Modern times and the living past

Preface

To present the history of the world in a single volume and to make the story at the same time attractive and useful to j'oung readers is a most diflficult task. Onlj^ the general sweep of the great current of events can be followed ; only the salient features that contributed most to the development of the nations can be included.

The two questions that must constantly be in the mind of the writer are, first, what to choose for the text, and second, how to present it. As to the first, he must be able to appraise historic values ; he must present that which will lead the reader to visualize the past so as best to grasp the problems that contributed most to the social, moral, economic, and political development of the peoples whom he is studying. Thus bj' acquiring a correct knowledge of his historical inheritance, the reader will understand and appreciate the principles on which are based the ideals and institutions of the civilization of the present.

As to the second, the method of presenting histor}', especially for young readers, these facts must be borne in mind : The great majority of high-school pupils will never become specialists in liistorj'. Intensive scientific study from the sources is therefore out of place in the secondary schools, except for an occasional diversion. It is recommended that classes be led to dip now and then into the source fountains ; but if confined to this form of study, pupils will leave school with no knowledge of the great march of human events, and with little or no interest to continue the study in the future. Moreover, they will miss the culture and the intense interest that jiertains to the great human story.

In preparing this book I have given large space to the social and industrial life of the people, their achievements and their progress; at the same time t haw endeavored to retain the thread of the political narrative, especially in llu' accounts of

iii iv Preface

ancient Greece and Rome and of the great nations of modem Europe. The study of modern Europe is given in cross sections with constant reference to the relations of the various countries with one another. As the history of our own country is a study by itself, it is not included in this volume.

More space has been given to the study of England than to! that of any other country, because of its greater importance td American students, and in order to obviate the necessity or making it a separate study in the crowded curriculum of the high school.

To the modern period I have given much greater space than to the ancient and medieval periods. Every intelligent citizen must have some knowledge of what we owe to the far past ; but more vital is a knowledge of the great problems of our own times, and to these a fuller treatment has been given.

The wars of the world could not be omitted because of the great part they have played in human progress, but the account of them has been condensed to the smallest space.

Wherever possible I have kept the human interest in the foreground and have deemed it best to give considerable space to the leading characters in history at the expense of leaving unmentioned the names of many who usually find a place even in condensed histories.

The same is true in the narration of events. Great numbers of facts usually told in books of this character have been omitted to gain space for a fuller treatment of the greater movements that have most affected the development of the nations.

My constant aim has been to present a book that will be easy to teach and at the same time interesting as well as useful to the youthful reader. It is hoped, furthermore, that this book may be useful to the general reader, may prove a pleasant review to those who already know the history, and may furnish to busy people, who have not the time to pursue the subject further, an intelligent elemental knowledge of the great story of the development of human civilization.

Henry W. Elson.

Chapter I. Prehistoric Man i

Stages of Development — Races and Languages — A View of Prehistoric Europe.

Chapter IL Ancient Egypt 23

The Land and the People — Government and Religion — Civilization and Progress.

Chapter III. The Tigris-Euphrates Valley; Palestine . 38 The Lihabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley — Life and Progress of the Mesopotamian Peoples — The Hebrews and Phoenicians.

Chapter IV. Prehistoric Greece 60

The Land and the Early Inhabitants — Mythical Heroes and Legends — Greek Religion — Panhellenic Interests.

Chapter V. Sparta and Athens; Greek Colonization . . 78 Sparta — Life in Athens — Greek Colonization.

Chapter VI. The Brilliant Age — Literature, Philosophy,

Fine Arts

Athens in the Age of Pericles — Greek Architecture and Sculpture — Greek Literature — The Great Philosophers.

Chapter VII. Wars of the Greeks 108

The Persian Wars — Civil War in Greece.

Chapter VIII. Alexander the Great 122

King Philip and Macedonia — Alexander.

Chapter IX. Early Rome 133

Prehistoric Italy — Roman Religion and Social Life — The Government and the Army.

