Cyrus, King of Persia, conquers Media, establishes his empire
over Lydia, Assyria, and Babylonia (538 B.C.). His son
Cambyses conquers Egypt, 525 B.C.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 500
The Greek States revolt against Persia and are triumphant.
Egypt regains independence.
Steady growth of Roman ascendancy in Italy.
Struggle between Athens and Sparta.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 400
Conquests of Alexander the Great (334-322 B.C.). He conquers
Persia, masters Egypt, and invades India. At his death his
empire is divided: Egypt falls under the Ptolemies, Syria
under the Seleucidæ.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 300
Babylon absorbed by Parthian Empire.
Carthage dominates Spain.
Wars between Rome and Carthage. Overthrow of Carthage (202
B.C.).
---------------------------------------------------------------- 200
Judea attains independence under the Maccabees.
Growing power of Rome. Macedon a Roman province; Egypt and
Syria made Roman protectorates. The Greek States are absorbed
into province of Macedon.
---------------------------------------------------------------- 100
Cæsar conquers Gaul and lands in Britain.
Egypt becomes a Roman province.
Augustus Cæsar. Establishment of the Roman Empire. B.C.
[Illustration: FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE PRESENT
DAY
JAPAN
CHINESE EMPIRE
INDIA
PARTHIAN EMPIRE
ARABIA
ROMAN EMPIRE
BRITAIN]
----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTABLE EVENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------
For the first four centuries of the Christian era the Roman
Empire absorbed the “known” world, bounded in Europe by
the ocean, the Rhine, and the Danube, and in Asia by the
Euphrates, and including the Mediterranean districts of
Africa. Germanic tribes bore with ever-increasing pressure
upon her European borders, and the Parthians defied her in
the East. At the close of the third century the centre of
political gravity was passing from Rome itself to Byzantium,
preparing for the scission of the Empire, into Eastern and
Western, which was practically at the close of the fourth
century, when it was becoming increasingly clear that Rome
could not stand against the Barbarian invaders, notably the
Goths under Alaric.
----------------------------------------------------------------
In the fifth century the Empire, long weakened by corruption
and the tyranny of the army, was overwhelmed by the
Barbarians. Vandals, Western Goths, and Suevi poured into
Spain; Franks and Alemanni spread over Gaul; Ostro-Goths and
Lombards settled in North Italy; Huns and Avars attacked
Thrace.
Britain was invaded by Saxons, Jutes, and Angles.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The seventh and eighth centuries were marked by the rapid
rise of Mohammedanism in Arabia; the conquests of the
Saracens in Egypt, Africa, and West Asia; the establishment
of the Caliphate at Bagdad; and their invasion of Spain. Here
they were checked by the Franks.
Charlemagne, son of Pippin, King of the Franks in Germany and
Gaul, was crowned in 768, conquered Lombardy in 774, calling
himself “King of the Franks and Lombards and Patrician of
the Romans.” His empire was divided after his death; from
it emerged modern France and Germany. His coronation by the
Pope at Rome (A.D. 800) originated the idea of the Holy Roman
Empire.
----------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]
JAPAN
CHINESE
EMPIRE
{BRITISH
{INDIAN
{EMPIRE
AFGHANISTAN
PERSIA
ARABIA
EGYPT
TURKEY
{BALKAN
{STATES
GREECE
RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
ITALY
AUSTRO-HUNGARY
GERMAN
EMPIRE
BELGIUM
HOLLAND
SWITZERLAND
FRANCE
PORTUGAL
{SOUTH
{AMERICAN
{STATES
SPAIN
MEXICO
MOROCCO
GREAT
BRITAIN
&
IRELAND
UNITED
STATES
DENMARK
NORWAY
SWEDEN
----------------------------------------------------------------
Disintegration of the Empire of the Caliphs, and rise in Asia
Minor of the Seljuk Turks, making war against the Byzantine
Empire and the Crusaders, and conquering Egypt.
India is invaded by Mohammedan Afghan rulers, who eventually
establish a dynasty at Delhi.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Kingdoms of Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland, converted to
Christianity in the tenth century, come into increasing
prominence.
The Kings of Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Portugal war
against the Moors, who (A.D. 1248) are restricted to Granada.
The Mamelukes (Slave kings) conquer Egypt (1252).
Switzerland attains independence.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Failure of England to absorb Scotland, or to conquer France.
The Hundred Years’ War.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Turks capture Constantinople (1453).
The Netherlands (Burgundy) united to the House of Hapsburg.
(1477).
