Chapter II: English and American Literature -- Outline Charts of English and (23)

SLAVE TRAFFIC IN AMERICA.--The importation of Negroes into America has been going on steadily since the early years of the sixteenth century, when it was begun by the Spaniards, even the good Las Casas recommending it in the interest of the native Indians. Both Queen Elizabeth and King James I. issued patents to English slave-trading companies operating between the coast of Guinea and the American colonies. Britain, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, engaged to carry out the contract of the old French Guinea Company, and to import into the New World one hundred and thirty thousand slaves in the course of the next thirty years, and is said to have more than made good the engagement.

In the United States the traffic was open and active until the passage of the Act of 1794 prohibiting the importation of slaves into any of the federal ports. Long after this it continued to be a brisk business in the West Indies and South America. As late as 1840 there were seventy-five ships plying constantly between Brazilian ports and the African coast, bringing cargoes of three or four hundred slaves at each trip. The principal points at which the slaves were obtained were along the coast of Guinea, especially on what was known as the Slave Coast, between the rivers Lagos and Assinie, where were the crowded marts of Waidah and Anamaboe, and again along the Angola coast. In these two regions the traders encountered two quite different branches of the African race, and their human wares in America show that they were derived from different sources. Along the Guinea coast, whence most of the slaves brought to the United States were derived, the population belongs to the true negro type.

In Brazil and other parts of South America the preponderance of importations was from the negroid stock of the equator, whose dialects and physical traits are allied to those of the Kaffirs and Zulus of the east coast (Bantus). The slaves in all parts, however, being from mixed stocks, their descendants do not present any well-marked peculiarities inside those of the race. As a rule, they are in strength equal to the whites, and in endurance of exposure and labor under a tropical sun are superior to all other immigrants.

It is usually held that the negro is not naturally industrious; but this seems to some extent answered by the severe field labor of many tribes, both men and women, in their native continent, and by the official reports of the United States government showing a greater acreage of land under cultivation in the former slave states and a larger crop of cotton than before the Civil War. When under the control of a strong social organization, and with obvious motives for industry and economy before his eyes, the American negro is both industrious and provident, and the instances are numerous where members of the race have accumulated fortunes of respectable size. Their vitality appears on the whole to be about the same as the whites, except in the more northern states, where it is unquestionably much less. In New England and Canada negroes gradually but surely perish.

NEGRO CHARACTERISTICS.--The negro is a tireless talker and story-teller. Many of them reveal a high stage of the art of story-telling, as the Georgia tales collected from the southern states by various writers attest. Many of them belong to the class of “beast-fables,” similar to some which have been collected among the American Indians and the natives of the African continent, and such as were favorite staples of amusement in Europe during the middle ages.

One of the principal figures is the rabbit--the “brer rabbit” of the “Uncle Remus” tales. He figures conspicuously not only in the southern United States, but in the West Indies and on the Amazons, and in the folklore of the Venezuelan negroes.

Along with story-telling, singing and music are favorite diversions of the colored population. This tendency is a direct inheritance from their African ancestry, as throughout that continent the natives are passionately fond of these diversions. In Central America the negroes still employ the _marimba_, a native African instrument with wooden keys placed over jars or gourds, the keys being struck with a stick. In the United States the violin, the fife, and the guitar are used, but the favorite is the banjo, an instrument of African derivation, modified from the guitars with grass strings still in use on the Guinea coast. With these simple means they produce music of pleasant though not artistic character. In individual instances (as Blind Tom, born in Georgia in 1849) members of the race have attained remarkable skill on the piano and organ, rendering the most difficult compositions with spirit. No negro composer, however, has attained wide celebrity. Their songs are numerous, many of them of a religious character, others turning on the incidents of daily life. They are generally defective in prosody and without merit, being often little more than words strung together to carry an air.

=Persians= (_per´shanz_).--The natives or inhabitants of ancient or of modern Persia. The Persian race or people is quite different from the Persian nationality. The latter includes several very different peoples, as will presently be seen. Linguistically the Persian is the chief race of Persia speaking an Iranic language, that is, one of the Aryan tongues most nearly related to the Hindi. Physically, the race is of mixed Caucasian stock. It is almost entirely composed of Tajiks. The small section known as “Parsis” or, incorrectly, “Fire worshipers,” have for the most part emigrated to India. The Armenians are so closely related to the Persians as to be put with them by some into the Iranic branch. The Kurds, the Beluchis, and the Afghans also belong to the latter.

Of the 9,500,000 estimated population of Persia about two-thirds are true Persian or “Tajik.” The other third is also Caucasian for the most part, including Kurds (400,000), Armenians (150,000), and other Iranians (820,000), and the non-Aryan Arabs (350,000). There are 550,000 Turks and 300,000 Mongols in the Empire. The only Christians are the Armenians and a small group of 25,000 “Chaldeans,” “Assyrians,” or “Nestorians,” really eastern Syrians, about Lake Urmia, on the northwestern border.

In intellect, if not in civilization the Persian is perhaps more nearly a European than is the pure Turk. He is more alert and accessible to innovation. Yet he is rather brilliant and poetical than solid in temperament. Like the Hindu he is more eager to secure the semblance than the substance of modern civilization.

=Slavs= (_slȧvz_).--Peoples widely spread in eastern, southeastern, and central Europe. The Russian and Polish are its leading tongues. The Slavs are divided into two sections--the southeastern and the western. The former section comprises the Russians, Bulgarians, Serbo-Croatians, and Slovenes; the latter, the Poles, Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, Wends, etc.

Physically, and perhaps temperamentally, the Slavs approach the Asiatic, or particularly the Tartar, more closely than do the peoples of western Europe. In language they are as truly Aryan as ourselves. Of course, languages do not fuse by interbreeding; physical races do. There is some truth in the old saying, “Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar,” especially if he come from southern Russia, where once lived the Mongol conquerors of the Russians.

