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CHAPTER XII.

HISTORY OF COLONISATION.

SECT. I. The Establishment of the Spaniards in Mexico
II. The Establishment of the Spaniards in Peru
III. Portuguese Colonies in South America

IV. The English in America

V. Colonisation of the West Indies
VI. The Portuguese in India.

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VII. The Spaniards in the East Indies
VIII. The Dutch in the East Indies
IX. The Danes in the East Indies
X. The English and French in India
XI. The English in Australasia .

CHAPTER XIII.

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MANUAL

OF

MODERN HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE.

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SECTION I. The Gothic Kingdom of Italy.

HERE is no period in the annals of the human race which presents to the historical student a greater scene of confusion than the century succeeding the overthrow of the Western Empire. The different hordes of barbarians, following no definite plan, established separate monarchies in the dismembered provinces, engaged in sanguinary wars that had no object but plunder, and were too ignorant to form anything like a political system. There is consequently a want of unity in the narrative of a time when nations ceased to have fixed relations towards each other, and history must appear desultory and digressive until some one state, rising into command, assume such importance, that the fate of all the rest may be connected with its destinies. It is necessary, before entering on the various incidents of this calamitous time, to take a geographical survey of the places occupied by the principal nations who succeeded the Romans in the sovereignty of Europe. The Visigoths, after their establishment in Spain, began gradually to adopt the refinement of their new subjects; that peninsula had advanced rapidly in civilisation under the Roman dominion, and had escaped from much of the corruption which had degraded Italy; the conquerors, more advanced than any of the other barbarians, soon learned to appreciate the advantages of social order, and began to cultivate the higher arts of life. In Pannonia,

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the Ostrogoths derived great improvement from their vicinity to Italy on the one side, and the court of Constantinople on the other; they were thus gradually trained to civilisation, and their early adoption of Christianity secured them the benefits of literature, which was sedulously cultivated by the clergy.

Tribes of a very different character pressed into the empire from the German forests, the Burgundians, the Lombards. and the Franks, of whom the last were long distinguished for their hostility to all refinements, and their exclusive attention to the military virtues. Still more barbarous were the Saxons and Angles; they were not only strangers to the civilisation and religion of the empire, but were kept in their rude state by the practice of piracy, for which their maritime situation afforded them great facilities; their government, divided among several petty chiefs, was favourable to personal independence, and furnished a striking contrast to the absolute despotism that had been established in the Roman empire. All the Germanic tribes were remarkable for the respect which they showed to the delicacy of the female character; they neither treated their women like slaves, as most other barbarians have done, nor did they degrade them into mere objects of sensual gratification, like the Romans and Byzantines. The German woman was the companion and counsellor of her husband; she shared his labours as an equal, not as a servant. It was from the sanctity of the domestic circle among the northern nations that races of conquerors derived the firmness and courage which insured them victory.

The north-eastern part of Europe was occupied by Sclavonic tribes, differing from the Germans in language, manners, and tactics; like the Tartars of more modern times, they placed their chief reliance on their cavalry; and they were more opposed to civilization than any of the Germanic nations. Their form of government was a kind of aristocratic republic, but in war the tribes generally united under a single leader. They were very averse to fixed residences, and when they occupied a country they rarely entered the cities, but remained in their camps or in rude circular fortifications called rings. The Sclavonians hated the Germans, and could rarely be induced to unite with them against their common enemy, the Romans.

After the fall of the Western Empire, the court of Constantinople sunk into obscurity, from which it did not emerge for half a century, when its supremacy was restored during the memorable reign of Justinian. The Isaurian Zeno, raised to the purple by his marriage with the Princess Ariadne, was forced to fly into the mountains by a fierce revolt which his mother-in-law Verina had instigated. He was restored to the throne chiefly by the aid of

Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who had been carefully educated as a hostage at the court of Constantinople. The turbulence of the Goths, and the faithlessness of Byzantines, soon destroyed the amity of the two sovereigns; a desultory but sanguinary warfare harassed the Eastern Empire, until Zeno purchased peace by ceding to Theodoric his right over Italy, or rather stimulated the Goth to undertake the conquest of that peninsula. The march of Theodoric was the emigration of an entire people; the Goths were accompanied by their wives, their children, and their aged parents; a vast multitude of waggons conveyed their most precious effects, and their store of provisions for a toilsome march undertaken in the depth of winter. Odoacer boldly prepared to meet this formidable invasion; he took post on the river Sontius (Isonzo) with a powerful host; but he was unable to resist the daring energy of the Goths, and his defeat gave Theodoric possession of the Venetian province as far as the walls of Verona (A.D. 489). Italy, however, was not won without further struggles; Ravenna alone sustained a siege of more than three years; but at length Odoacer capitulated (A.D. 493), and was soon after assassinated at a solemn banquet by his rival.

Theodoric secured his conquest by distributing one-third of the lands of Italy to his soldiers in military tenures. This partition was effected with very little violence to the ancient possessors; the Goths were instructed to spare the people, to reverence the laws, and to lay aside their barbarous customs of judicial combats and private revenge. The Gothic sovereignty was soon extended from Sicily to the Danube, and from Sirmium (Sirmich) to the Atlantic Ocean; thus including the fairest portion of the Western Empire. The monarch of this new kingdom showed great wisdom and moderation in his civil government, but unfortunately his attachment to the Arian heresy led him to persecute the Catholics; it must, however, be confessed that their bigoted turbulence afforded too often a reasonable excuse for his severity. The legal murder of the philosopher Boethius and the venerable Symmachus were crimes which admit of no palliation; they hastened Theodoric's death, for remorse brought him to the grave in the thirtythird year of his reign (A.D. 526).

SECTION II. The Reign of Justinian.

A DACIAN peasant named Justin, who had travelled on foot to Constantinople in the reign of the Emperor Leo, enlisted in the imperial guards, and during the succeeding reigns so distinguished himself by his strength and valour, that he was gradually raised to the command of the household troops. On the death of the

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