110 



EUROPE. 



pled by the emigrants. In thai country, nbuut MOO 

 \IMI'N l)efore our era, grew up the Hellenes, who 

 soon outstripped the civilization of Asia. The most 

 flourishing period of that nation, commonly called 

 the Greeks, was about 300 B.C. Equally distin- 

 guished in action ami speculation, adorned by the 

 arts and sciences, rich in the noblest productions of 

 rultivated minds, it will be, as long as civilization 

 endures, an object of admiration, and its remains the 

 foundation of our knowledge and taste. But with 

 the dissolution of Alexander's empire, which had 

 been raised on the ruins of Grecian freedom, Greece 

 sank into insignificance. 



At the same time, another nation was rising in 

 Italy, the Romans, who appeared, indeed, at an 

 earlier period, but made no figure in history till they 

 had become masters of Italy, and had proved vic- 

 torious in their struggle with the Carthaginians. 

 From that period, their power began to extend over 

 all Europe. They subdued the divided Greeks, and 

 transplanted their arts and refinement to the Italian 

 soil. By the progress of the Roman arms, Spain, 

 Portugal, France, the coast of England, Belgium, 

 Helvetia, the part of Germany between the Danube 

 and the Alps, the Hungarian provinces (then called 

 1'annonia, Illyria, and Dacia,) became known, and 

 received the Roman manners, language, and refine- 

 ment. Agriculture was introduced, and flourishing 

 cities rose among the wandering nomades. The 

 Christian religion, which spread throughout the wide 

 Roman empire, was also a powerful instrument in 

 the civilization of most of the European nations. 

 Germany alone resisted the overwhelming power of 

 Rome, and thereby prevented the spreading of 

 Roman civilization in the north of Europe, which 

 still remained unknown in history. 



With the fall of the Roman empire, occasioned 

 chiefly by its separation into the Eastern and West- 

 3m empires, a great change in the political constitu- 

 tion of Europe was produced, by the universal emi- 

 gration of the northern nations. These nations 

 poured down upon the beautiful and cultivated 

 countries of the Roman empire, now in the weakness 

 of decline, and Roman art and science were obliged 

 to give place to the barbarity, the deep ignorance, 

 and superstition of the middle ages. The Ostrogoths 

 and Lombards settled in Italy, the Franks in France, 

 the Visigoths in Spain, and the Anglo-Saxons in 

 South Britain, reducing the inhabitants to subjection, 

 or becoming incorporated with them. The empire 

 of the Franks was enlarged, under Charlemagne, to 

 such an extent, that the kingdoms of France, Ger- 

 many, Italy, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Navarre were 

 afterwards formed out of it. About this time, the 

 northern and eastern nations of Europe began to 

 exert an influence in the affairs of the world. The 

 Slavi, or Sclavonians, founded kingdoms in Bohemia, 

 Poland, Russia, and the north of Germany; the 

 Magyarians appeared in Hungary, and the Normans 

 agitated all Europe. The establishment of a hier- 

 archy was now undertaken by the popes, and finally 

 carried to its completion by Gregory VII. ami Inno- 

 cent III. (See Empire. ) Their power was increased 

 by the crusades. Nevertheless, this struggle be- 

 tween Asia and Europe had the effect of forming a 

 middle class, of leading the peasants gradually to 

 throw off the chains of bondage, and of introducing 

 the arts and sciences through the Arabs and Greeks 

 into Europe. 



The revival of letters, by the Greeks fleeing from 

 Constantinople, gave an entirely new impulse to 

 Europe. The establishment of universities, the in- 

 vention of printing, and the reformation, served to 

 cherish and develope these seeds of improvement. 

 The feudal contests, the struggle of privileges, led 



eventually to the r.oknowletlgment and establishment 

 of the rights of the individual. (See City, Corpora- 

 tion, and Estates.) Out of the chaos of the middle 

 ages, arose the states of Germany, France, Spain, 

 Portugal, England, Scotland, Switzerland, the Italian 

 powers, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Denmark, 

 Sweden, Norway, and Russia. By the capture ot 

 Constantinople (1453,) the Turks, with their fa- 

 natical military despotism, became a European 

 power. Austria, Holland, Prussia, and Sardinia were 

 also added to the number of European states ; and 

 Russia, from the time of Peter I., was changed from 

 an Asiatic into a European empire. The attempts 

 of Charles V. and Louis XIV. to become masters of 

 Europe failed; and, in our own times, Napoleon con- 

 ceived the project of forming, from the European 

 states, a universal monarchy, pursued it for 10 years, 

 and failed also. 



Since the formation of the states of Europe, the 

 following have disappeared from the list of inde- 

 pendent powers : Hungary, Poland, the German em- 

 pire, Scotland, Bohemia, Venice, Genoa, and Milan. 

 The following have been added: the states of the 

 German confederacy, the Italian states, the republic 

 of the Ionian islands, and that of Cracow. A 

 natural consequence of the general diffusion of intel- 

 lectual cultivation, and the decay of the feudal sys- 

 tem, has been the gradual developement of the ideas 

 of equal right and individual liberty; bloody strug- 

 gles have naturally ensued between the adherents of 

 the new and old opinions, and Europe is still con- 

 vulsed by them. See Feudal System. 



Europe is washed on three sides by the sea, which 

 is called by different names, and belongs either to the 

 Northern Arctic or the Atlantic ocean. A narrow 

 strait of the Mediterranean separates it from Africa. 

 On the east, alone, it joins the main land, being 

 there separated from Asia by an imaginary line. 

 Europe is situated in the northern frozen and the 

 northern temperate zones, between 10 and 03 east 

 longitude, and 36 and 71 north latitude. Including 

 the islands, which contain about 317,000 square 

 miles, the whole extent of Europe amounts to about 

 3,250,000 square miles, of which Russia comprises 

 nearly one half. The greatest length, from Cape St 

 Vincent, in Portugal, to the northern extremity of 

 the eastern boundary, at Waygatt's straits, is about 

 3500 miles. The greatest breadth, from cape 

 Matapan, in the Morea, to the North Cape, in Nor- 

 way, is about 2500 miles. 



Europe is remarkably well watered, although its 

 rivers have not so long a course, nor such large 

 cataracts, as those in other parts of the globe, parti- 

 cularly in America. The principal rivers are the 

 Ebro, the Rhone, and the Po, running into the 

 Mediterranean; the Danube, the Dnieper, and the 

 Dniester, into the Black sea; the Don, into the 

 sea of Azoph; the Wolga, into the Caspian; the 

 Dwina, into the Arctic ocean; another Dwina, or 

 Duna, the Vistula, and the Oder, into the Baltic; the 

 Elbe, Weser, and Rhine, into the North sea; the 

 Seine, into the English channel; the Loire and 

 Garonne, the Duero and Tagus, the Guadiana 

 and Guadalquiver, into the Atlantic. The Wolga 

 and Danube are the longest. Of its numerous lakes, 

 the largest, which, however, bear no comparison 

 with the North American, are in the north of Eu- 

 rope; viz., in Russia, lakes Ladoga (the largest 

 in Europe), Onega, and Tchudskoe, or Peipus; in 

 Sweden, lakes Maler, Wener, and Wetter. On 

 the borders of Germany and Switzerland is lake Con- 

 stance; on the borders of Italy and Switzerland is the 

 lake of Geneva (lake Leman); in Hungary are lakes 

 Flatten and Neusiedler. 



A great part of Europe is mountainous; the south- 



