Invention: The Master-key to Progress

by Bradley A. Fiske

But that conception rested undeveloped in the minds of only a few men. Had it not been for Columbus, or some man like him, it would have remained undeveloped and borne no fruit. The Savior in his parable tells us of the sower who went forth to sow, and tells us also that most of the grain fell on stony ground. So it is with most of the opportunities that are offered to us every day; and so it is even with most of the visions that are placed before our minds. But the Savior tells us also of other grains that fell on good ground and bore abundant fruit. Such are the conceptions that the great inventors have embodied; such was the conception that fell on the good ground of the mind of Christopher Columbus.

The conception that came to him was not of the possibility that someone could sail west and eventually reach India, but of preparing a suitable expedition himself and actually sailing west and reaching India. The conception must have been wonderfully powerful and clear, for it dominated all his life thereafter. But he could not make others see the vision that he saw. For many years he went from place to place, trying to get the means wherewith to prepare his expedition. He made only a few converts, but he did make a few. Some of these exerted their influence on Queen Isabella of Spain. She, together with her husband Ferdinand, then supplied the money and other necessaries for the expedition.

The invention of the gun was followed by the invention of printing in 1434, and this by the discovery of America in 1492. These three epochal occurrences started the new civilization with a tremendous impetus. This impetus was immediately reinforced by the voyage of the Portuguese Admiral, Vasco da Gama, around the Cape of Good Hope to India in 1497–1498, and the circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519–1522.

The immediate practical influence of da Gama's feat was almost to kill the commerce of the cities of Italy and Alexandria with India by way of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and to transfer the center of the sea-commerce of the world to the west coast of Europe, especially Portugal. Near the west coast it has rested ever since; though but little of it stayed long with Portugal.

While Magellan's voyage was not quite so important as the discovery of America, it was not immeasurably less so; for it set at rest forever the most important question in geography,—was the earth round or not? The voyage of Columbus had not answered it, because he returned by the same route as that by which he went. But Magellan started in a southwesterly course, and one of his ships again reached home, coming from the east. The Victoria had circumnavigated the globe! Only eighteen men and one ship returned. The other ships and the other men had perished. Magellan himself had been buried in the Philippines.

The news of Magellan's great exploit and the stories that came to Europe of the riches beyond the sea, resulted soon in an idea coming to the mind of Hernando Cortez, the development of that idea into a concrete plan, and the making of a complete invention. This was a plan by which he should head an expedition to a certain part of the New World, and "convert" the heathen dwelling there; doing whatever killing and impoverishing and general maltreatment might be found to be convenient or desirable. The invention worked perfectly; some half-savage Indians of what we now call Mexico were "converted," many were killed, and untold treasure was forcibly obtained.

The success of this invention was so great that Francisco Pizarro was inspired to copy it, and to try it on some Indians in a country that now we call Peru. Whether Pizarro improved on Cortez's scheme, or whether the conditions of success were better need not concern us now: the main fact seems to be that Pizarro was able to convert and kill and impoverish and generally ruin more effectively than Cortez.

Following Cortez and Pizarro, many expeditions sailed from Spain to the West Indies, Central America and South America, and carried out similar programs. The two principal results were that those parts of the world were soon dominated by Spain, and that the people of Spain received large amounts of gold and treasure. The main result to them was that they succumbed under the enervating influence of the artificial prosperity produced, and rapidly deteriorated. By the end of the hundred years' period after Columbus discovered America, Spain was clearly following the downward path, and at high speed.

One of the early results of the invention of printing was an increased ability of people separated by considerable distances to interchange their views; and a still greater though allied result was an increased ability of men of thought and courage to impress their thoughts upon great numbers of people. At the time when printing was invented, the Church of Rome had ceased to dominate European nations as wholly as it had done before; but it exercised a vast power in each country. This was because of its prestige, its hold on the clergy and the Church property, and its authority in many questions connected with marriage, wills, appointments, etc. This was resented, but impotently, by the various sovereigns.

It was realized also (and it came to be realized with increasing clearness toward the end of the fifteenth century) that there were many grave evils and scandals in the Church, even in the highest quarters. The printing-press lent itself admirably to the dissemination of views on this matter: so that there gradually grew up a strong and widespread feeling of discontent. But despite considerable friction as to the limits of their respective functions, the Church and the State were so intimately allied in every country, and each realized so clearly its dependence on the other, that no movement of any magnitude against even the acknowledged evils had been able to gain ground. No man appeared who was able to conceive and execute a plan that could successfully effect reform.