The Congress of Berlin (1878) and the eastern question.
The Congress of Berlin determined that Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania should thereafter be altogether independent. The latter two became kingdoms within a few years, Roumania in 1881 and Servia in 1882. Bosnia and Herzegovina,[461]instead of becoming a part of Servia, as they wished, were to be occupied and administered by Austria, although the Sultan remained their nominal sovereign. Bulgaria received a Christian government, but was forced to continue to recognize the Sultan as its sovereign and pay him tribute.[462]
To-day the once wide dominions of the Sultan in Europe are reduced to the city of Constantinople and a strip of mountainous country stretching westward to the Adriatic.
General Reading.—In addition to the works of Andrews and Fyffe referred to in the footnotes, the following are excellent short accounts of the political history of Europe since 1815.W.A. Phillips,Modern Europe(The Macmillan Company, $1.50);Seignobos,Political History of Europe since 1814, carefully edited by MacVane (Henry Holt & Co., $3.00), and the readable but partisan German work of Müller,Political History of Recent Times(American Book Company, $2.00). For Germany:Munroe Smith,Bismarck and German Unity(The Macmillan Company, $1.00) andKuno Francke,History of German Literature as determined by Social Forces(Henry Holt & Co., $2.50). For Italy:Thayer,Dawn of Italian Independence(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2 vols., $4.00);Stillman,Union of Italy(The Macmillan Company, $1.60);Countess Cesaresco,Liberation of Italy(Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.75) and herCavour(The Macmillan Company, 75 cents). For England:McCarthy,History of our Own Times(issued by various publishers, e.g., Coates & Co., 2 vols., $1.50).
General Reading.—In addition to the works of Andrews and Fyffe referred to in the footnotes, the following are excellent short accounts of the political history of Europe since 1815.W.A. Phillips,Modern Europe(The Macmillan Company, $1.50);Seignobos,Political History of Europe since 1814, carefully edited by MacVane (Henry Holt & Co., $3.00), and the readable but partisan German work of Müller,Political History of Recent Times(American Book Company, $2.00). For Germany:Munroe Smith,Bismarck and German Unity(The Macmillan Company, $1.00) andKuno Francke,History of German Literature as determined by Social Forces(Henry Holt & Co., $2.50). For Italy:Thayer,Dawn of Italian Independence(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 2 vols., $4.00);Stillman,Union of Italy(The Macmillan Company, $1.60);Countess Cesaresco,Liberation of Italy(Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.75) and herCavour(The Macmillan Company, 75 cents). For England:McCarthy,History of our Own Times(issued by various publishers, e.g., Coates & Co., 2 vols., $1.50).
275.The scholars and learned men of the Middle Ages were but little interested in the world about them. They devoted far more attention to philosophy and theology than to what we should call the natural sciences. They were satisfied in the main to get their knowledge of nature from reading the works of the ancients, above all of Aristotle. Roger Bacon, as we have seen, protested against the exaggerated veneration for books. He foresaw that a careful examination of the things about us,—like water, air, light, animals and plants,—would lead to important and useful discoveries which would greatly benefit mankind.
Modern scientific methods of discovering truth.
Experimentation.
He advocated three methods of reaching truth which are now followed by all scientific men. In the first place, he proposed that natural objects and changes should be examined with great care, in order that the observer might determine exactly what happened in any given case. This has led in modern times to incredibly refined measurements and analysis. The chemist, for example, can now determine the exact nature and amount of every substance in a cup of impure water, which may appear perfectly limpid to the casual observer. Then, secondly, Roger Bacon advocated experimentation. He was not contented with mere observation of what actually happened, but tried new and artificial combinations and processes. Nowadays experimentation is constantly used by scientific investigators, and by means of it they discover many things which the most careful observation would never reveal. Thirdly, inorder to carry on investigation and make careful measurements and the desired experiments, apparatus designed for the special purpose of discovering truth was necessary. As early as the thirteenth century it was found, for example, that a convex crystal or bit of glass would magnify objects, although several centuries elapsed before the microscope and telescope were devised.
Astrology grows into astronomy.
