Introductory American History Part 1

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY.

by HENRY ELDRIDGE BOURNE AND ELBERT JAY BENTON.

PROFESSORS OF HISTORY IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY.

INTRODUCTION.

This volume is the introductory part of a course in American history embodying the plan of study recommended by the Committee of Eight of the American Historical a.s.sociation.[1] The plan calls for a continuous course running through grades six, seven, and eight. The events which have taken place within the limits of what is now the United States must necessarily furnish the most of the content of the lessons. But the Committee urge that enough other matter, of an introductory character, be included to teach boys and girls of from twelve to fourteen years of age that our civilization had its beginnings far back in the history of the Old World. Such introductory study will enable them to think of our country in its true historical setting. The Committee recommend that about two-thirds of one year's work be devoted to this preliminary matter, and that the remainder of the year be given to the period of discovery and exploration.

The plan of the Committee of Eight emphasizes three or four lines of development in the world's history leading up to American history proper.

First, there was a movement of conquest or colonization by which the ancient civilized world, originally made up of communities like the Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas, spread to southern Italy and adjacent lands. The Roman conquest of Italy and of the barbarian tribes of western Europe expanded the civilized world to the sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic. Within this greater Roman world new nations grew up. The migration of Europeans to the American continent was the final step.

Second, accompanying the growth of the civilized world in extent was a growth of knowledge of the shape of the earth, or of what we call geography. Columbus was a geographer as well as the herald of an expanding world.

A third process was the creation and transmission of all that we mean by civilization. Here, as the Committee remark, the effort should be to "show, in a very simple way, the civilization which formed the heritage of those who were to go to America, that is, to explain what America started with."

The Committee also suggest that it is necessary "to a.s.sociate the three or four peoples of Europe which were to have a share in American colonization with enough of their characteristic incidents to give the child some feeling for the name 'England,' 'Spain,' 'Holland,' and 'France.'"

No attempt is made in this book to give a connected history of Greece, Rome, England, or any other country of Europe. Such an attempt would be utterly destructive of the plan. Only those features of early civilization and those incidents of history have been selected which appear to have a vital relation to the subsequent fortunes of mankind in America as well as in Europe. They are treated in all cases as introductory. Opinions may differ upon the question of what topics best ill.u.s.trate the relation. The Committee leaves a wide margin of opportunity for the exercise of judgment in selection. In the use of a textbook based on the plan the teacher should use the same liberty of selection. For example, we have chosen the story of Marathon to ill.u.s.trate the idea of the heroic memories of Greece. Others may prefer Thermopylae, because this story seems to possess a simpler dramatic development. In the same way teachers may desire to give more emphasis to certain phases of ancient or mediaeval civilization or certain heroic persons treated very briefly in this book. Exercises similar to those inserted at the end of each chapter offer means of supplementing work provided in the text.

The story of American discovery and exploration in the plan of the Committee of Eight follows the introductory matter as a natural culmination. In our textbook we have adhered to the same plan of division. The work of the seventh grade will, therefore, open with the study of the first permanent English settlements.

The discoveries and explorations are told in more detail than most of the earlier incidents, but whatever is referred to is treated, we hope, with such simplicity and definiteness of statement that it will be comprehensible and instructive to pupils of the sixth grade.

At the close of the book will be found a list of references. From this teachers may draw a rich variety of stories and descriptions to ill.u.s.trate any features of the subject which especially interest their cla.s.ses. In the index is given the p.r.o.nunciation of difficult names.

We wish to express grat.i.tude to those who have aided us with wise advice and criticism.

[Footnote 1: The Study of History in Elementary Schools. Scribner's, 1909.]

CHAPTER I.

THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF EUROPE.

THE EMIGRANT AND WHAT HE BRINGS TO AMERICA. The emigrant who lands at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, or any other seaport, brings with him something which we do not see. He may have in his hands only a small bundle of clothing and enough money to pay his railroad fare to his new home, but he is carrying another kind of baggage more valuable than bundles or boxes or a pocket full of silver or gold. This other baggage is the knowledge, the customs, and the memories he has brought from the fatherland.

He has already learned in Europe how to do the work at which he hopes to labor in America. In his native land he has been taught to obey the laws and to do his duty as a citizen. This fits him to share in our self-government. He also brings great memories, for he likes to think of the brave and n.o.ble deeds done by men of his race. If he is a religious man, he worships G.o.d just as his forefathers have for hundreds of years. To understand how the emigrant happens to know what he does and to be what he is, we must study the history of the country from which he comes.

