
1 See page 237. 2 ggg page 525.
658 The Industrial Revolution
Commercial progress has been frequently interrupted during
the past century by periods of depression called crises. They
are a product of the Industrial Revolution. Aris-
ing in one country, perhaps as a result of bad
banking, over-issue of paper money, speculation, unwise in-
vestments, or failure of crops, they tend to spread widely until
all civilized countries are involved. For instance, the crisis
of 1857 started in the United States and that of 1873, in Austria.
What happens during a crisis is familiar to every one. Capi-
talists refuse to invest in new railroads, factories, and other
Phenomena undertakings; bankers will not lend money;
of crises merchants, unable to borrow, go into bankruptcy;
and manufacturers, receiving fewer orders, either reduce their
output or shut down their plants. Then ensues a period of
"hard times," with low prices, low wages, much unemploy-
ment, and widespread destitution. The wave of prosperity sets
in again, eventually, and times again become "good." Crises
have occurred at intervals of about ten or eleven years since
1800, but recently with lessening severity. They may cease
altogether as modern commerce becomes still more efficient.
228. Commercial Policies
Many obstacles which impeded the exchange of goods in the
Middle Ages^ disappeared in modern times, especially after
Commercial the French Revolution. The burdensome tolls
freedom imposed by feudal lords on transport and travel
could no longer be exacted when feudalism itself died out.
The principle of free navigation was extended to include im-
portant international rivers and inland seas which had been
more or less monopolized by adjacent countries. A movement
also began to reduce the high duties levied by every European
nation on imports and exports.
One nation went still further in the nineteenth century and
adopted free trade. Great Britain, we have learned, enjoyed
by 181 5 a virtual monopoly in most lines of industry. Hav-
ing no reason to fear the competition of foreign manufacturers,
1 See page 234.
Commercial Policies 659
it was to her advantage to lower or abolish the duties on im-
ports, especially those on raw materials. The Younger Pitt,
influenced by the writings of Adam Smith, began p^.^^ ^^.^^j^
the work of tariff reform; Sir Robert Peel con- in Great
tinned it in the 'forties; and Gladstone completed "***^
it. Since i860 Great Britain has been a free- trade nation. She
imposes no restrictions whatever on exports and levies import
duties only on a few articles, including coffee, tea, tobacco,
alcoholic hquors, and sugar. Even these are for revenue, not
for protection. They do not encourage the production at home
of anything which can be produced more cheaply abroad.
The repeal of the Corn Laws formed another feature of the
free-trade movement in Great Britain. These laws restricted
or entirely prohibited the importation of foreign The Corn
wheat, in the interest of British agriculture. ^^^^
They made food dear for the working classes, however, and so
aroused the hostility of manufacturers, who had to pay their
employees higher wages. After prolonged agitation the laws
were repealed in 1846. Great Britain since then has purchased
most of her food abroad, paying for it in the products of her mines
and factories.
The free-trade movement spread to the Continent, where it
led at first to a general lowering of tariff walls. In the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, however. Protection on
France, Germany, and other countries returned *^® Continent
to the policy of protection. Rightly or wrongly, they saw in
protection the means of building up their own '' infant in-
dustries," in order to supply the home market and even to
compete with Great Britain in the markets of the world.
The first American tariff was framed in 1789. It levied a
few small protective duties. The United States adopted
protection on an extensive scale only in 1816, protection in
as a means of keeping alive the industries which the United
had sprung up in the country when the second
war with England stopped all imports of foreign goods. Later
tariffs have generally raised duties, except for a few decades
before the Civil War. In following a protective policy, the
66o The Industrial Revolution
United States thus ranges itself with the Continental nations
rather than with Great Britain.
229. Agriculture and Land Tenure
The student will recall the description which has been given
of medieval agriculture, with its wasteful system of "open
. . ,, . fields " and " fallow " lands, its backward methods,
Agriculture in
the eighteenth and its scanty yield. ^ Improvement in these con-
century ditions took place first in Holland. The Dutch
learned to cultivate their narrow territory according to scientific
principles, and from them Enghsh farmers borrowed many
secrets of tillage. More diligent manuring, the shifting or
rotation of crops from field to field, so that the soil would not
have to be left uncultivated every third year, and the intro-
duction of new crops, such as turnips, clover, and rye, all
helped to transform English agriculture by the close of the
eighteenth century.
The improvements in agriculture since 1800 have extended
to every progressive country. Machinery now does the work
Agriculture in ^^ ^^^ ancient scythe, sickle, flail, and other im-
the nineteenth plements. One machine, of American invention,
century ^^^ ^^j^ reaps the grain, but threshes it, winnows
it, and delivers it into sacks at a single operation. The use
of cheap artificial fertilizers makes profitable the cultivation
of poor lands formerly allowed to lie idle. The advance of
engineering science leads to the reclamation of marshes and
arid wastes. Finally, steam navigation allows a country to
draw supphes of wheat, meat, and other foodstuffs from the
most distant regions, with the result that the specter of famine,
so common in the Middle Ages, has well-nigh disappeared from
the modern world.
The ''open-field" system of cultivation, whereby the same
person tilled many small strips in different parts of the manor,
was so wasteful of time and labor that medieval
farmers began to surrender their scattered strips
for compact holdings which could be inclosed with hedges or
1 See pages 130-132.
Agriculture and Land Tenure 66 1
fences and operated independently. This inclosure movement
continued in western Europe all through the modern period,
until in the nineteenth century the old common cultivation of
the soil had been practically abandoned in favor of individual
tillage.
Inclosures meant better farming everywhere, but in Great
Britain they also did much to create the system of large estates
so characteristic of that country. The lord of British
the manor, not satisfied with inclosing his demesne landlordism
lands, often managed to inclose those of the peasants as well,
and even the meadows and forests, which had been formerly
enjoyed by them in common. At the present time about ten
thousand persons own two- thirds of all England and Wales;
seventeen hundred persons own nine-tenths of Scotland. The
rural population of Great Britain consists of a few landlords;
numerous tenant farmers who rent their farms from the lords;
and a still larger number of laborers who work for daily wages
and have no interest in the soil they till.
Better arrangements have long prevailed in France. A con-
siderable part of the agricultural land belonged to the peasants
even before the French Revolution.^ Their hold- YTench
ings were increased in the revolutionary era as peasant pro-
the result of legislation confiscating the estates of ^"^ °^^ ^^
the Crown, the Church, and the emigrant nobles.^ France
to-day is emphatically a country of small but prosperous and
contented farmers.
Peasant proprietorships are common in much of Belgium,
Holland, Switzerland, and western Germany. Prussia, where
serfdom was only abolished in the Napoleonic ^ ^
•^ 111 Land tenure
era,^ contams many large estates owned by the in other
Jujikerthum, or country gentry. The revolu- Continental
■ . . . . . countries
tionary disorders of 1 848-1 849 extmguished serf-
dom in Austria and Hungary, without, however, disturbing
the landed possessions of the great lords. Peasant proprietor-
ships are rare in much of Spain and in southern Italy and Sicily.
It now seems probable that among the economic consequences
1 See page 484. 2 gge page 509. * See page 536.
662 The Industrial Revolution
of the revolutions following the World War will be the intro-
duction of small farms for the people in those countries where
the land has been monopolized by the aristocracy.
Russia, so backward in many respects, retained serfdom
until after the middle of the nineteenth century. It was not
AboUtion of ^^^^^ 1858-1861 that Alexander II ^ issued the
serfdom in decrees which freed nearly fifty million people
^"^^'* and earned for their author the title of the ''Tsar
Liberator.'*
Following the grant of personal freedom came measures
establishing a new system of land tenure. The nobles were
The Russian required to sell a portion of their estates to the
°^ peasants. About half of the agricultural area
of European Russia thus changed hands. Except in Poland
and certain other districts, where individual ownership pre-
vailed, the farming land was intrusted to the entire village,
or mir, for redistribution at intervals among its inhabitants.
All that the peasant really possessed in his own right was a
house and a garden plot. This communal arrangement began
to break down even before the Russian Revolution and may
soon disappear altogether. One of the first acts of the revo-
lutionary government was the confiscation of the imperial
domains, together with many estates of the nobility, for
partition among the peasants. The adoption by Russia of
individual ownership of land will mark a significant step in
the progress of that country, for about seven-eighths of its
people hve wholly or mainly by agriculture.
230. The Labor Movement
The craft guilds, which modern Europe inherited from the
Middle Ages, gradually became obsolete after the Industrial
Disappearance Revolution. They were out of place in a world
of the craft of whirling machinery, crowded factories, free
^ competition, and the separation of labor and
capital. Few of them in Great Britain survived the eight-
eenth century. In France it required a decree of the National
^ See page 592.
The Labor Movement 663
Assembly to end their existence. Those in Germany did not
completely disappear until late in the nineteenth century.
As contrasted with craft guilds, trade unions are combinations
of wage-earners to maintain or improve the conditions under
which they labor. These associations began to Rise of trade
appear in Great Britain between 1700 and 1800, unions
especially after the domestic system gave way to the factory
system. Under the new conditions of industry, an employer
could not know many of his employees personally; their re-
lations, henceforth, tended to become cold-blooded and im-
personal. At the same time, the workers in any one establish-
ment or trade, being thrown more closely together, came to
realize their common interests and to appreciate the need for
organization.
The unions immediately encountered opposition. The Com-
mon law treated them as conspiracies in restraint of trade and
hence as illegal. Moreover, the employers used Trade unions
their influence in Parliament to secure the passage prohibited
of a long series of acts designed to prevent what were styled
''unlawful combinations of workmen." The last of these acts,
passed in 1800, even provided the penalty of imprisonment at
hard labor for persons who combined with others to raise wages,
shorten hours, or in any way control the conditions of industry.'
Agitation by trade-union leaders induced Parliament in
1825 to repeal all the Combination Acts and to replace them
by a new and more liberal statute. Laborers Trade unions
might now lawfully meet together for the purpose legalized
of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of hours which
they would work, as long as the agreement concerned only
those who were present at the meeting. This qualification
was removed a number of years later. Finally, the Trade
Union Act of 1875 declared that nothing done by a group of
laborers should be considered illegal unless it was also illegal
when done by a single person. The act thus gave the working
classes the full right of combination for which they had long
been striving. It has been called the Magna Carta of trade
unionism.
664 The Industrial Revolution
The trade unions of Great Britain have made much progress
within recent years. In 19 14 they enrolled nearly four million
British trade iTiembers, including factory operatives, railway
unionism workers, coal miners, and agricultural laborers.
to- ay They send their representatives to Parliament and
exercise great influence on labor legislation. Their officers also
frequently serve as factory inspectors. Many unions enjoy
a considerable income, which goes to support members who are
temporarily out of work, sick, disabled, or infirm.
Trade unions exist in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and
other Continental countries. They are modeled upon the
Trade union- British organizations, but do not equal them in
ism on the numbers, wealth, or influence. Many have a
°° ^^ political character, being closely connected with
sociahst parties. In general. Continental workingmen rely
for improvement in their condition rather upon State action
than upon collective bargaining with their employers.
The organization of American trade unions began early in
the nineteenth century, but their great and rapid growth has
Trade union- taken place since the Civil War. Probably about
ism in the fifteen per cent of the male wage-earners belong
mte tates ^^ them. While this may seem a small proportion,
it must be remembered that their membership consists chiefly
of skilled laborers. Most of the trade unions are affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor, which was founded in 1886.
The cooperative movement also started in Great Britain.
There are in that country a large number of societies, open to
workingmen on the payment of a small fee, and
Cooperation „. , / . -111
sellmg goods to members at prices considerably
lower than those charged by private concerns. Members share
in the profits in accordance with the amount of their purchases.
The success of cooperation in retailing has brought about its
extension to wholesahng and even to manufacturing and bank-
ing. Similar societies are numerous on the Continent. They
have made Httle headway in the United States, with such
conspicuous exceptions as mutual life insurance companies and
building and loan associations.
Government Regulation of Industry 665
231. Government Regulation of Industry
Improvement in the lot of the working classes has taken place
not only through the activities of trade unions, cooperative
societies, and other voluntary associations, but ^^j^ ^^
also by legislation. The need for government the factory
regulation of industry very soon became apparent, ^y^*®™
The crowded factories were unsanitary. Hours of labor were
too long. Wages were on the starvation level. Furthermore,
the use of machinery encouraged the employment of women
and children, for whose labor there had been previously little
demand outside the home. Their excessive toil amid unhealthy
surroundings often developed disease and deformity or brought
premature death. Much excuse existed for the passionate
words of one reformer that the slave trade was "mercy com-
pared to the factory system."
These evils were naturally most prominent in Great Britain,
where the Industrial Revolution began. Little effort was made
at first to remedy them. The working classes
exercised no political influence; indeed, by the aione*"^* i"
Combination Acts they had been prohibited from
forming trade unions for their protection. Statesmen, instead
of meeting the situation by remedial legislation, adopted the
laissez-faire, or ''let alone" poHcy.^ The government, they
declared, should keep its hands off industry. The greatest
good to the greatest number could only be secured when "eco-
nomic laws" of supply and demand were allowed to determine
the wages and conditions of employment, just as they determined
the prices, quantity, and quality of commodities produced.
"Let alone" naturally became the watchword of selfish
employers, to whose avarice and cruelty it gave full rein. Yet
there were also humane employers who felt that Early labor
the State ought to protect those who could not legislation
protect themselves. One was Sir Robert Peel, father of the
distinguished statesman of the same. name. ^ He succeeded in
securing the enactment of the first British factory act (1802).
^ See page 486. 2 ggg p^gg 559.
666 The Industrial Revolution
It prohibited the binding-out for labor of pauper children under
nine years of age, restricted their working hours to twelve a
day, and forbade night work. This measure applied only to
cotton factories. Little more was done for thirty-one years.
During this time several philanthropists, among whom Lord
Ashley, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury, had the greatest
influence, took up the cause of the oppressed workers and on the
floor of Parliament, on the platform, in the pulpit, and in the
newspapers waged a campaign to arouse the public to the need
for additional legislation. ^ The result was the passage in 1833
of an act which applied to all textile factories and provided
for their regular inspection by public officials.
Government regulation of industry now began to become a
reahty. Mines, bakeries, laundries, docks, retail and wholesale
B 'ti h labor shops, and many other establishments were grad-
legisiation ually brought under control. At the present
to-day ^-j^g ^j^g State restricts the employment of children
so that they may not be deprived of an education. It limits
the hours of labor, not only of children and women, but also
of men. It requires employers to install safety appliances in
their plants and to take all other precautions necessary for the
preservation of the lives, limbs, and health of their employees.
Recent legislation has gone so far as to fix a minimum wage
for workers in sweatshops and mines and to provide for govern-
ment employment bureaus or labor exchanges, in order that
the idle may find work.
The labor legislation of France, Belgium, Holland, Austria,
and the Scandinavian states compares favorably with that of
, ^ Great Britain. In no Continental country has
Labor
legislation on it gone farther than in Germany. Bismarck
the Continent ^^^^ -^ j^j^ powerful support, in order to check the
spread of socialism. Germany has laws establishing a maximum
number of working hours, limiting child and female labor, and
providing a system of workingmen's insurance against accidents,
sickness, incapacity, and old age.
The need for labor legislation has been felt less acutely in
^ Read Mrs. Browning's The Cry of the Children.
Rise and Spread of Socialism 667
the United States than in Europe. One reason for this is the
fact that American workingmen enjoy higher wages and better
conditions of employment than workingmen abroad. Another
reason is found in the comparatively late develop- Am •
ment of the factory system in the United States, labor
Labor laws, when passed, are often declared uncon- ^^sisiation
stitutional by state and federal courts, as interfering with free-
dom of contract or as being class legislation. In spite of this
obstacle, the movement for the legal protection of labor has
made much progress within recent years, especially in New
England and the states of the Middle West.
The youthful commonwealths of Australia and New Zealand,
unhampered by tradition, are trying a number of interesting
experiments in government regulation of industry. ^ tr l '
Both countries give compensation to workingmen labor legisia-
injured by accidents and old age pensions to poor *^°°
people. New Zealand, in addition, provides fire and hfe insur-
ance, conducts postal savings banks, rents model homes to
workingmen, and .makes arbitration of labor disputes com-
pulsory, in order to do away with strikes. Such legislation is
sometimes described as "socialistic," especially by its opponents.
232. Rise and Spread of Socialism
Contemporary socialists unite in making the following de-
mands. First, the State shall own and operate the instruments
of production, that is, land and capital. Under what so-
this arrangement rent, interest and profits, as cialismis
sources of personal income, would disappear, and private
property would consist simply of one's own clothing, household
goods, money, and perhaps a house and a garden plot. Second,
the leisure class shall be eliminated by requiring everybody
to perform useful labor, either physical or mental. Third,
the income of the State shall be distributed as wages and salaries
among the workers, according to some fairer principle than
obtains at present.
Socialism, thus explained, is not identical with public owner-
ship of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, the postal service.
668 The Industrial Revolution
and other utilities. There is still a leisure class and there are
still personal incomes in those countries which have gone
What social- furthest in the direction of pubHc ownership,
ism is not Similarly, labor legislation is not properly de-
scribed as socialistic, since it fails to abolish private property,
the factory system, and rent, interest, and profits.
SociaHsm is, in part, an outcome of the Industrial Revolution,
which completed the separation of capital and labor. The
SociaUsm and S^h between the capitalists and the landless,
the Industrial property-less, wage-earning proletariat became
wider, the contrasts between rich and poor became
sharper, than ever before. Vastly more wealth was now
produced than in earlier ages, but it was still unequally dis-
tributed. The few had too much; the many had too little.
Radical reformers, distressed by these inequalities and dis-
satisfied with the slow progress of the labor movement and
government regulation of industry, began to proclaim the
necessity of a wholesale reconstruction of society.
In Great Britain the most prominent of these early radicals
was Robert Owen, a rich manufacturer and philanthropist,
Robert Owen, who met great success in improving the conditions
1771-1858 Qf ijfg fQj. }^is employees. He did pioneer work as
an advocate of trade unionism and labor legislation, at a time
when neither had many influential friends. Owen's special
remedy for social ills was the establishment of small cooperative
communities, each one living by itself on a tract of land and
producing in common everything needed for its support. He
thought that this arrangement would retain the economic
advantages of the great inventions without introducing the
factory system. Owen's experiments in cooperation all failed,
including the one which he estabHshed at New Harmony,
Indiana, in 1825. Owen thus belongs in the class of Utopian ^
socialists, men who dreamed of ideal social systems which
were never realized.
Socialism is also, in part, an outcome of the French Revo-
lution. That upheaval destroyed so many time-hallowed
^ A name derived from Sir Thomas Mora's Utopia. See page 301.
Rise and Spread of Socialism
669
institutions and created so many new ones that it gave a great
impetus to schemes for the regeneration of society. French
radical thinkers soon set out to purge the world of socialism and
capitalism as their fathers had purged it of feudal- the French
ism. Their ideas began to become popular with evoution
workingmen after the factory system, with^its attendant evils,
gained an entrance into France.
The workers found a leader in Louis Blanc, a journalist and
author of wide popularity. The revolution of 1789, he declared,
had benefited the peasants and the bourgeoisie; Louis Blanc,
that of 1830 the capitalists; the next must be for 1813-1882
the benefit of the proletariat. Blanc beheved that every man
had an inahenable right to remunerative employment. To
provide it, the State should set up national workshops managed
by the workers in each particular industry. His ideas triumphed
for a time in the revolution of 1848. The Second French
Republic expressly recognized "the right to labor" and pro-
ceeded to set up the national workshops. They were so badly
managed, however, that Blanc himself disapproved of them.
Their speedy failure brought
such discredit upon him and
his followers that socialism
became almost extinct in
France. "To speak of it,"
said a writer of the time,
"is to deliver its funeral
oration."
Meanwhile, a new social-
ism, more systematic and
practical than Karl Marx,
the old, began 1818-1883
to be developed by German
thinkers. Its chief repre-
sentative was Karl Marx,
a man of fine education and
wide learning. Becoming interested in economic subjects, he
founded a socialist newspaper to advocate the cause of the work-
Karl Marx
670 The Industrial Revolution
ing classes. The government suppressed it, after the failure of
the revolutionary movement of 1 848-1 849, and expelled Marx
from Germany. He went to London and lived there in exile
for the rest of his days, finding time, in the midst of a hard
struggle for existence, to write his famous work, Das Kapital.
It has a place beside Rousseau's Social Contract and Smith's
Wealth of Nations among the books which have profoundly
influenced human thought.
Marx felt little sympathy with Utopian schemes to make
over society and described them sarcastically as ''duodecimo
editions of the New Jerusalem." In opposition
to Owen, Blanc, and other earlier socialists, he
sought to build up a system of socialism based on economic
principles. Put in its simplest form, Marxism asserts that,
while labor is the source of all value, the laborer receives, in
fact, only a fraction of what he produces. All the rest goes
to the capitalist, who produces nothing. Capitalism, however,
is the inevitable result of the factory system. Like feudalism,
it forms a stage, a necessary stage, in the development of man-
kind. It is fated to disappear with the progress of democracy,
which, by giving the proletariat the vote, will enable them to
take production into their own hands and peacefully inaugurate
the socialist state.
Das Kapital appeared in 1867. A few years later the co-
workers of Marx in Germany founded the Social Democratic
The Social Party.^ The government, under Bismarck's leader-
Democratic ship, tried to repress it by prohibiting meetings
^^*^ of socialists and the circulation of socialist liter-
ature. Any effort to propagate socialist doctrine was made
punishable by fines and imprisonment. This persecution
failed to check the socialist movement, and before the World
War the Social Democrats polled a larger vote than any other
German party.
National The Social Democratic Party provided a model
socialist parties fQj. similar organizations of Marxian socialists in
France, Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Japan,
1 See page 588.
Progress and Poverty 671
and many other countries. Congresses of representatives of
the various national parties are held from time to time, in
order to bring together the working classes of every land.
Not all contemporary socialists rely on orderly and legal
means to aboHsh capitalism. A large group of extreme social-
ists would confiscate private property and use g ndkalism
violence and terrorism in the supposed interest and bolshev-
of the proletariat. France has recently had to ^^™
cope with the movement called syndicalism. Its adherents
gained control of a number of trade unions (syttdicats), with
the idea of bringing on general strikes to coerce employers.
The syndicaHsts also introduced '' sabotage," ^ or the practice
of injuring machinery and destroying an employer's property.
Similar methods have been advocated and adopted in the
United States by the 'industrial Workers of the World."
Bolshevism in Russia is the latest and most impressive mani-
festation of this type of socialism.
233. Progress and Poverty
The most important consequence of the Industrial Revolution
is the increased population of the leading nations. The num-
ber of people who can be supported in a given increase of
region now depends less on the food which they population
raise, than on their production of raw materials and manu-
factured goods to exchange for food. Thus Belgium and Great
Britain, with only a limited agriculture, support more inhabit-
ants to the square mile than any other countries; while the
population of such industrial states as New York, Pennsylvania,
and Massachusetts far exceeds that of the agricultural common-
wealths of the Middle West.
At the opening of the nineteenth century western Europe
was still mainly rural, as eastern Europe is to-day. Europe,
as a whole, had fourteen cities of more than one Concentration
hundred thousand • inhabitants in 1800; in 1900 of population
it had one hundred and forty such cities. London, which in
1800 contained under a milHon inhabitants, now counts seven
1 From the French saboi, a wooden shoe.
672 The Industrial Revolution
millions within its borders; Paris contains five times as many
people as shortly before the French Revolution; and Berlin
has grown ten-fold since the reign of Frederick the Great.
The development of provincial centers within the past century
has been equally remarkable. Turning to the United States,
it is enough to contrast the six cities of over eight thousand
inhabitants in 1800 with the six hundred cities which, according
to the census of 1910, had a population of ten thousand or more.
About half of the American people are now city dwellers.
The increased wealth of the leading nations is another im-
portant consequence of the Industrial Revolution. Statistics
Increase of of government revenues and expenditures, imports
wealth ^^^ exports, income tax returns, deposits in savings
banks, and assets of life insurance companies show how wealth
has multiplied, especially within recent years. The enormous
public loans, successfully floated during the World War, also
reveal the resources now at the command of industrial peoples.
Notwithstanding the creation of huge individual fortunes
as the result of the Industrial Revolution, the general standard
Diffusion of of living has been raised by the addition of in-
weaith numerable things — sugar, coffee, linen, cotton
goods, glass, chinaware, wall paper, ready-made clothing, books,
newspapers, pictures — which were once enjoyed only by a
few wealthy persons. If the rich are undoubtedly getting
richer, the poor are not getting poorer in western Europe and
the United States. As a matter of fact, poverty is most acute
in such countries as Russia, India, and China, which modern
industrialism has scarcely begun to penetrate.
Nevertheless, no one conversant with social conditions in
large cities can deny the existence there of very many people
below or scarcely above the poverty line. An
Poverty ^ ,. , . . r ^ ^ • c
English mvestigator lound thirty per cent 01
the inhabitants of London so wretchedly housed, clothed,
warmed, and fed that their health and physical efficiency as
workers were seriously impaired. The results showed them-
selves in the high death rate of young and old and their marked
inferiority in height, weight, and physical condition. What is
Progress and Poverty 673
true of London is true of other industrial centers in Europe,
and, to a less extent, in the United States. Despite all the
wonderful inventions and scientific discoveries which have so
increased the productive powers of man, there are still millions
of human beings in the Christian world who lead lives of grind-
ing toil, without an income suiSicient for their barest needs.
No single condition — over-population, private property
in land, competition, the factory system — explains poverty,
for each one has been absent in previous stages of prevention
human society. Since there is no single cause of and abolition
poverty, there can be no single remedy for it. ^ povery
Putting aside anarchism as fantastic and socialism as impracti-
cable, one may still look confidently for the prevention of much
poverty by trade union activity, by government regulation
of industry, including labor insurance and protection against
non-employment, by education of the unskilled, by improved
housing, and by all the other agencies and methods of social
betterment. One may even reasonably anticipate the complete
abolition of poverty, at least all suffering from hunger, cold, and
nakedness, in those progressive countries which have already
abolished slavery and serfdom.
The evils of the Industrial Revolution, though real, have
been exaggerated. They are and were the evils accompanying
the transition from one stage of society to another. Economic
Few would wish now to retrace their steps to a democracy
time when there were no factories, no railroads, and no great
mechanical inventions. Machinery now does much of the
roughest and hardest work and, by saving human labor, makes
it possible to shorten hours of toil. The world's workers, in
consequence, have opportunities for recreation and education
previously denied them. After one hundred and fifty years of
modern industrialism, we begin to see that, besides helping
to produce political democracy, it is also creating economic
democracy. It is gradually diffusing the necessaries and com-
forts, and even many of the luxuries of life, among all peoples
in all lands.
674 The Industrial Revolution
Studies
I. Using material in encyclopedias, prepare reports for class presentation upon
the following inventions and discoveries: (c) the bicycle; (6) the typewriter; (c)
lucifer matches; {d) illuminating gas; (e) electric lighting; (/) dynamite; and (g)
photography. 2. For what are the following persons famous: Arkwright; Cart-
wright; Watt; Stephenson; Whitney; Fulton; Howe; Morse; Bell; Langley;
and Marconi? 3. Explain what is meant by the following: (o) capital; (b) capital-
ism; (c) domestic system; {d) factory systeni; (e) division of labor; (/) bimetallism;
(g) crises; (A) protectionism; (i) peasant proprietorships; 0') minimvmi wage;
and (k) socialism. 4. "Since the middle of the eighteenth century changes have
come to pass which have made civilized man rather nature's conqueror than its
drudge and prey." Comment on this statement. 5. What is the difference be-
tween a tool and a machine? 6. Name in order the early inventions in the textile
industry and explain the changes which each one produced. 7. Has division of
labor any disadvantages from the point of view of the worker? 8. What are
Telford blocks? What is a macadamized road? 9. Enumerate some of the social
and economic consequences of the wide use of the automobile in the United States.
10, "Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those
inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species."
Comment on this statement. 11. Mention some of the most important articles
of modem commerce and the countries where they are chiefly produced. 12. Why
should there be an international or world price for such commodities as wheat and
cotton? 13. Show how modern commerce has been facilitated by (o) the sub-
marine cable, (b) wireless telegraphy, (c) the postal system, and (i) marine insurance,
or underwriting. 14. How has the construction of the Suez and Panama canals
affected oceanic trade routes? 15. Why did Great Britain adopt a free- trade
policy? Why does she maintain it, when other nations follow the policy of pro-
tection? 16. WTiat are the effects of smuggling, or evasion of customs duties,
on (a) the public revenue, {b) honest merchants, and (c) consumers? 17. Comment
on some of the social effects of peasant proprietorships. 18. Compare the modem
trade imion with the medieval craft guild. 19. What criticisms are sometimes
leveled at trade unionism? Discuss their justification. 20. Distinguish (a)
between socialism and anarchism and (b) between socialism and democracy. 21.
Is it tme, as Marx asserted, that labor is the source of all value? 22. Mention
some of the probable advantages and some of the probable disadvantages of the
socialist state. • 23. "The growth of large cities constitutes perhaps the greatest
of all the problems of modern civilization." Comment on this statement. 24.
How does the development of electric traction tend to relieve overcrowding in
cities? 25. Compare as to purposes and results the charity of the Middle Ages
with the organized charity of to-day.
CHAPTER XXV
MODERN CIVILIZATION
234. Internationalism
The world, which seemed so large to our forefathers, to us
seems very small and compact. Railroads, steamships, and
airplanes bind the nations together, and the ^nity of
telegraph, the submarine cable, and the "wireless" modem
keep them in constant communication. The "^ nation
oceans, no longer barriers, serve as highways uniting East and
West, Orient and Occident. National isolation disappears as
ideas and ideals tour the globe!
Everywhere people build the same houses, use the same
furniture, and eat the same food. Everywhere they enjoy
the same amusements and distractions: concerts, xjniformitv
"moving pictures," the theater, clubs, magazines, of modem
automobiles. They also dress ahke. Powder, "^ ^**^®°
gold lace, wigs, pigtails, three-cornered hats, silk stockings, and
knee breeches passed away with the other follies of the Old
Regime, and simplicity and convenience became the character-
istics of men's apparel. Women's apparel still changes year
by year, but the new fashions, emanating from Paris, London,
or New York, are speedily copied in Petrograd, Melbourne,
and Tokio.
The inconveniences resulting from the diversity of languages
were never greater than to-day, when travel is a general habit
and when nations read one another's books and Universal
profit by one another's discoveries and inventions, languages
The internationahsm of modern Hterature, science, philosophy,
and art demands an international medium of expression.
Latin was the speech of learned men in Europe throughout the
Middle Ages, as English, French, and German are to a more
limited extent at the present time. What is needed, however,
675
676
Modern Civilization
is a universal language, so simple in grammar and vocabulary
as to be readily mastered by any one. Crude attempts at
such a language have already appeared in Volapiik and Espe-
ranto, but a really satisfactory artificial idiom remains to be
created.
The idea of a universal exposition, to which all countries
should send their art treasures or the marvels of their industry,
Universal hrst took shape in the Crystal Palace Exhibition
expositions (London, 185 1). Since then European expositions
have been numerous, each one larger than its predecessor.
The Universal Exhibition (Paris, 1900) attracted 51,000,000
visitors. The United States began with the Philadelphia
Centennial of 1876.
This was followed by
the World's Fair at
Chicago in 1893 and
by the more recent
expositions at St.
Louis and San Fran-
cisco.
World congresses
are constantly being
held to deal with
such matters of com-
mon interest as the
metric system of
weights and measures,
monetary standards,
protection of patents
and copyrights, im-
provement in the con-
dition of the working
classes, advancement
of social reform,
woman's suffrage, and
the establishment of
universal peace. Some of these gatherings have resulted in
"Ridiculous Taste, or the Ladies'
Absurdity"
One of the many caricatures of the extravagant
fashions in headress of both sexes during the eight-
eenth century.
Social Betterment 677
the formation of permanent organizations, including the Red
Cross Society (1864), the Postal Union (1874), ^.^^ "mtei-
and the Hague Tribunal (1899). Frequent meet- national
ings of distinguished scholars and men of letters °"^^"
from the different countries also help to produce what has been
well called the "international mind."
Increased intercourse between civilized peoples not only
broadens their outlook but also widens their sympathies.
Feelings of human brotherhood, once limited to t,. ... ,
Ine mter-
the members of one's clan, tribe, city, or state, national
expand to include all mankind. There develops *^«°s"ence"
an "international conscience," which emphasizes the obli-
gations of the strong toward the weak and protests against the
oppression of any members of the world community by any
others. Let us consider some of its manifestations during the
past century.
235. Social Betterment
Little more than one hundred years ago the slave trade was
generally regarded as a legitimate business. Hardly any one
thought it wrong to kidnap or purchase African ^boUtion
negroes, pack them on shipboard, where many of the
died in the stifling holds, and carry them to the ^^^^® *^*^®
West Indies or the American mainland to be sold as slaves.
Denmark first aboHshed this shameful traffic. Great Britain
and the United States took the same step in 1807-1808, and
in subsequent years the Continental nations, one after another,
agreed that the slave trade for the supply of their territories
should no longer enjoy the protection of their flags.
