UBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDD5b3fl3flD % vv .• J'%. C°*.-.;^.>o vv ^.c^^J .s^^^. ►^.•^.:c^'* ^ "V'w^* ^*^ %**»."*'*ao'^ 'V*W^\V*'^ %**^***aP^ • • • ^\.' r^ 0^ ••V*. % ♦ A*' ♦ "^ov* .-]ai^.*- '**o«' '-^is- -^ov* ' V'i^*.,*'^ "^.'^^V'V^ **.*i^'y^ 'Ofc '^vf* V' .^^o* iPii -^^^^ • y\. ^^ *. O From the Painting by Gustav Rlchter. BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS. King Khufu and his Queen visiting the architect of the great Pyramids of Bgypt during the progress of the work. These huge monuments of the Pharaohs are situated near ancient Memphis, four miles southwest of Cairo. A fabulous number of men was employed in erecting them. «*«*;"':• ^ Footprints eWorld's History FROM THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION TO THE PRESENT TIME THE STORY OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE AND ITS VARIOUS NATIONS FROM THE EARLIEST DAWN OF CIVILIZATION TO THE PRESENT DAY. The rise and fall of Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome; the Dark Ages and the Revival of Learning; England and Modern Europe and the triumphant progress of America in the Twentieth Century. BY FRANCIS T. FUREY, A.M. Professor of History, Cahill High School, Philadelphia AUTHOR OF 'An Explanation of the Constitution of the United States," and other Historical Works. HISTORICAL EDITOR OF THE STANDARD AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA. M PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED JS With nearly one hundred full-page half-tone en- gravings of pictures by famous artists. WORLD BIBLE HOUSE Philadelphia, Pa. LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Copies Received on 24 1906 Cemleht Entry GLASS (^ XXc, No. COPY B. Copyright 1906 By GEO. A. PARKER tri.1 C30PTBI0HT 190e PREFACE The crifictsm which Professor Bury, the latest and by far the best annotator of Gibbon, makes of the author of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," to the effect that he had no idea of writing history for history's sake, is applicable to the vast majority of historians. Tliey have been advocates rather than judges. They have m^de special pleas to the great jury "f the reading public instead of stating the facts and the bearing of the evidence im the bench. Therefore they do not deserve the praise bestowed oti tliat -manised Greek, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, zvho is still admired for the ■icioiisness of his remarks and criticism as well as for the ease of his style\ ■ the fidelity of his chronology. "He nez'er mentioned anything but zvhat authenticated, and totally disregarded the fabulous traditions zvhich fill disgrace the pcges of both his predecessors and followers." A century r Tacitus claimed to have adopted the same course, but yet was not free cm prejudice against the imperial form of government. "My purpose," he s at the beginning of his "Annals," "is to relate * * i^ without either terness or partiality, from any motives to zvhich I am far removed." "The ncipal office of history," he tells us elsezvhere, "I take to be this, to prevent tuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil zvords and deeds should »• an infamous reputation zvith posterity." History shoidd be what Cicero jeti es it, "the zvitness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of ynemory, the teal ler of life, the messenger from the pist." On these lines I have aimed to compile this record of the world's progress, fro I the dim daiun in the Tigris-Euphrates and Nile valleys to the full noonday of jjentieth century developmait. So as to get the amplest information. pc ible betzveen tlie covers of a single z^olume, unauthentic at ed stories and rf' uisitions on mooted points have beeyi discarded so as to leave more room fi sketches of the evolution of institutions and the' progress of civilisation. Ii ts more interesting and much more useful to know hozv the various peoples Iv -ed and zvere gozfcrned th''n to know the gruesome details of how armies z 'ere arrayed against each other and fought. The results of zvars are more 'nportant than the zvars themselves. Therefore, the greater part of tlie space of this volume is dez'oted to institutions, their origin and development, and the Preface' causes of their decay and extinction, or grourth and survival For this reason the causes of the fall of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Egyptian, Greek and Raman empires are divelt upon and emphasized. The maritime supremacy of Tyre and Carthage did more for human, progress than the conquests of Cyrus and Alexander. Rome took a long step backivards when it accepted Cccsctrism in preference to the reforms proposed by the Gracchi and their successors. Roman militarism tiaturally led to the Oriental despotism intro- duced and estublishcd by Diocletian and Constantine, and therefore it imis\ that the Roman empire fell a prey to the northern barbarians even more easily, if more slowly, than Persian power hud crumbled under the blozvs of Alex- ander's phalanxes. Then began, under the guidance of Christianity, the formation of a neiv Europe which culminated in Charlemagne's empire. But in this empire the seeds of feudalism had been sozmi, and from them grew the semi-anarchy of the later Middle Ages. It found its full development in Italy and Germany, while elsezvliere reaction against it brought absolute monarchy in France, Spain and England. While England at comparatively little cost got rid of this condition in the seventeenth century, at the same period it reached its highest development on the continent. Therefore the reaction, when it had matured, zvas more violent there and brought on a coimter move- ment zvhich culminated in Napoleon's tyranny. Meanwhile real liberty, both ciznl and religious, had been born on the west side of the Atkmtic, and tkef New World was preparing to teach the old — even England zuas to take lessons from its recreant daughter. The nineteenth century, then, has been the greatest in civil and political progress as zvell as in the inventions that have revolution- ized industrial life, and the tzventieth is its child. This history describes all these vicissitudes — zvhy the ancient monarchies collapsed, hozv the Roman republic became an empire, zuhy that empire fell, how the northern barbarians became civilized, hozv feudalism arose and what it was, hozv it generated absolutism, hozv that absolutism generated the religious revolution of the sixteenth century and the political cataclysm of the close of the eighteenth, and hozv the zvork of acquiring freedom has had to be done all over again in the nineteenth. Tlie book closes zmth a review of conditions late in the summer of ipo6. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE THRESHOLD OF HISTORY. The Things that Make History — Asiatic and European Civilizations — The Dawn of His- tory — Prehistoric Man — The Races of Mankind and Their Languages — The Black and the Yellow Races — The White Races (Aryans and Semites) — The First Homes of Civilization — The Primitive Books Page 17 CHAPTER H. THE OLDEST HAMITIC AND SEMITIC EMPIRES. The Southwestern Dispersion — The Old Chaldean Empire — Cities and Kingdoms of Chaldea — Customs of Ancient Chaldea — The Chaldean Religion — The Chaldean Sciences — Chaldean Writing — Egypt and the Nile — The Nile's Inundations — The Country's Products — Geography and Chronology of Egypt — Beginnings of Egyptian History — The First Three Dynasties — The Fourth Dynasty and the Pyramids — End of the Old Empire (Fifth to Tenth Dynasties) — Achievements of the Twelfth Dynasty — Domina- tion of the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings — Religion of the Ancient Egyptians — Govern- ment and Arts of Egypt — Egyptian Writing Page 25 CHAPTER III. FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES. Abraham and the Land of Promise — Divisions of the Holy Land — The Lands Bordering on Judea — Climate, Products and Inhabitants — Life under Abraham's Rule — Egypt in the Time of the Hebrews — The Countries of Asia at This Time — Phoenician Com- merce and Colonies — Egyptian Conquest Under the Eighteenth Dynasty — The Nine- teentl'. or Ramessian Dynasty — End of the Nineteenth Dynasty — Persecution and Exodus of Israel — The Laws of Moses — Phoenicia under Egyptian Domination — Splen- dor of Thebes Page 4.3 CHAPTER IV. THE LATER ANCIENT ASIATIC EMPIRES. The Jews in the Land of Promise — The Reigns of David and Solomon — The Rise of Assyria --Phoenicia and the Colonies of Tyre — Egypt Under the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties — The Twenty-second Dynasty — Egypt in the Ninth and Eighth Centuries B. C. — Revival of Assyria — The Second Assyrian Empire — Assyria Under Sargon — The Reign of Sennacherib — Assarhaddon and Assurbanipal (Conquest of Egypt) — Asia and Egypt at Assurbanipal's Death — Phoenicia and the Founding of Carthage — The Medes and the Persians — Their Religion (Mazdeism) — The Early Median Kings — Fall of Nineveh and Battle of Mageddo — The New Chaldean Empire and the Je\ys — Babylon's Brief Ascendancy — Rise of the Medo-Persian Empire — The Persians in Lydia — Description of Babylon — The Fall of Babylon — Cyrus and the Jews — The Persian Conquest of Egypt — Darius Hystaspis — Character of Medo-Pcr- sian Rule Page 58 vii viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. ANCIENT INDEPENDENT GREECE. The Land and the People— The Heroic Age and the Trojan War— The Dorian Invasion- Early Political Organization— Private Life of the Greeks— The Religion of the Greeks— Sparta and Lycurgus— Athens (Draco and Solon)— The Pisistratidae, Clisthe- nes and Themistocles— First Medo-Persian War (Battle of Marathon)— Second Medo- Persian War (Salamis and Platsea)— End of the Medo-Persian Wars— The Atheni- ans and Pericles— Athens as an Intellectual Center— The Peloponnesian War (First Period)— Second Period of the Peloponnesian War Page 82 CHAPTER VI. THE MACEDONIAN ERA. Sparta's Predominance— Philip of Macedon Begins the Conquest of Greece— Philip and Demosthenes— Alexander's Early Triumphs— Destruction of the Persian Empire- Close of Alexander's Career — The Age of Alexander — Dismemberment of Alexander's Empire — Syria and Egypt — Macedonia and Greece — Greece Becomes a Roman Prov- ince — Greece's Services to Civilization — Shortcomings of the Religious and Political Spirit of the Greeks Page 96 CHAPTER VII. ROME'S RISE TO GREATNESS. Italy and Its Inhabitants — Legends and History of the Beginnings of Rome — ^The Republic (Consuls, Tribunes, Decemvirate) — The Laws of the Twelve Tables — All Offices Opened to the Plebeians — The Gauls in Rome — The Earlier Samnite Wars — Second and Third Italian Anti-Roman Coalitions — The War with Pyrrhus — First Punic War and Conquest of Sicily — Second Punic War (First Period) — End of the Second Punic War — Third Punic War and Destruction of Carthage — Roman Conquests in the East — Conquest of Spain (Viriathus and Numantia) Page no CHAPTER VIII. CRITICAL PERIOD OF ROMAN HISTORY. Conquests Bring Moral and Constitutional Changes — The Gracchi and Their Vain Eflforts for Reform — Marius and the Conquest of Numidia — Invasion of the Cimbri and the Teutones — Renewal of Internal Troubles (Saturninus and Sylla) — Revolt of the Allied Italians — Proscriptions in Rome (Sulpicius and Cinna) — Sylla's Proscrip- tions and Dictatorship — Close of Sylla's Career (Ruin of the Popular Party) — Sylla's War Against Mithridates — Lucullus and Pompey against Mithridates — Revival of the Popular Party in Rome — The Gladiators— Pompey and the People — The Pirates' War — Cicero and Catiline's Conspiracy Page 125 CHAPTER IX. THE CiESAREAN REVOLUTION. Caesar Becomes Leader of the Popular Party— Caesar's Consulship — Caesar's Gallic War — General Uprising of the Gauls — Crassus Defeated and Slain by the Parthians — Civil War between Caesar and Pompey— Alexandrian War— Caesar Dictator— Caesar's Last Plans and Death — Second Triumvirate — The Battle of Philippi — Antony in the Orient — The Treaty of Misena — The Administration of Octavius — Antony's Expedition against the Parthians— Actium— Antony's Death— Egypt a Roman Province — The Imperial Power Constituted — Character of the Government and Reign of Augustus — Military and Financial Organization— Able Administration of Augustus. . .Page 130 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER X. THE AUGUSTAN EMPIRE. External Policy — Defeat of Varus — Beginnings of the Reign of Tiberius — Tiberius the Tyrant — Caligula and Claudius — Nero, the Last of the Julians — Civil War (Galba, Otho and Vitellius) — The Reign of Vespasian — Titus and Domitian — The Antonines (Nerva and Trajan) — The Third of the Antonines— The Reign of Antoninus Pius— The Philosopher Emperor — Inglorious End of a Glorious Dynasty — Military Anarchy (from Pertinax to Septimius Severus) — From Caracalla to Alexander Severus — Six Emperors in Nine Years — Philip, Decius and the Thirty Tyrants — Claudius, Aiirelian and Tacitus— The Last of the Army's Puppets Page 155 CHAPTER XL IMPERIAL ROMAN ABSOLUTISM AND CHRISTIANITY. Diocletian and the Tetrachy — New Emperors and Fresh Civil Wars — The Beginnings of Christianity — Struggles and Triumph of the Church — The Imperial Administration Reorganized — Court Splendor and Its Support — The Heavy Burden of Taxation — The Army and the Church — Constantine and His Sons — Julian, Called the Apostate — Jovian. Valentinian and Valens — Theodosius the Great — End of the Empire in the West— The Change Page 173 CHAPTER XII. THE WESTERN EMPIRE DIVIDED. The Middle Ages Defined — Manners and Religion of the Northern Barbarians — The Coming of the Huns to Europe — The Visigothic Invasions — Alaric — The Visigothic, Suevian and Vandal Kingdoms — The Hunnic Invasion under Attila — Barbarian Kingdoms of Gaul, Spain, Africa and Britain — The Ostrogoths in Italy (Theodoric) — Justinian and the Revival of the Eastern Empire — Beginnings of the Franks — Reign and Conquests of Clovis— The Age of Fredegunda and Brunhilda — Sluggard Kings and Mavors of the Palace Page 187 CHAPTER XIIL THE MOHAMMEDAN AND CAROLINGIAN ERAS. Arabia and Mohammed — Character of the Koran — The Khalifate, Arab Conquests, the Ommiads — Division of the Khalifate — Arab Civilization — The Two Differing Invasions, and Ecclesiastical Society— The Church in the Early Middle Ages— Charles MarteJ and Pepin the Short — Charlemagne King of the Lombards and Patrician of Rome — Charlemagne's Conquest of Germany — Charlemagne as Emperor — Government under Charlemagne — Learning and Literature under Charlemagne — The Empire's Weakness — Louis the Pious — Battle of Fontanet and Treaty of Verdun — Charles the Bald and Feudalism — The Last Carolingians Page 200 CHAPTER XIV. THE NORTHMEN AND FEUDALISM. The Northmen in France — The Northmen in England, the Polar Regions and Russia — Ravages by Saracens and Hungarians — Feudalism, or Heredity of Offices and Benefices — Duties and Privileges of the Suzerain — Feudal Condition of the Subordinate Classes — General Character of Feudalism — The Great Fiefs of France — Great Fiefs of Other Countries — Civilization from the Ninth to the Twelfth Centuries — The Beginnings of Popular Literature — Old and New Dynasties in Germany — The Saxon Kings — The House of Franconia and Hildebrand — Gregory VII and Henry IV — The Con- cordat of Worms — The Hohenstaufens (Frederick Barbarossa) — Henry VI and Innocent III — Frederick II and the Papacy Page 217 ^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. ERA OF THE CRUSADES. r- J-*- ( fi,» nr.Vnt and the Earlv Capetians— The First Crusade Started on Its Mis- ^°""'sron-Ho: Judea Becam: a Christ^L Kingdom-France under Louis the Fat and Louis Vl-Second and Third Crusades-France under Ph.hp Augustus-Fourth au ade and Latin Empire of Constantinople-Crusaders m the North (Teutonic KD"ghts)-Crusading Wars of the Christians of Spain-The A mohad Moors in Spain-Crusade against the Albigenses-France under Lotus Vni and Louis IX- The Last Crusades in the Orient— Results of the Crusades in the Orient— Urban Population of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries— Intellectual Progress— National Literatures "Se 235 CHAPTER XVI. THE LATER MIDDLE AGES IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. The Norman Conquest of England— The Conqueror's Norman Successors— House of Plantagenet (Henry II)— Richard, John and Henry III— The First English Parlia- ment—France under Philip III and Philip IV— Philip the Fair, Pope Boniface VIII, and the Templars— The Last Direct Capetians and the Salic Law— Beginnings of the Hundred Years' War— The Battles of Crecy and Poitiers— The Jacquerie and the Treaty of Bretigny— Charles V and Duguesclin— France under Charles VI (Armag:n- acs and Burgundians)— Unrest in England (Wycliffe)— Revolution in England, and Renewed War with France — Charles VII and Joan of Arc— Reforms and Successes of Charles VII Page 253 CHAPTER XVIL MIDDLE AGES IN SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE. Intestine Quarrels in Spain — Feudalism in Castile and Aragon — The House of Anjou in Naples — Italian Republics — Guelphs and Ghibellines — Return of the Papacy to Rome, and Italian Principalities — Brilliance of Literature and Art — The German Interregnum and the House of Hapsburg — The Emperors Powerless — Scandanavia and Poland — ■ Mongols in Russia, and Turks at Constantinople— Character of Mediaeval His- tory Page 268 CHAPTER XVIII. