[Illustration: IN THE SAURIAN AGE, WHEN THE WORLD’S INHABITANTS WERE
GIGANTIC REPTILES]
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
[Illustration: THE BOOK OF HISTORY]
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
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE BOOK OF HISTORY]
FIRST GRAND DIVISION
MAN AND THE UNIVERSE]
[Illustration]
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
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE WORLD AND ITS STORY]
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.
[Illustration: THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO ITS FIRST HISTORIAN
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.
[Illustration: “THE FATHER OF HISTORY”
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.
[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT’S STRANGE BOOKS AND PICTORIAL RECORDS,
MADE OF PAPYRUS
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]