Our country's history

Front matter

■oK

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^--0^

Preface

of space. For example, of the forty-six chapters in the text, only ten chapters, or less than one- fourth, are devoted to the first half of our history, more than three-fourths of the text being given to the second half.

Realizing that a mere relation of dates, names and facts plays only a small part in promoting citizenship, which should be the primary object of history, we have endeavored at least in this book to connect the boys and girls with the great currents that explain and indicate the trend of our country's development. To enable the children to understand our great achievements, institutions and problems of the present in the light of the past is to enlist their interest in history, to foster jxitriotism, to make more acute their sense of judgment and to inspire them with a higher degree of civic duty. Hence, in the selection, arrangement and discussion of facts we have kept constantly in mind their bearing on our life and institutions.

Since the development of our political life is so closely interwoven with our economic, industrial and political institutions, we have attempted to give sufficient study to all of these. Along Avith the recent progressive steps in legislation and government we have emphasized our material development, the western movement, the labor problems, etc.

It would be well-nigh impossible to make adequate acknowledgments of our indebtedness to the many persons who have done so much to make this book possible. We wish, however, to take this opportunity to thank Doctor James W. Garner, of the University of Illinois, and Professor E. S. Towles, of the Mississippi A. and M. College, for reading the proof and preparing some questions for

parts of the book. t, .

^ The Authors.

PART ONE Europeans Discover, Explore, and Colonize the New World

CHAPTKR PAGE

1 EuROPEAX Beginnings 1

II DlSCOV-ERY AND EaRLY EXPLORATIONS .... 13

III The Struggle between England and Spain . . 23

IV England Pl.vnts Her First Permanent Colony

IN the New World il

y Religious Persecution and Coloniz.\tion . . 46 VI Rivals to the English in America .... 58

PART TWO England Wins in the Struggle for Supremacy in North America

VII Political Upheav.\ls in Engl.vnd and Their

Effect 68

VIII French Domination of the Mississippi Basin . 83 IX Engl.\nd's European Wars and Her Americ.\n

Colonies 92

X The Downfall of France in America . . . 100

Part Three

The English Colonies Revolt from Their Mother Country and Establish a New Nation

XI Social Life in the Colonies

XII Economic Phases of Colonial Life

XIII What Caused the Colonies to Revolt . .

XIV The Colonists Decl.\re Their Independence XV The Revolution.-vry War

XVI The Confederation and Its Breakdown .

XVII How the Constitution Was Framed . .

128 146 164 183 204 213

CONTENTS— Continued

Part Four

The Federal Union Grows and Develops but Is Hampered by European Interference

CHAPTER

XVIII The Federalists in Control ....

XIX The Democratic-Republicans in Power .

XX War with Great Britain

XXI Good Feelings and Hard Times ....

XXTI Social and Industrial Progress up to 1820

PART FIVE The Nation Expands Westward and Slavery Splits It in Twain

XXIV The Whigs and Texas Annexation XXV Westward Expansion

XXVI The End of the Whig Party XXVII A Quarter of a Century of Progress XXVIII The Democrats Once More in Power

303 320 329 338 348 367

Part Six

The War between the States Results in the Supremacy of the Union and the Problems of Reconstruction Are Solved

XXIX The Parting of the Ways 381

XXX The First Two Years of the W.\r 395

XXXI How THE War Was Finally Won 412

XXXII What the War Cost 440

XXXIII Reconstruction Days 448

XXXTV The Rise of the New South 462

Part Seven

The Fight against Corruption Results in the Development of a New American Spirit

XXXV The Conquest of the Far West 475

XXXVI The Beginning of Reform Legislation . . . . 494

XXXVII A Republican Victory and a High Tariff . . 503

XXXVIII The Democrats Regain Public Office . 511

XXXIX The United States Becomes a World Power . 522

XT. A New American Spirit 541

CONTENTS— Continued

5.-; PART EIGHT

The United States Enters the World War and Helps to Make the World Safe for Democracy

CHAPTER XLl XLII

XLIII

XLIV

XLV

XLVI

A Half-Century of Progress .

The Struggle for European Supremacy' A School-Teacher in the White House Europe in Conflagration ....