Chapter X. Roman Conquests 149

Conquest of Italy — The Punic Wars (264-146 B.C.) — Coii;|uost of Mediterranean Lands.

Chapter XI. Life and Society in Rome 165

Change in Roman Customs — • Reforms of the Gracchi — The Roman Provinces.

VI Contents

PACE

Chapter XII. The Century of C/Esar 173

Men and Events before the Time of Caesar — Julius Caesar — Rise of Octavius.

Chapter XIII. The Age of Augustus 186

Augustus and the Germans — Beginnings of Christianity — Life and Society under the Empire — Roman Literature.

Chapter XIV. Roman Imperialism and the Triumph of Christianity 199

The City and the Empire — Triumph of Christianity.

Chapter XV. Fall of Rome and the Migration or the Nations 210 The Barbarians and the Roman Empire — Review of the Ancient

Nations.

Chapter XVI. Rise of the Papacy; Mohammedanism . . 222 Rise of the Papacy — Mohammedanism and the Arab Invasion.

Chapter XVII. Charlemagne and his Times . . . .231

Chapter XVIII. Feudalism and Chivalry .... 238

Feudalism — Chivalry.

Chapter XIX. Papacy and Empire; the Crusades . . . 250 The Papacy and the Empire — The Crusades.

Chapter XX. England in the Middle Ages .... 264 Alfred the Great (871-901) — The Norman Conquest, 1066 — The Plantagenet Kings and the Great Charter — The Rise of the Jury System and of Parliament.

Chapter XXI. Building of the Nations 280

Decline of Feudalism ; Growth of Cities — Beginnngs of the French Nation — The Hundred Years' War — Germany in the Middle Ages — Italy — Formation of the Kingdom of Spain — Scandinavians and Slavs.

Chapter XXII. Civilization and Progress during the Middle

Ages 300

Language and Literature — The Universities and Education — Science and Superstitions — Discoveries and Explorations — The Renaissance ; Art and Architecture — Summary of the Middle Ages.

Chapter XXIII. The Protestant Reformation in Germany . 317 European Conditions — Beginnings of the Reformation — Martin Luther (1483-1546) — Charles V and the Reformation.

Contents vii

Chapter XXIV. The Reformation in Other Lands; the

Counter Reformation :i,^^

Switzerland — England and Other Lands — The Counter Reformation.

Chapter XXV. The England of Elizabeth's Time . . . .351 The Reign of Queen Mary — ^The Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558- 1603).

Chapter XXVI. The Religious Wars 363

The Huguenot Wars in France — Revolt of the Netherlands — The Thirty Years' War, 161 8-1 648.

Chapter XXVII. The Stuarts and the Puritans in Englantd . 379 The Reign of James I (1603-1625) — Charles I and the Civil War, 1625- 1649 — Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth — The Restoration and the Revolution — William and Mary.

THE OLD REGIME Chapter XXVIII. France and Loms XIV 403

Chapter XXIX. Rise of Prussia and Russia .... 415 Prussia — Beginnings of Russia.

Chapter XXX. France and England in the Eighteenth Century 426

Colonial Expansion — Industrial Progress.

Chapter XXXI. Eve of the French Revolution . . . 433 Condition of France — The Great Writers — The Benevolent Despots.

Chapter XXXII. The Early Period of the French Revolution 441 The King and the States-General — Work of the National .\ssembly.

Chapter XXXIII. Fall of the Monarchy; First French

Republic 459

The Legislative Assembly, October i, 1791, to September 20, 1702 — The National Convention; the Reign of Terror.

Chapter XXXIV. Napoleon Bonaparte 472

Bonaparte Becomes Master of France — The Consulate ; Napoleon in Peace — The Empire and the Napoleonic Wars — Decline and Fall of the Empire of Napoleon.

Chapter XXXV. Europe after the Revolution . ■ 4Q2

The Congress of Vienna; Changes in Europe — The Spirit of Reaction — Uprising in Southern Europ:- — France from 181 5 to 1830.

