Our beginnings in europe and america

Front matter

Spent ens oe ae i ° by

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R °InnshricgeS USTRI

Preface

The history of the United States is a branch of the history of the world. Life in America is a transplanted European life. Its development here has been largely determined by new world conditions, but its origins were in Europe or even in that older world about the eastern end of the ‘Mediterranean Sea. As civilization has been handed on from race to race during the ages, each people has added its own peculiar contribution to it. Primitive men who lived before the dawn of history, the earliest civilized nations of the Old East, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the English, and ail the other European nations whose sons had a hand in colonizing America were the makers of our ‘civilization. Our life today cannot be fully understood without adding to a clear knowledge of its growth in America an appreciation of our debt to each of the races who were our cultural ancestors.

This book is an attempt to tell in a plain and simple way the story of the growth of our civilization from its earliest beginnings in prehistoric times, to point out the contribution to it made in turn by each of the great peoples of the Old World, and to show how in the fullness of time it was transferred from Europe to America. The sub-title of the book—How Civilization Grew in the Old World and Came to the New—exactly expresses its theme.

The epoch-making Report of the Committee of Eight to the American Historical Association upon The Study of History in the Elementary Schools recommends for the sixth grade the study of “those features of ancient and medizval life which explain either important elements of

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iv PREFACE our civilization or show how the movement for discovery and colonization originated.” The same report suggests that in the seventh grade ‘‘the settlement and growth of the colonies be taken up with enough of the European background to explain events in America having their causes in England or Europe.”’ The author of this book aims to follow these recommendations. He does not, however, adhere closely in all details to the syllabus offered in the report if by departing from it the general purpose of the book can be more fully realized. He believes that this book provides a text for the sixth grade and for part of the work suggested for the seventh grade in harmony with the spirit and purpose of the Committee of Eight.

Just a few words to those who may study and teach this book. Parrot-like memorizing is the most serious fault in elementary history teaching. The poorest use to make of any textbook is to commit it to memory. The first thing to do in studying a history lesson is to read it. Reading is thinking the author’s thought after him. To read intelligently one must understand the words and phrases in which the thought is expressed. In assigning the lesson the teacher may often help the pupils to grasp the thought of the printed page by explaining and illustrating the meaning of any words or statements that the children cannot get for themselves. Before the recitation begins, the children should be encouraged to ask the teacher the meaning of any words or expressions in the lesson which they did not fully understand when they studied it. It is hoped that the maps and numerous pictures in this book will also help to make its meaning clear. The correct pronunciation of the hard names is given in the index.

Every textbook in history ought to be supplemented with stories and explanations by the teacher and by collateral or illustrative reading by the pupils. To make such supplementary work easier, short lists of selected books for the

PREFACE Vv teacher and for the children are printed at the close of each chapter. : :

When a lesson has been read and supplemented in these ways as far as time and circumstances permit, the next thing to do is to think about it. Here is the great opportunity of the teacher through skillful questioning to stimulate and guide the thinking of the children. Many problems of inference, of discrimination, of comparison, and of judgment arise naturally out of the text. It is believed that the questions and suggestions inserted at the end of each chapter will proye useful in this connection. *

When the teacher and the pupils thinking together have decided what facts in the lesson are really vital and worth remembering, those facts should be learned. But be sure to “let memorizing be a by-product of thinking, not a substitute for it.”

The study of history has many values. The knowledge of the past which it supplies helps us to understand the world in which we live. The arts, the institutions, and the ideas of our time can never be really understood or fully

. aaemaaee until we know something of their origin and growth. But history does far more than add to the sum total of our knowledge. It brings before us the struggling, upward striving men and women of our race. It quickens and broadens our sympathies with all men everywhere. It helps us to know ourselves and our work in the world. Best of all it inspires us to do that work. May the children who read this book gather a full measure of these values from it.

The author is grateful to many friends for helpful suggestions and criticism during the preparation of this book. He is under special obligation for such assistance to Professor C. H. Fisher of the State Normal School at West Chester, Pennsylvania, to Dr. J. L. Barnard, Professor of History in the School of Pedagogy, Philadelphia, and to Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf of Philadelphia. SmitH BuRNHAM.