Appendix

The Constitution of the United States iii

Amendments to the Constitution xvi

The Presidents and Vice-Presidents xxiii

The States of the Union xxiv

Index . xxvii

COLORED MAPS

PAGE

European Possessions in Eastern North America at the Outbreak of the French and Indian War 98

British Possessions in North America on the Eve of the Revolutionary War 162

The United States after the Signing of the Treaty of Paris,

September 3, 1783 202

The United States after the Purchase of Louisiana, 1803 . . 246

The United States in 1821 284

Land Acquisitions of the United States, 1783-1853 .... 336

Slave and Free States after the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 1854 . 368

The United States and the Confederate States in 1861 . . . 392

BLACK AND WHITE MAPS

Medieval Trade Routes to the Far East 7

Trans-Atlantic Routes of Columbus, Cabot and Magellan . . 17

New England Towns in 1650 51

Route Used by French to Reach the Mississippi Basin ... 60

Charleston about 1700 72

Mason and Dixon's Line 80

Acadia and Cape Breton Island 94

French Posts between Lake Ontario and the "Forks of the

Ohio" 102

Revolutionary War

Boston and Vicinity 172

New York and Vicinity 183

Eastern Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey .... 184

Lake Champlain and the Upper Hudson Valley .... 188

The Southern War Area 194

Federal Lands North of the Ohio 206

Original Federal District 225

New Orleans and Vicinity 265

Map Showing Vote on the Tariff Act of 1816 269

Acquisition of West Florida 275

Russian Posts in What Is Now Alaska 278

The Cumberland Road and Its Extensions 289

Map Showing When Manhood Suffrage Was Granted . . 298

Map Showing Vote on the Tariff Act of 1832 309

Trails to the Far West 328

BLACK AND WHITE MAPS— Continued

War with Mexico p^qe

The Mexican War Area 334

Texas Boundary Dispute 343

War between the States

War Area in Northern Virginia 396

Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas 400

Where the Western Campaigns Were Fought 401

Tlie Penns3'lvania and Maryland Theater of War .... 407

Battlefield of Gettysburg 416

Vicinity of Chattanooga 423

Richmond and Vicinity 427

Sherman's Route through Georgia and the CaroHnas . . 430

Military Districts Created by Congress for the Government of

the South 452

The "Fall Line" 468

Samoan Islands 509

Venezuelan Boundary Dispute 520

Cuba and Its Relation to Florida 525

Philippine Islands 530

Hawaiian Islands 537

Panama Canal 545

Movement of Center of Population by Decades from 1790 to

1920 " 560

Distribution of Races in the Dual Monarchy and the Danubian

States 580

How the Unification of Italy Was Effected 582

How Prussia Gradually Became Supreme in Germany . . . 585 The Pan-German Scheme for Controlling from the North Sea

to the Persian Gulf 593

The Barrier in the Balkans to the Pan-German Scheme . . 596 Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Porto Rico and the Virgin

Islands 606

World War

The Cradle of the World War 607

Where the Armies Fought in the West 617

The Eastern Theater of War 621

Scene of the Asiatic Campaign 625

WHiere the Americans Fought 642

Chapter I European Beginnings

Introduction. — The history of a country is a written record of the Hfe of its people. A people which has no such record is classed as uncivilized, although it frequently happens that important events in its life are handed down from father to son by word of mouth, or are preserved for future generations through rude pictorial drawings or carvings. What is now the United States of America was the home of many thousands of red men or of earlier peoples who may have completely perished even before the red men came. Since, however, none of these previous inhabitants have left any permanent record, the history of our country may be begun with the story o.f the white explorers, and inasmuch as they came from Europe, it is there we must go to learn its beginning.

Geographical knowledge five hundred years ago.— Although the peoples living in Europe, Asia, the Valley of the Nile and the northern coast of Africa five hundred years ago were highly civilized in some ways, they had little knowledge of one another. Such adventurers as Sir John Mandeville and Marco Polo had published exaggerated accounts of their travels in the Far East (India and China) : but the main sources of information were the sailors who visited the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas and there met Arab traders from distant lands.

