Chapter I: Part 1

The Book of History

A History of all Nations

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT

WITH OVER 8000 ILLUSTRATIONS

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
VISCOUNT BRYCE, P.C., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

W. M. Flinders Petrie, LL.D., F.R.S
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

Hans F. Helmolt, Ph.D.
EDITOR, GERMAN “HISTORY OF THE WORLD”

Stanley Lane-Poole, M.A., Litt.D.
TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN

Robert Nisbet Bain
ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN, BRITISH MUSEUM

Hugo Winckler, Ph.D.
UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN

Archibald H. Sayce, D.Litt., LL.D.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Alfred Russel Wallace, LL.D., F.R.S.
AUTHOR, “MAN’S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE”

Sir William Lee-Warner, K.C.S.I.
MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF INDIA

Holland Thompson, Ph.D.
THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

W. Stewart Wallace, M.A.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Maurice Maeterlinck
ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER

Dr. Emile J. Dillon
UNIVERSITY OF ST. PETERSBURG

Arthur Mee
EDITOR, “THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE”

Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B., D.Sc.
LATE COMMISSIONER FOR UGANDA

Johannes Ranke
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

K. G. Brandis, Ph.D.
UNIVERSITY OF JENA

And many other Specialists

Volume I

MAN AND THE UNIVERSE

The World before History
The Great Steps in Man’s Development
Birth of Civilisation and the Growth of Races
Making of Nations and the Influence of Nature

JAPAN

The Country and the People

NEW YORK THE GROLIER SOCIETY
LONDON THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO.

EDITORIAL AND CONTRIBUTING STAFF

OF

THE BOOK OF HISTORY

Rt. Hon. Viscount Bryce, F.R.S.

Formerly British Ambassador to the United States, Author of “The American Commonwealth”

Professor E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S.

President British Association, 1906-7; Past Director of South Kensington Museum of Natural History

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S.

Co-discoverer with Darwin of the Theory of Natural Selection; Author of “Man’s Place in the Universe”

Dr. William Johnson Sollas, F.R.S.

Professor of Geology at Oxford University

Dr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.

Professor of Egyptology, University College, London; Founder of British School of Archæology in Egypt

Professor Wm. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.

Professor of Geology at Victoria University, Manchester; Author of “Early Man in Britain”

Frederic Harrison, M.A.

Hon. Fellow and formerly Tutor of Wadham College, Oxford; Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society

Dr. Archibald H. Sayce

Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University

Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B.

Doctor of Science of Cambridge University; late Commissioner and Consul-General for Uganda

Dr. J. Holland Rose

Cambridge University Lecturer on Modern History; Author of “Development of the European Nations”

Dr. Stanley Lane-Poole

Professor of Arabic at Trinity College, Dublin

Sir John Knox Laughton

Professor of Modern History at King’s College, London University; Editor of Lord Nelson’s Despatches

Oscar Browning, M.A.

Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge; University Lecturer in History

Professor Ronald M. Burrows

Professor of Greek at University College of South Wales; Author of “Discoveries in Crete”

David George Hogarth, M.A.

Director of Cretan Exploration Fund and Past Director of the British School at Athens

Herbert Paul, M.P.

Author of “A History of Modern England”

Sir Robert K. Douglas

Professor of Chinese at King’s College, University of London; late Keeper of Oriental Books, British Museum

Dr. Hugo Winckler

Professor of History and Oriental Languages at the University of Berlin

Sir William Lee-Warner, K.C.S.I.

Member of the Council of India; Formerly Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge

Dr. E. J. Dillon

Author and Journalist; Master of Oriental Languages at the University of St. Petersburg

William Romaine Paterson, M.A.

Author of “The Nemesis of Nations”

W. Warde Fowler, M.A.

Scholar and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; Author of “The City-State of the Greeks and Romans”

Dr. H. F. Helmolt

Author of “German History” and Editor of the German “History of the World”

Professor Konrad Haebler

Of the Imperial Library of Berlin

Professor Richard Mayr

Of the Vienna Academy of Commerce

Arthur Mee

Editor of The Book of Knowledge.

Professor Rudolf Scala

Of the Imperial University of Vienna

Professor Karl Weule

Director of the Leipzig Museum of Anthropology

Professor Wilhelm Walther

Of the University of Rostock

Arthur Christopher Benson, M.A.

Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Editor of The Correspondence of Queen Victoria

Major Martin Hume

Lecturer in Spanish History and Literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge

Robert Nisbet Bain

Traveller and Historian; Assistant Librarian at the British Museum

Richard Whiteing

Author of “The Life of Paris”

His Excellency Max von Brandt

Ex-German Ambassador to China and Minister in Japan

Francis H. Skrine

Traveller and Explorer; late of the Indian Civil Service

Holland Thompson, Ph. D.

The College of the City of New York.

Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.

Author of “The Principles of Heredity”

Arthur Diósy

Founder of the Japan Society; Author of “The New Far East”

Dr. K. G. Brandis

Director of the University Libraries at Jena

Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L.

Author of “A Political History of England”

Professor Joseph Kohler

Professor of Jurisprudence at Berlin University

Angus Hamilton

Traveller and Correspondent in the Far East; Author of “Afghanistan”

J. G. D. Campbell, M.A.

Late Educational Adviser to the Government of Siam

W. R. Carles, C.M.G.

Geographer; late British Consul at Tientsin, China

Professor Johannes Ranke

Professor of Anthropology, Physiology, and Natural History at Munich

W. S. Wallace, M. A.

University of Toronto.