Spain united; overthrow of the Moorish dominion.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bohemia and Hungary united to Austria. Spain and Portugal
take possession of the New World. Mogul Empire established in
Hindostan. The Reformation leads to revolt of the Netherlands
from Spain; Spain absorbs Portugal.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Union of English and Scottish crowns (1603); followed by
legislative union (1707). Disruption of Germany in the Thirty
Years’ War. Establishment of English Colonies in America.
Portugal recovers independence.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Spain becomes a Bourbon Power. Rise of Russia and Prussia.
Partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Further disintegration of German Empire. British dominion in
India and North America. Independence of United States.
----------------------------------------------------------------
France predominant under Napoleon. Rise of South American
States. Establishment of British India. Italy independent.
Egypt, Greece, and Balkan States freed from Turkey.
Foundation of German Empire.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Independence of Norway (1905).
----------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------+
| CONTEMPORARY FIGURES IN HISTORY |
+------+------------------------------------+
| TIME | |
| B.C. | |
+------+--------------+---------------------+
| 500 |India |Buddha |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |China |Confucious |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Persia |Darius |
| | |Xerxes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Greece |Æschylus |
| | |Themistocles |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome |Tarquin the Proud |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Judah |Haggai |
| | |Zechariah |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 450 |Persia |Artaxerxes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Greece |Socrates |
| | |Plato |
| | |Pericles |
| | |Herodotus |
| | |Thucydides |
| | |Sophocles |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Judah |Nehemiah |
| | |Ezra |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 400 |Greece |Euripides |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 350 |Greece |Aristotle |
| | |Demosthenes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Macedon |Philip |
| | |Alexander |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 200 |Rome |Hannibal |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Judah |Judas Maccabæus |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 50 |Rome |Julius Cæsar |
| | |Cicero |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Egypt |Cleopatra |
| +--------------+---------------------+
|Jesus |Rome |Augustus |
|Christ| |Tiberius |
| | |Horace |
| | |Virgil, Livy |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Judah |John the Baptist |
+------+--------------+---------------------+
+------+------------------------------------+
| A.D. | |
+------+--------------+---------------------+
| 50 |Britain |Boadicea |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Seneca |
| | |St. Paul |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Josephus |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 300 |Rome, Italy |Constantine |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Athanasius |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 400 |Rome, Italy |Alaric |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Augustine |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 600 |France |Chas Matel |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 700 |Britain |Bede |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 800 |Britain |Alfred |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Charlemagne |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Haroun-al-Raschid |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1100 |Spain |The Cid |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Omar Khayyam (Persia)|
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1200 |Rome, Italy |St. Francis |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1300 |Britain |Chaucer |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Switzerland |William Tell |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Aquinas |
| | |Dante |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Tamerlane |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1350 |Britain |Wycliffe |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Froissant |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Switzerland |Arnold von Winkelried|
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Petrarch |
| | |Boccaccio |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Africa & East |Hafiz (Persia) |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1450 |Britain |Caxton |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Da Vinci |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1500 |Britain |Knox |
| | |Latimer |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Rabelais |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Luther |
| | |Copernicus |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Switzerland |Calvin |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Columbus |
| | |Savonarola |
| | |Machiavelli |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Spain |Ignatius Loyola |
| | |St. Theresa |
| | |Ferdnd. & Isabella |
| | |Cortez |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1550 |Britain |Philip Sidney |
| | |Spenser |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Montaigne |
| | |Scaliger |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Cellini |
| | |Tasso |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Spain |Alva |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Netherlands |William the Silent |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Russia |Ivan the Terrible |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1600 |Britain |Shakespeare |
| | |Raleigh |
| | |Bacon |
| | |Jonson |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Corneille |
| | |Richelieu |
| | |Descartes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Kepler |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Galileo |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Spain |Cervantes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Scandinavia |Gustavus Adolphus |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Netherlands |Rubens |