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Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE J Our Homes; in ram:Om WorLD....<...<.0.eaccese- af Where Americans Came From.................... 1 Why Europeans Came to America................. 3 How Our Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic........... What Americans Brought from the Old World...... 6 Il. Waar THe Earuiest Men Do ror Us: @........... 8 (Phe BarhéstiVient tates. ois os tee «nebo oe 8 The Food of the Piarheat,.Men . . 5... sce ese ossnes ee 10 How Wild Animals and Plants were Tamed........ 11 The First Shelter and Clothing. . ee) Early Weapons, Tools, and Utensils .. 16 Some Other Important Beginnings Made ‘by Early LSE argh Rane at ABA te te on A an eye RRC Aen Pit Ill. Ovr Dest To THe Eariest Civitizep PEopLes..... 26 Where the First Civilized People Lived............ 26 PLNGs PITA PATIICES (5. ean h Ac Ae fic eee oa ee es 29 The Beginnings of Manufacturing................. 30 The Growth of Trade and Commerce.............. on arly Social LiNert ic yee eee ae ia eee coal ose 34 Pre First: Governments: ..5 2.05 pnecas Seas cee bak 36 Be Hinrliest, laws aia ace cae. ee ae bccn. see 38 The Invention of the Art of Writing. . 38 The Literature and Science of Egypt and Babylonia 40 The Palaces and Temples of the Ancient World. . 42 AREY: TClPIOUSADEHOIS' 4. 1.3 screen tama «tates ook 44 Our Special Debt to the Hebrews.................. 46 iV. Tse Giets or tue Greeks TO USs............-...3..' 60 The Home of.tne Greekssan0 5.02.55 ues cece eae 50 Plow the errecks Mnivediets mnie ti et ade cate cs 52 AN itetis itty Paice nS, ciel Ge Stay Rae eet ae ee 54 AR (eeg UF AGAVE RT Sor 288, Ae tty RU ee te 55 How the Greeks Saved Freedom for the World..... De The Beautiful Things which the Greeks Made...... 62 He WETUAY SIO ENO GICCKBS ety ye sle secs ls oe sce tse a 67 How the Greeks Became the Teachers of the World 72 V. Waar We Owe To THE RoMAns...................-- 76 Reba NOROLLtaly Mea siete bee cleat letras te is: aca Sean sie © 76 The Roman People...,........ Bee. 5 Bas a epee ok 78

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CHAPTER

Contents

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Stories\of Marly Iomega i.e ies © alate siusets lar ol 81 ‘Phe Rongan ATUay, .p.c'¢ 2 tec oleae le afer teele srrasiecal 8L Rome and" Garthage ys en ssc ei era e 83 Roman, Conqaestsimate tale uk tase ener 86 What the Romans Learned from the Greeks........ 86 How Rome Became an Empire................+.+-- 89 What the Romans Did for the World.............. 94 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION....... 99 The Life and Teachings of Jesus.................. 99 The Beginnings of the Church..................... 101 The Romans Persecute the Christians. ............ 102 The<lrimph of the.@hurchye sateen. . ase aero 105 How the Monasteries Began.....-.............45. 107 Tar Beainnines or Mopern Evrore............... 110 The Barbarians from the North................... 110 The Fall of the Roman Empire................... 113 The New Kingdoms. . apes Ges a Le Charles Martel and Charlemagne. . ae io The Mingling of the Barbarians and the Romans... 120 What We Owe to the Conquerors of Rome. . oes Tue MAKING or THE ENGLISH................20000 126 The Island2of Britain=ciens Coes ere eee 126 The Angles ‘and the Saxons. .2. 2.02.50. ..0.+. e005 128 ‘The Conquestioi Britaines.21e5 1. eee ste eee 129 The Conversion of the English.................... 131 The; Coming ofthe Danes! eee eke ee ee 134 Alfred the Great and His Work................... 135 Lifein’ Marly Bingland 2) seme eee eee ae 138 The Coming of the Normans:...../:.........,.+.- 141 Dire ny He OMIppine AGES, eee ieee aerate knee 146 How the Common People Lived................... 146 Lifein’ the Castles Sees eastern et tee 149 Knighthood or! @hivslinven: ae ge ae ein eee 152 The Church in the Middle Ages.................-. 155 ‘The Monks and) Their: Work: «.. «secon aeeineree ee 157 The Crusades... dis wesc Gem as eevee ee eee eee 162 The Influence of the Crusades. .....s4./.........: 165 Tae GrowTH or THE ENeiisH NaTION.............. 168 English Farming in the Middle Ages. . ee LOS Important Changes in English Country Life. . alo How Goods were Made and Sold in the Middle Ages 171 The Beginning of Trial by hurry carer arene 174

The Great: Charter.7..5 a oe Rar ee 176

Chapter I Our Homes In The Old World

Where Americans Came From.—Are there any boys and girls in our school who were not born in America? How many of you have parents who Were born in some other country? Many of us have grandparents and great-grandparents who are natives of the United States, but none of us can trace our family histories back for more than two or three hundred years without finding that our ancestors came to America from other lands.

