The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history

by Madison Grant

It would appear that in all those parts of Europe outside of its natural habitat, the Nordic blood is on the wane from England to Italy and that the ancient, acclimated and primitive populations of Alpine and Mediterranean race are subtly reasserting their long lost political power through a high breeding rate and democratic institutions.

In western Europe the first wave of the Nordic tribes appeared about three thousand years ago and was followed by other invasions with the Nordic element becoming stronger until after the fall of Rome whole tribes moved into its provinces, Teutonizing them more or less for varying lengths of time.

PROVISIONAL OUTLINE OF NORDIC INVASIONS AND METAL CULTURES
	B. C.	Great Britain	Scandinavia	Germany and Austria	France and Spain	Italy	Russia, Greece, and Balkans	Asia Minor	North Africa and Egypt	Mesopotamia and Persia	India and China	B. C.
1.	Before 3000	Neolithic	Neolithic. Rough pottery. Domesticated dog.	Neolithic.	Neolithic.	Terramara culture.	3000 B. C. Commencement of early Minoan in Crete. Copper.	Alpines (Hissarlik). Founding of Troy. Copper in Cyprus. Introduction of bronze from Egypt.	Copper for ornaments, 4000. Copper systematically mined, 3400. Pieces of iron from interior of Great Pyramid of Gizeh, 3733.	Copper for ornaments. Early Babylonian graves. Cylinder seals at Fara about 3400. Cuneiform writing.	Mongolian bands come from west into the Yellow River Valley.	Before 3000	1.
2.	3000–2500			Copper. Great expansion of Alpines, introducing bronze into Austria and later into Germany.	Copper.	Copper. Great expansion of Alpines, introducing bronze into north Italy. Bronze introduced in South from Crete.		Bronze smelting.	Gizeh skulls; Alpine. First illustration of ship in Egypt, 2800. Pyramids, Memphis.	Ur in Sumer. Nippur, 3000–2500. Beginning of greatness of Babylonia. Sargon of Accad (Semitic), 2750.	Chinese claim first empire, 2850–2730.	3000–2500	2.
		Neolithic.	Neolithic.			Eneolithic culture.	Great expansion of Alpines, introducing bronze from
3.	2500–1800	Copper.					Asia Minor. Middle Minoan in Crete, 2000–1800. Second city of Hissarlik—2000.	Destruction of Hissarlik II.	Period of agricultural depression with invasions from the desert. Feudal Age in Egypt.	Sumer and Accad unite, 2500. Babylon under Hammurapi supreme, 2100. First horses from Kassites in Elam.	Phonetic writing in China, probably at 2000 B. C.	2500–1800	3.
			Transition from stone to bronze.
4.	1800–1600	Alpine invasion with bronze culture. Round Barrows. Megaliths.	Alpine invasion with bronze culture reaches Denmark and southwest Norway.		Alpine invasion with bronze culture in France. Later, same wave of invasion enters Spain. Megaliths.		Early Nordic invasions. Cnossos. Mycenæan culture.	Beginnings of Hittite Empire.	Hyksos in Egypt, 1700. First horses.	Kassite dynasty of Babylon begins.		1800–1600	4.
										Kassitites and Mitanni, 1700–1400.
5.	1600–1400			Hallstatt iron culture in Austrian Tyrol has first beginning.			Late Minoan in Crete, 1600–1450.	First Aryan names of deities—Cappadocia. Hittite Empire with iron.	Egyptian Empire at Thebes, 1600–1150. Egyptian campaigns in Asia. Conquest of Syria.	First Nordics in Persia.	First Nordics enter India. Nordic states in Punjab.	1600–1400	5.
		Full Bronze Age.				Last Minoan, 1450–1200.				Nordic invasions.
6.	1400–1200					Villanova culture.	Mycenæan culture. Bronze. Nordic Achæans from south Russia introduce Aryan speech, 1400–1300. Have iron swords. 1200. Transition from bronze to iron in Crete.	Nordic Phrygians. (Trojan leaders.)	Hittites invade Syria. Rameses II. 1230. Sea peoples (Achæans) attack Egypt.	Semitic Babylonians overrun Sumer.		1400–1200	6.
								Hittites Alpines
7.	1200–1000		Beginning of cremation.	Hallstatt iron culture flourishes. Mixed inhumation and incineration. Goidels occupy Germany.	Cadiz founded in Spain, c. 1100, by Phœnicians.	c. 1100. Umbrians and Oscans introduce first Aryan speech from northeast. Iron in Etruria, 1100.	Hallstatt iron. Trojan war, 1194–1184. Nordic Hellenes—Dorians—enter Greece, 1100. Iron in full development.	Armenians acquire Aryan tongue.	Phœnicia supreme at sea.		Nordic Sacæ introduce Sanskrit into India.	1200–1000	7.