The progress of scientific discovery was hastened, strangely enough, by two grave misapprehensions. In the Middle Ages even the most intelligent believed that the heavenly bodies influenced the fate of mankind; consequently, that a careful observation of the position of the planets at the time of a child's birth would make it possible to forecast his life. In the same way important enterprises were only to be undertaken when the influence of the stars was auspicious. Physicians believed that the efficacy of their medicines depended upon the position of the planets. This whole subject of the influence of the stars upon human affairs was called astrology, and was in some cases taught in the mediæval universities. Those who examined the stars gradually came, however, to the conclusion that the movements of the planets had no effect upon humanity; but the facts which the astrologers had discovered through careful observation became the basis of modern astronomy.
Alchemy grows into chemistry.
In the same way chemistry developed out of the mediæval study of alchemy. The first experimentation with chemicals was carried on with the hope of producing gold by some happy combination of less valuable metals. But finally, after learning more about the nature of chemical compounds, it was discovered that gold was an element, or simple substance, and consequently could not be formed by combinations of other substances.
Discovery that the universe follows natural laws.
In short, observation and experimentation were leading to the most fundamental of all scientific discoveries, namely, the conviction that all the things about us follow certain natural,immutable laws. The modern scientific investigator devotes a great part of his attention to the discovery of these laws and their application. He has given up any hope of reading man's fate in the stars or of producing any results by magical combinations. Unlike the mediæval writers, he hesitates to accept as true the reports which reach him of miracles, that is, of exceptions to the general laws, because he is convinced that the natural laws have been found to work regularly in every instance where they have been carefully observed. His study of the natural laws has, however, enabled him to produce far more marvelous results than those reported of the mediæval magician.
Galileo's telescope.
276.In a previous chapter the progress of science for three hundred years after Roger Bacon has been briefly noted.[463]With the exception of Copernicus the investigators of this period are scarcely known to us. In the seventeenth century, however, progress became very rapid and has been steadily accelerating since. In astronomy, for example, the truths which had been only suspected by earlier astronomers were demonstrated to the eye by Galileo (1564–1642). By means of a little telescope, which was hardly so powerful as the best modern opera glasses, he discovered (in 1610) the spots on the sun. These made it plain that the sun was revolving on its axis as astronomers were already convinced that the earth revolved. He saw, too, that the moons of Jupiter were revolving about their planet in the same way that the planets revolve about the sun.
Sir Isaac Newton and his discovery of the law of universal gravitation.
The year that Galileo died, the famous English mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton, was born (1642–1727). He carried on the work of earlier astronomers by the application of higher mathematics, and proved that the force of attraction which we call gravitation was a universal one, and that the sun and the moon and the earth, and all the heavenly bodies, are attracted to one another inversely as the square of the distance.
Development of the microscope.
While the telescope aided the astronomer, the microscope contributed far more to the extension of practical knowledge. Rude and simple microscopes were used with advantage as early as the seventeenth century. Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch linen merchant, so far improved his lenses that he discovered the blood corpuscles and (1665) the "animalculæ" or minute organisms of various kinds found in pond water and elsewhere. The microscope has been rapidly perfected since the introduction of better kinds of lenses early in the nineteenth century, so that it is now possible to magnify minute objects to more than two thousand times their diameters.
Advance in medical science.
This has produced the most extraordinary advance in medicine and biology. It has made it possible to determine the difference between healthy and diseased tissue; and not many years ago the microscope revealed the fact that the bodies of animals and men are the home of excessively small organisms called bacteria, some of which, through the poisonous substances they give out, cause disease. The modern treatment of many maladies, such as consumption, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhoid, is based upon this momentous discovery. The success of surgical operations has also been rendered far more secure than formerly by the so-called antiseptic measures which are now taken to prevent the development of bacteria.[464]
Scientific discovery and invention did not affect daily life before the end of the eighteenth century.
277.The discoveries of the scientist and of the mathematician did not begin to be applied to the affairs of daily life until about a hundred and fifty years ago. No new ways had previously been discovered for traveling from place to place. Spinning and weaving were still carried on as they had been before the barbarians overran the Roman Empire. Iron, of which we now make our machines, could only be prepared for use expensively and in small quantities by means of charcoal and bellows.
The 'domestic system' of manufacture.
Manufacture still meant, as it did in the original Latin (manu facere), to make by hand. Artisans carried on their trade with their own tools in their own homes, or in small shops, like the cobbler of to-day. Instead of working with hundreds of others in a great factory and being entirely dependent upon his wages, the artisan, in England at least, was often able to give some attention to a small garden plot from which he derived a part of his support. This "domestic system" was displaced by factories, as the result of a series of mechanical inventions made in England during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Through them machinery was substituted for hand and foot power and for the simple implements which had served the world for centuries.