Yet the common conception of the Slav as dreamy and impractical does not seem to fit with the greatness of the new nation which impresses the imagination of the beholder more than any other in Europe. The fact is that we do not know the Slav. Unfortunately the unlikeness of the language to those of western Europe, perhaps even the unfamiliarity of the alphabet used, has delayed the study of what must soon be regarded as one of the great languages and literatures of civilization. Its spread, like that of the Russian Empire, has been more rapid than that of any other in the present century.

If the Slav be still backward in western ideas, appliances, and form of government, it is nevertheless conceivable that the time is not far distant when he will stand in the lead. The race is still young. Its history is shorter than that of any other important people of Europe.

Turning to the physical characteristics of the Slavs, it is found that there is not, properly speaking, a Slavic race. Deniker says that no fewer than five European races are represented among the Slavs, besides Turkic and Ugric or Mongolian elements. These are the fair, but broad-headed and short races, in Poland and White Russia especially; the dark, very broad-headed, and short peoples among the Little Russians of the south, the Slovaks, and some Great Russians; and the taller, but still dark and broad-headed races among the southwestern Slavs or Serbo-Croatians and some Czechs and Ruthenians. In the northwest the Russians have been modified by the blond or Teutonized Finns, in the northeast by the dark Finns, and in the southeast by the Tartars; but all such alike are broad-headed Mongolians in origin. With the exception of these Asiatic remnants and the related Magyars and Turks, and the Greeks, all of Europe east of Germany is filled with Slavs. They occupy more than one-half of the continent of Europe, and their presence has been a fertile source of political and governmental dissensions for many centuries, particularly in the Balkan countries. Indeed the scourge of war which has been ravaging all Europe, since 1914, is traceable in no small degree to this admixture of racial elements.

=Teutonic.=--This great branch of the Aryan family of languages and “races,” includes all those of northwestern Europe excepting the Celtic. The Teutonic was the second Aryan swarm in Western Europe, that which came after the Celts, and is the one with whose history we are more concerned than with that of any other; for it is the branch of the Aryan family to which we ourselves belong. The Teutons were the forefathers of the Germans and the English, and of the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians in Northern Europe. They do not appear in history till a much later time than the Celts, and then we find them lying immediately to the east of the Celts, chiefly in the land which is now called Germany. From this they spread themselves into many of the countries of Europe; but in most cases they were absorbed into the earlier inhabitants, and learned, like them, to speak the language of the Romans. The chief parts of Europe where Teutonic languages are now spoken are Germany, England and Scandinavia.

In Scandinavia we cannot doubt that the present Teutonic inhabitants were the first Aryan settlers; for they found a Mongolian people there, some of whom still remain, by the name of Lapps and Finns, in the extreme north of Sweden and Norway and on the eastern coast of the Baltic. But in most places the Teutons, as the second wave, came into land where other Aryan settlers had been before them. Sometimes they may have simply come in the wake of the Celts as they were pressing westward; but, sometimes they found the Celts in the land and drove them out, as was specially the case in Britain. Of the first coming of the Teutons into Europe we can say nothing from written history, any more than of the first coming of the Celts.

The Teutonic stock of nations, as they exist at the present day, is divided into two principal branches: (1) The Scandinavian, embracing Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders; and (2) the Germanic, which includes, besides the German-speaking inhabitants of Germany proper and Switzerland, also the population of the Netherlands (the Dutch), the Flemings of Belgium, and the descendants of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Great Britain, together with their offspring in North America, Australia, and other British colonies--the English-speaking peoples of the world. It is necessary in this case, as in all similar cases, to guard against making language the sole test of race. In many parts of Germany, where German now prevails, Slavic dialects were spoken down to recent times, and in some places are not yet quite extinct. And in Great Britain it is unreasonable to suppose that the Anglo-Saxon invaders exterminated the native Celtic population, or even drove more than a tithe of them into Wales and the Highlands.

THE TEUTONIC RACIAL GROUP

{ { { {Icelandic.
{ {W. {Old {W. Dalecarlian.
{ {Branch. {Norwegian.{Jämetlandish.
{ { { {Faroic.
{ {
{ { { {Bornholm.
{NORSE. { {Danish. {Normanno-Jutish.
{ { { {Dano-Jutish.
{ {E. {
{ {Branch. { {E. Dalecarlian.
{ { {Swedish. {Gothic.
{ { { {Scanian.
{
{ {
{ { {W. Fr. Groningen.
{ { {E. Fr. Saterland.
{ { Frisic. {N. Fr. Helgoland,
{ { {Sylt, etc.
{ {
{ { {Old Saxon of the
LOW GERMAN. { { {“Heliand.”
{ { Conti- {Westphalian.
{ { nental {Hanoverian.
{ { Saxon. {Brunswick.
{ { {Pomeranian, etc.
{NIEDER- {
{DEUTSCH. { {Anglisc {Northumbrian.
{ { {(North- {Lowland Scotch.
{ { {ern). {Shetland, etc.
{ { {
{ {Anglo- { {Lincoln.
{ {Saxon {Midland. {Yorkshire.
{ {(En- { {Derby, etc.
{ {glish). {
{ { { {Cornish.
{ { {Saxon {Somerset.
{ { {(South- {Dorset.
{ { {ern). {Kent, etc.

{ {Salic Frankish (extinct).
{ {
{ { {Rhenish.
{ {Riparian {E. Frankish.
{ {Frankish.{Hessian.
{MITTEL- {
{DEUTSCH. { {Upper Saxon.
{ {Thuring- {Erzgebirge.
{ {ian. {Transylvanian.
{ { {Meissen.
{
{ { {Bernese.
HIGH GERMAN. { {Bur- Swiss. {Hazli.
{ {gundian. {Appenzell.
{ {
{ { {Neuhochdeutsch
{ { {(literary standard).
{OBER- {Alemanno-{Alsatian.
{DEUTSCH. {Suabian. {Wurtemberg.
{ { {Baden.
{ {
{ { {Tyrolese.{Styrian.
{ {Bavarian.{Austrian.{Carinthian.
{ { { {Zips, etc.