			Nordic Teutons cross from Scandinavia to south coasts of Baltic and to Denmark.		1000. Nordic Goidels cross Rhine and introduce Aryan speech (Gaulish).
8.	1000–800	First Nordics—Goidels.		First invasion of Nordic Teutons from Scandinavia. Other Celtic Nordics on Rhine and Danube, who Celticized the Alpines.	Hallstatt iron culture. Before 950 Phœnicians masters of more than half of Spain.	First settlements on the site of Rome.	Iron common in Greece.	Greek colonies in Asia Minor.	Carthage founded, 813.	Zoroaster. Nordic Persians recorded at Lake Urmia, 900. Iron mines at Carchemish. Assyrian chronology begins, 911 B. C.		1000–800	8.
	800	First iron swords, 800.
9.	800–600	First Aryan speech.		The Goidels are driven south and west by the Cymry. Expansion of the Cymry. Pressure of Teutons in north. Last Goidels expelled from Germany. Iron swords in Central Europe.	Gauls in France.	Expansion of Mediterranean Etruscans over Umbrians to Alps. Legendary founding of Rome, 753. First Greek colonies in south Italy—Magna Græcia.	Iron Age in Russia. Megarian colonization, 700. Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily. Appearance of Cimmerians.	Early Nordic raids. Cimmerians, 650.		Invasion of Scythians. Assyrian Empire, 750–606, with armies equipped with iron borrowed from the Hittites. Semitic Chaldeans rebuild Babylon.	Nordic Hiung-nu in western China become restless.	800–600	9.
10.	600–400	First Goidels in Ireland, 600.		La Tène iron culture. Cymric Belgæ driven westward by Teutons.	La Tène iron culture in France. Nordic Goidels cross Pyrenees and introduce Aryan speech in Spain. First Gallic money of Marseilles, silver.	Nordic Gauls in valley of Po—Cisalpine Gaul.	500. End of non-Aryan speech in Crete. Invasion of Scythia by Darius, 512 B. C. Persian wars, 500–449.	Tyre under Babylonian yoke.	Persian conquest, 525. The last of the native Pharaohs.	Nordic Persians overthrow Medes, 550. Reign of Darius, 525–485.	Confucius, 551–479. Buddha, c. 557–477.	600–400	10.
		La Tène iron.	La Tène Iron.
11.	400–300				La Tène iron in Spain. Cymric Belgæ conquer northern France. Bronze money in western France.	Gauls under Brennus sack Rome, 382, and destroy Etruria. New invasion of Nordics into Cisalpine Gaul.	Macedon conquers Greece, 338. Celto-Scyths in Crimea, 4th century B. C. Alexander the Great, 356–323.		Alexander conquers Egypt, 332.	Conquests of Alexander.	Conquests of Alexander in India, 327.	400–300	11.
			Great expansion of Nordic Teutons out of Scandinavia.	Expansion of Teutons and expulsion of Cymry as far west as the Weser.
12.	300–200	Cymric Belgæ—invasion, c. 300. Known as Brythons.		c. 250. First Teutons in Austria. Gold, silver, and bronze money.	Gold coinage in northeast France. Bronze coinage in the southwest. Gaul fertile and well cultivated.	Expansion of Rome.	Decline of Scythians in Russia, and appearance in Russia of Alpine Sarmatians. Nordic Galatians enter Thrace and Greece—Delphi, 279; cross into Asia Minor and found Galatia.	Nordic Galatians, 279.			Nordic Wu-Suns in Chinese Turkestan and Ting-Ling in Siberia. Ts’in dynasty (255–209) resist Nomads and secure China against them by building the Great Wall.	300–200	12.
						Punic Wars, 264–146.
13.	200–100	Few Cymry or Brythons in Ireland.		Teutons drive Cymry out of Germany. Teutons cross the Rhine.	Teutons enter France. Marius destroys Teutones and Cimbri, 100 B. C.	Slaves imported in Rome to work the latifundia.				Nordic Alans in Sogdiana.		200–100	13.
											Kian-Kuan in Turkestan. Hiung-nu, turned westward, drove the Wu-sun into the mountains about Ili and the great Yue-chih into the Tarim basin.
14.	100 to Christian Era	55. Julius Cæsar. Copper and iron money as currency.			Cæsar conquers Gaul, 59–51.	Augustus and the organization of the Roman Empire. Extinction of old Romans.						100 to Christian Era	14.
15.				Defeat of Varus and Roman legions in old Saxony, 9 A. D.			Sarmatians appear in Danube valley, 50 A. D.						15.