Hon. Bernhard R. Wise

Scholar of Queen’s College, Oxford; Ex-Attorney-General of New South Wales

K. W. C. Davis, M.A.

Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

THE SAURIAN AGE FRONTISPIECE

FIRST GRAND DIVISION

MAN AND THE UNIVERSE

PAGE

Editorial Introduction 1

Plan of the HISTORY 3

Plan of First Grand Division 6

A View across the Ages 7

Summary of World History 60

Chronology of 10,000 Years 61

Time-table of the Nations 74

Contemporary Figures in History 78

The Beginning of the Earth 79

Four Periods of the Earth’s Development 89

Geological Clock of the World’s Life 90

How Life became possible on Earth 91

Scene from the Prehistoric World Plate facing 96

Beginning of Life on the Earth 99

How Man obtained Mastery of the Earth 108

THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY

Prehistoric Man attacking Cave Bears Plate facing 114

The Wonderful Story of Drift Man 115

The Appearance of Man on the Earth 127

Life of Man in the Stone Age 132

Primitive Man in the Past and Present 145

The Home Life of Primitive Folk 164

When History was dawning 175

THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT

The Material Progress of Mankind 185

Beginnings of Commerce Plate facing 192

The Higher Progress of Mankind 203

BIRTH OF CIVILISATION AND GROWTH OF RACES

Seven Wonders of Ancient Civilisation 225

Rise of Civilisation in Egypt 233

Rise of Civilisation in Mesopotamia 259

Rise of Civilisation in Europe 281

The Triumph of Race 299

Alphabet of the World’s Races 311

Little Gallery of Races 313

Types of the Chief Races of Mankind 349

Ethnological Chart of the Human Race 352

MAKING OF NATIONS AND THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE

Birth and Growth of Nations 353

Land and Water and Greatness of Peoples 377

Environment and the Life of Nations 387

The Size and Power of Nations 399

The Future History of Man 404

SECOND GRAND DIVISION

THE FAR EAST

Map of the Far East 406

Plan of the Second Grand Division 408

Interest and Importance of the Far East 409

JAPAN

COUNTRY AND PEOPLE

Great Dates in Japan 416

The Empire of the Eastern Seas 417

Map of Japan 432

Qualities of the Japanese People 433

LIST OF SPECIAL PLATES IN THE BOOK OF HISTORY

PAGE

The Saurian Age Frontispiece, Vol. 1

Scene from the Prehistoric World: Early Ice Age Facing 96

Prehistoric Men Attacking the Great Cave Bears “ 114

The Beginnings of Commerce “ 192

Carrying Off an Emperor Frontispiece, Vol. 2

Buddha, “The Light of Asia” Facing 562

Four Famous Figures in Chinese History “ 754

The Colour of India Frontispiece, Vol. 3

Gems of Indian Architecture Facing 1154

Indian Temples “ 1196

Nineveh in the Days of Assyria’s Ascendancy Frontispiece, Vol. 4

Two Indian Scenes Facing 1364

Spring Carnival at a Tibetan Monastery “ 1436

The Pyramids of Abusir Frontispiece, Vol. 5

Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Facing 1860

Palace of an Assyrian King “ 1956

The Sphinx “ 1996

Alexander, the World Conqueror Frontispiece, Vol. 6

The Acropolis of Athens Facing 2504

An Arab Storyteller Frontispiece, Vol. 7

Theodora, the Byzantine Empress Facing 2906

Glimpse of the Life in a Turkish Harem “ 2994

Primitive Justice Frontispiece, Vol. 8

Thaddeus Reyten at the Diet of Warsaw Facing 3282

Roland “ 3484

Prince Arthur and Hubert Frontispiece, Vol. 9

Venerable Bede Dictating His Translation of
the Gospel of St. John Facing 3716

“The Vigil”: A Knight of the Middle Ages “ 3788

Alfred, the Hero King of England “ 3834

King John Granting Magna Charta “ 3865

Crusaders Sighting Jerusalem Frontispiece, Vol. 10

Wolsey’s Last Interview with Henry VIII Facing 4168

Charles I on His Way to Execution “ 4340

Charles II Visiting Wren Frontispiece, Vol. 11

Napoleon the Great Facing 4636

“Peace with Honour” Frontispiece, Vol. 12

The French Soldiers’ Unrealised Dream of Victory Facing 5104

Recessional Frontispiece, Vol. 13

The Conqueror’s Gift to London Facing 5464

King Edward VII “ 5614

Clio, “The Muse of History” Frontispiece, Vol. 14

Flags that Fly in the Four Winds of Heaven Facing 5874

Statue of Liberty Frontispiece, Vol. 15

Hope Facing Index

LIST OF MAPS APPEARING IN THE BOOK OF HISTORY

PAGE

The World as Known to its First Historian 8

Shifting of the Centre of the World’s Commerce 28

How the Mediterranean has Given Place to the Atlantic 29

The First Maps 51

Modern Representation of the World 52

The Europeanisation of the World 55

The Shaping of the Face of the Earth 85

How Mountain Ranges were formed 87

Europe Before the British Isles were Formed 118

The Submerged Lands of Europe 119

Europe in the Ice Age 155

Egypt in Three Periods 243

Babylonia 260

Sea Routes of Ancient Civilisation 283

Land Routes of Ancient Civilisation 284

How Civilisation Spread through Europe 359

The Expansion of White Races 361

The Island that Rules the Sea 378

Oceans of the World 383

Effect of Climate on the Course of History 391

Political Expansion 396

Relation of Rivers and Sea to the Civilisation of Countries 397

South America
Africa
Europe

The Far East, and Australia, Oceania and Malaysia 406

The Island Empire of Japan 432

Japan in the Fifth Century 457

Siberia 634

Movement of the Peoples of Siberia 656

Russia’s Advance in Western Asia 676

Growth of Russia in the Far East 677

The Trans-Siberian Line 692

The Chinese Empire 708

Korea and its Surroundings 858

The Malay Archipelago 886

Islands of Oceania 947

New Zealand 986

Australia and Tasmania 1010

Britain Contrasted with Australia 1012

South-east Australia, Indicating Products 1013

Bed of the Pacific Ocean 1102

The Middle East 1120

Modern India 1161

India in 1801 1266

Bed of the Indian Ocean and China Sea 1419

Suez Canal 1434

Mountain Systems In and Around Tibet 1457

The Approach of Lhasa 1505

Early Empires of the Ancient Near East 1562

Later Empires of the Ancient Near East 1563

Ancient Empires of Western Asia 1582

Modern Africa 2001

Races and Religions of Africa 2005

Natural Products of Africa 2009

Basin of the River Nile 2022

Delta of the River Nile 2024

Utica as it Was 2188

The Remains of Utica 2189

Ancient States of Mediterranean North Africa 2191

Niger River and Guinea Coast 2229

Great Britain in South Africa 2322

Basin of the Zambesi 2332

Basin of the Congo 2347

General Map of Europe 2356

