A.D.

1066. William I. and Battle of Hastings.

1073. Pope Gregory VII. Investiture of Bishops. Celibacy. Henry IV. of Germany.

1095-1250. The Crusades.

1200.

Commerce flourishes in Venice and Genoa.

1298. Eastern Empire attacked by Othman, founder of the Ottoman Empire.

1302. The Mariner's Compass known in Europe.

1330. Gunpowder was introduced into Europe.

1402. The Turkish Sultan Bajazet defeated by Tamerlane. 1441. Printing discovered at Mentz by Faust and Guttenburg.

1453. Constantinople taken by the Turks. Greeks take refuge in Italy.

1453. Henry of Portugal studies geography and maritime discovery on the western coast of Africa.

1498. Passage by the Cape to the East Indies discovered. 1517. Reformation in Germany. Luther. Melancthon. Zwingle in Switzerland. Charles V. king of Spain and emperor of Germany.

1517. Watches invented.

1540. The Jesuits: a society in aid of the Roman Catholic religion founded by Ignatius Loyola.

1588. Destruction of the Spanish Armada.

1589. Henry IV. of France.

1600.

Holland successful in the East Indies. 1618-1648. The Thirty Years' War, weakening Spain and Austria, and increasing the power of France and Sweden, under Gustavus Adolphus. Protestants gain equal rights with the Roman Catholics. 1618. Coffee, Sugar, Tea, and Tobacco generally introduced.

1643-1715. Lewis XIV. Rise of France and its decline. Frederic William the First of Brandenburg. 1689-1725. Peter the Great of Russia. Sweden subdued under Charles XII. Battle of Pultowa, 1809. 1740. Frederic II. of Prussia. Maria Theresa of Austria. 1756-1763. Seven Years' War; France weakened, Prus

sia respected. England, mistress of the sea, gains great conquests in the East Indies and N. America. 1768. Captain Cook. Australia discovered.

1776. Independence of the United States. Washington and Franklin. Catherine II. of Russia weakens the power of the Turks.

A. D.

1789. French Revolution begins.

1793. Lewis XVI. and his queen murdered. 1800. Buonaparte general, and in 1804 emperor. 1811. Great French Empire, comprising France, Italy, Switzerland, States of the Rhine, Holland, Spain, and north of Germany.

1612. Napoleon's reverses in Russia. 1813. Battle of Leipsic.

1814. Entrance of the allied powers of England, Russia, and Germany into Paris. Napoleon deposed and placed in Elba. Lewis XVIII. Peace with France. 1815. Escape of Napoleon from Elba to Paris. New preparations of the Allies. Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, and sent to St. Helena, where he dies, 1821. Peace.

1818. Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Allies leave France. 1820. Disturbances in Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Sicily. 1821. Greeks revolt against the Turks.

1827. English, French, and Russians burn the Turkish fleet at Navarino.

1828.

Russian-Turkish war ended

1829. By the peace of Adrianople.

1830. Charles X. of France dethroned. Louis Philippe king. Revolt of the Belgians.

COMPENDIUM

OF

UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

ON HISTORY.

THE generations that have passed away have comprised an infinite variety of characters, illustrious for their good and evil deeds, and for every vicissitude of fortune. This world has been the scene of memorable achievements; the rise and fall of mighty empires, the wild regions that have been colonised and cultivated by the industry of man, and the flourishing cities overthrown by his violence, astound us as we trace the mysterious links that form one chain of causes and effects. Many arrangements in our present economy, both civil and domestic, were unknown to our forefathers; many an improvement in agriculture, manufactures, and the fine arts, now in general use, have been developed and brought to perfection only by slow degrees. Now, it is the province of History to transmit an account of such only of these characters, customs, and events as are most important; for, to record them all

B

were neither practicable nor useful. Already we are provided with an immense mass of matter well worthy of study, and of real importance; and here we would explain, that we term every thing important that has exerted an extensive influence for good or for evil, whether the mainspring of action was apparently trivial, or itself the result of combined causes.

4004.

CHAP. II.

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

B. C. IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; but the earth was void and without form: land and water were undivided: no plant nor living thing had yet existence. And on this subject obviously the historian can but refer to the Book of Genesis. The following account is translated only to preserve the integrity of the original, and strikingly to exemplify the inconsistencies into which even an enlightened mind is betrayed, when it attempts to go beyond the revelations of Holy Writ:

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Gradually the land and water divided: under"mined by subterranean fires, vast depths were "formed, and waters collecting made the sea. "Hard or hardened bodies, reptiles now petrified, "fishes and sea plants subsided in successive "strata. Rocks rose up, which, like the bones

1756.

"of the human body, formed the framework of A. D. "the earth, and solid land gathered round it. "These rocks served as bulwarks, that no tempest "nor incursion of the sea could entirely detach "the earth from them. At last, a hurricane from "the south-west gave our earth its present form. "The soil was torn away from the southern hemisphere; and only here and there could rocks "resist, and they now form promontories stretch"ing far into the sea: the greater part of the soil 66 was carried to the north-east."

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The present form is, however, by no means imperishable, nor doomed to last without a change. It is undergoing changes in many parts even at the present hour. The higher grounds are continually sinking, while the lower rise. The sea encroaches upon the land, and, in its turn, retreats and leaves dry ground. Then mighty revolutions are effected by earthquakes; such as the famous earthquake of Lisbon on the 1st of November, A.D. 1756, which not only destroyed the city, but laid waste the surrounding country.

CHAP. III.

CREATION OF LIVING CREATURES.

THE earth having thus acquired solidity, was B. C. endowed by its Creator with a generative power

4000.