The World's Greatest Books — Volume 12 — Modern History

Part 1

THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS

JOINT EDITORS

ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge

J.A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth a Universal Encyclopaedia

VOL. XII MODERN HISTORY

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Table of Contents

MODERN HISTORY

AMERICA ELIOT, SAMUEL History of the United Stales

PRESCOTT, W.H. History of the Conquest of Mexico History of the Conquest of Peru

ENGLAND EDWARD HYDE, E. OF CLARENDON History of the Rebellion

MACAULAY, LORD History of England

BUCKLE, HENRY History of Civilization in England

BAGEHOT, WALTER English Constitution

FRANCE VOLTAIRE Age of Louis XIV

TOCQUEVILLE, DE Old Régime

MIGNET, FRANCOIS History of the French Revolution

CARLYLE, THOMAS History of the French Revolution

LAMARTINE, A.M.L. DE History of the Girondists

TAINE, H.A. Modern Régime

GERMANY CARLYLE, THOMAS Frederick the Great

GREECE FINLAY, GEORGE History of Greece

HOLLAND MOTLEY, J.L. Rise of the Dutch Republic History of the United Netherlands

INDIA ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART History of India

RUSSIA VOLTAIRE Russia under Peter the Great

SPAIN PRESCOTT, W.H. Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella

SWEDEN VOLTAIRE History of Charles XII

PAPACY MILMAN, HENRY History of Latin Christianity

Part 2

VON RANKE, LEOPOLD History of the Popes

A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end of Volume XX.

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Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the selection by H.A. Taine on "Modern Régime," appearing in this volume, are hereby tendered to Madame Taine-Paul-Dubois, of Menthon St. Bernard, France, and Henry Holt & Co., of New York.

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SAMUEL ELIOT

History of the United States

Samuel Eliot, a historian and educator, was born in Boston in 1821, graduated at Harvard in 1839, was engaged in business for two years, and then travelled and studied abroad for four years more. On his return, he took up tutoring and gave gratuitous instruction to classes of young workingmen. He became professor of history and political science in Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., in 1856, and retained that chair until 1864. During the last four years of that time, he was president of the institution. From 1864 to 1874 he lectured on constitutional law and political science. He lectured at Harvard from 1870 to 1873. He was President of the Social Science Association when it organised the movement for Civil Service reform in 1869. His history of the United States appeared in 1856 under the title of "Manual of United States History between the Years 1792 and 1850." It was revised and brought down to date in 1873, under the title of "History of the United States." A third edition appeared in 1881. This work gained distinction as the first adequate textbook of United States history and still holds the place it deserves in popular favor. The epitome is supplemented by a chronicle compiled from several sources.

The first man to discover the shores of the United States, according to Icelandic records, was an Icelander, Leif Erickson, who sailed in the year 1000, and spent the winter somewhere on the New England coast. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese in the Spanish service, discovered San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, on October 12, 1492. He thought that he had found the western route to the Indies, and, therefore, called his discovery the West Indies. In 1507, the new continent received its name from that of Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine who had crossed the ocean under the Spanish and Portuguese flags. The middle ages were Closing; the great nations of Europe were putting forth their energies, material and immaterial; and the discovery of America came just in season to help and be helped by the men of these stirring years.

Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, was the first to reach the territory of the present United States. On Easter Sunday, 1512, he discovered the land to which he gave the name of Florida or Flower Land. Numberless discoverers succeeded him. De Soto led a great expedition northward and westward, in 1539-43, with no greater reward than the discovery of the Mississippi. Among the French explorers to claim Canada under the name of New France, were Verrazzano, 1524, and Cartier, 1534-42. Champlain began Quebec in 1608. The oldest town in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, was founded September 8, 1565, by Menendez de Aviles, who brought a train of soldiers, priests and negro slaves. The second oldest town, Santa Fe, was founded by the Spaniards in 1581.

John Cabot, a Venetian residing in Bristol, was the first person sailing under the English flag, to come to these shores. He sailed in 1497, with his three sons, but no settlement was effected. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was lost at sea in 1583, and Walter Raleigh, his cousin, took up claims that had been made to him by Queen Elizabeth, and crossed to the shores of the present North Carolina. Sir Richard Grenville left one hundred and eighty persons at Roanoke Island, in 1585. They were glad to escape at the earliest opportunity. Fifteen persons left there later were murdered by the Indians. Still a third settlement, consisting of one hundred and eighteen persons, disappeared, leaving no trace. Raleigh was discouraged and made over his patent to others, who were still less successful.

The Plymouth Colony and London Colony were formed under King James I. as business enterprises. The parties to the patents were capitalists, who had the right to settle colonists and servants, impose duties and coin money, and who were to pay a share of the profits in the enterprise to the Crown.

The London company, under the name of Jamestown, established the beginning of the first English town in America, May 13, 1607, with one hundred colonists. Captain John Smith was the genius of the colony, and it enjoyed a certain prosperity while he remained with it. A curious incident of its history was the importation of a large number of young women of good character, who were sold for one hundred and twenty, or even one hundred and fifteen, pounds of tobacco (at thirteen shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers. The Company failed, with all its expenditures, some half-million dollars, in 1624, and at that time, numbered only two thousand souls--the relics of nine thousand, who had been sent out from England.

Though the Plymouth Company had obtained exclusive grants and privileges, they never achieved any actual colony. A band of independents, numbering one hundred and two, whose extreme principles led to their exile, first from England and then from Holland, landed at a place called New Plymouth, in 1620. Half died within a year. Nevertheless, the Pilgrims, as they were called, extended their settlement. The distinction of the Pilgrims at Plymouth is that they relied upon themselves, and developed their own resources. Salem was begun in 1625, and for three years was called Naumkeag. In 1628, John Endicott came from England with one hundred settlers, as Governor for the Massachusetts Colony, extending from the Charles to the Merrimac river. A royal charter was procured for the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and one thousand colonists, led by John Winthrop, settled Boston, 1630. These colonists were Puritans, who wished to escape political and religious persecution. They brought over their own charter and developed a form of popular government. The freemen of the town elected the governor and board of assistants, but suffrage was restricted to members of the church. Representative government was granted in other colonies, but in the royal colonies of Virginia and New York, the executive officers and members of the upper branch of the legislature were appointed by the Crown. In Maryland, appointments were made in the same way by the Proprietor. Maryland was founded 1632, by royal grant to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore.

The English colonies were divided in the middle by the Dutch at New Amsterdam and the Swedes on the Delaware. The claim of the prior discovery of Manhattan was raised by the English, who took New Amsterdam, in 1664. Charles II. presented a charter to his brother, James, Duke of York. East and west Jersey were formed out of part of the grant.

The patent for the great territory included in the present state of Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn in 1681. Penn laid the foundations for a liberal constitution. Patents for the territory of Carolina were given in 1663. Carolina reached the Spanish possessions in the South.

The New England settlers spread westward and northward. Connecticut adopted a written constitution in 1639. The charter of Rhode Island, 1663, confirmed the aim of its founder, Roger Williams, in the separation of civil and religious affairs.

The English predominated in the colonies, though other nationalities were represented on the Atlantic seaboard. The laws were based on English custom, and loyalty to England prevailed. The colonists united for mutual support during the early Indian wars. The United Colonies of New England, comprised Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven. This union was formed in 1643, and lasted nearly forty years. The "Lord of Trade" caused the colonies to unite later, at the time of the French and Indian War, 1754.

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