The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and MankindWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
World history
The last rulers of the Chow Dynasty were ousted by the kings of Ts’in,
the latter seized upon the sacred sacrificial bronze tripods, and so
were able to take over the imperial duty of offering sacrifices to
Heaven. In this manner was the Ts’in Dynasty established. It ruled with
far more vigour and effect than any previous family. The reign of
Shi-Hwang-ti (meaning “first universal emperor”) of this dynasty is
usually taken to mark the end of feudal and divided China. He seems to
have played the unifying rôle in the east that Alexander the Great might
have played in the west, but he lived longer, and the unity he made (or
restored) was comparatively permanent, while the empire of Alexander the
Great fell to pieces, as we shall tell, at his death. Shi-Hwang-ti,
among other feats in the direction of common effort, organized the
building of the Great Wall of China against the Huns. A civil war
followed close upon his reign, and ended in the establishment of the
Han Dynasty. Under this Han Dynasty the empire grew greatly beyond its
original two river valleys, the Huns were effectively restrained, and
the Chinese penetrated westward until they began to learn at last of
civilized races and civilizations other than their own.
By 100 B.C. the Chinese had heard of India, their power had spread
across Tibet and into Western Turkestan, and they were trading by camel
caravans with Persia and the western world. So much for the present must
suffice for our account of China. We shall return to the distinctive
characters of its civilization later.
§ 6
And in these thousands of years during which man was making his way step
by step from the barbarism of the heliolithic culture to civilization at
these old-world centres, what was happening in the rest of the world? To
the north of these centres, from the Rhine to the Pacific, the Nordic
and Mongolian peoples, as we have told, were also learning the use of
metals; but while the civilizations were settling down these men of the
great plains were becoming migratory and developing from a slow
wandering life towards a complete seasonal nomadism. To the south of the
civilized zone, in central and southern Africa, the negro was making a
slower progress, and that, it would seem, under the stimulus of invasion
by whiter tribes from the Mediterranean regions, bringing with them in
succession cultivation and the use of metals. These white men came to
the black by two routes: across the Sahara to the west as Berbers and
Tuaregs and the like, to mix with the negro and create such quasi-white
races as the Fulas; and also by way of the Nile, where the Baganda (=
Gandafolk) of Uganda, for example, may possibly be of remote white
origin. The African forests were denser then, and spread eastward and
northward from the Upper Nile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account