There are more than one hundred millions of us now, but we are all the descendants of immigrants who came to the New World from beyond the Atlantic Ocean. A vast number of us look back to the pleasant fields of England, to the hills of Scotland, or to the green shores of Ireland as ‘‘Our Old Home.” Besides these men of English speech, the sons of every land in Europe have come to help make our country. While most of our people came from European ancestors, about ten millions of them, who have black skins, are descended from negro slaves who were brought against their wills from the continent of Africa. It is loyalty to our flag and to our ideals that makes men from all the world Americans.

In many cases our family names suggest the countries from which our people came. The Browns and the Clarks, the Robinsons and the Taylors, as well as the Binghams and the Washingtons and all other families whose names end in “ham” or “ton” are from England. The Mackenzies and the Buchanans are of Scotch descent. The Kellys and the O’Connors once called Ireland their home. The first Petersons and Carlsons came from Norway or Sweden. It is quite probable that as the man who keeps Country Life the nearest fruit store OME a Cenc has an Italian name

THE N Many of our ancestors once lived in modest gnd that you buy

from men who were porn in Greece. But whatever our names or the lands of our ancestors, if we love and serve America we are Americans.

Everywhere in our country are people whose fore-~ fathers came from the British Islands. The men from other lands are also widely scattered. New York, Philadelphia, and other large cities have many folks of Italian birth or parentage. Where there is much heavy work to be done, as in the coal mines of Penn-

OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 3 sylvania, the steel mills of Pittsburgh, or the meatpacking houses of Chicago, we find many newcomers from Austria and Russia. These recent immigrants are digging our sewers, building. and repairing our railroads, and working in our mills and _facto- ‘ries. Loyal newcomers and their children, as much as those whose ancestors have been long in the land, are the Americans of the future. All loyal citizens ean say, “This is our country.”

Why Europeans Came to America.—It is more than three hundred years since the first Europeans began to come to the country we 9 now call the United States de ERR AEEE Saree of America. From the THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

This great statue which stands upon beginning those who came an island in New York harbor is the ae gift of the people of France to the

have been writing back to United States. “It represents Liberty

2 P x enlightening the world.

their relatives and friends

about the opportunities in their new homes. In

this way the few who came first have been enticing

larger and larger numbers every year to come to

America, the land of promise. The number of immi-

grants has continued to grow up to the present time.

Recently, as many as a million new American settlers have landed on our shores in a single year. For a long time every one who came was welcomed. Now we have laws shutting out paupers, criminals, and those who have dangerous diseases. Chinese laborers are also excluded.

Nearly all the people who have come from Europe

The largest ship sailing the sea, over 900 feet long, 50,000 tons, with a crew of nearly 1,000, and room for 2,500 passengers.

to America, from its earliest history to the present time, came because they wanted to be free, or because they wanted a better chance to make a living than the Old World could give them. Some of them fled from the tyranny of wicked kings; others came to win the right to worship God in their own way; while many were driven out by the want and poverty in

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OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 5 the overcrowded lands of their old homes. America has been the land of liberty and of opportunity to one and all from the earliest to the latest comer.

How Our Ancestors Crossed the Atlantic—Many millions .of the more recent immigrants to America came in large steamships like the one opposite. Their voyage lasted only a few days and was made without great hardship. It was not so with the earlier settlers who came to our country.

Their passage across the Atlantic was a long and tedious one sometimes lasting many weeks. It was made in a small sailing vessel like the one pictured here. Often the passengers suffered greatly because of crowded quarters and poor food. Frequently

Pres model in eee ial Museum, Phila

THE MAYFLOWER This small sailing vessel is a good example of the kind of ships in which the earlier settlers in America crossed the Atlantic. It was only 100 feet long.

disease broke out on shipboard and many died. For example, about two hundred years ago a shipload of one hundred and fifty settlers started for America. One hundred of them died on the voyage. A little later there was another ship in which out of four hundred who sailed only one hundred and five lived to reach America.

The strong and the brave were the ones who survived the awful hardships of the old-time voyage from Europe to America. Of those who reached the new land, only the strongest and the bravest could long withstand the exposure, the diseases, and the Indian fighting which they faced as they cleared the land and built their new homes in the wilderness. The hardy and vigorous men and women who lived through the trying experiences of those early days were the ancestors of many of us who are the Americans of today. We may well sing of our country as—

‘‘The land of the free and the home of the brave.”