Slavery had all but died out in Christian lands by the close
of the Middle Ages. It revived, on a much larger scale, after
the era of geographical discovery, which opened Abolition
up Africa as a source of slaves and America as a °^ slavery
field for their profitable employment. Anti-slavery agitation
began in the seventeenth century with the Quakers, who ex-
cluded slave-owners from membership in their society. The
French revolutionists abolished slavery in the colonies of France,
but Napoleon restored it. Great Britain in 1833 freed the slaves
678 Modern Civilization
in the British West Indies, pa3dng one hundred milhon dollars
to their former masters as compensation. Within the next
thirty years slavery peacefully disappeared in the colonial
possessions of France, Portugal, and Holland, but in the United
States only at the cost of civil war. Brazil, in 1888, was the
last Christian state to put an end to slavery.
The penal code of eighteenth-century Europe must be de-
scribed as barbarous. Torture of an accused person, in order
The old to obtain a confession, usually preceded his trial,
penal code Only a few nations. Great Britain among them,
forbade its use. Prisons were private property, and the in-
mates, whether innocent or guilty, had to pay their keeper for
food and other necessaries. Men, women, and children were
herded together, the hardened criminals with the first offenders.
Branding, flogging, and exposure in the pillory formed common
punishments. Death was the punishment for murder, arson,
burglary, horse-stealing, theft, forgery, counterfeiting, and
many other crimes. The British code included nearly two
hundred capital offenses, but often permitted transportation
to America or Australia to be substituted for the death penalty.
Executions took place in public, on the mistaken theory that
to see them would deter from crime.
The great name in penal reform is that of the Italian Bec-
caria, whose Essay on Crimes and Punishments appeared in
Reform of '^7^4- ^t bore early fruit in the abohtion of tor-
the penal ture and of such ferocious punishments as burning
^° ® alive, breaking on the wheel, and drawing and
quartering. Penal reform in France was hastened by the
Revolution. Great Britain still later began to reduce the
number of capital offenses, until only murder remained. Mean-
while, the prisons were placed under state management, and
special reformatories were established for first offenders. The
idea is now to make confinement less a punishment than a means
of developing the convict's ■self-respect and manhood, so that
he may return to free life a useful member of society.
The modern attitude toward the feeble-minded and the
insane likewise shows the increasing humanity of the age.
Emancipation of Women and Children 679
Such persons are no longer regarded with amusement or con-
tempt, but are rather considered as pitiful victims of heredity
and of circumstances for which they were not
reponsible. Every civilized country now pro-
vides asylums for their proper care under medical supervision.
The crusade against alcohoHsm further illustrates humani-
tarian progress. The use of wine, beer, and spirits, formerly
uncondemned, more and more comes under moral
, . . . Til 1 r Abolition
reprobation as it is realized that they form one of the
of the most potent agencies of man's degeneration. ^^^^^
tr&nic
The World War led Russia to abolish the govern-
ment monopoly of vodka and other countries to restrict the
consumption of intoxicating liquors. Their manufacture, sale,
or transportation in the United States is prohibited by a con-
stitutional amendment, which was ratified in 1918-1919 by
more than three-fourths of the state legislatures. It goes into
effect one year after ratification.
236. Emancipation of Women and Children
Woman's position in Europe a century ago was what it had
been in the Middle Ages — a position of dependence on man.
She received little or no education, seldom en- Disabilities
gaged in anything but housework, and for support °^ woman
relied on husband, father, or brother. After marriage she
became subject to her husband. In Great Britain she could
neither make a will nor enter into a contract without his con-
sent. All her possessions belonged to him. Any money that
she earned or inherited was his and might be taken to pay his
debts. The law even deprived her of control over her own
children. Similar disabilities rested upon Continental women.
The humanitarian sentiment evoked by the French Revo-
lution began by freeing slave and serf, but presently demanded
the emancipation of woman also. The demand Woman's
received a powerful impetus from the Industrial "shis
Revolution, which opened new employments to woman out-
side the home and thus lessened her economic dependence on
man. The agitation for woman's rights has so far succeeded
68o Modern Civilization
that many countries permit her to obtain an education, own
property, and enter business or the professions on her own
account. Certain countries also grant her the right to vote and
hold public office.
Woman suffrage scored its first victories in Scandinavia.
During the decade before the World War both Finland and
Norway permitted women to vote at general elections. Den-
Woman mark extended full voting privileges to women
suffrage in shortly after the outbreak of the war, and Sweden
Europe -^ about to take the same progressive step. The
patriotic work of British women in munition factories, in the
hospitals, and on the farms had its reward in 1918, when Parlia-
ment passed an equal • franchise bill. This measure ranks in
importance with the three Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884.^
It not only confers the franchise for the House of Commons
upon substantially every man over twenty-one years of age in
Great Britain and Ireland, but also confers it upon every woman
over thirty years of age who has hitherto voted in local elec-
tions or is the wife of a local elector. As a result, the number of
voters in the United Kingdom has been practically doubled.
Even more radical concessions to women are promised by the
revolutionary governments of Germany and central Europe.
AustraUa and New Zealand have established complete
political democracy by giving the vote to women without
restrictions. The suffrage movement has made
suffrage slower progress in the United States. Wyoming,
outside of when admitted to statehood in 1892, set the ex-
Europe , r . 1 1 n 1
ample of grantmg the ballot to women on the
same terms as to men, and fourteen other states now do the
same. A constitutional amendment to provide for woman
suffrage throughout the Union is pending in Congress.
The decline of the husband's power over his wife is accom-
panied by a decline of the father's authority over his children.
Emancipation Among early peoples, the ancient Romans for
of children example, the father's control of his offspring was
absolute, and their Uberty was often sacrificed to his despotic
1 See pages 578 and 580.
The Separation of Church and State 68i
rule. The Roman idea of family obligations survived in Europe
through the Middle Ages and still Hngers in Latin countries at
the present time. In Anglo-Saxon countries, on the other hand,
both law and custom regard the grown-up child as independent
of the father. Even his authority over minors is considered
mainly in the light of guardianship. This Uberal conception of
paternal rights bids fair to prevail among all civilized peoples.
237. Religious Toleration and the Separation of Church
and State
Few of us realize how gradually the principle of religious
toleration has won acceptance in modern times.^ At first only
certain Protestant sects, such as the Lutherans Religious
in Germany after the Peace of Augsburg and the toleration
Huguenots in France after the Edict of Nantes, enjoyed liberty
of conscience and worship. Next, the same privileges were
granted to all Protestant sects, as in Holland, in England by the
Toleration Act, and in the American colonies. Finally, toler-
ation was extended to every one, whether Protestant or Roman
Catholic, Christian or non-Christian. The First Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States provides that Congress
shall make no law prohibiting the "free exercise of religion."
The French revolutionists in the Declaration of the Rights of
Man also announced that no one should be disturbed on account
of his religious opinions, provided he did not thereby trouble
public order. The Great Elector and Frederick the Great
estabHshed toleration in Prussia. It was secured in the rest
of Germany and in Austria-Hungary and Italy only during the
nineteenth century. Great Britain delayed until the same
century before admitting Roman Catholics, Unitarians, and
Jews to the full rights of citizenship. Several American states
still debar atheists from voting and holding public office.
The liberal movement in religion has carried further that
multiplication of sects which began with the Reformation.^
Seventeenth-century England produced the Baptists and the
Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they are commonly called.
1 See pages 334 and 351. 2 See page 349.
682
Modern Civilization
The Methodists arose in the eighteenth century, out of the
preaching of John Wesley (i 703-1 791) and his associates. They
worked among the common people of England, gained a large
following by their fervor, piety,
and the strictness of their ways,^
and gradually sep-
arated from the An-
ghcan Church. Other sects,
including the Adventists, Uni-
versalists, and Disciples of Christ,
and even new religions, such as
Mormonism, Spiritualism, and
Christian Science, have originated
in the United States.
Both Freemasonry and Odd-
fellowship took their present
Secret form in Great Brit-
societies g^jj^ about two cen-
turies ago. They now have
thousands of lodges and several
millions of members throughout the world. Their insistence
upon religious toleration makes it possible for them to admit
votaries of even non-Christian faiths, as in India.
The modern principle of "a free Church in a free State"
has been slowly and imperfectly attained. In the Middle
Separation ^S^s the Church controlled, or tried to control,
the State, upon the theory that temporal as well
as spiritual authority is derived from the pope.
The Reformation, in those countries where it succeeded, merely
substituted a number of separate national churches for the one
Church of Rome. To Roger Williams and WiUiam Penn in
the seventeenth century belongs the honor of having founded
the first poUtical communities where religious matters were
taken entirely out of the hands of the civil government. Neither
Rhode Island nor Pennsylvania in colonial times had an estab-
lished church.
John Wesley
After a painting by George Romney in
the possession of W. R. Cassels, London.
of Church
and State
1 Hence the name "Methodists."
Popular Education and the Higher Learning 683
The ideas of Williams and Penn found expression in the
First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Congress is forbidden to make any law "respecting
an establishment of religion." This means that lishment
the federal government cannot appropriate money ^ }^^
for the support of any church. No such re-
striction binds the several states, but most of their constitutions
repeat the federal prohibition.
The example of the United States has been followed in
Canada, Australia, South Africa, and other parts of the British
Empire. The Liberal Party under Gladstone oisestab-
disestablished the Anglican Church in Ireland lishment
(1869) and under Lloyd George disestablished it
in Wales (1914). The French revolutionists, by the Consti-
tution of 1795, separated Church and State, but a few years
later Napoleon's Concordat^ with the pope again made Roman
Catholicism the official religion. The Concordat was abro-
gated as recently as 1905, and both Catholic and Protestant
bodies in France now depend entirely upon voluntary contri-
butions for support. The Portuguese revolutionists, when
founding a republic in 19 10, disestablished the Roman Church,
and the Russian revolutionists in 191 7 disestablished the Greek
Church. The separation of Church and State prevails in
Holland and Belgium and is to prevail in Germany according
to the proposed new constitution for that country.
238. Popular Education and the Higher Learning
The schools of the Middle Ages were neither secular nor
public nor free.^ Clergymen taught them, the Church gener-
ally controlled them, and the few pupils who Popular
attended them paid fees for their tuition. One education
result of the Reformation was the introduction into some of the
German states, Holland, Scotland, and the Puritan colonies
of New England of elementary schools supported by general
taxation, so that every one might be able to read and interpret
the Scriptures intelligently. This free pubHc school system,
1 See page 524. 2 See pages 160 and 257.
684 Modern Civilization
which it is the glory of the reformers to have estabhshed,
spread throughout the United States after the Revolution and
became entirely secular in character. The advance of demo-
cratic ideas in Europe during the nineteenth century has pro-
duced a similar movement there in favor of popular education.
British statesmen for a long time looked with disfavor upon
projects for public schools. Education, they thought, unfits
the people for manual labor and nourishes revolu-
Pubhc . ^ ., u^r ^ 1
schools in tionary ideas. It a horse knew as much as a
Great man, I should not like to be its rider," declared
Britain • ^ ,. , • •
a peer m Parhament, when votmg agamst an
appropriation for educational purposes. In 1870, after the
passage of the second Reform Act, which enfranchised the
working classes, the government set up for the first time a
national system of instruction. "We must educate our mas-
ters," it was said. Elementary education in Great Britain is
now free, compulsory, and secular. Many parents, however,
prefer to send their children to private institutions under the
control of the Established Church.
The French revolutionists believed with Danton that "next
to bread, education is the first need of the people." They
P^^P^^^d an elaborate scheme for pubUc schools,
schools More pressing questions compelled its postpone-
on the ment, however, and France waited until the
Continent , . , . r 1 1 1 r ...
eighties of the last century before putting it into
operation. Prussia began to reorganize elementary education
along modern lines as early as the reign of Frederick the Great
and carried the work further after her crushing defeat by Napo-
leon. The public school movement has made much progress
in other Continental countries during recent years, with a
notable decrease in illiteracy as the result. More and more
it is recognized that at least the rudiments of an education
should be the birthright of every child.
What deserves to be called the American system of education
The higher reaches from the kindergarten to the graduate and
learning professional school. High schools and normal
schools for the professional training of teachers are found in
Science 685
every state, and state universities in every one south and west
of Pennsylvania. Their work is supplemented not only by the
private colleges and universities, but also by the splendid
benefactions especially associated with the names of Rockefeller
and Carnegie. No European country makes it so easy for an
ambitious student to obtain the higher learning.
239. Science
When the nineteenth century opened, science enjoyed only
a Hmited recognition in universities and none at all in secondary
and elementary schools. The marvelous achieve- Science in
ments of scientific men fixed public attention on °iodern life
their work, and courses in science began to displace the older
"classical" studies. At the same time science has become an
international force which recognizes no national boundaries,
no distinctions of race or religion. Scientists in every land
follow one another's researches; they carry on their labor in
common.
Many pages would be needed merely to enumerate the
scientific discoveries of our age. The astronomer found a new
planet, Neptune; measured the distances of the Pure
fLxed stars; and, by means of the spectroscope, science
analyzed the constituents of the most distant heavenly bodies.
The physicist determined the velocity of light and showed that
light, radiant heat, electricity, and magnetism are due to waves
or undulations of the ether; are, in fact, interconvertible forms
of cosmic energy. The chemist proved that matter exists in
a solid, liquid, or gaseous state according to the degree of heat
to which it is subjected; that it is composed of one or more of
eighty-odd elements; and that these elements combine with
one another in fixed proportions by weight, as when one pound
of hydrogen unites with eight pounds of oxygen to form nine
pounds of water. The biologist discovered that all plants and
animals, from the lowest to the highest, are made up of cells
containing the transparent jelly or protoplasm which is the
basis of Hfe.
The practical appUcations of science are innumerable. Ap-
686
Modern Civilization
vibrations in the ether.
plied physics gave us the storage battery and the dynamo,
making possible the telegraph, telephone, electric lighting, and
Applied electric motive force. More recently, wireless te-
science legraphy and telephony have developed from the
discovery in 1887 of the "Hertzian waves," or electro-magnetic
In 1895 the German Rontgen found
the mysterious X-rays, and in
1898 the French professor
Curie, assisted by his PoHsh
wife, revealed the existence of
the still more mysterious ra-
dium. AppUed chemistry gave
Marie Curie
us illuminating gas, friction
matches, such powerful explo-
sives as dynamite and nitro-
glycerine, which are produced
from animal or vegetable fats,
artificial fertilizers, beet sugar,
aluminum, and various deriv-
atives of coal tar, including
the anihne dyes, carbolic acid, naphtha, and saccharine. The
biological researches of the Frenchman, Louis Pasteur, and
others upon microbes or bacteria revolutionized the practice of
medicine and led to the speedy elimination in civiUzed countries
of hydrophobia, typhus, yellow fever, cholera, the bubonic
plague, and other scourges. Meanwhile surgery has been revo-
lutionized by the use of anaesthetics and the introduction of
antisepsis and asepsis.
New conceptions of the earth were set forth by Sir Charles
Lyell in his Principles of Geology (i 830-1 833). He explained
The uni- ^^^ changes which have produced mountains,
fonnitarian valleys, plains, lakes, sea-coasts, and other natural
t eory features, not as the result of convulsions or catas-
trophes, as had been previously supposed, but as due to erosion
by water, the action of frost and snow, and other forces working
gradually over immense periods of time. The acceptance of
Lyell's uniformitarian theory, coupled with the discovery of
Philosophy and Literature
687
fossils in the rocks, made it necessary to reckon the age of the
earth by untold millions, instead of a few thousands, of years.
The further discovery in western Europe of rude stone imple-
ments and human bones associated with the remains of extinct
animals, such as the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and cave
bear, indicated the existence of man himself at a remote period.
Even before Charles Darwin published the Origin of Species
(1859), naturalists argued that ex-
isting plants and animals, instead
of being separately ^^^
created, had evolved evolutionary
from a few ancestral ^°^^
types. Darwin was first to show
how evolution might have occurred
by means of ''natural selection."
He pointed out that many more
individuals of each species are born
than can possibly live to rear their
offspring ; that, in consequence,
there is a constant '' struggle for
existence" between them; and that
the fittest who survive are the
strongest, the swiftest, the most
cunning, the most adaptable, — in Charles Darwin
other words, those who possess characteristics that give them
a superiority over their competitors. Such characteristics,
transmitted by heredity, tend to become more and more
marked in succeeding generations, until at length entirely new
species arise. Investigators since Darwin have made impor-
tant additions to the evolutionary theory. Despite sharp
criticism, it still stands as the most plausible explanation yet
offered of the development of life on the earth.
240. Philosophy and Literature
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century man has
become more and more interested in himself; he has resolved
to learn what he is, whence he came, and what he shall be.
688
Modern Civilization
Philosophy
These are the old questions of philosophy. Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903), the close friend of Darwin, sought to answer them
with the aid of evolutionary principles. The ten volumes of
his Synthetic Philosophy form
an ambitious attempt to explain
the development
of the universe as
a whole, from the atom to the
star, from the one-celled organ-
ism to man. Spencer was a
pioneer in the study of psy-
chology, that branch of phi-
losophy dealing with the mental
processes of both man and the
lower animals.
Spencer also broke fresh
ground in the study of sociol-
„ . , osry. He carried
Sociology , • . 1
over the prmciple
of evolution into human society,
with the purpose of showing how lan-
guages, laws, religions, customs, and
all other institutions naturally arise
and develop among mankind. ''So-
ciology," as the name for this new
subject, had been previously intro-
duced by the French philosopher,
Auguste Comte.
The study of history has been trans-
formed imder the influence of the soci-
History and ologists. It is no longer
anthropology merely a narrative in
chronological order of political and
miUtary events, but rather an account
of the entire culture of a people. The
historian wants to learn about their
houses, furniture, costumes, and food; how they made their
Herbert Spencer
After a photograph of the philosopher
at the age of seventy-eight.
Sir Walter Scott
After a painting by Colvin
Smith.
Philosophy and Literature
689
living; what buildings they raised, what books they read; what
schools they supported; what beliefs and superstitions they
held; what amusements and festivals they enjoyed. Some his-
torical students do not limit inquiry to civilized man, but also
investigate the culture of savage and barbarous peoples as
found to-day or once found in remote ages. History, so con-
sidered, is closely related to anthropology, one of the most fas-
cinating of the newer branches of learning.
Public schools, pubHc libraries, and cheap books, maga-
zines, and newspapers have multiplied readers. ^^^^^^
Literature, in consequence, is now a profession,
and the successful novelist or poet may secure a world-wide
audience. Sir Walter
Scott did much to
give the novel popu-
larity through his his-
torical tales. Dickens,
Thackeray, and other
English writers made
it a presentation of
contemporary life.
On the Continent al-
most all the celebrated
authors of the past
century have been
novelists. It is suffi-
cient to mention three
only, whose fame has
gone out into many
lands: the Frenchman
Victor Hugo; the Rus-
sian Tolstoy; and the Victor Hugo
Pole Sienkiewicz After a painting by Leon Bonnat.
The drama rivals the novel in popularity among all classes.
It presents either a picture of bygone ages or scenes from
everyday Hfe. In no country does it assume more importance
than in France, where the theater is considered a branch of
690
Modern Civilization
public instruction. Much dramatic poetry, however, is written
to be read, rather than for acting on the stage, for instance,
the Faust of Goethe. Lyric poetry has been pro-
duced in all countries, notably in Great Britain,
France, Germany, Italy, and the United States, and has become
the favorite style of poetic expression.
241. Music and the Fine Arts
Music now takes almost as large a place as Hterature in
modern life. Even more than hterature, it ranks as an inter-
Music in national force, for the musician, whatever his
modern life nationality, uses a language which needs no
translation to be intelligible.
During medieval times music was chiefly used in the services
of the Church. The Renaissance began to secularize music,
Sacred and ^^ ^^^^ ^^ might express all human joy, sadness,
secular passion, and aspiration. The secular art thus
music includes operas, chamber music (for rendition in
a small apartment instead of in a theater or concert hall),
compositions for soloists, and orchestral symphonies.
The Middle Ages knew
the pipe-organ, harp, flute,
The drum, trum-
orchestra p g ^^ and
many other instruments.
These were often played
together, but with no
other purpose than to in-
crease the volume of
sound. There was not
the slightest idea of orches-
tration. After the Renais-
sance new instruments
began to appear, includ-
ing the violin, viols of all sizes, the slide trombone, and the
clarinet. Percussion action, applied to the old-fashioned spinet
and harpsichord, produced in the eighteenth century the piano-
Mozart's Spinet
Stadt Museum, Vienna
The spinet had only one string to a note, plucked
by means of a quill or a plectrum of leather.
Music and the Fine Arts
691
musical
drama
LuDWiG VAN Beethoven
After a painting by A. Kloeber, 1817.
forte. The symphony, a tone poem combining all musical
sounds into a harmonious whole, now began to assume its
present form. The great
symphonists — Haydn,
Mozart, that supreme genius
Beethoven (i 770-1827), and
their successors in the nine-
teenth century — thus cre-
ated a new art to enrich the
higher life of mankind.
Another master of music,
Richard Wag- ^j^^
ner (1813-
1883), created
the musical drama, which
unites music, poetry, and
acting. Wagner believed
that the singer should also
be an actor and should adapt
both song and gesture to the orchestra. He also gave much
attention to the scenery and stage-
setting in order to heighten the
dramatic effect. Wagner's most
famous work, The Ring of the Ni-
belung, consists of four complete
dramas based on old Teutonic
legend.
Like music, sculpture illustrates
the internationalism of art. The
three greatest sculp-
tors of the nineteenth
century were Canova, an Italian,
Thorwaldsen, a Dane, and Rodin,
a Frenchman. The first two found
inspiration mainly in classic statu-
ary, which seeks ideal beauty of
form; the third expressed in marble the utmost reahsm and
Sculpture
Richard Wagner
After a portrait by Franz von Len-
bach painted about 1872.
692 Modern Civilization
naturalism. Much fine work has also been done in bronze,
for instance, the Chicago statue of Abraham Lincoln by St.
Gaudens, who is rightly considered the most eminent sculptor
produced by America.
No century has witnessed more activity in the construction
of churches, town halls, court houses, theaters, schools, and
other public edifices than the nineteenth, but
AiTcliitfictiirB
these have usually been reproductions of earlier
buildings. Architects either went to Greece and Rome for
models or imitated the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The
extensive use of structural steel has now begun to produce an
entirely new architectural style, more appropriate to modern
needs, in the "skyscraper" of American cities. It is sometimes
criticized as being ''not architecture, but engineering with a
stone veneer." The criticism seems hardly just in all cases.
Such a structure as the Woolworth Building in New York has
a beauty of its own and truly expresses the spirit of our indus-
trial age.
Modern painters, no longer restricted to religious pictures,
often choose their subjects from history or contemporary hfe.
They excel in portraiture, and their landscape
Painting . ^ . • 1 , 11 , . ,
pamtmgs unquestionably surpass the best which
even the ''old masters" of the Renaissance could produce.
Painting flourishes especially in France, where the leading
artists receive their training and exhibit their pictures at an
annual exposition, the Salon at Paris.
242. Historic and Artistic Paris
The capitals of France and Great Britain represent much that
is best in modern civilization. Paris and London are the
Paris and largest cities in the Old World. Their civic hfe
London reaches back without a break to Roman times.
They contain more monuments and edifices of historic or artistic
interest than any other places in Europe, except Athens, Rome,
and possibly Venice. To visit either of them is a liberal edu-
cation.
Paris, the ancient Lutetia, first appears in history as a small
Historic and Artistic Paris 693
settlement of the Gallic tribe of the Parish on an island in the
Seine (lie de la Cite) . This was for centuries the entire site.
, Conquered by the Romans under Juhus Caesar, oaUic and
Paris formed a place of some importance in the Ro°ian Paris
Roman Empire and after the introduction of Christianity
became the see of a bishopric. It repelled the assaults of Attila
the Hun in the fifth century, but surrendered to Clovis, who
made it the official residence of the Merovingian kings.
Charlemagne and the later Carolingians seldom visited Paris,
which did not again become the seat of government until the
accession of Hugh Capet. The great Capetian Medieval
rulers of the Middle Ages showed their affection ^*"^
for the city by extending its walls and paving its streets, found-
ing its university, the most famous in Christendom, and build-
ing numerous abbeys and churches in the Gothic style.
The French monarchs of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries, above all, Louis XIV, continued the
embeUishment of Paris. Here the first Napoleon Modem
erected his principal monuments. Still more ^^^
noteworthy was the transforming work of the third Napoleon,
who cleared away the maze of narrow winding streets and sub-
stituted for them broad avenues and noble squares. Paris
suffered terribly at the hands of the "communards" of 1871.
The city soon recovered from their depredations, however,
and during the last half century completed the great public
works which make it the most spacious and imposing of modern
capitals.
The Seine runs through Paris from east to west in a broad
curve for nearly eight miles. Rising from the river are the
two islands — lie de la Cite and lie St. Louis — Bridges and
both covered with buildings. Thirty-one hand- ^^^y^
some bridges span the Seine, and wide embankments, or quays,
line its sides. The principal shops, cafes, and theaters are
found on the north or right bank of the Seine, while many
pubhc buildings, schools, and museums occupy the south or
left bank of the stream.
No uniformity marks the street plan of Paris. A few of the
694
Modern Civilization
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Historic and Artistic Paris
695
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Streets
Squares
four thousand-odd thoroughfares are
shown on the map. Of these, a
number are the exceptionally wide
avenues and boulevards
which Napoleon III con-
structed, as much to put an end to
barricade fighting as to beautify the
city.
The squares {places) of Paris form
one of its chief attractions. The
finest is the Place de la Concorde,
laid out under Louis XV and noted
as the scene of the ex-
ecution of Louis XVI,
Marie Antoinette, and many other
victims of the Terror. An Egyptian
obehsk occupies the center of the
square. The Place de la Concorde
connects by the splendid Avenue des
Champs Elysees C'Elysian Fields")
with the Place de I'Etoile ("Square
of the Star"), containing the Arc de
Triomphe. The Place Vendome has
a column surmounted by a statue of
Napoleon I. . The Place de la Bas-
tille, on the former site of that prison,
is marked by a memorial column in
honor of those who fell in the "July
Revolution" oi 1830.
Not less attractive are the prom-
enades and parks of Paris. The
Jardin des Tuileries, now wholly
given over to trees, flowers, foun-
Set up by Napoleon in the Place Vendome. It is 142 feet in height and 13 feet in
diameter. Like Trajan's column, of which it is an imitation, the monument is encircled
with a spiral band of bronze bas-reliefs commemorating the campaign of 1805. The
summit is surmounted by a statue of the emperor. During the rule of the " commu-
nards " in 187 1 the column was overthrown, but it was subsequently reerected and restored.
696 Modern Civilization
tains, and statues, formerly contained the Tuileries palace,
which was burned by the ''communards." Across the Seine
Promenades lies the Jardin du Luxembourg, with a palace used
and parks by the French Senate. The Champ de Mars
(''Field of Mars") is a parade ground. Here stands the Tour
Eiffel, a graceful structure of iron lattice-work nearly a thou-
sand feet high. The tower was built for the Paris Exposition
of 1889.
Notre Dame Cathedral,^ the most important of Parisian
churches and one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture
^^ ^ in Europe, occupies part of the island called La
Churcnes
Cite. The present building has had several
predecessors, for already in the fourth century a church stood
on this site. The French revolutionists converted Notre Dame
into a Temple of Reason, but under Napoleon I it went back
to rehgious use. The same emperor built the exquisite Made-
leine as a hall of fame to commemorate his victories. It has
the lines of a Roman temple with a colonnade of Corinthian
pillars. The structure is now a church.
The Louvre, impressive both for extent and noble archi-
tecture, was the chief royal palace until Louis XIV built Ver-
Civil sailles. It is now a wonderful museum of the
buildings f^^ g^rts, ancient, medieval, and modern. Among
the priceless treasures to be seen here are the "Aphrodite of
Melos," the "Winged Victory of Samothrace," and Leonardo
da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." The Palais de Justice (law courts)
forms a huge assemblage of buildings on the site of the palace
of Merovingian and Capetian kings. The Hotel des InvaHdes,
on the left bank of the Seine, dates from the reign of Louis XIV,
who founded it as a home for infirm or disabled soldiers. But
no one thinks of the "Grand Monarch" in the InvaHdes; it
is dedicated rather to Napoleon, whose reHcs crowd its rooms
and who himself lies in a huge sarcophagus under the gilded
dome.2 The Pantheon, another imposing domed building,
served originally as a church, but the revolutionists in 1791
1 Read Victor Hugo's tragic romance, Notre-Dame de Paris, especially book iii,
chap. i. 2 Sgg t^ijg illustration, page 540.
5' o
§1
698 Modern Civilization
secularized it as a sepulcher for great Frenchmen. Voltaire,
Rousseau, and Victor Hugo are entombed here.
Besides the Louvre, Paris has many other museums. The
most interesting, historically, is the Musee de Cluny, installed
Museums in a Gothic mansion built by the abbot of Cluny
end hbranes during the fifteenth century. It stands on the
site of a Roman palace, the ruins of whose baths still remain.
Among the libraries of Paris the BibUotheque Nationale, which
occupies Cardinal Mazarin's residence, has first place. This
immense collection of manuscripts, books, prints, and maps
originated in the Middle Ages as a royal hbrary, but since the
Revolution it has been a state institution.
Paris is naturally a leading educational center. The fame
of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as an art school attracts students
of architecture, sculpture, and painting from all
countries. In the Latin Quarter, where many of
them live and maintain their studios; stands the Sorbonne,
founded in the thirteenth century and until the Revolution
celebrated as a theological seminary. The French revolution-
ists suppressed the institution, together with all other colleges
and universities throughout France. Napoleon renewed it,
however, and in its magnificent new building the Sorbonne has
become the chief seat of learning in France. Not far away
is the Palais de ITnstitut, a seventeenth-century structure
which houses the Institut de France, an association of the
five French academies of letters and science.
The drama has a large part in Parisian life, and several of
the important theaters receive annual subsidies from the
government. The Opera is the largest and most
splendid playhouse in the world. The Theatre
Frangais, the home of the best French drama, was founded by
MoUere in the seventeenth century, and here his comedies are
still played.
The tourist in Paris seldom omits a visit to the cemetery
Pere-la- named after Pere la Chaise, the confessor of
Chaise Louis XIV. It covers over a hundred acres and
Cemetery contains the tombs of many famous Frenchmen.
Notre Dame
The present structure, begun in 1163 and completed about 1240, suffered severely during
the French Revolution, when it was converted into a Temple of Reason. Extensive renova-
tions and alterations were made during the nineteenth century. Two massive square towers,
originally intended to support spires, crown the principal or western facade. Its three doors
are surrounded by elaborate sculptures and surmounted by a row of figures representing
twenty -eight kings of Israel and Judah. Above the central door is a rose window of stained
glass and above this a graceful gallery of painted arches supported on slender columns.
700 Modern Civilization
Paris has always been a fortress. The present waU, replacing
earlier ramparts, completely surrounds the city. Through its
Walls and gates run the main highways into the charming
suburbs of suburbs. One may visit Fontainebleau, Napo-
*"^ leon's favorite residence, where he abdicated in
1 8 14, and the chateau of Malmaison, which he presented to
Josephine after the divorce. Then there are St.-Denis, with its
abbey-church, the burial place of the French kings; Sevres,
with its manufactory of exquisite porcelain; and St.-Germain,
once the dweUing of royalty and now a national museum.
Above all there is Versailles, twelve miles distant from Paris.^
Here the Estates-General met in 1789 and began the Revolution;
here WilHam I of Prussia was proclaimed German emperor
in 187 1 ; and here in 1 919 were signed the treaties -which brought
peace to a warring world.
243. Historic and Artistic London
London, the ancient Londinium, seems to have been a British
settlement before the Roman occupation of Britain in the
British and ^^^^ century A.D. Under the Romans it was a
Roman place of some importance, to judge from the
^ °^ abundant remains which we possess. Ruins of
the waUs, of villas, and of a basilica are stiU to be seen, while
thousands of coins have been found in the bed of the Thames.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, London
came under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons and subsequently
Medieval of the Danes. It had grown to be the metropolis
London Qf England by the time of the Norman Conquest.
Both Norman and Plantagenet kings recognized the importance
of London by granting charters of Hberty to its inhabitants,
and Magna Carta expressly stipulated that the city should
continue to enjoy all its old privileges.
The chief event in the history of London under the Tudors
was the suppression of the monasteries and -nunneries by Henry
VIII. More than half the area of the city had been occupied
by these establishments, which were now adapted to secular
1 See the illustration, page 400.
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Historic and Artistic London
701
702 Modern Civilization
uses. The Great Fire of 1666, early in the reign of Charles II,
continued three days and licked up thirteen thousand houses
Modem — practically all that remained of the medieval
London ^ity. Since the middle of the nineteenth century
London has been much improved by rebuilding, the laying out
of new streets and parks, and the erection of monuments.
It still lacks the spaciousness, the elegance and charm, of Paris,
but in historic interest, at least for Enghsh-speaking peoples,
even surpasses the French capital.
There are really three Londons. First comes the City
proper, the commercial and financial heart of the metropoHs.
Extent of It Stretches for about a mile along the north bank
London Qf ^j^g Thames and occupies the site of the Roman
town. Beyond the City spreads Metropolitan London, which
is a circle with a radius of approximately twelve miles from its
center at Charing Cross. Lastly, comes "Greater London,"
reaching out into several English counties and containing,
with the City and the metropolitan boroughs, more than
seven miUion inhabitants.
The streets of London are innumerable. Straightened
out and laid end to end, they would reach across the United
Topography States. The principal continuous thoroughfares,
of London though each bears a succession of names, coincide
with the main roads converging upon the capital from all parts
of England. The Thames follows a devious course through
London. Its sides are fined with embankments used as prome-
nades. Fourteen road bridges cross the river, including famous
London Bridge, which replaces a thirteenth-century structure.