Chapter XXXVI. The Industrial Revolution .... 502 The Great Inventions — The Rise of the Factory' System — Improvements in Transportation — Canals, Steamboats, Railways —

Results of the Industrial Rex'olution.

viii Contents

PAGE

Chapter XXXVII. Nineteenth Century Reforms in Great

Britain 514

Before the Great Reforms — Parliamentary Reform in 1832 — Abolition of Slavery — Factory Reform — Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846.

Chapter XXXVIII. The Second Era or Revolution in Europe 528 The Revolution of 1830 — The Revolution of 1848 in France — The Revolution of 1848 in Other Countries.

Chapter XXXIX. Unification of Italy and Germany . . 546 The Making of Modern Italy — Unifying of Germany ; War with France.

Chapter XL. France after 1870 562

The Third French Republic — The French Government — Progress at Home and Abroad.

Chapter XLI. Germany after 1871 571

Government of the German Empire — Germany from 1871 to 1914.

Chapter XLII. Great Britain after 1850 584

Disraeli and Gladstone — Ireland and the Irish — The British Colonial Empire — Close of the Victorian Era ; Later Events.

Chapter XLIII. Russia and the Balkans 609

Russia, the Leading Slav Nation — Turkey and the Balkans.

Chapter XLIV. The Minor States of Western Europe . . 629 Scandinavia — Holland, Belgium — Spain, Portugal, Switzerland.

Chapter XLV. Advances in Government, Science, and Industry 637

A Century of Revolution — Progress in Science and Industry.

Chapter XL VI. Causes and Beginnings of the World War . 646 Historical Background — Invasion of Belgium and France.

Chapter XL VII. The War in 19 15-19 17 660

Russia, Turkey, and the Balkans — The Western Front, and War on the Sea — The War in 1917 — Modern Weapons of War.

Chapter XLVIII. America in the War 675

Great Preparations — The Great Final Drive : End of the War.

Chapter XLIX. Results of the World War .... 698 The Peace Treaties — The Nations After the War — International Problems.

Chronology ix

Index xv

MODERN TIMES AND THE LIVING PAST

CHxAPTER I PREHISTORIC MAN

I. Stages of DEVELOPirENX

1. Historic and Prehistoric Times. — There was a time, many ages ago, when not a man in the world could read. There were no books, no writing, no alphabet. At length, after thousands of years, we know not how many thousands, men began to invent an alphabet and to make books. They then began to leave a written record of their own doings. This we call Historj'.

The long ages preceding the time when men learned to write are called Prehistoric Times. The period since men began to write is known as Historic Tim.es.

The various nations emerged from the prehistoric period to the historic period at different times. The people of the Nile Valley and those of the Euphrates (u-fra'tez) Valley reached the historic period several thousand j^ears before the time of Christ (b.c), the Greeks about 900 B.C., the Romans 600 or 700 e.g., and the Teutonic peoples more than a thousand years later. There are many tribes on the earth who have not 3^et reached the historic stage. Among these are some of the American Indians, some Negroes of Africa, the " Black Fellows " of Australia, and many t^f the natives of the East Indies.

2. Prehistoric Man and the Animals. — Through unknown ages man has made his way on and up to his present stage of enlightenment. In many respects man is inferior to the lower animals. He has not the strength of the ox nor the eyesight of the eagle ; he lacks the s])eed of the deer and the bloodiiound's |)o\ver

I of scent. But he stands immeasurably above all these creatures because of his superior intelligence, his cunning, his reasoning power. Man is the only creature on the earth that uses tools or fire or wears clothing, the only creature that speaks an articulate language, the only creature that has a moral and religious instinct. All these characteristics of man developed slowly during the prehistoric ages.

3. Epochs of Development. — The long period of man's advance in the use of tools and weapons is divided into four ages : (i) the Rough Stone age, (2) the Polished Stone age, (3) the Bronze age, and (4) the Iron age.