The modern Turk is very far from being of purely Mongolian stock. In truth the mixed blood of practically all the peoples of southeastern Europe and western Asia courses in his veins.]

=Turks= (_tèrks_) or =Ottomans=, the race now dominant in Turkey, lived originally in central Asia. They belong to the Sibiric or Tartar division of the Mongolian race, and reached Europe, probably in straggling bands, before the Christian Era (See Mongolian). To the same race division belong the European Finns, Lapps, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Basques. Physically and in culture the Turks have become Europeanized, though to a less degree than the related Finns and Magyars. Instead of becoming blond, as the Finns, they have approached the brunette type of southern Europe, probably in part through their frequent intermarriages with the Circassian and other Mohammedan peoples of the Caucasus. In fact, today they are not so much Turkish by blood as Arabian, Circassian, Persian, Armenian, Greek, and Slavic. They prefer to be considered as Arabo-Persian in culture rather than as Turkish. In religion they are almost universally Mohammedan.

The Turks are in the minority in their own country, especially in the European part of Turkey, where the Turks, Greeks, Albanians, and “Slavs” (Bulgarians and Servians) are to be found in nearly equal parts. The first three named have been estimated to constitute seventy per cent of the population. No census of Turkey has ever been taken. The following estimates are compiled from various sources. The entire Ottoman Empire, excluding states practically independent, has a population of about 24,000,000. Of these 10,000,000 are Turks. In European Turkey, 1,500,000 out of a population of 6,000,000 are Turks. Here they are without doubt decreasing in numbers. In Macedonia the Turks number about 500,000 out of a population of 2,200,000. Of the latter number, however, only about 1,300,000 are Christians. In the capital itself, Constantinople, the Turks constitute only about one-half of the population of 1,200,000. In Turkey in Asia, on the other hand, the Turkish race is in the majority. The Mohammedans number perhaps 10,000,000 in a total population of 13,000,000 in Asiatic Turkey and Armenia. There are about 500,000 Turks in Bulgaria out of a total population of 4,000,000. The Mohammedan population of Bosnia and Herzegovina--550,000 out of a total of 1,600,000--is mainly Slavic rather than Turkish.

=COMPARATIVE CLASSIFICATION OF RACES AND PEOPLES=

Showing also the latest estimated population of the various subdivisions throughout the world, together with a view of the numerous races entering into the population of the United States.

+----------+---------+-----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+
| =Race= | =Stock= | =Group= | =Peoples and | =Estimated | =Races |
| | | | Tribes= | Total |Represented|
| | | | | Population= | in the |
| | | | | | United |
| | | | | | States= |
+----------+---------+-----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+
| |{ |{Egyptians |{Copts | 800,000 |} 500 |
| |{ |{ |{Fellaheen | 5,000,000()|} |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Berbers | 7,500,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ |{(modern) | | |
| |{Hamitic |{Lybians |{_Etruscans_ | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Assyrians_ | | |
| |{ |{ |{(early) | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Hittites_ | | |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{East | Somalis | 1,000,000 | ... |
| |{ |{Africans | | | |
| |{ | | | | |
| |{ |{Arabians |{Arabs |} 5,000,000 | 500 |
| |{ |{ |{Bedouins |} | |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Abyssini- | Ethiopians | 9,000,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ans | | | |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{Semitic |{ |{_Assyrians_ | | |
| |{ |{ |{(later) | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Babylonians_| | |
| |{ |{Chaldean |{Hebrews | 11,000,000 | 2,050,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Arameans | 2,000,000 | 50,000 |
| |{ |{ |{(Syrians) | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Samaritans_ | | |
| |{ | | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Hindus |225,000,000 | 10,000 |
| |{ |{Iranic, or|{_Medes_ | | |
| |{ |{Persic |{Persians | 6,500,000 | 300 |
| |{ |{ |{Gypsies | 800,000 | 4,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Armenic | Armenians | 4,000,000 | 30,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Britons_ |}Celtic popu-|Scotch: |
| |{ |{ |{Scotch (part)|}lation of | 660,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Irish (part) |}Europe, |Irish: |
| |{ |{Celtic |{Welsh |} 3,200,000; | 4,600,000 |
| |{ |{ |{_Gauls_ |}of the |Welsh: |
|=Caucasian|{ |{ |{_Picts_ |}world, | 250,000 |
| Race= |{ |{ |{ |} 9,200,000 | |
| (White) |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{_Latins_ | | |
| |{ |{ |{(Romans) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Italians | 38,000,000 | 2,100,000 |
| |{ |{Italic |{(part) | | |
| |{Aryan |{ |{Roumanians | 10,000,000 | 90,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Spanish | 50,000,000 | 1,375,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Portuguese | 5,000,000 | 115,000 |
| |{ |{ |{French | 45,000,000 | 300,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Hellenic | Greeks | 6,000,000 | 110,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Illyric |Albanian | 1,500,000 | 3,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Scandinavian | 13,000,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ |{ Danish | 2,800,000 | 450,000 |
| |{ |{ |{ Norwegian | 3,000,000 | 1,010,000 |
| |{ |{ |{ Swedish | 5,500,000 | 1,450,000 |
| |{ |{ |{German | 85,000,000 | 8,300,000 |
| |{ |{Teutonic |{Dutch | 6,300,000 | 300,000 |
| |{ |{ |{English |126,000,000 | 2,250,000 |
| |{ |{ |{(part) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Flemish | 4,000,000 | 100,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Swiss (part) | 2,300,000 | 300,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Austrians | 10,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
| |{ |{ |{(part) | | |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Lettic | Lithuanians | 4,000,000 | 225,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Russians | 84,000,000 | 100,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Polish | 17,000,000 | 1,725,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Czech: | | |
| |{ |{ |{ Bohemian | 4,000,000 |} 550,000 |
| |{ |{Slavonic |{ Moravian | 2,000,000 |} |
| |{ |{ |{Serbs, Croa- | 10,000,000 | 125,000 |
| |{ |{ |{tians (Servia, Montenegro, Bosnia, |
| |{ |{ |{Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Herzego- |
| |{ |{ |{vina) |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Caucasic |{Georgians | 1,200,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ |{Circassians | 500,000 | ... |
| | | | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Finns | 6,000,000 | 200,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Lapps | 30,000 | ... |
| |{ |{Finnic |{Magyar | 8,500,000 | 700,000 |
| |{ |{ |{(Hungarian) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Bulgarian | 5,000,000 | 25,000 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Turks | 10,000,000 | 125,000 |
| |{Sibiric |{Tartaric |{Cossacks | 4,000,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ |{Kalmucks | 200,000 | 500 |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Iberian | Basques (in | 800,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ | Spain) | | |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{Japanese |{Japanese | 48,000,000 | 75,000 |
| |{ |{ |{Korean | 10,000,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ | | | |
|=Mongolian|{ | |{Chinese |305,000,000 | 75,000 |
| Race= |{Sinitic | Chinese |{Indo-Chinese | 35,000,000 | ... |
| (Yellow |{ | |{ Siamese | 1,600,000 | ... |
|and Brown)|{ | |{ Burmese | 10,000,000 | ... |
| |{ | | | | |
| |{ |{ |{New Zealand | 45,000 | ... |
| |{ |{ |{(Maoris) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Philippines | 7,600,000 | 7,600,000 |
| |{ |{Polynesian|{(part) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Hawaiians | 40,000 | 40,000 |
| |{ |{ |{(part) | | |
| |{ |{ |{Samoans | 40,000 |} 500 |
| |{Malay |{ |{Javanese | 25,000,000 |} |
| |{ |{ | | | |
| |{ |{ |{Dravidians | 65,000,000 |} |
| |{ |{ |{Madagascar | 2,000,000 |} |
| |{ |{East |{(part) | |} 10,000 |
| |{ |{Indian |{Sumatra | 3,000,000 |} |
| |{ |{ |{(part) | |} |
| |{ |{ |{Borneo (part)| 1,500,000 |} |
+----------+---------+-----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+
| |{Tribes and peoples whose real homes|{(1) | |
| =Negro |{are (1) Central and Southern |{180,000,000 | ... |
| Race= |{Africa; (2) Malay Peninsula, Anda- |{(2) | |
| (Black) |{mans, parts of the Eastern Archi- |{ 5,000,000 | ... |
| |{pelago and Philippines, New Guinea,|{(3) | |
| |{Australia; (3)America |{ 25,000,000 | 9,850,000 |
+----------+------------------------------------+-------------+-----------+
|=American |{Tribes comprising: (1) North Ameri-|(1) 500,000 | 270,000 |
| or |{can Indians; (2) South American In-|(2)6,000,000 | ... |
| Indians= |{dians; (3) Central American Indi- |(3)7,500,000 | ... |
| (Red) |{ans; (4) Patagonians; (5) Eskimo |(4) 190,000 | ... |
| | |(5) 40,000 | ... |
+----------+------------------------------------+-------------+-----------+

