Modern and contemporary European history

Front matter

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Preface

The present volume is an attempt to describe in brief compass the evolution of European civilization during the nineteenth century. This period, which historically began with Waterloo and ended at Liege, is truly modern history, for the problems that it solved and the problems that it left unsolved are those that vitally concern the present generation.

Believing that the m.ain function of history is to explain the present, I planned in writing this book to devote increasingly more attention to the periods as they approached our own time. The epoch since 1870, therefore, occupies more than half of the volume, for I have felt that it was of paramount importance in a history of modern and contemporary Europe to describe the various problems that confronted the European nations at the beginning of the twentieth century. The introductory chapter is a resume of the ancien regime, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire; and it was written for the purpose of reviewing the antecedents of the nineteenth century, that the reader might not plunge into this period without preparation.

At one time the problem of how to write history was comparatively simple. It was solved in advance for the prospective historian: all that he had to do was to write a chronological narrative of political and military events. Once that was accomplished his task was done. But that method of writing history is no longer considered adequate. The chronological narrative in its very simplicity is confusing. It simplifies too much by chronicling in succession various subjects which, though closely related, cannot be clearly understood unless they are disentangled and treated topically. The purely political history was based on the theory that man is essentially a "political animal " ; hence, the State was not merely an institution created by him, but the sum

VI

PREFACE total of all his ambitions, ideals, and accomplishments. History, then, was "past politics." But this interpretation erred in being one-sided. If man is a "political animal," he is also a social and economic animal, a thinking animal, a religious animal, even a writing animal. In this volume I have endeavored to solve two problems: (i) a modification of the chronological order in such a way as to permit, in the most important matters at least, topical treatment, and (2) the inclusion of social, economic, and cultural matters with the military and political.

" It is the unhappy usage of our schools and universities," writes H. G. Wells, " to study the history of mankind only during periods of mechanical unprogressiveness. The historical ideas of Europe range between the time when the Greeks were going about the world on foot or horseback or in galleys or sailing ships to the days when Napoleon, Wellington, and Nelson were going about at very much the same pace in much the same vehicles and vessels. At the advent of steam and electricity the Muse of History holds her nose and shuts her eyes. Science will study and get the better of a modern disease, as, for example, sleeping sickness, in spite of the fact that it has no classical standing, but our history schools would be shocked at the bare idea of studying the effect of modern means of communication upon administrative areas, large or small." This reproach can no longer be cast at our newer textbooks in European history. In the present volume I have given generous space to the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions and to their manifold effects upon modern life.

Furthermore, I have ventured to include sections on literature, a feature entirely neglected in nearly all our general histories of Europe. Why third-rate politicians like Lord Liverpool and Ollivier should find place in history, and literary men of the first order like Thackeray and Hugo should be left out, has always appeared to me an anomaly. Literature has never been so removed from the life of the times that the historian can afford to neglect it.

A history of nineteenth-century Europe would be incom-

PREFACE

Vll plete without an explanation of significant social movements such as socialism, syndicalism, and feminism, that have profoundly influenced the ideals and lives of millions in every country. Therefore I have devoted considerable space to explain these movements.

Obviously the history of the World War cannot be written now. In my chapter on the War, I have merely described in brief general outline important campaigns without giving statistical details.

This book is based in part on original sources, but mainly on a wide and careful reading of many excellent books in the field, both general and special, and on a fair degree of familiarity gained from an affectionate study of the literature and art of modern and contemporary Europe.

J. Salwyn Schapiro

The College of the City of New York June, 19 18

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The teachers of history in America owe a great debt of gratitude to Professor James Harvey Robinson, of Columbia University, chief protagonist and brilliant interpreter of the New History. In his History of Western Europe, Professor Robinson produced a history textbook that is at the same time a work of original scholarship. This volume was the first of its kind to give coherence and viewpoint to complex historical material and to emphasize social and cultural elements. After Professor Robinson, no one may now write an old-style textbook, a compendium of dry facts, mainly political and military, hastily put together by hack writer or tired historian. The author of this book is proud and glad to acknowledge indebtedness to Professor Robinson, under whose suggestive guidance he began his graduate studies in history.