Geographical Connection of the Mediterranean Coasts 2373

Ancient Greece 2482

World Empire of Alexander the Great 2561

Italy in the First Century B.C. 2621

The Roman Empire 2738

Origin of the Barbaric Nations 2797

Principal Countries of Eastern Europe 2894

World’s Great Empires Between 777 and 814 A.D. 2934

Turkey and Surrounding Countries in the 14th and
17th Centuries 3082

Historical Maps of Poland and Western Russia 3220

Western Europe in the Middle Ages 4138

Europe During the Revolutionary Era 4636

Modern Europe 4788

Britain’s Maritime Enterprise 5440

The British Empire in 1702 5462

The British Empire in 1909 5463

The Atlantic Ocean 5656

South America in the Sixteenth Century 5915

South America as it is To-day 5983

North Pole, with routes of Explorers 6014

South Pole 6045

North America 6431

This is the story of the earth from the first thing we know of it
to the time in which we live. It is the story of man from the first
thing we know of him to the last thought that the vision of modern
science can suggest.

There is no need here to discuss the question how far it is possible to write a universal history, or on what lines such a history should proceed. These points may well be left where Lord Bryce leaves them in his introduction to this book. Nor need we consider what history is; the plain man may be left to make up his own mind as to that while the philosophers are making up theirs. A word may be said, however, of the plan and purpose of this work, especially of that distinction of it which is at once the ground of its appeal and its justification.

A UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

It is a commonplace to say of a great work that it is unique, and there would at first sight seem to be peculiar presumption in making such a claim for a History of the World. It may be claimed, however, without any fear of contradiction, that this work has no rival in the English language.

There have been histories of the world before; there are available in large numbers histories of all countries well worthy of attention; but there is not, and it may be doubted if there has ever been attempted before, a scientific World-History. This work is, as far as it can possibly be in the present state of knowledge, a universal history of the universe.

SCIENCE AND HISTORY

That is a far reaching claim to make, but a mere glance through the names of those whose services have been enlisted for the work will make its basis clear. The contributors include some of the foremost students of science. Many men of eminence whose names do not usually come into historical works will be found here. Their function may be described as holding the Lamp of Science up to History. It is for these authorities to read the story of the earth and to tell the plain man what they read there, as Turner read the sunset and painted what he saw. The simile is not so unfortunate as it may appear, because, although our canvas has not the same room for the artist’s imagination as Turner’s had, it will probably be admitted that the imagination of the scientist is often nearer to the truth of things than the conventional belief.

THE LIFE-STORY OF ALL NATIONS

And the scientist will come into our History whenever and wherever science has any light to throw upon its problems. To the creators of this work the world is not merely an aggregation of countries under more or less settled governments, nor is a country merely the seat of a political system. They conceive the earth as a part of the universe, as one world among many; and this is the story of a huge ball flying in space, on which men and women live and move, on which mighty nations rise and rule and pass away, on which great empires crumble into dust. It is the entrancing book of man and the universe, the life-story of all nations. It begins with the beginning; it regards the universe, as modern science has taught us to regard it, as a vast unit, in which the life of man is the ultimate consummation.

A history of the world cannot be written in a day. It is like an institution--it must be allowed to grow. It would be a purposeless sacrifice in an undertaking of such magnitude to reject any work of building-up that is available, and this History has a rare privilege in being able to utilise the result of the matchless research, the tireless industry, the unequalled knowledge of Dr. Hans Helmolt and the distinguished staff of scholars and investigators who have been engaged with him for many years in preparing a history of the world on precisely the lines laid down in this work.

THE MATERIAL FOR A WORLD HISTORY

It would be impossible to exaggerate the value of the elaborate research made for Dr. Helmolt by such of his eminent collaborators as Professor Johannes Ranke, Professor Ratzel, Professor Joseph Kohler, and others whose names stand for foremost authority wherever the value of learning is understood, and it is one of the chief claims of this work to recognition that it has behind it all the material collected by Dr. Helmolt’s staff, with all the judgment and skill of Dr. Helmolt himself in co-ordinating the labour of his assistants.

A work so universal in time and place must engage many minds. Behind it there must be the labour and thought of many lives. The materials for a world-history cannot be amassed by one man, cannot be gathered together in the time that it is possible for one man to devote to them. A moment’s reflection reveals the vastness and complexity of the arrangements for such a work, the reaching-out into far corners of the earth, the ransacking of historical libraries and official archives; the placing of the result of all this research into the hands of a hundred trained historians, the analysing, sifting, and editing of each part as if it were in itself a perfect whole.

A BOOK OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE

All this labour can hardly be measured. And if we add to our reckoning the work of illustrating the world’s history in pictures, the task of finding illustrations where they are rare as precious stones, or of choosing them where their number is bewildering, the labour that a world-history involves is, indeed, incalculable. It can only be accomplished by the co-operation of many minds, working over a long period, drawing upon actual experience in every part of the world.