| | |Van Dyck |
| | |Grotius |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1650 |Britain |Cromwell |
| | |Milton |
| | |Bunyan |
| | |Dryden |
| | |Locke |
| | |Hobbes |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Pascal |
| | |Racine |
| | |Molière |
| | |Fénélon |
| | |Rochefoucauld |
| | |Louis XIV. |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Leibnitz |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Netherlands |Spinoza |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Russia |Peter the Gt. & |
| | | Catherine |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1700 |Britain |Swift |
| | |Steele |
| | |Addison |
| | |Walpole |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Handel |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Scandinavia |Holberg |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1750 |Britain |Chatham |
| | |Burke |
| | |Pitt and Fox |
| | |Wesley |
| | |Burns |
| | |Goldsmith |
| | |Sheridan |
| | |Dr. Johnson |
| | |Coleridge |
| | |Flaxman |
| | |Reynolds |
| | |Gainsboro’gh |
| | |Nelson |
| | |Wellington |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Voltaire |
| | |Lavoisier |
| | |Napoleon |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Fredk the Gt |
| | |Goethe |
| | |Schiller |
| | |Haydn |
| | |Mozart |
| | |Kant |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Switzerland |Rousseau |
| | |Gessner |
| | |Pestalozzi |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |America |Franklin |
| | |Washington |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1800 |Britain |Faraday |
| | |Scott |
| | |Byron |
| | |Keats |
| | |Shelley |
| | |Wordsworth |
| | |Lamb |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Hegel |
| | |Beethoven |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Scandinavia |Tegner |
| | |Thorwaldsen |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1825 |Britain |Gladstone |
| | |Macauley |
| | |Disraeli |
| | |Landseer |
| | |Mill |
| | |Livingstone |
| | |Ruskin |
| | |Dickens |
| | |Carlyle |
| | |Thackeray |
| | |Browning |
| | |Tennyson |
| | |Darwin |
| | |Huxley |
| | |Spencer |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |France |Balzac |
| | |Dumas |
| | |Victor Hugo |
| | |Georges Sand |
| | |Lesseps |
| | |Napoleon 3 |
| | |Gambetta |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Germany |Wagner |
| | |Heine |
| | |Bismarck |
| | |Moltke |
| | |William I. |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Rome, Italy |Garibaldi |
| | |Mazzini |
| | |Cavour |
| | |Victor Emmanuel |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |Scandinavia |Hans Andersen |
| | |Runeberg |
| | |Wergeland |
| | |Welhaven |
| | |Ibsen |
| | |Bjornson |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| |America |Irving |
| | |Emerson |
| | |Longfellow |
| | |Whittier |
| | |Lowell |
| | |Holmes |
| | |Lincoln |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| | Russia |Turgenieff |
| | |Tolstoy |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| | Hungary |Kossuth |
| +--------------+---------------------+
| 1900 | | |
+------+--------------+---------------------+
[Illustration: MAKING OF THE EARTH AND THE COMING OF MAN]
THE BEGINNING OF THE EARTH
BY PROFESSOR SOLLAS
The origin of our planet is a problem which has appealed to the
intellect of thoughtful men from the most remote times, and the
earliest recorded speculations concerning it--those of the Mosaic
cosmogony--possess a peculiar interest, since they embody the views of
the ancient Chaldeans, who were not only systematic observers of the
heavens, but made practical use of their results.
[Sidenote: Beginning of a Famous Theory]
The Mosaic cosmogony is not unworthy of the great people among whom
it took its rise; it recognises the fact that the earth had a history
antecedent to the advent of man, and its account of the order of
events in this history is not only remarkable as a feat of _a priori_
reasoning, but accords in some respects with the results achieved after
much labour by modern science.
It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that the reign
of evolution began, and attempts were made to trace the history of
a planetary system from its source in a primeval nebula on purely
mechanical grounds. Swedenborg (1735) was the pioneer in this
direction, then came Thomas Wright (1750) of Durham, whose work
furnished inspiration to Emanuel Kant (1755), and led him to construct
a consistent scheme of the Universe. The last of this group of cosmic
philosophers is Laplace (1796), whose admirable description of the
evolution of the solar system was arrived at independently, and without
knowledge of the previous work of Kant.
Laplace assumed as his starting-point the existence of a nebula formed
of incandescent gas, and extending beyond the limits of the outermost
planet of our system. It was in rotation about a central axis, and
possessed in consequence a disc-like or lenticular form. Radiating
its heat away in all directions through surrounding space, it grew
continually colder, and in cooling diminished in bulk. As a consequence
of this contraction its rate of rotation increased, till at length the
centrifugal force of the outermost part became so great that this could
no longer continue to follow the contracting mass within, and thus
remained behind as a great rotating ring. The continued contraction
of the internal mass, and the resulting increase in the velocity of
rotation, again brought about the same condition of things, and a fresh
ring was left behind.
[Sidenote: Cooling of the Nebula]
This process was repeated time after time, till as many rings were
formed as there are planets in the solar system; the central mass
which survived within the innermost ring condensed to form the sun.
The rings were highly unstable--that is to say, a slight disturbing
force was sufficient to destroy their continuity; they broke across and
rolled up into great nebulous globes, which revolved round the sun in
the same direction as the original nebula, and rotated on their axes
in the same direction as that in which they revolved. Most of them
repeated the behaviour of the original nebulæ, leaving behind rings
as they contracted, and these rings either rolled up to form moons or
satellites, or, in the solitary instance of Saturn’s rings, retained
their annular form. The rings are now known to consist of a multitude
of solid bodies, as proved by Clerk-Maxwell.