From an old print One of the Fabulous Fifteenth-Century Sea Monsters Attacking a X'^cssel

The niap makers of the time did not know the true form or size of the earth. They represented it as flat and somewhat oval in shape and used pictures largely instead of names to designate places. East was placed at the top and

was represented by the Garden of Eden, while Jerusalem at the center was shown by Solomon's Temple. The Sea of Darkness. as the Atlantic Ocean was called, was believed to round out the rim of the world, and mariners kept close to shore for fear of being carried over the edge by mountainhigh waves. This unknown sea was a terror-haunted place for the navigator. Mysterious winds and currents were there to seize his vessel and great whirlpools waited to draw him down. Huge sea serpents lifted their heads from the waves and dreadful monsters lurked in the depths.

The spirit of the Middle Ages. — The thousand years of warring, suffering and ignorance which ended with the fifteenth century are commonly known as the "Middle Ages." This terrible period from which emerged the various modern nations of Europe, to which our country owes so much, was ushered in by streams of barbarians sweeping over central and western Europe from the interior of Asia and destroying everything in their paths. The Roman Empire had been gathering the remains of the civilization of the Mediterranean countries and here the last stand was made against barbarism. Enfeebled by long wars and luxurious living, the Roman power could not long withstand such in-

EUROPEAN BFX; INNINGS

A Monastery Built in the Middle Ages vaders, and in 476 A. D. the Roman Empire came to an end. Thousands were murdered, cities were destroyed, schools ceased to exist, Hbraries disappeared and much of Europe was reduced to a half-civihzed condition. The Church alone seemed to escape destruction.

During the Middle Ages throughout western and southern Europe there was only one church — the Roman Catholic. It was ruled over by the Pope, who came to have absolute authority and could pronounce sentence of death

against any one guilty of disbelief or disobedience. All over Europe the Church had institutions called monasteries, huge stone buildings, usually in secluded and inaccessible spots, where many religious men lived together. The monasteries served throughout the Middle Ages to keep alive civilization by preserving the education, the literature and the arts and sciences inherited from the Greeks and Romans, and the religion of Jesus Christ.

As the centuries rolled by the invaders, little by little, acquired more civilized ways of living, partly through marriage with their European neighbors and the influence of their surroundings, but more especially through the efforts of the monks, who went forth from the monasteries and, by their own labor and self-denial, taught them industry as well as religion.

The common people of the Middle Ages. — The state of society in the Middle Ages has been described thus : "All

Moodtana \ r* V V men were divided into three groups : the nobles who did the fighting, the clergy who did the praying and the common people who did the work." The common people were mostl} farmers or herdsmen, and their life was hard, since they

were serfs and could not move away from the particular land which they worked. They lived in miserable huts, and were scantily fed and coarsely clad.

The land belonged to the Church, or to the nobles, the latter usually holding it as a reward for military service.

These nobles, the barons and knights of the king, dwelt in castles and manor houses surrounded by the lands which they parceled out to their vassals for tillage. Each serf was allotted one field for cultivation for his own living. On this he was allowed to labor a certain number of days of the week. The rest of the time he must work on his lord's land. This was usually divided into three parts : one-third to be sown with wheat or rye ; one-third with oats, barley or peas, and the remaining third to lie fallow. Thus by rotation each field rested every third year.

A rural village in the Middle Ages included a church, a blacksmith shop, and sometimes a gristmill and a tannery, surrounded by the houses of the serfs. There were no shops or stores. Each family lived on the produce of its allotted

Diagram of an English Manor during the Middle Ages

EUROPKAN B1-:G1NN1NGS S

field and made its own clothing and boots from home-grown flax, wool and hides.

The Crusaders. — During the Middle Ages a pilgrimage to Palestine or the Holy Land was deemed an eminently pious act. Bands of pilgrims were constantly treading the highways of Europe, many traveling mostly on foot to Constantinople and thence across Asia Minor to Palestine: others to the seaport towns, there to take ship for the voyage to the Syrian coast. In the eleventh century these pilgrim bands met with the hostility of the Turks, barbarian invaders from central Asia who had overrun all of Asia Minor and were even threatening Constantinople. When news of the outrages committed upon Christians by these Turks reached the Pope he summoned the sovereigns and nobility of Christendom to enlist under the "banner of Christ himself" for the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidel. The response was immediate and one armed expedition after another set out for Palestine. Led by kings and princes, these pageants w^ent forth to perish miserably in great numbers amid mountain snows and burning desert sands. Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders and held for a brief period, only to be retaken by the Turks. Jealousy among their leaders rendered further attempts futile for the Christians and they finally abandoned the undertaking.