ALL AMERICANS ARE EMIGRANTS. If this is true of the newcomer, it is equally true of the rest of us, for we are all emigrants. The Indians are the only native Americans, and when we find out more about them we may learn that they, too, are emigrants. If we follow the history of our families far enough back, we shall come upon the names of our forefathers who sailed from Europe. They may have come to America in the early days when there were only a few settlements scattered along our Atlantic coast, or they may have come since the Revolutionary War changed the English colonies into the United States.

Like the Canadians, the South Americans, and the Australians, we are simply Europeans who have moved away. The story of the Europe in which our forefathers lived is, therefore, part of our story. In order to understand our own history we must know something of the history of England, France, Germany, Italy, and other European lands.

WHAT THE EARLY EMIGRANTS BROUGHT. If we read the story of our forefathers before they left Europe, we shall find answers to several important questions. Why, we ask, did Columbus seek for new lands or for new ways to lands already known? How did the people of Europe live at the time he discovered America? What did they know how to do? Were they skilful in all sorts of work, or were they as rude and ignorant as the Indians on the western sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic?

The answers which history will give to these questions will say that the first emigrants who landed on our sh.o.r.es brought with them much of the same knowledge and many of the same customs and memories which emigrants bring nowadays and which we also have. It is true that since the time the first settlers came men have found out how to make many new things. The most important of these are the steam-engine, the electric motor, the telegraph, and the telephone. But it is surprising how many important things, which we still use, were made before Columbus saw America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MODERN STEAMSHIP AND AN EARLY SAILING VESSEL The early emigrants came in small sailing vessels and suffered great hardships]

For one thing, men knew how to print books. This art had been discovered during the boyhood of Columbus. Another thing, men could make guns, while the Indians had only bows and arrows. The ships in which Columbus sailed across the ocean seemed very large and wonderful to the Indians, who used canoes. The ships were steered with the help of a compa.s.s, an instrument which the Indians had never seen.

Some of the things which the early emigrants knew had been known hundreds or thousands of years before. One of the oldest was the art of writing. The way to write words or sounds was found out so long ago that we shall never know the name of the man who first discovered it. The historians tell us he lived in Egypt, which was in northern Africa, exactly where Egypt is now. Some men were afraid that the new art might do more harm than good. The king to whom the secret was told thought that the children would be unwilling to work hard and try to remember because everything could be written down and they would not need to use their memories. The Egyptians at first used pictures to put their words upon rocks or paper, and even after they made several letters of the alphabet their writing seemed like a mixture of little pictures and queer marks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cleopatra EGYPTIAN PHONETIC WRITING]

OLD AND NEW INVENTIONS. Those who first discover how to make things are called inventors, and what they make are called inventions. Now if we should write out a list of the most useful inventions, we could place in one column the inventions which were made before the days of Columbus and in another those which have been made since. With this list before us we may ask which inventions we could live without and which we could not spare unless we were willing to become like the savages. We should find that a large number of the inventions which we use every day belong to the set of things older than Columbus. This is another reason why, if we wish to understand our ways of living and working, we must ask about the history of the countries where our forefathers lived. It is the beginning of our own history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Phoenician Early Greek Early Latin English GROWTH OF LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET]

A PLAN OF STUDY. The discovery of America was made in 1492, at the beginning of what we call Modern Times. Before Modern Times were the Middle Ages, lasting about a thousand years. These began three or four hundred years after the time of Christ or what we call the beginning of the Christian Era. All the events that took place earlier we say happened in Ancient Times. Much that we know was learned first by the Greeks or Romans who lived in Ancient Times.

It is in the Middle Ages that we first hear of peoples called Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Dutchmen, Italians, Spaniards, and many others now living in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe. We shall learn first of the Greeks and Romans and of what they knew and succeeded in doing, and then shall find out how these things were learned by the peoples of the Middle Ages and what they added to them. This will help us to find out what our forefathers started with when they came to live in America.

QUESTIONS.

1. What does the emigrant from Europe bring to America besides his baggage?

2. Why are all Americans emigrants?

3. What did the earliest emigrants from Europe to America bring with them?

4. Which do you think the more useful invention--the telephone or the art of writing? Who invented this art? Find Egypt on the map. How did Egyptian writing look?

5. Why was it a help to Columbus that gunpowder and guns were invented before he discovered America?

6. When did the Christian Era begin? What is meant by Ancient Times? By the Middle Ages? By Modern Times? In what Times was the art of writing invented? In what Times was the compa.s.s invented? In what Times was the telephone invented?