Cheap iron and adequate power essential to the development of machinery.
Watt invents the steam engine.
In order that machinery should develop and become widely useful, two things were necessary. In the first place, there must be some strong material available of which to make the machines; for that purpose iron and steel have, with few exceptions, proved to be the best. In the second place, some adequate power must be found to propel the machinery, which is ordinarily too heavy to be run by hand or foot power. This necessary motive power was discovered in steam. The steam engine was devised by James Watt, an English inventor of great ingenuity. He invented a cylinder containing a piston, which could be forced back and forth by the introduction of steam. His progress was much retarded by the inability of the mechanics of his time to make an accurate cylinder of sufficient size, but in the year 1777 the new machine was successfully used for pumping. A few years later (1785) he arranged his engine so that it would turn a wheel. In this way, for the first time, steam could be used to run machinery—the spindles, for example, in a cotton mill.
Steam used for spinning and weaving.
A few years before Watt completed his improved steam engine, the old spinning wheel had been supplanted by the modern system, in which the thread is drawn out by meansof spindles revolving at different rates of speed. The spindles, which had at first been run by water power, could now be propelled by steam. The old loom had also been improved, and weaving by steam began to become general after the year 1800.
Use of steam cheapens iron.
New method of producing steel.
Machinery, however, could not become common so long as iron and steel were expensive. The first use, therefore, to which the crude steam engines were put was to furnish a blast which enabled the iron smelter to employ coal instead of charcoal to fuse the iron ore (1777). Moreover, the steam pumps made it possible for the miners to pump out the water which impeded their work in the mines, and in this way cheapened both the iron and the coal. Soon the so-called "puddling furnace" was invented, by means of which steel was produced much more economically than it could be earlier. Rolling mills run by steam then took the place of the hammers with which the steel had formerly been beaten into shape. These discoveries of the use of steam and coal and iron revolutionized the life of the people at large in western Europe more quickly than any of the events which have been previously recorded in this volume. It is the aim of the remainder of this chapter to indicate very briefly the variety and importance of the effects produced by modern inventions.[465]
Domestic industry supplanted by the factory system.
278.Machinery although very efficient was expensive, and had necessarily to be near the boilers which produced the steam. Consequently machines for particular purposes were grouped in factories, and the workmen left their homes and gathered in large establishments. The hand worker with his old tools was more and more at a disadvantage compared with the workman who produced commodities by machinery. The result was inevitable, namely, that domestic industry was supplanted by the factory.
Advantages of machinery.
Division of labor.
One of the principal advantages of the factory system is that it makes possible a minute division of labor. Instead of giving his time and thought to the whole process, each worker concentrates his attention upon one single step of the process, and by repeating a simple set of motions over and over again acquires wonderful dexterity. At the same time the period of necessary apprenticeship is shortened under the factory system, because each separate task is comparatively simple. Moreover, the invention of new machinery is increased, because the very subdivision of the process into simple steps often suggests some way of substituting mechanical motion for the motion of the human hand.
Examples of the increased production of goods by machinery.
An example of the greatly increased output rendered possible by the use of machinery and division of labor is given by the distinguished Scotch economist, Adam Smith, whose great work,The Wealth of Nations, appeared in 1776. Speaking of the manufacture of a pin in his own time, Adam Smith says: "To make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business, to whiten the pin is another. It is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper, and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations." By this division, he adds, ten persons can make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day. A recent writer reports that now an English machine makes one hundred and eighty pins a minute, cutting the wire, flattening the heads, sharpening the points, and dropping the pin into its proper place. In a single factory which he visited seven million pins were made in a day, and three men were all that were required to manage the mechanism.
Another example of modern mechanical work is found in printing. For several centuries after the development of that art the type was set up by hand, inked by hand, each sheet of paper was laid by hand upon the type and then printed bymeans of a press operated by a lever. Nowadays our newspapers are, in the great cities at least, printed almost altogether by machinery, from the setting up of the type until they are dropped complete and counted out by hundreds at the bottom of a rotary press. The paper is fed into the press from a great roll and is printed on both sides and folded at the rate of two hundred or more newspapers a minute.