Influence of the Crusaders. — The Crusaders had failed in their purpose, yet the quickening of the mind by travel and adventure hastened the coming of the revival of learning in Europe. The Crusaders viewed with amazement the grace and beauty of architecture in Constantinople and listened with delight to the wisdom of Greek and Arab scholars. Those who survived brought back the seeds of strange ]>lants, such as rice, hemp, sugar cane, oranges, apricots and lemons, all of which they found would flourish in the soil of southern Europe. Demand for Eastern products became

OUR COUNTRY'S UiSTORV

A Caraxaii Laileii wilIi iiuutls frc the East Crossing- the Desert wide-spread, and a profitable trade sprang up between Europe and western Asia. The Mediterranean was thronged with merchantmen bound for the ports of the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt, to meet caravans laden with gold, silver, precious stones, silks, cashmeres, muslins, spices and other products of the East.

Trade routes of the fifteenth century. — X'enice was the leading maritime city, with Genoa a close rival. Her wealth equipped a thousand vessels for three great trading expeditions each year. One went to the Black Sea, another to Egypt and the third coasted along the western Mediterranean shores, touching at i)orts in Sicily, Africa and Spain, and then passing out into the Atlantic, sailed north as far as the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) and eventually reached England.

Three great trade routes wound their way from the Ear East to the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. One led from Calicut (now Calcutta) in India across the -Vrabian Sea to the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea. Here the goods were loaded on camels for transportation to the Nile, whose sluggish waters were to bear them to Cairo and Alexandria. A second ran from Calicut to the Persian Ciulf and thence traversing the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys as far as the mountains, it turned westward and finally reached the Mediterranean ports on the Syrian coast. The third, emerging from southern China, crossed the Asian deserts to the Caspian Sea, where it branched into two

EUROPEAN Hl-GINNINGS 7

routes, one leading to ports on the north shore of the Black Sea and the other to Trebizond on the Asia Minor side.

These routes were thronged with caravans led by merchants clad in rich attire and attended by guards and serv-

Medieval Trade Routes to tlir Far East

ants. From many sources the traders Ijrought information to the great cosmopolitan marts where the East and West mingled; and thus were tlie means of a wide dissemination of knowledge and ideas.

Growth of manufactures. — The sight of the wondrous fabrics wrought by Oriental skill aroused whatever genius there was in Europe to imitation. In England, the Low Countries, Germany and Italy, rude looms were set up b\ hundreds for the weaving of linens and woolens, silks and velvets. Artisans learned to temper steel for edged tools, and to mix clay and fashion it into pottery. There were no factories or steam power. Each master workman supervised his own little shop of a half-dozen journeymen and apprentices. In the absence of vocational schools, boys were apprenticed to masters for training until qualified to become journeymen. Many of the towns which sprang up in such nuiubers at this time are now the great manufacturing cities

8 OL'R COUNTRY'S HISTORY

of Europe. In England alone there were two hundred walled towns, London the lars^est. having twenty-five thousand inhabitants.

The Black Death in northern Europe. — The closely crowded shops and dwellings of these walled towns were breeding-places for malignant diseases. The lower classes lived in dirt and filth and there was no concern for the public health. In the fourteenth century a pestilence called the "Black Death" swept over northern Europe destroying such nimibers of people that in some districts there were not enough left alive to bury the dead. When it was over the landowners found themselves surrounded by only a small remnant of their former vassals and these demanding a betterment of conditions. Alarmed at the sight of the fallow fields, they grudgingly freed many of the serfs and granted them wages and better living conditions.

The rise of the Turkish Empire. — The Crusaders had held back the Turkish conquest for two hundred years and it was the dawn of the fourteenth century before the tide of battle finally turned against the Christian forces. Gradually Asia Minor was brought under IMohammedan rule. The barbaric Turk then crossed over into Europe and overran the Balkan Peninsula and actually penetrated as far north as the plains of Hungary. The crowning calamity to Christendom was the fall of Constantinople, which became the capital of the Turkish Empire in 1453. Just a short time before, the merchants of England, France and Spain, envious of the profits which the Italians were realizing, had begun to consider how they might establish direct overland connections with the East. Now not only w^ere their ambitions halted, but even the Italians found trading through the Black Sea and Asia Minor ports attended by constantly increasing difificulties, due to the inability of the Turks to keep order and to the extortion which they practised. Finally, prompted by their fanatical hatred of Christians,

EUROPEAN BEGINNINGS the j\iohaniniedans closed their ports altogether and thus forced the trade between Europe and the East to employ the routes centering along the Syrian and Egyptian coasts. But even this privilege was to be short-lived, for early in the sixteenth century the Turks concjuered those regions, too.

