A Political History Of Modern Europe

PREFACE A HISTORY which, like the present one, compresses the political development of Europe during the last four event ful centuries into a single volume, must needs give the im pression of being hurried and superficial, and be guilty of a large number of glaring omissions. In excuse of these shortcomings the author begs leave to call attention to his purpose merely to raise one of those scaffoldings which must precede the erection of an edifice, and which is destined to be cleared away when the edifice is completed. In the authors view his book is no more than an introduction to the field, planned for the convenience of the student who is taking his first survey of this branch of knowledge. In the hope of facilitating the beginners labors, the text is accom panied with references and illustrated by means of maps and genealogical tables. A word upon the text and the auxiliary features will show how they are correlated. 1. The teoct presents the political development of Modern Europe in the following order a Preliminary Survey, in troducing the reader to the intellectual, moral, and political conditions of the Renaissance, is followed by three parts, entitled respectively, Part I., The Reformation 1500-1648 Part II., The Absolute Monarchy 1648-1789 Part III., Revolution and Democracy 1789-1906. Each part is divided into a convenient number of chapters. . As soon as a chapter has been carefully read and fully understood the student should turn to the references. 2. The references at the head of each chapter enable the student to penetrate more deeply into the chapter matter. vi Preface They are of two kinds, first, secondary authorities, pointing a way by which the student may gatheradditional informa tion, and, second, sources, or rather source readings, facili tating immediate contact with specimens of the original material, upon which, and upon which alone, all solid historical knowledge must in the end be based. With the beginner in mind the author has seen fit to limit his refer ences to books and documents in the English language. 3. The maps, the close perusal of which cannot be too much insisted on, are scattered through the text at the most appropriate places, while the Chronological Table of the Popes Appendix B and the Genealogical Tables of the Sovereign Houses Appendix C, bound together at the end of the volume, should prove helpful in solving problems of succession and family alliances. At the end of the volume will be found a complete list of the books recommended under the references together with their publishers and prices Appendix D. In Ap pendix A I have selected from the complete list of books a small number costing 25- 30 and calculated to constitute the nucleus of a serviceable reference library for every student with a serious interest in the period. A general atlas, always within reach during the prepara tion of the daily lesson, will be found a most useful supple ment to the maps in this volume. Several excellent works of this kind may be recommended to the student i. Dow, E. W., Atlas of European History. Henry Holt. New York. 2. Putzger, Historischer Schulatlas with English Introduc tion and German-English Glossary. American agents Lemcke Buechner. New York. 1.25. Putzger makes a specialty of German history. 3. Gardiner, S. R. A School Atlas of English Histgry. Longmans, Green. London and New York. 1.50. A word for advanced students andteachers, desirous of Preface vii going behind the simple references supplied in this volume. Readers of this class should aim primarily at a first-hand acquaintance with the sources, even though access to them is not always easy and will be found entirely impossible without an extensive knowledge of languages. Of course the sources of Modern European History cannot be classi fied here...