New means of communication.
Steamboats.
279.The factory system would never have developed upon a vast scale had the manufacturers been able to sell their goods only in the neighborhood. The discovery that steam could be used to carry the goods cheaply and speedily to all parts of the world made it possible for a manufacturer to widen his market indefinitely. Fulton, an American inventor, devised the first steamboat that was really successful, in 1807, yet over half a century elapsed before steamships began to supplant the old and uncertain sailing ship. It is now possible to make the journey from New York to Southampton, three thousand miles, in less than six days, and with almost the regularity of an express train. Japan may be reached from Vancouver in thirteen days, and from San Francisco via Honolulu, a distance of five thousand five hundred miles, in eighteen days. A commercial map of the world shows that the globe is now crossed in every direction by definite routes, which are followed by innumerable freight and passenger steamers passing regularly from one port to another. These are able to carry goods for incredibly small sums. For example, wheat has frequently been shipped from New York to Liverpool for two cents a bushel.
Development of the railroad.
Just as the gigantic modern steamship has taken the place of the schooner and clipper, so, on land, the merchandise which used to be slowly dragged in carts by means of horses and oxen is now transported in long trains of capacious cars, each of which holds as much as many ordinary carts. A ton of freight can now be carried for less than a cent a mile. In 1825 Stephenson's locomotive was put into operation in England.Other countries soon began to follow England's lead in building railroads. France opened its first railroad in 1828, Germany in 1835. By 1840 Europe had over eighteen hundred miles of railroad; fifty years later this had increased to one hundred and forty thousand.
Startling improvements in the means of communication.
Besides the marvelous cheapening of transportation, other new means of communication have resulted from modern inventions. The telegraph, the submarine cable, and the telephone, all have served to render communication prompt and certain. Steamships and railroads carry letters half round the globe for a price too trivial to be paid for delivering a message round the corner. The old, awkward methods of making payments have given way to a tolerably uniform system of coinage. Instead of each petty principality and each town having its own coins, as was common, especially in Germany and Italy, before the nineteenth century, all coins are now issued by the national central governments. Yet the most convenient coins are difficult to transfer in large quantities, and nowadays all considerable sums are paid by means of checks and drafts. The banks settle their accounts by means of a clearing house, and in this way almost no large amount of money need pass from hand to hand.
England took the lead in utilizing all these remarkable new inventions, and with their aid became, by the middle of the nineteenth century, the manufacturing center of the world. Gradually the new machinery was introduced on the continent, and since 1850 countries having the necessary coal, such as Germany and Belgium, have developed manufacturing industries which now rival those of Great Britain.
Some results of the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century.
Rapid growth of the towns.
280.Theindustrial revolution, as the changes above referred to are usually called, could not but have a profound influence upon the life and government of Europe. For example, the population of Europe appears to have nearly doubled during the nineteenth century. One of the most startling tendenciesof recent times has been the growth of the towns. In 1800 London had a population of less than one million; it now contains over four million five hundred thousand inhabitants. Paris, at the opening of the French Revolution, contained less than seven hundred thousand inhabitants; it now has over two and a half millions. Berlin has grown in a hundred years from one hundred and seventy-two thousand to nearly two millions. In England a quarter of the whole population live in towns having over two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and less than a quarter still remain in the country. Our modern life is dominated by the great cities, which not only are the center of commerce and manufacturing, but are the homes of the artist and man of letters.
Reasons for the growth of the towns.
There are two obvious reasons for the growth of the towns since the industrial revolution. In the first place, factories are established in places where there is an abundant supply of coal, or where conditions are otherwise favorable; and this brings a large number of people together. In the second place, there is no limit set to the growth of cities, as was formerly the case, by the difficulty of procuring food from a distance. Paris, in the time of Louis XVI, was not a large city in the modern sense of the word; still the government found it very difficult to secure a regular supply of food in the markets. Now grain and even meat and fruit are easily carried any distance. England imports a large amount of her meat from Australia, on the other side of the globe, and even her butter and eggs she gets largely from the continent.
Abolition of most of the restrictions on trade and industry.
