The Historical Geography of Europe, Vol. I, Text

LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE
BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., LL.D. HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.—TEXT
LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1881 All rights reserved
It is now several years since this book was begun. It has been delayed by a crowd of causes, by a temporary loss of strength, by enforced absence from England, by other occupations and interruptions of various kinds. I mention this only because of the effect which I fear it has had on the book itself. It has been impossible to make it, what a book should, if possible, be, the result of one continuous effort. The mere fact that the kindness of the publishers allowed the early part to be printed some years back has, I fear, led to some repetition and even contradiction. A certain change of plan was found unavoidable. It proved impossible to go through the whole volume according to the method of the earlier chapters. Instead of treating Europe as a whole, I found it needful to divide it into several large geographical groups. The result is that each of the later chapters has had to go over again some small amount of ground which had been already gone over in the earlier chapters. In some cases later lights have led to some changes of view or expression. I have marked these, as far as I could, in the Additions and Corrections. If in any case I have failed to do so, the later statement is the one which should be relied on.
I hope that I have made the object of the work clear in the Introductory Chapter. It is really a very humble one. It aims at little more than tracing out the extent of various states at different times, and at attempting to place the various changes in their due relation to one another and to their causes. I am not, strictly speaking, writing history. I have little to do with the internal affairs of any country. I have looked at events mainly with reference to their effect on the European map. This has led to a reversal of what to many will seem the natural order of things. In a constitutional history of Europe, our own island would claim the very first place. In my strictly geographical point of view, I believe I am right in giving it the last.