The author also gratefully acknowledges his debt to Professor James T. Shotwell, of Columbia University, his former teacher and the editor of this volume, whose wide range of scholarship has been at his ready disposal and whose fertile suggestions have greatly assisted him in preparing the book. Several specialists have rendered signal service in reading chapters that fall within their fields. The author, therefore, desires to express gratitude to Mr. George Louis Beer, who read the chapters on the British Empire and the Expansion of Europe; to his colleagues. Professor Stephen P. Duggan, who read the chapter on the Near Eastern Question; Mr. Alfonso Arbib-Costa, who read the chapters on Italy; and Professor Felix Grendon, who read the sections on English literature ; to Professor Carlton H. J. Hayes, of Columbia University, who read the chapter on the World War; and to Mr. William English Walling, who read the chapters on Russia.

The author is deeply grateful to his colleague. Dr. Austin

X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Baxter Keep, whose sense for the right word and correct expression has been manifest in his painstaking reading of page proofs. Above all, he wishes to acknowledge his debt to his dear friend, Mr. Jacob J. Shufro, who spent many weary hours revising the manuscript and reading the galley proofs. Whatever value the book may possess in clarity of expression is in no small degree due to the help of Mr. Shufro.

Nor can the author conclude without a word of tribute to the high scholarship and character of his valued teacher, Henry Phelps Johnston, now Emeritus Professor of History in The College of the City of New York, who graciously welcomed him as his colleague.

CHAPTER I. Introduction I

Europe at the end of the eighteenth century — Government — Religion and education — The economic system — The intellectual revolution — The French Revolution — The First Empire — The heritage of the French Revolution.

CHAPTER H. Restoration and Reaction 17

The Congress of Vienna — Suppression of Liberalism — The Holy Alliance.

CHAPTER HI. The Industrial Revolution 25

The domestic system — Mechanical inventions — Revolution in transportation — Revolution in communication — Results of the Industrial Revolution.

CHAPTER IV. Old England 45

Political conditions — Religious conditions — Social conditions — The agricultural revolution.

CHAPTER V. The Making of Modern England, 1815-67 . . 57

The Great Reform Bill of 1832 — The Era of Reform — Political history (1832-67) — Industrial progress — Religious reform — Romantic and Victorian literature.

CHAPTER VI. Democracy and Reaction in France, 1815-52 . 89

Conservative and radical elements in French society — The Industrial Revolution — The Restoration — The July Monarchy — The Second Republic — Overthrow of the Second Republic — Romantic movement in French literature.

CHAPTER VII. Central Europe, 1815-50 115

Introduction — Prussia — The German Confederation — Young Germany — The Zollverein — The Revolution of 1848 in Prussia — The uprising in Austria — The National movement — Results of the Revolution of 1848 — Intellectual development — Young Germany in literature.

CHAPTER VIII. The Second French Empire 145

Period of absolute rule — Social and economic progress — The Empire and the Church — The Liberal Empire — Foreign policy — Literature during the Empire.

CHAPTER IX. The Unification of Germany 169

Reaction in Prussia — The patriotic historians — Bismarck — The Seven Weeks' War — The Franco-Prussian War.

xil CONTENTS

CHAPTER X. Union and Democracy in Italy 195

Causes of disunion — The Restoration — The Carbonari — Young Italy — The Revolution of 1848 — Cavour — Garibaldi — Rome.

CHAPTER XI. The Third French Republic 220

Thiers and the reconstruction of France — The Commune — Gambetta and the triumph of the Republic — Government and parties — Political history (1879-96) — Economic progress — The Dreyfus Affair — Suppression of the Congregations — Separation of Church and State — Social legislation — The labor movement — Political history (1906-14) — Literature under the Republic.

CHAPTER XII. The German Empire 277

Government — Political parties — The army — Bismarck as Chancellor — Economic progress — Results of the Industrial Revolution — Reign of William II — Problem of the non-Germans — The movement for popular control — Deutsche Kultur.

CHAPTER XIII. Political and Social Democracy in Great

Government and parties — Political history (1867-1906) — Religious and educational reforms — Advance of trade unionism — The Land Question — Social England — Economic progress — Literature.

CHAPTER XIV. The Irish Question 382

Introduction — Catholic Emancipation — The Agrarian question and its solution — Home Rule.