N.B.--Races in _italic_ are either now non-existent or have merged with later peoples thus forming mixed races.

The disastrous Russian campaign of Napoleon in 1812, which resulted in the destruction of the city of Moscow by its own inhabitants to prevent it from falling into the hands of the French, was the virtual turning point in European history. From that time Napoleon’s star declined, and Europe was reconstituted a few years later practically as it is today.]

THE BOOK OF NATIONS

_Geographical, Historical, Descriptive_

EXTINCT NATIONS OF THE PAST

CHIEF HISTORICAL PEOPLES: EGYPTIANS -- BABYLONIANS -- ASSYRIANS --
HEBREWS -- PHŒNICIANS -- MEDES AND PERSIANS -- HINDUS -- GREEKS --
ROMANS

PROGRESS OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY AND DISCOVERY,
B.C. 3800 TO THE PRESENT, WITH 16 MAPS

THE WORLD’S GREATEST EXPLORERS, B.C. 1400 TO 1917 A.D.

COMPARATIVE OUTLINE HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS,
B.C. 5000 TO 843 A.D.

DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT:

THE SPELL OF EGYPT: ANCIENT AND MODERN

THE BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN EMPIRES

THE HEBREWS AND THE HOLY LAND

THE PHŒNICIANS: FIRST NATION OF COLONIZERS

THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE

THE GREEKS: GLORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

ROME: MISTRESS OF THE WORLD

THE SARACEN EMPIRE: ITS FANATICISM, ART AND LEARNING

THE GERMANIC EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE

LIVING NATIONS OF TO-DAY

COMPARATIVE OUTLINE HISTORY OF MODERN NATIONS

TRANSITION PERIOD FROM THE ANCIENT TO THE MODERN

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT POWERS: GREAT
BRITAIN -- FRANCE -- GERMANY -- ITALY -- AUSTRIA-HUNGARY -- RUSSIA
-- UNITED STATES -- JAPAN

THE LESSER MODERN NATIONS: IN EUROPE, Spain and Portugal --
Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) -- The Netherlands --
Switzerland -- The Balkan States (Bulgaria, Roumania, Turkey,
Greece, Servia); IN ASIA, China, Persia, Turkey; IN AMERICA, Brazil
-- Argentina -- Chile -- Mexico -- Canada

DICTIONARY OF HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT, including
Great Wars, Great Battles, Dynasties, Rulers, Historic and Literary
Shrines, Allusions, etc.

HISTORICAL CHARTS AND TABLES, MAPS AND PLANS

=Showing its Territorial Growth Due to Successive Discoveries=

The Known World about 3800 B. C.]

THE BOOK OF NATIONS

We shall perhaps gain the best idea of the gradual expansion of the
world to-day if we go back to the earliest times of which we have
any definite historical records, and from that as a starting point,
picture to ourselves the world at important epochs as it was divided
among the more civilized nations. In spite of revolutions and the
rise and fall of nations, the course of history has been continuous.
The periods of history are not separated by gaps or breaks, but
really merge gradually one into another. Bearing this in mind, the
general history of the world may be viewed in two great
divisions--ancient and modern. _Ancient history_ begins with the
dawn of civilization, and traces the progress of mankind among those
nations which have now ceased to exist--or at least have ceased to
contribute anything to the world’s progress. _Modern history_, on
the other hand, deals with the origin and growth of those nations
which still exist and are working out the problems and ideals
peculiar to their own national life.

