The story of the map of Europe, its making and its changing

Front matter

•0^ •

°o o V vi* .

9^. • • - • vev .A.*

Preface

This little volume is the result of the interest shown by pupils, teachers, and the general pubhc in a series of talks on the causes of the great European war which were given by the author in the fall of 1914. The audiences were widely different in character. They included pupils of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, students in high school and normal school, teachers in the public schools, an association of business men, and a convention of boards of education. In every case, the same sentiment was voiced: ''If there were only some book which would give us these facts in simple language and illustrate them by maps and charts as you have done!" After searching the market for a book of this sort without success, the author determined to put the subject of his talks into manuscript form. It has been his aim to write in a style which is. well within the comprehension of the children in the upper grades and yet is not too juvenile for adult readers. The book deals with the remarkable sequence of events in Europe which made the great war inevitable. Facts are revealed which, so far as the author knows, have not been pubhshed in any history to date; facts which had the strongest possible bearing on the outbreak of the war.

The average American, whether child or adult, has little conception of conditions in Europe. In America all races mix. The children of the Polish Jew mingle with those of the Sicilian, and in the second generations both peoples have become

2 Preface

Americans. Bohemians intermarry with Irish, Scotch with Norwegians. In Europe, on the other hand, Czech and Teuton, Bulgar and Serb may Uve side by side for centuries without mixing or losing their distinct racial characteristics. In order that the American reader may understand the complicated problem of European peace, a study of races and languages is given in the text, showing the relationship of Slav, Celt, Latin, and Teuton, and the various sub-divisions of these peoples. A knowledge of these facts is very essential to any understanding of the situation in Europe. The author has pointed out the fact that political boundaries are largely king-made, and that they have seldom been drawn with regard to the natural cUvision of Europe by nationalities, or to the wishes of the mass of the population.

The chapter, entitled ''Europe as it Should Be," with its accompanying map, shows the boundaries of the various nations as they would look if the bulk of the people of each nationality were included in a single political division. In many places, it is, of course, impossible to draw sharp lines. Greek shades off into Bulgar on one side and into Skipetar and Serb on the other. Prague, the capital of the Czechs, is one-third German in its population. There are large islands of Germans and Magyars in the midst of the Roumanians of Transylvania. These are a few examples out of many which could be cited. How^ever, the general aim of the chapter has been to divide the continent into nations, in each of which the leading race would vastly predominate in population.

It is hoped that the study of this little work will

Preface 3

not onl}^ throw light upon the causes of war in general, but will also reveal its cruelty and its needlessness. It is shown that the history of Europe from the time of the great invasions by the Germanic tribes has been a continuous story of government without the consent of the governed.

A preventive for wars, such as statesmen and philanthropists in many countries have urged, is outlined in the closing chapter. It would seem as though after this terrible demonstration of the results of armed peace, the governments of the world would be ready to listen to some plan which would forever forbid the possibility of another war. Just as individuals in the majority of civilized countries discovered, a hundred years ago, that it was no longer necessary for them to carry weapons in order to insure their right to live and to enjoy protection, so nations may learn at last that peace and security are preferable -to the fruits of brigandage and aggression. The colonies of America, after years of jealousy and small differences, followed by a tremendous war, at last learned this lesson. In the same way the states of Europe will have to learn it. The stumbling blocks in the Avay are the remains of feudal government in Europe and the ignorance and short-sightedness of the common people in many countries. Ignorance is rapidly waning with the advance of education, and we trust that feudalism will not long survive its last terrible crime, the world war of 1914.

.In the preparation of this little work, the author has received many helpful suggestions from coworkers. His thanks are especially due to Professor A. G. Terry of Northwestern University and Pro-

4 Preface

fessor A. H. Sanford of the Wisconsin State Normal School at La Crosse, who were kind enough to read through and correct the manuscript before its final revision. Acknowledgment is also made to Row, Peterson and Company for kind permission to use illustrations from History Stories of Other Lands; also to the International Film Service, Inc., of New York City for the use of many valuable copyright illustrations of scenes relating to the great war.

L. P. BENEZET.

La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 20, 1916.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface .1

List of Maps 6

Chapter I THE GREAT WAR

The call from Europe. — Friend against friend. — Why? — Death and devastation. — No private quarrel. — Ordered by government. — What makes government? — The influence of the past. — Four causes of war.

