Outside of Europe it cannot fail to be observed how completely the spread of knowledge on the outer borders of the known world was controlled by events which took place in western Europe. Chief of these was the gradual crippling and decay of the maritime supremacy of Spain and Portugal, and the rise of that of the Dutch and British into strength. Maritime enterprise had passed to Holland, England, and France.

In America the British dominion was extended by the formation of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1690 this fur company had built several forts and factories on the coasts, whence from time to time their operations extended inland.

The French also, after La Salle first descended (1682) the great river, Mississippi, “the father of waters,” invaded Spanish claims by settling in Louisiana, about the mouth of the great river, in 1699.

World About A. D. 1800.—In Europe France holds about the same position till near the close of the century, when the Revolution breaks out, and the republic makes large accessions of territory in the Austrian Netherlands, Savoy, Piedmont, and the islands of the Mediterranean. Through the very enormity of the excesses of the revolutionary period, the form of government soon gave way to a new constitution, known as the Directory, under which Napoleon Bonaparte came to the front as the central figure in the affairs of Europe. During these last years of the century the French Republic was engaged in constant wars with the various coalitions formed against it by the other powers. In the year 1799 the Directory came to an end, and the supreme control was vested in the hands of Napoleon, who was made First Consul.

ABOUT A.D. 1800

ABOUT 1915

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