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE, ART AND INVENTIONS. Dawn of New Tendencies — Marco Polo — Beginnings of Italian Literature — Dante and the "Divina Commedia" — Petrarch, Boccaccio and Their Successors — Elements of the Renaissance in Art — The First Renaissance (Donatello)— Ghiberti and Brunellesco — ■ Great Inventions (Gunpowder) — Beginnings of Artillery and Portable Firearms — Navigation in Ancient Times — Beginnings of the Mariner's Compass — The Compass Perfected—The First Paper in Europe — The Invention of Printing — Development and Diffusion of Printing Page 280 CHAPTER XIX. THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE MODERN ERA. Chief Divisions of Modern History — Louis XI and the League of the Public Weal — Suc- cess of Louis's Dangerous Game— Mad Career of Charles the Rash— The Great French Fiefs Become Crown Lands— France under the Minority of Charles VIII— England under Henry VI— England under Edward IV— Richard III and Henry VII — Why the Moors Remained so Long in Spain — Ferdinand and Isabella — Conquest of Granada— The Spanish Inquisition and Growth of Royal Power — Ferdinand Regent CONTENTS. xi and King, and Progress in Portugal — Germany under Frederick III and Maximilian I — Political Changes in Milan and Venice — Troubles in Florence — Rome and Naples- Strength of the Turks— Mahomet II— Bajazet II and Selim the Ferocious— First Modern European Wars— Charles VIII Wins and Loses Naples— Conquest of Milan and Naples by Louis XII— League of Cambrai, Holy League, and Failure of France Page 295 CHAPTER XX. REVOLUTIONS IN TRADE, CULTURE AND RELIGION. Age and Economic Causes of Exploration — The Colonial Empire of the Portuguese — First Spanish Explorations in the Atlantic-— The Inspiration of Columbus— First Voy- age of Columbus— Other Discoveries by Columbus and His Followers— Results of These Explorations — The Revival of Letters— Revival of the Arts and Sciences — The Demand for Religious Reform— Protests against the Policy of the Popes— The Church in Germany — Monks and Humanists — Luther's Early Life — Quarrel about Indulgences — Luther Secedes Page 315 CHAPTER XXL FIRST WARS OF AMBITION, RIVALRY AND RELIGION. Francis I and Charles V— First Franco-Austrian War — Battle of Pavia and Treaties of Madrid and Cambrai — Luther at Worms and Wartburg — Sacramentarians and Ana- baptists—The Peasants' War (South Germany Devastated)— Lutheranism Established in North Germany— Francis I's Alliances and Soliman's Successes— Confession of Augsburg (Melanchthon)— The Schmalkalden League and Anabaptists at Miinster— War Renewed between Charles V and Francis I — More Wars of Religion in Ger- many—An Aftermath of Personal Rivalry— The Reformation in Scandinavia and Switzerland— The Reformation in the Netherlands and France— The Reformation in England— Character of the Three Reformed Churches— Consequences of the Ref- ormation Page 330 CHAPTER XXIL SECOND PERIOD OF THE WARS OF RELIGION. Reforms in Catholic Church Government — The Council of Trent — Strength of the Reju- venated Papacy — Dominions of Philip II — Character of This Period — Beginning of the Wars of Religion — Catholicism Successful in the Netherlands and France — Spain's Scattered Strength — Battle of Lepanto — Events in England, and the St. Bartholomew Massacre — Protestant Progress in France and the Netherlands — The Netherlands, Spain and England — Spain Worsted — Henry IV, King of France — Decline and Ruin of Spain — Prosperity of England and Holland— Prejiminaries to the Thirty Years' War— The Thirty Years' War (Palatine and Danish Periods) — Thirty Years' War "(Swedish and French Periods) — The Treaties of Westphalia — How the Participants Fared Page 347 CHAPTER XXIII. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. The France of Richelieu — Troubles Arising under Mazarin— War of the Fronde and Treaty of the Pyrenees— England's Struggle for Political Liberty— The Agitation under Charles I— England's Great Civil War— Cromwell and the Commonwealth— The Counter-Revolution of 1660— Organizers of France's Power— The Flanders War —The Dutch War— Revocation of the Edict of Nantes— Political and Religious Agi- tation in England— James II and the Revolution of 1688 Page 365 ^11 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIV. RISE OF ENGLAND, RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA. Full Development of Absolutism— Literature and Art in France— Literature and Art in Other Countries— The Sciences in the Seventeenth Century— The War of the League of Augsburg— France in a Deplorable Plight— War of the Spanish Succession — The War in Spain, and Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt — Russia and Poland at This Epoch —Peter the Great and Charles XII— Work and Character of Peter the Great— The Rise of Prussia — The Heritage of Louis XIV — On the Eve of Another Great War — War of the Austrian Succession— Aggrandizement of Prussia — The Seven Years' War Page 380 CHAPTER XXV. BEGINNINGS OF ENGLAND'S COLONIAL EMPIRE. England from 1688 to 1763 — English and French Beginnings in India — Early Inhabitants and Literature of Hindustan — History of India — The Brahmans and the Caste Sys- tem — India Ready for a Change of Masters — France and England at War in India — Further Conquests by Dupleix — Dupleix Defeated by Clive and Recalled — France Loses India— France in the New World — The Franco-English Conflict in America — The English Conquest of Canada — English Maritime Discoveries (Captain Cook) — Cook's Last Voyage — French Explorations — England Becomes a Power in India... Page 397 CHAPTER XXVI. BIRTH OF THE UNITED STATES. State of the Original English Colonies — The Founding of Virginia and New England — Beginnings of the Other English Colonies — Political Conditions in the Eighteenth Century — America's Resistance to the Stamp Act — Period of Constitutional Agitation — Separatist Movement and Philadelphia Congress — Franklin and Washington — Dec- laration of Independence — First Period of the War of Independence — Saratoga and the Policy of France — The French Alliance with the Colonies — England Declares War against France — A European Side-Issue — War of the Revolution (Second Period) — Spain and Holland Join in the War — War of the Revolution (Third Period) — Hos- tilities in the Antilles, Europe and India — Treaty of Versailles — The United States after the War — The Constitution of 1787 Page 415 CHAPTER XXVIL EUROPE ON THE EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Catharine II, Frederick II, and Poland— The Destruction of Poland Completed— Discoveries and Literature in the Eighteenth Century — Ideas and Institutions at Odds — Reforms Effected by the Governments — Selfishness of the Princes — France under Louis XV and Louis XVI — A Bad Administrative Organization — Absence of National Unity — Abuses in the Organization of Justice— Abuses in Levying and Collecting Taxes —Defects of the Military Organization— Position of the Clergy in French Society- Reforms among the Clergy— Conditions among the Nobility— The Third Estate- Conditions in the Industrial World— Agriculture, Its Bondage, and Manorial Rights — Royal Dues— The Crowning Evil Page 436 CHAPTER XXVIII. HISTORY'S DEEPEST AND WIDEST GULF. Divine Right and National Sovereignty— Choosing the States General— From States General to Constituent Assembly— October Days, Emigration, and Paper Money— The Civil CONTENTS. xiii Constitution of the Gergy — The Constitution of 1791 — The Legislative Assembly — The Revohition Abroad — The First Coalition against France — The Paris Commune and Its Massacres — Valmy, the Convention, and the King's Death — The Reign of Terror — Self-Destruction of the Terror — Military Campaigns, 1793-1795 — Another Constitution — Bonaparte's Opportunity — France under the Directory — Bonaparte's First Campaign in Italy — Bonaparte in Egypt — Victory of Zurich — Internal Anarchy and Military Revolution Page 454 CHAPTER XXIX. BONAPARTE AS DESPOT OF FRANCE AND OF EUROPE. Organization of the Consulate — Reforms Effected by Bonaparte — Battle of Marengo, and Treaties of Luneville and Amiens — Bonaparte's Life Consulate — Bonaparte Becomes Hereditary Emperor Napoleon I — Third Coalition — Austerlitz and Presburg — The Confederation of the Rhine — States in Vassalage to Napoleon — Jena, Tilsitt, and the Continental