Ten Great Events in History

Ten Great Events in History

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Title: Ten Great Events in History
Author: James Johonnot
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8507] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 20, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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TEN GREAT EVENTS IN HISTORY
COMPILED AND ARRANGED
BY JAMES JOHONNOT
1887
[Illustration: ANCIENT GREECE (Map)]
[Illustration: MAYFLOWER, 1620]
PREFACE.
Patriotism, or love of country, is one of the tests of nobility of character. No great man ever lived that was not a patriot in the highest and truest sense. From the earliest times, the sentiment of patriotism has been aroused in the hearts of men by the narrative of heroic deeds inspired by love of country and love of liberty. This truth furnishes the key to the arrangement and method of the present work. The ten epochs treated are those that have been potential in shaping subsequent events; and when men have struck blows for human liberty against odds and regardless of personal consequences. The simple narrative carries its own morals, and the most profitable work for the teacher will be to merely supplement the narrative so that the picture presented shall be all the more vivid. Moral reflections are wearisome and superfluous.

CONTENTS.
I.--DEFENSE OF FREEDOM BY GREEK VALOR
II.--CRUSADES AND THE CRUSADERS
III.--DEFENSE OF FREEDOM IN ALPINE PASSES
IV.--BRUCE AND BANNOCKBURN.
V.--COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD
VI.--DEFENSE OF FREEDOM ON DUTCH DIKES
VII.--THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA
VIII.--FREEDOM'S VOYAGE TO AMERICA
IX.--PLASSEY; AND HOW AN EMPIRE WAS WON
X.--LEXINGTON AND BUNKER HILL

TEN GREAT EVENTS IN HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.
_DEFENSE OF FREEDOM BY GREEK VALOR._
1. The great events in history are those where, upon special occasions, a man or a people have made a stand against tyranny, and have preserved or advanced freedom for the people. Sometimes tyranny has taken the form of the oppression of the many by the few in the same nation, and sometimes it has been the oppression of a weak nation by a stronger one. The successful revolt against tyranny, the terrible conflict resulting in the emancipation of a people, has always been the favorite theme of the historian, marking as it does a step in the progress of mankind from a savage to a civilized state.
2. One of the earliest as well as most notable of these conflicts of which we have an authentic account took place in Greece twenty-four hundred years ago, or five hundred years before the Christian era. At that time nearly all of Europe was inhabited by rude barbarous tribes. In all that broad land the arts and sciences which denote civilization had made their appearance only in the small and apparently insignificant peninsula of Greece, lying on the extreme southeast border adjoining Asia.
3. At a period before authentic history begins, it is probable that roving tribes of shepherds from the north took possession of the hills and valleys of Greece. Shut off on the north by mountain ranges, and on all other sides surrounded by the sea, these tribes were able to maintain a sturdy independence for many hundred years. The numerous harbors and bays which subdivide Greece invited to a maritime life, and at a very early time, the descendants of the original shepherds became skillful navigators and courageous adventurers.
4. The voyages of Aeneas and Ulysses in the siege of Troy, and those of Jason in search of the golden fleece, and of Perseus to the court of King Minos, are the mythological accounts, embellished by imagination and distorted by time, of what were real voyages. Crossing the Mediterranean, Grecian adventurers became acquainted with the Egyptians, then the most civilized people of the world; and from Egypt they took back to their native country the germs of the arts and sciences which afterward made Greece so famous.
5. Thence improvements went forward with rapid strides. Hints received from Egypt were reproduced in higher forms. Massive temples became light and