The Renaissance. — The fourteenth and fifteenth cen- Uu"ies saw the dawn of the Renaissance. This term, meaning "rebirth," was applied to this period because of the coming to life again of the arts and learning that had seemed to perish under barbarian conquest. A new spirit of progress set western and central Europe throbbing with awakening life, and men's minds were aroused to invention and discovery. To this period we owe the use of gunpowder in warfare, the mariner's compass, the grinding of glass into lenses, and the art of printing.

Gunpowder, the astrolabe, the mariner's compass and the printing press. — Gunpowaler had been used for ages by the Chinese in their fireworks; but it remained for Eurol^eans to adapt it to warfare. No one knows when the first guns were used, but soon after the fifteenth century they had rendered castle walls, armor, spears, and bows and arrows useless. Glass lenses made possible the astrolabe, an instrument with which mariners could ascertain a ship's position north or south of the equator. The discovery that a steel needle balanced on a straw or cork could be used to tell direction was of momentous consequence,

for by placing it on

1 ^ ^ Gutenberg Taking His First Proof

a pivot and protect- from Movable Type ing it with a glass-covered box one had a compass by the aid of which sailors could sail boldly out of sight of land. The art of printing had long been known to the Chinese, but the fifteenth century saw the first printing press in Europe. This was in Holland, where impressions were taken from engraved wooden blocks covered with ink. Later this method gave way to the use of movable metallic types, made first by Gutenberg, a German.

Prior to this time there were few books outside of tlumonasteries, where the monks laboriously copied manuscripts by hand. Even the Bible Avas kept chained in the churches, so precious was it. \'ery few of the nobility and none of the laboring class could read. The invention of printing, with the consequent dissemination of knowledge, was the most powerful force in forwarding the Renaissance.

Early voyaging on the Atlantic. — Until the tenth cen tury no navigator had ventured far from shore on the Atlantic ; but scarcity of animal food impelled Norwegian

fishermen to seek deep-sea fishing grounds. A few of the more daring ventured as far as Iceland and Greenland and planted colonies there, probably for the curing and drying of fish so that it would stand the long voyage home.

About 1000 A. D. an Icelander, Leif Ericson, sailed farther westward and is believed to have discovered the coast of Labrador. In the old Norse sagas (poems) Icelandic school children still read of this adventure of Leif the Luckv.

Ruins of Norse Church in Iceland Built in Eleventh Century klkcjim;a.\" beginnings ii

Mention is made of "self-sown wheat" and "vines laden with grapes." The natives are described as "ugly-looking skraglings" navigating "skin canoes."

Voyages and discoveries of the Portuguese. — Ever since the harsh rule of the Turks had made difficult the securing of the products of the Far East, traders and merchants and men unhampered by tradition had cherished the idea of a sea route to the Indies and the rich lands beyond. As early as 1415 Prince Henry, the king's son. had crossed over to Africa with a Portuguese fleet to plunder a IMohammedan settlement and while there had secured accurate information concerning the rich caravans which came across the desert from lands adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea. Heretofore it had been believed that the equator could not be crossed because of danger of burning from the intense heat. The Portuguese were among the best sailors of the time and Prince Plenry devoted the remainder of his life and Iiis fortune to exploration of the African coast, in the hope of sectiring gold for his country and of discovering a new route to the East.

Daring indeed must be the captain who would imdertake such a voyage. He had the prospect of managing in strange waters a clumsy vessel manned by an ignorant and superstitious crew. Sailors were apt to become mutinous over the monotonous fare of hard bread and salt beef, from which many died of scurvy. Methods of canning and preserving a healthful variety of food were unknown.