EXERCISES.

1. Collect from ill.u.s.trated papers, magazines, or advertising folders, pictures of ocean steamships. Collect pictures of sailing ships, ships used now and those used long ago.

2. Collect from persons who have recently come to this country stories of how they traveled from Europe to America, and from ports like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to where they now live.

3. Let each boy and girl in the schoolroom point out on the map the European country from which his parents or his grandparents or his forefathers came.

4. Let each boy and girl make a list of the holidays which his forefathers had in the "fatherland" or "mother country." Let each find out the manner in which the holidays were kept. Let each tell the most interesting hero story from among the stories of the mother country or fatherland. Let each find out whether the tools used in the old home were like the tools his parents use here.

CHAPTER II.

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS.

ANCIENT CITIES THAT STILL EXIST. In Ancient Times the most important peoples lived on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. The northern sh.o.r.e turns and twists around four peninsulas. The first is Spain, which separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean; the second, shaped like a boot, is Italy; and the third, the end of which looks like a mulberry leaf, is Greece. Beyond Greece is Asia Minor, the part of Asia which lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

The Italians now live in Italy, but the Romans lived there in Ancient Times. The people who live in Greece are called Greeks, just as they were more than two thousand years ago. Many of the cities that the Greeks and Romans built are still standing. Alexandria was founded by the great conqueror Alexander. Constantinople used to be the Greek city of Byzantium. Another Greek city, Ma.s.silia, has become the modern French city of Ma.r.s.eilles. Rome had the same name in Ancient Times, except that it was spelled Roma. The Romans called Paris by the name of Lutetia, and London they called Lugdunum.

RUINS WHICH SHOW HOW THE ANCIENTS LIVED. In many of these cities are ancient buildings or ruins of buildings, bits of carving, vases, mosaics, sometimes even wall paintings, which we may see and from which we may learn how the Greeks and Romans lived. Near Naples are the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city suddenly destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.

For hundreds of years the city lay buried under fifteen or twenty feet of ashes. When these were taken away, the old streets and the walls of the houses could be seen. No roofs were left and the walls in many places were only partly standing, but things which in other ancient cities had entirely disappeared were kept safe in Pompeii under the volcanic ashes.

The traveler who walks to-day along the ruined streets can see how its inhabitants lived two thousand years ago. He can visit their public buildings and their private houses, can handle their dishes and can look at the paintings on their walls or the mosaics in the floors. But interesting as Pompeii is, we must not think that its ruins teach us more than the ruins of Rome or Athens or many other ancient cities. Each has something important to tell us of the people who lived long ago.

ANCIENT WORDS STILL IN USE. The ancient Greeks and Romans have left us some things more useful than the ruins of their buildings. These are the words in our language which once were theirs, and which we use with slight changes in spelling. Most of our words came in the beginning from Germany, where our English forefathers lived before they settled in England. To the words they took over from Germany they added words borrowed from other peoples, just as we do now. We have recently borrowed several words from the French, such as tonneau and limousine, words used to describe parts of an automobile, besides the name automobile itself, which is made up of a Latin and a Greek word.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUINS OF A HOUSE AT POMPEII The houses of the better sort were built with an open court in the center]

In this way, for hundreds of years, words have been coming into our language from other languages. Several thousand have come from Latin, the language of the Romans; several hundred from Greek, either directly or pa.s.sed on to us by the Romans or the French. The word school is Greek, and the word arithmetic was borrowed from the French, who took it from the Greeks. Geography is another word which came, through French and Latin, from the Greeks, to whom it meant that which is written about the earth. The word grammar came in the same way. The word alphabet is made by joining together the names of the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta.

Many words about religion are borrowed from the Greeks, and this is not strange, for the New Testament was written in Greek. Some of these are Bible, church, bishop, choir, angel, devil, apostle, and martyr. The Greeks have handed down to us many words about government, including the word itself, which in the beginning meant "to steer." Politics meant having to do with a polis or city. Several of the words most recently made up of Greek words are telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and thermometer.

MANY WORDS BORROWED FROM THE ROMANS. Nearly ten times as many of our words are borrowed from the Romans as from the Greeks, and it is not strange, because at one time the Romans ruled over all the country now occupied by the Italians, the French, the Spaniards, a part of the Germans, and the English, so that these peoples naturally learned the words used by their conquerors and governors.

