EUROPEAN HISTORY BY HUTTON WEBSTER, PH.D. PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA "To men in general I would justify the stress I am laying on modern history . . . by the argument that it is a narrative told of ourselves, the record of a life which is our own, of efforts not yet abandoned to repose, of problems that still entangle the feet and vex the hearts of men. Every part of it is weighty with inestimable lessons that we must learn by experience and at a great price, if we know not how to profit by the example and teaching of those who have gone before us, in a society largely resembling the one we live in." -LORD ACTON, Lecture on the Study of History. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION WEBSTER'S HISTORIES Webster's Ancient History From prehistoric times to the Age of Charlemagne From prehistoric times to the seventeenth century From the Age of Louis XIV to the present: a'year's course Part I- Ancient Times Ancient history and civilization Part II-Medieval and Early Modern Times Part III- Modern Times 1826 From the Age of Louis XIV to the present: a brief course Webster's Readings in Ancient History Webster's Readings in Medieval and Modern History COPYRIGHT, 1920 BY D. C. HEATH & CO. 2 GO Harvard University, PREFACE THE desire of American high schools for an intensive course devoted to modern European history was already pronounced before the World War. Since then it has become an imperious demand, for knowledge of the historical background of that epochal struggle is indispensable to the educated citizen. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. The Committee on Social Studies of the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education in its Report (1916) to the National Education Association urged that an entire year be devoted to a course in modern history (including English history) since approximately the end of the seventeenth century. The Regents of the University of the State of New York in their latest Syllabus (1919) have outlined such a course for the schools under their supervision. Finally, the Committee on History and Education for Citizenship, which represents the National Education Association, the American Historical Association, and the Committee for Historical Research, has made a preliminary report recommending for the tenth year of the high school a study of European history from the middle of the seventeenth century to the present age. This text-book covers the period between 1648 and 1920. It forms a continuation, therefore, of my Early European History, issued three years ago. All the chapters, except the first, have appeared in abbreviated form in my recent Medieval and Modern History. Yet much of the book is new, and there are many new maps, plates, and drawings. As in the preceding volumes of this series, teachers will find abundant bibliographical material in the "Suggestions for Further Study." The several hundred "Studies," distributed throughout the various chapters, are intended to do something more than merely test the pupil's memory of what he has read; they ought to make possible, as well, Socratic methods of teaching in the classroom. The appendix furnishes a list of the rulers of the principal countries for the last three hundred years. The index, which is unusually full, gives the pronunciation of most proper names, including those in foreign languages. It seems to be generally agreed that the best collateral reading in connection with a text-book consists of sources. They alone supply the means for exercises in historical method, while for vividness and picturesqueness no secondary narrative, however well constructed, can rival them. To provide these sources the author has prepared Readings in Medieval and Modern History, of which the last eleven chapters cover the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, and a Historical Source Book of thirty-three documents, all but two of them relating to modern times. References to both collections are inserted in footnotes. The author cannot allow this volume to go forth without at least a word of acknowledgment to the printers, cartographers, and artists who have coöperated with him in its preparation. LINCOLN, NEBRASKA March, 1920 HUTTON WEBSTER 1469 128 III. ABSOLUTE MONARCHY IN FRANCE, 1610-1715 13. War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-1713.. 14. France during the Seventeenth Century. |