Especially is this so in the present work. There are histories that can be made up from books, but this is not one of them. The BOOK OF HISTORY is not only a great book of human experience, as every history is; it is the _product_ of experience. It could never have been written if the men who write it had not helped to make the history that they write.

THE MAKERS OF THE BOOK

It is a book of history by writers and makers of history; it is a book of action by men of action; it is a book, that is, by men who know intimately the real life of the world. When Professor Ratzel writes of the making of nations, he writes with perhaps an unequalled knowledge of the conditions that have made for human progress; when Dr. Flinders Petrie writes of Egypt, when Dr. Sayce writes of Assyria, they write with the same authority that Sir Harry Johnston has in writing of those parts of the British Empire that he has helped to govern.

The real rulers of the world are not the princes, and among the makers of this book are men who, though the fierce light that beats upon a throne has not beat upon them, have borne the burden of empire and of ruling men. It is the ideal collaboration, that of the brilliant investigator, the scientific interpreter, and the man of affairs, and it makes possible the achievement of a History which we have claimed to be unique.

THE WORLD YESTERDAY, TO-DAY & TO-MORROW

We have the facts from the pens of the men who have dug them up fresh from the earth itself or who know them from experience; we have them treated by the men who can turn upon them the full light of modern science; we have the world as it moves in our own time described by the men who know it from the centre, and know it therefore best.

This is the story of the world, then, yesterday and to-day. And, as history goes on, as to-day becomes yesterday and to-morrow becomes to-day, we shall find in this book a vision of the things that lie before. Out of the deeps of Time came man. Through the mists of Time he grew. Down the ages of Time he goes. Whence he came we guess; how he lives we know; where he goes the wisdom of History does not tell. But the history of the world is young, and young men shall see visions.

THE EDITORS

THE BOOK OF HISTORY

The Life-Story of the Earth and of All Nations

TOLD IN SEVEN GRAND DIVISIONS

This plan provides a general scheme for the HISTORY, but is not intended for reference. It does not follow that the exact order of countries here given is maintained throughout the volumes. A full index appears at the end of the work

I--MAN AND THE UNIVERSE

THE WORLD AND ITS STORY

A View Across the Ages: Introduction

Summary of the History of the World

Chronology of 10,000 Years and Chart of Nations

MAKING OF THE EARTH AND THE COMING OF MAN

The Beginning of the Earth

How Life is Possible on the Earth

The Beginning of Life on the Earth

How Man Obtained the Mastery of the Earth

THE RISE OF MAN AND THE EVE OF HISTORY

The World Before History

The Great Steps in Man’s Development

BIRTH OF CIVILISATION & THE GROWTH OF RACES

The Beginnings of Civilisation

How Civilisation Came to Europe

The Triumph of Race

An Alphabet of the World’s Races

MAKING OF NATIONS & THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE

The Birth and Growth of Nations

Influence of Land and Water on National History

How Nations are Affected by Their Environment

The Size and Power of Nations

The Future History of Man

II--THE FAR EAST

The Interest and Importance of the Far East

Japan. Siberia. China. Korea

Malaysia

Philippines. Malay States. Straits Settlements. Borneo. Sarawak.
Sumatra. Java. New Guinea, and other Islands of Malay Archipelago

Australia

New South Wales. Victoria. Queensland. South Australia. West
Australia. Tasmania

Oceania

New Zealand. Fiji. Pitcairn. Hawaii. Samoa. Tonga and other Islands

The Influence of the Pacific Ocean in History

III--THE MIDDLE EAST

The Importance of the Middle East

India.

Including Ceylon and the Native States

Further India.

Siam. Annam. Burma. Tonking. Cochin China. Cambodia. Champa

The Influence of the Indian Ocean in History

Central Asia.

Afghanistan. Baluchistan. Turkestan. Thibet

IV--THE NEAR EAST

The Ancient Empires of Western Asia

Babylonia. Assyria. Elam

Early Nations of Western Asia

Scythia. Sarmatia. Armenia. Syria. Phœnicia. Israel

Western Asia from the Rise of Persia to Mohammed

Persia. Asia Minor. Syria. Palestine. Arabia. Mediterranean Islands

Western Asia from the Time of Mohammed

The Saracen Dominion. The Turkish Empire in Asia. Persia. Arabia

V--AFRICA

Legacy of Ancient Empires to the Modern World

Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan

North Africa

Tripoli. Tunis. Morocco. Algeria and the French Territories. Sierra
Leone. Liberia. Gold Coast. Nigeria. German West Africa. Abyssinia.
Somaliland. Erythrea. British East Africa. Zanzibar

South Africa

Native Races. The Portuguese and Dutch in South Africa. British
South Africa: Cape Colony. Natal. Transvaal. Orange River Colony.
Rhodesia. Congo Free State. Portuguese East Africa. Angola. German
East Africa. German South-West Africa. Madagascar

VI--EUROPE

1. EUROPE TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Mediterranean Influence in the Making of Europe

The Ancient Spirit of Greece and Rome

Early Peoples of Europe. Ascendancy of the Greeks

The Rise of Rome and the World Empire

Social Fabric of the Ancient World: Slave States

2. EASTERN EUROPE TO FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Byzantine Empire and the Turk in Europe

The Middle Peoples

Russia, Poland, and the Baltic Provinces

The Social Fabric of the Mediæval World: The Twilight of Nations

3. WESTERN EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

A Survey of Western Mediæval Europe

The Peoples of Western Europe

The Importance of the Baltic Sea

The Emerging of the Nations

Frankish Dominion and the Empire of Charlemagne. England. Spanish
Peninsula. Italy. The Papacy. Scandinavia

The Development of the Nations

The German or Holy Roman Empire. France. England. Spain and
Portugal. Italy. The Papacy. Scandinavia

The Crusades. Industry and Commerce

4. WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION

A Survey of Western Europe

The Reformation and Wars of Religion

The Age of Louis XIV.