Among the bricklayers at work on a building which was being erected in a great American Austrian

. and

City durmg the summer of 1914 were two men Russian

who had not yet become citizens of the United

States. Born abroad, they still owed allegiance,

one to the Emperor of Austria, the other to

the Czar of Russia.

Meeting in a new country, and using a new language which gave them a chance to understand each other, they had become well acquainted. They were members of the same labor union, and had worked side by side on ^, several different jobs. In the course of time, a chums firm friendship had sprung up between them.

Suddenly, on the same day, each was notified to call at the office of the agent of his govern-

The call

from

Europe

A sad parting

The great war merit in the city. Next morning the Russian came to his boss to explain that he must quit work, that he had been called home to fight for the ''Little Father" of the Russians. He found his chum, the Austrian, there ahead of him, telling that he had to go, for the Russians had declared war on Austria and the good Kaiser,* Franz Josef, had need of all his young men.

The two chums stared at each other in sorrow and dismay. The pitiless arm of the god of war had reached across the broad Atlantic, plucking them back from peace and security. With weapons put into their hands they would be ordered to kill each other on sight.

A last hand-clasp, a sorrowful ''Good luck to you," and they parted.

Why was this necessary? What was this irresistible force, strong enough to separate the two friends and drag them back five thousand miles for the purpose of killing each other?

To answer these two questions is the purpose of this little volume.

Beginning with the summer of 1914, Europe and parts of Asia and Africa were torn and racked with the most tremendous war that the world has ever seen. Millions of men were killed. Other milhons were maimed, blinded, or disfigured for life. Still other milhons were

In the German language, the title Kaiser means Emperor.

herded into prison camps or forced to work

like convict laborers. Millions of homes were ^ . ^ _,

Grief and

filled with grief. Milhons of women were hardships forced to do hard work which before the war had been considered beyond their power. Millions of children were left fatherless. What had been the richest and most productive farming land in Europe was made a barren waste. Thousands of villages and towns were utterly destroyed and their inhabitants were forced to flee, the aged, the sick, and the infants alike. In many cases, as victorious armies swept through Poland and Serbia, the wretched inhabitants fled before them, literally starving,

because all food had been seized for the use of ^ .^,

Terrible

fighting men. Dreadful diseases, which cannot suffering exist where people have the chance to bathe and keep themselves clean, once more appeared, sweeping away hundreds of thousands of victims. The strongest, healthiest, bravest men of a dozen different nations were shot down by the millions or left to drag out a miserable existence, sick or crippled for life. Silent were the wheels in many factories which once turned out the comforts and luxuries of civilization. There were no men to make toys for the children, or to work for mankind's happiness. The only mills and factories which were running full time were those that turned out the tools of lii ^gf^^M^^^y S i"

* destruction and shot and shell for the guns. Nations poured out from fifty to sixty miUion dollars a day for the purpose of killing off the best men in Europe. Had the world gone mad? What was the reason for it all?

In 1913 Germans traveled in Russia and Englishmen traveled in Germany freely and . safely. Germans were glad to trade with intercourse Russians, and happy to have Englishmen spend their money in Germany. France and Austria exchanged goods and their inhabitants traveled within each other's boundaries. A Frenchman might go anywhere through Germany and be welcomed. There was nothing to make the average German hate the average Englishman or Belgian. The citizen of Austria and the citizen of Russia could meet and find plenty of ground for friendship.

We cannot explain this war, then, on the

grounds of race hatred. One can imagine that ^^

,...,,., , No private

two men living side by side and seeing each quarrel

other every day might have trouble and grow to hate each other, but in this great war soldiers were shooting down other soldiers whom they had never seen before, with whom they had never exchanged a word, and it would not profit them if they killed a whole army of their opponents. In many cases, the soldiers did not see the men whom they were kiUing. An officer

War at long range

Government ordered slaughter

What makes a government with a telescope watched where the shells from the cannon were falling and telephoned to the captain in charge to change the aim a trifle for his next shots. The men put in the projectile, closed and fired the gun. Once in a while, a shell from the invisible enemy, two, three, or four miles away, fell among them, killing and wounding. When a regiment of Austrians were ordered to charge the Russian trenches, they shot and bayoneted the Russians because they were told to do so by their officers, and the Russian soldiers shot the Austrians because their captains so ordered them. The officers on each side were only obeying orders received from their generals. The generals were only obeying orders from the government.

In the end, then, we come back to the governments, and we wonder what has caused these nations to fly at each other's throats. The question arises as to what makes up a government or why a government has the right to rule its people.