INTERESTING ANCIENT STORIES. In the poems and tales which we learn at home or at school are stories which Greek and Roman parents and teachers taught their children many hundred years ago. We learn them partly because they are interesting, and because they please or amuse us, and partly because they appear so often in our books that it is necessary to know them if we would understand our own books and language. Who has not heard of Hercules and his Labors, of the Search for the Golden Fleece, the Siege of Troy, or the Wanderings of Ulysses? We love modern fairy stories and tales of adventure, but they are not more pleasing than these ancient stories.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PLAIN OF MARATHON]

THE STORY OF THE GREEKS. Our language and our books are full of memories of Greek and Roman deeds of courage. The story of the Greeks comes before the story of the Romans, for the Greeks were living in beautiful cities, with temples and theaters, while the Romans were still an almost unknown people dwelling on the hills that border the river Tiber.

MEMORIES OF GREEK COURAGE. The most heroic deeds of the Greeks took place in a great war between the Greek cities and the kingdom of Persia about five hundred years before Christ. In those days there was no kingdom called Greece, such as the geographies now describe. Instead there were cities, a few of which were ruled by kings, others by the citizens themselves. These cities banded together when any danger threatened them. Sometimes one city turned traitor and helped the enemy against the others. The most dangerous enemy the Greeks had, until the Romans attacked them, was the kingdom of Persia, which stretched from the Aegean Sea far into Asia. In the war with the Persians the Greeks fought three famous battles, at Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis, the stories of which men have always liked to hear and remember.

PREPARING FOR MARATHON, 490 B.C. To the Athenians belong the glories of Marathon. They lived where the modern city of Athens now stands. The ruins of their temples and theaters still attract students and travelers to Greece. The plain of Marathon lay more than twenty miles to the northeast, and the roads to it led through mountain pa.s.ses. When the Athenians heard that the hosts of the Great King of Persia were approaching, they sent a runner, Pheidippides by name, to ask aid of Sparta, a city one hundred and forty miles away, in the peninsula now called the Morea, where dwelt the st.u.r.diest fighters of Greece. This runner reached Sparta on the second day, but the Spartans said it would be against their religious custom to march before the moon was full. The Athenians saw that they must meet the enemy alone--one small city against a mighty empire. They called their ten thousand men together and set out. On the way they were joined by a thousand more, the whole army of the brave little town of Plataea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREEK SOLDIERS IN ARMS From a Greek vase of about the time of the battle of Marathon]

HOW THE ATHENIANS WERE ARMED. Although the Persians had six times as many soldiers as the Athenians, they were not so well armed for hand to hand fighting. Their princ.i.p.al weapon was the bow and arrow, while the Greeks used the lance and a short sword. The Greek soldier was protected by his bronze helmet, solid across the forehead and over the nose; by his breastplate, a leathern or linen tunic covered with small metal scales, with flaps hanging below his hips; and by greaves or pieces of metal in front of his knees and shins. He was also protected by a shield, often long enough to reach from his face to his knees. According to a strange custom the Athenians were led by ten generals, each commanding one day in turn.

THE BATTLE-GROUND. Marathon was a plain about two miles wide, lying between the mountains and the sea. From it two roads ran toward Athens, one along the sh.o.r.e where the hills almost reached the sea, the other up a narrow valley and over the mountains. The Athenians were encamped in this valley, where they could attack the Persians if they tried to follow the sh.o.r.e road.

The Persians landed from their ships and filled the plain near the sh.o.r.e. They wanted to fight in the open plain because they had so many more soldiers than the Athenians and because they meant to use their hors.e.m.e.n. For some time the Athenians watched the Persians, not knowing what it was best to do. Half the generals did not wish to risk a battle, but Miltiades was eager to fight, for he feared that delay would lead timid citizens or traitors to yield to the Persians. He finally gained his wish, and on his day of command the battle was ordered.

THE BATTLE. The Persians by this time had decided to sail around to the harbor of Athens and had taken their hors.e.m.e.n on board their ships. When they saw the Greeks coming they drew up their foot-soldiers in deep ma.s.ses. The Athenians and their comrades--the Plataeans--soon began to move forward on the run. The Persians thought this madness, because the Greeks had no archers or hors.e.m.e.n. But the Greeks saw that if they moved forward slowly the Persians would have time to shoot arrows at them again and again.