What Americans Brought from the Old World.— The Europeans who came to be Americans were civilized people. They brought their manners, their customs, and their ideals with them. They planted the civilization of their home lands in America. Our American life and civilization have grown from what was thus planted.

Now “civilization” is a long, hard word, but we shall not find it difficult to understand what it means. By civilized people we mean people who have laws and a government that enforces obedience to these laws; who cultivate the soil; who carry on commerce; who have houses and roads and ships; who have schools and books and pictures and music; ina word, people who live very much as we do now.

The settlers in America brought with them from their old homes in Europe the knowledge how to make a living and of how to enjoy life. They brought with them, too, many ideas and beliefs about right and wrong and about their duties to other men and their duty to God. These ideas and beliefs were also a part of their civilization.

The ways of doing things and the popular ideas of comfort, convenience, and progress which make up what we call civilization, have changed much in America, and many of them have been wonderfully developed and improved. But the sources of our civilization are in Europe.

OUR HOMES IN THE OLD WORLD 7

The earliest men that we know anything about had none of these things that make up civilization. It had taken men many thousands of years to learn what they knew when they first began to come from Europe to America three or four hundred years ago. The story of the way civilized ideas of living grew up in the Old World is as much a part of our history as the story of the way the European peoples first brought these ideas to the shores of America. We are to read both of these stories in this book.

1. Locate upon the map of Europe all the countries named in this chapter.

2. What is your own mother country in Europe?

3. Why did your ancestors come to America?

4. Find out all you can about how your ancestors lived in their Old World homes,

5. Talk with some recent immigrant about his journey to America.

6. Ask him how America differs from his home land in Europe.

7. Ought we to further restrict immigration to the United States?

8. What can we do to help the new comers in our country to become Americans?

Ross: The Old World in the New.

Fairchild: Immigration.

Commons: Races and Immigrants in America.

Warne: The Tide of Immigration.

nks and Lauck: The Immigration Problem.

E. A. Steiner: The Immigrant Tide; On the Trail of the Immigrant. Mary Antin, The Promised Land.

E. A. 13h A Gel abe fe Je

Chapter II What The Earliest Men Did For Us

The Earliest Men.—History is the story of what men have done in the past. It was not until men had learned how to write that they could keep a record of what they did. But men lived upon the earth for many thousand years before they knew how to write. In that early time they learned how to do many things which we are still doing and to make many things which we are still making and using. | In these ways they did much to make life what it is for us.

How is it possible for us to know anything about what life was like in those ancient times when men could not write? Did you ever find an Indian arrowhead? Perhaps you have seen a collection of stone arrow-heads and axes like those in the picture opposite. These relics and others like them tell us many things about the people who made them. Then there are peoples now living, like the natives of Australia or some of the tribes of American Indians, who still use, or did until very recently, these crude stone implements and who live very much as our own ancestors lived many thousand years ago.

The earliest men lived but little better than the animals in the forest about them. They were without shelter or clothing and had only such food as they could find from day to day. Men have either found a

WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US" g or made everything that we now have. Early man possessed a great advantage over all the animals because he had a better brain and a wonderful pair by, y Zs % 4 Z “Lt DQ, cient

ARROW-HEADS AND AXES OF STONE LIKE THESE WERE USED BY OUR EARLY ANCESTORS

No. 1, lance-head; Nos. 2 and 3, arrow-heads; No. 4, chopper; No. 5, lance-head; No. 6, axe-head. of hands with which he could make the weapons, tools, and other things that he needed.

Men have always needed food, shelter, clothing, and the means of protection against the dangers around them. It took our early ancestors many thousand years to learn how to provide themselves with these simple necessities of life.

The Food of the Earliest Men.—At first men lived upon the roots, herbs, wild berries, and fruits in the forest. Sometimes they found birds’ nests in the trees and ate the eggs or the young birds. Oceasionally they found a dead bird or animal and thus learned to like the taste of flesh. They hunted for shellfish by the seashore and caught fish in the streams and lakes. Then they began to kill the smaller animals with stones or clubs and in this way they became meat eaters. When men had learned how to make knives, spears, and bows and arrows, they could kill the larger animals and get a better supply of food.

For a long time all food was eaten raw, because the use of fire was unknown. We do not know how man discovered fire. He may have kindled it first from a tree set aflame by the lightning. By and by he found that a spark could be produced by striking two stones together in the right way or that he could make a fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together.

