RELATIONS OF AMERICAN HISTORY 175 



recalling the classic narrative of the retreat of the ten thousand 

 Greeks from Cunaxa to the Euxine. 



Enough has been said, perhaps, to raise a presumption for regard- 

 ing the history of Spanish America as an integral part of the history 

 of Spain, but its importance for the student of Spanish history does 

 not end here. The work of Spain in the New World, defective as it 

 was and adulterated with selfish aims, offered an extraordinary field 

 for the display of national and individual character. The modern 

 world can have little sympathy with the controlling objects of Span- 

 ish policy in European politics in the second half of the sixteenth 

 century. Philip II in Spain seems to be putting forth herculean 

 efforts to stay human progress. In the Indies he shows a fairer 

 figure. The colonial legislation of his reign, whatever its defects, 

 reveals a profound and humane interest in the civilization of his 

 over-sea dominions. It was one thing to try to confine Europe to 

 the intellectual bounds of the Middle Ages and quite another to raise 

 primitive America to that level. The long arm of the king was 

 stretched out to protect the weak and the helpless from oppression 

 and from error. It did not always do it, but the honor of the effort 

 should not be withheld. The contrast between Philip II as ruler 

 of the Netherlands and the Philip II who was lord of the Indies 

 may be paralleled by the contrast between the Duke of Alva and 

 Hernando Cortes. The conqueror of Mexico is the more universally 

 known of the two, but the name of no Spanish general of the six- 

 teenth century is more familiar in England and America than that of 

 Alva. That Alva should be popularly considered as a type of Spanish 

 character, and that he should occupy a larger place in histories of 

 the Spanish people than Cortes, will seem unfortunate, and unjust 

 in exact proportion as the varied greatness of Cortes 's career is 

 appreciated. How one-sided, then, is a national history which finds 

 no adequate recognition for the nation's greatest achievements just 

 because the field of their accomplishment was beyond the sea! 



If these considerations in regard to the history of Spain and of 

 Spanish America are well taken, the essential oneness of American 

 and Western European history may be granted at least the status of 

 a fair presumption, and I may pass to the next line of inquiry, What 

 does American history contribute to the interpretation of European 

 history? 



The occupation of the New World by the divergent methods of 

 Spanish and English colonial policy repeated processes of profound 

 importance in the history of civilization in regard to which we have 

 comparatively little evidence. The migration of the English to 

 America was like the diffusion of the Greeks to their colonies, and not 

 a few of the distinctive features of American life and temperament 

 that have been noted by foreign observers were equally characteristic 



