Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/751

Rh E U 11 P E 15 steadily subordinate. Between Germany and France lies the kingdom of Burgundy or Aries, which must not be con founded with the duchy of Burgundy, and whose limits extend from Basel to Provence, including all the lower basin of the Rhone. In the Balkan peninsula the Servian prin cipality maintains its independence, and the Bulgarians have extended their power from the Danube southwards to Thermopylae. Among the peoples to the east the Russians are already the most powerful ; and the great empire of the Khazars has disappeared. te During the next five centuries Europe was full of hurry to -. and fro, of petty strivings and pioneerings, of great wars and invasions, of crusades and conquests. At one time it appeared as if the Scandinavian peoples were to take posses sion of England, and at another as if the English were to become masters of France; the French attempted the an nexation of Italy; the most powerful of the Italian com monwealths extended its authority over the islands and mainland of Greece ; all Europe sent forth its armies for the recovery of the sacred sepulchre; and all Europe was in alarm at the advance of the Ottoman power. Amidst all the confusion and conflict, the modern nations were slowly taking shape under the influence of a rapidly developing feudalism, and by the time we reach the 16th century we can speak of France and Germany, of Spain and Portugal, of Poland, Russia, and Turkey, with some thing of the same meaning in the words as they possessed till the Great Revolution. In the second decade of the 16th century the house of Hapsburg, in the person of Charles V., attained an unpre cedented preponderance. Through the action of the laws of inheritance he acquired the Netherlands, the Spanish monarchy with the kingdom of Naples, and the Austrian states of his paternal grandfather; and in 1519 he was elected to the imperial throne. On his abdication he left the German states to his brother Ferdinand, and the rest of his possessions to his son Philip. Between the various countries thus absurdly united with the Spanish crown there was no kind of cohesion, and even in a period of re pose the association could hardly have been expected to last. The IGth century was anything but a period of repose. The extent of the new monarchy raised the rivalry of England and France ; the Turkish power was dangerously aggressive in the east; and religious discord added a new and potent element of disintegration. War followed war in rapid succession; and many of the most flourishing parts of the continent were laid waste with a desolation which centuries of peace but partially effaced. It was not till 1G48 that the treaty of Westphalia gave the greater part of the continent another period of repose. The contest of which it was the immediate termination left Sweden the most powerful of the Scandinavian states, with important acquisitions from Denmark and Norway, from Germany, Russia, and Poland. The Protestant Netherlands and Switzerland were now formally recognized as independent. In Germany the house of Hapsburg was no longer in a position of undisputed supremacy; the houses of Hohenzollern, Saxony, and Wittelsbach had all gained in importance ; and, instead of a powerful kingdom, there was nothing but a &quot; lax confederation of states.&quot; The authority of Spain was still acknowledged in Naples and Sicily, in Milan and Sardinia, as well as in the Catholic portion of the Netherlands. Venice was the&quot; principal native power in the north of Italy, and a large part of the central region was in the hands of the church. France had increased her territory by the acquisition of Alsace, and was the most formidable military state in the continent. The three king .loins of the English crown had for some time been united under a common dynasty. Russia was recovering her position; Poland was already beginning to decline ; the Turkish power was losing ground before the Germans and Hungarians, and, as a natural consequence, the Hungarian kingdom was gathering strength. The rest of the 17th century was mainly remarkable for the serifs of wars with which the name of Louis XIV. of France is more immediately associated. They produced in the long run comparatively small alterations in the partitioning of territory, as the treaty of Ryswick was in the main an instrument of restoration. Of much greater effect was the death of Charles II. of Spain in 1700, followed as it was by the war of the Spanish succession, in which all the principal states were more or less embroiled. At the close of the contest the Bourbons of France got pos session of Spain, Sicily, and Parma ; the Austrian branch of the house of Hapsburg obtained the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, and Milan ; the Prussian kingdom of the Hohenzollerns was formally recognized and its territory increased ; the duke of Savoy became king of Sardinia ; and England secured the occupation of Gibraltar and Minorca. The principal effect of the wonderful campaigns of Charles XII. of Sweden was to leave his country in a condition so exhausted that, at the peace of 1720-1, it had to give up a great part of what it had acquired during the 17th century. A totally different result attended the equally daring but more politic enterprises of Frederick the Great, who greatly increased his territory and secured for his kingdom a brilliant future in Europe. About the same time, under Peter the Great, Russia was making con quests both in south and north, and was preparing to take her place side by side with the western powers. In the latter half of the 18th century, or, more precisely, about the year 1785, the political map presented the follow ing divisions. The German empire under Joseph II. extended over an area of about 255,120 square miles, had a population of upwards of 26,000,000, and consisted of no fewer than 289 states, of which 61 were free cities. The portion of the Austrian possessions which was not included in the empire had an area of 152,000 square miles, and a population of 9,250,000; and the corresponding portion of Prussia had an area of 29,764 square miles, and a population of 1,500,000. To France, at that time under Louis XVI., belonged no less than 201,970 square miles, and a population of 26,000,000. The inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland numbered no more than 12,000,000; and Spain, with her area of 195,600 square miles, had only about 10,500,000. Italy was broken up among eleven states, and her total population was estimated at 16,250,000. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies included the island of Sicily and all the southern portion of the peninsula as far north as Terracina in the west and Ascoli in the east ; to the north lay the States of the Church, extending in the east to the mouth of the Po, and in the west to the borders of Tuscany; Tuscany in its turn was conterminous with the territory of Lucca and the duchy of Modena ; to the west of Modena lay the territory of Genoa and the duchy of Parrna ; the duchy of Milan stretched along the northern half of the valley of the Po from Lucaruo to M-irandola ; the kingdom of Sardinia included Savoy and all the country westwards to the frontiers of Switzerland and France ; and the republic of Venice stretched its authority from Lucca in the west to Aquileia in the east, as well as along the Dalmatian coast to the neighbourhood of the Narenta. The republic of the united Netherlands had 7290 square miles of territory, and 2,250,000 of a population. Norway was politically united with Denmark; and the king of Denmark, Christian VII., consequently held sway over an area of 165,830 square miles, and a population of 2,250,000. The Swedish territory was about 233,860 square miles, but the population was only 3,000,000. Switzerland occupied 14,880, with 1,750,000 inhabitants. The republic of