The making of fire was one of the most wonderful inventions in the world. Men could now cook their food. At first they roasted bits of meat before the blaze or in the hot ashes. Later, when they had

Am. Mus. Natural History A LANDSCAPE IN THE TIME OF EARLY MAN At the left are caribou, or wild reindeer, whose descendants still live in the fr North, The huge mammoths, with their great tusks, no longer pa Their bodies are sometimes discovered in the frozen earth of the far North, learned how to make vessels that would hold water, they began to boil all kinds of food over the fire.

How Wild Animals and Plants were Tamed.—For a long time men procured their food by hunting, trapping, and fishing. During this time they began to capture and tame the young of some of the wild animals. Probably the dog was the first domestic animal. The cow was also domesticated at a very early period. Man used her meat and milk for food and her skin for clothing. He made tools and implements out of her bones and horns. No other animal has been more useful to him.

The goat and the sheep, the hog and the ass, and later the horse, were tamed by early men long before real history began. After these animals had been domesticated by the hunters and trappers, some men became shepherds and herdsmen and wandered from place to place with their flocks and herds in search of the best pastures.

Presently another step was taken toward civilized life. Men had long known that the seeds of some of the wild grasses and plants were good to eat. Now some one noticed that if these seeds were sown they ees EARLY WAYS OF MAKING FIRE

American Museum of Natural Hisiory, New York A MAMMOTH

With their spears and bows and arrows early men sometimes hunted such * ‘big game”’ as the mammoth and the rhinoceros pictured below. .

American Museum an ry aeral Gime, Nie York A WOOLLY RHINOCEROS sprang up and brought forth many more seeds. Then it was discovered that the seeds grew better and yielded a more abundant crop if the ground were broken up and made soft before the seed was sown. Because of these discoveries some men began to be

OUR COMMON DOMESTIC ANIMALS Can you identify all of them? Of what service to man is each?

farmers. By cultivation, the wild grasses which grew in the fields or beside the rivers were developed into wheat, oats, barley, and rice, the great cereals of the world. , When men began to procure their food by cultivating the soil it became necessary for them to remain in the same place in order to gather the harvest when it ripened. They could no longer wander from place to place as they had done when they were only hunters or shepherds. They now began to live in permanent villages and to cultivate the land lying near by. In this way the beginning of farming led to a settled life and the making of permanent ‘homes.

The First Shelter and Clothing.—Probably the earliest men had only such shelter from the rain and protection from wild animals as the trees gave them. After a time men began to live in dens and caves in the earth. These people are called the ‘‘cave dwellers.” Still later

FOUR IMPORTANT CEREALS men built huts by ae Paes bending young trees together, weaving branches between them, and covering the whole structure with leaves and bark. When the hut was built of poles covered with the skins of animals it became a tent. Many of the people who wandered

Am. Mus. Natural History A VILLAGE OF EARLY TIMES BUILT OVER A LAKE IN SWITZERLAND from place to place with their flocks and herds dwelt in tents. ‘

When men settled near the fields that they weve beginning to cultivate, they built permanent homes of stone plastered with mud or of bricks made of clay and dried in the sun. The roofs were covered with brush or timber. Then fireplaces and rude chimneys were added to these simple houses, and in other ways man’s dwelling place was gradually improved.

The first clothing was probably made from the leaves of trees or from grasses matted together. When man became a good hunter he wore the skins of the

THE EVOLUTION Notice the progress from the cave to the tent, the hut, and the simple house.

animals that he killed. The ancestors of all of us were once clad in skins. The women of those early days used to cure the skins of small animals by drying them. Then they made garments of them by sewing them together with needles of bone and the sinews of animals for thread.

The women scraped and worked the large skins until they were soft and pliable. These they used for clothing, or for blankets, or for the covering of their tents. Still later, the women learned ‘to spin yarn from wool sheared from the sheep and from the thread of the flax which they were beginning to raise. The next step was to weave the yarn and the thread into woolen and linen cloth.

Early Weapons, Tools, and Utensils.—It was because early man had the mind to invent and the hands to make the weapons, tools, and utensils

AN EARLY MAN

At work chipping a piece of flint.

which he needed that he was able to make such progress in procuring food, shelter, and clothing.

Man’s first weapon was a club. A stone which he used to erack nuts with probably was his earliest tool. At first he simply found stones of the right shape for his purpose. Then he began to chip a piece of flint until it had a rough edge.

well as a hammer. his hand it has been called a fisthatchet. <A great many of these fisthatchets have been found. In the course of time man learned how to use thongs of rawhide to bind handles to his fisthatchets. Now he had axes and spears. -

It was a great day in the long climb toward civilized ways of living

Now he had a hatchet as

Because he held this hatchet in

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Yo. 1, needle;

N No. 5, dagger.

Nog. 2,3, and 4, javelin heads;