During the rough stone or paleolithic (pa-le-o-lith'ic, which means old stone) age man lived almost as the animals about him. His implements of war and of the chase were made of rough stone or of bones. Many thousands of such relics have been found in the past half century in France and other countries. As time passed man learned to polish the stones, to shape them into knives, arrowheads, and stone axes or " tomahawks," as the American Indians called them. This age of polished stone implements is sometimes called the neolithic (or new stone) age. Thus primeval man gradually passed from one " age " to another, but how many thousands of years he remained in each we have no means of knowing.

At length man came to learn the use of metals, when and how no one knows. He first used copper, but copper is too soft to make good tools. In some way it was discovered that by mixing copper with a little tin a metal is formed which is much better than either for the making of implements. The mixture is called bronze. For many centuries, known as the bronze age, this metal was used in ever-increasing quantities.

Finally, man discovered how to make use of iron, which is the most useful of all metals, and happily the most abundant. The use of metals has been of immense importance in the development of the human race. Without it our present civilization would be impossible.

Implements of the Rough Stone Age

Fist hatchets and knives. Such implements were made by splitting and chipping

stones, using another stone as a hammer for this purpose. At the right of this

picture a stone Icnife, in the lower hand, is being shaped by chipping blows struck

with the stone in the upper hand.

Knife, €3yfl hrai.^S.^

Implements of the Polished Stone .Age

These tools, after being chipped roughly into shape, were finished by grinding and

polishing.

QuS^

Early Bronze and Iron Implements

The handle of a hatchet was a forked or bent stick to which the hatchet was securely bound.

4. Economic Progress. — Again, with respect to man's economic progress, his methods of getting a Uving, we may divide his career into five stages : (i) the Hunting and Fishing stage ; (2) the Pastoral or Shepherd stage ; (3) the Agricultural stage ; (4) the Handicraft stage ; and (5) the Industrial stage.

Man of the Late Neolithic Age

Restoration made under the direction of a Belgian scientist. Notice the polished

stone ax with wooden handle, the stone dagger, and the flint-headed arrows.

Notice also that this man has un trimmed hair and beard, and wears a necklace

of teeth — trophies of the chase.

During the hunting and fishing stage men lived chiefly on game and fish. They lived in caves or rude huts, or they wandered from place to place without a fixed home. Passing from the rough stone age to the polished stone age during this time, they invented the bow and arrow, which they found of great advantage in the chase or when striving with an enemy in battle. They had no

Stages of Development 5

domestic animals except the dog, which, before being tamed, was a wild jackal or wolf. In this stage were many of the American Indians when discovered by the white men.

As time passed man discovered that it was far easier to make his living by keeping flocks and herds than by depending oh his skill in capturing wild animals. Perhaps a hunter returning from the chase brought with him a young calf or kid, which became a pet for his children. As the animal grew the idea occurred to the family that it would be better to domesticate and raise animals than to depend wholly on the chase. Thus began the shepherd stage. The dog was already man's faithful companion. Next came the cow, the sheep, and the goat to furnish him with milk and flesh, and the horse to bear his burdens as a faithful servant. From this time he moved about from place to place less than before. He had a better home and moved only now and then, seeking new pastures. A typical example of man in the pastoral stage was the patriarch Abraham, founder of the Jewish nation.

Still later men became farmers and passed into the agricultural stage. From the beginning, no doubt, man had supplemented his diet of flesh with various grains, fruits, and vegetables as he found them growing wild. When he discovered that by cultivating the soil he could raise far more and far better products than nature furnished direct to hand, he made an important step toward a better and higher mode of life. When men became farmers they built fixed homes and ceased to wander about.

Year after year a man would till the same field and at length he came to look upon it as his own. His neighbors did the same and thus the private ownership of land came to be recognized. The agricultural stage is also characterized by the introduction of slavery. During the hunting and pastoral stages it was not practical to hold slaves, as a master could make use of them onh' by giving them arms and placing them on a level with himself; but when a man became a farmer he could make use of a captive by putting him to work. Most of the early slaves were captives taken in war. Before this stage captives were usually put to death. Plato was not far wrong in saying that the introduction of slavery was a humane act and an advance in civilization. The ancient Greeks and Romans and the European peoples of the Middle Ages lived in the agricultural stage.

