Chapter I: Preface: To Period III

In this third and final volume of the Greatest Story in the World I have tried to give an outline sketch of the happenings of the last five centuries. It is the period which must appeal more forcibly than any earlier time to all of Anglo-Saxon race, because it is the Anglo-Saxon race that plays by far the largest role in it, and a role which becomes of constantly increasing interest right down to the present day. We first see Great Britain, in the gallant figures of Elizabeth's sea-captains, as chief actor in thwarting the aims at world empire of Spain. A little while, and we see her again taking the lead in abating the arrogance of the Grand Monarque, Louis XIV. of France. But of far greater importance than even this checking of the powers of the would-be masters of the world is that part which fortune or Providence assigned to her to play so conspicuously throughout the second half of the period which this volume covers--the part of mother of nations. It is thus that the historian, J. R. Green, writes of her as she appeared to the world after the United States had fought their way to independence--not a nation broken by her loss, as all had perhaps expected to find her, possibly a sadder and certainly a wiser nation, but, most surprising of all, stronger and more adventurous.

These are Mr. Green's words: "From the moment of the Declaration of Independence it mattered little whether England counted for less or more with the {vi} nations around her. She was no longer a mere European power, no longer a mere rival of Germany or Russia or France. She was from that hour a mother of nations.... And to these nations she was to give not only her blood and her speech, but the freedom which she had won. It is the thought of this which flings its grandeur round the pettiest details of our story in the past. The history of France has little result beyond France itself. German or Italian history has no direct issue outside the boundaries of Germany or Italy. But England is only a small part of the outcome of English history. Its greater issues lie not within the narrow limits of the mother island, but in the destinies of nations yet to be. The struggles of her patriots, the wisdom of her statesmen, the steady love of liberty and law in her people at large, were shaping in the past of our little island the future of mankind."

The greatest part, in fact, of this Greatest Story for the last hundred and fifty years has been made in England. That is, indeed, much to say, but it is not too much.

In this volume I have thought best not to take up space with description of the way in which men have so lately lived, have built their houses, and so on. I have assumed that all this would be more or less familiar to my readers from other books and pictures and talk. And not even in vaguest outline have I attempted a sketch of the Great War and its effects. The moving picture which I have tried to make intelligible stops before the curtain is rung up on that grim tragedy whose import we do not even now fully understand.

And yet again my best thanks are due to Mr. R. B. Lattimer for valuable criticisms and suggestions.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. How Man sailed East and West
II. The Stories of the Old East and of the New West
III. Three Kings and a Monk
IV. The Waning Power of Spain
V. The Wars of Religion
VI. The Growing Power of France
VII. The Humbling of France
VIII. From the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
IX. The Seven Years' War
X. How The United States won Independence
XI. How the Stage was set for the French Revolution
XII. The Revolution and the Terror
XIII. The Napoleonic Wars
XIV. The Expansion of the Anglo-Saxon and the Slav
XV. Steam and Evolution
XVI. The Resettlement of Europe
XVII. The Settlement of America
XVIII. "The White Man's Burden"
SECTION I.--Africa
SECTION II.--India and the Far East
SECTION III.--The Far South
Index

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Railway Centenary, 1925: Ancient and Modern Locomotives ... _Frontispiece_

Ships of the Time of Henry VIII.

Mexican Picture Writing

Statue of Buddha

Sir Francis Drake

General Wolfe's Statue, Quebec

The Potala at Lhasa

The Taj Mahal, Agra

Warren Hastings

The Modern Palace of Versailles

Napoleon I.

H.M.S. "Victory" after Trafalgar

The Duke of Wellington

An Old Mail Coach

Old Hand Loom and Modern Power Loom

Garibaldi

Old Japan: Entrance to the Tombs, Tokio

A Street Scene in Modern Japan

A Scene in New Zealand: Mt. Pembroke

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THE GREATEST STORY IN THE WORLD