Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 25 



first won vast stretches of land from the descendants 

 of the Spanish conquerors. 



The three most powerful of Spain's rivals waged 

 many a long war with one another to decide which 

 should grasp the sceptre that had slipped from 

 Spanish hands. The fleets of Holland fought with 

 stubborn obstinacy to wrest from England her naval 

 supremacy ; but they failed, and in the end the great- 

 er portion of the Dutch domains fell to their foes. 

 The French likewise began a course of conquest and 

 colonization at the same time the English did, and 

 after a couple of centuries of rivalry, ending in pro- 

 longed warfare, they also succumbed. The close of 

 the most important colonial contest ever waged left 

 the French without a foot of soil on the North 

 American mainland; while their victorious foes had 

 not only obtained the lead in the race for supremacy 

 on that continent, but had also won the command 

 of the ocean. They thenceforth found themselves 

 free to work their will in all seagirt lands, unchecked 

 by hostile European influence. 



Most fortunately, when England began her career 

 as a colonizing power in America, Spain had already 

 taken possession of the populous tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions, and the northern power was thus 

 forced to form her settlements in the sparsely peo- 

 pled temperate zone. 



It is of vital importance to remember that the 

 English and Spanish conquests in America differed 

 from each other very much as did the original con- 

 quests which gave rise to the English and the Span- 



B VOL. V. 