From the Peace of Westphalia to the Treaty of Utrecht

The Ending of the Old Order

From the Treaty of Utrecht to the Revolution

The Importance of the Atlantic to the World Powers

Religion After the Reformation. Industry and Commerce

5. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era

The Revolution. The Republic at War and the Rise of Napoleon. The
Zenith of Napoleon and his Fall

Great Britain in the Napoleonic Era

6. THE RE-MAKING OF EUROPE

Europe After Waterloo

The Triumph of Despotism. The Revolt Against Despotism

Europe in Revolution

The Second French Republic and the Coup d’Etat. The Uprising of the
Little Nations. National Movements in Germany

The Consolidation of the Powers

Europe and the Second Empire. The Unification of Italy. The
Unification of Germany. The Franco-German War

Great Britain to 1871. Russia and Turkey to 1871. Europe since 1871

Great Britain. Germany. France. Austria-Hungary. Spain and
Portugal. Italy. Russia. Turkey. Switzerland. Greece. Belgium.
Holland. Denmark. Norway. Sweden. Bulgaria. Servia. Roumania.
Montenegro. Luxemburg. Monaco. San Marino

7. THE EUROPEAN POWERS TO-DAY

Europe in Our Own Time

Great Britain. Germany. Austria-Hungary. France.

Italy. Russia. Turkey. Spain and Portugal

Minor States of Europe:

Switzerland. Greece. Belgium. Holland. Denmark. Norway. Sweden.
Bulgaria. Servia. Roumania. Montenegro. Luxemburg. Monaco. San
Marino

VII--AMERICA

America Before Columbus

The Primitive Races of America. The Ancient Civilisation of Central
America. The Ancient Civilisation of South America

The European Colonisation

The Discovery. The Spanish Conquest. The Spanish and Portuguese
Empire in America. The Independence of South and Central America.
The Pilgrim Fathers and the English Settlement. The Development and
Expansion of the British Colonies

The American Nation

The Revolt of the Thirteen Colonies. The Struggle for Independence
and the War. The Creation of the United States. The Development of
the American Nation. The United States in Our Own Time

British America

Canada. Newfoundland. British West Indies. British Honduras.
Bermudas.

Central America in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Cuba. Haiti. Dominica. Porto Rico. Mexico. Guatemala. Honduras. San
Salvador. Nicaragua. Costa Rica. Panama

South America in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Colombia. Venezuela. British, French and Dutch Guiana. Brazil.
Ecuador. Peru. Chili. Bolivia. Paraguay. Argentina. Uruguay

The World Around the Poles

Greenland. Iceland. Arctic and Antarctic Oceans

FIRST GRAND DIVISION

MAN AND THE UNIVERSE]

FIRST GRAND DIVISION

MAN AND THE UNIVERSE

There can, of course, be neither absolute finality nor entire unanimity in the subjects of these chapters, which are designed to enable the reader to follow the course of history with greater interest and understanding than would be possible without some scientific knowledge of life. They are presented as a symposium of modern thought on the problems concerning the origin and development of the earth and mankind

PLAN

THE WORLD AND ITS STORY

A VIEW ACROSS THE AGES

Rt. Hon. James Bryce

A SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Arthur D. Innes, M.A.

CHRONOLOGY OF 10,000 YEARS AND CHART OF NATIONS

MAKING OF THE EARTH & THE COMING OF MAN

THE BEGINNING OF THE EARTH

Dr. Wm. Johnson Sollas, F.R.S.

HOW LIFE BECAME POSSIBLE ON THE EARTH

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S.

HOW MAN OBTAINED THE MASTERY OF THE EARTH

Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.

THE RISE OF MAN AND THE EVE OF HISTORY

THE WORLD BEFORE HISTORY

Professor Johannes Ranke

THE GREAT STEPS IN MAN’S DEVELOPMENT

Professor Joseph Kohler

BIRTH OF CIVILISATION & THE GROWTH OF RACES

THE BIRTH OF CIVILISATION

Dr. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.

HOW CIVILISATION CAME TO EUROPE

David George Hogarth, M.A.

THE TRIUMPH OF RACE

Dr. Archdall Reid, F.R.S.E.

ALPHABET OF THE WORLD’S RACES

W. E. Garrett Fisher, M.A.

MAKING OF NATIONS & THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE

Professor Friedrich Ratzel

THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF NATIONS

INFLUENCE OF LAND & WATER ON NATIONAL HISTORY

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT ON NATIONS

THE SIZE AND POWER OF NATIONS

THE FUTURE HISTORY OF MAN

* * * * *

For full contents and page numbers see Index

Mr. Kipling’s “Recessional” is quoted in a Frontispiece from “The
Five Nations,” by permission of the Author and the Publishers,
Messrs. Methuen

A VIEW ACROSS THE AGES

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF HISTORY

BY THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT BRYCE

When History, properly so called, has emerged from those tales of the feats of kings and heroes and those brief entries in the roll of a temple or a monastery in which we find the earliest records of the past, the idea of composing a narrative which shall not be confined to the fortunes of one nation soon presents itself.

[Sidenote: The First True Historian]

Herodotus--the first true historian, and a historian in his own line never yet surpassed--took for his subject the strife between Greeks and Barbarians which culminated in the Great Persian War of B.C. 480, and worked into his book all he could ascertain regarding most of the great peoples of the world--Babylonians and Egyptians, Persians and Scythians, as well as Greeks. Since his time many have essayed to write a Universal History; and as knowledge grew, so the compass of these treatises increased, till the outlying nations of the East were added to those of the Mediterranean and West European world which had formerly filled the whole canvas.

