Rather more than a thousand years later one of his descendants again invaded India from the north, and made a beginning of that Mogul empire which was to become far more widely and firmly established, under the great Akbar, towards the end of the sixteenth century.
Such, or somewhat such, are the main features of the stories of that new world in the West and that old world in the East which were opened up by the enterprise of Spain and Portugal about the year 1500.
CHAPTER III
THREE KINGS AND A MONK
Apart from the discovery of the West and of the new sea-route to the East, the most important events in the early years of the sixteenth century happened in Italy—Northern Italy. We have seen that Italy was almost the only country which showed no sign, as yet, of settling down within something like the boundaries which delimited the European nations up to the time of the Great War. It must be understood that this is a statement which takes no account of the differences made by Napoleon's victories at the beginning of the nineteenth century. We may disregard them, for the moment, because they were not lasting.
But the most important of all the events happening in Italy had nothing to do with changes of territories or national boundaries. Far more interesting and more helpful to the world was the growth of that Renaissance, or new birth, of love of letters and of all artistic beauty which we saw beginning with Dante and Petrarch and Boccaccio, and some of the early Italian painters, sculptors, and jewellers. Moreover, we must not forget the glorious architecture which goes by the name of Gothic, nor the noble buildings in that Byzantine style which the influence of the Moors carried into Spain.
We should notice that a very great impetus was given to that study of Greek literature, which Petrarch and Boccaccio in particular had revived, by the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in the middle of the fifteenth century; for it had the effect of scattering the Greeks far and wide, seeking new homes and bringing their books and their traditions with them.
And further, we ought to observe how this learning had been carried into every country and corner of Europe by the establishment of colleges and universities where it now became possible for every student to read "the classics." Their establishment was the work of the Church or of wealthy men acting under the advice of the Church. Moreover, for what we may call elementary education the teaching of the children of the poorer classes, so far as they received any teaching at all, was also the Church's work, for it was done by the members of the monasteries and convents all over Christendom. It is well that we should bear this in mind, to the Church's credit, at this moment, for the time is close at hand when we shall have to see that same Church accused, and in large measure convicted, of acts very greatly to her discredit.
All the while that the love of letters and of art was growing within the walls of the fortified cities of Italy, the cities were constantly at variance with one another, and even within their walls civic strife seems to have been the rule rather than the exception; but apart from these small local fights there were two principal causes of unrest. The first was the fact that the kings of France were not at all disposed to regard the Alps as forming a natural boundary of their possessions—they were constantly coveting the fertile land of Northern Italy—and a second cause of unrest was the desire, which was strong enough to unite for a time most of the other states, to cripple the excessive power of Venice.