Blockade — Invasion of Spain — Battle of Wagram — Reaction against the Napoleonic Spirit — Preparations for Insurrection in Germany — Progress of Liberal Ideas in Europe — Formation or Revival of Nationalities — The Invasion of Russia — Taking Advantage of Napoleon's Absence — From the Beresina to Elba — The Restora- tion, the Hundred Days, Waterloo Page 472 CHAPTER XXX. RECONSTRUCTION AND REACTION AFTER NAPOLEON'S FALL. The Congress of Vienna — How the Great Powers Fared — The Confederation of the Rhine — How the Other Countries Fared — The Holy Alliance — Why the Work of the Con- gress Did not Last — Character of the Period between 1815 and 1830 — Efforts to Retain the Old Order — General Dominance of the Privileged Class — Overzealous Par- tisans the Worst Enemies — An Attempt to Effect Protestant Union — Liberalism in the Press — An Age of Secret Societies — Conspiracies and Assassinations — Revolution in Spain and Its Echoes — The Holy Alliance Policing Europe — Repressions in Germany and Italy — French Interference in Spain Page 490 CHAPTER XXXL REVOLUTIONS AND LIBERATIONS, 1816-1832. Spain Loses Its American Colonies — The Spanish-American Question in Europe — England and Portugal — The Revolt of the Greeks — England and Russia in the Near East — The Janissaries Destroyed and Russia Successful — Room for Improvement in British Affairs — France under Charles X — Condition of the World in 1828 — Dom Miguel in Portugal and Don Carlos in Spain — Wellington's Ministry — The Diet of Frankfort — Russia under Nicholas I — France under Polignac — The French Revolution of 1830 — Electoral Reform in England — The Belgian Revolution — Liberalizing Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden Page 508 CHAPTER XXXIL EUROPE AND THE EASTERN QUESTION AFTER 1830. General Condition of Europe after 1830 — Prussia Advancing to Leadership — Changes in the Germanic Confederation — The Revolutionary Ferment in Italy — Poland's Great Insurrection — "Peace Reigns at Warsaw" — Revolutions in Spain and Portugal — The Carlist Civil War in Spain — Policies and Parties in France — European Interests in Asia — The First Eastern Question (Constantinople) — Decline of Turkey and Ambi- tion of Egypt's Viceroy — Conquest of Syria and Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi— Second Syrian War and Treaty of London — The Straits Treaty an4 France's Isolation — XIV CONTENTS. Second Eastern Question (Russia in Asia)-England and Russia in Indirect Conflict -IiTorr^Ke of Herat and Cabul-England's F.rst Afghan War and Later Con- quests-Third Eastern Question (the Pacific Ocean) -Isolation of China and Japan- The Opium War— France and China i^age 524 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE GREAT UPHEAVAL OF 1848. A Brief Respite of Peace and Progress— Progress of Socialistic Ideas— Developtnent and Diffusion of Socialism— Free Trade and Income Tax in England— England Adopts a New Colonial System— Constitutional Rule Established m Prussia— Liberal Agita- tions in Austria and Italy— Austria Fails to Grasp Its Opportunity— Why Louis Philippe's Throne Tottered— Louis Philippe's Throne Totters and Falls— The Second French Republic— Louis Napoleon Becomes President of France— Revolution in Austria— The Hungarian Rebellion— The Conquest of Hungary— Failure of the Lombard Revolt— The Revolution in Central Italy— Battle of Novara— The French in Rome— Prussia and Austria— Rioting at Berlin— The Frankfort^ Parliament and the Duchies Question — End of the Frankfort Parliament — Prussia's Ambition and the Zollverein Page 544 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE AGE OF NAPOLEON THE LITTLE. Genesis of the Second Empire — Restoration of the Empire — Revival of the Eastern Ques- tion — Russia and the Christians in Turkey — War Begun between Turkey and Russia — ■ Sinope— France and England Join Turkey — Invasion of the Crimea — Siege of Sebas- topol — Balaklava and Inkerman — Death of Nicholas I — The Treaty of Paris — Pied- mont's Interest in the War and the Treaty — Characters of Cavour and Napo- leon — Austria Driven to War — Italian Campaign (Magenta and Solferino) — The Treaty of Villafranca — Other Annexations to Piedmont — The Union of Italy Completed Page 566 CHAPTER XXXV. FORMATION OF GERMAN UNITY. Germany and Prussia after 1848 — Bismarck's Rise and Character — The Affair of the Duchies — Napoleon III Outwitted by Bismarck — Rupture between Austria and Prussia — The War of 1866 in German}' — The War in Venetia and the Adriatic — Campaign in Bohemia (Sadowa) — The Treaty of Prague — Germany and Austria after 1866— Ger- many and France from 1866 until 1870 — Spain Furnishes a Pretext for War — Begin- ning of the Franco-Prussian War — The Fighting before Metz Was Invested — The Chalons Army and Battle of Sedan — Revolution and Investment of Paris — The Fight- ing Around Paris — FaJl of Metz and Other Fortified Places — The Army of the Loire— Operations in the North and East — Treaty of Frankfort — The New German Empire ; Page 584 CHAPTER XXXVI. EASTERN EUROPE AFTER THE CRIMEAN WAR. Russia, Its Serfs, and the Poles— Turkey under Abdul Aziz— Rumania and Servia after 1856— War in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Servia and Montenegro— The Ottoman Constitution- Russia Declares War— The Russo-Turkish War (Earlv Operations)— Temporary Turkish Revival— Closing Period of the War— Treaties of San Stefano and of Ber- lin— Rumelia and Bulgaria— Servo-Bulgarian War— Bulgarian Revolutiori— Armenian Massacres— Cretan Insurrection— Turko-Greek War— New Aspects of the Eastern Q"^st'°" • ,....Pag« 605 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XXXVII. ENGLAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES SINCE 1856. Growth of the United Kingdom's National Debt — Extension of British Sway in India — The Great Indian Mutiny — Suppression of the East India Company — England's Second Afghan War — England Again at War with China — Electoral and Other Reforms in England — English Legislation for Ireland — The Irish Land and Home Rule Questions — Egypt and the Suez Canal — England's Conquests on the Nile — England in South Africa — Cape Colony and the Boers — The Great Zulu and Boer Wars — Rise of the Australian Commonwealths Page 619 CHAPTER XXXVIIL THE DOMINION OF CANADA. French Beginnings in the New World — The Founding of Port Royal and Quebec — Acadia's Vicissitudes — The Slow Growth of New France — The Colonial Wars — France Driven From North America — Canada and the American Revolution — Creation of the Dominion of Canada — The Canadian Constitutions of 1791 and 1840 — The Confedera- tion of 1867 — Canada in the War of 1812 — The Papineau Rebellion and Its Outcome — Lord Durham and the Struggles for Responsible Government — Development of the Northwest — Relations with the United States since our Civil War — Manitoba and the School Question — Recent Development of the Dominion — Leaders of Men in Canada from Macdonald to Laurier Page 634 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE UNITED STATES BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR. Original Political Conditions in the States — The United States in 1801 — The Louisiana Purchase and Its Importance — The Lewis and Clark Exploring Expedition — Causes of the War of 1812 — Early Incidents of the War of 1812 — The Second Period of the War — Close and Results of the War of 1812 — How Florida Was Acquired — Acquisition of the Oregon Country — The Annexation of Texas Leads to War — The Mexican War's Chief Incidents — Our Troubles with the Barbary States — Vindicating Honor in European Waters — Slavery in the United States — Slavery and the Consti- tution — Slavery Compromise and Popular Agitation Page 644 CHAPTER XL. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND AFTER. