288 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FA-GTS. 



by the united forces of Austria ami England, and in 

 lsl~> was united to the Sardinian monarchy. 



Georgia (Empire State of South). First settlement, 

 by the English, Savannah, 1733. Banks second in rice 

 and sweet potatoes j third in cotton and molasses ; fourth 

 in sugar; seventh in mules; tenth in hops; thirteenth 

 in population ; fifteenth in miles of railway ; nineteenth 

 in square miles; twenty-fifth in wealth. The leading 

 industry is agriculture, the products being corn, rice, 

 cotton, and sweet potatoes, and manufacturing, in which 

 it leads all other Southern States, having fine facilities. 

 Gold, iron, marble, and slate abound. 



Germany, from Gerroann or warlike man, being an- 

 ciently divided into several independent states, was in- 

 igniticant in history until 1?. (1. 25, when the people 

 withstood the power of the Romans, and expelled them 

 in 290; Charlemagne became master of the whole, 802. 

 The Emperor of Germany assumed the title of Emperor 

 of Austria, August It, 1804. In 1521, at the Diet of 

 Worms, Luther made his famous defense ; religious dis- 

 sensions occupied the country fora long period after 

 the retirement of Charles V., in 1556, and in 1618, the 

 Thirty Years' War broke out ; Germany secured her 

 religious freedom by the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. 

 The foundation of the Prussian monarchy was laid in 

 1075. Numerous wars took place during the eighteenth 

 century, and constant mutations occurred in the map of 

 Germany. Under the famous Fredericks, the Kingdom 

 of Prussia developed into a first-class power. German 

 unification began under William I. ; the war with Prus- 

 sia was declared on July 19, 1870, and resulted in the 

 complete unification of Germany; the king of Prussia, 

 by this treaty, was proclaimed Emperor of Germany. 



Ghent, Belgium, stands on 26 islands, connected with 

 each other by 80 bridges. The city of Venice is built on 

 80 islands, connected by nearly 400 bridges. In Venice 

 canals serve for streets, and gondolas for carriages. 



Gibraltar, taken by Sir George Rooke, July 24,1704; 

 besieged by the Spaniards, February 24, 1727; again, 

 May, 1731 ; besieged again by the Spaniards, from 1780 to 

 September 13, 1782, when their floating battery was 

 burned with red hot balls from the garrison commanded 

 by General Elliott. Gibraltar came into the possession 

 of the English in 1704. 



Glrondins, The, in English " The Girondists," were 

 the pure republican party in the National Assembly and 

 National Convention of the first French Revolution. So 

 called because it consisted mainly of the deputies of the 

 Gironde. 'This party was distinguished for its oratory, 

 and for a time dominated the assembly ; but, horrified 

 at the September massacres, they condemned the Reign 

 of Terror, and tried to bring in more moderate meas- 

 ures. This drew upon them the hatred of the dema- 

 gogues, and ion May 31. 1793, some twenty-nine of the 

 Girondists were arrested at the instigation of Robes- 

 pierre, and on October 31 twenty of them were guillo- 

 tined, among whom were Brissot, Gensonne", Vergniaud, 

 DucoSj and Sillery. Valaz6 stabbed himself while he 

 stood in the dock. 



Gordian Knot, the knot of the thong in the wagon 

 of Gordius, who was elected king of Phrygia from 

 driving a wagon, and which he afterwards deposited in 

 the temple or Jupiter. Whoever loosed this knot, the 

 ends of which were not discoverable, the Oracle declared 

 should be emperor of Persia. Alexander the Great cut 

 away the knot till he found the ends, and thus iuter- 

 pretated the Oracle, B. C. 330. 



Goths, The, who inhabited all the countries from the 

 Baltic to the Euxine seas, first mentioned as invading 

 the Romans, 250; waged war with them, 366; from 

 which time may be derived the fall of the Roman Em- 

 pire. The whole nation, a million in number, through 

 fear of the Huns, removed to the waste land in Thrace, 

 376 ; rebelled against the Romans, 377, and were quelled ; 

 afterwards attacked by Valens, the Roman army was 

 cut to pieces, and the emperor killed. The Goths capit- 

 ulated with and submitted to the Romans, October 3, 

 382. Embraced Christianity, 400; pillaged Rome and 

 massacred the inhabitants, 410; slew 300.000 inhabitants 

 bf Milan, 539.. 



Granada, Kingdom of, conquered by the Moors, 715: 

 in 1 _';."> it became the capital of a new kingdom, and 

 attained to almost matchless splendor ; the last Moorish 

 prince was Abou-Abdillah, who was conquered by the 

 Castilians, 1492. 



Grecian Monarchy, commenced by Alexander the 

 Great's victory over Darius, the last Persian monarch, 

 B. C. 328; empire began under Nicephorus, 1811, ended, 

 1453. 



