The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 14
A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS
ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING
COPYRIGHT, 1905, By THE NATIONAL ALUMNI
After us, the deluge! said Louis XV of France. He died in 1774, and the remaining quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed social changes the most radical, the most widespread which had convulsed civilization since the fall of Rome. As soon as our peasants seek education, said Catharine II of Russia to one of her ministers, neither you nor I will retain our places. Catharine, one of the shrewdest women of her day, judged her own people by the more advanced civilization of Western Europe. She saw that it was the growth of ideas, the intellectual advance, which had made Revolution, world-wide Revolution, inevitable.
If we look back to the beginnings of Teutonic Europe, we see that the social system existing among the wild tribes that overthrew Rome, was purely republican. Each man was equal to every other; and they merely conferred upon their sturdiest warrior a temporary authority to lead them in battle. When these Franks (the word itself means freemen) found themselves masters of the imperial, slave-holding world of Rome, the two opposing systems coalesced in vague confusing whirl, from which emerged naturally enough the feudal system, the rule of a warrior aristocracy. Gradually a few members of this nobility rose above the rest, became centres of authority, kings, ruling over the States of modern Europe. The lesser nobles lost their importance. The kings became absolute in power and began to regard themselves as special beings, divinely appointed to rule over their own country, and to snatch as much of their neighbors' as they could.
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THE GREAT EVENTS
FAMOUS HISTORIANS
NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
CONTENTS
VOLUME XIV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME XIV
AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE
THE GREAT EVENTS
(THE EPOCH OF REVOLUTION)
CHARLES F. HORNE
FOOTNOTES:
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON
a.d. 1775
RICHARD FROTHINGHAM
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
a.d. 1775
JOHN BURGOYNE JOHN H. JESSE JAMES GRAHAME
FOOTNOTES:
CANADA REMAINS LOYAL TO ENGLAND
MONTGOMERY'S INVASION
a.d. 1775
JOHN McMULLEN
SIGNING OF AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
a.d. 1776
THOMAS JEFFERSON JOHN A. DOYLE
DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA
a.d. 1777
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY
FIRST VICTORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY
a.d. 1779
ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE
FOOTNOTES:
a.d. 1780
ARMINIUS VAMBERY
FOOTNOTES:
SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN
a.d. 1781
HENRY B. DAWSON LORD CORNWALLIS
FOOTNOTES:
BRITISH DEFENCE OF GIBRALTAR
a.d. 1782
FREDERICK SAYER
END OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
a.d. 1782
a.d. 1783
SIR JOHN G. BOURINOT
FOOTNOTES:
FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION
a.d. 1783
HATTON TURNOR
FOOTNOTES:
FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
a.d. 1787
ANDREW W. YOUNG JOSEPH STORY
FOOTNOTES:
INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON
HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS
JAMES K. PAULDING and GEORGE WASHINGTON
FRENCH REVOLUTION: STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
a.d. 1789
WILLIAM HAZLITT
FOOTNOTES:
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK
a.d. 1791
ALEXANDER HAMILTON and LAWRENCE LEWIS, Jr.
NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE ESTABLISHES THE DOMINION OF HIS RACE
a.d. 1791
CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT
FOOTNOTES:
REPUBLICAN FRANCE DEFIES EUROPE
BATTLE OF VALMY
ALPHONSE M. L. LAMARTINE
FOOTNOTES:
INVENTION OF THE COTTON-GIN
GROWTH OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN AMERICA
CHARLES W. DABNEY R. B. HANDY DENISON OLMSTED
EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI
MURDER OF MARAT: CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE
THOMAS CARLYLE
FOOTNOTES:
THE REIGN OF TERROR
a.d. 1794
FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT
FOOTNOTES:
THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND
a.d. 1794
SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON
FOOTNOTES:
THE RISE OF NAPOLEON
THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ITALY
SIR WALTER SCOTT
OVERTHROW OF THE MAMELUKES
THE BATTLE OF THE NILE
a.d. 1798
CHARLES KNIGHT
FOOTNOTES:
JENNER INTRODUCES VACCINATION
a.d. 1798
SIR THOMAS J. PETTIGREW
FOOTNOTES:
CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY
EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