CHAPTER XV. The British Empire 399

India — Egypt — The crown colonies — Canada — Australia and New Zealand — South Africa — Imperial Federation.

CHAPTER XVI. Austria-Hungary, 1850-1914 424

Establishment of the Dual Monarchy — Austria and her race problems — Austria (1867-1914) — Hungary (1867-1914).

CHAPTER XVII. The Kingdom of Italy, 1870-1914 . . .442 Government and political parties — Problems after unification — Economic and social progress — Political history (1870-1914) — Foreign policies — Literature during the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER XVIII. The Iberian Peninsula 459

Restoration in Spain — The Revolutionary movement — The dynastic struggle — Political history of Spain (1885-19 14) — Portugal.

CHAPTER XIX. The Scandinavian Nations 472

Denmark — Sweden and Norway — Scandinavian literature.

CHAPTER XX. Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland . . . 484 The Netherlands — Belgium — The Swiss Confederation.

CHAPTER XXI. Russia, 1815-81 499

Introduction — Reign of Alexander I (1801-25) — Reign of Nicholas I (1825-55) — Abolition of serfdom — Political reforms —

CONTENTS xiii

The Polish Rebellion — The Revolutionary movement — The Russian novel.

CHAPTER XXII. Russia at the End of the Nineteenth Century 524

Reign of Alexander III (1881-94) — Races in Russia — Anti-Jewish legislation — The Orthodox Church — The peasants — The Intelligentsia — System of government — The Industrial Revolution.

CHAPTER XXIII. The Russian Revolution of 1905 . . . 546 Reform rriovement in the reign of Nicholas II — The general strike

— Political parties — The Dumas — Failures of the Revolution -— Successes of the Revolution.

CHAPTER XXIV. Revolutionary Labor Movements . . . 570 Socialism: Introduction — The Utopians — Karl Marx — Criticism of socialism — The Socialist International — Anarchism — Syndicalism.

CHAPTER XXV. The Woman's Movement 603

Position of woman in society — Origin of feminism — Woman Suffrage — Progress of woman.

CHAPTER XXVI. Science 611

Geology — Evolution — Chemistry — Physics — Medicine and surgery — Exploration.

CHAPTER XXVII. The Near Eastern Question . . . .621 Introduction — Independence of Greece (1821-29) — The Crimean War (1854-56) — The Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) — Bulgaria (1878-1912) — Rumania (1878-1912) — Greece (1832-1912) — Serbia and Montenegro (1878-1912) — Turkey (1878-1912) — The Balkan Wars (1912-13).

CHAPTER XXVIII. The Expansion of Europe .... 650 The new Industrial Revolution — The new imperialism — China

— Japan — Expansion of Russia — Africa — Results of imperialism.

CHAPTER XXIX. International Relations, 1870-1914 . . 684 The Triple Alliance — The Dual Alliance — Rivalry between England and Germany — The diplomatic revolution — The peace movement — Morocco — The Bagdad Railway — The Balkans.

CHAPTER XXX. The World War 709

Introduction — Quarrel between Austria and Serbia — Russia and Germany — Violation of Belgian neutrality — The Balkans — Summary of causes — Military strength of the combatants — First Year of the World War (August, 1914-July, 1915) — Second Year of the World War (August, 1915-July, 1916) — Third Year of the World War (August, 1916-July, 1917) — The War in Asia and Africa (August, 1914-July, 1917) — Naval operations — The United States and the War — The Russian Revolution — Peace proposals — Great Britain during the World War — Germany during the World War — France during the World War — Fourth Year of the World War (August, 1917-July, 19 18) — Fifth Year of the World War (August, 1918- )

xiv CONTENTS

APPENDIX — Rulers of the European Nations since the French Revolution 757

Popes since 1775 759

Prime Ministers of Great Britain since 1783 .... 759 Chancellors of the German Empire 760