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and John Brown — Realignment of Political Parties — Secession and Civil War — Fall of Fort Sumter — Secession Completed — Opening Campaigns of the Civil War— The Western Campaign of 1862 — The Fighting in the East in 1862 — Emancipation of the Slaves — The Critical Year of the War (Gettysburg, Vicks- burg, Chattanooga) — Closing Period of the War of Secession (from the Wilder- ness to Appomattox) — Peace and Reconstruction (Death of Lincoln) — The Money Cost of the War — The Alabama Claims — The Purchase of Alaska — The Mexican and Minor International Incidents — Cuban Insurrections and the Spanish War — Results of the Spanish War — The Philippines Rebellion — The Panama Canal and Republic — Venezuela and the Monroe Doctrine — Progress of Our Coun- try ( 1865-1906) Page 662 CHAPTER XLI. THE LATIN AMERICAN STATES. Spain's American Possessions — Causes of Revolt in Them — How Mexico Won Its Inde- xvi CONTENTS. pendence— The Colombian and Argentine Republics— How Paraguay Became a Des- potism—Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil— The Chief Later Events m the New States— Mexico's Vicissitudes— Central and South America a/ter 1830— The Para- guay War (1864-70)— Wars on the South Pacific Coast (1879-96)— The Pan-American Movement (to the Rio Congress, July 22,, 1906)— Africa before the Berlm Congress of 1884-5— The Berlin Congress and the Congo Free State— Abyssinia and Italy— The French in Madagascar— France in Tunis— Morocco and the Algeciras Con- gress ( 1906) Page 682 CHAPTER XLH. FRANCE, RUSSIA, AND THE FAR EAST. The Third Republic's First Crisis — Communist Insurrection in Paris — Thier's Presidency and Royalist Plots — The Republican Party in Power — Agitations During the Presi- dencies of Grevy and Carnot — Boulanger — Panama Scandal — The Dreyfus Conspiracy — The Third Republic and the Church — Religious Orders Suppressed — Separation of Church and State — France in Indo-China — Revolution in Japan (1868) — European Civilization in Japan — The "Yellow War" — The "Boxer" Rebellion in China — Rus- sian Advance in Asia — Russia's Occupation of Manchuria — The Russo-Japanese War — Unrest in Russia — St. Petersburg's "Bloody Sunday" — A Year of Turmoil in Russia— The Czar Calls a Parliament — Short Life of the Douma — "What Next?" in Russia Page 698 CHAPTER XLIII. CIVILIZATION'S GREATEST CENTURY. Beginnings of Industrial Revolution — The Steamboat — Its First Voyage on the Hudson — Development of Ocean Steamers — George Stephenson and the Locomotive — First American Locomotives and Railroads — Development of the Railroad — Harnessing the Lightning — Electricity in Industry and Locomotion — Electric Railway — Electric Lighting — The Telegraph, from Morse to Marconi — Edison's Inventions — The Sew- ing Machine — The Automobile — Labor-Saving Agricultural Implements — Enormous Expansion of Productive Activity, Values and Wealth — Present Stage of the Revo- lution in Industry , . . Page 719 CHAPTER I The Threshold of History The Things That Make History. — When, after a weary climb we find ourselves on the summit of a lofty mountain, and look back from that commanding altitude over the ground we have traversed, what is it that we behold ? The minor details of the scenery, many of which seemed large and important to us as we passed, are now lost to view, and we see only the great and imposing features of the landscape, the high elevations, the town-studded valleys, the deep and winding streams, the broad for- ests. It is the same when, from the summit of an age, we gaze back- ward over the plain of time. The myriad of petty happenings are lost to sight, and we see only the striking events, the critical epochs, the mighty crises through which the world has passed. These are the things that make true histor)', and not the daily doings in the king's palace or the peasant's hut. What we should seek to observe and store up in our mem- ories are the turning points in human events, the great thoughts which have ripened into noble deeds, the hands of might which have pushed the world forward in its career; not the trifling occurrences which signify nothing, the passing actions which have borne no useful fruits in human affairs. It is with such turning points, such critical periods in the world's development, that this work proposes to deal; not to picture the passing bubbles on the stream of time, but to point out the great ships which have sailed up that stream, laden deep with a noble life-sustaining freight. This is history in its deepest and best aspect, and we have set our camera to photograph only the men who have made and the events that constitute this true history of the world. Our dictionary tells us that history is "a systematic record of past events, especially of the events in which man has taken a pan"; adding, "it recounts events with careful attention to their importance, their mutual relations, their causes, and their consequences." And many centuries before our dictionary was compiled Cicero defined it as "the witness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of memor}', the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity." As these definitions may rightly be regarded * ' 17 i8 The Threshold of History as too broad for a work of the present volume's scope, let us adopt here that of the late Edward A. Freeman: "By history in the highest sense we understand the history of those nations which have really mfluenced one another, so that their whole story, from the beginning to our own time, forms one tale, of which, if we wholly leave out any part, we cannot rightly understand what follows it. Such a history as this," he adds, "is found only in the history of the chief nations of Europe and of the countries col- onized by them, and of those nations of Asia and Africa which have had most to do w^ith them." Asiatic and European Civilizations. — It is in Asia we find the oldest existing civilizations, namely, those of Hindustan and China; and, radically different as European civilization is from them, it was from Asia also and from northeastern Africa that it took its beginning. But it developed and flourished while its parents decayed and perished. Crushed beneath the Juggernaut wheels of Asiatic barbarism, they disappeared many centuries ago; but it has grown in vigor and beneficence until it now sways the destinies of the entire world. There is, then, a great gap or gulf, in many ways wide and deep, between the history of the East, as we may vaguely call the history of Asia and Africa, and the history of the Western world in Europe and America. Of the many differentiating features that might be pointed out, we need adduce only one — the history of the East does not give the same political teaching as that of the West; it is almost wholly the record of a mere succession of empires and dynasties, of despotisms faUing one before the shock of another, like a house of cards toppling from a mere breath; and it can scarcely be said to be the history of the people. It is therefore unnecessary to treat of the history of the East beyond its relations to that of the West. For history in the highest sense, for the history of man in his highest political and social character, for the highest development of art, literature and political freedom, we must look to the family of mankind to which we ourselves belong, and to those divisions of the world which it has made almost exclusively its own. The branch of history which is history in the highest and truest sense is the history of the Aryan nations of Europe, and of those who have in later times gone forth from among them to carry the arts and languages of Europe into other continents. Next to them in historic im- portance come the two Semite peoples through whom the world has re- ceived the three religions that inculcate belief in a single omnipotent Supreme Being. The history of the other families of mankind need be dealt with only in so far as the Ar}'an nations and countries of European civilization are brought into relations with them. The Threshold of History 19 ^The Dawn of History. — Before the invention of writing there is no reliable history — there is only legend and tradition. The earliest known Chinese book is believed to date from the twelfth century B. C, and the oldest writings of the Brahmins of the Ganges valley from the fourteenth. To the fifteenth at the farthest belong the Mosaic books of the Old Testa- ment, while scholars are still divided by about six centuries, 1700-2300 B. C, as to the date of the recently discovered laws of Hammurabi, king of Babylon. There is even a wider range of divergence regarding the oldest Egyptian monuments and inscriptions, as to which the extreme views differ by nearly three thousand years. There is like dissent as to the time when the first semi-historical king, M'na, Men, or Menes, ascended the Egyptian throne, from Mariette's and Lenormant's 5004 to Wilkin- son's 2691 B. C. But it is certain that, some three or four thousand years before Christ, Egypt and the Egyptians rise up distinctly out of the region of mere conjecture. Five or six thousand years ago is no small distance through which to look back to the place where the first mountain-peak of history appears to view. What was then going on in the unseen regions round that mountain ? What was the life of the other peoples of the world at that time ? Perhaps in