THE ANCIENT EXTINCT NATIONS

In the Oriental world we see the beginnings of civilized life--the
first successful efforts of man to subdue the earth and to utilize
the resources of nature; the beginnings of science and of a
well-defined written language; the first evidences of architectural
skill in the construction of great buildings; and the first marked
tendency in the direction of great empires and of centralized
governments. The chief nations may be summarized as follows:

EGYPTIANS.--One of the earliest civilized nations--the great representative of the Hamitic race--developed apart--were not a conquering or aggressive people--wonderful builders in the massive style--made great progress in mechanical arts, and some advances in science--government a monarchy restricted in authority by law, custom, and powerful priesthood--religion a nature-worship--popular worship the adoration of animals--an artistic, industrious and peculiar nation--always wonderful and interesting to foreigners---did not greatly influence others.

BABYLONIANS.--As ancient a race in civilization as the Egyptians--partially of Tartar race, mainly Semitic--made great progress at an early date in science--reached a high pitch of power and civilization--known to us, in great measure, from ruins with inscriptions in cuneiform writing--invented permanent system of weights and measures--great in astronomy--the Chaldæan priests developed into a caste of learned men, continuing (in the later Babylonian and Persian empires) long after extinction of their own nation as an independent power.

ASSYRIANS.--A Semitic people--warlike and conquering race--great in architecture and sculpture--very wealthy and luxurious--empire extended over Asia Minor (east of river Halys), Syria, Phœnicia, Palestine, most of Egypt, Media, and countries on Tigris and Euphrates to Persian Gulf--artistic workers in glass, metals, gems--rule despotic over loosely connected nations.

BABYLONIANS (Later kingdom).--A Semitic people--as a political power ruled for only eighty-seven years, 625-538 B.C., from end of Assyrian power to conquest by Persians under Cyrus--were a commercial and luxurious race--city of Babylon emporium for trade between eastern Asia and western Asia, Egypt and Europe--great in manufactures of woven stuffs and gem-engraving.

HEBREWS.--A pure Semitic race--little influence on political history of antiquity--distinguished by their worship of one God, and for the Scriptures transmitted to future ages--a great monarchy under David and Solomon, then declined--a non-artistic, unscientific nation in ancient history.

PHŒNICIANS.--A pure Semitic people--greatest commercial and colonizing race of early times--distinguished as transmitters of civilization from East to West--never formed one great independent state--several independent cities, sometimes in alliance, sometimes hostile--Tyre and Sidon famous for dyes, glass-making, embroideries, brass-work, weaving of cloth in linen and cotton, ship-building, mining--developers of alphabet still used by modern nations--religion a sensual worship--a crafty, money-making people--Carthage was the greatest of all the Phœnician colonies.

MEDES AND PERSIANS.--Pure Aryans in race--warlike people, great in cavalry and as archers--Median monarchy ended 558 B.C., then Persian monarchy arose--Persians a lively, brave, poetical people, simple in life at first, after their great conquests degenerated into luxury--more like Europeans in civilization than any other Asiatics--were the great ruling power in Asia from time of Cyrus to conquest by Alexander the Great (558-331 B.C.)--first Asiatics that tried to conquer in Europe--signally failed--empire extended over all western Asia, and over Egypt--religion recognized two principles, a good and a bad spirit--had taste in architecture--no literature of importance.

HINDUS.--Until recent times almost isolated from the western world--unwarlike, dreamy specimens of Aryan stock--early advance in civilization--a rich and remarkable religious and poetical literature in Sanscrit, one of the oldest of the Indo-European tongues--first known in real history on invasion by Alexander the Great, 327 B.C.--progress greatly checked by rigid system of castes--government of native princes thoroughly despotic--no free aspirations or political instincts in the people--popular religion grossly superstitious--Brahminism (a philosophic deism), creed of the educated, along with Mohammedanism, introduced by conquest in thirteenth century A.D.--skilled at an early period in mathematics, manufactures, architecture--a tasteful, intelligent, but unpractical, non-historical people.

GREEKS.--In the Greek world we see a finer type of humanity: a
versatile intellect, expressed in exalted works of philosophy and
literature; a refined æsthetic taste embodied in the most beautiful
specimens of architecture and sculpture; and a strong love of
freedom, shown in the development of democratic institutions.

ROMANS.--In the Roman world we see a more practical genius and a
more vigorous manhood; a great capacity for military and political
organization; a broad sense of civil justice, expressed in an
enduring system of law; a wide cosmopolitan spirit, capable of
appropriating the ideas of other peoples--in short, a civilization
which expressed the highest unity and broadest culture of the
ancient world.

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY AND DISCOVERY

No intelligent knowledge of the historical nations is possible without a corresponding knowledge of their geography. The first and most important question that geography answers for us is _where_. Historical Geography answers both _where_ and _when_? _Where_ is Rome located? _Where_ and _when_ did the Babylonian Empire exist?

_History_ not only answers the questions _when_ and _who_ but, in addition, gives us a consecutive account of the doings of civilized mankind in their progress toward the most valued and elevating of social and political blessings. It deals rather with the life of _nations_ than with _races_ of men; and its special function is to sketch the career and describe the conditions of those great nations whose ideas and institutions, or whose achievements in politics, war, literature, art and science, were remarkable in their own epoch, or, by influencing other nations, helped to make the civilized world what it is now.