BIBLIOGRAPHY 761

INDEX o . 791

MAPS

1 Europe in 1815 {colored) Frontispiece

2 Industrial England 35

3 Expansion OF Prussia (co/oz-ec^) 118

4 Central Europe (18 15-1866) {colored) 184

5 Eastern France — The Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71 . . 191

6 Unification of Italy (1815-1870) {colored) 196

7 France, 1914 {colored) 220

8 The German Empire, 1914 {colored) 278

9 Industrial Germany 298

10 The United Kingdom, 1914 370

11 Canada and Newfoundland, 1914 . . . . , . . 409

12 The Southern Pacific, 1914 {colored) ....... 412

13 Austria-Hungary, 1914 {colored) 424

14 Races in Central and Eastern Europe {colored) . « . . 428

15 Partitions of Poland 502

16 European Russia, 1914 {colored) 524

18 The Balkan Nations, 1914 {colored) 646

20 Africa, 1914 {colored) 676

21 The Berlin-Bagdad Railway 703

22 Europe, 1914 {colored) 709

23 Strategic Railways in Germany ........ 723

24 The Western Front » • 726

25 The Eastern Front 729

26 The Italian Front 73i

27 The German Penetration of Russia, 1917-18 .... 747

28 The Western Battle Lines of 1918 761

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN HISTORY

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Europe at the End of the Eighteenth Century Modern history is of comparatively recent origin. The present system of society, with its industrial organization, democratic government, and scientific outlook, Contrasts in is a product of conditions that came into exist- eighteenthence hardly a century ago ; for in spite of Colum- ^^" "^^ bus, Luther, Copernicus, and Newton, the life and thought of the average person in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century were not very much different from that of his ancestors in the later Middle Ages. It is true that the medieval system had received mighty blows at the hands of the Humanists of the Renaissance and of the Protestants of the Reformation ; that the classics had received full recognition in the universities; that a system of national churches had displaced the international Catholic Church; that feudal aristocracy had given way to absolute monarchy; and that discoveries had expanded the known world. It is also true that the pioneers of science had begun to make those discoveries in physics and astronomy which were destined to reconstruct the whole intellectual horizon of Europe. But the great mass of people remained untouched by these changes ; they continued to plow their fields in the same old way, to make things by hand, and to quarrel bitterly about religion. Many doubtless still believed the earth to be flat in spite of the Greeks, Columbus, and Magellan. In fact the religious wars and persecutions of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries showed medievalism at its worst, for not only were heretics persecuted as of yore, but the Christian nations crusaded against one another, Protestants and Catholics alike, while millions of human beings were slaughtered for the " greater glory of God" and for the special benefit of church or king.

At the end of the eighteenth century there took place three great revolutions, which transformed every aspect of The three European society and created the world in which revolutions ^^ j^^^ jj^g These movements were the Intellectual Revolution, which gave birth to new points of view in philosophy, literature, and science; the French Revolution, which proclaimed democratic principles of government; and the Industrial Revolution, which inaugurated our present economic life. We shall now take a brief survey of conditions in Europe during the ancien regime, which is a general term used to describe the system of society and government before these changes took place.

Government

The government of nearly' every European country at the end of the eighteenth century was monarchical, and Absolute everywhere the monarch was absolute, except in monarchy England, which had established a parliamentary system. Feudalism on its political side had disappeared, and the once haughty noble was transformed into the fawning courtier. Only in Germany did political feudalism still maintain itself; there, the lord continued to govern and to judge as he had done in medieval times. The explanation given for absolute monarchy was known as "divine right," which asserted that the king's right to govern came from God, to whom alone he was responsible for his acts. Was a king good, just, and wise? Then the people were fortunate. Was he wicked, cruel, and stupid? Then they were unfortunate. In no case were they to revolt, for disobedience was not only a crime to be punished on earth, but likewise a sin to be punished in the hereafter. In case a bad king reigned, the people were to bear his rule patiently and meekly, and to pray to God to soften his heart. This doctrine of "divine right" was insistently preached by the loyal followers of the monarch. Lutheran Prussia subscribed to it as heartily as Catholic Spain.

In medieval times, the largest part of the taxes came from land. But the commercial expansion of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries increased the scope of Privileges of government, and taxes had to be increased corre- *^^ nobles spondingly in order to pay the expenses of a rapidly developing bureaucracy. While the kings of the ancien regime still gathered around them the territorial lords who, in former days, had been their bitter opponents, they now looked more and more to the middle classes for the maintenance of the State. But their traditions and sympathies, however, remained with the landed aristocracy; and the latter were consequently exempt in large measure from the ever increasing burden of taxation, as is revealed by the legislation of the eighteenth century.