only two places upon the globe there might then have been found a civilization at all comparable with that of Egypt, namely, the Tigris-Euphrates valley and China. Prehistoric Man. — Such are the somewhat obscure beginnings of history, and they are recent compared with the length of time that man has been upon the earth. How long ago did he make his appearance ? Certain- ly not less than eight thousand years before Christ, and probably not more than eighteen thousand. This statement does not conflict with the Biblical narrative of creation or of the deluge, for in reality there is no Bible chronology before the time of Abraham. That which Archbishop Ussher, early in the seventeenth century, compiled for the Authorized EngHsh or King James version of the Bible is based on a too literal in- terpretation of Holy Writ. Unexpected discoveries made within the past half century have compelled men to abandon all the old systems of chron- ology and to include man himself in the geological evolution of our globe but they have not shown that the first man was not the superior being Sacred Scripture represents him. No doubt the oldest human remain? that have been found indicate a rude condition of life; but there mighv have been deterioration of the race, just as we know there has been in the case of certain peoples at all periods of historic times. All that has been proven is that man existed long ages before the dawn of history. Stones and bones shaped into hatchets, knives, bodkins, and spear- and arrow- 20 The Threshold of History heads; bones of large animals broken lengthwise, because men wanted to extract the marrow for food; heaps of sea-shells and of the waste left from repasts (kitchen middens); ashes that are evident remains of ante- diluvian hearths; even pictures drawn on blade-bones and clay-slates, representations of animals now extinct or relegated far from the haunts where they then dwelt; and in the last place human remains found certain- ly in the deposits of the quaternary epoch, and traces of human industry of the earliest part of the same period, all prove that man Hved at a time when our continents had neither the fauna, nor the flora, nor the climate, nor the form which they now present. It is in France that the most numerous discoveries of this sort have been made. But on the slopes of the Libanus as well as in the caves of Pe- rigord, in the Himalaya as well as in the Pyrenees valleys, on the banks of the Missouri as well as on those of the Somme, primitive man appears with the same weapons, the same customs, the same simple and precarious life as is now lived by certain tribes of Africa, AustraHa and the New World. This recently acquired knowledge, therefore, makes the creation of man recede to an epoch when time is not measured, as now, by a few genera- tions of men, but by hundreds of centuries. It brings us back to the stone age, itself divided into several periods, each of which is an advancement on that preceding. Men began with stones rudely transformed into tools or weapons, and used caves as places of refuge; long afterwards they came to use stones artistically shaped and polished, pottery molded by hand and in time ornamented, lake cities or dwellings resting on piles, and at last to dolmens, menhirs and covered passages, those alleged druidical monu- ments which were supposed for a long time to exist only in France and Eng- land, but which have recently been found almost everywhere. When we consider that the twenty centuries of the polished-stone age in Europe came to an end about four thousand years ago, the date at which the first man lived is lost in a vague and awe-inspiring antiquity. The Races of Mankind and Their Languages. — The varieties of mankind have become innumerable by reason of interminglings of blood and of environment of habitation, that is, of soil and of climate. They are usually reduced to three chief races, the White, the Yellow, and the Black; and with these we can connect a number of intermediate shades due to intermarriages taking place in the borderiands between the three dominant races. Though all had a common origin, yet they at least de- veloped in distinct regions— the Aryan White or Indo-European or Cau- casian on the plateau of Iran or Arya, whence it spread into India, north- western Asia and Europe, and the Semitic and H amide White in south- The Threshold of History 21 western Asia and northeastern Africa; the Yellow or Turanian or Mon- golian in northern Asia, China, and the Malay peninsulas and islands; and the black in Africa and AustraHa, the latter, however, being regarded by certain writers as the remnant of a people antedating the present fauna. The Redskins of America seem to be of Mongolian origin. Languages are also divided into three great famdies, the Monosyllab- ic, the Agglutinative, and the Inflected. In the idioms of the first group, whose chief representative is the Chinese, there are only radicals, at one and the same time substantives and verbs, which the voice expresses by a single sound, but whose meaning varies according to the place which is as- signed to them in the phrase, and the relation in which they stand to the other words. In the second case, represented by the Turco-Tatar while the radical remains invariable, additions are made to it by the juxtaposition of particles that are easily recognized and that answer to all the grammat- ical categories; in the third, the Aryan tongues, the root undergoes alter- ations that change the sound, the form and the accent, and that express gender, number and relation in regard to the substantive, time and mode in regard to the verb. Accordingly the inflected languages are the most per- fect instrument serving to expound and develop ideas. All the languages spoken on our globe, both formerly and at the present time, represent some one of these three phases. Those of the white race are the most complete. The Turanian idioms, such as Tatar, Turkish, Finnish and Tamul, those of the African tribes and of the Indians of the New World belong to the second group. The ancient Chinese, by reason of their early acquisition of a native literature, stopped at the first, and their descendants are ad- vancing but slowly towards the second, while retaining in writing their fifty thousand ideographic characters, each of which was originally, like the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the image of an object or the conventional representation of an idea. The Black and the Yellow Races. — History, which records the transformation of everything that has lived, has hitherto had no story to tell of the black race, whose life has been spent in the impenetrable depths of Africa, like those rivers of unknown source that flow on only to be lost again in the sands of the desert. We are in no better case regarding the American Indians and the tribes of Oceanica, for our science is as yet but a small aff"air, being so young. Is it not almost in our own day that it has created paleontology or the history of the earth, and comparative phil- ology or the history of the primitive languages, races and ideas, and con- sequently lifted one of the corners of the veil hiding physical creation and the origin of civilization ? 22 The Threshold of History As regards the black and the red races, the former masters of Africa, Oceanica and the New World, there is, then, nothing to inscribe in the book of histor}' but the names. The yellow race, on the contrary, claims without proof, however, to have the oldest annals in the world, an original civiHzation, and empires that are still in existence; and it probably furnished the first human inhabitants to both India and Europe. The Chinese and the MongoHans are its best known representatives. But scholars also con- nect with it all the peoples of Indo-China the Annamites, included, the Thibetans, and the Turkish and Tatar tribes that lead either a wandering or a settled life between China and the Caspian Sea. The Huns, Europe's Scourge of God in the fifth century of our era, and the Avars, playing an almost similar role at a later date, belonged to it, of which also the Finns and the Hungarians or Magyars are offshoots. Another branch, the Jap- anese, by departing at a bound from the traditions of the race, has but re- cently made for itself a new place in history. But, for the reason already stated, the Turanians will find mention in this history only when they come in contact with Aryan civilization. The White Races — Aryans and Semites. — ^The white race, which has performed almost alone the whole work of civiHzation, is divided into two