Early European History Part 93

Switzerland, during the earlier period of the Middle Ages, formed a part of the German duchy of Swabia and belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. [31]

About two-thirds of the population of Switzerland remain German in speech and feeling, though now the country includes districts in which French or Italian are spoken. All Swiss laws are still proclaimed in the three languages.

SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

Swiss history is closely bound up with that of Austria. The little mountain communities of Schwyz, [32] Uri, and Unterwalden, on the sh.o.r.es of beautiful Lake Lucerne, were possessions of the counts of Hapsburg. In 1291 A.D., the year when Rudolf of Hapsburg died, these three "Forest Cantons" formed a confederation for resistance to their Hapsburg overlords. Additional cantons joined the league, which now entered upon a long struggle, dear to all lovers of liberty, against Austrian rule.

Nowhere did the old methods of feudal warfare break down more conspicuously than in the battles gained by Swiss pikemen over the haughty knights of Austria. The struggle closed in 1499 A.D., when Switzerland became practically a free state. [33]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, THE SWISS CONFEDERATION, 1291-1513 A.D.]

WILLIAM TELL AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED

Switzerland has two heroes of her war for independence. William Tell is a wholly mythical character, for the story of a skillful marksman who succeeds in striking off some small object placed on a child's head is found in England, Norway, Denmark, and other countries. The Swiss have localized it in Uri. Another popular hero has a better claim to historical existence. It is said that at a critical moment in the battle of Sempach, when the Swiss with their short weapons failed to break the Austrian ranks, Arnold von Winkelried, a man of Unterwalden, came to the rescue.

Rushing single-handed upon the enemy, he seized all the spears within reach and turned them into his own body. He thus opened a gap in the line, through which the Swiss pressed on to victory. Winkelried's deed might well have been performed, though the evidence for it is very scanty.

THE SWISS CONFEDERATION

Little Switzerland, lying in the heart of the Alps and surrounded by powerful neighbors, is one of the most interesting states in Europe. The twenty-two communities, or cantons, which make up the Swiss Confederation, differ among themselves in language, religion (Roman Catholic or Protestant), and customs, according to their nearness to Germany, France, or Italy. Nevertheless the Swiss form a patriotic and united nation. It is remarkable that a people whose chief bond of union was common hostility to the Austrian Hapsburgs, should have established a federal government so strong and enduring.

191. EXPANSION OF GERMANY

LINES OF GERMAN EXPANSION

An examination of the map shows how deficient Germany is in good natural boundaries. The valley of the Danube affords an easy road to the southeast, a road which the early rulers of Austria followed as far as Vienna and the Hungarian frontier. Eastward along the Baltic no break occurs in the great plain stretching from the North Sea to the Ural Mountains. It was in this direction that German conquests and colonization during the Middle Ages laid the foundation of modern Prussia.

THE GERMAN AND THE SLAV

The Germans, in descending upon the Roman Empire, had abandoned much of their former territories to the Slavs. In the reign of Charlemagne all the region between the Elbe and the Vistula belonged to Slavic tribes. To win it back for Germany required several centuries of hard fighting. The Slavs were heathen and barbarous, so that warfare with them seemed to be a kind of crusade. In the main, however, German expansion eastward was a business venture, due to the need for free land. It was the same need which in the nineteenth century carried the frontiers of the United States from the Alleghanies to the Pacific.

BRANDENBURG AND POMERANIA

German expansion began early in the tenth century, when Henry the Fowler annexed Brandenburg between the Elbe and the Oder. [34] Subsequently much of the territory between the Oder and the Vistula, including Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic, came under German control. The Slavic inhabitants were exterminated or reduced to slavery. Their place was taken by thousands of German colonists, who introduced Christianity, built churches and monasteries, cleared the woods, drained the marshes, and founded many cities destined to become centers of German trade and culture.

PRUSSIA

Between the Vistula and the Niemen lay the lands of the Prussians, a non- Teutonic people closely related to the Slavs. The Prussian language and religion have disappeared, the Prussians themselves have been completely absorbed by the Germans who settled in their country, but the Prussian name is borne to-day by one of the great states of modern Europe.

THE TEUTONIC ORDER

The conquest and conversion of the Prussians was accomplished by the famous order of Teutonic Knights. It had been founded in Palestine as a military-religious order, at the time of the Third Crusade. [35] The decline of the crusading movement left the knights with no duties to perform, and so they transferred their activities to the Prussian frontier, where there was still a chance to engage in a holy war.

Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Teutonic Order flourished, until its grand master ruled over the entire Baltic coast from the Vistula to the gulf of Finland. The knights later had to relinquish much of this region to the Slavs, but they sowed there the seeds of civilization. Russia's Baltic provinces [36] are to-day the richest and most advanced in the empire.

POLITICAL GERMANY

Germany at the close of the Middle Ages was not a united, intensely national state, such as had been established in England, France, and Spain. It had split into hundreds of princ.i.p.alities, none large, some extremely small, and all practically independent of the feeble German kings. [37] This weakness of the central power condemned Germany to a minor part in the affairs of Europe, as late as the nineteenth century.

Yet Germany found some compensation for political backwardness in the splendid city life which it developed during the later Middle Ages. The German cities, together with those of Italy and other European lands, now call for our attention.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, GERMAN EXPANSION EASTWARD DURING THE MIDDLE AGES]

STUDIES

1. On an outline map indicate (a) William the Conqueror's French dominions and (b) additional dominions of the Plantagenet kings in France.

2. Prepare a chart showing the leading rulers mentioned in this chapter.

Arrange your material in parallel columns with dates, one column for England, one for France, and one for the other European countries.

3. Locate the following places: Crecy; Calais; Poitiers; Salisbury; Stirling; Edinburgh; Orleans; and Granada.

4. What happened in 987 A.D.? in 1066 A.D.? in 1215 A.D.? in 1295 A.D.? in 1346 A.D.? in 1453 A.D.? in 1485 A.D.?

5. Distinguish between a nation, a government, and a state.

6. Are unity of race, a common language, a common religion, and geographical unity of themselves sufficient to make a nation? May a nation arise where these bonds are lacking?

7. "The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them."

Comment on this statement.

8. Account for the rise of national feeling in France, Spain, Scotland, and Switzerland.

9. "Good government in the Middle Ages was only another name for a public- spirited and powerful monarchy." Comment on this statement.

10. What advantages has trial by jury over the older forms of trial, such as oaths, ordeals, and the judicial duel?

11. Explain the difference between a grand jury and a trial, or petty jury.

12. Compare the extent of territory in which Roman law now prevails with that which follows the Common law.

13. Why was the Parliament of 1295 A.D. named the "Model Parliament"?

14. Why has England been called "the mother of parliaments"?

15. Distinguish between England and Great Britain. Between Great Britain and the United Kingdom.

16. What were the Roman names of England, Scotland, and Ireland?

17. "Islands seem dedicated by nature to freedom." How does the history of Ireland ill.u.s.trate this statement?

18. Trace on the map the main water routes in France between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

19. Show that Paris occupies an exceptionally good location for a capital city.

20. What French kings did most to form the French nation?

21. Why have queens never ruled in France?

22. Compare the Hundred Years' War and the Peloponnesian War as needless conflicts.