Greece, The early history of, is surrounded with 



legend and myth. The heroic age of Greece is a frag- 

 ment of the poetic imagination. Hellen was claimed 

 by the Greeks as their common ancestor, the popular be- 

 lief being that from his sons, Dorus and .Eolus, and his 

 grandsons, Ion and ^Echaeus, sprang the foar different 

 branches of the nation the Dorians, the .-Eolians, the 

 lonians, and the ^Echoens. From first to last, Greece 

 was divided into numerous independent states. Au- 

 thentic history begins 776 B. C., when the first Olympiad 

 was held. In B. C. 431, began the Peloponneaian war. 

 Greece passed under Macedonian rule about 344 B. C.; 

 in B. C. 214 occurred the first collision between the 

 Greeks and the Romans; from the fifth to the eighth 

 centuries Slavic and other foreign people appeared in 

 Greece, but were finally expelled ; in the ele v-entn century 

 the Normans plundered and ravaged the cities o'f 

 Thebes, Athens, and Corinth. In 1203, the Latin princes 

 appeared in the Crusades, conquered Constantinople, 

 and divided Greece among them, which divisions were 

 swept away by the Turks in 1453. In 1C87 the Christian 

 league besieged and took Athens, and the Moslem rule 

 was again established; the Ottoman yoke was com- 

 pletely thrown off in 1821, and was accomplished by 

 what is known as the modern revolution. Moslem rule 

 was again attempted in 1822, but the allied powers of 

 Europe decided to create Greece an independent king- 

 dom; in 1866 a re volution in Crete strained the relations* 

 of Greece and Turkey; a renewed outbreak in 1896 led 

 to a war with Turkey, which resulted in favor of Tur- 

 key, but did not imperil the independence of Greece. 



Gretna Green is a village in Dumfriesshire, Scot- 

 land, and the place where, for nearly a century, runa- 

 way couples were made man and wife. These irregular 

 marriages were discountenanced by law in the year 

 1856. 



Gnelphs and Ghibellines. At the great battle of 

 Weinsberg, in Suabia, A. 1). 1140, the Emperor Conrad 

 of Hohenstaufen, and Welf, uncle of Henry the Lion, 

 Duke of Saxony, rallied their followers by the respective 

 war cries, " H'ie Waiblingen ! " "Hie Welf!" As the 

 chief theater of the conflict of these parties was Italy, 

 the original names took the Italian form of Ghibellini 

 and Guelfi, and under these names they became two 

 great parties, whose conflicts may almost be said to 

 make up the history of Italy and Germany from the 

 eleventh till the fourteenth century. The Ghibellini 

 may. in general, be described as the supporters of the 

 imperial authority in Italy, the Guelphs as the oppo- 

 nents of the emperors and adherents of the popes. Five 

 great crises in the strife of the Guelphs and Ghibelline 

 parties are commonly noted by historians : Under 

 Henry IV., in 1055; under Henry the Proud, in 1127; 

 under Henry the Lion, in 1140; under Frederick Barba- 

 rossa, in 1159 ; and in the pontificate of the great cham- 

 pion of Church temporal power, Innocent III. The 

 cities of northern Italy were divided between the two 

 parties Florence, Bologna, Milan, and other cities, as 

 a general rule, taking the side of the Guelphs ; while 

 Pisa, Verona, and Arezzo were Ghibelline. In general. 

 it may be said that the nobles of the more northern 

 provinces of Italy inclined to the Ghibelline side, while 

 those of the central and southern provinces \\ere 

 Guelph. After the downfall of the preponderance of 

 the German emperors in Italy, the contest ceased to he 

 a strife of principles and "degenerated into a mere 

 struggle of rival factions. From the fourteenth cen- 

 tury the Guelphs or Ghibellines are seldom heard of as 

 actually existing parties; but in the sense already ex- 

 plained, the conflict of principles which they repre- 

 sented is found in every period of political history. 



Gypsy Tribes. Gypsies, a term applied to a mysteri- 

 ous, vagabond race, scattered over the whole of Europe, 

 and parts of Asia, Africa, and America. Whence they 

 originally came, is not definitely known, but India 

 seems lo'have been the cradle of the tribe. They are 

 called Bohemians, in France ; Zingar), in Italy. For cen- 

 turies past they have drifted about over Europe, in small 

 hands, liaving'no permanent homes; living by begging, 

 fortune telling, and various tricks. The first notice of 

 them, which occurs in European literature, is embodied 

 in a free paraphrase, in German, of the Book of Genesis, 

 written by an Austrian monk, about 1122. On August 

 17, 1427, a band of them, coming from Bohemia, made 

 their appearance before Paris, which, however, they 

 were not allow t'd to enter, but were lodged at La Chapelle 

 Saint Denis. Other hordes succeeded these in the fol- 

 lowing years, spreading in rapid succession over all 

 parts of Germany, over Spain, England. Russia, Scan- 

 dinavia, and, indeed, over the remotest parts of Europe. 

 The account which they most frequently gave of them- 