WHERE THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS BEGAN

The first scenes in the drama of human history are laid in two remarkable river valleys--the one formed by the Euphrates and the Tigris in western Asia, and the other formed by the river Nile in northeastern Africa. The Euphrates and the Tigris poured their waters into the Persian Gulf, the Nile flowed north into the Mediterranean Sea. Both these valleys were possessed of a rich, alluvial soil, that favored the early development of industrial life among their dwellers. Along the lower courses of the Asiatic rivers were the Babylonians, and later, by conquest, the Chaldeans. In the upper reaches were the Assyrians. On the banks of the Nile were the Egyptians. Such, according to our present knowledge, is the first historic zone in which the real history of the civilized world began.

In the basins of the Tigris and the Euphrates were several distinct territories: Armenia, or the mountainous region between Asia Minor and the Caspian Sea; Assyria proper, between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains; Babylonia, the great plain between the lower courses of the Tigris and of the Euphrates, and extending westward to the Syrian Desert; Chaldæa (in the narrower sense, as a province of the Babylonian Empire), west of the Euphrates, at the head of the Persian Gulf; Mesopotamia, between the middle courses of the Tigris and the Euphrates; _Elam_ or Susiana, east of the Tigris, and at the head of the Persian Gulf.

THE REGION WEST OF THE EUPHRATES

West of the Euphrates we have the peninsula of Asia Minor which later contained the important Lydian nation, and many Greek colonies connected with later history; Syria, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, divided into three distinct parts,--Syria proper; Phœnicia, or the strip of coast between Mount Lebanon and the sea; and Palestine, south of Phœnicia; the peninsula of Arabia, extending southeastward, and having little to do with ancient history.

THE HISTORIC PLATEAU OF IRAN

East of the Zagros Mountains lay Media and Persia proper,--Media, northeastward, towards the Caspian Sea; and Persia, on the tableland of Iran stretching southward to the Persian Gulf. The latter absorbed the great monarchies of Babylonia and Assyria in the sixth century B. C., and extended almost from the Indus to the Mediterranean, Ægean, Euxine, and Caspian Seas, when it had reached the summit of its power.

THE FAR DISTANT ORIENT

Farthest to the east was ancient China, drained by two great rivers, the Hoang and the Yangtze. Its remote situation and the barriers on the west formed by the spurs of the Himalayas, combined to make this land the most isolated of the civilized lands of the Old World.

To the west of China lies India, also drained by two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges, which rise among the slopes of the Himalayas and flow in different directions to the sea. These two countries--China and India--stood nearly alone in ancient times, separated from the peoples of western Asia by the wide, dry plateau of Iran, and hence these countries did not exercise a great influence upon the ancient world, or come into historical view until much later.

EGYPT WAS A GIFT TO MANKIND FROM THE NILE

The Nile is one of the longest rivers of the world; rising in the distant lakes of central Africa, it pursues a course of about four thousand miles on its way to the sea. But the part of the valley occupied by the Egyptian people extended only about six hundred miles from the mouth of the river--to the rapids called the “first cataract,” on the borders of Ethiopia. The valley is inclosed on either side by low ranges of mountains, which furnish stone suitable for building; and it should be noticed that this abundant supply of stone gave to the Egyptians a great advantage over the Babylonians, who were obliged to use the less durable materials, clay and brick, for building.

The valley of the Nile is only about seven or eight miles in width--except at the delta, where it spreads out into an open plain. Not only has this valley been cut by the Nile, but its fertility was anciently due to the annual overflow of the river, for the climate is dry and rain rarely falls. This river was also the great highway of Egypt, affording a ready means of communication from one part of the country to another. The fertile soil of Egypt was especially suitable for the raising of vegetables and grain. Rice, oats, barley, and wheat grew there in great abundance, so that the country became the granary of the ancient world.

THE DIVISIONS OF UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT

Egypt may be divided into two principal parts. (1) The lower, or northern, part includes the extended plain about the delta, where the soil is most fertile, and where the earliest civilization was developed. It was here that the first empire was established, with its center at Memphis. (2) The upper, or southern, part includes the remainder of the valley as far as the “first cataract.” This formed a second area of civilization, with its center at Thebes. In either direction from these two centers the banks of the Nile became dotted with a multitude of towns and villages, each one of which was a seat of industry and art.

THE MOST HISTORIC SEA IN THE WORLD

But the most important center of ancient civilization was the Mediterranean Sea. This body of water formed the world’s greatest highway, and was possessed successively by the Phœnicians, the Greeks, and the Romans, who made it an important factor in the development of a wider world commerce and a higher world culture.

=Known World about B. C. 450.=--About this period the decadence of the great Persian Empire had already begun. Greece was becoming a strong power, and had flourishing colonies all round the Mediterranean and Black Seas, at Syracuse in Sicily, on the southern shores of Italy, at Massilia (the present Marseilles), on the coast of Spain, at Cyrene in North Africa, at Cypress, at Byzantium (Constantinople), and at many points between these.

Carthage had already risen from its condition of a colony to that of a great independent state, which held practically all the north African coast. The Carthaginians had come in contact with the Greeks in Sicily, and in their first trial of strength the Carthaginian army under Hamilcar had been defeated. Rome had been founded for perhaps three hundred years. Already the Romans had taken the lead in Latium, and the Republic was in constant warfare with its neighbors on all sides--the southern Etruscans, the Volscians, and the Æqui.

Thus the great events of this period were clustered round the Mediterranean shores. As yet the unknown peoples of the west and north beyond these were vaguely called the Hyperboreans by the Greeks, “the dwellers behind the north wind;” and eastward, beyond Persia and the Indies, Herodotus could only mark “unknown deserts” on his map.

=World About B. C. 325.=--This little map represents the short-lived Macedonian empire of Alexander, at the date of his return to Persia, when his power was at its height. To his victorious career the world owed a vast increase of geographical knowledge; all eastern Asia had been unveiled, and the road to India, with its boundless wealth, was disclosed to Europeans.

Westward also, about Alexander’s time, the geography of the Greeks was greatly extended by Pytheas, a bold navigator of the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseilles), who, from Gadiera (Cadiz), coasted Iberia and the country of the Celts (France), and reached Britain. He followed the southern and eastern shores of the islands, and, after six days’ sail from the Orcades (Orkney Islands), discovered Thule, a land of fogs in the north, which has been variously identified as the Shetland Islands, the Norwegian coast, or even Iceland.