The parks are a notable feature in the topography of London.
St. James's Park was laid out by Charles II. At its western
end rises Buckingham Palace, the London resi-
Parks
dence of royalty. Green Park extends between
the MaU and Piccadilly. Hyde Park, which Henry VIII took
over on the dissolution of the monasteries, forms a resort of
fashionable society and often also the scene of popular demon-
strations. Kensington Gardens and Regent's Park are other
open spaces.
704
Modern Civilization
The principal places of interest to the tourist lie along the
Thames from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey.
The Tower Among secular buildings none is more venerable
•of London ^j^^n the Tower, which stands at the eastern
boundary of the City. William the Conqueror raised the
great central keep or
White Tower, so called
because it was once
whitewashed.^ The
inner wall, with its thir-
teen turrets, was added
by William Rufus, the
Conqueror's son, the
moat by Richard I, and
the outer wall by Henry
III. The Tower has
been a fortress, a palace,
and a prison ; it now
serves as a government
arsenal, historical mu-
seum, and repository for
the crown jewels.
London's most promi-
nent building, St. Paul's
St. Paul's Cathedral,
Cathedral stands in
the center of the City,
upon a site dedicated to
The Nelson Monument, religion since Anglo-
Trafalgar Square Saxon times. The present
A granite Corinthian column, 145 feet high, sur- g^Jj^^-e replacing the
mounted by a statue of Nelson, 16 feet high. On i j' 1 j j u
the pedestal are bronze sculptures, cast with the cathedral destroyed by
metal of captured French cannon and representing ^j^^ Great Fire is the
scenes from Nelson's naval victories. Four colossal r-l, '* 4- V,
lions, modeled by Sir Edwin Landseer, crouch at WOrk 01 Oir Lhristopher
the base of the monument. Wren, who HCS in the
crypt, together with the duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, and
1 See the illustration, page 194.
Historic and Artistic London
705
7o6 Modern Civilization
other famous Englishmen. In general appearance St. Paul's
resembles St. Peter's at Rome, but it is much smaller. The
style of architecture unites Gothic and classical features. The
great dome, both from within and without, forms the most
imposing feature of the cathedral.
From St. Paul's one may proceed along Fleet Street with its
newspaper offices, and the Strand, with its hotels, shops, and
Trafalgar theaters, to Trafalgar Square. The lofty monu-
Square ment in the center commemorates Nelson's vic-
tory over the combined fleets of France and Spain.
The National Gallery, containing magnificent art collections,
is on the north side of Trafalgar Square. Some distance away
is the British Museum, the most celebrated in-
National . . -.,.,. , 1 , A • 1
Gallery and stitution of its kmd m the world. A smgle great
British building houses the collections of books, manu-
Museum . ° . , ... , . , ,
scripts, coins, and antiquities which have accumu-
lated since the museum was founded in the eighteenth century.
The short street called Whitehall, containing the Admiralty,
Treasury, and other government offices, leads from Trafalgar
Houses of Square to the Houses of Parliament. These
Parliament buildings, as beautiful and impressive outside as
they are luxurious inside, were erected during the nineteenth
century in the richest style of Tudor Gothic. They cover
eight acres and include eleven hundred rooms. The east
front opens directly upon the Thames. Historic Westminster
Hall,^ belonging to the former royal palace on the site, is in-
corporated in the Parliament, buildings. There are three
towers: the Clock Tower, with the famous bell Big Ben, whose
resonant note may be heard over the greater part of London;
the Central Tower, used as a ventilating shaft; and the Vic-
toria Tower. When Parliament is in "session a light is shown
in the Clock Tower by night and a flag flies from the Victoria
Tower by day.
The church formerly attached to the Benedictine abbey of
St. Peter in Westminster was built in the thirteenth century
upon the site of an earUer church raised by Edward the Con-
1 See the illustration, page 386.
Historic and Artistic London
707
fessor. Since the Norman Conquest all but one of the English
sovereigns have been crowned here, and until the time of
George III it served as their last resting place. Westminster
The abbey is now England's Hall of Fame, where Abbey
many of her distinguished statesmen, warriors, poets, artists,
and scientists are buried. Monuments, tombs, busts, and
memorials crowd every part of a building that
epitomizes English history.
Westminster Abbey
Studies
I. Name and locate twelve of the leading cities of modern Europe and give
reasons for their importance. 2. What is the "international mind'? The "inter-
national conscience"? 3. Look up in an encyclopedia accounts of (a) Volapuk
and Esperanto; (b) the kindergarten movement; and (c) the Rhodes Scholarships.
4. Present some of the arguments commonly advanced for and against woman
suffrage. 5. Show that religious toleration and an established church may exist
side by side. 6. What is meant by "a free Church in a free State"? 7. What is
the work of the Rockefeller Foundation? Of the Carnegie Institution? 8. How
many of the great European universities can you enumerate? 9. Explain the
"germ theory" of disease. 10. How are the X-rays and radium used in surgery
and medicine? 11. Distinguish between antisepsis and asepsis. 12. Why has
Darwin been often called "the Newton of biology"? 13. Mention some of the
most famous novels by Scott, Dickens and Thackeray. 14. Have you read any
novels by Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, or Sienkiewicz? 15. Name six great lyric poets
of Great Britain during the nineteenth century. Can you name any of France,
Germany, and Italy? 16. Mention some of the great composers of the nineteenth
century. 17. On the maps (pages 694 and 701) locate the principal monuments
and public buildings of Paris and London.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE WORLD WAR, 1914-19181
244. National Rivalries and Antipathies
Modern civilization, which on the one side creates an inter-
national current drawing the world's, peoples together in art,
- , ^ literature, science, and industry, on the other side
Internation- ' ' •' \
aiism and creates a national current tending to keep them
nationalism apart. Internationalism or cosmopolitanism lays
stress on our common humanity, on the brotherhood of man.
Nationalism or patriotism emphasizes love of country and
devotion to the ''fatherland." National rivalries and an-
tipathies were never stronger than in the nineteenth century,
and in the twentieth century they brought forth the calamitous
World War.
The national movement in Europe, we have learned^ arose
during the revolutionary and Napoleonic era, helped to pro-
duce the popular revolts between 1815 and 1830,
Germany on and assumed special importance between 1848 and
the Con- 1871, when both Italy and Germany won by the
sword their long-desired unification. The creation
of a united Italy, and especially of a united Germany, quite
upset the delicate equilibrium of European politics as es-
tablished at the Congress of Vienna. The old balance of
power disappeared, for the German Empire from the hour of
its birth took the first place on the Continent.
Bismarck's former policy of ''blood and iron" had brought
on the wars with Denmark, Austria, and France. Now that
Germany Germany was "satiated," as he declared, he
and France became a man of peace. His policy, henceforth,
hinged upon France. The catastrophe of 1870-1871 seemed to
1 Webster, Readings in Medieval and Modern History, chapter xxxv, "Diplomacy
of the Great War."
708
National Rivalries and Antipathies 709
remove that country from the ranks of the great powers, but
she recovered rapidly under a republican government and
soon paid off the indemnity imposed upon her by the Treaty
of Frankfort. For Bismarck a France which would not be
reconciled to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine was a potential enemy.
The French in 1870-1871 had fought alone; should they secure
the support of Austria-Hungary, Italy, or Russia, the issue of
a second Franco-German War might be quite unlike that of
the first. Accordingly, Bismarck did all he could to keep France
friendless among the nations.
The "Iron Chancellor" turned first to Austria-Hungary. He
had prepared the way for good relations by his moderation in
arranging terms of peace with Francis Joseph I ^^
at the close of the "Seven Weeks' War." After German
1 87 1 the Hapsburgs began to seek compensation ^^^^^^^^
in the Balkans for the territory they had lost in Germany and
Italy. Bismarck supported their pretensions at the Congress
of Berlin in 1878. Here the "honest broker," as he called him-
self, successfully opposed the extension of Russian influence
in the Balkan peninsula and agreed to an Austrian occupation
of the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.^ A year
later Germany and Austria-Hungary made a secret alliance
binding themselves to aid each other if either should be at-
tacked by Russia or by another power which had the help of
Russia.
Bismarck scored a further triumph in 1882, when he induced
Italy to throw in her lot with Germany and Austria-Hungary,
thus forming the Triple Alliance. Italy joined the ^j^^ ^^ j^
Central Powers, chiefly because of resentment AiUancef^
against France, which had just established a pro- ^^^^
tectorate over Tunis.^ This Turkish province, the region of
ancient Carthage, contained a large Italian population, and
Italy had hoped herself to snatch it from the Sultan's feeble
hands. The Triple Alliance continued unbroken until after
the opening of the World War.
Bismarck also did his best to convince Russia of Germany's
1 See page 599. 2 3gg p^g^ ^^^
National Rivalries and Antipathies 711
giving offence to Great Britain Bismarck scrupulously observed
Belgian neutrality during the war of 1870-1871, and for the
same reason he long opposed the acquisition of colonies by
Germany. After Bismarck's retirement the two countries
began to draw apart, especially when the kaiser declared that
the future of Germany lay upon the sea and that she must
have a great navy as well as a great army. The sympathetic
attitude of the emperor and his associates toward the Boers
during the South African War also disturbed the serenity of
Anglo-German relations.
The early years of the twentieth century saw Great Britain
emerge from her ''splendid isolation" and seek new friendships
on the Continent. The first step was reconcilia-
tion with France. The two nations found it pos- entente
sible to adjust their conflicting claims to African cordiale,
territory and to arrive at a "cordial understand-
ing," or entente cordiale. This was not a formal alliance, but it
paved the way for joint action in the future.
Three years later Great Britain and Russia, who for half a
century had jealously watched each other's expansion in Asia,
settled their differences. The entente cordiale Vv n. • ,
ii 1 r 1 • ^"® Tnple
thus became transformed mto a Triple Entente, Entente,
for Russia was already an ally of France. Japan, ^^^^
a British ally since 1902,^ also reached an agreement with
Russia respecting their spheres of influence in the Far East.^
Such, in outline, was the tangled skein of European diplomacy
for nearly forty years following the Franco- German War. The
Triple Alliance under Bismarck's guidance had Balance of
dominated Europe without a competitor, until power
the creation of the Dual Alliance. Something like a balance
of power then replaced the earlier primacy of Germany. The
old coaUtion, however, continued to be far stronger than the
new, until Great Britain aligned herself with France and Russia.
Germany, resentful at what she described as the ''encirclement
policy" of her enemies, at the "iron ring" which she professed
to see being forged around her, now bent every effort to break
1 See page 621. 2 g^g p^g^ 5j^
712 The World War
up the Triple Entente by diplomatic action and by military
threats. At the same time she tried to create a " Middle Europe "
which, with its annexes in Asia, would effectually separate
Great Britain and France from their Russian ally. These Ger-
man projects raised new colonial problems and reopened the
Eastern Question. <
245. Colonial Problems and the Eastern Question
Something has been said in a previous chapter about the
Greater Europe which arose during the nineteenth and twentieth
National- centuries. European expansion went on most
ism and rapidly after 187 1, when one country after another
unpen sm endeavored to form an empire overseas. This new
imperialism was especially fostered by the revival of national
sentiment in Europe. Both Italy and Germany, having be-
come powerful nations, wished to obtain colonial dependencies
where their people could settle and maintain the language,
customs, and traditions of the home land. France sought
compensation for her "lost provinces" by acquiring African
possessions. Russia, Japan, the United States, Spain, even
little Portugal and Belgium, annexed additional territories.
Great Britain, the leading colonial power in the world for more
than a century, took renewed pride in her far-flung dominions
and prepared to extend them as occasion offered. European
peoples could not compete for markets, trading-posts, "spheres
of influence," "protectorates," and colonies in every part of
the world without becoming as bitter rivals abroad as they
were at home. Imperialism, as well as nationalism, thus sowed
the seeds of future conflict between them.
A late-comer in the family of nations, Germany found that
the best regions for colonization in the temperate zone already
Germany's belonged to other powers. The colonies which
♦♦ place in she acquired in Africa and Oceania did not attract
® ^"° settlers, provided no important markets, and
imposed a heavy burden on the imperial treasury for mainte-
nance. If Germany was to secure "a place in the sun," ^ it
• The kaiser's phrase (igoi).
Colonial Problems and the Eastern Question 713
could only be at the expense of other countries and by reliance
upon ''the good German sword." ^ William II made prepara-
tions for the partition of China, but the uprising of the Chinese
under the "Boxers" led to the abandonment of this enterprise.
He tried to get a foothold in South America by sending his
fleet to demand from Venezuela the payment of German debts,
only to be pulled up sharply by President Roosevelt, who
invoked the Monroe Doctrine. Not more successful was the
kaiser's policy in Morocco.
Morocco at the beginning of the twentieth century was a
Moslem state inhabited by half-civilized and very unruly
tribes. The rich natural resources of the country
and its proximity to Algeria made it an inviting Moroccan
field for French expansion. Germany also had ^^^^^'
some economic interests there. William II pre-
cipitated the first Moroccan crisis, at a time when Russia, the
ally of France, was involved in war with Japan. He paid a
visit to the native ruler, openly flouted the French claims,
and asserted in vigorous language the independence of Morocco.
France could not afford to accept the challenge thus flung in
her face and agreed to submit the Moroccan question to an
international conference, which met at Algeciras, Spain, in
1906. The assembled powers prohibited the annexation of
Morocco, but left France free to continue her pohcy of "peace-
ful penetration." The outcome of the conference thus proved
disappointing to the kaiser.
Germany soon found another occasion to test the strength
of the Anglo-French entente. Owing to the anarchy in Morocco,
a French army had occupied the capital (Fez), ge^ond
The kaiser at once dispatched a warship to Agadir Moroccan
on the Moroccan coast as a notice to France to *^"^*^' ^^^^
withdraw her troops. Feeling mounted high in both countries,
and Europe for the moment seemed to be on the verge of the
long-dreaded war. Great Britain, however, made common
cause with France, for Agadir in German hands and converted
into a naval base would have formed a palpable threat to
^ The crown prince's phrase (1913).
714 The World War
British trade routes in the Atlantic. Germany now decided to
yield. She agreed to the estabhshment of a French protectorate
over Morocco, accepting as compensation some territory in
the French Congo. This "Agadir incident" further embittered
international relations. The French regarded their Congo
cession as so much blackmail levied by Germany; the Germans
looked upon Great Britain's support of France as an unwar-
ranted interference which had inflicted upon them a diplomatic
defeat.
Bismarck had treated the whole Eastern Question mth con-
tempt, declaring it "not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian
Germany grenadier." Under William II, however, Germany
and Turkey managed to supplant Great Britain as the pro-
tector of the Ottoman Empire against Russia. The kaiser
twice visited the sultan,^ a bloodthirsty despot whose massacres
of Bulgarians and Armenians had aroused the horror of Chris-
tian Europe, and ostentatiously proclaimed himself the cham-
pion of all Moslems, the ally of Allah.
Germany now began the ''peaceful penetration" of Asiatic
Turkey. The fertile regions of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia,
The Bagdad sparsely settled and undeveloped, offered many
Railway opportunities for the investment of German cap-
ital, markets for German goods, and homes for the superfluous
population of Germany. Economic exploitation was to be
followed by military and political control of the Ottoman
Empire, with Germany in command of the Turkish armies
and supreme throughout the wide area from the Black Sea to
the Indian Ocean. All these dazzling possibilities were fore-
shadowed in the scheme for a railway intended to unite Con-
stantinople with Bagdad and the head of the Persian Gulf.
Nearly all the line as far as Bagdad had been completed by the
opening of the World War. German capitalists also began to
construct a branch line running from Aleppo in Syria to Medina
and Mecca in Arabia. It is obvious that the Bagdad Railway,
with its connections, menaced the position of Great Britain
in India and British control of Egypt and the Suez Canal.
^ Abdul Hamid II ("Abdul the Damned"), 1876-1909.
Colonial Problems and the Eastern Question 715
'® Petrograd
THE
BERLIN TO BAGDAD
RAILWAY
100 200 300 400 500
Scale of Miles
The Berlin to Bagdad Railway
The practical annexation of Asiatic Turkey formed only a
part of the kaiser's ambitious policy. European Turkey, the
Balkan states, and Austria-Hungary were to unite «« Middle
with Germany into a huge combination for pur- Europe"
poses of offense and defense. ''Middle Europe" might ulti-
mately draw within its embrace Holland, the Scandinavian
states, and a projected Polish kingdom to include almost the
entire manufacturing area of Russia. German commerce,
would exploit and German mihtarism would dominate every
one of these countries.
7i6 The World War
The success of the "Middle Europe" project depended
upon the attitude of the independent Christian states of the
Balkans. It was essential that they should be
and the amenable to German, or at least to Austro-
Balkan Hungarian, influence and that the influence of
states
Russia should be entirely eliminated from their
councils. Dynastic relationships seemed to make this pos-
sible. Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria was a German; King
Charles of Rumania was the kaiser's kinsman; and the wife
of the future King Constantine of Greece was the kaiser's
sister. Even Serbia had a pro-Austrian ruler until 1903, when
a revolution at Belgrade brought to the throne King Peter,
who leaned toward Jlussia. The Balkan policy of the Central
Powers consequently received a setback, for Serbia lay on the
line of the railway from BerUn to Constantinople.
Events now moved rapidly in the Balkans. Taking advan-
tage of the Young Turk Revolution,^ Austria-Hungary in 1908
proceeded to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Balkan These two provinces had been freed from the
crisis, direct control of the Turks by Serbia and Russia,
1908
but the Congress of Berlin had handed them
over to Austria-Hungary to occupy and administer. Their
annexation, violating the Berlin settlement, raised a storm of
protest in Serbia. The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are
Slavs, and Serbia expected some day to incorporate them and
the Montenegrins in a south Slavic state to stretch from the
Danube to the Adriatic. Russia also seethed with indigna-
tion at what she considered an affront to the Slavic race by a
Teutonic power. Russian troops now began to move toward
the Austrian border. At this moment Germany ranged herself
by the side of Austria-Hungary ''in shining armor," as the kaiser
afterwards expressed it, and dared Russia to attack her ally.
Both France and Great Britain refused to join Russia in a general
European war, and that country, not yet recovered from the
struggle with Japan, thereupon gave way, withdrew her sup-
port from Serbia, and looked on in deep humiliation while the
1 See page 599.
Militarism
717
Central Powers proceeded to reap the fruits of their diplomatic
triumph.
The Balkan wars of 1912-1913 produced another inter-
national crisis. The Treaty of Bucharest ^ could not but be
extremely distasteful to the Central Powers. It
left Germany's vassal, Turkey, with only a foot- Balkan
ing in Europe; it humiliated Bulgaria, the friend ^"^^^'
of Austria-Hungary; and it planted a hostile
Serbia squarely in Macedonia, where she blocked the "Middle
Europe" scheme. Even before the treaty had been signed,
Austria-Hungary made ready to attack Serbia, but held her
hand when Italy refused to cooperate, on the ground that the
terms of the Triple Alliance required its members to aid each
other only in the case of a defensive war. Germany also seems
to have dissuaded Austria-Hungary from undertaking her
perilous adventure in 1913. The hour had not yet struck to
precipitate a European conflict. Meanwhile, the Central
Powers feverishly hastened military preparations, and the other
countries, seeing the war clouds on the horizon, likewise took
steps to increase their arms and armies.
246. Militarism
Between 1871 and 1914 there were wars in the Balkans, in
Asia, and in Africa. The nations of western Europe, however,
did not draw the sword against one another for "Armed
more than forty years. Yet at no other period peace"
had there been such enormous expenditures for armaments,
such huge standing armies, and such colossal navies. Western
Europe enjoyed peace, but it was an ''armed peace" based
upon fear.
The improvements in weapons after 1871 made warfare a
branch of appHed science requiring expert technical knowledge
both on the battle-field and in the munition fac- „
new means
tory. One needs only refer to the breech-loading of des-
rifle, machine gun, and smokeless powder, together *™^*^°^
with the continuous enlargement of cannon and the use of long-
^ See page 6oi .
7i8
The World War
range, high-explosive projectiles. In death-dealing efficiency
these new means of destruction threw all previous inventions
into the shade. Having created modern civiHzation, scieilce
seemed ready to destroy it.
The changed methods of fighting demanded the "nation in
arms," rather than the old-fashioned armies composed of
Standing volunteers and mercenaries. As early as the
armies eighteenth century, European monarchs began
to draft soldiers from among their subjects, but at first only
artisans and peasants. During the revolutionary era France
The Peace Palace at the Hague
A gift of Andrew Carnegie for the use of the Hague Tribunal and for international
conferences.
resorted to forced levies, allowing, however, many exemptions.
Prussia went further during the Napoleonic era and adopted
universal miUtary service, as well in time of peace as in time
of war. All able-bodied men were to receive several years'
training in the army and then pass into the reserve, whence
they could be called to the colors upon the outbreak of hos-
tiUties. This Prussian system, having proved its worth in the
Militarism 719
War of Liberation against Napoleon/ was extended by Wil-
liam I soon after his accession to the throne. ^ The speedy
triumphs of Prussia in 1866 and 1870 led all the principal
nations, except Great Britain, to adopt universal military
service. Europe thus became an "armed camp," with five
million men constantly under arms.
Great Britain found sufficient protection in her fleet, which
it has long been the British policy to maintain at a strength at
least equal to that of any two other powers. Her
widespread empire depends upon control of the
seas, and being no longer self-supporting, she would face starva-
tion in time of war were she blockaded by an enemy. Germany,
however, would not acquiesce in British maritime supremacy,
and under the inspiration of the kaiser, who declared that the
"trident must be in our hands," started in 1898 to build a
mighty navy. Helgoland,^ off the mouth of the Elbe, was
converted into a naval base, a second Gibraltar. The Kiel
Canal, originally completed in 1896, was enlarged in 1914 to
allow the passage of the largest warships between the Baltic
and the North Sea. Great Britain watched these preparations
with unconcealed dismay. Her answer was the complete re-
organization of the British fleet, the scrapping of nearly two
hundred vessels as obsolete, and the laying-down of dread-
noughts and super-dreadnoughts. The naval rivalry threatened
to become so enormously expensive that British statesmen
twice proposed a "naval holiday," that is, an agreement to
keep down the rate of increase. But Germany refused to enter
into an arrangement which would have left Great Britain still
mistress of the seas.
The crushing burden of standing armies and navies produced
a popular agitation in many countries to abolish warfare. The
movement against militarism took practical shape Peace
in 1899, when twenty-six sovereign states, upon coiiferences
invitation of the tsar, Nicholas II, met at The Hague, Holland,
in the First Peace Conference. A Second Peace Conference of
1 See page 536. 2 See page 569.
' Acquired by Great Britain in 181 5 (see page 546) and ceded to Germany in 1890.
720 The World War
forty-four sovereign states assembled in 1907. Attempts were
made at these gatherings to mitigate the horrors of future wars,
but every proposal to reduce armaments encountered the
strenuous opposition of Germany. The German government
would not abandon those deep-laid schemes for conquest, first
in Europe and ultimately throughout the world, which are
summed up in one word — Pan- Germanism.
247. Pan-Germanism
The material development of Germany between 1871 and 19 14
was perhaps unparalleled in European history. Her popula-
Kultur and tion increased from forty-one to sixty-five millions;
nationalism j^gj- foreign trade more than trebled; and she be-
came an industrial state second in Europe only to Great Britain.
Proud of their army, navy, and pohce, of their handsome, well-
ordered cities, of their technical schools and universities, of
their science, literature, music, and art, the Germans came to
believe that they enjoyed a higher culture (Kultur) than any
other people. They were ''the salt of the earth," so their
kaiser told them. The Russians, by comparison, were bar-
barians; the French and Italians, decadent; and the British
and Americans, mere money-grabbers. Such ideas found a
fertile soil in the exaggerated nationalism which had been fos-
tered by the creation of the German Empire.
The ardent belief in the superiority of German Kultur seemed
to impose the duty of extending it to alien and therefore in-
Kultur and ferior peoples. This was Germany's divine mis-
imperialism sJQj^^ according to her philosophers, historians,
clergymen, and government officials. Even the kaiser could
say in all seriousness that "God has called us to civihze the
world; we are the missionaries of human progress."
Before the world could be remade upon the German model,
it had to be first conquered. Both backward and ''decadent"
Kultur and nations possessed their own standards of civiliza-
miiitarism ^[^^^ which they would not willingly abandon
even for Germany's so-called beneficent Kultur. World-
power, in fact, meant war. Accordingly the leaders of German
Pan- Germanism
721
society labored in press and school and pulpit to prove that war
is a holy and righteous thing; that it corresponds in the hfe of
nations to the ''struggle for existence" ^ in animal life; and that
by war the weaker, incompetent states are weeded out and
room is made for those stronger, more efficient states which
alone deserve to inherit the earth. At the same time the people
were led to consider war inevitable because of the hostile at-
titude of Russia, the "Slavic peril"; because France wanted
revenge for her "Lost Provinces"; and because Great Britain
only waited a favorable opportunity to take the German navy
and stifle German commerce. It was taught that Germany
ought not to delay until her enemies were ready for a combined
attack; she should attack first and reap the advantage of her
military preparedness. This idea of an offensive-defensive
war particularly appealed to a people who owed their national
greatness to successful conflicts de-
liberately incurred by unscrupulous
rulers.
The autocratic nature of the
German government, vesting the
control of foreign affairs
so largely with the em-
peror,2 made the kaiser's person-
ality a very important factor in the*
international situation. In this last
of the HohenzoUerns culminated all
their absolutism, their contempt of
popular government, their demand
for implicit obedience, their glorifica-
tion of conquest, and their essential
cruelty. The kaiser inherited the warlike traditions of the Great
Elector, Frederick the Great, and William II, and even the'
shadowy claims to world-dominion put forth during the Middle
Ages by the Holy Roman Emperors. One of his first utter-
ances after mounting the throne had an ominous sound: "I
solemnly vow always to be mindful of the fact that the eyes of
1 See page 687. • ^ See page 588.
The kaiser
William II
722 The. World War .
my ancestors are looking down upon me from the other world,
and that one day I shall have to render to them an account
both of the glory and the honor of the army."
During the earlier years of his reign the kaiser semed to find
sufficient outlet for his restless energy in the development of
The Pan- Germany. The task lost its novelty and interest
German after a time, and he turned his uneasy gaze outside
eague ^j^^ empire to the aggrandizement of Germany
abroad. More and more he came to be in sympathy with the
aggressive policies advocated by the German militaristic class.
It included the army and navy officers, both active and re-
tired; the large landowners {Junkers)] the merchant princes,
bankers, and manufacturers; the university professors, dip-
lomats, and higher government officials — all, in short, who ex-
pected to profit from a greater and enormously more wealthy
Germany. These men organized in 1890 the Pan-German
League, which soon became the most powerful political organiza-
tion in the empire.
The Pan-Germanists thought that they could conquer Europe,
nation by nation. They expected to overwhelm France by a
The Pan- sudden blow, capture Paris, seize the former
German Franche Comte and what remained of French
^° Lorraine,^ together with the Channel ports, take
the French colonies, and 'levy an indemnity large enough to
pay the expenses of the war. Then they intended to turn
against Russia and annex her Polish and Baltic provinces.
Their Austrian ally, meanwhile, would overrun Serbia and open
the German ''corridor" to the Orient. Once mistress of the
Continent, Germany might look forward confidently to the
issue of a future struggle with Great Britain and the British
Empire for the dominion of the world.
Every preparation was made, every precaution was taken,
to ensure a prompt, decisive victory. By the summer of 1914
a special war tax, to be expended on fortifications and equip-
ment, had been collected. The army had been much in-
creased. Enormous stocks of munitions had been accumulated.
1 Once part of the Holy Roman Empire. See page 403.
Beginning of the War 723
The Kiel Canal had been reconstructed. Strategic railways
leading to the Belgian, French, and Russian fron- <« The
tiers had been laid down. All things were ready ^*y "
for "The Day." Germany required only a pretext to launch
the World War.
248. Beginning of the War
The pretext was soon supplied. On June 28, 1914, the Aus-
trian crown prince Francis Ferdinand and his wife were as-
sassinated at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
. . The Sara-
The murderer, a Bosnian, belonged to a Serbian jevo
secret society which aimed to separate Bosnia assassina-
and Herzegovina from the Dual Monarchy and
add them to Serbia. Austria-Hungary, after conducting a se-
cret investigation, alleged that he had been aided by Serbian
officials with the connivance of the government of Serbia.
This accusation has never been proved.
Nearly a month passed. Then on July 23 Austria-Hungary
sent a note to Serbia, harsh, peremptory, and, except in name,
an ultimatum. It demanded that Serbia suppress ultimatum
anti-Austrian publications and organizations, dis- *° Serbia
miss from the army or the civil service all those implicated in
the anti-Austrian propaganda, and eliminate anti-Austrian
teachers from the public schools. Serbia was further to allow
the ''collaboration" of Austrian officials in carrying out these
measures. Forty-eight hours only were granted for the un-
conditional acceptance or rejection of the ultimatum.
Serbia replied on July 25. She agreed to all the Austrian
demands except those which required the presence on Serbian
soil of representatives of the Dual Monarchy. Serbia's
Such an arrangement, Serbia pointed out, would ^^^^^
violate her rights as a sovereign state — would make her, in fact,
an Austrian vassal. She concluded by offering to submit the
entire dispute to arbitration by an international tribunal or to
the mediation of the great powers. Austria-Hungary rejected
the Serbian reply as insincere and on July 28 declared war
against her little neighbor.
724 The World War
Russia, the protector of the Slavs of the Balkans, could not
look on without concern while a great Teutonic power destroyed
I ff ti ^^^ independence of a weak Slav state. But if
peace Russia intervened to aid Serbia, by making war
proposals ^^ Austria-Hungary, then Germany, as the latter's
ally, would surely attack Russia; and France, bound to Russia
in firm alliance, would be obliged to attack Germany. Efforts
to preserve the peace of Europe began at once. The Triple
Entente first asked Austria-Hungary to extend the time limit
for the answer from Serbia. Austria-Hungary promptly de-
clined to do so. Then Great Britain and France urged Serbia
to make her answer to the ultimatum as conciliatory as possi-
ble. After the Serbian reply had been dehvered. Great Britain,
through Sir Edward Grey, her Minister for Foreign Affairs,
suggested that the four powers not directly involved should
hold a conference in London to adjust the Austro-Serbian
difficulty. France, Italy, and Russia accepted the suggestion.
Germany rejected it. Finally, Great Britain invited Germany
herself to propose some method of mediation, but the German
government declared that the whole dispute concerned only Aus-
tria-Hungary and Serbia and that Russia should not interfere
in it. If Russia did interfere, Germany would back her ally.
We know now why these and other peace proposals during
that last fateful week of July, 19 14, were ineffective. Germany
The Pots- ^^^ Austria-Hungary had already decided to
dam Con- force the issue. On July 5 a conference took
ference ^^^^^ -^ Potsdam. It was attended by German
and Austrian diplomats, army and navy officers, and great
bankers, railroad directors, and manufacturers. The kaiser,
who presided, announced his unqualified approval of the Aus-
trian designs on Serbia and asked each man if he was ready for
war. All repUed affirmatively, except the bankers, who in-
sisted upon a delay of two weeks in order to sell foreign se-
curities and arrange their loans. Germany subsequently
denied all knowledge of the terms of the ultimatum until it was
too late to influence them. Her denial is nothing short of
preposterous, in the fight of the Potsdam Conference.
Beginning of the War 725
Russia in 1908 had yielded to Austria-Hungary and Germany
without fighting; ^ in 19 14 she accepted their challenge. Russian
troops began to mobilize against Austria-Hungary Qgrjuany
on July 29 and against Germany on July 30. The at war with
German government sent an ultimatum to Russia "^^^*
ordering that country to begin demobihzation within twelve
hours or accept the consequences (July 31). Russia did not
reply. The kaiser, exercising his right to make "defensive war-
fare, " ^ immediately signed the document declaring that a state
of hostilities existed between Germany and Russia (August i).
Asked by Germany what was to be her attitude in the coming
struggle, France replied that she "would do that which her in-
terests dictated," and began to mobilize. Ger- Germany
many then declared war on France (August 3). at war with
It is now known that had France refused to sup- ^^^^^
port Russia, Germany intended to demand the fortresses of
Toul and Verdun as a pledge of French neutraUty until the
close of the war.
Germany also tried to learn the attitude of Great Britain.
The German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, promised that if
Great Britain would stand aloof, Germany would Attitude
agree not to take any European territory from of Great
France, but he refused to give assurances as to "*^"^
the French colonies. Sir Edward Grey retorted that Great
Britain could never conclude such a disgraceful bargain with
Germany at the expense of France. The British Foreign
Minister, however, made it clear that Great Britain would not
be drawn into a Franco- German War unless France and Russia
rejected "any reasonable proposal" for peace put forward by
the Central Powers. After the German declaration of war
on Russia and the German invasion of Luxemburg,^ Great
Britain promised France the help of the British fleet in case
the German fleet operated against the unprotected western
1 See page 716. 2 See page 586.
3 Luxemburg originally formed part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Congress
of Vienna made it a grand-duchy under the king of the Netherlands. In 1890 it
became independent. The perpetual neutraUty of Luxemburg was guaranteed by
the European powers, including Prussia, in 1867.