281.Before the nineteenth century the European governments had been accustomed to regulate trade, industry, and commerce by a great variety of laws, which were supposed to be necessary for the protection of the public. Of this we find examples in the English Navigation Acts;[466]in the guilds, which under the protection of the government enjoyed amonopoly of their industries in their particular districts; in the regulations issued by Colbert[467]and in the grain laws in both France and England, which limited the free importation and even the exportation of grain.
The French and English economists in the eighteenth century, like Turgot and Adam Smith, advocated the abolition of all restrictions, which they believed did far more harm than good. The expediency of thislaissez faire,[468]or free-trade policy, has now been recognized by most European powers. England abolished her grain laws (the so-called Corn Laws) in 1846, and since then has adopted the policy of free trade, except so far as she raises a revenue from customs duties imposed upon a very few commodities, like liquor and tobacco. Low import duties are collected by most of the European powers on goods entering their territories, but all export duties have been abolished as well as all customs barriers within the countries.
Government regulations protecting the laborer.
A short experience with the factory system showed the need of regulations designed to protect the laborer.[469]There was a temptation for the new factories to force the employees to work an excessive number of hours under unhealthful conditions. Women and children were set to run the machines, and their strength was often cruelly overtaxed. Women and children were also employed in the coal mines, under terribly degrading conditions. One of the great functions of our modern governments has been to pass laws to protect the working men and women and to improve their condition. Germany has been particularly active in this sort of regulation, and has gone so far as to compel workingmen to insure themselves for the benefit of their families.[470]
Labor unions.
Another development of the factory system has been the rise of labor unions. These are voluntary associations intended topromote the interests of their members. They have grown as the factory system has been extended, and they now enjoy an influence in certain industries comparable to that exercised by the craft guilds of the Middle Ages. The governments do not undertake, however, to enforce the regulations of the labor unions as they formerly did of the guilds.[471]
The people admitted to a share in the government.
Character of modern constitutions.
282.The extension of manufacturing industries has had much to do with the gradual admission of the people to a share in the government. The life in towns and cities has quickened the intelligence of the working classes, so that they are no longer willing to intrust the affairs of government entirely to a king or to the representatives of the upper classes. The result of this was, as we have seen, that constitutions were, during the nineteenth century, introduced into all the western European states. While these differ from one another in detail, they all agree in establishing a house of representatives, whose members are chosen by the people at large. Gradually the franchise has been extended so that the poorest laborer, so soon as he comes of age, is permitted to have a voice in the selection of the deputies.[472]Without the sanction of the representatives of the people, the king and the upper, more aristocratic house are not allowed to pass any law orestablish any new tax. Each year a carefully prepared list of expenses must be presented to the lower house and receive its ratification before money collected by taxation can be spent.
Equality before the law.
The French prefaced their first constitution by the memorable words: "All citizens being equal before the law, are alike eligible to all public offices and positions of honor and trust, according to their capacity, and without any distinction, except that of their character and ability." This principle, so different from that which had hitherto prevailed, has been recognized in most of the modern European constitutions. The privileges and exceptions which everywhere existed before the French Revolution have been abolished. Modern European governments are supposed to treat all alike, regardless of social rank or religious belief.
Religious equality in England.
Repeal of the Test Act, 1828.
At the opening of the nineteenth century England still kept on the statute book the laws debarring Roman Catholics and dissenters from sitting in Parliament or holding any public office. Exceptions, however, were made in the case of the dissenters. Finally, after violent opposition on the part of the conservative party, the Test Act, passed in the reign of Charles II,[473]was repealed in 1828. Next year the Roman Catholics were also given the right to sit in Parliament and to hold office, like the other subjects of the king.
Free and compulsory education under the control of the state.
Education, which was formerly left to the church, has during the nineteenth century become one of the most important functions of government. Boys and girls of all classes, between the ages of four and fourteen or fifteen, are now generally forced to take advantage of the schools which the government supports for their benefit. Tuition is free in France, Italy, Norway, and Sweden, and only trifling fees are required in Germany and elsewhere in western Europe. In 1902 the English Parliament and the French Legislative Assembly each appropriated about forty million dollars for educational purposes. As an example ofthe rapid advance in education in recent times, it may be noted that in 1843, among those who married in England and Wales, one third of the men and half of the women were unable to sign their names in the marriage registers. In 1899 all but three men in a hundred could write, and almost as many of the women.
Warfare in recent times.
