I THE SPANIARD AND THE NEW WORLD 293 II THE CAREER OF CORTEZ 322 III THE INCAS 350 IV PIZARRO 357 NAPOLEON I EARLY YEARS 371 II ITALY AND EGYPT 379 III THE FALL OF THE DIRECTORY 388 IV THE FIRST CONSUL 393 V THE INAUGURATION OF THE EMPIRE 407 VI AT THE ZENITH OF POWER 418 VII THE BEGINNING OF THE END 426 VIII DEFEAT AND EXILE 433 IX THE NAPOLEONIC RÉGIME 448 INDEX 465 PORTRAITS CHARLES THE GREAT _Frontispiece_ ALEXANDER THE GREAT 3 CÆSAR 65 MOHAMMED II 253 SULEYMAN 276 CORTEZ 322 PIZARRO 357 NAPOLEON 371 * * * * * THE WORLD’S LEADING CONQUERORS * * * * * ALEXANDER THE GREAT I INTRODUCTORY Even in the critical time of the Persian invasion, the Greek peoples did not act together. The experiences of political individualism were too strong to be overcome, and the rooted tradition of local autonomy successfully resisted all attempts at larger plans of unity. It is not surprising that at a time when Greek thinkers regarded the development of the city-state as the highest field for human endeavor, Greek statesmen should have seen in the expansion of their native communities only a loose federation of subject cities to be exploited financially or for the purpose of adding increased military and naval strength, and not to be subjected to any formal centralized control. [Illustration: ALEXANDER] As time went on the old solidarity of the Greek city-state was sapped in the fight of social classes and political parties. Not only were Athens, Sparta, and Thebes frequently at war with one another but in each one of these states there were at work factions dominated by revolutionary aims. Nothing was regarded as fixed except that the community must be self-sufficing, it mattered little in what way. It seemed as if the troubled relations of Greek political life might go on indefinitely after the Persian invasion had been repelled.