THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I (1902), ch. ix, a political sketch; James (Viscount) Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, new ed. revised (1911); William Coxe, History of the House of Austria, Bohn edition, 4 vols. (1893-1894), a century-old work but still useful for Habsburg history; Sidney Whitman, Austria (1899), and, by the same author, The Realm of the Habsburgs (1893) 5 Kurt Kaser, Deutsche Geschichte zur Zeit Maximilians I, 1486-1519 (1912), an excellent study appearing in "Bibliothek deutscher Geschichte," edited by Von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst; Franz Krones, Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs von der altesten Zeit, 5 vols. (1876-1879), of which Vol. II, Book XI treats of political events in Austria from 1493 to 1526 and Vol. III, Book XII of constitutional development 1100-1526; Leopold von Ranke, History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations, 1494- 1514, a rev. trans. in the Bohn Library (1915) of the earliest important work of this distinguished historian, published originally in 1824.
ITALY AND THE CITY STATES. Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I (1902), ch. iv-viii; _Histoire générale, Vol. IV, ch. i, ii; Mrs. H. M. Vernon, Italy from 1494 to 1790 (1909), a clear account in the "Cambridge Historical Series"; J. A. Symonds, Age of the Despots (1883), pleasant but inclined to the picturesque; Pompeo Molmenti, Venice, its Individual Growth from the Earliest Beginnings to the Fall of the Republic, trans. by H. F. Brown, 6 vols. (1906-1908), an exhaustive narrative of the details of Venetian history; Edward Armstrong, Lorenzo de' Medici (1897), in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series, valuable for Florentine history about 1500; Col. G. F. Young, The Medici, 2 vols. (1909), an extended history of this famous Florentine family from 1400 to 1743; Ferdinand Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, trans. from 4th German ed. by Annie Hamilton, 8 vols. in 13, a non-Catholic account of the papal monarchy in Italy, of which Vol. VII, Part II and Vol. VIII, Part I treat of Rome about 1500. For the city-states of the Netherlands see Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I (1902), ch. xiii; the monumental History of the People of the Netherlands, by the distinguished Dutch historian P. J. Blok, trans. by O. A. Bierstadt, 5 vols. (1898-1912), especially Vols. I and II; and Belgian Democracy: its Early History, trans. by J. V. Saunders (1915) from the authoritative work of the famous Belgian historian Henri Pirenne (1910). For the German city-states see references under HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE above.
NORTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE ABOUT 1500. General: Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I (1902), ch. x, iii; _Histoire générale, Vol. IV, ch. xviii-xxi; R. N. Bain, Slavonic Europe: a Political History of Poland and Russia from 1447 to 1796 (1908), ch. i-iv; T. Schiemann, Russland, Polen, und Livland bis ins 17ten Jahrhundert, 2 vols. (1886-1887). Norway: H. H. Boyesen, The History of Norway (1886), a brief popular account in "Story of the Nations" Series. Muscovy: V. O. Kliuchevsky, A History of Russia, trans. with some abridgments by C. J. Hogarth, 3 vols. to close of seventeenth century (1911-1913), latest and, despite faulty translation, most authoritative work on early Russian history now available in English; Alfred Rambaud, Histoire de la Russie depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, 6th ed. completed to 1913 by Émile Haumant (1914), a brilliant work, of which the portion down to 1877 has been trans. by Leonora B. Lang, 2 vols. (1879); W. R. A. Morfill, Russia, in "Story of the Nations" Series, and Poland, a companion volume in the same series. See also Jeremiah Curtin, The Mongols: a History (1908). For the Magyars: C. M. Knatchbull-Hugessen, The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation, 2 vols. (1908), especially Vol. I, ch. i-iii; A. Vámbéry, The Story of Hungary (1886) in "Story of the Nations" Series; Count Julius Andrássy, The Development of Hungarian Constitutional Liberty, trans. by C. Arthur and Ilona Ginever (1908), the views of a contemporary Magyar statesman on the constitutional development of his country throughout the middle ages and down to 1619, difficult to read. For the Ottoman Turks and the Balkan peoples: Stanley Lane-Poole, Turkey (1889), in "Story of the Nations" Series, best brief introduction; A. H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent (1913); Prince and Princess Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich, The Servian People, their Past Glory and their Destiny, 2 vols. (1910), particularly Vol. II, ch. xi, xii; far more pretentious works are, Joseph von Hammer, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 2d ed., 4 vols. (1834-1835), and Nicolae Jorga, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches nach den Quellen dargestellt, 5 vols. (1908-1913), especially Vol. II, 1451-1538, and H. A. Gibbons, The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire (1916), covering the earlier years, from 1300 to 1403.
CHAPTER II
THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION
[Sidenote: Introductory]
Five hundred years ago a European could search in vain the map of "the world" for America, or Australia, or the Pacific Ocean. Experienced mariners, and even learned geographers, were quite unaware that beyond the Western Sea lay two great continents peopled by red men; of Africa they knew only the northern coast; and in respect of Asia a thousand absurd tales passed current. The unexplored waste of waters that constituted the Atlantic Ocean was, to many ignorant Europeans of the fifteenth century, a terrible region frequented by fierce and fantastic monsters. To the average European the countries surveyed in the preceding chapter, together with their Mohammedan neighbors across the Mediterranean, still comprised the entire known world.
Shortly before the close of the fifteenth century, daring captains began to direct long voyages on the high seas and to discover the existence of new lands; and from that time to the present, Europeans have been busily exploring and conquering—veritably "Europeanizing"— the whole globe. Although religion as well as commerce played an important role in promoting the process, the movement was attended from the very outset by so startling a transformation in the routes, methods, and commodities of trade that usually it has been styled the Commercial Revolution. By the close of the sixteenth century it had proceeded far enough to indicate that its results would rank among the most fateful events of all history.
It was in the commonplace affairs of everyday life that the Commercial Revolution was destined to produce its most far-reaching results. To appreciate, therefore, its true nature and significance, we must first turn aside to ascertain how our European ancestors actually lived about the year 1500, and what work they did to earn their living. Then, after recounting the story of foreign exploration and colonization, we shall be in a position to reappraise the domestic situation in town and on the farm.