In the United States, the government officials are simply the servants of the people. Practically every man in our country, unless he is a citizen of some foreign nation, has a right to vote, and in many of the states women, too, have a voice in the government. We, the people of the United States, can choose our own lawmakers, can instruct them how to vote and, in some states, Government by

can vote out of existence any law that they the people have made which we do not Hke. In all states, we can show our disapproval of what our lawmakers have done by voting against them at the next election. Such is the government of a republic, a ^^ government of the people, by the people, and for the people," as Abraham Lincoln called it. In December, 1914, and again in December, 1915, a bill was introduced into the United States Congress, which provided that our country may not declare war except by the direct vote of its people. Some such law will probably soon be passed.

How is it in Europe? Have the people of Germany or Russia the right toi vote on war? Were they consulted before their governments called them to arms and sent them to fight each other? It is plain that in order to understand what this war is about, we must look into the story of how the different governments of Europe came to be and learn why their peoples obey them so unquestioningly.

We must remember that government by the people is a very new thing. One hundred and popular thirty years ago, even in the United States only governabout one-fourth of the men had the right to new vote. These were citizens of property and wealth. They did not think a poor man was worth considering. In England, a country which allows its people more voice in the government than almost any other nation in Europe, it is only within the last thirty years that all men could vote. There are some European countries, like Russia, where the people have practically no power at all and others, like Austria, where they have very little voice in how they shall be governed.

For over a thousand years, the men of Europe have obeyed without thinking when their lords and kings have ordered them to pick up their weapons and go to war. In many instances they have known nothing of the causes of the conflict or of what they were fighting for.

A famous English writer has written a poem which illustrates how little the average citizen has ever known concerning the cause of war, and shows the difference between the way in which war was looked upon by the men of old and the way in which one should regard it. The poem runs as follows:

The Battle of Blenheim

It was a summer evening, Old Kaspar's work was done.

And he before his cottage door Was sitting in the sun,

And by him sported on the green

His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin Roll something large and round,

Which he beside the rivulet In playing there had found,

He came to ask what he had found

That was so large and smooth and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by; And then the old man shook his head, And, with a natural sigh — '' 'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he, ''Who fell in the great victory.

''I find them in the garden.

For there's many hereabout; And often when I go to plow.

The plowshare turns them out!

For many a thousand men," said he, "Were slain in the great victory."

''Now tell us what 'twas all about," Young Peterkin he cries; And little Wilhelmine looks up With wonder-waiting eyes — "Now tell us all about^the war. And what they fought each other for."

"It was the Enghsh," Kaspar cried, "W^ho put the French to rout; But what they fought each other for

I could not well make out; But everybody said," quoth he, "That 'twas a famous victory.

^'My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by; They burnt his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forced to fly; So with his wife and child he fled, Nor had he where to rest his head.

''They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won — For many thousand bodies here

Lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know, must be After a famous victory.

''Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won, And our good Prince Eugene."

"Why, 'twas a very wicked thing!" Said little Wilhelmine.

"Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he,

" It was a famous victory.

"And everybody praised the duke Who this great fight did win."

"But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin.

"Why, that I cannot tell," said he;

"But 'twas a famous victory."

— Robert Southey.

Old Kaspar, who has been used to such things

Cui bono? ^^^ ^i^ ^i^^j cannot feel the wickedness and horror

thl^^oVd of ^^ ^^^ battle. The children, on the other hand,

it?) have a different idea of war. They are not

satisfied until they know what it was all about and what good came of it, and they feel that ''it was a very wicked thing." If the men in the armies had stopped to ask the reason why they were kilhng each other and had refused to fight until they knew the truth, the history of the world would have been very different.

One reason why we still have wars is that men refuse to think for themselves, because it is so J^^

tyranny of

much easier to let their dead ancestors think the dead for them and to keep up customs which should have been changed ages ago. People in Europe have lived in the midst of wars or preparation for wars all their li\es. There never has been a time when Europe was not either a battlefield or a great drill-ground for armies.

There was a time, long ago, when any man might kill another in Europe and not be punished for his deed. It was not thought wrong to take human life. Today it is not considered wrong to kill, provided a man is ordered to do so by his general or his king. When two kings go to war, each claiming his quarrel to be a just one, wholesale murder is done, and each side is made by its government to think itself very virtuous and wholly justified in its killing. It should be the great aim of everyone today to help to bring about lasting peace among all the nations.

