RELATIONS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 173 



In reflecting upon this subject, my thoughts have grouped them- 

 selves around four general inquiries : What should be the attitude of 

 the student of European history to American history? what does 

 American history contribute to the interpretation of European 

 history ? in what ways has America affected the development of 

 European life? and, lastly, what advantages may be derived in the 

 United States and in Europe from a more thorough investigation and 

 a more general study of the history of Spanish America? 



In regard to the first part of my subject, the proper attitude of 

 students of European history toward American history, I wish to 

 urge a more general recognition of American history as an integral 

 part of the history of the Western European peoples; in other words, 

 that the history of Spain, France, and England should embrace the 

 history of the Spanish, French, and English communities in the New 

 World as a natural and essential part of the whole and not as a mere 

 episode that may be neglected. In the study and writing of English 

 history this point of view has been more adequately realized than 

 in the case of France and Spain. The considerations that would be 

 urged to prove the essential unity of the history of the English on 

 both sides of the sea are familiar to all students, and need not be 

 recapitulated. The case of France I shall pass by, in order to illustrate 

 that of Spain and Spanish America more fully. 



It is a not uncommon experience, although notable exceptions 

 exist, to find in narrative histories of Spain her interests in the New 

 World treated incidentally, if at all, rather than regarded as an in- 

 tegral element of profound importance in the national life. Among 

 recent examples of this procedure, one will suffice for illustration. 

 In Martin Hume's Spain, its Greatness and Decay, in the Cambridge 

 Historical Series, there are in the period 1555-1788, covered by Major 

 Hume's part of the work, not two pages devoted to the Spanish pos- 

 sessions beyond the sea. Such a narrow, territorial view is devoid 

 of any philosophical perspective, and is a veritable impoverishment 

 of history. In the light of general history, the Spanish conquest of 

 America is the greatest, the most far-reaching in its consequences, 

 of all the achievements in the life of the nation. It is the single event 

 in Spanish history that made Spain a world power, and raised her for 

 a time to a place beside Rome as the mistress of a world and the 

 source of the moral, religious, and intellectual culture of a continent. 

 To write the history of Spain and to leave out the history of Spanish 

 America is like writing the history of Rome and confining one's 

 view to the Italian peninsula. The power of Spain has lapsed and 

 most of her former over-sea possessions are independent states, but 

 whatever becomes of her relative position in Europe, her great con- 

 tribution to the world's history is certain to rise in historical import- 

 ance with the passage of time. 