When the Greeks rushed upon the Persians the soldiers at the two ends of the Persian line gave way and fled towards the sh.o.r.e. In the center, where the best Persian soldiers stood, the Greeks were not at first successful, and were forced to retreat. But those who had been victorious came to their rescue, attacked the Persians in the rear, and finally drove them off. The Persians ran into the sea to reach the ships, and the Athenians followed them. Some of the Greeks were so eager in the fight that they seized the sides of the ships and tried to keep them from being rowed away, but the Persians cut at their hands and made them let go.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STRAITS OF SALAMIS Where a great sea-fight between Greeks and Persians took place]

THE NEWS OF THE VICTORY. The Athenians had won a victory of which they were so proud that they meant it never should be forgotten. Their city had suddenly become great through the courage and self-sacrifice of her citizens. One hundred and ninety-two Greeks had fallen, and on the battle-field their comrades raised over their bodies a mound of earth which still marks their tomb. The victors sent the runner Pheidippides to bear the news to Athens. Over the hills he ran until he reached the market place, and there, with the message of triumph on his lips, he fell dead.

OTHER VICTORIES OF THE GREEKS. Marathon was only the beginning of Greek victories over the Persians, only the first struggle in the long wars between Europe and Asia. Ten years after Marathon the Spartans won everlasting glory by their heroic stand at the Pa.s.s of Thermopylae --three hundred Greeks against the mighty army of the Persian king Xerxes. The barbarian hordes pa.s.sed over their bodies, took the road to Athens, burned the city, but were soon beaten in the sea-fight which took place on the waters lying between the mainland of Athenian territory and the island of Salamis. This victory was also due to Athenian courage and leadership, for the Athenians and their leader, Themistocles, were resolved to stay and fight, although the other Greeks wanted to sail away.

WHY MARATHON IS REMEMBERED. The victories of Marathon and Salamis were great not only because small armies of Greeks put to flight the hosts of Persia, they were great because they saved the independence of Greece. If the Greeks had become the subjects and slaves of Persia, they would not have built the wonderful buildings, or carved the beautiful statues, or written the books which we study and admire. When we think of the Greeks as our first teachers we feel as proud of their victories as if they were our own victories.

THE WARS OF THE GREEK CITIES. The Athenians had done the most in winning the victory over the Persians, and therefore Athens was for many years the most powerful city in Greece. The Spartans were always jealous of the Athenians, and in less than a century after the victory of Marathon they conquered and humbled Athens. The worst faults of the Greeks were such jealousies and the desire to lord it over one another. Greek history is full of wars of city against city, Sparta against Athens, Corinth against Athens, and Thebes against Sparta. In these wars many heroic deeds were done, of which we like to read, but it is more important for us to understand how the Greeks lived.

QUESTIONS.

1. What ancient cities still exist? Find them on the map. (For each difficult name find the p.r.o.nunciation in the index.) 2. What things do we find in the ruins of ancient cities which tell us how the people lived?

3. From what country did most of our words come in the beginning? Why are they now called English? What peoples used the word geography before we did? About how many words do we get from the Greeks, and how many from the Romans?

4. Which people became famous earlier, the Greeks or the Romans? Point out on the map the peninsula where each lived.

5. Why do we like to remember the brave deeds of the Greeks?

6. Find the city of Athens on the map. Find Sparta. Where was Marathon? What city won glory at Marathon?

7. What were the worst faults of the Greeks?

EXERCISES.

1. Collect pictures of ruined cities in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, from ill.u.s.trated papers, magazines, or advertising folders. Collect postal cards giving such pictures.

2. Choose the best one of the Greek stories mentioned in Chapter II, and tell it.

3. Find out how differently soldiers now are clothed and armed from the way the Greek soldiers were.

4. Find out why a long distance run is now called a "Marathon."

CHAPTER III.

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED.

THE GREEK CITIES. The Greeks lived in cities so much of the time that we do not often think of them as ever living in the country. The reason for this was that their government and everything else important was carried on in the city. The cities were usually surrounded by high, thick stone walls, which made them safe from sudden attack. Within or beside the city there was often a lofty hill, which we should call a fort or citadel, but which they called the upper city or acropolis. There the people lived at first when they were few in number, and thither they fled if the walls of their city were broken down by enemies.

In Athens such a hill rose two hundred feet above the plain. Its top was a thousand feet long, and all the sides except one were steep cliffs. On it the Athenians built their most beautiful temples.

PRIVATE HOUSES. Unlike people nowadays the Greeks did not spend much money on their dwelling-houses. To us these houses would seem small, badly ventilated, and very uncomfortable. But what their houses lacked was more than made up by the beauty and splendor of the public buildings, halls, theaters, porticoes, and especially the temples.