Next came the handicraft stage, during which man slowly advanced in the production of goods and implements. Manufacturing was done by hand (as the word signifies) and each family supplied nearly all of its own wants. In this stage we find the American colonists before the war of the Revolution.

Finally, we have the industrial stage. This is characterized by great inventions, by world-wide commercial activity, and by the production of goods in colossal quantities. It is the stage in which we are living.

5. Political Evolution. — Man is a social being. Like the buffaloes that roam in herds, or the birds that flock together, man seeks the companionship of his fellows. It is impossible for men to live alone and independent of one another. The large group in which they live we call society.

Social life is impossible without a code of rules or laws by which the individual is restrained from doing things that would injure his fellows, and through which the social body may do for the individual what he cannot do for himself, such as constructing roads and bridges, building schoolhouses, and defending him against enemies. The regulating of the social group is called government. All our nearest interests are inseparably connected with government.

The origin of human government lies far back in the past, even beyond the dawn of history. The earliest governments were no doubt those of mere family groups, the father, sometimes the mother, being the head of the family or clan. Next followed the patriarchal form, which included also more distant kindred and servants, as in the case of Abraham. Later came the government of the tribe, a union of many clans or families, and finally the government of the state or nation, formed by the union and commingling of many tribes. The nations are usually separated

Stages of De\'eloi)ment from one another by differences in language or religion, or by geographical boundaries.

6. Language and Fire. — In modern times no tribe of men, however savage and wild, has been found without language. Man is not endowed by nature with the gift of language, but with the power of speech, and he must make his own language. The making of a language is a spontaneous process covering a long period of time.'

The use of fire is no doubt of very early origin ; as in the case of language, no tribe of men is without it.

Perhaps the first use of fire was learned through fires caused by lightning ; but at length man learned to kindle a fire by rubbing sticks together. None of the lower animals has the intelligence to use fire. It is said that when an African traveler leaves his camp fire, the monkeys will sometimes gather about it and rub their hands in glee. As the fire dies out, they look on sadly, not one of them having intelligence enough to throw on a stick of wood. The

ancient Greeks had a legend that the hero Prometheus (pro-me'- thus) brought fire from heaven and taught man its use ; and that for this he was severely punished, because the gods were jealous of the growing importance of man (sec. 56).

Australian Firl: Drillkr

This shows how an Australian native, or " black fellow " kindles a fire. Our remote ancestors used similar methods. Some .\merican Boy Scouts can perform this feat.

' It is well known that children will often make words with which to express themselves. From Albany, New York, an unusual example is reportetf. Two children but little past two years of age invented a considerable vocabulary and used it constantly in conversing with each other. Thus gar meant horse ; peer, a ball; odo, to send for; pama, to go to sleep, and so on. No doubt language was made in this way in the infancy of the human race. See Wright's Origin and Antiquity of Man, p. 94.

At length man discovered that by the use of fire he could harden clay and make pottery, could make his food better b}" cooking it, and could smelt ores and make metal tools and weapons.

European Pottery of the Neolithic and Bronze x\.ges

In the British Museum. Many such dishes have been foiind in burial mounds

where they were no doubt placed, well filled, to provide food for the dead in their

journey to the next world.

It is a notable fact that the use of fire and metals, and language — all of which are indispensable to our modern civilized life — have come down to us as an inheritance from prehistoric times.

7. History. — The known record of the ages of the past is what we call history. It is a study of mankind in groups or nations. But history is more than a record of events ; it is a study of human nature, the most interesting of all studies, and is second only to the study of the life of our times.

History is like a coral growth. Each generation builds its fabric of civilization on that which it inherits from the past, and there are few things that we enjoy in our everyday life for which we are not indebted to the past. If you sit down to write a letter, the pen and paper you use, the table, the chair on \.;I;\jrh you sit,

Stages of Development 9

even the clothes 3'ou wear, are the products of machinery that required centuries to develop ; and the alphabet you employ is the inheritance of thousands of years. Were it possible to blot out the past, man would be reduced to a state of savagery, without machiner}' or clothing, without language or tradition.