726
The World War
coast of France. The British government could not honorably
do less, for, in accordance with the Anglo-French entente,
France since 191 2 had concentrated her fleet in the Mediter-
ranean so that the British fleet might be concentrated in the
North Sea against the possibly hostile German navy.
The neutrality of Belgium was guaranteed by the European
powers, including Prussia, both in 1831 and 1839;^ further-
Violation of niore the Second Peace Conference in 1907, with
Belgian Germany consenting, expressly declared the ter-
neutr ty ritory of neutral states to be inviolable. Never-
theless, Germany on August 2 addressed a note to Belgium
demanding permission to move troops across the country into
France and threatening, in case of a
refusal, to leave Belgium's fate to
the '^ decision of arms." The Bel-
gian government, under King Albert,
declined to "sacrifice the honor of
the nation and betray its duty toward
Europe." On August 4 the German
army invaded Belgium. Bethmann-
Hollweg frankly admitted before the
Reichstag, the same day, that the
invasion was "a breach of inter-
national law," and the kaiser, in a
cable message to President Wilson,^
acknowledged that Belgian neu-
trality ''had to be violated by
Germany on strategical grounds."
There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of their statements.
Belgium in her hour of need appealed for help to Great
Britain, nor did Great Britain fail her. When news came that
German troops had entered Belgium, the British
government sent an ultimatum to Germany, re-
quiring assurances by midnight, August 4, that
Belgian neutrality would be respected. German
refused, and Bethmann-HoUweg, in his final interview with
1 See page 553. 2 Sent August 10, 1Q14.
King Albert I
Great
Britain at
war with
Germany
The War in Europe, 1914-1917 727
the British ambassador at Berlin, complained that Great
Britain was about to fight a kindred nation just for "a, scrap
of paper." About midnight Great Britain declared war on
Germany.
249. The War in Europe, 1914-1917
The war quickly converted the Triple Entente into a Triple
Alliance. Great Britain, France, and Russia engaged not to
make peace separately and to accept a general ^j^^
peace only on terms agreeable to all of them. The AUies,
instinct of self-preservation, which had united ^^^*
Europe against France under Louis XIV and Napoleon, was
now aroused against the military domination of Germany
under the kaiser. As on previous occasions. Great Britain,
with her fleet, her money, and eventually her army, formed the
keystone of the coalition.
Germany and Austria-Hungary, though less populous and
wealthy than their antagonists, held a better geographical
position, and at the outset they possessed a su-
periority both in the number of trained soldiers Central
and in munitions and equipment. Above all, Powers,
they were prepared. Austria-Hungary had al-
ready massed part of her army against Serbia, while Germany,
by means of her strategic railroads, could move and concentrate
troops on her eastern or western frontier with greater speed
than either Russia or France. Should it prove to be a short
war, the Central Powers seemed likely to win an overwhelming
victory.
Hostilities commenced in the West with the advance of the
Germans through Luxemburg and Belgium. The Belgian re-
sistance — heroic, unexpected ^ — delayed by ten
full days their arrival on the frontier of France. the*Mame,
The French gained time to complete mobilization September
and the British to send an expeditionary force.
After the first clash at Mons, the Anglo-French armies retired
before the enormous masses of the enemy. Back and back
they went, fighting grimly, until they reached the Marne and
1 Fortisshni sunt Belgce (Caesar, Gallic War, i, i).
728
The World War
their flanks rested upon Paris and Verdun. General Joffre
now stayed the retreat. Having quietly collected a fresh army
in reserve, he launched an attack against the over-extended
German line, first on the right wing, then in the center, and
drove it back in confusion
across the Aisne. The
Germans had been out-gen-
eraled and out-fought;
German plans for a speedy
triumph had been upset;
and Paris had been saved.
Both sides now bent
every effort to extend their
lines northward to the sea.
The Germans hoped to
seize Dunkirk and Calais,
two important Channel
ports, but the Allies reached
the Channel first at Nieu-
port. The trench system
was soon extended southward to Switzerland, a distance of six
hundred miles. Attempts to break the deadlock between the
The western opposing armies by means of concentrated shellfire
front jind the use of poison gas — the latter a German
innovation — resulted only in slight gains of territory. During
the first half of 191 6 the Germans under the crown prince made
a determined effort to capture Verdun, guarding the road to
Paris from the east. The effort failed, with murderous losses
to both attackers and defenders. In July of the same year
the British army, now greatly enlarged and commanded by
Sir Douglas Haig, relieved the pressure of Verdun by the long
battle of the Somme. The British were unable to break through,
if such was their intention. To forestall another attack, the
Germans in March, 191 7, retired on a wide front to the shorter
.and more defensible ''Hindenburg Line."
There was no deadlock on the eastern front. The Russians
mobilized more rapidly than had been expected and started
Marshal Joffre
730
The World War
The
eastern
front
the invasion of East Prussia and Galicia. They were soon
driven out of East Prussia by Hindenburg, who, however, had
to call for reinforcements from the -West, thus
weakening the German resistance at the battle of
the Marne. In Galicia the Russians crushed the
Austrian resistance and by the spring of 191 5 threatened to
penetrate the Carpathian passes into Hungary. The summer
of that year witnessed a terrific
counter-offensive of the combined
German and Austrian armies led
by Hindenburg and Mackensen.
The Russians had to abandon
their Galician conquests and lost
Poland and Courland as well. The
new battle lines on the eastern
front now extended from Riga to
the Rumanian frontier. ''Middle
Europe" began to be an accom-
phshed fact.
Turkey, largely controlled by
Germany and fearful of Russia's
designs on Constantinople, soon
espoused the cause of the Central
Powers. Her entrance did not at first appreciably affect the
situation, for she was still cut off from her associates by a
neutral Bulgaria and a hostile Serbia. The sultan proclaimed
a holy war ^ of extermination against the ''enemies
of Islam." Contrary to German hopes, the Mos-
lems of North Africa, Egypt, and India, instead
of revolting, loyally supported France and Great
Britain. An attempt in 191 5 by an Anglo-
French fleet and army to force the Dardanelles and take Con^
stantinople proved disastrous, however, and the peninsula of
Gallipoli became a graveyard of Allied hopes.
After long hesitation Bulgaria threw in her lot with the
Central Powers. Bulgaria's reason was less love for Aus-
1 Or jihad. See page 75.
Hindenburg
Turkey
joins the
Central
Powers,
October,
1914
The War in ETirope, 1914-1917 731
tria-Hungary and Germany than hatred of Serbia, her bitterest
and most successful foe in the Second Balkan War.^ The situ-
ation in the Balkans now changed overnight, g , .
Brave Httle Serbia, who earlier in the war had joins the
twice expelled the Austrians, quickly collapsed ^®°*^^^
under the double attack of Austro-Germans from October,
,the north and Bulgarians from the east. Mon- ^^^^
tenegro, Serbia's ally, was also conquered, together with northern
Albania. "Middle Europe" had come nearer realization than
ever.
Mihtary operations in the Balkans were not yet over. In-
fluenced by the apparent recovery of Russia and the momentary
success of a great Russian ''drive" during the The Balkan
summer of 19 16, Rumania joined the Allies ^^o°*
(August , 1 9 1 6 ) . She promptly invaded the Hungarian province
of Transylvania, which she had long claimed as properly hers.
A German-Austrian-Bulgarian counter-stroke resulted in the
speedy conquest of about two-thirds of the Rumanian territory.
"Middle Europe" approached completion. One obstacle only
remained. A large Anglo-French army had been gathered be-
hind the defenses of Salonika in Greece, partly as a threat to
Turkey and Bulgaria, partly to prevent Constantine, the pro-
German king of Greece, from bringing his country into the
war on the side of the Central Powers. Constantine was
finally deposed, and Greece then took the side of the Allies
(June, 1917). The Balkan front henceforth stretched west-
ward from Salonika to the Adriatic.
Italy declared neutrahty in 19 14, giving the same reason
which she had given in 1913,2. namely, that the terms of her al-
liance with the Central Powers did not bind her to t. , • •
Italy joins
assist them m an offensive war. But Italy was the Allies,
unable to remain neutral. Union with the Allies ^^^' ^^^^
meant an opportunity to secure Italia Irredenta,^ those ter-
ritories in the north and east of the peninsula still unredeemed
.from the grasp of Austria-Hungary, her traditional foe. Though
the pressure of national interests helped to range Italy with
1 See pages 600-601. 2 gee page 717. 3 gg^ p^ee 566.
732 The World War
the Allies, even more compelling, perhaps, was the conviction
on the part of the ItaHan people that the Allies were fighting
in a just cause for everything that mankind holds dear. Italy,
an ancient home of civilization, would aid her Latin sister France
in defending civilization against what seemed a fresh inroad of
the Germanic barbarians.
The entrance of Italy ^ added another front and almost com-,
pleted the encirclement of the Central Powers. Italian armies
_.. marched against Trieste and the Trentino, but
Italian made slow progress on account of the mountainous
* nature of the country. They had nearly reached
their goals when an Austro-German attack, late in 191 7, undid
the work of more than two years' hard fighting and forced them
back behind the Italian frontier as far as the Piave River.
There, with some aid from French and British troops, they held
the enemy.
The military situation in Europe at the end of 191 7 clearly
favored the Central Powers. On the western front they held
The Allies nearly all of Belgium and a broad strip of north-
and the eastern France containing valuable coal and iron
Powers, mines. On the eastern front they held the richest
1^^*^ industrial districts of Russia. They had overrun
Serbia, Montenegro, and a large part of Rumania. They had
taken most of Venetia from the Italians. Their only territorial
losses to the Allies were in southern Alsace and eastern Galicia.
A different picture, however, was presented outside of Europe
and on the sea.
250. The War outside of Europe and on the Sea,
1914-1917
The sea-power of the Allies enabled them to capture Germany's
colonial possessions. The British and French seized Togoland
and the Cameroons in West Africa. Troops from
of the the Union of South Africa, assisted by loyal Boers,
German ^qq^ German Southwest Africa, and in cooperation-
colonies .,_,. , ,x-, -r^ a r •
With Belgian forces took German East Africa.
1 San Marino also has a place in the Allied honor roll.
The War outside of Europe, 1914-1917 733
The native population of all these colonies welcomed their
release from the cruel, oppressive rule of German officials.
The islands in the Pacific belonging to Germany ^ were conquered
by the Australians and the Japanese.
Faithful to her treaty obligations, Japan promptly entered
the war on the side of the Allies. Japan's special contribution
to the Allied cause was the capture of Kiau- capture
chau, the German naval base and stronghold in ^^ Kiauchau
the Far East.^
Germany's ally, Turkey, suffered the loss of her outlying
possessions. Great Britain declared Egypt altogether in-
dependent of the sultan and established a pro- Freeing of
tectorate over the country. The British also Egypt and
encouraged a revolt of the Arabs against Turkey.
Arab troops secured Mecca and Medina, the sacred places of
Arabia, and set up the kingdom of the Hejaz, which extends
along the eastern coast of the Red Sea.
Its first ruler is a descendant of the
prophet Mohammed.
Two other countries, long under the heel
of the Turk, owed their liberation to Great
Britain. An expeditionary
Freeing of
Mesopotamia
and
Palestine
force, largely composed of
Indian contingents, invaded
Mesopotamia by way of the
Tigris River and entered Bagdad in tri-
umph (March, 191 7). Another British
army, starting from Egypt, invaded Pales-
tine and took possession of Jerusalem (De-
cember, 191 7). The Holy City, after
nearly seven centuries, was again in Chris-
tian hands. ^
The fleets of the Allies quickly swept the
merchantmen of the Central Powers from the ocean and com-
pelled their warships to keep the shelter of home ports. The
few German raiders which remained at large after hostilities
1 See page 622, note 3. 2 gee page 616, note 2. ^ gee pages 174-175.
The
Victoria Cross
Established in 185^ for
acts of bravery in battle.
It is a bronze Maltese
cross with the royal crest
(lion and crown) in the
center and below it a scroll
inscribed " For Valour"
734 The World War
began were either captured or sunk. Once only did the Ger-
man "High Seas Fleet" slip out of Kiel Harbor, to be met by
p^^^ the British battle cruisers off the coast of Jutland
control of (May3i, 1916). Both sides suffered heavy losses
t e sea -^ ^|^^ engagement which followed. With the ap-
proach of darkness, however, the German ships returned to
their safe anchorage and did not emerge again during the
remainder of the war.
Allied control of the sea led to an immediate blockage of
Germany and Austria-Hungary. Three results followed. The
The Allies were able freely to import food and raw
blockade materials from their colonies and neutral states.
They kept the ocean lanes safe for the transportation of troops
from' Africa, India, Australia, and Canada, meanwhile prevent-
ing the return of Austro-German reservists from the United
States and other countries. Finally, the Allies extinguished the
commerce of the Central Powers, which were henceforth hard
pressed to find the necessary sinews of war for their armies and
food for their civihan population. The blockade, never relaxed
for a moment and growing more rigid every month, promised,
sooner or later, to bring the Central Powers to terms.
The Central Powers relied on submarines (U-boats) to break
the blockade. International law requires that a cargo or
U-boat passenger ship shall be warned before being at-
warfare tacked and every effort made to safeguard human
lives. Germany, however, declared the waters around the
British Isles a "war zone," where all enemy merchantmen would
be sunk, whether or not passengers and crews could be rescued.
Neutral vessels were also warned against trespassing within
the zone. Germany's enforcement of her piratical policy
brought about the entrance of the United States into the
World War.
251. Intervention of the United States
President Wilson announced the neutrality of the United
States immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. No
other course seemed possible, in view of our traditional policy
Intervention of the United States 735
of non-interference in European affairs and our peaceful tem-
per. The President also asked for neutrality of sentiment on
the part of the American people, so that the
United States, as the one great nation at peace, united
might in time be able to mediate between the war- States as
° . . a neutral
ring countries. While the government did remam
neutral, American citizens could not avoid taking sides. The
Central Powers had many active sympathizers, especially
among those of German birth or parentage. Public opinion,
however, favored the AUies; above all, France, to whom we
owed our liberty, and Belgium, so innocent and so cruelly
wronged. But as yet there was Httle thought of our active
participation in the war.
The proclamation of a "war zone " led to an acute controversy
with Germany. President Wilson protested at once, declaring
that the United States would hold the German Submarine
government to a '' strict accountabiUty " for Ameri- atrocities
can ships destroyed or American citizens killed. Germany
disclauned all responsibiUty for "accidents" which might occur.
T J>
A Submarine
U-boats proceeded to torpedo the great British liner Lusitania,
with the loss of over one hundred American men, women, and
children (May, 191 5)/ and also attacked American ships and
those of other neutral nations. A "war of notes" between the
United States and Germany finally extorted a German pledge
not to sink merchant vessels without warning, unless they at-
1 In all, 1 1 54 persons were drowned.
736 The World War
tempted to escape or offered resistance (May, 191 6). Germany
never intended to keep her pledge any longer than convenient,
as the frank Bethmann-HoUweg afterwards admitted in a
public statement. At the end of January, 191 7, she notified
the American government of her purpose to sink at sight all
ships, both enemy and neutral, found within the waters
around the Allied countries. President Wilson then severed
diplomatic relations with the German government. This act
did not necessarily mean war, but it prepared the way for
war.
Submarine atrocities combined with Austro-German intrigues
and conspiracies* throughout the United States to arouse the
Intrigues warlike temper of the American people. From
and con- the very start official and non-official representa-
spiracies ^-^^^ ^£ ^j^^ Central Powers had done all they could
to destroy munition plants and steel factories supplying the
Allies. Funds were sent to the German ambassador for use
in bribing Congress to declare an embargo on the traffic in
munitions. Spies were multiplied throughout the country.
Efforts were made to foment ill feeling in the United States
against Japan and in Mexico against the United States. When
Germany was about to proclaim unrestricted submarine war-
fare and believed the intervention of the United States would
follow, she even invited Mexico to enter an alliance with her,
promising aid in helping that country recover the American
Southwest. Such actions convinced our people that Germany
and her satellites were running amuck under irresponsible rulers
and that national safety, no less than national honor, required
us to take the side of the Allies.
American intervention soon became an accomplished fact.
The President, in an address before a special session of Congress,
urged that since Germany had repeatedly com-
United mitted hostile acts against the United States, we
States as a should formally accept the status of belhgerent
belligerent ^ , ^ 111
thus thrust upon us. Congress responded by
declaring war on Germany (April 6, 191 7). Similar action
was taken as to Austria-Hungary in December of the same
Intervention of the United States
737
year. Diplomatic relations with Turkey and Bulgaria were
also broken.
America, the President said, had no quarrel with the people
of the Central Powers, who had been led blindly into the war.
America's quarrel was with their autocratic American
governments. She asked nothing for herself, war aims
neither annexations nor indemnities. She fought to put down
divine-right monarchy, secret diplomacy, and militarism, to
promote among mankind that ordered liberty under law which
she had long enjoyed, and to
" make the world safe for de-
mocracy." In such a cause
American citizens were privil-
eged to spend their lives and
their fortunes.
Several other countries which
had remained neutral followed
the example of the _
TT . 1 o , The worid
United States dur- against the
ing 1017. Cuba, Central
-r. T^ M Powers
Panama, Brazil,
Siam, Liberia, and China all
flung down the gauntlet to Ger-
many.^ Including Portugal,
which joined the Allies during
1916, nineteen sovereign states were now ranged against the
four Central Powers.
252. The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution, beginning on the eve of American
intervention, revealed the war more clearly than ever as no
"Dark mere conflict for the preservation of the balance
of power in Europe, but a world-wide struggle
between democracy and autocracy. Popular up-
risings in Russia between 1905 and 1906 had compelled the
1 Nine American countries also broke oflf diplomatic relations with Germany in
1917. They were: Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay.
forces *
Russia
738
The World War
tsar to grant a national legislature (Duma), without, however,
seriously weakening the position of the government.^ The war
disclosed how inefficient, weak, and even corrupt that govern-
ment was. Late in 191 6 the pro-German party at the court,
including the tsar's German wife, secretly began negotiations
with the Central Powers for a separate peace. Patriotic Rus-
sians in the Duma passed a resolution that "dark forces" in
high places were betraying the nation's interest. Neverthe-
less, the intrigue went on, apparently with the connivance of
the tsar, and the demoralization of Russia proceeded apace.
A severe shortage of food in Petrograd brought matters to
a crisis. Rioting broke out, and
the troops were ordered to sup-
press it with bullet and bayonet
in the usual pitiless fashion.
But the old army, so long the
prop of autocracy, languished in
., ,. . German prison
Abdication ^
of the tsar, camps or lay under-
March 15, ground. The new
army, mostly re-
cruited from peasants and work-
ingmen since the war, refused to
fire on the people. Autocracy
found itself helpless. The Duma
then induced the tsar to sign
the penciled memorandum which
ended the Romanov dynasty after three hundred and four
years of absolute power.^
The revolutionists set up a provisional government, headed
by the executive committee of the Duma.
the Con- Nearly all the members belonged to the party
stitutional ^f Constitutional Democrats,^ representing^ the
Democrats . . .
middle class, or bourgeoisie. Many liberal reforms
were announced: liberty of speech and of the press; the right of
1 See page 594. 2 gee page 415.
3 Popularly called "Cadets," from the initial letters of the party name.
Nicholas II
The Russian Revolution 739
suffrage for both men and women; and a general amnesty for
all political offenders and Siberian exiles. A Constituent As-
sembly to draw up a constitution was also promised.
Socialists did not rest satisfied with these measures. They
planned to give the revolution an economic rather than merely
a political character. Throughout Russia they ^ .
. , . , ., . 1 . Soviets
organized Soviets, or councils representing working-
men and soldiers. The socialistic propaganda for a general
peace on the basis of "no annexations and no indemnities"
also made rapid headway with the army at the front. The
troops began to elect their own_ officers, to fraternize with
the enemy, and to desert in large numbers. Before long
the Petrograd soviet, having won the support of the army,
abolished the Duma as a stronghold of the bourgeoisie and
•replaced the Constitutional Democrats in the provisional
government with sociaHsts.
The Socialist leader was a young lawyer named Alexander
Kerensky. His impassioned oratory gave him great influence,
and by July, 191 7, he had become practical Kerensky
dictator. But Kerensky turned out to be neither dictator
a Cromwell nor a Napoleon, at a time when Russia required a
combination of both for her salvation. A moderate socialist,
he did not please the Constitutional Democrats, and he pleased
the radical socialists still less. In November, 191 7, a second
revolution in Petrograd overthrew him and the provisional
government which he headed.
The two men who now seized the reins of power were Nicholas
Lenine and Leon Trotsky, both well known as radical writers
and agitators. They belonged to the Bolsheviki ^ Bolsheviki
party, an organization of extreme socialists. The "^®
Bolsheviki proposed to conclude an immediate "democratic
peace," to confiscate the land for the benefit of the peasants,
and to transfer all authority to the Soviets. Their flag was the
red flag; their ultimate aim, a revolution by the working classes
in all countries. Though Bolsheviki rule rests only on the
urban proletariat, which comprises a small minority of the
^ A Russian word meaning "majority men." See page 671.
740 The World War
Russian people, Lenine and Trotsky, by their audacity and
unscrupulousness, have remained in control to the present
day.
Russia, meanwhile, began to dissolve into its separate na-
tionaUties. Finns, Lithuanians, Ukrainians (Little Russians),
Break-up Cossacks, and Siberians declared their independence
of Russia ^^(^ c,Qt up governments of their own, in defiance
of Bolsheviki rule. To economic disorganization and political
chaos were added civil wars.
It was under these circumstances that Russia made peace
with the Central Powers. The Bolsheviki agreed to pay an
Treaty of immense indemnity and to recognize the inde-
Brest- pendence, under German auspices, of both Finland
March 3, and the Ukraine. Poland and Courland, con-
1918 quered by the Germans in 191 5, were surrendered
to them, together with Livonia and Esthonia. This humiliat-
ing treaty deprived Russia of her richest agricultural lands,
her chief industrial centers, and about one third of her
territory. It was a formal announcement of the break-up of
Russia.
253. End of the War, 1918
The satisfaction with which the western Allies greeted the
overthrow of autocracy in Russia turned to dismay when that
country, within a year, embraced extreme socialism
at the and withdrew from the war. The Treaty of Brest-
beginning Litovsk gave the Central Powers a free hand in
the West. Great Britain, France, and Italy
recognized this fact and prepared to remain on the defensive
until the United States should be able to throw the full weight
of its resources into the struggle. The Allies, could afford to
wait. To the Central Powers a prolongation of the war spelled
ruin. ''Frightfulness" on the ocean had not broken the block-
ade or starved Great Britain or interrupted the stream of trans-
ports carrying American troops in ever larger numbers to
Europe. Germany realized that her supreme effort for world
dominion must be made in 1918, or never. "If the enemy does
not want peace," declared the kaiser, "then we must bring
End of the War, 1918
741
peace to the world by battering in with the iron fist and shining
sword the doors of those who will not have peace." ^
Having gathered every available man and gun, the Germans
on March 21, 1918, started a drive along the line from Arras
to La Fere. Their plan was obvious: to split the German
Anglo-French forces at the point of juncture on "drives"
the Oise River; to roll each army back, the British upon the
Channel, the French upon Paris; and then to destroy each
army separately. The battle which followed surpassed in
intensity every previous engagement on the western front.
By terrific massed attacks, the Germans regained in a few days
all the ground so painfully won by the Allied offensives in
191 6 and 191 7. The critical
condition of affairs led the Allies
to establish unity of action by
putting their forces under the
command of General Foch, an
admirable strategist who shared
with Joffre the glory of the
Marne battle. The wisdom of
this plan became manifest when
the Germans in April launched
another drive to the north
against the British guarding
the road to the Channel ports.
French reinforcements arrived
on. the scene in time to check
the enemy. A third drive at the
end of May brought the Germans back once more to the Marne
at Chateau-Thierry, only forty-three miles from Paris, but
French reserves again halted the advance. Renewed German
efforts in June and July to pierce the Allied line and reach
Paris were fruitless. And now the tide turned.
General Foch, always an advocate of the offensive in warfare,
found himself by midsummer able to put his theories into
practice. He now possessed the reinforcements sent by both
1 Address to the Second German^Army in France, December 22, 1917.
Ferdinand Foch
742 The World War
Great Britain and Italy to help hold the long line from the
sea to Switzerland, together with the fresh American troops
— ''Pershing's crusaders" — whose mettle had been already
The turn tested at Chateau-Thierry. July i8, 1918 is a
of the tide memorable date, for on that day the Allies began
the series of rapid counter-strokes, perfectly coordinated, which
four months later brought the war on the western front to a
victorious conclusion. How the French and Americans pinched
the Germans out of the Mame sahent; how the Americans, in
their first independent operation, swept the enemy from the
St. Mihiel salient, south of Verdun, and started an advance
into German Lorraine which carried them to Sedan; how the
British broke the ''Hindenburg Line," supposedly impregnable;
how the Belgians hberated Flanders — these are only the out-
standing events of a period unsurpassed in interest and im-
portance since the dawn of history.
With disaster impending on the western front, Germany
could no longer support her confederates in the other theaters
Armistice of the war. Bulgaria was the first of the Central
^*^ . Powers to collapse. A vigorous offensive, begun
September during September by British, Greek, Serbian,
29, 1918 French, and ItaUan troops in the Balkans, spHt
the Bulgarian armies apart, thus opening the way for an im-
mediate advance upon Sofia. Bulgaria then surrendered un-
conditionally. Shortly afterwards Tsar Ferdinand abdicated.
Turkey, now isolated from Germany and Austria-Hungary,
was the second of the Central Powers to collapse. The cam-
paign against the Turks during September and
Armistice t^ ^ , , j ,1 "^ ^ . ,.
with Turkey, October formed an unbroken succession or vic-
October tories. British forces, keeping close touch with
30, 1918
their Arab allies, advanced northward from the
neighborhood of Jerusalem. After initial successes on the plain
of Esdraelon, famous as a battle-field in Old Testament times,
they took Damascus, the capital of Syria, and soon entered
Aleppo, on the railway between Constantinople and Bagdad.^
At the same time, the British in Mesopotamia captured the
1 See the map on page 715.
End of the War, 1918 743
Turkish army on the Tigris. Nothing remained for Turkey
but to sign an armistice accepting all the AlHed demands.
Simultaneously, Austria-Hungary collapsed. What may be
called the second battle of the Piave ^ began at the end of
October, when General Diaz, the Italian com- Armistice
mander, struck a sudden blow at the Austrian with Austria-
armies and hurled them back along the whole November
front from the Alps to the sea. The battle soon ^» ^^^^
assumed the proportions of a disaster perhaps unequaled in
the annals of war. Within a single week the Italians chased
the Austrians out of northern Italy, entered Trent and Trieste,
and captured three hundred thousand prisoners and five thou-
sand guns. Austria-Hungary then signed an armistice which,
as in the cases of Bulgaria and Turkey, amounted to an uncon-
ditional surrender. The date (November 3) was immediately
added to the list of Italian holidays.
The military overthrow of the Dual Monarchy quickly led
to its disintegration. Separate states arose, representing the
various nationalities formerly subject to the Haps- Revolution
burgs. Emperor Charles I bowed to the inev- in Austria-
itable and laid down the imperial crown which °sary
he had assumed in 191 6 upon the death of Francis Joseph I.
Such was the end of the Hapsburg dynasty, rulers of Austria
for six hundred and forty-five years.^
The Hohenzollerns also disappeared from the scene. As
Germany during that fateful summer and autumn of 1918
began to taste the bitterness of defeat, the popular Revolution
demand for peace and democratic government "^ Germany
became an open summons to the kaiser to abdicate. He long
resisted, vainly making one concession after another, until the
red flag had been hoisted over the German fleet at Kiel, and
Berlin and other cities were in the hands of revolutionists. Then
he abdicated, both as emperor and king, and fled to Holland.
The other German crowns quickly fell, Uke overripe fruit.
Germany soon found itself a socialist republic, controlled by
the Social Democrats.^
* See page 731. 2 See page 217. ^ See pages 588 and 670.
744 The World War
The armistice, which practically ended the war, was con-
cluded by the Alhes and the United States with the new Ger-
Armistice man government. It formed a long document of
with thirty-five clauses, covering every aspect of the
November miUtary situation and making it impossible for
11, 1918 Germany to renew hostilities before the peace
settlement. Germany agreed to return all prisoners of war;
to surrender her submarines, the best part of her fleet, and
immense numbers of cannon, machine guns, and airplanes; to
evacuate Belgium, Luxemburg, France, and Alsace-Lorraine;
and to allow the joint occupation by Allied and American troops
of the Rhinelands, together with the principal crossings of the
Rhine (Mainz, Coblenz, and Cologne) and bridgeheads at these
points on the right bank of the river. A neutral zone was
reserved between the occupied territory and the rest of Ger-
many.^ The German government carried out these stringent
terms under necessity.
The sudden termination of hostihties found the greater part
of Europe in confusion. The former empires of the Romanovs,
Hapsburgs, and Hohenzollerns promised to break
at the up into a large number of independent states,
end of Y^ith new governments and a new distribution of
population. The problems for solution by the
peace conference included, therefore, not only the necessary
arrangements for indemnities in money and territory to be paid
by the Central Powers and the disposition of Germany's colonial
possessions, but also the creation of a dozen or more sovereign
countries with boundaries so drawn as to satisfy .all legitimate
national aspirations. The World War was to be followed by
a World Settlement.
Studies
I . On an outline map of the world indicate the countries at war by the close of
igi7 and their division between the Allies and the Central Powers. Show also the
countries which severed diplomatic relations with Germany. 2. Draw up a list of
the countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America which remained entirely neutral
throughout the World War. 3- Explain the following: the "Iron Chancellor";
the "Lost Provinces"; entente cordiale; "Middle Europe"; "Agadir incident";
^ See the map, page 729.
End of the War^ 1918 745
and "reinsurance compact." 4. Find illustrations in the history of Europe during
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the principle of the balance of power.
5. Compare the World War, as to its epoch-making character, with (o) the Thirty
Years' War, (6) the Seven Years War, and (c) the revolutionary and Napoleonic
wars. 6. Write a brief character sketch of the kaiser on the basis of the quota-
tions from his speeches in this chapter. 7. How would you define (o) militarism
and (b) imperialism, as these terms have been used in the present chapter? 8. How
was Alsace-Lorraine the "open sore" of European politics during the period 1871-
191 4? 9. Why has the Balkan peninsula been called the " storm center of Europe"?
10. Why has the Suez Canal been called the "spinal cord" of the British Empire?
11. "England's navy is a necessity; Germany's a luxury." Explain this state-
ment. 12. What is the strategic value of the Kiel Canal? 13. Why has war been
called the "national industry" of Prussia? 14. What were the "strategical
grounds" for the German invasion of Belgium? 15. Is it likely that Great Britain
would have entered the war if Belgian neutrality had not been violated? 16. The
battle of the Marne has been called "one more decisive battle of the world." Com-
ment on this statement. 17. Show that the United States, as a neutral, could
not properly place an embargo on the export of arms and munitions to the Allies.
18. How did the revolution in Russia lead to the disintegration of the country?
Contrast its results in this respect with the French Revolution.
Table of Events and Dates 747
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INDEX AND PRONOUNCING
VOCABULARY
Note. — The pronunciation of most proper names is indicated either by a simplified
spelling or by their accentuation and division into syllables. The diacritical marks em-
ployed are those found in Webster's New International Dictionary and are the following :
a as in ale.
t "
" senate.
a "
" care.
a "
" am.
a "
" account.
a "
" arm.
a "
" ask.
a "
" sofa.
e "
" eve.
e "
" event.
e "
" end.
e "
" recent.
e "
" maker.
i "
" Ice.
i "
" ill.
o
6
6 '
6 '
o '
b '
u '
ix '
u '
u '
u '
ti '
oo '
o6 '
ou'
as in old.
" " obey.
" " 6rb.
" " odd.
" " soft.
" " connect.
" " use.
" " unite.
" " urn.
" " up.
" " circws.
" " menii.
" " food.
" " foot,
out.
oi as in oil.
ch " " chair.
g " " go.
ng " " sing.
r) " " ii]k.
fh " " {hen.
th " " thin,
tu " " nature.
du " " verdure.
K for ch as in Ger. ich, ach.
N as in Fr. bon
y " " yet.
zh for z as in azure.
495,
594.
496.
Aachen (ii'K^n). See Aix-la-Chapelle.
Ab-bas'ids, 81, 82, and note 1, 18:i.
Abbot, 50 and note 1.
Abdul Hamld II, 714.
Abelard (d-ba-liirO, Peter, 257, 258.
Abraham, Hebrew patriarch, 68, 74,
Absolutism, royal, 376-38^
401, 414, 417, 430, 438, 481,' 493,
501, 511, 526, 548, 560, 569, 588,
aluo Divine right of kings.
Abu Bekr (ii'boo bek'V), 72, 80.
Abyssinia (ab-i-sin'i-a), 49, 606.
Academy, French, the, 409, 410.
Acadia. See Nova Scotia.
Acre (a'ker), 172, 175,
A-dria-a-no'ple, 187.
Adriatic Sea, 1, 240, 241.
Af-ghan-i-stan', 613.
Africa, Portuguese exploration of, 308, 309;
physical features of, 603 ; racial, 603, 604 ;
opening-up of, in the nineteenth century,
604, 605 ; partition of, 605-609,
Africa, North, Vandal kingdom in, 34; con-
quered by the Arabs, 78, 604; conquered
by Ottoman Turks, 423 ; Italian and French
possessions in, 606.
