Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 19 



After the great Teutonic wanderings were over, 

 there came a long lull, until, with the discovery of 

 America, a new period of even vaster race expan- 

 sion began. During this lull the nations of Europe 

 took on their present shapes. Indeed, the so-called 

 Latin nations the French and Spaniards, for in- 

 stance may be said to have been born after the 

 first set of migrations ceased. Their national his- 

 tory, as such, does not really begin until about that 

 time, whereas that of the Germanic peoples stretches 

 back unbroken to the days when we first hear of 

 their existence. It would be hard to say which one 

 of half a dozen races that existed in Europe during 

 the early centuries of the present era should be con- 

 sidered as especially the ancestor of the modern 

 Frenchman or Spaniard. When the Romans con- 

 quered Gaul and Iberia they did not in any place 

 drive out the ancient owners of the soil ; they simply 

 Romanized them, and left them as the base of the 

 population. By the Frankish and Visigothic inva- 

 sions another strain of blood was added, to be 

 speedily absorbed; while the invaders took the lan- 

 guage of the conquered people, and established 

 themselves as the ruling class. Thus the modern 

 nations who sprang from this mixture derive por- 

 tions of their governmental system and general 

 policy from one race, most of their blood from an- 

 other, and their language, law, and culture from a 

 third. 



The English race, on the contrary, has a per- 

 fectly continuous history. When Alfred reigned, 