Diaz and Gama win honors for Portugal. — In 1445 one of Prince Henry's captains reached Cape \^erde, the "green cape" marking the beginning of the fertile coast lands south of the arid Sahara. Rich cargoes of gold dust and slaves found their way to Portugal, and. thus encouraged, the explorations continued. In 1487 Bartholomew Diaz reached the southernmost point of Africa and named it the "Cape of Storms." Later the king renamed it the Cape of Good Hope, "because," he said, "there is now much reason to believe that we have found the long-sought ocean route to the Indies." Ten years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, explored the eastern coast of Africa, and crossed the Indian Ocean to India. This new sea route to the East was free from Turkish interference, but it was more than ten thousand miles long.

1. How may we learn of people who lived before written records

were kept?

2. Describe Sir John Mandeville's travels in the East.

3. Explain the meaning of "Dark Ages." How did the Church

escape destruction during that period?

4. What was a medieval manor ? How was it divided ? What were

the classes of people on it?

5. In what respects do the towns and cities in the United States

to-day differ from the towns of the Middle Ages?

6. What were the causes of the Crusades? Which was the -most

important one? Do you believe the Crusades lienefited the world? If so, how? The Crusades brought western Europe and India into closer relations. How did this hasten the discovery of America?

7. Why did a new way to India become so important to the people

of western Europe after 145v3? Trace on the map the main routes to India about 1453.

8. The first steps in civilization are the important ones. What

early inventions and discoveries helped men to take the first steps in civilization ?

9. Why were the Northmen such bold seamen ? Why was the voy-

age of Leif Ericson to North America of such little importance? 10. Trace on the map the route of Vasco da Gama in his memorable voj^age of 1497-98. This was one of the four greatest world voyages. Why? Tell liow the Cape of Good Hope got its name.

KKFERENCES

1. Nida's Dawn of .hncrican History i)t Europe, Chapter XXI.

2. Fiske's History of the United States. Chapter II.

Chapter II Discovery And Early Explorations

Importance of the discovery of America. — On the morning of October 12, 1492, San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, was sighted for the first time by European sailors. Since the birth of Jesus no other event has so influenced history.

The Middle Ages sank out of sight as a new world came into view and "modern times" began. To the faith, perseverance a n d boldness of one man — the Italian Christopher Columbus — Europe owed her first knowledge of the New World far to the west and beyond the stormy Atlantic.

Columbus and his ideas. — Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa of humble parentage, and began at the age of fourteen to follow the sea. After many adventurous voyages on the Mediterranean, along the African coast, and as far north as Iceland, he settled in Lisbon and devoted himself to map making.

Christopher Columbus

Fifteen centuries before Greek philosophers had taught that the earth is round, but this was not generally believed during the ignorant Middle Ages. Columbus became possessed with the idea, however, and thought that by sailing west far enough he could reach Zipango (Japan), Cathay (China) and the Indies. He was encouraged by the Italian astronomer, Toscanelli, who wrote him that Zipango was no more than four thousand miles west of Portugal. Had it not been for this error he likely would have never made his journey.

Struggles of Columbus. — Columbus now decided to try out his idea of finding a western route to Asia. Lacking the

ColumiuTs l)elore Isabella

necessary money lie asked ihe king of Portugal to aid him in fitting out ships. This was refused because the Portuguese were alread}- committed to the plan of finding a way around Africa. Then he laid his plan before Ferdinand and Isabella, king and ((ucen of Spain. Seven years were spent in waiting while the wise men of the court, by royal command, debated its teasibilitw In these councils Columbus'

DISCOVERY AND EARLY EXPLORATIONS

\S idea was ridiculed. "For," said these wise men, "since the earth is flat, if a ship were to sail beyond the edge, how could it fail to tumble off? And again granting that it is round, would not the vessel slip down-hill upon reaching the curve and then how could it get back to Spain ?" Finally they argued that it was unrc;isonable to "suppose that men could live on the other side of the earth ; for they would have to walk with their heads downward and rain and snow must fall upward."

Queen Isabella aids Columbus. — The royal treasury of Spain was impoverished from the long wars needed to drive the Moors out of the country and the case looked hopeless for Columbus. England had refused him aid and he had already started for France when the good Queen Isabella offered to finance the expedition from her own purse. Isal)ella had a deeply religious and also practical mind. She had visions of heathen in unknown lands being converted to the "holy church" and of Spain's controlling the rich trade between Europe and the East.