Religion and Education

The Protestant Revolution had broken up the religious monopoly of the Catholic Church, but it had by no means established religious equality, or even tolera- -p^g system tion. Indeed, Protestant theologians like Luther, of national Calvin, Knox, and Cranmer were as insistent on conformity to the established religion as their Catholic opponents. The fundamental principle of the Protestant Revolution was religious independence rather than religious freedom, the idea that every nation had the right to establish its own type of Christianity. " One World, one Faith," had been the demand of the Catholic. In the warfare of creeds in the seventeenth century, the futility of this ideal became apparent, and a new principle, "one Nation, one Faith," took its place. But as the nation had not yet attained any adequate means of self-expression, the monarch and the governing class were generally able to force upon it their own form of religion. Hence it came about that the religion of the king became by law the religion of the people, and official churches were organized to preach it. This is how we get the system of established churches.

Toleration was the one thing that both Catholics and Protestants rejected. Conformity to the national religion was the law everywhere; hence nonconformists and free-thinkers found themselves persons without a country. The degree of intolerance varied with the strength of the established Church. In Spain, where Catholic hegemony was unchallenged, heretics were still burned at the stake. In England, where the established Anglican Church had many opponents, both Catholic and Protestant, nonconformists were merely fined and imprisoned. The Church, particularly in Catholic countries, was very wealthy, as it owned vast tracts of land which yielded enormous revenues. In addition, a special tax, called the tithe, was levied on the people, irrespective of their religious beliefs, for the benefit of the official religion.

Education was almost exclusively in the hands of the clergy, and theology was still the intellectual staple. During Ecclesiasti- *^^ Middle Ages, the clergy was the one intelcal control lectual class and theology the most important subject of study. The Renaissance broke up the educational monopoly of the Church by spreading the ideal of education for the laity, and by giving the classics a prominent place in the curriculum. Children of the wealthy classes now received instruction mainly through private schools or private teachers. But ecclesiastical influence still predominated, for the reason that the teachers were mostly clergymen, and the schools under church control. Freedom of thought was everywhere limited, and books had to run a double gantlet, the censorship of the Church and that of the State. It became almost impossible to print legally a book criticizing the conduct of affairs, and clever subterfuges were resorted to in order to bring a publication before the reading public. The great majority of people could neither read nor write, and therefore remained oblivious to the few currents of thought that were permitted to flow.

The Economic System

The methods of industrial production up to the end of the eighteenth century were largely what they had been from the earliest days of civilization. Ham- „ murabi, Pericles, Julius Caesar, or Charlemagne would have been quite at home in the social and economic Europe of Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, and George III. People lived mainly from the land, which was possessed by a few wealthy nobles and cultivated by many poor peasants. The estate of a noble was subdivided into small farms, which were worked by generation after generation of wretched farmers who were generally serfs, bound to the soil and forming, like the land itself, a part of the lord's property. If, as in France, the lord of the manor could not freely fine, imprison, or flog the peasant or hold him as chattel upon his estate, as he could in most of Germany, he yet exacted onerous dues and services from his tenants for the privilege of allowing them to gain a wretched livelihood from the soil. A part of what they produced, from eggs to bushels of wheat, had to be given to the lord. They might also have to work for him from one to three days a week without pay, to attend on him during the hunting season, and to wait on his guests when a festival was given at the castle. Special monopolies generally existed on the estates ; and the peasant had to grind his wheat at the lord's mill, to bake his bread in the lord's oven, and to press his grapes at the lord's winepress, all at a price fixed by his master. He likewise had to pay tolls for passing a bridge, for crossing a stream, or for driving on the highway.^ To sum up, the feudal social system, so far as it affected the mass of common people, was still a living fact in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century.

The craftsmen and merchants in the towns continued to be organized according to the medieval guild system. Each

^ In England this system had long before broken down. Serfdom had entirely disappeared, and the farmers had become tenants who paid a fixed sum to the lord as rent for their farms.

trade had its own organization, or guild, which regulated ... the quantity and quaHty of the article produced, the conditions of labor, and the number of workmen to be employed. To learn a trade, a boy was apprenticed for a number of years, often as many as seven, to a master workman at whose house he lived and at whose shop he worked; later he became a "journeyman," or independent workman, and sometimes, though rarely, a master or member of the guild, which entitled him to open a shop of his own. The guilds were industrial monopolies chartered by the government, which undertook to give legal sanction to their rules.