[Sidenote: Scientific History only now Possible]

None of these books, however, covered the field or presented an adequate view of the annals of mankind as a whole. It was indeed impossible to do this, because the data were insufficient. Till some time way down in the nineteenth century that part of ancient history which was preserved in written documents could be based upon the literature of Israel, upon such notices regarding Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Iran as had been preserved by Greek or Roman writers, and upon those writers themselves. It was only for some of the Greek cities, for the kingdoms of Alexander and his successors, and for the city and Empire of Rome that fairly abundant materials were then available. Of the world outside Europe and Western Asia, whether ancient or modern, scarcely anything was known, scarcely anything even of the earlier annals of comparatively civilised peoples, such as those of India, China, and Japan, and still less of the rudimentary civilisations of Mexico and Peru. Nor, indeed, had most of the students who occupied themselves with the subject perceived how important a part in the general progress of mankind the more backward races have played, or how essential to a true History of the World is an account of the semi-civilised and even of the barbarous peoples. Thus it was not possible, until quite recent times, that the great enterprise of preparing such a history should be attempted on a plan or with materials suitable to its magnitude.

The last seventy or eighty years have seen a vast increase in our materials, with a corresponding widening of the conception of what a History of the World should be. Accordingly, the time for trying to produce one upon a new plan and enlarged scale seems to have arrived; not, indeed, that the years to come will not continue to add to the historian’s resources, but that those resources have recently become so much ampler than they have ever been before that the moment may be deemed auspicious for a new departure.

The nineteenth century was marked by three changes of the utmost consequence for the writing of history.

The world as known to Herodotus is shown by the white part of
this map, indicating the limited range of ancient geographical
knowledge.
]

[Sidenote: New Material and New Methods]

That century, in the first place, has enormously widened our knowledge of the times hitherto called prehistoric. The discovery of methods for deciphering the inscriptions found in Egypt and Western Asia, the excavations in Assyria and Egypt, in Continental Greece and in Crete, and to a lesser extent in North Africa also, in the course of which many inscriptions have been collected and fragments of ancient art examined, have given us a mass of knowledge regarding the nations who dwelt in these countries larger and more exact than was possessed by the writers of classical antiquity who lived comparatively near to those remote times. We possess materials for the study not only of the political history but of the ethnology, the languages, and the culture of the nations which were first civilised incomparably better than were those at the disposal of the contemporaries of Vico or Gibbon or Herder. Similar results have followed as regards the Far East, from the opening up of Sanskrit literature and of the records of China and Japan. To a lesser degree, the same thing has happened as regards the semi-civilised peoples of tropical America both north and south of the Isthmus of Panama. And while long periods of time have thus been brought within the range of history, we have also learnt much more about the times that may still be called prehistoric. The investigations carried on in mounds and caves and tombs and lake-dwellings, the collection of early stone and bronze implements, and of human skulls and bones found along with those of other animals, have thrown a great deal of new light upon primitive man, his way of life, and his migrations from one region to another. As history proper has been carried back many centuries beyond its former limit, so has our knowledge of prehistoric times been extended centuries above the furthest point to which history can now reach back. And this applies not only to the countries previously little explored, but to such well-known districts as Western Europe and the Atlantic coast of America.

Secondly, there has been during the nineteenth century a notable improvement in the critical method of handling historical materials. Much more pains have been taken to examine all available documents and records, to obtain a perfect text of each by a comparison of manuscripts or of early printed copies, and to study each by the aid of other contemporary matter. It is true that, with the exception of Egyptian papyri and some manuscripts unearthed in Oriental monasteries (besides those Indian, Chinese, and other early Eastern sacred books to which I have already referred), not very much that is absolutely new has been brought to light. It is also true that a few of the most capable students in earlier days, in the ancient world as well as since the Renaissance, have fully seen the value of original authorities and have applied to them thoroughly critical methods. This is not a discovery of our own times. Still, it may be claimed that there was never before so great a zeal for collecting and investigating all possible kinds of original texts, nor so widely diffused a knowledge of the methods to be applied in turning them to account for the purposes of history. Both in Europe and in America an unprecedentedly large number of competent men have been employed upon researches of this kind, and the result of their labours on special topics has been to provide the writer who seeks to present a general view of history with materials not only larger but far fitter for his use than his predecessors ever enjoyed. Then with the improvement in critical apparatus, there has come a more cautious and exact habit of mind in the interpretation of facts.

Herodotus, the first historian, was born between B.C. 470-480 at
Halicarnassus, a Greek colony in Asia Minor
]

Thirdly, the progress of the sciences of Nature has powerfully influenced history, both by providing new data and by affecting the mental attitude of all reflective men. This has happened in several ways. Geographical exploration has made known nearly every part of the surface of the habitable globe. The great natural features of every country, its mountain ranges and rivers, its forest or deserts, have been ascertained. Its flora and fauna have been described, and thereby its capacity for supporting human life approximately calculated. The other physical conditions which govern the development of man, such as temperature, rainfall, and the direction of prevalent winds have been examined. Thus we have acquired a treasury of facts relating to the causes and conditions which help the growth of civilisation and mould it into diverse forms, conditions whose importance I shall presently discuss in considering the relation of man to his natural environment. Although a few penetrating minds had long ago seen how much the career of each nation must have been affected by physical phenomena, it is only in the last two generations that men have begun to study these phenomena in their relation to history, and to appreciate their influence in the formation of national types and in determining the movement of races over the earth’s surface.