In order to know how to do this, we must

study the causes of the wars of the past. We ^^^^ ^ ^ causes

shall find, as we do so, that almost all wars can of wars

be traced to one of four causes: (1) the instinct

among barbarous tribes to fight with and

plunder their neighbors; (2) the ambition of

kings to enlarge their kingdoms; (3) the desire

of the traders of one nation to increase their

commerce at the expense of some other nation;

(4) a people's wish to be free from the control

of some other country and to become a nation

by itself. Of the four reasons, only the last

furnishes a just cause for war, and this cause

has been brought about only when kings have

sent their armies out, and forced into their

kingdoms other peoples who wished to govern

themselves.

(a) Why must foreigners in the United States return to their native lands when summoned by their governments? (6) How is it that war helps to breed diseases?

(c) Is race hatred a cause of war or a result of it?

(d) Whom do we mean by the government in the United States?

(e) Who controls the government in Russia? (/) Who in England?

ig) Who in Germany?

(h) Who in France?

(i) In Southey's poem, how does the children's idea of the battle differ from that of their grandfather? Why?

(-'') Are people less Ukely to protest against war if their forefathers have fought many wars?

(k) What have been the four main causes of war?

Chapter II ROME AND THE BARBARIAN TRIBES

New governments in Europe. — Earliest times. — How civilization began. — The rise of Rome. — Roman civilization. — Roman cruelty. — The German tribes. — • The Slavic tribes. — The Celtic tribes. — The Huns and Moors. — The great Germanic invasions of the Roman world.

To search for the causes of the great war which began in Europe in 1914, we must go far back into history. It should be remembered that many of the governments of today have not Hved as long as that of our own country. This is, perhaps, a new thought to some of us, who rather think that, as America is a new country, it is the baby among the great nations. But, one hundred and thirty years ago, when the United States was being formed, there was no nation called Italy; the peninsula which we now know by that name was cut up among nine or ten little governments. There was no nation known as Germany; the land which is in the present German empire was then divided among some thirty or thirty-five different rulers. There was no Republic of France; instead, France had a king whose will was law, and the French people were cruelly oppressed.

There was no kingdom of Belgium, no kingdom of Serbia, of Bulgaria, of Roumania. The years ago kingdom of Norway was part of Denmark. The Republic of France, as we now know it, dates back only to 1871 ; the Empire of Germany and the United Kingdom of Italy to about the same time. The kingdoms of Roumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria have been independent of Turkey only since 1878. The kingdom of Albania did not exist before 1913. Most of the present nations of modern Europe, then, are very new. The troubles which led to the great war, however, originated in the dim twilight of history.

In the earliest days, there were no separate countries or kingdoms. Men gathered to- ^^^ savage gether in little bands, each of which had its fathers leader. This leader was generally chosen because of his bodily strength and courage. He was the best fighter of the tribe. The people did not have any lasting homes. They moved around from place to place, wherever they could find the best hunting and fishing. When two tribes wanted the same hunting grounds, they fought, and the weaker party had to give way. Selfishness was supreme. If a man Club law wanted anything which belonged to his weaker neighbor, he simply beat this neighbor over the head with his club, and took it. The stronger tribe attacked the weaker, without any thought of whether or not its quarrel was just.

Gradually, in the southern and warmer parts of Europe, the tribes began to be more civilized. Beginnings Xowns sprang up. Ships were built. Trade civilization came to be one of the occupations. The fighting men needed weapons and armor; so there grew up artisans who were skilled in working metals. In Egypt and Syria there were people who had reached quite a high degree of civilization, and gradually the Europeans learned from them better ways of living. First the Greeks, then the Etruscans (E-trus'cans), a people who lived in Italy just north of where Rome now is, and finally the southern Italians ^ learned that it was possible to live in cities,

Change of _ , ^ , '

occupations without hunting and plundering. Grazing (the

tending of flocks of animals) came to be the

occupation of many. The owners of sheep or

cattle drove their flocks from place to place,

as grass and water failed them where they were.

There was no separate ownership of land.

At last came the rise of the city of Rome,

which, starting out as the stronghold of a Uttle

gang of robbers, spread its rule gradually over

all the surrounding country. By this time, the

barbarians of northern Europe had gotten past

the use of clubs as weapons. They, too,

iron had learned to make tools and arms of bronze.

and those living near civilized countries had obtained swords of iron. The club, however, still remained as the sign of authority. The large bludgeon of the chief was carried before the tribe as a sign of his power over them. You have all seen pictures of a king sitting on his throne and holding a wand or stick in his right hand. It is interesting to think that this Meaning scepter, which the present king of England ^?*^f carries on state occasions to remind his people scepter of his power, is a relic of the old, old days when his grandfather, many times removed, broke the head of his rival for leadership in the tribe and set up his mighty club for his awestruck people to worship.