In Italy the Romans were continuing their struggles with the neighboring nations. The whole of southern Etruria had yielded to their supremacy, and was kept in check by Roman garrisons; while towards the south, at this time, a terrible conflict was in progress with the heroic Samnite highlanders. Of Sicily the Carthaginians held the western, the Greek colonists the eastern half, a brief lull having taken place in the fierce wars which had been waging between these powers for the possession of the island, during which the prosperity of the great fortified city and seaport of Syracuse was rapidly reviving.

=World About A. D. 300.=--Almost six hundred years has elapsed, and the Great Roman Empire is already in its decline. A special map of the Roman Empire at its height will be found later on. This little map represents the empire in the time of Constantine.

Under Constantine the Great two great changes took place--the introduction of Christianity as the religion of the State, and the transference of the seat of government from Rome to Byzantium (A. D. 330), which was re-named after the emperor, Constantinople.

Persia at this time, under the Sassanian dynasty, attained a height of prosperity and power such as it had never before reached, and against it even the veteran Roman legions could gain no lasting laurels.

In China authentic history begins with the Chow dynasty (1122-255 B. C.) when Confucius and Mincius flourished (600 B. C). In the next (Tsin) dynasty Shih Hwang Ti (221-209 B. C.) reduced the independent petty states, and built the Great Wall as a protection against the barbarous Hiong-non (Huns) or Tartars of the north. Shortly after the beginning of the Christian era the Chinese seem to have begun intercourse with the Parthians and to have known the Roman Empire as Ta-tsin; and about the time of Constantine’s establishment of his new capital the Chinese emperor’s court was fixed at Nanking, the southern capital.

The increase of geographical knowledge during the period in which Rome was spreading out its power in all directions could not fail to be very considerable. Already in the latter part of the first century B. C., a general survey of the Roman Empire had been begun by the collection and arrangement of the itineraries of the roads to places in the empire. One of these traces the main roads of all the region stretching from Britain to the mouth of the Ganges in India.

=World About A. D. 500.=--For more than two centuries prior to this map, the whole of northern Europe, had begun to pour forth wave after wave of barbarian hordes, against the Roman Empire. By the invasions of the tribes of Goths, Franks, Vandals, etc., the western emperors lost their power outside of Italy, and the empire itself ceases to exist in 476, when it is nominally joined to the Eastern Empire. The Vandals had established their rule along north Africa; the Visigoths ruled in Spain; the Ostrogothic monarchy of Theodoric the Great extended over Italy, France, and all the countries round the Alps as far as the middle Danube; and the Franks, under Clovis, had possession of the whole of Gaul between the Loire and Somme.

Persia, still under the energetic Sassanian dynasty, not only maintained its integrity as an empire, but had begun to repel the Roman or Byzantine power in Asia, and had added part of Armenia. Westward, however, the arms of the Byzantine Empire were triumphant, the reign of the Emperor Justinian having been rendered famous by the expedition of his great general Belisarius to Africa, where, after a campaign of two years, he completely overthrew the Vandals and led their king captive to Constantinople. In a second war, Belisarius wrested all southern Italy from the Ostrogoths, pursuing them northward to Rome and Ravenna, and thus began the re-conquest of the peninsula, which was completed by his successor, the imperial general Narses, after which the Ostrogoths disappear as a distinct nation.

At this time, under Khosru, the greatest of the great monarchs of the Sassanian dynasty, the Persian Empire stretched from the Red Sea to the Indus, and from Arabia far into central Asia.

=World About A. D. 800.=--The end of this century finds three great empires in Europe and eastern Asia: the Mohammedan or Saracenic Empire, the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, and the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne. The Mohammedan Empire had spread itself out to central Asia and to Spain, and had already passed the zenith of its greatness. The dynasty of the Ommiades of Damascus had given place to that of the Abassides in the east, though a branch from it had set up an independent Califate at Cordova, in Spain. The Abbaside Haroun-al-Rashid, whose praises are sung by eastern poets, had his capital at Bagdad, on the Tigris, a city which had been founded by his predecessor in 762.

Charlemagne had consolidated and extended the Frankish Empire, received the ambassadors sent from the court of Bagdad to salute him, and had been crowned by the Pope at Rome. Irene, the mother of the Byzantine emperor, Constantine VI., had conceived the bold plan of uniting the east and west of Europe in one great empire, by marrying the Frankish emperor, a scheme which was frustrated by her overthrow and her banishment to the Isle Lesbos in the Ægean Sea (802).

Britain, so far as occupied by the Angles and Saxons, was divided into seven (or eight) little kingdoms, known as the Saxon Heptarchy.

=World About A. D. 1000.=--Germany, or the Eastern Franks, becomes at this time the greatest power in Europe, uniting to itself Upper Italy and Lotharingia.

France, or the Western Franks, early in this century is invaded by the Norsemen or Normans,--bold seafaring adventurers from Denmark and other northern lands, from whom the name Normandy is derived. The kingdom of France, however, began in 987.

The Saracen Empire was divided at the beginning of this century into no less than seven independent califates, of which the most distinguished was that of the Fatimites. The Saracenic civilization in Spain is now at its height. By the end of the century the power of the Saracens in the East is of but little account politically.

The Magyars, or Hungarians, before the end of the century have established a strong kingdom in the southeast of Europe; and to the north the Slavonic states of Poland and Bohemia are planted.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are powerful kingdoms by the close of this century and England, now one kingdom, is engaged in struggles with the Danes.

The hardy Scandinavian seamen had pushed back the clouds of ignorance over the vast region of the north Atlantic, and had reached the shores of the American continent nearly five centuries before Columbus. About the year 994 an expedition under Leif, son of Erik the Red, set sail for this new country. The regions discovered were named Helluland (Slateland), supposed to be Labrador; Markland, or Woodland, probably Southern Labrador; and Vinland, a country named from the wild vine growing there, which some identify with Newfoundland, while others transfer it to the New England coast, opposite the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

=World About A. D. 1300.=--Before the middle of the thirteenth century the vast Mongol Empire, under Ghengis Khan, had stretched out from China to Poland and Hungary, over all Asia except India and Asia Minor--an empire which far surpassed in extent any that had yet been known on the surface of the globe.