Not less remarkable has been the increase in our knowledge of the more remote and backward peoples. Nearly every one of these has now been visited by scientific travellers or missionaries, its language written down, its customs and religious rites, sometimes its folk lore also, recorded. Thus materials of the highest value have been secured, not only for completing our knowledge of mankind as a whole, but for comprehending in the early history of the now highly civilised peoples various facts which had previously remained obscure, but which became intelligible when compared with similar facts that can be studied in their actuality among tribes whom we find in the same stage to-day as were the ancestors of the civilised nations many centuries ago.

[Sidenote: Progress of the Sciences]

The progress thus achieved in the science of man regarded as a part of Nature has powerfully contributed to influence the study of human communities as they appear in history. The comparative method has become the basis for a truly scientific inquiry into the development of institutions, and the connection of religious beliefs and ceremonies with the first beginnings of institutions both social and political has been made clear by an accumulation of instances. Whether or no there be such a thing as a Science of History--a question which, since it is mainly verbal, one need not stop to discuss--there is such a thing as a scientific method applied to history; and the more familiar men have become with the methods of inquiry and canons of evidence used in physical investigations, so much the more have they tended to become exact and critical in historical investigations, and to examine the causes and the stages by and through which historical development is effected.

[Sidenote: Historical Knowledge in Our Time]

In noting this I do not suggest that what is popularly called the “Doctrine of Evolution” should be deemed a thing borrowed by history from the sciences of nature. Most of what is true or helpful in that doctrine was known long ago, and applied long ago by historical and political thinkers. You can find it in Aristotle, perhaps before Aristotle. Even as regards the biological sciences, the notion of what we call evolution is ancient; and the merit of Darwin and other great modern naturalists has lain, not in enouncing the idea as a general theory, but in elucidating, illustrating, and demonstrating the processes by which evolution takes place. The influence of the natural sciences on history is rather to be traced in the efforts we now see to accumulate a vast mass of facts relating to the social, economic, and political life of man, for the sake of discovering general laws running through them, and imparting to them order and unity.

Although the most philosophic and diligent historians have always aimed at and striven for this, still the general diffusion of the method in our own time, and the greatly increased scale on which it is applied, together with the higher standard of accuracy which is exacted by the opinion of competent judges, may be, in some measure, ascribed to the examples which those who work in the spheres of physics and biology and natural history have so effectively set.

Finally, the progress of natural science has in our time, by stimulating the production and exchange of commodities, drawn the different parts of the earth much nearer to one another, and thus brought nearly all its tribes and nations into relations with one another far closer and far more frequent than existed before.

[Sidenote: Oneness of the Human Race]

This has been done by the inventions that have given us steam and electricity as motive forces, making transport quicker and cheaper, and by the application of electricity to the transmission of words. No changes that have occurred in the past (except perhaps changes in the sphere of religion) are comparable in their importance as factors in history to those which have shortened the voyage from Western Europe to America to five and a half days, and made communication with Australia instantaneous. For the first time the human race, always essentially one, has begun to feel itself one, and civilised man has in every part of it become a contemporaneous observer of what passes in every other part.

The general result of these various changes has been that while the materials for writing a history of the world have been increased, the conception of what such a history should be has been at the same time both enlarged and defined. Its scope is wider; its lines are more clearly drawn. But what do we mean by a Universal History? Briefly, a History which shall, first, include all the races and tribes of man within its scope; and, secondly, shall bring all these races and tribes into a connection with one another such as to display their annals as an organic whole.

[Sidenote: Importance of the Small Races]

Universal history has to deal not only with the great nations, but also with the small nations; not only with the civilised, but also with the barbarous or savage peoples; not only with the times of movement and progress, but also with the times of silence and apparent stagnation. Every fraction of humanity has contributed something to the common stock, and has lived and laboured not for itself only, but for others also, through the influence which it has perforce exercised on its neighbours. The only exceptions we can imagine are the inhabitants of some remote isle, “far placed amid the melancholy main.” Yet they, too, must have once formed part of a race dwelling in the region whence they came, even if that race had died out in its old home before civilised man set foot on such an oceanic isle in a later age. The world would have been different, in however small a measure, had they never existed. As in the realm of physical science, so in that of history no fact is devoid of significance, though the true significance may remain long unnoticed. The history of the backward races presents exceptional difficulties, because they have no written records, and often scarcely any oral traditions. Sometimes it reduces itself to a description of their usages and state of life, their arts and their superstitions, at the time when civilised observers first visited them. Yet that history is instructive, not only because the phenomena observable among such races enlarge our knowledge, but also because through the study of those which survive we are able to interpret the scanty records we possess of the early condition of peoples now civilised, and to go some way towards writing the history of what we have hitherto called prehistoric man.

Papyrus, a tall, graceful, sedgy plant, supplied the favourite
writing material of the ancient world, and many priceless records
of antiquity are preserved to us in papyri. The pith of the plant
was pressed flat and thin and joined with others to form strips, on
which records were written or painted. The above is a photograph
of a piece of Egyptian papyrus, showing both hieroglyphics and
picture-writing. The oldest piece of papyrus dates back to B.C.
3500.
]

Thus such tribes as the aborigines of Australia, the Fuegians of Magellan’s Straits, the Bushmen of South Africa, the Sakalavas of Madagascar, the Lapps of Northern Europe, the Ainos of Japan, the numerous “hill-tribes” of India, will all come within the historian’s ken. From each of them something may be learnt; and each of them has through contact with its more advanced neighbours affected those neighbours themselves, sometimes in blood, sometimes through superstitious beliefs or rites, frequently borrowed by the higher races from the lower (as the Norsemen learnt magic from the Lapps, and the Semites of Assyria from the Accadians), sometimes through the strife which has arisen between the savage and the more civilised man, whereby the institutions of the latter have been modified.