Commerce had made enormous strides as a result of the discoveries by the bold navigators of the sixteenth century. The mer- Trade was no longer merely intertown, as in chants ^j^g Middle Ages, but had become international.

London, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Lisbon were great ports; their docks were crowded with shipping from America, Africa, and Asia, But compared with modern commerce, the volume of trade at the end of the eighteenth century was not very large. It was chiefly in the raw products of the new countries or in the luxuries of the East. The merchants of the towns, like the craftsmen, were organized into associations, but they allowed far more initiative than the craft guilds and, partly for that reason, greater prosperity attended them. Large commercial companies were sometimes given the exclusive privilege by the government to trade with a specified country; for example, the English East India Company had a monopoly of the English trade with India. During the eighteenth century a wealthy and influential class of merchants had developed in the towns, the middle class of England, the Burger of Germany, and the bourgeoisie of France, As long as the masses were scattered in hamlets, they were incapable of organization. As long as they were ignorant, they were silent. What then had the organized powers, the monarchy, the nobility, and the Church, to fear?

The Intellectual Revolution

If conditions and ideals at the end of the eighteenth century were still largely medieval, the advanced thought of the day was distinctly modern, not only in tendency, but even in substance. It has seldom happened that great thinkers were so completely out of joint with their time as was the case with the eighteenth-century philosophers and scientists; and they began an attack on the old system which was unparalleled for audacity, virulence, and uncompromising radicalism. The leading spirit in the war against the ancien regime was Voltaire, the famous French philosopher, poet, and historian. His main idea was that progress and enlightenment could come only when man exercised his reason untrammeled, and allowed his mind full play on all problems of life. Voltaire singled out the Church as the special object of his attack because she, more than any other institution, was the special conserver of tradition. Never had the Church encountered so bitter an enemy, who mocked irreverently at her most sacred mysteries, who questioned her every right and privilege, and who would be satisfied with nothing less than her complete destruction. Few men have done more to undermine the authority of the Catholic Church than Voltaire, whose weapon was a biting satire expressed with marvelous literary art.

The attack on the State was led by Montesquieu and Rousseau. The former was quite moderate in his criticism of monarchy ; "he wished merely to see established The attack in France the constitutional system of England, ^^ *^^^ '^^^^^ which he greatly admired. It was Rousseau who proclaimed ideas that threatened to undermine the very foundations of the old political system by questioning every reason for its existence. His famous treatise. The Social Contract, substituted the doctrine of popular sovereignty for that of divine right, and laid the theoretical basis of modern democracy. The new science of Political Economy was founded by Quesnay and Turgot in France and by Adam

Smith in England. People now began to think of their environment from the economic point of view, and to identify progress with material well-being; hitherto, progress had meant only religious, moral, and intellectual enlightenment. The economists bitterly attacked the iniquitous system of taxation then in vogue and the medieval regulation of commerce and industry which hindered improved production. The ideas of the philosophers and of the economists were widely spread by Diderot in his famous encyclopedia, which became the arsenal of knowledge from which were drawn the weapons to attack the old system.

The period was prolific in other new sciences. Lavoisier laid the basis of modern chemistry by his successful experi- Advance of "^^^^s in decomposing air and water and by his science and analysis of combustion. Lamarck's theory as p 1 osop y ^^ ^j^^ evolution of bodily organs made him one of the founders of modern biology. Kant's philosophy enthroned moral law as the supreme governor of the universe and substituted an ethical for a religious view of the world. Lessing and Goethe completely rejected medievalism, which then so largely dominated German ideals, and replaced it by a modern outlook upon life.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution was more than a single movement in the history of France or of Europe. It was not merely Im ortan e ^ political reconstruction in which despotisms of the French were overthrown and nations liberated; it was as well a social, economic, and moral epoch, which formulated the principles and, together with the Intellectual and Industrial Revolutions, prepared the conditions of modern society. It may, therefore, be truly said that the Modern Age begins with this great upheaval which spread from France to all the countries of Western Europe. Revolutions had happened before in history. The "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 in England resulted in the establishment of parliamentary government. This was an important change, but the benefits derived from it by the mass of