Africa, South, the Dutch in, 444, 606, 607 ;
conquered by Great Britain, 607 ; union of,
607, 608 ; in the World War, 732.
Airadir, 713, 714.
A'gra, 184.
Agriculture, Arab improvements in, 83 ;
medieval, 130-132 ; modern, 660.
" Aids," the feudal, 117,
Airplane, the, 653.
Aisne (an) Kiver, 728.
Aix-la-Chapelle (aks-l&-sha-poK), city, 15,
18, 102 ; Peace of, 434, 447.
Ajaccio (ii-yat'cho),' 520.
Al-a-man'ni, the, 8, 9.
Alaska, 478, 630, 634, 657.
Albania, 423, 601, 731.
Albany Congress, the, 464.
Albert I. king of Belgium, 726.
Albert Edward Nyanza, Lake, 605.
Albert Nyanza, Lake, 604,
Albi, 335.
Albigenses (al-bi-jen'sozX the, 148, 335.
Albuquerque (al-b()6-ker'k.e), 310.
Alchemy, 264.
Alcoholic liquors, 75, 277, 679.
Aldine press, the, 286.
Aldus Manutius (ul'dws m//-nu'ahi-«s), 285,
286.
Aleppo, 714.
Alexander I, tsar of Russia, 529, 534, 535,
545, 592, 595 ; II, 592, 594, 662 ; III, 594,
710.
765
766 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Alexander III, pope, 1^7 ; YI, 315.
Alexandria, 521.
Alexius (a-lek'si-«s) I, Koman emperor in
the East, 165, 166.
Alfred the Great, king of England, 103, 105.
Algebra, 85, 486.
Algeciras (Span. pron. al-hS-the'ras), con-
ference, the, 713.
Algeria, 606, 713.
Al-ham'bra, the, 79, 87.
Ali, fourth caliph, SO.
Allah i&Va), 69, 714.
Alphabet, Kunic, 91, 92 ; Russian, 416.
Alsace (al-sJis'), 8, 18, 372, 401, 403, 573, 586,
. 709. See also Lorraine.
Alva, duke of, 359.
Amazon Eiver, 321, 635.
America, the Northmen In, 99, 100 ; discov-
ered by Columbus, 314; naming of, 315;
the Indians, 317-320; Spanish explorations
and conquests in, 320-322 ; Spanish colonial
empire in, 322-324 ; English and French
explorations in, 32&-S27 ; influence of, on
Europe, 327-329; English settlement of
Virginia and Massachusetts, 449-455; the
Thirteen Colonies, 455-458 ; French settle-
ments in, 464-467; rivalry of France and
England in, 467-471 ; revolt of the Thirteen
Colonies, 471-476 ; British North, 623-626 ;
Latin, 626-629 ; the United States, 629-632.
American Federation of Labor, the, 664.
American Kevolution, the, 471-476, 5:^9.
Amiens (A-myuN'), Peace of, 523, 527.
Amsterdam, 327, 358.
Amundsen, Captain Roald, 635.
Amur Valley, 613, 616.
Amusement, medieval, 126. 269, 270.
Anagni (u-nan'yG), humilatiou of Boniface
VIII at, 331.
A-nam', 612.
Andes Mountains, 319, 321.
An'ge-vin dynasty, the, 195, note 1.
Angles (an'g'ls). *S>e Anglo-Saxons.
Anglicanism, estabUshment of, in England,
345-348 ; organization and doctrines, 850 ;
in England, during the seventeenth centurv,
378, 8S1, 382, 385, 391, 392, 393, 394; in the
Thirteen Colonies, 460 ; disestablishment
of, in Ireland and Wales, 683.
An'glo-Sax'ons, the, conquer Britain, 23 ;
their kingdoms in Britain, 23-25 ; their cul-
ture, 25 ; converted to Koman Christianity,
26-29, 53, 61 ; language of, 110, 248.
An-go'la, 605.
Animals, baiting of, 270, 391.
Anjou (iiN-zhoo'), 195, note 1.
Anne, Queen, 404, 436.
Anne of Bohemia, 337.
Antarctic exploration, 635.
Anthropology, 689.
An-til'les, the Greater, 320 and note 1.
Antioch (an'ti-ok), 76, 167, 234.
Antwerp, 327.
Apennines, the, 560.
Apostles, the, 140, 335.
April Fool's Day, 271.
Aquinas (d-kwi'nas), St. Thomas, 262, 354.
"Arabesques," 86, 87.
Arabia, i)hysical features of, 68.
Arabian Nights, the. See Thousand and
One Nights.
Ar'abs, the, as foes of the Roman Empire in
the East, 36, 76, 77 ; migratory and sed-
entary, 68, 69 ; heathenism of, 69 ; under
Mohammed, 71, 72 ; their conquests, 75-80 ;
civilization of, 82-87, 112, 280; establish
kingdom of the Hejaz, 733.
Aragon (a-rii-gon'), 216.
Arc de Triomphe (ark de tre-oNf), the, 695,
697.
Arch, pointed, 86, 255, 256 ; round, 254, 256.
Archangel, 418.
Archbishop, church official, 45, 144.
Architecture, Byzantine. 39, 42, 43 ; Arab,
86, 87 ; medieval, 252-256 ; Renaissance,
286, 287, 290 ; in England and France dur-
ing the seventeenth century, 395, 408, 409 ;
modern, 692.
Arctic exploration, 826, 635.
Argentina, 628.
Arian heresy, the, origin of, 47, note 1 ; ac-
cepted by the Teutonic invaders, 4, 6, 9,
30, 61.
Aristotle (ar'is-tot'l), Greek philosopher, 85,
262, 281, 297, 314.
Arithmetic, 85, 257, 486.
A'ri-us, 47, note 1.
Arkwright, Richard, 643.
" Armada (ar-ma'da), Invincible," the, 860,
364 and note 1, 365, 449.
Armenia, 49, 183, 423.
Armenians, the, 714.
Armies, feudal, 121 ; modern, 385, 401, 4;31,
717, 718.
Armistice with Germany, the terms of the,
744.
Armor, medieval, 121,
Arndt, E. M., 567.
Arno River, 238. 239.
Arras (a-riis'), 739.
Arthur, King, mvth of, 251, 312.
Art, Byzantine, 39, 40 ; Arab, 86, 87 ; Ren-
aissance, 286-28S, 290 ; in England, during
the seventeenth centurv, 395 ; French,
under Lonis XIV, 408, 409; modern, C91,
692. See also Architecture, Painting,
Sculpture.
Artisans, medieval, 229-232 ; in eighteenth-
century Euroi)e, 483, 484 ; condition of,
dui'ing the Indqstrial Revolution, 646, 647,
662-667.
Artois (iir-twa'), 402.
As'gard, 95.
Ashley, Lord, 666.
Asia, medieval explorations in, 303, 304;
opening up and partition of, 609-613.
Asia Minor, 37, 164.
Assignats (a-sO-nyaO, the, 509, 510.
Assisi (iis-se'ze), 147.
Astrolabe, the, 306.
Astrology in the Middle Ages, 261.
Astronomy, Arab, 86 ; medieval, 264 ; dur-
ing the Renaissance, 296, 297 ; modern, 487,
685.
Asylums. 678, 6T9.
Ath-a-na'si-us, 47, note 1.
Atlantic Ocean, 99, 827.
At-lan'tis, myth of, 311, 312.
Atrocities, German, 735, 736.
Attila the Hun, 52, 251, 693.
Augsburg (ouks'bdSrK), city, 242 ; Peace of,
342, 34:3, 355,' 369, 681.
Au-gus'tine, missionary to the Anglo-Saxons,
26, 61.
Ausgleich (ous'gllK), the Austro-IIun-
garian, 589.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 767
Austerlitz (ous'ter-lits), battle of, 528, 529,
530, 559.
Australia, exploration of, 477, 684, 635, 636 ;
settlement of, 622, 623.
Australian Commonwealth, the, 623.
Austria, rise of, 20, 158, 217 ; growth of,
under the Hapsburgs, 218 ; Switzerland and,
219, 220 ; in the War of the Spanish Suc-
cession, 404; shares in the partitions of
Poland, 426, 427 ; under Maria Theresa, 432,
433, 434, 435 ; wars of, with France, during
the revolutionary and Napoleonic era, 515,
517, 518, 521, 522, 523, 528, 530, 531, 534,-537 ;
predominance of, in Germany and Italy
after 1815, 547 ; under Metternich, 548, 549 ;
revolt of Bohemia and Hungary against, 556,
557 ; loss of Lonibardy and Venetia by,
563, 565 ; eliminated from German affairs,
568, 570, 571. See, also Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary, nationalities in, 589 ; gov-
ernment of, 589, 590 ; between 1871 and
1914, 709, 710, 716, 717, 722 ; in the World
War, 723, 724, 725, 730, 734.
Austrian Succession, War of the, 433, 434,
447, 469.
Austro-Prussian War, the, 570, 571, 709.
Austro-Sardinian War, the, 563.
Automobile, the, 653.
Av'a-lon, 312.
A'vars, the, 13, 18, 38, 412, 595.
Avignon (a-ven-yoj;')> residence of the popes
at, 333.
Azores (r/-z6rz') Islands, 308, 315.
Aztec Indians, the, 819, 320.
Ba'ber, 184, 445.
"Babylonian Captivity" of the Church, the.
Bacon, Eoger, 263, 267, 294, note 1, 311 ;
Lord, 297 and note 1, 396.
Baden (bii'den), 530, 558, 571, note 1.
Bagdad (bag-diid'), 82, 83, 183, 234, 714, 733.
Ba-ha'ma Islands, 314 and note 1.
Baker, Sir Samuel, 604.
Balance of power, the, in Europe, 403, 411,
527, 546, 708, 711.
Balboa (bal-bo'ii) Vasco Nufiez de, 320.
Balder, myth of, 96.
Baldwin, king of Jerusalem. 168.
Balfour, A. J., 746.
Balkan peninsula, 38, 423, 595.
Balkan wars (1912-1913), the, 600, 716, 717.
Ball, John, 299, 800, 307.
Baltic Sea, 1, 90, 242, 243, 827, 330, 413, 418,
419, 420, 421.
Baltimore, Lord, 455, 457, 460.
Ba-lu-chi-stan', 613.
Banking, medieval, 237, 238; modern, 656,
657,
Bank of England, the, 657.
Bank of France, the, 525, 657.
Ban'nock-burn, battle of, 206.
Baptists, the, 391, 460, 681.
Basel (ba'zel), 289.
Basilicas, Koman, 47, 254.
Bastille (bas-telO, the, capture of, 505, 506,
695.
Batavia, 443, 477.
Bavaria, 19, note 1, 20, 217, 434, 523, 530, 547,
570, 571, note 1.
Bayeux (ba-yu') Tapestry, the, 107, 275.
Bazalne (bS-zen'), General, 572.
Beaconsfield, Lord. See Disraeli, Benjamin.
Beauharnais (bo-ar-ne'), Eugene de, 530 and
note 1.
Bec-ca-ri'a, 678.
Bech-u-a'na-land, 608.
Bed'ou-ins, the, 68, 69.
Beethoven (ba'to-v^^n), Ludwig van, 691.
Behaim (ba'him), Martin, 812, 318.
Belgian Congo, the, 605, 606.
Belgium, a part of the Netherlands, 10, 18,
243, 357, 358, 360 ; kingdom of, estabHshed,
246, note 1, 552, 553; government of, 585,
586 ; neutrality of, violated by Germany, in
the World War, 726. See also Netherlands.
Bel-grade', 716.
Bel-i-sa'ri-us, Roman general, 34.
Bell, Alexander G., 654.
Bellman, a London, 228.
Benedict XV, pope, 560.
"Benefit of clergy," 141, 160.
Ben-gal', 448.
Ber'bers, the, 78, 215, note 1, 606.
Bergen (ber'gen), 242.
Bering, Vitus, 478.
Berlin, city, 408, 435, 528, 557 ; Decree, 532 ;
Congress of, 599.
Berlin-to-Bagdad Railway, the, 714.
Bertha, queen of Kent, 25.
Bessarabia, 592, 595.
Beth'le-hem, 168.
Bethmann-HoUwegCbat'miin-hol'vak), Theo-
bald von, 725, 726.
Biblical translations, 289, 335, 836, 840, 342,
345, 396 and note 1, 416.
Bicameral system, the, in England, 208 ; in
the Thirteen Colonies, 462 and note 3.
Bill of Rights, the, 393, 436.
Bills of exchange, 237, 288.
Bimetallism, 657.
Biology, modern, 488, 685, 686.
Bishop, church official, 45, 46, 144.
Bishop of Rome, See Pope.
Bismarck, Otto von, 569-573, 599, 666, 670,
708-711.
"BlackDeath," the, 299.
" Black Hole " of Calcutta, 448.
"Black Prince," the, 211, 212 and note 1.
Black Sea, 88, 39, 235, 413, 418, 4:^;;.
Blanc (bliiN), Louis, 669, 670.
Blenheim (blen'im), battle of, 404.
Bliicher (blu'Ker), 537, 538.
Boccaccio (bok-kji'cho), 282, 283.
Boers (boOrs), the, 444, 607, 711.
Bohemia, medieval kingdom of, 18, 62, 115 ;
annexed to Austria, 218; revolts against
Austria, 337, 370, 556; secures independ-
ence, 748, 746.
Bo'he-mond, 167.
Bokhara (bo-KJi'ra), 181.
Boleyn (bdSl'in), Anne, 846, 348, 361.
Bohvar (Span. pron. bo-lG'var), 627.
Bolivia, 319, 627.
Bologna (bo-lon'ya), university of, 258, 259,
261.
Bol-she-vi-ki', the, in Russia, 739.
Bolshevism, 671.
Bom-bay', 447.
Bon'i-face VIII, pope, 330, 331.
Bookkeeping by double-entry, 238 and
note 1.
Book of Common Prayer, the, 347, 348,
378. 885, 891.
Bordeaux (bor-do'), 327, 882.
Borneo, 622.
768 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Bor-o-di'no. battle of, 53^.
Borussi, the, 429.
Bosnia. 423, 599, 709.
Bos'po-rus, 41: 423.
Brazil, a Portuguese colony, 309, 310, note 1,
315, note 2. 533 ; becomes" independent, 62T,
62S ; abolishes slavery, 6TS ; enters "World
War, 737.
Boston, English city, 232 ; American city,
454.
Both'ni-a, Gulf of. 1, 90. 100.
Boulogne (boO-lOn'y') 527, 528.
Bourbon (boor'bSn), dvnasty, the, in
France, 36S, 537, 540, 551, 584; in Spain,
406, 546, 627.
Bourgeoisie (boor-zhwa-ze), the, 227 and
note 1, 4S3. 491, 497, 501, 513, 516, 51S, 519,
551. 5>4, 641, 7:38.
" Boxers." the. 616. 713.
Brahma (bra'ui./), 611.
Brahmanism. 611.
Brandenburg (bran'd/n-b*SrK>. 19, 221, 872,
406, 42S, 429. 43t>. 4^35. See fil^o Prussia.
Bremen (bra'm.»"n). 243, 372. 5S6. note 1.
Brest-Litovsk (bresl'-lve-tofsk'), Treaty of,
740.
•• Bridge of Sighs," the, 241.
Bristol, 325.
Britain, overrun by the Jutes, Angles, and
Saxons, 23 ; nature of the Anglo-Saxon
conquest, 25.
British Columbia. 626.
British East Africa. 60S.
British Empire, the, 603, 624, 626. See al«o
Colonies and dependencies.
British Isles, Christianity in the. 25-29, 61 ;
unification of. under English kings, 204-207,
377. note 2. 576. note 1.
British Museum, the. 706.
British North America, 623-626.
Brit'ta-nv. 209.
Bruce, Kobert, 206.
Bruges (Fr. pron. briizh), as a commercial
center, 235, 24^3, 244, 245, 246, 327 ; belfry
of, 244.
Brussels, 538, 553.
Bubonic plague, the, 299. 372, 686.
Bucharest (buO-kd-r^stO, Treaty of, 600, 601.
Buda-Pest, 589.
Buddhism (boodlz'm), 180, 615, 618.
Budget system, the. 407.
Bulgaria, a part of the Ottoman Empire,
423 ; becomes independent, 599 ; in the
second Balkan "War, 600, 601 ; in the World
War, 716, 731.
Bulgarians, the, 33, 62, note 3, 65, 78, 190,
412, 595 598.
" Bulls," papal. 149 and note 3.
Bundesrat (b<5&n'des-rat), the, 586, 587, 588.
Bunyan. John, 396.
Bur-'gun'di-ans, the. conquered by the
Franks, 8 ; become Catholic Christians, 61.
Bur'gun-dy, 2<)9, 251.
Burke, Edinund, 474.
Burma, 304. 612. 616.
Bushmen, the, 604.
Buttress, flying, 258 and note 2.
" By-zan'tine Empire." the. 32. 33.
Byzantium (bi-zan'shi-um), 32. See also
Constantinople.
Cabinet, the British, 436, 581.
Cabot, John, 325, 449.
Cadiz (ka'dez), 327, 3&4.
Caesar. Julius, 207, 693.
Cairo (kl'ro). 40, SI, S.5. 608.
Calais (Fr. pron. ka-le'), 213 and note 2, 243,
728.
Calculus, infinitesimal, 487.
Calcutta, 447, 448.
Calendar. Gregorian, 65; Maya, 318; Rus-
sian. 416.
Cal'i-cut. 309.
California. 322. 323, 334, 630. 657.
Caliph (ka'lif), the title, 80, 82, note 1.
Cal'iph-ate, the, 80-82.
Calmar, Union of, 419, 420, 501.
Calverts. the, 455.
Calvlii. John. 343, 344. 876.
Calvinism, diffusion of, 344. 345 ; its organi-
zation and doctrines. 350, 376, 49U.
Cam'ba-luc. See Peking.
Cambodia, 612.
Cambridge city, 232 ; university of. 260, 383.
Cameroons, the. 606. 732.
Camoens (kain'0-ens). 309.
Campo Formio. Treaty of, 521, 523, 528.
Canada, French explorations in, 325, 408,
464, 465 ; Jesuit missions in, 465 ; con-
quered by England, 469-471; "Tories"
settle in, 475, 623 ; Upper and Lower, ia'2S,
624; in the War of 1S12-1814, 624; receives
self-government, 624; Dominion of, 625,
Canals, 609, 631, 632, 723.
Canary Islands, 314.
Canon law. See Law.
Ca-nos'sa, humiliation of Henry IV at, 155,
157, 461.
Ca-no'va, Antonio. 691.
Canterbury, 25, 26, 27, 144, 158, 199, 293,
846, 380. '
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer's. 248, 249, 283,
292. 293, 301.
Can-ton', 615.
Canute (ka-nut'\ king of England, 106.
Cape Colony, 546, 606, 607.
Capet (Fr. pron. ki-pe'), Hugh, king of
France, 103, 208. 209, 693.
Capetian (k«-pe'sh4n) dvnasty, the, 103,
208, 210. 693, 696.
Cape-to-Cairo Railway, the, 608.
Cape Town, 60S.
Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution,
646. fr47. 668. 670.
Car-ho-na'ri, the. 56h
Carcassonne (kar-ka-son'), 225.
Cai-dinals, college of, 150, 153, 351.
Caribbean Sea, 314.
Carnegie (kar-nt-g'i). Andrew, 685.
Carnot (kar-no'), Lazare, 518, 521.
Carolinas. the, 457. 460.
Car-o-lin'gi-an dvnasty, the, 11 and note 1,
19, 21. 10:3. 6it3."
Carranza (Span. pron. kar-ran'tha), "Venu-
stiano. 628.
Carthage. 78. 604.
Cartier. Jacques (kar-tyQ', zhak'), 325, 464.
Cartwright, Edward, 644.
Caspian Sea. 13, 613.
Castes, Hindu, 611.
Castile (kas-tel'). kingdom of. 216.
Castles, feudal. 123-126, 263, 273, 274.
Ca-thay'. See China.
Cathedrals. See Churches.
Catherine de' Medici (da maMe-ch^), 367.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 769
Catherine of Aragon, 345, 346, 34S.
CatQerine II, tsarina of Russia, 422-424, 426,
427, 494, 592, 595.
Catholic Church. See Celtic Church, Greek
Church, Roman Church.
Catholicism, 45.
Caucasian race, the. 636, 638.
"Cavaliers," the, 3S3 and note 1.
Cavour (ka-voor'), Camillo di, 562, 563, 564,
565, 597.
Caxton, William, 285.
Celebes (sel'e-bcz), 310, note 1, 443.
Cehbacy of the clergy, 46, 349.
Celtiberians, the, 215.
Celtic Church, the, 26, 27, 29.
Celts (selts), the, in "Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland, 23, 204, 205, 207 ; in France, 207 ;
in Spain, 215.
Censorship of the press, 354, 380, 409, 526,
541, 54S, 560, 592.
Central America, prehistoric cities of, 318 ;
independence of, 627 ; republics of, 628.
Cervantes (ser-van'tGz), 291, 292.
Ceylon, 304, 311, 443, 546.
Chamber of Deputies, French, 583, 584, 586.
Champlain (sham-plan'), Samuel de, 464,
465.
Champs El5-sees (shax-za-le-za'). Avenue
des, 695.
Chancellor, German, position of the, 588.
Channel Islands, 213 and note 2.
Charit}^ the medieval Church and, 159.
Charlemagne (shar'le-man), 11, notel, 12-16,
61, 63, 82, 101, 114, 250, 251, 525, 526, 693.
Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, 557, 584.
Charles the Bald, 17.
Charles Martel, 10, 61, 80.
Charles I, emperor of Austria, 743.
Charles I, king of England, 379-387, 454,
455, 570 ; II, 387, 388, 390-392, 396, 456, 457,
550, 702.
Charles I, king of Rumania. 598.
Charles V, Uolv Roman Emperor. 315, 339,
341, 342, 345, 346, 348, 355, 358, 366.
Charles X, king of France, 550, 551. 554.
Charles XII, king of Sweden, 420, 421.
Charters, civic. 226.
Chateau Gaillard (sha-to'ga-var'), 124, 125.
Chateau-Thierrv(sha-t(y-tve-re').
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 248, 293, 301.
Checkers, 269.
Chemistry, Arab, 85; alchemy and, 264;
modern, 4S8, 685, 686.
Cherbourg (sher-boor'), 327.
Chesapeake Bay, 450.
Chess, 126, 269.
Children, emancipation of, 680, 681.
Children's Crusade, the, 174, 175.
Chile, 319, 628.
China, Nestorians in. 49, 50 ; conquered by
the Mongols, 183, 184 ; visited by the Polos,
804 ; Portuguese trade Avith, 310, 615; geogra-
phy and people of. 614 ; civilization of, 614,
615 ; during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, 615-617 ; in the World War, 737.
Chino-Japanese War. the, 616, 620, 621.
Chivalry. See Knighthood.
Chosen. See Korea.
Christianitv, spread of Catholic, over Europe,
6. 7, 8, 12. 13. 20. 25-29, 38, 60-62, 97, 101,
221, 424 ; Celtic and Roman, in the British
Isles, 25-29 ; development of, during the
first three centuries, 45-48 ; eastern, 48-50 ;
rise and growth Of the Papacy, 50-54 ; early
monasticism, 54-60 ; separation of eastern
and western, 63-65; the Papacy and the
Holy Roman Empire^ 137-160 ; the Ref-
ormation, 333-376; religious toleration and
the separation of Church and State, 681-683.
See also Celtic Church, Greek Church,
Protestants, Roman Church.
Christmas, 48, 134, 271, 272.
Chrysoloras (kris-6-lo'rds), 283.
Church and State, relations of, in revolution-
ary France, 509, 512, 524 ; separation of, 682,
683.
Churches: Aix-la-Chapelle, 15; St. Martin's,
Canterbury, 26 ; Canterbury Cathedral, 27 ;
Worms Cathedral, 156 ; baptistery, cathe-
dral, and campanile of Pisa, 237 ; Duomo
and cathedral of Florence, 239 ; Notre
Dame, 699 ; St. Paul's Cathedral, 705 ;
Westminster Abbey, 707.
Church of England.' See Anglicanism.
Cibola (se'bo-la), the Seven Cities of, 321.
Cid (Sp. pron. thetli). Poem oftfie, 216.
Ci-pan'go. See Japan.
Circuit judges, Ensrlish, 197.
Cistercian (sis-tur'shan) order, the, 145, 146.
Citeaux (sG-t(V), 146.
Cities, decline of, in the early Middle Ages,
129 ; the civic revival, 135, 136, 224 : origin
of, in the Middle Ages, 224, 225; feudalism
and medieval, 225, 226 ; rise of the " third
estate." 227; city life, 227-229; civic trade
and industrv, 229-232 ; Italian. 238-242, 280,
561 ; German, 242-243 ; Flemish, 243-246 ;
Dutch, 358 ; EngUsh, in the seventeenth
century, 394 ; growth of, in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, 671, 672.
Civilization, Byzantine, 38-40; Arabian, 82-
87 ; medieval, 247-277 ; modern, 675-707.
Civil War, American, 631, 653, 659, 664.
Clairvaux (klar-v6'), 146.
Clemenceau (kla-maN-so'), Georges, 746.
Clement VII, pope, 333.
Clergy, separation of. from the laity, 46 ; sec-
ular, 143, 144 ; regular, 144-146 ; influence
of, in the Middle Ages, 160 ; in eighteenth-
century Europe, 481, 482. See also Mo-
nasticism.
Cler'mont, Council of. 165, 166.
Clive, Robert, 447, 448, 609.
Clothing. See Costume.
Clo-til'da, 9.
Clovis, king of the Franks, 8-10, 698.
Cluny (klii-nG'), monastery, 145; museum,
698.
Coal in industry, 645, 646.
Cochin-China (kd'chin chi'na), 304, 612.
Coinage, debasement of, in the Middle Ages,
236. See also Money.
Colbert (kol-bar'). policies of. 407. 408, 465.
Coligny (ko-len've). Admiral de, 367. 464.
Cologne (ko-lon>), 18, 102, 224, 230, 242.
Colombia, 627, 628.
Colonial poUcy, Portuguese, 310 ; Spanish,
324, 626, 627 ; British, 4ii_4I2r484, '
Colonies and dependencies : Portuguese, 310,
311, 856, 605, 622, 627, 712; Spanish, 322-
324, 605, 622, 626, 627, 630, 712; French,
325, 464--467, 606. 612, 616, 622, 628, 712;
English, 326, 327, 449-458, 603, 606-612, 613,
615, 616, 622-626, 628 ; Dutch, 442-445, 622,
628, 638 ; Swedish, 457 ; Belgian, 605, 600 ;
German, 606, 616, note 1, 622 and note 3,
770 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
712, 732; Italian, 606, 712 ; Danish, 629 and
note 1, 630.
Columbus, Christopher, 313-315.
Combination Acts, the, 663, 665.
Co-me'ni-us, 295, 296.
Commerce, Byzantine, 39 ; Arabian, 69, 83,
84, 310 ; Influence of the crusades on, 177,
234 ; medieval, 234, 235 ; Genoese and Vene-
tian, 240, 241 ; Hanseatic, 242, 243 ; Portu-
guese, 310, 311 ; Spanish, 324, 326 ; effect of
the maritime discoveries on, 327; Dutch,
442-445; modern, 641, 656, 658-660,
Committee of Public Safety, French, 518.
Common law. See Law.
Commons, House of, 203, 205, 376, 382, 3S3,
386, 337, 389, 436, 438, 462, 578-582, 586^ 680.
Commonwealth, the, England under, 387-
389.
"Communards," the, 582, 583, 693, 696.
Commune of Paris, the, 506, 582.
Companies, trading, 441, 442, 443, 444, 447,
449, 450, 451, 452, 454, 457.
Compass, the mariner's, 84, 263, 304, 306,
307.
Comte (koNt), Auguste, 688.
Concert of Europe^ the, 549, 585.
Concordat, French, 524, 683.
Concordat of Worms, 155, 156.
Confederations. See Federations.
Confucius, 615, 618.
Congo Free State, 605, 606.
Congo Kiver, 308, 605.
Congregationalism, 350, note 1, 385, note 1,
391, 460.
Congresses, world, 676, 677.
Connaught (kon'ot), 387.
Connecticut, 455, 460, 462, 464.
Conquiatadores (kon-kes-ta-fho'rus), the,
322.
Conrad I, 19 ; III, 170.
Conscription, military, development of, 718.
Conservative Party, British. 582.
Constance, Council of, 333, 336, 337.
Constantine Palaeologus, Roman emperor in
the East, 188.
Constantine I, king of Greece, 597, note 1,
731.
Constantinople, attacked by the Russians,
38 ; as the center of Byzantine civilization,
38-40; situation of, 40, 41; described, 42,
43 ; besieged by the Arabs, 77, 78 ; captured
by the crusaders, 173 ; Latin Empire of,
174 ; siege and capture of, by the Ottoman
Turks, 174, 187, 188, 190; Russia's desire
for, 529, 596, 598, 599, 730.
Constituent Assembly, French, 510, note 1.
Constitutional Democratic Party, Russian,
738.
Constitutions : English, 390, 576, 581 ; Amer-
ican, 393, 491, 576, 681, 683 ; French, ,510,
512, 513, 519, 520, 523, 540, 550, 555, 576,
583, 683; Prussian, 559, 588; Italian, 584;
Spanish, 585; Portuguese, 585; Belgian,
585; German, 586, 588, 721; Austro-Hun-
garian, 589 ; Swiss, 590 ; Greek, 597 ; Japa-
nese, 620.
Consulate, Napoleon's, 523-525.
Continental System, Napoleon's, 531-533,
534 535 624
Cook, Captain James, 477, 478, 622, 635.
Cooperative societies, 664.
Copenhagen, 421.
Co-per'iii-cus, 296, 297.
Cor'do-va, 40, 83 and note 1, 84, 85, 8T.
Corn Laws, the, repeal of, 659.
Cornwallis, Lord, 475.
Coronado (Span. pron. k6-r6-na'Eho), Fran-
cisco de, 321.
Coronation Chair, the, 204.
Cor'pus Ju'ria Civ-dnis, 34, 35, 120, 258,
259, 262.
Correggio (kor-rod'jo), 288.
Corsica, 34, 498, 520.
Cortes (Span. pron. kor-tiis'), Hernando, 320.
Cosmas map, the, 305.
Cosmology, medieval, 296, 297.
Cossacks, the, 414, 417, 421, 536, 591, 738.
Costume, clerical, 46 ; in the Middle Ages,
274, 275; old Russian, 416; modern, 675,
676.
Cotton gin, the, 644.
"Council of Blood," the, 359.
Councils, Church : Nicaea, 46, 47 and note 1 ;
Constance, 333, 336, 3:37 ; Trent. 353, 354.
Counter Reformation, the Catholic, 351-355,
369.
County system, the, in the Thirteen Colo-
nies, 463"
Coup d'etat (k5?>-da-ta0, Napoleon Bona-
parte's, 522 ; Louis Napoleon's, 659.
Courland, 222, 738.
Courts, feudal, 118; royal, in the Middle
Ages, 195, 197. 198, 210.
Covenanters, Scotch, 382.
Cracow (kra'ko), 424.
Craft guilds, 229-232, 239, 395. 484, 662, 663.
Cranraer, Thomas, 346, 347, 348.
Crecy (kra-se'), battle of, 211, 212.
Crete, 596, 600.
Crimea, the, 423, 597.
Crimean War, the, 597, 710.
Crises, commercial, 658.
Crompton, Samuel, 644.
Cromwell, Oliver, 382, 383-390, 455.
Crusades, the, causes of, 162-164; First Cru-
sade, 164-168; crusaders' states in Syria,
168-170 ; Second and Third, 170-172 ; Fourth
Crusade, 173, 174; Children's Crusade, 174,
175 ; results of, 175-177.
Cuba, 628, 737.
Culture. See Civilization.
Curasao (ko5-ra-so'), 444.
Cures (kii-ra'). French, 504, 509, 512.
Curie (ku-re'), Marie. 686.
Cuzco, 319, 321.
Cymric (kim'rik), the Welsh language, 204.
Cyprus (si'priis), 77, 175, 241, 355.
Cyril (sir'il), 62 and note 2.
Csar (ziir). See Tsar.
Czechs (cheks), the, 556.
Damascus, 40, 76, 81, 82, 83 and note 1, 86,
170, 234, 742.
Dane'geld, the, 106.
Dane'law, the, 103, 105.
Danes, converted to Christianity, 97; in
England. 103, 105, 106, 248.
Danish West Indies, 629 and note 1, 630.
Dante Alighieri (diin'ta a-le-gya're), 281, 282,
291, 294, 311,331.
Danton (daN-toN'), 513, 514, 515, 517, 518,
519, 684.
Dar-da-nelles', the, 41, 187, 423, 730.
Darwin. Charles, 687.
Das Kapital, Marx's, 670.
Davy, Sir Humphry, 645.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 771
De-cam' er-on, Boccaccio's, 2S2, 283.
Declaration of Independence, the, 473, 474,
476, 490, 640.
Declaration of the Rights of Man, 510, 511,
681.
Degrees, university, 259.
Deification of kings, 375.
Deists, the, 489 and note 1, 492, 494.
Delaware, 457, 458.
Delhi (del'e), 184, 610.
Demarcation, papal line of, 315 and note 2,
316, 322, note 1.