These incoming Nordics intermarried with the native populations and were gradually bred out and the resurgence of the old native stock, chiefly Alpine, has proceeded steadily since the Frankish Charlemagne destroyed the Lombard kingdom and is proceeding with unabated vigor to-day. This process was greatly accelerated in western Europe by the Crusades, which were extremely destructive to the Nordic feudal lords, especially the Frankish and Norman nobility and was continued by the wars of the Reformation and by those of the Revolution. The world war now in full swing with its toll of millions will leave Europe much poorer in Nordic blood. One of its most certain results will be the partial destruction of the aristocratic classes everywhere in northern Europe. In England the nobility has already suffered in battle more than in any century since the Wars of the Roses. This will tend to realize the standardization of type so dear to democratic ideals. If equality cannot be obtained by lengthening and uplifting the stunted of body and of mind, it can be at least realized by the destruction of the exalted of stature and of soul. The bed of Procrustes operates with the same fatal exactness when it shortens the long as when it stretches the undersized.

The first Nordics in Spain were the Gauls who crossed the western Pyrenees about the end of the sixth century before our era and introduced Aryan speech into the Iberian Peninsula. They quickly mixed with Mediterranean natives and the composite Spaniards were called Celtiberians by the Romans.

In Portugal and Spain there are in the physical structure of the population few traces of these early Celtic-speaking Nordic invaders but the Suevi, who a thousand years later occupied parts of Portugal, and the Vandals and Visigoths, who conquered and held Spain for 300 years, have left some small evidence of their blood. In the provinces of northern Spain a considerable percentage of light colored eyes reveals these Nordic elements in the population.

Deep seated Castilian traditions associate aristocracy with blondness and the sangre azul, or blue blood of Spain, probably refers to the blue eye of the Goth, whose traditional claim to lordship is also shown in the Spanish name for gentleman, “hidalgo,” said to mean “the son of the Goth.” The fact that the blood shows as “blue” through the fair Nordic skin is also to be taken into account.

As long as this Gothic nobility controlled the Spanish states during the endless crusades against the Moors, Spain belonged to the Nordic kingdoms, but when their blood became impaired by losses in wars waged outside of Spain and in the conquest of the Americas, the sceptre fell from this noble race into the hands of the native Iberian, who had not the physical vigor or the intellectual strength to maintain the world empire built up by the stronger race. For 200 years the Spanish infantry had no equal in Europe but this distinction disappeared with the opening decades of the seventeenth century.

The splendid conquistadores of the New World were of Nordic type, but their pure stock did not long survive their new surroundings and to-day they have vanished utterly, leaving behind them only their language and their religion. After considering well these facts we shall not have to search further for the causes of the collapse of Spain.

Gaul at the time of Cæsar’s conquest was under the rule of the Nordic race, which furnished the bulk of the population of the north as well as the military classes elsewhere and, while the Romans killed off an undue proportion of this fighting element, the power and vigor of the French nation have been based on this blood and its later reinforcements. In fact, in the Europe of to-day the amount of Nordic blood in each nation is a very fair measure of its strength in war and standing in civilization. The proportion of men of pure type of each constituent race to the mixed type is also a powerful factor.