chief branches, namely, the Hamites and Semites in southwestern Asia and eastern and northern Africa, and the Aryans or Indo-Europeans in the rest of western Asia and in Europe and the countries colonized from it. The latter, after having left the second or Noachian cradle of man- kind, seem to have taken up their new abode in the region northwest of the upper Indus, between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, towards ancient Bactriana, now the khanate of Balk in Turkestan. Thence departed powerful colonies that arranged themselves in uninterrupted succession from the banks of the Ganges to the farthest extremities of the west. The relationship between the Hindus, the Persians and the Medes in the East, the Pelasgians and the Hellenes in Asia Minor, Greece and Italy, and the Celts, Germans and Slavs to the north of the Alps, the Balkans and the Black Sea, has been shown with the aid of the languages, from the gram- matical analogies and the resemblance of the roots in the essential words. Thus Greek and Latin are sister tongues, both derived from the Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Indian Brahmins. Celtic, German and Slavic likewise show that they were vigorous offshoots from this great stem. Before their separation these tribes had already domesricated the ox and the horse, which they knew how to train to the yoke, the sheep, the goat, the pig and the goose; they had begun to rill the soil and to work certain metals; and some of them built fixed abodes for themselves. Mar- The Threshold of History 23 riage was with them an act of religion, and the family the foundation of all public order. The collection of famihes formed the tribe, and several tribes the people, whose chief, supreme judge during peace, led the warriors when it was necessary to fight. They had a vague idea of a First Cause, **of a God elevated over all the gods." But this doctrine, too exalted for infant peoples, was clouded and hidden by the deification of the forces of nature. As regards the Semites, settled between the Tigris, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, they had, as far back as we can trace their history, one and the same system of languages, which leads us to assigning to them a common origin. The Bible, moreover, makes Abraham the ancestor of the Arabs as well as of the Hebrews. The Syrians and the Phoenicians were of the same blood. Semite colonies settled along the shore of north- ern Africa to a point even beyond the Strait of Gilbraltar. And it was in this race, the child of the desert, in the bosom of an unchanging and simple nature, that the dogma of an only Supreme God was to be preserved in all its purity and splendor. Thus were formed as it were two great streams of white populations that flowed from east to west, starting from the centre of Asia, over the western region of that continent, northern Africa and the whole of Europe. The First Homes of Civilization. — These men of the ancient ages, the first-born of the world, long remained rude and wretched before organ- izing into regular societies. When they had at last found regions favored with natural fertility, where the quest for the means of subsistence no longer absorbed all the strength of body and mind, association became regular. The first arts were discovered, the first covenants were entered into, and the great work of civilization, which man is never to complete, but which he is ever to carry farther, was begun. If we study the physical conformation of Asia, we can easily explain to ourselves why there were in that region three centres of primitive civili- zation, namely, China, India and Babylonia. As the waters that, held back for some time in the elevated regions, flow towards the low places and form great rivers there, so men descend into the plains sheltered by mountains and fertilized by rivers. The Ganges valley, to which the Himalayas serve as an impassable barrier, the plain of the Tigris and the Euphrates, circumscribed by the mountains of Media, Armenia, Asia Minor and Syria, and the fertile regions of the Yang-tse Kiang and the Hoang Ho (the Blue and the Yellow Rivers), bounded on the west by the Yung Ling and the In Chan mountains, form great natural basins and nurseries of flowers and fruits which the hand of God prepared for infant 24 The Threshold of History peoples. Egypt is another example of this civilization blooming on the banks of a great river, in a fertile country. The Primitive Books.— If from these general facts which science has revealed we wish to pass to more precise details, it is necessary to inter- rogate books that date back very far into the series of the ages and that unhesitatingly recount the creation of the heavens and- the earth as well as that of man and of animals, the formation of the oldest societies and the invention of the first arts. But the examining and comparing of the primitive cosmogonies, religions and legends have shown everywhere but in the Bible the creative power of the popular imagination in the youth of the world. We see that man in his infancy, with the temerity of igno- rance, had extended his curiosity over the whole field of nature; that, the laws of the physical world being then hidden from him, he had wished to explain everything by guess-work; that, in the last place, in order to ex- plain everything, he had, again like the child, transformed into living per- sonages the effects derived from the First Cause, while the Supreme Law- giver usually remained veiled to him behind the multiplicity of the phe- nomena resulting from His laws. Even in these old books, a close study of the idioms, as we follow the order of their historical development, enable us to point out interpolations and retouchings of widely separated epochs. It has been found necessary, then, sometimes to separate what had been con- nected, to bring together what had been separated, and to give a new mean- ing to expressions, images and ideas that had been misunderstood. All the sacred books of the ancient peoples have been subjected to these certain processes of modern science, and this potent work of philological investi- gation, whose beginning is but of very recent date, has already thrown on the interrelations of the peoples and the formation of their beliefs a light that on many points is still vacillating, but of which the preceding ages could not even have entertained a suspicion. CHAPTER II The Oldest Hamitic and Semitic Empires The Southwestern Dispersion. — After the Deluge, at least three thousand years before the time of Abraham, the new cradle of the human race was Armenia. 1 hence, at unknown periods, the descendants of the sons of Noah dispersed. It is with them, with the white races only that Moses is concerned, in the enumeration he makes in the famous chapter of Genesis. The names recorded there are now generally regarded as for the most part ethnical and geographical, and but to a very small extent personal; and none of them belong to the yellow and the black races, of which the Bible takes no account, and of whose connection with Noah we are wholly igno- rant. It seems as if Japhet's descendants were the first to leave the primitive postdiluvian home; and they, as we have seen, migrated eastward, and formed a new centre of dispersion in Bactriana. The race of Cham or Ham were the next to emigrate. Of these, the offspring of his son Cush followed the course of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some of them took up their abode on the plain of Sennaar or Shinar (Sumer or Lower Babylonia) and there founded the old Chaldean empire; while some pushed on eastward along the coast as far as India, and others westward. The last-named peopled southern Arabia, and passed thence to Ethiopia, where their descendants still survive in Abyssinians. The ancient Nubians and, accord- ing to some writers, the Egyptians, were also of this race. The sons oi Canaan settled at first on the Persian gulf, but afterwards migrated west- ward and peopled the region from the Jordan and the Dead Sea westward to the Mediterranean. The Chamites were the first to found great empires, but generally their civilization was gross and their religion abject; and their empires, except in Egypt, soon fell a prey to conquerors of another race. The old- est known kingdom is that of the Chamite Nimrod (the rebel), "a great hunter before the Lord," says the Bible. His capital was Babylon. Thence he set out towards the north, invaded the lands inhabited by the Semites descended from Assur, and there founded a sort of colony, with Nin- eveh as its stronghold. ^ 