Denaocracy, medieval cities and, 135, 136,
226, 281 ; the medieval Church and, 160 ;
during the revolutionary and Napoleonic
era, 539-541 ; disregard of, by the Congress
of Vienna, 547, 548 ; between 1815 and 1871,
550, 551, 553, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559,
560, 562, 569 ; between 1871 and 1914, 575-
601 ; influence of the Industrial Revolution
upon, 640, 641 ; the World War and, 746.
Denmark, Viking emigration from, 18 ;
Lutheranism in, 343, 348 ; enters the Thirty
Years' War, 370 ; in the Union of Calmar,
419 ; at war with Charles XII, 420, 421 ; an
ally of Napoleon, 531, 546 ; the Danish War,
570; government of, 591.
Departments, French, 509, 524.
Despots, Italian, 238.
Devil, the, 74, 265, 268.
Diaz (de'iits), General Armando, 743.
Diaz (dc'iith), Rodrigo, 261 ; Bartholomew,
308, 309 ; Porfirio, 628.
Dickens, Charles, 689.
Dictatus pnpce, the, 154 and note 1.
Directory, French, 520. 521. 522.
Disestablishment, religious, 682, 683.
"Dispensations," papal, 149, 346.
Disraeli (diz-ru'li), Benjamin, 580, 599.
Dissenters, the, 391 and note 1, 393, 394,
437,460. '-^
Divination, medieval, 265.
Divine Comedy, Dante's, 281, 291, 311, 331.
Divine right of kings, the, 375, 876, 377, 378,
380, 392, 394, 490, 497, 511, 540, 548,- 588.
See also Absolutism.
Division of labor, 647.
Dnieper (ne'per) River, 38, 101, 181, 414.
Dniester (nes'ter) River, 38.
Dome, the, as an architectural feature, 39.
255, 286, 287.
Domesday (domz'da) Book, 194, 195.
Domestic system, the, 646.
Do-min'i-cans, the, 148, 149.
Dominion of Canada, the, 625, 626.
"Donation of Pepin," the, 11 and note 2.
"Do-nothing kings," the, 10, 11.
Don Quixote (Span. pron. don ke-ho'ta),
Cervantes's, 291, 292.
Drake, Sir Francis, 326, 364, 365, 47T.
Drama, medieval, 273; Shakespearian, 293,
294 ; modern, 409, 689. 690.
Dravidians, the, 610, 611. 636.
Drunkenness in the Middle Ages, 277.
Dual Alliance, the, 710.
Dual Monarchy, the. See Austria-Hungary.
Dublin, 98.
Duel, the judicial, 120, 197.
Duma, the, 417, 594, 788.
Dunkirk, 728.
Dupleix (du-pleks'), 447, 448.
Duquesne (dQ-kan'), Fort, 469 and note 1.
Durham Report, the, 624. I
Dushan, Stephen, 596.
Dwellings : the castle, 123-126, 132 ; the
manor house, 273, 274.
Dwi'na River, 100.
East Anglia, 23.
Easter, 27, 48, 134.
Eastern Empire. See Roman Empire in the
East,
" Eastern Question," the, 424, 597, 598, 599,
601, 712, 714.
Eastern Rumelia, 599.
East Goths. See Ostrogoths.
East India Company, Dutch, 443, 444, 477 ;
French, 447 ; English, 447, 448, 609, 610.
East Mark, 20. See also Austria.
Ecole des Beaux-Arts (a-kol' dti bo-zarO,
698.
Economic conditions, during the feudal
period, 129-135; during the later Middle
Ages, 235-238, 298-301 ; in England, during
the seventeenth century, 895 ; during the
Industrial Revolution, 640, 641, 646-649,
656-658, 661-667, 671-673.
Ecuador, 319, 627. .
E-des'sa, county of, 169, 170.
Edinburgh, 206.
Edison, Thomas A., 654.
Education, in the early Middle Ages, 14, 105,
160, 256, 257 ; Byzantine, 40 ; Arab, 85 ;
medieval universities, 257-261 ; scholas-
ticism, 261, 262; Renaissance, 294-296;
Spanish-American, 324; Jesuit, 352, 353;
in the Thirteen Colonies, 460, 461; modern,
683-685. ^ -
E^dwar^he'Confessor, king of England, 106,
Edward I, king of England, 203, 204, 206 ;
II, 204, 206; III, 210, 211, 213; VI, 347.
Egbert, king of Wessex, 24, 25, 103.
Egypt, monasticism in, 54 ; conquered by the
Arabs, 76, 78 ; the center of Moslem power,
171, 173 ; conquered by the Ottoman Turks,
423 ; Napoleon in, 521, 522, 531 ; controlled
by Great Britain, 608, 609.
Eiffel (ef-elO Tower, the, 696.
Ein'hard, 12.
Elba, Napoleon at, 537, 545.
Elbe River, 12, 19. 102, 221.
Elder Edda, the, 94.
El Dorado (^1 do-ra'do), 321.
Electoral college, German, 218, note 2.
Electric traction, 653.
Elizabeth, queen of England, 326. 848, 351,
, 357, 361, 366, 376, 377, 447, 449, 451.
Emigres (a-me-graO, the, 511, 519, 524.
Ems dispatch, the, 572.
Encyclopedists, the, 493. ■>
Engiarid, conquered by the Danes, 103, 105,
106; Norman conquest of, 106, 107, 109;
under William the Conqueror, 109, 193-195 ;
under Henry II, 195, 197, 198; under Rich-
ard I, John, and Henry III, 198, 199, 200,
202 ; under Edward I, 203, 204, 206 ; the
Hundred Years' War between France and,
210-214 ; the War of the Roses, 214 ; the
Reformation in, 345-348; under Elizabeth,
361-365 ; under James I and Charles I,
377-387 ; the Commonwealth and the Pro-
tectorate, 387-390 ; the Restoration and the
"Glorious Revolution," 390-394; in the
seventeenth centurv, 394-396 ; at war with
Louis XIV, 402, 403, 404, 406; in the War
77'
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
of the Spanish Succession and the Seven
Tears' War, 434, 447, 448, 469 ; under the
first three Georges, 436-488; rivalry of,
with France in India and North America,
447^49, 467-471 ; loss of the Thirteen Colo-
nies by, 471-476 ; at war with revolutionary
and Napoleonic France, 517, 521, 5'i"2, 523,
527, 528, 531, 532, 533, 534, 535, 537 ; terri-
torial acquisitions of, by the Vienna settle-
ment, 546 ; between 18i5 and 1871, 549, 55:3,
554 ; government of, 576-582 ; the Indus-
trial Revolution in, 641, 647, 649 ; between
1871 and 1914, 710-712, 714, 719; in the
World War, 725-727, 732-734.
English, the. radical elements in, 23, 103,
105, 109, 110.
"Enlightened despots," the, 493-495.
Entente cordiale (iiN-tiiNt' kor-dyaK), the,
711, 713.
Epic poetry, medieval, 250, 251, 252.
E-piph'a-ny, 48.
Epirus, 596.
Episcopate, the, 45, 65, 350.
E-ras'mus, Des-i-do'ri-us, 289, 290, 301, 333,
334, 339, 351.
Er-a-tos'the-nes, 811.
Erfurt (erMWrt), university of, 337.
Eric the Red. 99.
Ericsson, Leif (er'ik-siin, lif), 99.
Eritrea (u-re-tre'a), 606.
Es-co'ri-al, the, 357.
Es-dra-e'lon, 742.
Eskimos, the, 99.
Esperanto, 676.
Essay on Crimes and Punishments, Bec-
caria's, 678.
Essex, 23.
Estates-General, the French, 210, 331, 399,
411, 502-504, 522, 700.
Esthonia, 222, 420, 740.
Esths, the, 592, 594.
Eth'el-bert, king of Kent, 25, 26.
Euclid (u'klid). 85, 257.
Eugene (u-zhen'). Prince, 404.
Eugenie (u-zha-nC), Empress, 560, 582.
Evil eye, the, 268.
Evolutionary theory, Darwin. 1, 687.
Excommunication, 142, 154, 155, 158.
Exploration, Atlantic, 99, 100 ; Asiatic, 303,
804, 684, 636; African, 3o8, 309, 604, 605,
634, 636 ; American, 314, 315, 320, 821, 325-
327, 464, 465, 634,635; Pacific, 316, 317,
476-478 ; Arctic and Antarctic, 634, 635.
Expositions, universal, 676.
Factory Acts, British, 665, 666.
Factory system, the, 646, 647, 665, 667, 668,
670. 673.
Fairies in European folklore. 266.
Fairs in the Middle Ages, 229. 232-284.
Falconrv, 126, 127.
Faroe (farM) Islands, 93.
Farther India. See Indo-China.
Faust (foust), Goethe's, 690.
Fealty, oath of, 117, 118.
"February Revolution," the, 554, 555.
Federations : Swiss Confederation, 219, 220,
372, 590; Hanseatic League, 242, 243; the
United Netherlands, 860, 361. 372 ; Union
of Calmar, 419. 420. 591 ; United Colonies
of New England, 464 ; Confedei-ation of the
Rhine, 530 ; Germanic Confederation, 547.
558, 568; North German Confederation,
571, 573; German Empire, 586; Scandi-
navian League, 591 ; Union of South Africa,
607, 603; Australian Commonwealth, 623;
Dominion of Canada, 625, 626; Central
American, 628.
Fenris, 96.
Ferdinand, king of Aragon, 216, 217, 237,
314, 341 ; VII, King of Spain, 533, 585. 627.
Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria, 556 and
note 1.
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, 855 ; II,
370, 871.
Ferdinand I, King of Rumania, 598, note 1.
Ferdinand I, tsar of Bulgaria, 599, 600, 716.
Festivals, Christian, 48 ; during the Middle
Ages, 270-272 ; in the Thirteen Colonies,
459.
Feudalism, rise of, 114, 115; non-European
parallels to, 115 ; as a form of local govern-
ment, 115-118; as a form of local justice,
llS-120; feudal warfare, 120-122; feudal
castles, 123-126 ; knighthood and chivalry,
126-129; feudal manors, 129-134 ; serfdom,
134, 135 ; decline of, 135, 136 ; infiuence of
the crusades on, 176, 177 ; the national
states and, 192, 193; William the Con-
queror's policy toward, 194 ; the medieval
cities and, 225, 226 ; in Poland, 425, 426 ;
remnants of, abolished in revolutionary
France, 507, 508 ; in Japan, 618, 620.
Fez, 713.
Fiction, modern, 689.
Fief, the, 116, 117.
Field, Cyrus W., 654.
Finland," 100, 370, 420, 421 and note 1. 529,
546 and note 1, 592, 594, 680, 746; Gulf of,
418, 420.
Finns, the, 62, 100, 179, 412, 592, 594, 740.
Flanders, county of, 211, 248, 246, 402.
Flemings, the, 243, 552.
Florence, in the Middle Ages, 239, 240; dur-
ing the Renaissance, 280, 281, 282, 288, 287,
291.
Florida. 820, 464, 470, 476, 680.
" Flying shuttle," the, 648.
Foch (fosh). General, 741.
Folk tales, European, 265, 266.
Fontainebleau (foN-ten-blo'). "00.
Food of medieval peoples, 276.
Formosa, 616, 621.
France, origin of the name, 8, note 8 ; the
Normans in, 102, 108 ; Capetian dynasty
established in, 103, 208 ; physical and' racial,
207, 208; territorial growth of, 209, 219;
Hundred Years' War between England and,
210-214 ; under Francis I, 366 ; the Hugue-
not wars in, 866-36 ; under Henry IV,
868, 369 ; intervention of, in the Thirty
Years' War, 869, 371, 872 ; under Richelieu
and Mazarin, 896, 397 ; under Louis XIV,
397-410 ; in the War of the Austrian suc-
cession and the Seven Years' War, 434, 447,
469 ; rivalry of, with England in India and
North America, 447^49, 467-471 ; alliance
of, with the Thirteen Colonies, 475, 476, 501 ;
under Louis XV, 498, 499; the French
Revolution, 499-522 ; the Napoleonic era,
528-541 ; restoration of Louis XVIII, 546,
549, 550 : under Charles X, 550, 551 ; the
"July Revolution" in, 551; under Louis
Phihppe, 554 ; the " February Revolution "
in, 555; under Napoleon III, 559, 560;
acquires Savoy and Nice, 564 ; in the
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 773
Franco-German War, 571-573, the Third
Republic, 582-584 ; between 1871 and 1914,
710-714, 718 ; in the World War, 725-730 ;
741-742.
Tranche Comt6 (fraNsh'-koN-tu'), 403.
Franchise, the. See Sutfrage.
Francis I, emperor of Austria, 545.
Francis I, king of France, 324, 341, 366.
Francis Ferdinand, Austrian Crown Prince,
assassination of, 723.
Francis Joseph I, Emperor of Austria, 556
and note 1, 559, 563, 571, 589, 599, 632, note
1, 709.
Fran-cis'cans, order of, 147-149, 183, 303,
323.
Franco-German War, the, 566, 572, 573,
708-709.
Fran-co'ni-a, 19 and note 1.
Frankfort, Assembly, 558, 568 ; Treaty, 572,
573.
Franklin, Benjamin, 459, 464, 487, 498.
Franks, the, conquests of, under Clovis, 8 ;
converted to Catholic Christianity, 8, 9, 61 ;
under Merovingians, 10; under Charles
Martel, and Pepin the Short, 10, 11 ; under
Charlemagne, 12-16.
Frederick t, Barbarossa, Holy Roman Em-
peror, 156, 157, 171, 172, 217; II, 158, 175;
Frederick II, the Great, King of Prussia,
431-485, 437, 438, 494, 495, 569, 6S1, 6S4;
III, 710, note 1.
Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, 838,
340.
Frederick William, the Great Elector, 430,
431, 681, 721.
Frederick William I, King of Prussia, 431 ;
III, 545, 558, note 1 ; IV, 558, 559, 569.
Freemasonry, 682.
Free trade, adoption of, by Great Britain,
658, 659.
French, the, racial elements in, 207, 20S.
" French and Indian War," the, 464. 469.
French Revolution, the, 497-522, 539-.j41,
543, 544, 668, 669.
Frescoes, Italian, 287-288.
Friars, orders of, 146-149.
Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, 75; an
unlucky day, 270.
Friedland (frut'lant), battle of, 529.
Frigga, 96.
Frob'ish-er, Sir Martin, 826, 449.
Froissart (frwji-sar'), Jean, 292.
Fulton, Robert, 651, 653.
Furniture in the Middle Ages, 274.
Future life, ideas of the, in Islam, 74, 75,
76.
Ga'bri-el. archangel. 71, 74.
Gaelic (gal'ik), the Celtic speech of Scotland,
205.
Galicia (ga-lish'i-a), 426.
Gal'i-lee, Lake of, 171.
Galileo (gal-i-lcM), 296, 297.
Gal-lip'o-U, 187, 730.
Gallo-Romans, the, 208, 248.
Gama (gii'ma), Vasco da, 309, 310, 317.
Gambetta, Leon, 582.
Games, medieval, 126, 269, 270.
Ganges River, 184, 610, 634.
Gargoyles, 256.
Garibaldi (gii-re-balMe), Giuseppe, 563, 564.
Garonne (gi-ron') River, 102.
Gas engine, the, 653. ,
Gaul, Franks in, S ; Arabs in, 80.
Geneva, Calvin's residence in, 343, 344.
Genoa, 7, 237, 239, 240, 313, 327.
Geographical conditions in European his-
tory, 90, 91, 205, 206, 207, 214, 215, 220, 221.
Geography, Arab, 84 ; medieval, 302-804 ;
progress of, in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. 308, 308, 809, 311, 314-317, 820,
821, 325, 826 ; modern, 476-479, 634-636.
Geology, 686.
Geometry, 85, 257, 486.
George I, King of England, 4^36; II, 436,
458 ; III, 438, 472, 474, 478. 577, 707.
George I, king of Greece, 597 and note 1.
George, David Lloyd, 683.
Georgia, 458.
German East Africa, 606, 732.
German Revolution, the, 000.
German Southwest Africa, 606, 732.
Germanic Confederation, the, 547, 558, 568.
Germans, converted to Christianity in its
Arian form, 4. 6, 9, 30, 61 ; fusion of, with
Romans, 29, 30 ; missionary labors of St.
Boniface among, 61 ; the Slavs and the, 19,
221.
Germany, under Saxon kings, 19, 20; con-
sequences to, of the restoration of the Ro-
man Empire by Otto the Great, 21, 22, 158,
159 ; the Northmen in. 102 ; eastward ex-
pansion of, in the Middle Ages, 220-222 ;
political condition of, at the close of the
Middle Ages, 222, 223 ; the Reformation in,
342, 348 ; the Thirty Years' War, 369-373 ;
during the revolutionary and Napoleonic
.era, 518, 521, 529, 536, 541; disunion of,
after 1815, 547 ; revolutionary move-
ments of 1830 and 1848 in, 547, 548, 557,
558 ; unification of, 567-573 ; government
of, 586-588; between 1871 and 1914, 708-
728 ; in the World War, 723-734.
Ghent (gent), 244, 246.
Giants in European folklore, 266, 267.
6i-bral'tar, strait of, 78 and note 2 ; fortress
of, 405, 406, 475.
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 449.
Girondists (ji-ron'dists). the, 516, 519.
Gladstone, William E., 580, 581, 659, 683.
Globular theory, the, 311.
" Glorious Revolution," the, 393, 394, 437,
467, 478, 497, 539.
Goa, 310.
Gobelins (go-blaN) manufactory, the, 409.
Godfrey of Bouillon (boS-yoN'), 167, 168.
Gods and goddesses, Scandinavian, 94-97.
Goethe (giVte), German poet, 294, 690.
"Golden Gate" of Constantinople, the, 42.
"Golden Horde." the, 185.
Gold standard, the, adoption of, 657.
Good Hope, Cape of, 309, 443, 444, 606.
Gothic architecture, 254-256.
Goths. See Ostrogoths, Visigoths.
Government ownership, 652, 653, 667, 668.
Governments: Great Britain, 576-582;
France, 582-584; Italy, 584, 585; Spain,
585; Portugal, 585; Belgium, 585, 586;
Germany, 586-588, 721 ; Austria-Hungary,
589, 590, 748 ; Switzerland, 590, 591 ; Hol-
land, 591 ; Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
591 ; Russia, 594, 739 ; Turkey and the
Balkan States, 595-601 ; China, 614, 617 ;
Japan, 618, 620 ; Latin American, 628.
Governor, the, in the Thirteen Colonies, 462,
774 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Gra-na'da, S3. ST. 216, 21T.
Grand Alliance, the, -tM, 406,
Grand Canal of Venice, the, 241.
Grand Duchy of Warsaw, the, 530, 546.
Gratian, 259.
Gravitation, law of, 4S7.
Great Britain, island of. 204; kingdom of,
3T7, note 2. See alj<o England.
Great Charter. See Magna Carta.
Great Council, the, in Norman England,
200, 202.
Great Elector, the, 430, 6Sl, 721.
Great Fire, the, at London, 395, 702. 704.
Great RebeUion. See Puritan Revolution.
" Great Schism," the. 332, 333.
" Great Trek," the, 607.
Greece, a part of the Ottoman Empire. 423 ;
becomes independent, 596 ; government of.
596, 597 ; territorial growth of, 599, 600,
601 ; in the World War, 731.
Greek Church, the, missionary activity of.
in the early Middle Ages, 3S, 62, 101 ; ortho-
doxy of, 50 ; schism between, and Rome.
63-65 ; organization and worship of, 65, 66 ;
in Russia. 417, 6S3.
•' Greek Empire." the, 32.
" Greek fire," 77.
Greeks, the. partlv Slavonicized, 37, 3S.
Greenland, 99, 449, 6:>4, 635.
Gregorian Calendar, the, 65.
Gregory I, the Great, pope, 53, 54, 76; VII,
154, 155, :i31.
Grey, Sir Edward. 724.
Grotius (gio'shi-tis), Hugo, 373.
Guam (gwam). 630.
Guatemala, 313,
Guiana, Dutch, 344; British. 546.
Guild system, the, 646.
Guilds.' See Craft guilds. Merchant guilds.
Guinea (gin'i). Gulf of. 30S. 313.
Guiscard (ges-kar), Robert, 111, 112, 167;
Roger, 112.
Gunpowder, discovery of, 263, 264.
Gustavus Adolphus. "370, 371, 373, 420, 457.
Gutenberg (go<ytf'n-berK), 2S5.
Habeas Corpus Act, the, 391, 392, 436, 462.
Haffen (ha'gen), 251. 252,
Hague (hag). The, 552.
Hague Peace Conferences, 719-720.
Haig (hag). Sir Douglas, 72S.
Haiti (ha'ti), 628.
Hallow Eve. 271.
Hamburg (ham'b<5&rK), 102, 242, 243, 327,
556, note 1.
Hampden, John. 3S1. 382, 383.
Hanover, 436, 547, 553, 570, 571.
Hanoverian dvnastv, the, 436.
Han-se-at'ic League, the, 242, 243, 428.
Hapsburg (haps'MSirK^ dvnastv, the, 158
and note 1, 217. 21S. 219, 220, 341, 355, 369,
370, 371, 372. 396. 397. 404. 406. 432. 433.
434. 435. 495. 543, 544, 547, 54S, 553, 556 and
note 1, 558. 559, 589.
Harem (ha'rem), the. S8.
Hargreaves, James, 643.
Harold, king of England, 106, 107, 109. 204.
Harun-al-Rashid (ha-roon'-ar-ri-shed'), 81,
82.
Harvev, 297.
Hastings, battle of, 107, 109, 261.
Hawaiian Islands, 478, 630.
Haydn, 691.
Heb'ri-des Islands, 9S. 99.
Hegira (he-ii'r<V), the, 72 and note 1.
Hejaz (hOj-az), kingdom of the, 733.
Hel, the Norse underworld, 96.
Helgoland (hel'go-lant), 546, 719.
Henrv- II, king of England, 195, 197, 198,
203, "204; III, 200, 202, 704; VII, 214, -325,
376, 377, 449 ; VIII, 345-34S, 361, 362, 376,
377, 700, 702.
Henrv IV. king of France, 368, 369, 4r>4.
Henrv I. king of Germany, 19, 20, 62, 221 ;
in, 152; IV, 154,155.
Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 307, 309, 313.
Her-a-cli'us. Roman emperor in the East,
35,36.
Herat (her-af), 181,
Hereford (her'e-ferd) map, the. 305.
Heresies, rise of, 47, 49, 50 ; punishment of,
in the Middle Ages, 3^34, 3:i5; the Albi-
genses, 14S. 335; the "Waldensos, 335; the
Lollards, 336 ; the Hussites, 3:37.
Hermits, early Christian, 54, 55, 146.
" Hertzian waves." the, 6S6.
Herzegovina (her-tse-go-ve'na), 599, 709.
Hesse (hes). 61, 571, note 1.
Highlands of Scotland, 205. 206.
Highways. 114, 234, 395, 525. 649, 650.
Hil'de-brand. See Gregory VII.
Hi-ma'la-ya Mountains, 610. 634.
Hindenbiirg (hin'dun-b06rK), General von,
730.
" Hindenburg Line," the, 729, 742.
Hindus, the. 610, 611, 612.
Hindustan, 610.
Hip'po-drome of Constantinople, the, 42.
His pa'ni-a, 214.
Historians, Renaissance, 291, 292 ; modern,
6SS, 6S9.
Hoder (he'der), 99.
Hohenlinden, battle of, 523.
Hohenzollern (ho'^n-tsol-ern) dvnastv, the,
19 and note 2, 406, 428 and note 1, 429, 544,
55S. 569, 743.
Holidays, medieval, 134, 270-272.
Holland, a part of the Netherlands, 10, 18,
357 ; the Reformation in, 358 ; revolts
against Spain. 359, 360 ; secures independ-
ence, 361. 372 ; at war with Louis XIV,
402, 4o:3, 404. 445 ; in the War of the Aus-
trian Succession, 434 ; at war with Great
Britain, 475, 476 ; during the revolutionary
era, 517, 518, 529, 546 ; the Austrian Neth-
erlands united with, 547, 552 ; loses the
Austrian Netherlands, 553 ; government of,
591. See aho Netherlands.
Holland, J. P.. 6.>1.
Holstein (hol'shtln), 23. 3<0, 570, 571. See
a/so Schleswig.
Holy Land, the, 162, 163, 165, 166, 169, 172,
175, 176.
Holy Roman Empire, the, 16 and note 1, 21-
23," 151-159, 218 and note 2, 369, 371, 372,
403, 505.
Holy Sepulcher, church of the, 168, note 1.
Holy Synod, the, in Russia, 417.
Homage, ceremony of, 117.
Homeric poems, study of, during the Renais-
sance, 281, 282.
Home Rule, Irish, 582.
Honduras, 318.
Hong-kong', 615.
Hos'pi-tal-ers, order of the, 169 and note 1,
175.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 775
Hotel des Invalides (o-tel'dfi-zaN-va-led'),
286, note 1, 409, 696.
Hottentots, the, 604.
Howe, Elias, 644.
Hudson Bay, 469, 626.
Hudson, Henrv, 444.
Hudson River,' 444, 449, 452.
Hugo, Victor, 6S9, 69S.
Huguenots (hu'ge-nots), the, 366 and note
•3, 367, 368, 376, 395, 408, 4^30, 444, 458, 501,
681.
Huguenot wars, the, 366-368.
Humanism, 283, 290, 291, 294.
Humboldt, Alexander von, 6:34.
Hundred Years' War, the, 210-214.
Hungarians. See Magyars.
Hungary, medieval kingdom of, 20, 115, 184,
185 ; united with Austria, 21 S ; overrun by
the Ottoman Turks, 423, 595 ; revolt of,
against Austria, 556, 557 ; becomes inde-
pendent, 589 ; government of, 590. See
also Austria-Hungarv.
Huns, the, 18, 38, 412," 592, 598.
Hussite wars, the, 337, 370.
Huss (hiis), John, 337, 339.
Hymns, Latin, 249 ; Luther's, 340 and
note 1.
Iberians, the, 215.
Ib'lis, 74.
Iceland, as a literary center, 93, 94 ; Chris-
tianity introduced "into, 97; colonized by
the Northmen, 99.
Iconoclastic controversy, the, 64.
Il'men, Lake, 100.
Imperialism, 603, 712, 720.
Incas, the, 319, 320, 321.
Inclosures in Great Britain, 660, 661.
J7i-cti~nab^ii-la, 285.
Independents, the, 385 and note 2, 386, 387.
391, 451.
" Index of Prohibited Books," the, 354.
India, Nestorians in, 50 ; Arab conquests in,
77; the Moguls in, 184, 445,' 447; Portu-
guese possessions in, 310, 311, rivalry of
France and England in. 445-449 ; a part of
the British Empire, 609-612; peoples of,
610, 611 ; religions of, 610, 611 ; the caste
svstem of, 611 ; Indian nationalism, 611, 612.
Indian Ocean, 310, 445.
Indians, American, 317-320, 322, 323.
Indies, East, SOS, 309, 310 and note 1, 311,
317, 320, 442, 443, 621, 622 ; West, 315, 320
and note 1, 322, 387, 444, 628, 629 and note
1, 630, 677, 678.
Indo-China, 612, 614, 616.
Indulgences, 338, 339, 349.
Indus River, 77, 184, 610, 634.
Industrial Revolution, the, 640-673.
"Industrial Workers of the Worid," the, 671.
Industry, Bvzantine, 39 ; Arab, S3 ; in medie-
val cities, 229-232. 238, 239, 244, ^5 ; the
Industrial Revolution, 640-673 ; govern-
ment regulation of, 665-667.
Ingria, 420.
Initiative, the, 590, 591.
Innocent HI, Pope, 147, 157, 158, 173, 175,
198, 338.
Inquisition, the, 354, 355, 358.
Inscriptions, 49, 91, 105.
Institute of France, the, 410, 69S.
Jnatitutes of the Christian Religion, Cal-
vin's, 343, 376.
Instrument of Government, the. 390, 576.
Interdict, the, 142, 157, 15S.
Internationalism, Modern, 675-677, 685, 689,
690, 691, 708.
International law, rise of, 373.
In-ter-reg'num, the, 158.
Inveotion, 641, 642.
Investiture, conflict over, 153-156.
Ionian Islands, 546.
Ireland, Christianity introduced into, 26, 29 ;
the Northmen in," 9S ; conquered by Eng-
land, 207, 362, 363, 3S7 ; Nationalism in,
543 : joined to Great Britain, 576 and note
1 ; Home Rule Movement in, 582.
Ir-ne'ri-us, 25S.
'• Ironsides," Cromwell's, 385.
" Iron Crown " of Lombardy, 13, 21, 525.
Isaac. Hebrew patriarch, 6S.
Ish'ma-el, 68.
Islam (is'lum), principles and practices of,
73-75; expansion of, 75-SO ; influence of,
87-88; in India, 611.
Isles of the Blest, the, 312.
Italia Irredenta. 566. 731.
Italy, the Ostrogoths in, 3-6 ; the Lombards
in, 6-8; Frankish rule over, 13; restoration
of the Roman Empire by Otto the Great
and its consequences to, 21, 22, 159; Nor-
man conquest of southern. 111. 112, 164,
2S0 ; in the Renaissance, 279-2S3. 286-289,
291, 294, 295, 296; during the revolution-
ary and Napoleonic period, 521, 522, 523,
.52"5, 528, 529, 530, 541 ; the Vienna settle-
ment in, 546; disunion of, after 1815, 547;
revolutionary movements of 1830 and 1848
in, 553, 557 ; unification of, 560-567 ; gov-
ernment of, 5S4, 585; between 1871 and
1914, 709, 712 ; in the World War, 731-732.
Ivan (e-vanO III, the Great, tsar, 185, 186.
Jacobins (.iak'o-bins), the, 513, 514, 515, 516,
519, 520, 525.
Jacquerie (zhak-reO, the, 300 and note 1.
James I, king of England, 206, note 1, 363
and note 1, 377-379, 396. 449, 450, 451 ; II,
392, 393 and note 1, 455, 457, 467.
Jamestown, settlement of, 450, 451.
Jan-i-za'ries, the, 187 and note 2, 18S.
Japan, not conquered by the Mongols, 183 ;
the medieval Cipango, 304, 313, 314 ; Portu-
guese trade with, 310, 61S; geography and
people of, 617, 618 ; civilization of, 618 ;
during the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, 61S-621 ; in the World War, 733.
Java, S3. 310, note 1, 443.
Jena (ya'na), battle of, 528, 529.
Jenghiz Khan (jen'giz KJin'), Mongol con-
queror, 181, 182.
Jerusalem, during the crusades, 163, 165, 167,
168, 169, 171, 172, 174, 175. 238 ; regarded as
center of the world, 305 ; captured by the
British, 733.
Jesuits. 5ee Society of Jesus.
Jews, the, condition of, in the Middle Ages,
236, 237 ; in England and the Thirteen
Colonies, 394, 460 ; reunion of, in the Holy
Land, 54^3 ; persecuted in Russia, 594.
Jihad (ie-had'), 75.
Joan of Arc, 213.
Joflfre (zhoflF), General, 72S.
John, Don, of Austria, 355.
John, king of England, 157, 158, 198, 199,
209, 514.
776 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
John, king of France, 212.
John XII, pope, 21.
Joint-stock companies, 441, 442.
Joliet (Fr. pron. zho-lya'), 465.
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, 495.
Joseph Bonaparte, 530, 533, 627.
Josephine, 530, note 1, 534, TOO.
Jotunheim (j'6'td6n-ham), 95.
Joust, the, 128, 129. •
"Julian Calendar," the, 416.
" July Revolution," the, 550, 551, 695.
Junkers (yoT>n'k:(5rs), Prussian, 429, 569, 722.
Jury, trial and accusation by, 197, 198.
Justices of the peace, 463.
Jus-tin'i-an, Roman emperor in the East,
6, 33-35, 78.
"just price," medieval idea of the, 232.
Jutland, battle of, 734.
Kaaba (kaVt-bti), the, 69, 70, 72.
Kamchatka, 414.
Karelia, 420.
Kent, 23, 25, 26, 300.
Kepler, 297.
Kerensky, Alexander, 739.
Khadija (ka-dG'Jd), 71.
Khartum (kar-toom'), 608.
Khedive (k^-dev'). the. 6(i9.
Kianchan (kyon-chon^), 616, note 1, 738.
Kiel Canal, the, 719.
Kiev (kC-'yi'f), 101, 184. 591.
" King George's War," 468, note 1, 469.
" King's friends," the, 438, 474.
" King's Road," the, 323 and note 1.
"King William's War," 403, note 1, 468,
note 1.
Kitchener, General, 608.
Knighthood, 126-129.
Koblenz (ko'blents), 744.
Koniggratz (ku-niK-grct.s'). battle of, 571.
Koran (ko-ran'), the, 73-75. 76.
Korea, 183, 616, 618, 621 and note 1.
Koreans, the, 284, 617.
Koreish (k5-rlsh'). 69, 71.
Kosciuszko (Polish pron. k(jsh-chv(5TJsh';<6),
427.
Kos'so-vo, battle of, 596.
Kossuth (kosh'dSt), Louis, 556.
Kremlin, the, 593.
Kriem'hild (krem'hilt), 251, 252.
Kruger. Paul, 607.
Kublai khan (koD'bll kui/), 183, 304.
Kultur, 720.
Laborers, statutes of, 299.
Labor legislation, 665-667.
Labor movement, the, 662-664.
Labor Party, British, 582.
Labrador, 99, 325, 449, 634.
La Chaise (la-shez'), P6re, cemetery of, 698.