[Sidenote: The Temperature of the Earth]
By this hypothesis, so beautiful in its simplicity, an explanation was
afforded embracing all the more important facts of our system; the
revolution of all the planets in nearly circular orbits and in the
same direction as that in which the sun rotates, and the revolution of
their satellites, also in circular orbits and in the same direction
as their primaries; the comparatively high temperature and consequent
low density of the larger planets and the sun, as well as a variety of
other phenomena, all seem to follow naturally from it. The fundamental
assumption seems to be in harmony with a number of known facts. Thus
in the case of our own planet the volcanoes distributed around the
margins of the oceans, and the hot springs scattered irregularly over
the whole terrestrial surface, suggest that great stores of heat exist
beneath our feet, a presumption which finds confirmation in the fact
that whenever we descend towards the interior of the earth, as in
deep mines or wells, the temperature continues steadily to rise after
we have passed a depth below which seasonal and diurnal changes of
temperature cease to be felt, the rise being in some cases as much as 3
deg. for 100 ft., in others only 1 deg. for the same distance, but on
the average 1 deg. for 60 ft. or 70 ft. If this increase of temperature
continues down to great depths, and there seems to be no reason why it
should not, then a point will be reached, say, at thirty or forty miles
down, where the interior will attain a white heat.
[Sidenote: The Earth as a Star]
Thus the earth might be regarded as a white hot body surrounded with a
film of rock growing continually cooler towards the surface. But such a
hot body suspended in space must be cooling, just as all bodies which
are hotter than their surroundings. It is cooler to-day than it was
yesterday, or--what is the same thing--it was hotter yesterday than it
is to-day, and so of all previous yesterdays. And thus as we travel
backwards in time we perceive that the earth will be growing hotter,
the level of white heat will be mounting upwards towards the surface,
and will at last reach it, so that the earth, instead of being, as it
now is, a dark body shining only with the reflected light of the sun,
will be self-luminous, a tiny star of a magnitude so diminutive as to
have awakened resentment on the part of some terrestrial inhabitants,
who have regarded it as disproportionate to their dignity. But we
cannot arrest imagination at this stage; our thought still extends
its retrospective glance into the abyss of past time, and we perceive
the earth still growing hotter, till its temperature transcends
those limits at which it can exist in the solid state. It becomes
molten--nay, more, it becomes gaseous, and thus resumes the nebular
state from which it sprang. Precisely the same argument applies to
the sun; our mighty luminary is also a cooling body, and if we could
restore to it the heat which it has lost in the course of past æons
it would resume a completely gaseous state. Modified in one way or
another, this chain of reasoning seemed irrefragable in those happy
days which preceded the discovery of radium.
[Sidenote: Universe still in Evolution]
The question may be considered from another point of view. On searching
the heavens we find that many of the stages which are assumed in
Laplace’s hypothesis are still represented by actual existences. There
are, to begin with, those immense diffused nebulæ, almost incapable of
definition, which are proved, on spectroscopic examination, to emit
that kind of light which is characteristic of glowing gas; from these
we pass to others which are resolvable by the telescope into a central
and more condensed nucleus, with two mighty nebulous arms whirled round
in a spiral, and bearing more condensed masses in their midst; even
ring nebulæ are known to exist; and, finally, there are nebulous halos
which surround some of the stars. Then we come to the stars themselves,
which are suns of various degrees of magnitude, some immensely larger
than our own luminary, and these are evidently in various stages of
existence. Some are blue, and afford evidence of a higher temperature
than that of our sun; others are yellow, and make a nearer approach
to the solar temperature; while, again, others are red, and certainly
colder.
These, in conjunction with other considerations, lead to the conviction
that the universe is in a state of evolution, and that the solar
system at one time existed in a nebular state. But whether Laplace’s
description of the series of events through which the original nebula
passed is the true one or not is a very different matter; it presents
so many difficulties that scarcely any student now supports it.
[Illustration:
In the beginning, it is supposed that the earth was part of a vast
nebula of gaseous matter and meteorites, resembling the nebula of
Argo, illustrated above.
Later, as the cooling process advanced, the nebula assumed a
rotatory movement in the form of a spiral. The nebula of Andromeda
affords an excellent illustration of this.
Another stage would be as in the annular nebula of Aquaris, the
mass forming into a ball with the outer ring attached.
HOW THE HEAVENS TELL THE STORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH]
[Illustration:
Or, like the nebula of Cygni, with the central sun well formed and
the gaseous ring far removed, the earth would begin to shape, and
the ring would roll up to form the moon.
Jupiter, which is in a molten state, wreathed in thick vapour, with
the “great red spot” indicating the beginning of the solidifying
process, shows what the earth was like before it assumed its
present solid condition.