283.The general advance in education has not yet taught nations to settle all their disputes without recourse to war. It is true that since Napoleon's downfall there have been but three or four serious wars in western Europe, and these very brief ones compared with the earlier conflicts. But the European powers spend vast amounts annually in maintaining standing armies and building battle ships. France and Germany have each a force of over half a million carefully trained soldiers ready to fight at any moment, and two million more who can be called out with the utmost speed should war be declared.[474]The invention of repeating rifles and of new and deadly explosives have, however, rendered war so terrible a thing to contemplate that statesmen are more and more reluctant to suggest a resort to arms.
European colonies in the nineteenth century.
Recent wars and the frequent rumors of war have had their origin mainly in disagreements over colonial matters. The anxiety of the European powers to extend their control over distant parts of the world is now no less marked than it was in the eighteenth century. Modern means of communication have naturally served to make the world smaller and more compact. An event in London is known as promptly in Sydney as in Oxford. A government can send orders to its commanders on the opposite side of the globe as easily as if they were but five miles away. Supplies, ammunition, and arms are, moreover, readily and speedily transferred to remote points.
The Spanish colonies in North and South America establish their independence, 1810–1826.
At the opening of the nineteenth century Spain still held Mexico, Florida, Central America, and most of South Americaexcept Brazil, which belonged to Portugal. During the Napoleonic period the Spanish colonies revolted and declared their independence of the mother country,—Mexico, New Granada, Chile, and the region about Buenos Ayres in 1810, Venezuela in 1811, etc. By 1826 Spain had been forced to give up the struggle and withdraw her troops from the American continent. In 1822 Brazil declared itself independent of Portugal. After the recent war with the United States Spain lost Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, the last remnants of her once imposing colonial domains.
Expansion of England during the nineteenth century.
England, on the other hand, has steadily increased her colonial realms and her dependencies during the nineteenth century, and has met with no serious losses since the successful revolt of the thirteen American colonies. In 1814 she acquired the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch, and since then the territory has been enlarged by adding the adjacent districts. During the last years of the nineteenth century England busied herself extending her power over large tracts of western, central, and eastern Africa.
England has secured her interests in the eastern Mediterranean by gaining control of the Suez Canal, which was completed in 1869, mainly with French capital. In 1875 she purchased the shares owned by the khedive of Egypt. Then, since the khedive's finances were in a very bad way, she arranged to furnish him, in the interest of his creditors and in agreement with France, with financial advisers without whose approval he can make no financial decision. Moreover, English troops are stationed in Egypt with a view of maintaining order.
In the southern hemisphere England has colonized the continent of Australia, the large islands of New Zealand, Tasmania, etc. The mother country wisely grants these colonies and Canada almost complete freedom in managing their own affairs. The Canadian provinces formed a federation amongthemselves in 1867, and in 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed, a federation of the five Australian colonies and the island of Tasmania.
Expansion of Russia since the Crimean War.
France exercises a wide influence in Africa and even Germany has made some effort to gain a foothold there; but the most momentous extension of a European power is that of Russia. Since the Crimean War Russia has pressed steadily into central Asia, so that now her boundaries and those of the English possessions in India practically touch one another. She has also been actively engaged in the Far East. In 1898 she leased Port Arthur from China, and now the Trans-Siberian Railroad connects this as well as Vladivostok on the Pacific coast with Moscow.
The Far Eastern Question.
Recent events have shown that the European powers are likely to come into hostile relations with one another in dealing with China. The problem of satisfying the commercial and military demands of the various nations constitutes what is known as the Far Eastern Question.
General disturbance caused by war in modern conditions.
While all these conquests of the European powers increase the probability of friction and misunderstandings, there is a growing abhorrence of war. It appears more inhuman to men of to-day than it did to their ancestors. Moreover, all parts of the world are now so dependent each on the other that even the rumor of war may produce disastrous results far and wide. The prospect of war frightens the merchants, checks commerce and industry, and causes loss both to the laborer and the capitalist.
The peace conference at The Hague, 1899.
Many difficulties between nations can now be adjusted by the rules of international law. Arbitration is more and more frequently preferred to war. In 1899 an international peace conference was held at The Hague at the suggestion of the Tsar. Its object was to consider how the European powers might free themselves from the burden of supporting tremendous armies and purchasing the terrible engines of destructionwhich modern ingenuity has conceived. The resolutions of the conference embody rules for adjusting international disputes and prohibiting the use of particularly cruel and murderous projectiles, and for the treatment of prisoners of war, etc.