Ladrone (la-dro'nii) Islands, 816 and note 1.
Lafayette, Marquis de, 475, 498, 504, 506,
508, 551.
La F6re (la far'), 741.
La Fontaine (la foN-ten'), 409.
Laissez-faire (le'sa-far'), doctrine of, 486,
665.
Lancaster (lan'kds-ter), house of, 214.
Lau-'ce-lot, Sir, 128.
Land tenure, feudal, 116, 129, 130 ; modern,
661, 662.
Langley, 8. P., 653.
Lan-go-bar'di. See Lombards,
Language, English, 25, 110, 248, 249 ; Latin,
138, 193, 247, 248, 290, 291; Norman-
French, 110, 248 ; Cymric. 204 ; Gaelic, 205 ;
Spanish, 216 ; French, 248 ; Icelandic, 248
and note 1; Greek, 280, 282, 283; Italian,
2S1 ; German, 340.
Languages, universal, 675, 676.
Laos, 612.
Laplace (la-phis'), 487.
Lapland, 185.
Lapps, the, 179, 592.
La Salle (la sSl'), Robert de, 465, 629.
Lat'er-an Palace, the, 151, 153.
Lritin Empire of Constantinople, the, 174.
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the, 168, 169,
170, 171.
Latin Quarter, the, of Paris, 698.
Laud, Archbishop, 380, 381, 382, 454.
Lavoisier (la-vwa-zyu'), 488.
Law: Common law of England, 25, 34, 195,
198, 392, 462, 576 ; " Laws of the Barbari-
ans," 30 ; the Corpus Juris Civilis, 84, 35,
120, 258, 259, 262; feudal, 118-120; canon,
141, 259 ; the rise of international, 373 ; the
Code Napoleon, 524, 539.
"Laws of the Barbarians," the, 30.
Leagues. See Federations.
Learned societies, rise of, 4SS, 489.
Lech (Ick) River, battle of the, 20.
Legates, papal, 150, 183, 831.
Legion of Honor, French, 526.
Leibniz (ITp'nits), 487.
Leinster (len'ster), 387.
Leipzig (lip'sik), citv, 232 ; university of,
260 ; battle of, 536.
Lenine, Nicholas, 739.
Lent, 48, 240, 307.
Leo I, the Great, Pope, 52; III, 14; XIII,
566.
Leo III, the Isaurian, Roman emperor in
the East, 77.
Leon (la-on), kingdom of, 216.
Leon, Ponce de, 320.
Leonardo da Vinci (la-o-narMo da vcn'che),
288.
Leopold I, king of Belgium, 558 ; II, 605,
606.
Lepanto (la-pan 'to), battle of, 355.
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 609.
Lettres de cachet (let'r' de k&-shC'), 499, 506.
Letts, the. 592, 594.
Lewis and f'lark, explorations of, 684.
Leyden (li'dcn), 858. 452.
Liaotung (le-ou-ttjong'), Peninsula, 616, 621.
Liberal Party, British, 5S2.
Liberia, 787.
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," 498, 529,
5:39-541.
Libva, 606 and note 1.
Lidge (le-azh'), 102.
Lima (iC-'^na), 321.
Lim'er-ick, 98.
Lin-nse'us. 488.
Liquor traffic, the. abolition of, 679.
Lisbon, 809, 310, 818, 327, 442, 533.
Literature, Bj'zantine. 40 ; Arabic, 86; medi-
eval. 249-252; Renaissance, 290-294; Eng-
lish, in the .seventeenth century, 395, 396;
French, in the seventeenth and' eighteenth
centurins, 409, 491-493; modern, 689, 690.
See also Humanism.
Lith-u-a'ni-ans, the, 62, 424, 425, 592, 594,
740.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 777
Liverpool, 327, 649.
Livingstone, David, 605.
Livonia, 222, 420, 740.
Locke, John, 489, 490, 498.
Loire (Iwiir) River, 8, 102, 213.
Lo'ki, 96.
Lollards, the, 336, 345.
Lombards, the, form a kingdom in Italy, 6-
8, 35, 53 ; defeated and conquered by the
Franks, 11, 13; become Catholic Christians,
61.
Lombard Street, 237, note 1.
Lombardy, 6, 521, 529, 546, 547, 557, 563.
London, becomes the capital of England,
109 ; craft guilds of, 230 and note 1 ; as a
flnancial and commercial center, 237, note 1,
242, 327 ; population of, in the seventeenth
century, 394 ; described, 700-707.
London Bridge, 206, 242, 702.
London Company, the, 449, 450, 451, 452, 453,
462.
Long bow, the, 211.
Lords, House of, 203, 376, 387, 392, 578, 580,
581.
Lorraine (16-ranO, 18 and note 1, 19, note 1,
372, 401, 403, 498, 573, 586, 722, 742. See
also Alsace.
"Lost Provinces," the, 712, 721.
Lothair (16-tharO, 17, 18,
Lothringen (16t'ring-en), See Lorraine,
Louis VII, king of France, 170; IX, the
Saint, 209, 210; XIII, 369, 396, 397; XIV,
397-410, 411, 417, 447, 465, 467, 481. 483,
484, 490, 526, 527, 537, 606, 693, 696, 698,
727 ; XV, 406, note 2, 467, 483, 484, 498, 499,
695 ; XVI, 499-517, 695 ; XVII, 537, note 1 ;
XVIII, 537, 549, 550.
Louis the German, 17, 18 ; the Pious, 16, 97.
Louis Napoleon. See Napoleon III.
Louis Philippe, king of France, 551, 554, 555,
606,
Louisburg, 469.
Louisiana. 408, 465, 469, 471, 629, 630, 634.
Louvain (loo-vaN'), town hall of, 245.
Louvois (loO-vwaO, 401.
Louvre (liw'vr'), palace of the, 290, 409, 696,
698.
Low Countries. See Netherlands.
Lovola (l(5-vo'la), St. Ignatius, 351, 352.
Liibeck (lu'bek), 242, 243, 327, 586, note 1. .
Lucca, 547.
Lu-cerne', Lake, 219 ; the Lion of, 514.
Lutsi-ddfi, Camoens's, 309.
Ln-tii-ta'ni-a, the, 735.
Luther, Martin, 337-340, 376.
Lutheranism, legal recognition of, in Ger-
many, 342, 345, 681 ; spreads to Scandinavia,
343 ; its doctrines and organization, 350,
376.
Lutzen (liit's^n), battle of, 871.
Lux'em-burg, 72.5, note 1, 727. •
Lyell (li'el), Sir Charles, 686.
Ma-ca'o, 310, 615.
Macedonia, 600, 601.
Machiavelli (ma-kyii-vel'le), 291.
Mackensen, General von, 730.
Madagascar, 445, 606.
Madeira (md-de'r«) Islands, 308.
Madeleine (mad-Ian'), the, 696,
Madonna. See Virgin Mary.
Ma-dras', 447, 448.
Magdeburg (mag'de-bd&rK), 871.
Ma-gel'lan, Fer'di-nand, 316, 817, 477.
Magenta (md-jSn'tA), battle of, 563.
Magic in the Middle Ages, 264, 265.
Magistrates of a medieval city, 229 and note
Mag'na Car'ta, winning of, 198, 199 ; provi-
sions of, 199, 200, 380, 700,
Magyars (mod'yors), the, inroads of, 18;
wars of Henry the Fowler and Otto the
Great with, 19, 20, 217 ; their settlement in
Europe, 20 and note 1 ; converted to Chris-
tianity, 62.
Maine, 455, note 1, 464.
Main River, 571.
Mainz (mints), 285, 744.
Ma-lac'ca, 310, 443,
Malay Islands, 614, 686.
Malay Peninsula, 612, 614.
Malmaison (mal-me-z6N'), 700,
Malory, Sir Thomas, 251, 285.
Malta, 546.
Manchuria, 179, 613, 614, 616, 621.
Manhattan Island, 444.
Man-i-to'ba, 626.
Manor, the medieval, 129-134, 298, 299, 484,
485.
Mansard (maN-sar'), 409,
Man'tu-a, 294.
Manufacturing, inventions in, 642-644.
Manuscripts, 285, 286.
Maps, medieval, 302, 305; the jyottolanL
306.
Marconi, William, 654, 655.
Marengo, battle of, 523.
Margraves, 14.
Mariannes. See Ladrone Islands.
Maria Louisa, 534
Maria Theresa (te-re-s«), 426, 427, 432, 438,
434, 435, 500.
Marie Antoinette (iiN-twa-nct'), 500, 501,
508. 512, 513, 515, 695.
Markets, medieval, 232 ; modern, 656.
"Marks," 14.
Marlborough, Duke of, 404,
Mar'mo-ra, Sea of, 40, 41.
Marne (miirn), the, battle of, 727-728.
Marquette (mar-kef), 465.
Marseillaise (mar ee-yaz'), the, 518 and
note 1, 543.
Marseilles (mar-salz'), 224.
Martin V, Pope, 333.
Marx, Karl, 669, 670.
Mary (wife of William III), 393 and note 1.
Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, 363. 364.
Mary Tudor, queen of England, 348.
Maryland, 455, 457, 460, 463.
Massachusetts, 453-455, 460, 461, 462, 464.
Mathematics, Arab, 85, 86 ; medieval, 257 ;
modern, 486, 487.
Matilda, Countess, 155.
Matrimony, sacrament of, 189, 141.
Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, 682 and
note 1.
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, 341.
Mayas (ma'yas), the, 318, 319, 324.
May Day, 134, 271, 272.
Mayflower Compact, the, 453, 454.
" Mayors of the palace," Frankish. 10.
Mazarin (ma-za-raN'), Cardinal, 397, 899, 401,
698.
Mazzini (mat-sc'ne), Joseph, 557, 561, 564.
Mecca, 69, 70, 71, 72, 733.
Medici (med'e-che), the, 288.
yyS Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Medicine, Arab, 85 ; modern, 686.
Medina (mO-de'na), 72, 81, 738.
Mediterranean, the, 418, 419.
Mendicant orders. See Friars.
Mercantile system, the, 44U, 441.
Merchant guilds, 229.
Mer'ci-a, kingdom of, 24.
Mer-o-vin'gi-an, dynasty, the, 10 and note 1,
693. 696.
Mer'son, Treaty of, 17.
Merv (merO. 181.
Mes-o-po-ta'rai-a, 423, 733.
Methodists, the, 6S2 and note 1.
Me-thoMi-us, 62 and note 2.
Metternich (met'er-niK), 545, 547, 548, 549,
550, 552, 553, 556, 559, 592, 6;30.
Metternichismus, 548, 549, 554.
Metz, 372, 572, 573.
Meuse (miiz) River, 102, 442
Mexico, the Aztec power in, 319 ; conquered
by the Spaniards, 320 , becomes indepen-
dent, 627 ; in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, 628, 631, 632, 736.
Mexico City, 319, 324.
Michael, archangel, 213.
Michael Romanov, 415.
Michelangelo (Ital. pron. me-kei-an'jJi-lo),
287, 288.
Middle Ages-, the, period covered by, 2, 279.
Middle class, the. See Bourgeoisie, Third
Estate.
" Middle Europe," 715. 717, 731.
Midgard serpent, the, 95, 96
Midsummer Eve, 271.
Mikado, the Japanese, 618, 620 and note 1.
Milan (mil'dn), city, 238, 557, b63 ; Decree,
532
Militarism, 401, 480, 431, 717-720.
Military-religious orders, 196, 221.
Milton, John, 396
Mi-nor'ca, 406, 476-
Minstrels, 93, 126, 250,
Mir, the Russian, 662.
Mirabeau (me-rd-bo'), 502, 503, 504, 510, 512,
514.
Miracle plays, 273.
Mis'ai clo-minH-ci, the, 14.
Missions in America, 323, 324, 329, 352, 353,
440, 465.
Mississippi River, 321, 408, 465, 466, 469,
470, 629. 630.
Moawiva (md-a-wC'ya), 81.
Modena (m6'da-na),"'547, 553, 557, 563
Mo-guls', rule of the, in India, 1S4, 445,
447.
Mo-ham'med, prophet, 69-73, 733.
Mohammed II, sultan, 188.
Mohammedanism. See Islam.
Moldavia, 598.
Moliere (mo-lyar'), 409, 698.
Moltke, Hellmuth von, 570, 572,
Mo-luc'cas. See Spice Islands.
Mon'a-co, 547, note 1.
Monarchy, use of the medieval, 192, 193, 194,
210, 217. See aho Absolutism.
Monasticism, rise of, 54-56 ; the Benedictine
Rule, 56, 57 ; life and work of Benedictine
monks, 57-60 : the Cluniac revival, 145 ;
the Cistercian order, 145, 146 ; suppression
of. in Scandinavia and England, 343, 346,
347.
Money, scarcity of, in the Middle Ages, 114,
235 ; the Jews as money lenders, 236, 237 ;
increased supply of, after the discovery ot
America, 327, 328 ; supply of, in the nine-
teenth centurj', 657. See also Coinage.
Mongolia, 50, 179, 614.
Mongolian race, the, 614, 636 and note 1, 63S.
Mongols, the, life and culture of, 179, ISO ;
conquests of, 180-185,
Monroe Doctrine, the, 630-632, 713.
Mons (moNs), 727.
Montaigne (mon-tan'), 292.
Montcalm (moN-k&lm'), 467, 469.
Mon'te Cas-si'no, 56.
Mon-te-ne'gro, 65, 423, 596. 599, 600, 716,
732,
Montesquieu (raoN-tes-ke-uO, 491, 493, 494,
498.
Montfort, Simon do, 202, 203,
Montpellier (m6N-j)e-lyaO university of,
261.
Montreal, 465, 466, 469,
Moors, the, 215 and note 1, 216.
Morality plays, 273,
Mo-ra'vi-a. 62 and note 2.
More, Sir Thomas. 301, 668, note 1.
Mo-re'a, the, 241, note 1.
Moreau (mo-ro'). General, 523.
Morocco. 605, 606, 713.
Morris dance, the, 272.
Morse, Samuel F. B., 6.54.
Morte d' Arthur (mort'ddr-tur'), the, 251,
285
Mosaics, 33, 152.
Moscow (mos'ko), 40, 184, 185, 186, 415, 418
and note 1,421, 535, 591.
" Moslem," meaning of the name, 71, notel.
Mosques, 84, 166.
Mosul (mo-soOl'), 177.
Mozart, 691.
Mu-ez>zin, 74.
Mumming and mummers' plays, 271, 273.
Munster, 387.
Mus'co-vy, principality of, 135.
Music, religious, 47, 48, 288, 289; modern,
690, 691.
Mythology, Scandinavian, 94-97.
TSTansen, Fridtjof, 635.
N.intes (ntiNt), Edict of, 368, 395, 408, 444,
458, 681. — . ■— ,
Naples, 7, 112, 546, 564.
Napoleon I, Bonaparte, 520-541, 544, 545,
555, 560, 561, 507, 624, 626, 627, 628, 629,
053, 677, 683, 684, 693, 695, 696, 698, 708;
II (" king of Rome "), 534 and note 1 ; III,
555, 557, 559, 560, 562. 56:3, 5(>4, 566, 570,
571, 572, 5S2. 597, 631, 632. 693, 695.
Nasebv (naz'bi), battle of, 385.
Na-tal>, 607.
National Assembly, French, 503, 504, 507,
508, 509, 510, 516.
National Convention, French, 516, 518, 519,
520, 525,
National Guard, French, 506, 508.
Nationalism, rise of, in Europe, 192. 193, 206,
214, 216, 220, 222 ; during the revolutionary
and Napoleonic era, 543, 544, 561, 567, 568,
708 ; disregard of, by the Congress of
Vienna, 546, 547, 568, 708; between 1815
and 1848, 548, 550, 551, 552, 553, 561, 568 ;
between 1848 and 1871, 556, 557, 558, 559,
562. 566, 568, 571, 573; in India. 611, 612;
internationalism and, 708 ; imperialism and,
712.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 779
Nationalism Party, Irish, 5S2.
National Library, the, at Paris, 410, 696.
National Monument, German, 587.
Nations, League of, 746.
Na-va-ri'no, battle of, 596.
Navarre (no-viir'). kingdom of, 216, 368 and
note 1.
Navigation Acts, the, 472.
Navy, Venetian, 241 ; English, 365, 719, 734;
French, 369 ; German, 719, 734. See also
Sea-power.
Nebular hypothesis, the, 4S7.
Negro race, the, 603, 604, 636, 638.
Nelson, Lord, 522, 527, 704.
Neptune, planet, 685.
Nes-to'ri-ans, the, 49, 50, 303.
Nestorius, 50.
Netherlands, the condition of, in the Middle
Ages, 243. 357, 358 ; Protestantism in, 344,
354, 358 ; revolt of, 357-361 ; efforts of
Louis XIV to annex. 402; the Austrian,
406, 517, 518, 521, 546, 547, 552.
Neutrality, Belgian, 553, 726.
Neva River, 418.
New Amsterdam, 444.
New Brunswick, 624, 625.
New England, colonization of, 451-454 ; John
Smith's map of, 452 ; religious conditions in,
460; educational system of, 460, 461 ; rep-
resentative institutions in, 462 ; town gov-
ernment of, 463 ; Confederation of. 464.
Newfoundland, 99, 449, 468, 470, 624, 626.
New France, 408, 466, 467, 471.
New Guinea, 621, 622 and note 1, 635, 636.
New Hampshire, 455 and note 1, 621.
New Haven, 464.
New Jersey, 457.
New Mexico, 322.
"New Model," the, 385.
New Netherland, 444, 457.
New Orleans, 466 and note 1.
New South Wales, 622, 623.
Newspapers, appearance of, 395, 655.
New Sweden, 457.
New Testament, the. 289, 290, 340.
Newton, Sir Isaac, 487.
New York, 455, note 1, 457, 458, 460, 462.
New Zealand, 477, 622, 623.
Niagara, Fort, 469.
Nibelungenlied (no'be-loong-en-lot), the,
251, 252, 294.
Nictea (ni-so'<i). Council of, 46, 47 and note
1, 164.
Nice (nes), 563, 564.
Nicene Creed, the, 47, note 1, 51.
Nicholas I, tsar of Russia, 553 and note 1,
557, 592, 597 ; II, 594, 719. 738.
Niemen River, 431, 529, 536.
Nieuport, 728.
Niger River, 604.
Nightingale, Florence, 597.
Nihilism, Russian, 592, 594.
Nijni-Novgorod (nyez'nye n6v'g6-r6t), 232.
Nile River, battle of the, 522, 531 ; sources
of the, 604.
Nobility, feudal, 115, 118, 192, 193, 194, 210,
214 ; French, 397, 399, 482, 483 ; British,
482.
Nonconformists. See Dissenters.
Normandy, 102, 103, 106, 109, 110, 111, 194,
198, 209.
Normans, the, settle in France, 102, 103;
conquer England, 106, 107, 109 ; results of
the Norman Conquest, 109-111 ; conquer
southern Italy and Sicily, 111, 112; in-
fluence of, on European history, 112, 113,
281; as crusaders, 164, 167.
North, Lord, 438.
North Cape, 1, 100.
North German Confederation, the, 571, 573.
Northmen, inroads of the, IS, 97, 98 ; tlieir
home, 90, 91 ; in i)rehistoric times, 91, 92 ;
the Viking Age, 92-94 ; in the West, 97-
100 ; in the East, 100-101 ; in Germany and
France, 101, 102; in England, 103, 105, 106,
107.
North Pole, the, discovery of, 635.
Nor-thum'bri-a, kingdom of, 24, 27.
Northwest Passage, search for the, 325, 326,
635 and note 1.
Norway, Viking emigration from, 18, 91, 97 ;
geographical features of. 90, 91 ; trade be-
tween Greenland and, 99 ; Lutheranism in,
343, 348 ; in the Union of Calmar, 419 ; an
ally of Napoleon, 531 ; united with Sweden,
546 and note 1, 547 ; government of, 591 ;
woman suffrage in, 680.
Norwegians, converted to Christianity, 62,
97.
Notre Dame (no'tr' d&mO, cathedral of, at
Paris, 525, 696, 699.
Novara (no-vu'ra), battle of, 557.
Nova Scotia, 99, 325. 468, 624, 025.
Novgorod (nov'go-rbt), 100. 185, 242.
Numerals, the "Arabic," 85; the Roman,
257.
Nuncios (nun'shi-oz), papal, 150.
Nu'rem-berg, 226, 242, 313.
" Oath-helpers " 119.
Oath-swearing, 118, 119, 120, 197.
O'ber-Am'mer-gau, Passion Play at, 273,
note 1.
Oceania, opening up and partition of, 621-
623.
Oddfellowship. 682.
O'der River, 221, 424.
O'din, 94, 95, 96, 97.
O-do-a'cer, 2, 3, 4.
Officials of the medieval village, 132, 403.
Oglethorpe, James, 458.
Ogres, 267.
Oise (waz) River, 741.
Okhotsk (o-kotskO, Sea of, 414.
O'laf the Saint, 97.
Old Regime, the, 480-496.
Omar, second caliph, 80 ; mosque of, 166.
Omar Khayyam (o'mwr Ki-yam'), 86.
Ommiads (o-mi'adz), dynasty of the, 81 and
nete 1.
Ontario, 625.
Open field system, the, 130, 395.
Opera, the, 289, 690, 691.
Orange, house of, 546.
Orange Free State, 607.
Oratorio, the, 289.
Orchestra, the, symphony, 690, 691.
Ordeals, 119, 120, 197.
Orders in Council, British, 532. 624.
Origin of Specien, Darwin's, 6S7.
0-ri-no'co River, 315, 321.
Ork'ney Islands, 98.
Orleans (or-lii-aN'), citv, 209, 213 : university
of, 261 ; Due de, 466", note 1 ; the Orleans
monarchy, 551, 554, 555.
Or'muz, 310.
780 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Os'tro-goths, the, invade Italj', 3, 4 ; under
Theodoric, 4, 6 ; conquered by Justinian, 6,
34 ; become Catiiolic Christians, 61.
Othman, third caliph, 80 ; Ottoman chieftain,
187 and note 1.
Otto I, the Great, 20-22, 62, 152, 217.
Ot'to-man Turks, the rise and spread of, 187 ;
siege and capture of Constantinople by, 187,
188, in southeastern Europe, 190, 423 : con-
trol of Asiatic trade routes by, 235, 240, 309, j
810 ; defeated at the battle of Lepanto, 355, '
423 ; defeated before Vienna, 423 ; wars of,
with Catherine II, 423, 424; in the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries, 595-601,
714; in the World War, 730, 733, 742.
Owen, Robert, 668, 670
Oxford, university of, 258, 260, 263.
Oxus Eiver, 77.
Pacific Ocean, discovery of, 316, 320 ; explo-
ration of, 476-478.
Pad'u-a, university of, 261.
Painting, Byzantine, 39 ; Italian, in the
Middle Ages, 89, 287 ; modern, 395, 692 ;
Kenaissance, 287, 288, 290.
Palatinate, Ehenish, 458.
Pale, the, in Ireland, 207.
Pa-ler'mo, 112.
Palestine, 733, 742.
Palestrina (pa-las-tre'nii), 288, 289.
Pal'H-um, the, 144, 150.
Panama, isthmus, 320 ; state, 628 ; Canal,
631, 632.
Pan-Americanism, 632.
Pan-Germanism, 720-723.
Pan-German League, the, 722.
Pantheon (pon-ta-ox), the, at Paris, 696, 698.
Papacy. See Roman Church.
Paper, use of, 83, 284.
Papuans, the, 636.
Paradise Lost, Milton's, 396.
Paris, sacked by the Northmen, 102 ; be-
comes the capital of France, 209 ; university
of, 257, 258, 260, 261. 262, 263, 693 ; Peace
of (1763), 435, 448, 449, 469-471, 498; Peace
of (1783), 476; during the French Revolu-
tion, 504, 505, 508, 513 ; in the "July Revo-
lution," 551 ; in the " February Revolution."
555; besieged by the Germans, 572, 573;
" communard " uprising in, 582, 583 ; Treaty
of (1856), ms ; described, 692-700.
Parishes, church, 143.
Park, Mungo, 604.
Parliament, English, in the thirteenth cen-
tury, 200, 202, 203 ; under the Tudors, 876,
877 ; under James I and Charles I, 878, 880 ;
reforms of the Long, 882 ; the Rump, 386,
887, 888, 889 ; under Charles II, 890, 892 ;
under James II, 892, 398; under William
and Mary, 393, 394; under George III, 438,
577 ; in the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, 577-582 ; Houses of, 706.
Parliament Act, the, 580.
Parma, 547, 553, 557, 563.
Parties, British. 892 and note 1, 898, 436, 437,
438, 578, 582 and note 1 ; French, 584 ; Ger-
man, 588, 722 ; Russian, 738-739.
Pasteur (pas-tAr'), Louis, 686.
Patriarchate, development of the, 45, 46, 64.
Paul III, pope, 351, 858.
Pavia (pa-ve'a), capital of Lombardy, 6, 18 ;
university of, 813.
Peace movement, the, 740.
"Peace of God," the, 122.
Peary, Robert E., 634, 685.
Peasantry, medieval, 129-185; modern, 484.
485, 661, 662.
Peasants' Rebelion, the, 299, 800.
Peel, Sir Robert, 659, 665.
Peking (pe-king'), 183, 804, 616.
Penal code, the, reform of, 678.
Peninsular War, the, 534.
Penn, William, 457, 682, 683.
Pennsylvania 457, 458, 460, 463, 682, 685,
Pen'te-cost. See Whitsunday
Pepin (pep'in) the Short, king of the Franks,
11, 12, 61, 80.
Perrault (po-ro), Charles, 265, note, 2, 409.
Perrv, Commodore, 618.
Persecution of heretics, 47, 384-337,348, 351,
854, 855, 358, 866.
Pershing, General, 742.
Persia, conflict between, and the Roman Em-
pire in the East, 35, 36 ; conquered by the
Arabs, 76; overrun by the Mongols, 181.
Peru, the Inca power in, 319, 320 ; conquered
by the Spaniards, 820, 321 ; becomes inde-
pendent, 627.
Peter the Great, 415-418, 421, 422, 478, 481,
592
Peter the Hermit, 166, 167, 168.
Peter I, king of Serbia, 716.
"Peter's Pence," 150, 151.
Petition of Right, the. 380, 390. 893, 436.
Petrarch (pe'trark), 282, 286, 289, 290.
Petrine supremacy, doctrine of the, .52.
Petrograd (pe'tro-grad), 40, 418 and note 1,
618.
Philip II, Augustus, king of France, 157,171,
172, 198, 209 ; IV, the Fair, 210, 881, 832 ; VI,
211.
Philip II, king of Spain, 848, 855-357, 858,
359, 860, 868, 364, 366, 442, 527.
Philippine Islands, 317, 822, note 1, 353, 477,
621, 622", 630.
Philosophy, scholastic, 261, 262, 294, 298; in
France, during the eighteenth century, 490-
493 ; modern, 687, 688.
Physics, modern, 487, 685, 686.
Physiocrats, the, 4S5, 4S6.
Piave (pya'vu) River, battles of the, 732, 743.
Pic-ca-dii'lv, street, 702
Piedmont,'546, 562, note 1.
Piers Plowman, 301.
Pilgrimages, Mohammedan, to Mecca, 74,
75; Christian, 139, 162, 1C3, 333, 338, 349.
Pilgrims, the, 451-453.
Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan's, 396.
Piracy in the Middle Ages, 284, 242.
Pisa (pG'sii), 287, 238, 239.
Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 437, 438,
474, 528.
Pitt, William (the Younger), 528, 530, 578.
Pius IX, pope, 557, 566.
Pizarro (pe-thar'ro), Francisco, 320, 821.
Place de la Concorde (plas de la kdn-kord'),
695.
Place de I'Etoile (a-twiilO, 695.
Plan-tag'e-net dynasty, the, 195 and note 1.
Plassey, battle of, 448.
Plato, 811.
Plaving cards. 269.
PUhiscites, 528, 525, 540, 559, 565.
Plovna 598
Plymouth, settlement of, 452, 4.53, 455.
Plymouth Company, the, 449, 454.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 781
Po, River, 6, 238.
Poetry, Arabic, 86; medieval, 249-252;
Kenaissance, 282, 292-294 ; modern, 396,
409. 689, 690.
Poitiers (pw&-tya), battle of, 212.
Poland, medieval kingdom of, 115, 184, 185,
424; at war with Charles XII, 420-421;
partitions of, in the eighteenth century,
424-428; the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, 530,
546 ; revolts in, 553, 592.
Poles, the, 62, 424, 425.
•' Polish Question," the, 428.
Political economy, science of, 485, 486.
Polo, game, 270.
Polos, the, in Far East, 183, 303, 304, 314, 477.
Pol-ta'va. battle of, 421.
Pom-e-ra'ni-a, 221, 872, 420, 429.
Pondicherry, 447.
PonHi-fex MaxH-mus, the title, 66.
Poor Richard'' H Almanac^ 459.
Pope, the, as the successor of St. Peter, 52 ;
origin of the name, 149 and note 1 ; as the
head of western Christendom, 149-151 ;
loses temporal power, 566, 567.
Popular sovereignty, doctrine of, 376, 490,
492, 493, 540.
Population, statistics of, 636; increase and
concentration of, 671, 672.
Port Arthur, 613, 616, note 1, 621.
Por-to-la'ni, the, 306.
Porto Rico, 628, 629, 630.
Portsmouth, treaty of, 621.
Portugal, rise of, 216 ; becomes a colonial
power, 310 and note 1, 311 ; union of, with
Spain, 355, 356, 365, 442.; in the War of the
Spanish Succession, 404; French invasion
of, 533, 534; government of, 585; in the
World War, 746.
Portuguese East Africa, 605.
Postal service, the, 655.
Potato, the, introduced into Europe, 328.
Potosi (po-to-se'), silver mines of, 327.
Potsdam Conference, the, 724.
Poverty, existence of, 672, 673 ; prevention
and abolition of, 673.
Prague (priig), university of, 260, 337;
Treaty of, 571.
Praise of Folly, Erasmus's, 333.
Pres'by-ter, church official, 350 and note 1.
Presbyterianism, 350, note 1, 385, 886, 387,
388, 391, 460.
President of France, the, position of, 583,
584.
Prester John, legend of, 303.
Pretoria, 608.
"Pride's Purge," 386.
Prime minister, British, 581 ; French, 583,
584.
Primogeniture, 116 and note 1, 482.
Prince, Macchiavelli's, 291.
Prince Edward Island, 626.
"Prince of Wales," the, 204, 205.
Principles of Geology, Lyell's. 686.-^
Printing, invention of, 284, 285 ; irtcunmula,
285 ; importance of, 286, 296.
Prison reform, 678.
Proletariat, the, 513 and note 1.
Protective system, the, 407, 486, 659, 660.
Protectorate, the, England under, 389, 390.
Protestant Episcopal Church, the, 460.
Protestants, origin of the name, 342 ; sects
of, 848-351, 681, 682.
Provenfal (pro-vaN-sal^ speech, 248, 250.
Provence (pro-viiNs'), 167, 248.
Prussia, origin of, 221, 372, 429 ; becomes a
kingdom, 406, 429, 430 ; Huguenots in, 408 ;
under the Great Elector and Frederick
William I, 430, 431 ; under Frederick the
Great, 431-435; wars of, with F'rance dur-
ing the revolutionary and Napoleonic era,
515, 517, 528, 530, 531, 536, 537 ; territorial
acquisitions of, by the Vienna settlement,
54fc' ; revolutionary movement of 1848 in,
557, 558 ; as the unifier of Germany, 568,
569, 570 ; wars of, with Denmark and Aus-
tria, 570, 571 ; forms North German Con-
federation, 571 ; at war with France, 571-
573 ; heads new German Empire, 573 ; gov-
ernment of, 588.
Prussia, East, 429, 435 ; West, 429.
Prussians converted to Christianity, 62, 221.
Ptolemaic system, the, 296.
Ptolemy, Greek scientist, 84, 296, 311, 314.
Public school system, the, 461, 683, 684.
Pur'ga-to-ry, behef in, 140, 141, 348.
Puritan Revolution, the. 382-390, 497, 539.
Puritans, the rise of, 378, 379 ; persecuted
by Laud, 881 ; divide into Presbyterians
and Independents, 385 ; reaction against,
391 ; establish themselves in Massachusetts,
453-455.
Pygmies, the, 604.
Pym, John, 382, 383.
Pyr'e-nees Mountains, 8, 13 and note 1, 80.
Quakers, the, 391, 460, 677, 681.
Quebec, city, 325, 465, 466, 469; province,
625.
" Queen Anne's War," 404, note 1, 463,
note 1.
Queensland, 623.
Racial prejudice, 638.
Radium, 686.
Railways : Cape-to-Cairo, 608 ; Trans-Sibe-
rian, 613, 652 ; Canadian Pacific, 626 ; Grand
Trunk Pacific, 626 ; Union Pacific and Cen-
tral Pacific, 652 ; Berlin-to-Bagdad, 714-715.
Raleigh (ro'li). Sir Walter, 326, 327, 865, 449.
Ram-a-dan', 74.
Raphael (rafit-el), 288.
Rationalism in the eighteenth century, 489,
490, 492, 494, 495.
Ra-ven'na, 8, 4, 7, 11, 39.
Raymond of Toulouse, Count, 167.
Referendum, the, 591.
Reform Acts, the, 578, 5S0, 680, 684.