25 26 The Oldest Hamitic and Semitic Empires The Semites were the last of these emigrants from Armenia. Assur settled a little farther south on the Tigris, and his name survives in Assyria. The Elamites, following the left bank of the same river, occupied the plains and mountains of Susiana, bordering Chaldea on the east. Aram, ances- tor of the Aramzeans, peopled Syria, and perhaps also Phoenicia. In the last place, Arphaxed, head of the Biblical patriarchal branch, the deposi- tory of the Divine promises, descended along the course of the Euphrates. He settled, probably in the time ofNimrod, in southwestern Chaldea, where his descendants lived as nomads and shepherds side by side with those of Cush. The Old Chaldean Empire. — The two oldest empires of which we have any certain knowledge are those of Chaldea and of Egypt, both founded by descendants of Cham. It is impossible to come nearer than at least a thousand years to determining the date of their origin. Native tradition gives it a fabulous antiquity; but all that can be said is that four thousand years before Christ there were complete civilizations on the banks of the Nile and of the Euphrates — everything else is conjecture. The Chaldean empire seems to be the older. It was formed in the southern part of the Tigris-Euphrates valley. These two rivers have their sources in the Armenian mountains at a comparatively short distance from each other, and flow first through the highlands in opposite directions. The Euphrates seems inclined to empty into the Mediterranean. But, on coming within less than a hundred miles of that sea, it turns abruptly towards the southeast and, along with the mountains on the north and the Tigris on the east, forms a vast triangle of plains which is called Mesopotamia (between the rivers). Beyond the Euphrates to the west is the Syrian desert; beyond the Tigris to the east is a region of mountains and valleys comprising Assyria in the north and, east of it, Media; on the south, Elam or Susiana and, southeast of the latter, the original Persia, which is only a small portion of the modern empire of the same name. The two rivers run parallel for some distance, only thirty miles apart, then diverge and enclose a vast oval plain, which is Chaldea. They now pour their waters into the Persian Gulf through a single channel, the Shat-el-Arab ; but of old their mouths were distinct from each other and formed a vast delta. Impetuous in its upper course, the Euphrates then widens to over a hundred yards, becomes sluggish, has scarcely any affluents, and is bordered by marshes. It is really a river of mud and sand. The Tigris, one-third shorter, is also deeper, carries more water and flows more rapidly, and it is constantly fed by tributaries, for the most part on the left bank. The Oldest Hamitic and Semitic Empires 27 Like the Nile, these two rivers have their regular inundations, which occur after the snows melt in April; but the waters soon return to their beds, leaving everywhere fever-producing marshes and pools of a black mud that dries and cracks in the sun. The country is now a desert; one meets there only robber Bedouins or poor Arabs living in reed huts. It has been in such condition only since the Turkish occupation. But of old the soil was so fertile that Herodotus wrote of it: "I will not say how tall the millet and sesame stalks grow; for no one would believe me. "Even to- day one need only scratch the surface of the marshes with a stick and throw in a little barley; as soon as the leaves appear, a flock is let loose upon them to brouse on the excess of vegetation. Then the soil is left to itself. Four months later the harvest is gathered, and a single grain has produced thirty or forty ears. Formerly, when a complicated network of canals skilfully distributed the water through the country, this fertility had pro- digious results. And Chaldea was also covered w^ith magnificent pasture lands and palm trees. The palm was the great stand-by of the inhabitants. A Persian song enumerated as many as three hundred and sixty ways of utilizing it. The palm furnished a sort of wine and of vinegar, flour, honey, sugar, twine and beams. The date kernels served to feed the forge. It is to those regions we are indebted for wheat; and it still grows wild there. Cities and Kingdoms of Chaldea. — In the remote period of the tower of Babel Chaldea was strewn with cities. By excavating certain mounds isolated in the plains, half a score of them have been discovered, with their palaces and temples built of crude bricks and adorned with statues and inscriptions. Each had its god and its prince. They were independent; but frequently the ambition of some one of their kings, or of the neighbormg peoples, Elamites, Cosseans, etc., united them for a time into a single em- pire. The chief cities were: Agade, where, about 3800 B.C., reigned Sargon I, the Elder, who tells in his inscriptions how he had been exposed by his mother in a willow basket smeared with pitch, abandoned on the river, and saved by the "chief of the waters." He was a conqueror; for a little while he held Chaldea in subjection, and led expeditions into Syria. His son, Naram-Sin, reigned about 3750. Uruk, "the city of the books," where Sargon had stored his library of works on magic, grammars and treatises on astronomy, written on bricks. Mutilated copies of them have been found at Nineveh, in the library of Assurbanipal. One of these books contained a very old poem on the Deluge. Eridu, a city of schools and a holy city, governed by a priest king or "Patesi." Sirtella, explored in 1878 by M. de Sarzec, who unveiled there a temple of dried bricks all 28 The Oldest Hamitic and Semitic Empires marked in the name of King Gudas, along with beautiful hard black stone statues, decapitated, but showing an art already well advanced. Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, where the god Sin (the moon) was adored. Nippur, the results of the exploration of which under the direction of an American commission are still being investigated; and Babil or Babylon. Some time between the seventeenth and the twenty-third century B. C, King Hammurabi raised Babylon to greatness and ruled over all Chaldea. He built or rebuilt temples, fortresses "high as mountains," and especially dikes to control the inundations. "The gods," he says in an inscription, ''have given me to rule the peoples of Sumer and Akkad" (lower and upper Chaldea). "They have filled my hand with their trib- utes. I have had Hammurabi's canal dug, the blessing of the Babylon- ians. It waters the lands of Sumer and Akkad; I have turned its second- ary branches into the desert plains; they empty into the dried canals, and furnish inexhaustible waters. I have redivided the inhabitants into villages, I have transformed the desert into fertile plains, I have given fer- tility and abundance, I have made Chaldea a sojourn of happiness." His recently discovered and published code of laws shows an advancement of civilization that it must have taken many centuries to develop. Customs of Ancient Chaldea. — ^The Chaldeans were especially peaceful and laborious tillers of the soil. Some of them lived on fish dried in the sun, crushed, kneaded, and cooked in an oven. They raised large droves of bullocks and flocks of sheep, and they had sod houses, low and dark, to protect them from the heat. They carried on commerce. Gudea had a fleet that went afar, even to Egypt, in search of stone for his statues. All along the Euphrates there went down round boats, whose prow and stern were undistinguishable, made of skins stretched over w'llow branches. The river being too rapid to permit of its being ascended, after arrival the float was dismounted and carried up again on a donkey's back. This commerce consisted of fine linen and woolen stufi^s, embroidered in bright colors, implements of war ^rom Damascus, luxurious furniture encrusted with gold and ivory, saddles, harness, carpets, jewels, etc. Babylon was for a long time the great mart of the East. The wealthy Chaldeans wore a long linen robe reaching down to the feet, and over it a woolen tunic and a small embroidered white cloak. Their long hair fell in frizzed ringlets over their shoulders. Their beard was carefully platted. They were covered with collars, bracelets and ear pendants. For head-dress they wore a small cap, the mitre. In war they had a pointed helmet, a sheet-iron breastplate, and a shield. Their weapons of attack were the club, the lance, and a short sword. Their government fp 71 £.2.0 :^ O Bn ^<»^ B «^ p p p < H (U-^ ft S 5 ..-^ 4J-S el fl a i ^