It has been possible to mention only a few of the startling achievements and changes which the nineteenth century has witnessed. Enough has, however, been said to show that Europe to-day differs perhaps more fundamentally from the Europe Napoleon knew than did Napoleon's world from Charlemagne's. Although civil and religious liberty and equality have been established, and incredible progress has been made in scientific thought, in general enlightenment, and in domestic comfort, yet the growth of democracy, the magnitude of the modern city, and the unprecedented development of industry and commerce have brought with them new and urgent problems which the future must face.
General Reading.—The Progress of the Century(Harper & Bros., $2.50), a collection of essays by distinguished writers and investigators, summing up the changes of the nineteenth century.The Statesman's Year Book(The Macmillan Company, $3.00) is issued each year and gives much valuable information in regard to the population, constitution, finances, educational system, etc., of the European states.Wells,Recent Economic Changes(D. Appleton & Co., $2.00).
General Reading.—The Progress of the Century(Harper & Bros., $2.50), a collection of essays by distinguished writers and investigators, summing up the changes of the nineteenth century.The Statesman's Year Book(The Macmillan Company, $3.00) is issued each year and gives much valuable information in regard to the population, constitution, finances, educational system, etc., of the European states.Wells,Recent Economic Changes(D. Appleton & Co., $2.00).
Adams, George B.,Civilization during the Middle Ages(Charles Scribner's Sons, $2.50).
Adams, George B.,Growth of the French Nation(The Macmillan Company, $1.25).
Andrews,Historical Development of Modern Europe(G.P. Putnam's Sons, $2.75).
Bryce,The Holy Roman Empire(The Macmillan Company, $1.00).
Cambridge Modern History, Volume I (The Macmillan Company, $3.75).
Cesaresco,Liberation of Italy(Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.75).
Cheyney,Industrial and Social History of England(The Macmillan Company, $1.40).
Colby,Selections from the Sources of English History(Longmans, Green & Co., $1.50).
Cunningham,Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects: Volume II,Mediæval and Modern Times(The Macmillan Company, $1.25).
Emerton,Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages(Ginn & Company, $1.12).
Emerton,Mediæval Europe(Ginn & Company, $1.50).
Fyffe,History of Modern Europe(Henry Holt & Co., $2.75).
Gardiner,Student's History of England(Longmans, Green & Co., $3.00).
Green,Short History of the English People, Revised Edition (Harper & Bros., $1.20).
Hassall,The Balance of Power[Europe in the Eighteenth Century] (The Macmillan Company, $1.60).
Hatch,Growth of Church Institutions(Whittaker, $1.50).
Henderson,A History of Germany in the Middle Ages(The Macmillan Company, $2.60).
Henderson,Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages(The Macmillan Company, $1.50).
Henderson,Short History of Germany, 2 volumes (The Macmillan Company, $4.00).
Hodgkin,Dynasty of Theodosius(Clarendon Press, Oxford, $1.50).
Jessop,The Coming of the Friars(G.P. Putnam's Sons, $1.25).
Johnson,Europe in the Sixteenth Century(The Macmillan Company, $1.75)
Lee,Source-book of English History(Henry Holt & Co., $2.00).
Lowell, E.J.,Eve of the French Revolution(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $2.00).
Mathews,The French Revolution(Longmans, Green & Co., $1.25).
Munro,Mediæval History(D.C. Appleton & Co., 90 cents).
Oman,Dark Ages(The Macmillan Company, $1.75).
Perkins,France under the Regency(Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $2.00).
Phillips,Modern Europe(1815–1899) (The Macmillan Company, $1.50).
Rose,Life of Napoleon the First, 2 volumes (The Macmillan Company, $4.00).
Rose,Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period(The Macmillan Company, $1.25).
Schwill,History of Modern Europe(Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.50).
Smith, Munroe,Bismarck and German Unity(The Macmillan Company, $1.00).
Stephens,The French Revolution, 3 volumes (Charles Scribner's Sons, $7.50).
Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History(Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Single numbers, 10 cents; double numbers, 20 cents).
Wakeman,Europe from 1598 to 1715(The Macmillan Company, $1.40).
Walker,The Protestant Reformation(Charles Scribner's Sons, $2.00).