Reformation, the, preparation for, 330-337 ;
in Germany, 337-343 ; in Scandinavia, 343 ;
in Switzerland, 843-344; in the British
Isles, 345-348, 361-363; the Protestant
sects, 348-351 ; the Catholic Counter, 351-
855 ; in the Netherlands, 358 ; in France,
366; influence of, on doctrine of divine
right, 375, 876.
Regulated companies, 441.
Reichstag (riKs'taK), the, 586, 587, 588.
Reign of Terror, the, 519, 695.
Reims (remz), 9, 213.
"Reinsurance compact," the, 106, 117, 140,
348.
Relics in the Middle Ages, 140.
"Relief," the feudal, 117.
Religion : Christianity in the British Isles,
25-29 ; the Christian Church in the East,
and in the West, during the early Middle
782 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Ages, 45-67 ; Arabian heathenism, 69 ;
Islam, 73-75, 87, 88 ; Scandinavian heathen-
ism, 94-97 ; the Papacy and the Holy Ro-
man Empire, 137-160 ; the Keformation,
330-373 ; rationalism in the eighteenth cen-
tury, 489, 490, 492, 494, 495; religions of
India, China, and Japan, 610, 611, 615, 618 ;
religious toleration and the separation of
Church and State, 681-683.
Renaissance (re-na'sdns), the: period in-
cluded within, 279; origin of, in Italy, 279,
280 ; as a revival of learning, 281-283, 289,
290 ; as an artistic revival, 286-289, 290 ; in
literature, 290-294; in education, 294-296;
in science, 296-298 ; economic aspects of,
298-301 ; the geographical, 302 ; interest of
the popes in, 333.
Representation, development of, in England
and on the Continent, 202, 203, 210, 575,
576 ; representative assemblies in the Thir-
teen Colonies, 462, 473.
Restitution, Edict of, 370, 372.
Restoration, the, in England, 390, 391.
Revenues of the medieval Church, 150, 151.
Revival of Learning. See Renaissance.
Revolutionary War, American, 475-477.
Revolutions: Puritan, 382-390, 497, 539;
the "Glorious Revolution," 893, 394, 437,
467, 473, 497, 539 ; American, 471-476, 539 ;
French, 497-522, 539-541, 543, 544; the
"July Revolution," 550, 551, 695; the
"Februarv Revolution," 554, 555; Greek,
596, 597; Turkish, 599, 600; Chinese, 616,
617 ; Japanese, 620 ; Latin-American, 627,
628; Russian, 737-740 ; Anstro-Hungarian,
743; German, 743.
Reynard (ra'nard) the Fox, 252, 294.
Rhenish Palatinate, the, 55S.
Rhine, river, 8, 13, 17, 102, 372, 401, 402, 403 ;
Confederation of the. 530.
Rhinelands, the. Allied occupation of, 744.
Rhode Island, 455, 460, 462, 682.
Rhodes (rodz), island, 175, 241.
Rhodes, Cecil, 608.
Rhodesia, 608.
Rhone River, 17.
Rhyme, use of, as a poetic device, 249, 250.
Ri-al'to Bridge of Venice, the, 241.
Richard I, king of England, 171, 172, 174,
198, 704 ; II, 300, 337.
Richelieu (re-she-lyiV), Cardinal, 368, 369,
371, 396, 397, 399, 401, 409, 465.
Riga, 746.
Roads. See Highways.
Robespierre (rS-bes-pyar'), 514, 517, 518,
519
Robin Hood, ballads of, 252.
Rockefeller, John D., 685.
Rodin (ro-daN'), Auguste, 691.
Ro'land, Song of, 13, note 1, 250, 294, 251.
Rollo, 102.
Romagna (rfi-man'ya), 563 and note 1.
Romance (r6-mans') languages, 25, 247, 248,
249.
Romances, the Arthurian, 251.
Roman Catholics, disabilities of, in Ireland
and England, 387, 392, 894, 681; in the
Thirteen Colonies, 460.
Roman Church, the missionary activity of,
in the early Middle Ages. 6, 9, 20, 26, 29,
60-62, 97 ; relations of, with Clovis, Pepin
the Short, Charlemagne, and Otto the
Great, 9, 11, 14-16, 21, 63, 152 ; rise and
growth of the Papacy, 50-54 ; schism be-
tween, and the Greek Church, 68-65 ; com-
pared with the Greek Church, 65; as heir
of the Roman Empire, 66, 67 ; character-
istics of, in the Middle Ages, 137, 138;
doctrines and worship of, 138-141 ; juris-
diction of, 141, 142 ; the secular clergy, 143,
144 ; the regular clergy, 144-146 ; the friars,
146-149 ; power of the medieval Papacy,
149-151 ; contest between the Papacy and
the Empire, 151-159 ; significance of, in the
Middle Ages, 159, 160 ; decline of, in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 380-334 ;
heresies and heretics. 334-337 ; the Protes-
tant Reformation, 887-351 ; the Counter
Reformation, 351-355 ; the religious wars,
357-361, 863-373 ; in France, during the
revolutionary and Napoleonic era, 509, 512,
524, 546, 683 ; loss of temporal power by,
566, 567 ; disestablishment of, in France
and Portugal, 683.
Roman Empire in the East, the, 32-43, 76,
77, 78, 112, 164, 165, 173, 174, 176, 187, 188.
Romanesque architecture, 253, 254, 255.
Romanization : Ostrogoths, 4, 6; Lombards,
6, 7 ; Franks, 8 ; Gauls, 207.
Romanov (ro-mii'nof) dynasty, 415, 422, 544,
744.
Roman Republic, Mazzini's, 557, 560, 561, 564.
Romans, the fusion of, with the Germans,
29-31.
Rome, the capital of the Papacy, 151, 529;
united with the Italian kingdom, 566.
Rom'u-lus Au-gus'tu-lus, 2.
Roncesvalles (Span. pron. ron-thes-val'yas),
250.
Rontgen (runt'gen). W. K., 686.
Roon, Albrecht von, 570, 572.
Roosevelt, President, 621, 713.
Roses, War of the, 214.
Rothenburg (ro't^n-boDrx), 226.
Rotterdam, 289, 358.
" Roundheads," the, 383 and note 1.
Rousseau (roD-so'), 492, 493, 498, 514, 520,
698.
Royal Society, the, 489.
Ruhdiyut (roO-bi-yiit'), Omar Khayyam's,
86 and note 2.
Rubens, 395.
Ru'dolf of Hapsburg, 158 and note 1, 217.
Rum (ro(5m), sultanate of, 164.
Rumania, a part of the Ottoman Empire,
428 ; becomes independent, 598, 599 ; in
the Second Balkan War, 600 ; in the World
War, 781, 782.
Rumanians, the, 65, 598.
Rump Parliament, the, 386, 887, 388, 889,
Runes, the, 92.
Run'ni-mede, 199.
Ruric, 100, 414.
Russia, the Northmen in, 100, 101 ; con-
quered bv the Mongols, 184, 185 ; rise of
Muscovy," 185, 186 ; before Peter the Great,
412-415; under Peter the Great, 415-418,
420, 421 ; under Catherine II, 422-424. 426 ;
in the Seven Years' War, 484, 435 ; during
the Napoleonic era, 522, 528, 528, 529, 534-.
586, 537; territorial acquisitions of, by the
Vienna Settlement, 546 and note 1 ; during
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 549,
558, 570, 592, 594, 596, 597, 598, 599, 710,
712, 716 ; in the World War, 724, 725, 727 ;
the Russian Revolution, -737-740.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 783
Eussian Revolution, the, 737-740.
Russians, the, attack Constantinople, 38:
converted to Christianity, 38, 62, 65, 101
expansion of, in Europe and Asia, 414;
divisions of, 591, 592.
Eusso-Japanese War, the, 621.
Russo-Turkish War, the, 598, 599.
Kuthenians, the^ 591.
Sabbath, Jewish, 48.
Sabotage, 671 and note 1.
Sacraments, the, 138-140, 141, 349, 350.
Sadowa (sa'do-va), battle of, 571.
Sagas, the, 93 and note 1, 94, 99.
St. Andrew, order of, 416.
St. Anthony (an'to-ni), 54, 55.
St. Bartholomew's Day, massacre of. 367.
368.
St. Basil (biiz'il), 55, 56.
St. Benedict, 56, 57, 59, 144.
St. Ber'nard, 146, 170, 250, 257.
St. Boniface, 61.
St. Brandan, 312, 313.
St, Cyp'ri-an, 45.
St. Denis (de-no'), 700.
St. Dom'i-nic, 148.
St. Francis, 147.
St. Gaudens (go'denz), Augustus, 692.
St. Germain (zhar-maN'), 700.
St. He-le/na, Napoleon at, 538.
St. Ives, city, 232.
St. Jerome, 291.
St. Lawrence River, 465, 466, 469.
St. Mark, cathedral of, at Venice, 157, 241.
St. Martin, church of, at Canterbury, 25, 26.
St.-Mihiel (saN-me-yel'), 742.
St. Patrick, 26.
St. Paul, 50 ; cathedral of, 395, 704-706.
St. Peter, 11, 27, 29, 50, 52; church of, at
Rome, 15, 151, 238, 286, 287, 338, 706.
St. Eemi (re-me'), 9.
St.-Simon (se-moN'), Memoirs of, 409.
Saints, reverence for, 140, 348.
Sa-kha-lin', 621.
Sal'a-din, 171, 172.
Salamanca, university of, 261, 324.
Salem, witchcraft delusion at. 268, 460.
Sa-ler'no, city, 112 ; university of, 261.
"Sal'ic law," the, 211, note 1.
Salisbury (solz'ber-i). Oath of, 195: Cathe-
dral of, 253.
Sa-lo-ni'ka, 731.
Samarkand (sam-ar-kanf), 181.
Samoa, 622, note 3, 630.
Sanc'ta So-phi'a, church of, 35 and note 1.
42, 43, 64, 101, 188.
"Sanctuary," right of, 142.
San Diego, 323.
San Francisco, 323.
San Marino, 547, note 1, 732.
San Stefano (sta'fa-no), Treaty of, 599.
Santa Barbara, mission of, 324.
Santa Fe (san'tji faO, 322.
Santo Domingo, 628.
Sar'a-cens, 71, note 1.
Sarajevo (sa'ra-yit-vo), 723.
Saratoga, battle of, 475.
Sardinia, 34, 406, 546, 550, 557, 562 and note 1,
563, 564.
Saskatchewan, 626.
Satan, 74, 335.
Savoy, 404, 406, 546, 562, note 1, 563, 564.
Saxons. See Anglo-Saxons.
Saxony, 12, 13, 19, 338, 434, 528, 530, 546, 547
553, 558, 570. . , , , ,
Scandinavia, 90.
Scheldt (skelt). River, 102, 442.
Schleswig (shiaz'viK), 20, 570, 571. See also
Holstein.
Scholasticism, medieval, 261, 262, 294, 298.
Schwyz (shvets), 219 and note 2.
Science, Arab, 85, 86; medieval, 262-264-
Rennaissance, 296-298; in the eighteenth
century, 486-489 ; nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, 685-687.
Scotch-Irish, the, 458, 460.
Scotland, Christianity introduced into, 26,
29 ; the Northmen in, 98 ; formation of the
Scottish kingdom, 205, 206; independence
of, 206 ; the Reformation in, 344, 348, 363 ;
united with England under James I, 377
and note 2 ; Charles I and, 382 ; Cromwell
and, 388.
Scots, the, 205.
Scott, Captain R. F., 635
Scott, Sir Walter, 688, 689.
Sculpture, Renaissance, 287, 290 ; modern.
691, 692.
" Sea dogs," the English, 326, 363, 364.
Sea-power, Viking, 93 ; in the crusades, 176 ;
Turkish, 187, 355; Venetian, 241 ; English,
365, 448, 469, 527, 532, 719 : Allied, during
the World War, 732, 738, 734.
Sects, the Protestant, 348-351, 391, 681, 682.
Secularization of Church property, 342.' 343
347,369,481,509,512,524,661.
Sedan (se-daN'), battle of, 572, 582.
Sedan chair, the, 394, 649.
Seine (san). River, 102, 693, 696.
Sel.juk (sel-joOkO Turks, the, 36, 37, 82, 164,
187.
Serapach (zem'paK), battle of, 220.
Senate, French, 583, 684.
Separatists, the name, 385, note 2 ; in Hol-
land, 451, 452 ; found Plymouth, 452, 453.
Sepoy mutiny, the, 609, 610.
"Sepoys," the, 447.
"September massacres," the, 516.
Serbia, a part of the Ottoman Empire, 423 ;
becomes independent, 596, 599 ; in the First
and Second Balkan Wars, 600, 601, 716, 717 ;
in the World War. 723, 724, 730, 731.
Serbians, the, 37, 38, 62, 65.
Serbo-Croats, the, 595, 596.
Serfdom, in the Middle Ages, 134, 135; atti-
tude of the medieval Church toward, 159,
160; absence of, in medieval cities, 226;
decline and abolition of, 298-301, 484, 507
536, 541, 661, 662 ; Japanese, 618, 620
Ser-ve'tus, Michael, 344, 351.
Settlement, Act of, 435, 436, 437,
Sevastopol, 597.
"Seven liberal arts," the, 260, 261.
" Seven Weeks' War." /See Austro-Prussian
War.
Seven Years' War, 434, 435, 437, 438. 447
469, 494, 498, 609, 629, 641.
S6vigne (sa-ven-ya'), Madame de, 409.
Se-ville', cathedral of, 238.
Sevres (SiVvr'), 700.
Sewing machine, the, 644.
Shakespeare, William, 293, 294, 375, 396.
Shannon River, 387.
Shetland Islands, 98.
"Ship-money," 380, 381.
Ships, 93, 315, 326, 365, 528.
784 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Shogiin (sho'goon), Japanese, 618, 620.
Siam (si-am'), 3Ui, 612, 737.
Siberia, 179, 414, 478, 494, 592, 613, 739, 740.
Sibir, 414.
Sicily, a province of the Roman Empire in
the East, 7, 34; the Moslems in, 18, 112,
281; Norman conquest of, 112, 164, 280;
added to Savoy, 406 ; reunited with Naples,
546 ; a part of the Italian kingdom, 564.
Sidney, 622.
Sieges : Ravenna, 3, 4 ; Constantinople, 41,
note 1, 77, 78, 173, 188; Antioch, 167;
Jerusalem, 167, 168; Acre, 172; Zara, 173;
Orleans, 213 ; Magdeburg, 371 ; Paris, 572 ;
Sevastopol, 597 ; Plevna, 598.
Sieg'iried, 251.
Sienkiewicz (Polish pron. shen-kyii'vlch),
Henryk, 689.
Sieyes (sva-ves'). 502, 503, 522.
Silesia (si-le>shi-<i), 4:33, 434, 436.
Sim'o-ny, 153 and note 1.
Sinkiang, 614.
Sistine Chapel, the, 287 and note 1.
"Skyscrapers," 692.
Slave trade, the, abolition of, 677.
Slavery, Islam and, 88; decline of, in
medieval Europe, 134; attitude of the
Church toward, 159, 160 ; abolition of, 677,
678.
Slavs, wars of Charlemagne and Henry the
Fowler with, 13, 18, 19 ; how divided, 20,
note 1 ; settle in southeastern Europe, 37,
38 ; converted to Christianity, 38, 62, 101 ;
the Germans and the, 221.
Smith, Adam, 487. 640, W7, 659.
Smith, Captain John, 452.
Sobieski (Polish pron. so byes'ke), John,
423.
Social Contract, Rousseau's, 492, 493, 670.
Social Democratic Party, German, 588, 670,
743.
Socialism, rise and spread of, 667-671 ; in
Russia and Germany during the World
War, 739, 743.
Socialist parties, 534, 588, 670, 671, 738, 739.
Society of Jesus, 351-35:3, 362, 440, 465.
Sociolbgv, modern, 688.
Sofia (s6>fe-ya), 742.
Soissons (swa-soN'), battle of, 8.
Solferino (sol-fe-re'no), battle of, 563.
So-ma'ii-land, Italian. 606.
Somme (som), the battle of, 742.
Sophia, electress of Hanover, 436.
Sorbonne (sor-bon'), the, 698.
Soto, Hernando de, 321.
South African War, the, 607, 711.
South Australia, 623.
South Company of Sweden, 457.
South Pole, the, discovery of, 635.
Soviets, Russian, 739.
Spain, the Arabs in, 78, 80 ; physical and
racial, 214, 215; Christian states of, 216;
recovery of, from the Moors, 216, 217;
under Ferdinand and Isabella, 217 ; under
Philip II, 355-357 ; cedes territories to
France, 402, 403 ; in the War of the Spanish
Succession, 403, 404, 406 ; in the War of the
Austrian Succession, 434 ; at war with Eng-
land, 470, 475, 476 ; during the revolution-
ary and Napoleonic era, 517, 531, 533, 534 ;
the Bourbon restoration in, 546, 550, 585,
627 ; government of, 585.
Spanish-American War, the, 628, 630.
Spanish Succession, War of the, 404, 405,
429, 445.
Speke, Captain J. H., 604.
Spencer, Herbert, 688.
Spice Islands, 310, note 1, 317, 320, 443.
Spices, use of, in the Middle Ages, 276, 307.
Spinet, the, 690.
Spinning machines, invention of, 642-644.
Spirit of LaxoH, Montesquie\i's, 491.
Stagecoach, the, 394, 395, 649.
Stained glass, medieval, 47, 251, 256.
Stamp Act, the, 472, 473.
Stanley, Sir Henrv M., 604, 605.
States of the Church, 11 and note 2, 21, 150,
333, 529, 546, 547, 553, 557, 561, 563, note 1,
566.
Steamboat, the, 651.
Steam engine, the, 644, 645, 651.
Steam locomotive, the, 651, 652.
Steel, use of, 645.
Stein, Baron von, 536, 545, 547, 567.
Stem-duchies, German, 19 and note 1.
Stephen II, pope, 11.
Stephenson, George, 651, 652.
Stourbridge Fair, 232, 233.
Strafford, Earl of, 380, 381, 382, 570.
Straits Settlements, the. 612.
Strassburg (shtras'b56rK), 8, 9, 102, 242, 403,
573.
Stratford-on-Avon, 293.
Stuart dvnasty, the, 377.
Submarine boat, the, 653, 654, 734, 735.
Submarine cable, the, 654.
Sudan, Anglo- Egvptian, 608.
Suez Canal, 6U9, 7"46.
Suffrage, manhood, 555, 556, 580, 583, 585,
586, 590, 591, 680 ; woman, 680.
Suigrave Manor, 274.
Sully (sii-le'), 369.
Sumatra (soD-mii'trd), 83, 310, note 1, 443.
Summa TJieologice, Aquinas's, 262.
Sunday, 48.
Superstitions of the Middle Ages, 265-269,
459, 460.
Supremacv, Act of, 346.
Surgery, Arab, 85 ; modern, 686.
Su-ri-nam', 444.
Sussex, 23.
Swa'bi-a, 19, note 1, 219, 428, note 1.
Sweden, geographical features of, 90 ; Luth-
eranism in, 343, 348 ; in the Thirtv Years'
War, 370, 372, 420; an enemy of Louis
XIV, 402 ; growth and decline of, 419-421 ;
in the Seven Years' War, 434 ; establishes
a North American colony, 442, 457 ; an
enemy of Napoleon, 528 ; loses Finland to
Russia, ^29, 646, 592 ; secures Norway, 546
and note 1, 547 ; government of, 591.
Swedes, converted to Christianity, 62, 97 ;
in Finland and Russia, 100, 101.
Switzerland, rise of, 18, 219 ; struggle of,
^vith Austria, 219, 220, 373 ; the Swiss Con-
federation, 220 ; the Reformation in, 343,
344 ; under Napoleon, 530 ; government of,
570-591.
Syndicalism. 671.
Synthetic PhilosopJiy, Spencer's, 688.
Syria, 168, 169, 170, 171, 175, 622.
Talleyrand (ta-le-raN'), 546.
Tam-er-lane'. See Timur the Lame.
Tancred (tarj'kred), 167, 168.
Tanganyika (tiin-gan-yG'ka), Lake, 605, 606.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 785
Tarik (tii'i-ik), 78 and note 2.
Tartars. See Tatars.
Tasinan, Abel, 477.
Tasmania, 477, 621, 623.
Tartars, the, 185 and note 1.
Taxation, royal, in the Middle Asres, 193, 194
200, 202, 203, 210 ; under the Old Regime
484, 501, 541. ^
Telegraph, the, 654.
Telephone, the, 654.
Telescope, the, 296, 297.
Tell, William, legend of, 220.
Templars, order of, the, 169.
Temple, the, at Jerusalem, 42, 169.
Temporal power of the Papacy, 11, 53, 331
546,561,566,567.
" Tennis Court Oath," the, 503, 504, 510.
Tenochtitlan (ten-och-tet-hin'), 319.
Ten Tribes of Israel, the, 303.
Tetzel, 338.
Teutonic Knights, the, 221, 222, 421. 428
429. » . . ,
Teutonic languages, 248.
Teutonic peoples, 90.
Texas, 630.
Thackeray. W, M., 689.
Thames (temz) Kiver, 103, 242, 700, 702, 706
Thanksgiving Day, 459.
Theatre Franpais (ta-a'tr' friis-sC-'), the, 698.
The-od'o-ric, king of the Ostrogoths, 3-6.
The-o-do'si-us the Great. 33.
Theses, Luther's ninety-five, 339.
Thessaly, 596, 599.
Thiers (tyar), L. A., 582, 583.
Third Estate, the, 210, 227, 331, 483. 484
502, 503, 504.
Thirteen Colonies, the, established, 449-458 ;
civilization of, 459-461 ; political conditions
in, 462-464; revolt of, 471^76, 623, 624.
Thirty Years' War, the, 369-373, 397. 420.
Thor, 95, 96.
Thorwaldsen (tor'wold-sen), 691.
Thousand and One Nights, the, 82, 86.
Thu'nor. See Thor.
Tibet (ti-betO. 179, 304, 614, 634.
Ticonderoga, Fort, 469.
Tientsin, 613.
Tilsit, Peace of, 529, 532, 533.
Tim-buk'tu, 604.
Tinmr (tl-moCr') the Lame, 181, 183.
Titian (tishMn), 288.
Tlt-i-ca'ca, Lake, 320.
Tobacco, 328, 450.
Togoland, 732.
Toledo (Sp. pron. to-la'tho), 83.
Toleration, religious. 329, 334, 335, 342, 343
351, 361. 368, 371, 372, 408, 430, 460, 681, 682!
Toleration Act, the, 393, 394, 460, 681.
Tolls, 234.
Tolstoy (tol-stoiO, Count. 689.
Tombs : Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 3 ; Timur
the Lame, 181 ; Napoleon, 540.
Ton-kin', 612.
"Tories," the, 474. 475, 623.
Tory Party, the, 392 and note 1, 436, 437, 438,
578, 582. '
Toul (toCl), 372, 725.
Toulon (too-loN'), 518, 521.
Toulouse (too-lo(5z'), 167.
Tournament, the, 128, 129.
Tours (toSr), battle of, 10, 80.
Tower of London, the, 123, note 2, 193, 194,
881,704. ...
Towns. See Cities.
Townsheud Acts, the, 473.
Township, the, in New England, 463.
Trade routes, medieval, 234, 235, 309, 310-
discovery of new, 307, 327. '
Trade unions, 663, 664.
Trading in medieval cities, 229, 232.
Traf-al-gar', Cape, battle of, 527, 529, .531.
Trafalgar Square, 704, 706.
Transportation, inventions in, 649-654.
Trans-Siberian Railway, the, 613.
Transubstantiation, 139 and note 2.
Transvaal (trans-viil'), the, 607.
Transylvania, 731.
Treaties : Verdun, 16, IT ; Mersen, 17 ;
Augsburg, 342, 343, 369, 370, 681 ; West-
phalia, 371, 372, 373; Utrecht, 406, 411,
468, 469 ; Aix-la-Chapelle, 434, 447 ; Paris,
(1763), 435, 448, 449, 469-471 (1783), 476;
Versailles (1783), 476 ; Campo Formio, 521,
523, 528, 567 ; Amiens, 523, 527 ; Tilsit, 529,
532, 533; Vienna, 545-548; Prague, 571;
Frankfort, 572, 573 ; Paris (1856), 598 ; San
Stefano, 599 ; Berlin, 599 ; Bucharest, 600,
601, 717 ; Portsmouth, 621 ; Brest-Litovsk,
740 ; Versailles (1919), 746.
Trent, Council of, 853, 354.
Trentino (tren-te'no), the, 566, 732.
Tricolor, the, 506, 551.
Trieste (tre-es'ta), 566, 732.
Trinity, the, 344.
Triple AUiance, the, 709, 710.
Triple Entente, the, 711.
Trip'o-li (Africa), 606, note 1.
TripoU (Asia), 169.
Troppan (trop'on), Congress of, 549,
Trotsky, Leon, 789.
Troubadours (troo'ba-doors), the, 250.
"Truce of God," the, 122.
True Cross, the, 13, 85.
Tsar (tsar), the title, 186, note 1.
Tudor dynasty, the, 214, 376, 377.
Tuileries (twel-re'), palace of the, 508, 512.
515, 520, 525, 696.
Tunis, 606, 709.
Turgot (tiir-goO, 500, 501, 508.
Turin (tu'rin), 564.
Tur-ke-stan', 179, 181, 618, 614.
Turks. See Ottoman Turks, Seljuk Turks.
Tuscany, 547, 557, 563.
"Twilight of the Gods," the, in Norse
mythology, 96.
Two Sicilies, kingdom of the, 112, 158, 546.
547, 550, 557, 564.
Type, movable, 284, 285 ; kinds of, 285, 286.
Ukraine (ii'kran), the, 414, 421, 591, 740.
Ulm (o5lm), 242, 528.
Ulster, 387.
Uniformitarian theory, Lyell's, 686, 687.
Uniformity, Act of, 891.
Union, Act of, 377, note 2.
Union Jack, the, 577.
LTnionist Party, British, 582, note 1.
Unitarians, the, 394, 681.
United Colonies of New England, the, 464.
United Kingdom, the, 204, 576.
United Netherlands, the, formation of, 360 ;
independence of, 361, 372.
United States, the, expansion of, 476, 622,
623-630 ; in the World War, 734-737. 742.
Universities, Arab, 85; medieval, 256-261,
262; modern, 324, 461, 684, 685.
786 Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary
Unlucky days, observance of, in the Middle
Ages, 268, 269.
Unterwalden (oSn-ter-val'den), canton of,
219 220
U'ral Mountains, 185, 221.
Uranus, planet, 487.
Ur'ban 11, pope, 165, 1T3, 477; VI, 333.
Uri (oo'ri), canton of, 219, 220.
" Usury," medieval prejudice against, 286.
Utopia, More's, 301, 668, note 1.
Utrecht (u'trekt), city, 358 ; Union of, 360,
576 ; Peace of, 4U6, 411, 468, 469.
Yal-hal'la, 96 and note 1, 97,
Yal-kyr'ies, the, 96 and note 2.
Valmy (vdl-me'), battle of, 517.
Vandals, the, conquered by Belisarius, 34,
78; become Catholic Christians, 61.
Van Dyck, Sir Anthony, 395.
Varennes (vii-ren'), 512.
Vassalage, 116-118.
Vatican, Palace, 151, 287, 288, 566 ; Library,
283.
Vauban (vo-baN'), 401.
Vaulting, 254, 255.
Vend6e (vaN-da'), La, 518.
Vendome (voN-dom'). Column, the, 695.
Venetia. 528, 546, 547, 563, 565, 566, 570,
571, 732.
Venezuela, 627, 713.
Venice, participation of, in the Fourth
Crusade, 173, 174, 241; medieval, 240, 241,
307 ; decline of, as a commercial metropolis,
810, 327 ; the Ottoman Turks and, 855 ; in
the Napoleonic era, 521, 529 ; united with
the Italian kingdom, 565.
Verde (vurd), Cape, 808.
Verdun (ver-duN'), Treatv of, 16, 17, 18, 19 ;
bishopric of, 372 ; battle of, 728.
Vergil, Koman poet, 281, 294.
Vermont, 455, note 1.
Versailles (ver-sa'v), palace of, 399, 400,
409, 502, 508, 508, 573, 696. 700.
Versailles, Treaty of (17S8), 476 ; Peace of
(1919), 746.
Ve-sa'li-us, 297.
Vespucci (ves-poDt'chG), Amerigo, 315.
Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy, 557, 562,
563, 5&4.
Victoria, queen of England, 610, 611.
Victoria, colony of, 623,
Victoria Nvanza, Lake, 604.
Vienna, city, 220, 224, 521, 528, 53 1. 556, 557,
589 ; Congress of, 545-548, 561, 568.
Vi'king, the name, 91, note 1. See also
Northmen.
Viking Ape, the, 92-94.
Virginia, the Kaleigh colonies in. 327 ; settle-
ment of, 449, 450: one of the Thirteen
Colonies, 455, 457, 460, 461, 462, 463.
Virgin Mary, the, 140, 348, 349.
Yis'i-goths, the. their kingdom in Gaul an-
nexed by the Franks, 8 ; become Catholic
Christians, 61 ; their kingdom in Spain
conquered bv the Arabs, 78, 80.
Vis'tu-la lliver, 62, 221, 222, 424.
Vittorino da Feltre (vet-to-re'no da fcl'tru),
294, 295.
Vlad'i-mir, 101,
Vla-di-vos-tok', 613.
Volapuk (v6-la-piik0, 676.
Yolta, 487.
Voltaire (vol-tar'), 491, 492, 493, 494, 500,
524, 698.
Vulgate, the, 289.
Wagner (viig'ner), Eichard, 691.
Wagram (va'gram\ battle of, 534,
Wal-den'ses, the, 335, 336.
Waldo, Peter, 385.
Wales, 204, 205, 683.
Wallace, William. 206.
Wallachia (w6-la'ki-a), 598.
Wallenstein (val'^n-shtln), 370.
Walloons, the, 243, 552.
Wall paintings. See Frescoes.
Warfare, feudal, 120-122, 126, 127, 176;
attitude of the Church toward, 122, 127,
159, 164 ; modern, 718, 719, See also Army,
Navv.
War 'of Liberation, Prussian, 536, 567, 563,
719.
War of 1812-1814, 624.
Warsaw, citv, 424, 553 ; Grand Duchy of,
530, 546.
Warburg (varfbdSrK), Luther at the, 340.
Washington, George, 475.
Waterloo, battle of, 538 and note 1.
Watt, James, &45.
Wealth, increase and diflfusion of, 672.
Wealth of Nati07is, Smith's, 486, 640, 670.
Weaving machines, invention of, 642-644,
Wellington, Duke of, 534, 538, 539, 545, 704.
Welsh, the name, 23, 204,
Wentworth. See StraflFord.
Werewolves, 267.
Wesley, John, 682.
Wessex, kingdom of, 24, 103, 106.
Western Australia, 623,
West Goths. See Visigoths.
West India Companv, Dutch. 444, 457.
West'min-ster Abbey, 109, 285, 704. 706, 707 ;
Hall, 386, 706.
West-pha'li-a, Peace of, 371, 372, 373, 397,
401, 406, 411, 420.
Whig Party, the, 892 and note 1, 436, 487,
488, 578, 582.
Whitby, Synod of, 27, 29,
White Sea, 100.
Whitney, Eli, 644.
Whit'sun-day, 48.
William I, the Conqueror, king of England,
106, 107, 109, 193-195, 204, 704; III, 393
and note 1, 403 and note 1, 404, 436, 455,
467.
William I, king of Prussia and German em-
peror, 569, 570, 571, 572, 578, 700, 719 ; Wil-
liam 1 1, 710.
William, Prince of Orange. See William
III.
WUliam the Silent, 359, 360, 403.
Williams, Roger. 460, 682, 683.
Wilson, Woodrow, 726, 784, 736.
Win'ches-ter, 105, 232.
Windsor (win'zer), Castle, 201.
Winkelried (viVkfl-rct), Arnold von, 220.
Winthrop,'John, 454.
Wireless telegraphy and telephony, 654. 655.
Witchcraft, European, 268 ; at Salem, Massa-
chusetts, 268, 460.
'• Witches' Sabbath," the, 267, 268.
Witenagemot (wit'^-na-ge-mot), 106 and
note 1. 109, 200.
Wittenberg (vit'^n-berK) , 338, 839, 340.
Woden, 61, 94.
Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 787
Wolfe, James, 469.
"Women, emancipation of, 679, 680.
Wool trade, Flemish, 244.
Working-men. See Artisans.
Workshops, the national, in France, 669.
World War, the, 708-744.
Worms (vorras). Concordat of, 155, 156 ;
Diet of, 339, 340, 341 ; Edict of, 340, 342.
Worship, development of Christian, 47, 48.
Wren, Sir Christopher, 395, 704.
Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 653.
Wurtemberg (viir't^m-berK), 530, 547, 571,
note 1.
Wycliffe (wikMif), John, 836, 337, 339, 345.
Wyoming, 680.
Xavier (zav'i-er), St. Francis, 353.
X-rays, the, 686.
York, city, 224 ; house of, 214.
Yorktown, 475.
Young Turks, the, 599, 600.
Ypres (e'pr'), 244,
Yu-ca-tan', 318.
Zambesi Kiver, 605.
Za'ra, 173
ZoUverein (ts51'f,?r-In), the, 568, 570.
Zoroastrians, 69, 76.
Zurich (z(3D/rik), 343.
Zwingli (tsving'le), 843, 847, 351.
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: MAY - 2002
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