These are Mr. Green's words: "From the moment of the Declaration of Independence it mattered little whether England counted for less or more with the {vi} nations around her. She was no longer a mere European power, no longer a mere rival of Germany or Russia or France. She was from that hour a mother of nations.... And to these nations she was to give not only her blood and her speech, but the freedom which she had won. It is the thought of this which flings its grandeur round the pettiest details of our story in the past. The history of France has little result beyond France itself. German or Italian history has no direct issue outside the boundaries of Germany or Italy. But England is only a small part of the outcome of English history. Its greater issues lie not within the narrow limits of the mother island, but in the destinies of nations yet to be. The struggles of her patriots, the wisdom of her statesmen, the steady love of liberty and law in her people at large, were shaping in the past of our little island the future of mankind." The greatest part, in fact, of this Greatest Story for the last hundred and fifty years has been made in England. That is, indeed, much to say, but it is not too much. In this volume I have thought best not to take up space with description of the way in which men have so lately lived, have built their houses, and so on. I have assumed that all this would be more or less familiar to my readers from other books and pictures and talk. And not even in vaguest outline have I attempted a sketch of the Great War and its effects. The moving picture which I have tried to make intelligible stops before the curtain is rung up on that grim tragedy whose import we do not even now fully understand. And yet again my best thanks are due to Mr. R. B. Lattimer for valuable criticisms and suggestions. {vii} CONTENTS CHAPTER I. How Man sailed East and West II. The Stories of the Old East and of the New West III. Three Kings and a Monk IV. The Waning Power of Spain V. The Wars of Religion VI. The Growing Power of France VII. The Humbling of France VIII. From the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle IX. The Seven Years' War X. How The United States won Independence XI. How the Stage was set for the French Revolution XII. The Revolution and the Terror XIII. The Napoleonic Wars XIV. The Expansion of the Anglo-Saxon and the Slav XV. Steam and Evolution XVI. The Resettlement of Europe XVII. The Settlement of America XVIII. "The White Man's Burden" SECTION I.--Africa SECTION II.--India and the Far East SECTION III.--The Far South Index {viii} LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Railway Centenary, 1925: Ancient and Modern Locomotives ... _Frontispiece_ Ships of the Time of Henry VIII. Mexican Picture Writing Statue of Buddha Sir Francis Drake General Wolfe's Statue, Quebec The Potala at Lhasa The Taj Mahal, Agra Warren Hastings