Obviously the historian cannot record everything. These lower races are comparatively unimportant. Their contributions to progress, their effect on the general march of events, have been but small. But they must not be wholly omitted from the picture, for without them it would have been different. One must never forget, in following the history of the great nations of antiquity, that they fought and thought and built up the fabric of their industry and art in the midst of a barbarous or savage population surrounding them on all sides, whence they drew the bulk of their slaves and some of their mercenary soldiers, and which sometimes avenged itself by sudden inroads, the fear of which kept the Greek cities, and at certain epochs even the power of Rome, watchful and anxious. So in modern times the savages among whom European colonies have been planted, or who have been transported as slaves to other colonies--sometimes, as in the case of Portugal in the fifteenth century, to

Europe itself--or those with whom Europeans have carried on trade, must not be omitted from a view of the causes which have determined the course of events in the civilised peoples.

[Sidenote: Great Works of Little Peoples]

To dwell on the part played by the small nations is less necessary here, for even a superficial student must be struck by the fact that some of them have counted for more than the larger nations to whose annals a larger space is commonly allotted. The instance of Israel is enough, so far as the ancient world is concerned, to show how little the numbers of a people have to do with the influence it may exert. For the modern world, I will take the case of Iceland.

[Sidenote: The Culture of the Icelanders]

The Icelanders are a people much smaller than even was Israel. They have never numbered more than about seventy thousand. They live in an isle so far remote, and so sundered from the rest of the world by an inhospitable ocean, that their relations both with Europe, to which ethnologically they belong, and with America, to which geographically they belong, have been comparatively scanty. But their history, from the first settlement of the island by Norwegian exiles in A.D. 874 to the extinction of the National Republic in A.D. 1264, is full of interest and instruction, in some respects a perfectly unique history. And the literature which this handful of people produced is certainly the most striking primitive literature which any modern people has produced, superior in literary quality to that of the Continental Teutons, or to that of the Romance nations, or to that of the Finns or Slavs, or even to that of the Celts. Yet most histories of Europe pass by Iceland altogether, and few persons in Continental Europe (outside Scandinavia) know anything about the inhabitants of this isle, who, amid glaciers and volcanoes, have maintained themselves at a high level of intelligence and culture for more than a thousand years.

The small peoples have no doubt been more potent in the spheres of intellect and emotion than in those of war, politics, or commerce. But the influences which belong to the sphere of creative intelligence--that is to say, of literature, philosophy, religion and art--are just those which it is peculiarly the function of a History of the World to disengage and follow out in their far-reaching consequence. They pass beyond the limits of the country where they arose. They survive, it may be, the race that gave birth to them. They pass into new forms, and through these they work in new ways upon subsequent ages.

[Sidenote: The Wide Scope of History]

It is also the task of universal history so to trace the march of humanity as to display the relation which each part of it bears to the others; to fit each race and tribe and nation into the main narrative. To do this, three things are needed--a comprehensive knowledge, a power of selecting the salient and significant points, and a talent for arrangement. Of these three qualifications, the first is the least rare. Ours is an age of specialists; but the more a man buries himself in special studies, the more risk does he incur of losing his sense of the place which the object of his own study fills in the general scheme of things. The highly trained historian is generally able to draw from those who have worked in particular departments the data he needs; while the master of one single department may be unable to carry his vision over the whole horizon, and see each part of the landscape in its relations to the rest.

In other words, a History of the World ought to be an account of the human family as an organic whole, showing how each race and state has affected other races or states, what each has brought into the common stock, and how the interaction among them has stimulated some, depressed or extinguished others, turned the main current this way or that. Even when the annals of one particular country are concerned, it needs no small measure of skill in expression as well as of constructive art to trace their connection with those of other countries. To take a familiar example, he who writes the history of England must have his eye always alive to what is passing in France on one side, and in Scotland on the other, not to speak of countries less closely connected with England, such as Germany and Spain. He must let the reader feel in what way the events that were happening in France and Scotland affected men’s minds, and through men’s minds affected the progress of events in England. Yet he cannot allow himself constantly to interrupt his English narrative in order to tell what was passing beyond the Channel or across the Tweed.

The walls of the tombs in Egypt form a great picture gallery of the
vanished life of that country and are invaluable to the historian.
This fragment from the British Museum shows how vividly the
domestic figures were realised.
]

[Sidenote: Unity of Universal History]

Obviously, this difficulty is much increased when the canvas is widened to include all Europe, and when the aim is to give the reader a just impression of the general tendencies of a whole age, such an age as, for instance, the sixteenth century, over that vast area. If for a History of the World the old plan be adopted--that of telling the story of each nation separately, yet on lines generally similar, cross references and a copious use of chronological tables become helpful, for they enable the contemporaneity of events to be seen at a glance, and as the history of each nation is being written with a view to that of other nations, the tendencies at work in each can be explained and illustrated in a way which shows their parallelism, and gives to the whole that unity of meaning and tendency which a universal history must constantly endeavour to display. The connection between the progress or decline of different peoples is best understood by setting forth the various forms which similar tendencies take in each. To do this is a hard task when the historian is dealing with the ancient world, or with the world outside Europe even in mediæval and post-mediæval times. For the modern European nations it is easier, because, ever since the spread of Christianity made these nations parts of one great ecclesiastical community, similar forces have been at work upon each of them, and every intellectual movement which has told upon one has more or less told upon the others also.

The inscribed stone found at Rosetta, in the Nile delta, in
1799, now preserved in the British Museum. It gave the key to
the hieroglyphic writings of Egypt. It is a decree of Ptolemy
Epiphanes, promulgated at Memphis in B.C. 196, and as it is
inscribed in hieroglyphic and in the script of the country as
well as in Greek, it thus solved the long standing mystery of the
hieroglyphics of the monuments, which before its discovery had been
quite unintelligible.
]

[Sidenote: Central Line of Human Development]

[Sidenote: The Study of Human Society]

[Sidenote: Each Race a Distinct Entity]