The great Mongol expansion forced the removal of the Ottoman Turks, who retreated from the steppes east of the Caspian to the mountains of Armenia. Othman or Osman, a chief of the tribe, on the destruction of the Seljuk power, obtained possession of Bithynia, attacked the Asiatic portion of the sinking Byzantine empire with success and founded there (1299) the subsequently great empire of the Ottoman or Osmanli Turks, as they are named from him.

In the course of his conquest Genghiz Khan had carried off multitudes of western Asiatics as slaves. Twelve thousand of these, mostly Turks and Circassians, were bought by the Sultan of Egypt (a successor of Saladin), who formed them into a body of troops. From being servants these well-armed slaves rose to be masters in Egypt, and placed one of their own number in the sultanate (1254), thus founding the Mameluke (or slave) dynasty in Egypt, which lasted for nearly three centuries, bringing the country again into great prosperity and power.

Thus, about the year 1300 the once great Mohammedan Empire had been restricted to its original seat, and to the western region of north Africa, all else having fallen into the hands of the Turks. The Calif of Bagdad had taken refuge under the protection of the Mamelukes of Egypt, retaining his spiritual power only; the Ommiade califate in Spain had long fallen.

The English, under Edward I., had incorporated Wales after ten years’ contest; Scotland was fighting for independence, led by Wallace and Bruce; and long wars engaged England and France, leading finally to a great increase in French territory and power. Denmark, Sweden and Norway were separate states. In central Europe, Poland and Hungary had been brought to the verge of ruin by the Mongol invasions, which had swept away for the time the divided principalities of Russia. In the south, the old Greek Empire was fast sinking through the assaults on it by the Turks.

The German Empire in this century both loses and gains territory, without material change.

Italy is still divided into independent commonwealths, which more and more fall under the power of princely families or tyrants.

In the Spanish Peninsula there are few geographical changes in this century, but Spain is steadily consolidating into a great power.

The Venetian, Marco Polo, the greatest of medieval travelers, passed seventeen years in exploring the kingdoms of Asia, and opened up to accurate knowledge not only the vast region of the central Asiatic continent, but also the disclosure of the existence of Japan, which he called Zipangu. While Venice opened up new paths to commerce towards the east, Genoa looked westward, sought to open up a new road to India by sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar and round the southern extremity of Africa. It was Genoese who first, in modern times, ventured upon the Atlantic; discovered the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores; and who first felt their way along the west coast of Africa.

=World About A. D. 1500.=--Previous to this century the nations with which we have been concerned has been restricted to Europe, a little of western Asia, and a small part of northern Africa. An immense enlargement of these bounds now suddenly occurs in consequence of the application of the compass to navigation. From this time dates the period of greatest maritime enterprise and discoveries.

The Portuguese took the lead in bold projects of adventure by sea. The Cape of Good Hope was discovered and doubled by Bartholomew Diaz in 1487, and in 1498 the feat of reaching India by water was accomplished by Vasco da Gama, who, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, reached Calicut in Malabar.

The general excitement about maritime discovery among the Portuguese suggested to Columbus the bold plan of reaching India, not by way of Africa, but by steering to the west across the Atlantic. The result of his voyage was the final discovery of the American continents. India he did not reach, but discovered instead, the island of Guanahani or San Salvador, in 1492, the main continent being discovered a few years later (June 24, 1497) by John Caboto, or Cabot, a Venetian sailor.

In the far east China had recovered its independence under the Ming dynasty, and its supremacy was acknowledged over Mongolia and eastern Turkestan, though the states of Tonquin and Cochin China, in the southern peninsula beyond India, had assumed a political independence. Western Asia had been reconquered by Timur, or Tamerlane, of western Turkestan. The Ottoman Turks had extended their European territory to its widest limit over the ruins of the Greek Empire; and Russia had become a united kingdom under Ivan the Great, and threw off the Tartar yoke.

In western Europe, the Swiss mountaineers had secured their independence. France was recovering from the calamities inflicted on it by the English, who had all but lost their hold on the land. In the south the reaction of Christendom against Mohammedanism had begun. The Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal had driven back the Moors across the Straits into Africa, and had consolidated their strength over the whole Peninsula. The Moors in turn settled along the north African coast. Morocco at this time had been formed into a monarchy, and enjoyed great prosperity.

=World About A. D. 1600.=--Spain is the chief power at this time. Besides vast continental dominions in the New World, its European possessions comprised the whole of the Spanish Peninsula, the Netherlands and other lands of the House of Austria, the Sicilies, Sardinia, and Milan. But, by the revolt of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Spain loses a considerable portion of her territory before the end of the century.

The German Empire continues, but more as a dignity than as an independent power. The emperors are uniformly chosen from the princes of the House of Austria, which now by its hereditary possession becomes one of the chief powers of Europe. In the person of the Emperor Charles V., who united the crown of Spain with the sovereignty of Austria, the imperial power reached its greatest extent.

France is engaged in wars civil and religious and foreign, but without much change of territory, except in America, where some colonies were established. England makes some attempts at colonization in America during this century, but the real settlements begin in the next.

Italy, during this period, is a battle-field of contention among the rival princes of Europe. The peninsula was made up of principalities and commonwealths, some of which were independent, but the most of which, during the greater part of this century, were under the dominant influence of Austria and of Spain. The northern provinces of the Netherlands throw off the yoke of Spain, and are united in a federal commonwealth. The union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ceases in the early part of this century, by the independence of Sweden, which now plays an important part in European history. Poland is an important state in this century, with extensive possessions.

The Turkish or Ottoman Empire is largely extended in this century by the annexation of Syria, Egypt, a great part of the northern coast of Africa, and the conquest of a large part of Hungary.