The city of Rome (at first a republic, afterwards an empire) spread its rule over all of Beginnings Italy, over all the shores of the Mediterranean ?! ^^®

•^ ' Roman

Sea, and finally over all the countries of Europe Empire south and west of the rivers Danube and Rhine. One of the emperors planted a colony north of the Danube near its mouth, and the descendants of these colonists are living in that same country today. They have not forgotten their origin, for they still call themselves Romans (Roumani [Roo-ma'ni]), and talk a language greatly resembling the Latin, which was the tongue spoken by the Romans of old. With the exception of this country, which is now Roumania, the part of Europe north and east of the Danube I^® Rhine- Danube and Rhine was practically free from the Romans, boundary

In this territory, roving bands wandered around,

driving their cattle with them and clearing the

woods of game.

In some ways, the Romans were a highly

civilized people. They had schools where their „

- Roman

children were taught to read and write, to speak civilization

Greek, and to work problems in geometry.

They had magnificent pubhc buildings, fine

roads all over the southern part of Europe,

and had wonderful systems of aqueducts

which supplied their cities with pure water from

springs and lakes miles away. Their dress was

made of fine cloth. They knew how to make

paper, glass, and steel.

On the other hand, they were a cruel and

Roman was to go to shows where gladiators fought, cruelty

either with each other or with wild beasts. These gladiators were generally men from tribes which had fought against Rome. They had been captured and brought to that city, where they were trained to use certain weapons. Then on holidays, with all the people of Rome packed into big amphitheaters, these unfortunate captives were forced to fight with each other until one man of each pair was killed.

■nvMdi i IM

M

THE LAST COMBAT OF THE GLADIATORS

It occasionally happened that one gladiator might be wounded, and lie helpless on the sand, gladiators The spectators would then shout to the victorious fighter to take his knife and finish what he had begun. In this way what would seem to us like cold-blooded murder was committed hundreds of times each year, while the fairest ladies and young girls of Rome sat and watched with eager interest. Thus, although the Romans had all the outward appearance of being civilized, they were savages at heart, and had no sympathy for any people who were not of their own race.

In the early days, the Romans prided themselves on their honor. They scorned a lie and Hardy,

honorable looked down on anyone who would cheat or fighters

deceive. They lived hardy lives and would not allow themselves luxuries. They rather despised the Greeks, because the latter surrounded themselves with comforts in life. The early Romans were fighters by nature. They had a certain god named Janus (our month January is named after him) and his temple was open only when they were engaged in war. It is a matter of history that during the twelve hundred years from the first building of Rome to the end of the Roman Empire, the temple of Janus was closed on but three occasions and then only for a short time.

Decay of

Roman

morals

The Germans

About five or six hundred years after the founding of Rome came several disastrous wars which killed off a great majority of her sturdy fighters. Rome was the victor in all of these wars, but she won them at tremendous cost to herself. With the killing off of her best and bravest men, a great deal of the old time honesty was lost. Very soon, we begin to hear of Roman governors who, when put in charge of conquered states, used their offices only to plunder the helpless inhabitants and to return to Rome after their terms were finished, laden with ill-gotten gains. Roman morals, which formerly were very strict, began to grow more lax, and in general the Roman civihzation showed signs of decay.

To the north and east of the Roman Empire dwelt a people who were to become the leaders of the new nations of Europe. These were the free German tribes, which occupied the part of Europe bounded, roughly, by the rivers Danube and Rhine, the Baltic Sea, and the Carpathian Mountains. In many ways they were much less civilized than the Romans. They were clad in skins and furs instead of cloth. They lived in rough huts and tents or in caves dug in the sides of a hill. They, too, like the Romans, held human life cheap, and bloodshed and murder were common among them. As

Hunting and a rule, the men scorned to work, leaving what ever labor there was, largely to the women, fTghting while they busied themselves in fighting and hunting, or, during their idle times, in gambUng. Nevertheless, these people, about the time that the Roman honesty began to disappear, had ^'irtues more like those of the early Romans. They were frank and honorable. The men were faithful husbands and kind fathers, and their