It is through history that we learn what we owe to the generations that have gone before, and can stud}' the origin and growth of the institutions we enjo}'. A knowledge of the past enables us the better to understand the duties of the present.

8. Sources of History. — Though the prehistoric races left no consciously-prepared history, modern scholarship has done much toward revealing the secrets of those early times. Weapons and tools have been unearthed in great numbers, and each one brings its mute message from the long past years. ^ Suppose an excavator of an ancient cit}' finds a skeleton with a filled tooth in the jaw. He learns from this that a certain metal was in use at the time the person lived, and that some progress had been made in the practice of dentistry. Important facts can be learned from the earliest examples of sculpture and drawing. Inscriptions on monuments have been deciphered, and great numbers of tablets, unearthed from the ruins of buried cities, have been read by scholars who devote their lives to such studies. Songs, legends, and traditions are also of some value to the student of history. The evidences are put together piece by piece until a fairlj' accurate knowledge is gained of the habits, doings, and mode of life of the ancient peoples.

The American Indians wrote no books, but we learn something of how they lived and what they did before the coming of the white man by studying the mounds they built and the flint arrowheads and stone axes or tomahawks which they made, also from the rude carvings of their artists.

' More than a thousand swords, lances, and daggers were found in Schlcswig in a single pit. Near Ha^^statt, Austria, 980 tomi)s were opened, revealing great numbers of bronze and iron implements; but as there were no Roman coins, it is inferred tha* '"., tombs were made before the invasion of that country by the Romans. See Seignobos, IJislory of Ancient Civilization, pp. 8, 9. EL. M. T.' — 2 lO

Prehistoric Art

The horse's head sculptured on a piece of reindeer born, was found buried with relics of the rough stone age, in southern France. The charging mammoth was engraved on an ivory tusk, also in southern France during the rough stone age ; it is one of the most remarkable relics of its kind. The stag hunt shown at the left is from a painting on the walls of a cavern in Spain, made in the polished stone age.

However much we may learn from prehistoric implements and art, written records constitute the chief source of history. These may be consciously-written historic accounts, as those of Herod'- otus, Jose'phus, or Tacitus (tas'i-tus) ; or they may be sacred books which give history incidentally, as the Aves'ta of the Persians, or the Old Testament of the Jews ; or they may be records of kings as found on tablets and monuments.

By far the greater part of our knowledge of the historic period is drawn from the written records ; hence most of the matter in this book will be taken from these sources.

9. Invention of Writing. — Man never took a greater step in the direction of civilization and culture than when he invented the means of writing. In the childhood of the race the form of writing invented is what we call picture writing, in which the drawings represent things or ideas. Among the Indian tribes we find many specimens of picture writing.

Stages of Dc. clopniciit . ii

A great advance was made when word writing was invented. By this method each word is represented b}' a character. But such writing is very difficult, as one is obliged to learn several thousand characters. The Chinese never advanced beyond this stage, and to this day the civilization of the Chinese is greatly retarded by their antiquated form of writing.

Word writing was followed by syllable writing, in which each sj^mbol represents a syllable. This method reduced the number of characters to a few hundred and greatly simplified the art of writing.

Finally, the phonetic or sound method of writing came into use. In this each character represents one or more sounds, and the characters collectively are known as the alphabet.

10. Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History. — Historic times are often divided into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The ancient period merges into the medieval, and the medieval into the modern, by slow and imperceptible stages ; it is therefore not surprising that writers vary in choosing definite dates as dividing points.

The ancient period comprises all historic times before the birth of Christ (about 5000 years) and about five or eight centuries after Christ.

The medieval period, called also the Middle Ages, comprises the following nine or ten centuries. Modem history covers the period from the end of the Middle Ages to the present time.'

It will be observed that the modern period is much shorter than either of the others, and that the medieval period is less than one fifth as long as the ancient period.