The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914)

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914)

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians Vol. 21, Editor: Charles F. Horne
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 The Recent Days (1910-1914)
Author: Charles F. Horne, Editor
Release Date: November 30, 2003 [EBook #10341]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT EVENTS V21 ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gwidon Naskrent and PG Distributed Proofreaders

THE GREAT EVENTS
BY
FAMOUS HISTORIANS
A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS
NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL
ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES. ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY. WITH THOROUGH INDICES. BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING
EDITED BY
CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.
Aided by a staff of specialists
CONTENTS
VOLUME XXI
An Outline Narrative of the Great Events CHARLES F. HORNE
The United States House of Governors (_A.D. 1910_) WILLIAM S. JORDAN THE GOVERNORS
Union of South Africa (_A.D. 1910_) PROF. STEPHEN LEACOCK
Portugal Becomes a Republic (_A.D. 1910_) WILLIAM ARCHER
The Crushing of Finland (_A.D. 1910_) JOHN JACKOL BARON SERGIUS WITTE BARON VON PLEHVE J.H. REUTER
_Man's Fastest Mile_ (_A.D. 1911_) C.F. CARTER ISAAC MARCOSSON
The Fall of Diaz (_A.D. 1911_) MRS. E.A. TWEEDIE DOLORES BUTTERFIELD
Fall of the English House of Lords (_A.D. 1911) ARTHUR PONSONBY SYDNEY BROOKS CAPTAIN GEORGE SWINTON
_The Turkish-Italian War_ (_A.D. 1911_) WILLIAM T. ELLIS THE WAR CORRESPONDENTS
Woman Suffrage (_A.D. 1911_) IDA HUSTED HARPER ISRAEL ZANGWILL JANE ADDAMS DAVID LLOYD-GEORGE ELBERT HUBBARD
Militarism (_A.D. 1911_) NORMAN ANGELL SIR MAX WAECHTER
_Persia's Loss of Liberty_ (_A.D. 1911_) W. MORGAN SHUSTER
Discovery of the South Pole (_A.D. 1911_) ROALD AMUNDSEN
The Chinese Revolution (_A.D. 1912_) ROBERT MACHRAY R.F. JOHNSTON TAI-CHI QUO
A Step Toward World Peace (_A.D. 1912_) HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT
_Tragedy of the "Titanic"_ (_A.D. 1912_) W.A. INGLIS
Our Progressing Knowledge of Life Surgery (_A.D. 1912_) GENEVIEVE GRANDCOURT PROFESSOR R. LEGENDRE
Overthrow of Turkey by the Balkan States (_A.D. 1912_) J. ELLIS BARKER FREDERICK PALMER PROF. STEPHEN P. DUGGAN
Mexico Plunged Into Anarchy (_A.D. 1913_) EDWIN EMERSON WILLIAM CAROL
The New Democracy (_A.D. 1913_) PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
The Income Tax in America (_A.D. 1913_) JOSEPH A. HILL
The Second Balkan War (_A.D. 1913_) PROF. STEPHEN P. DUGGAN CAPT. A.H. TRAPMANN
Opening of the Panama Canal (_A.D. 1914_) COL. GEORGE W. GOETHALS BAMPFYLDE FULLER
Universal Chronology (_1910-1914_)

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE
TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF
THE GREAT EVENTS
THE RECENT DAYS (1910-1914)
CHARLES F. HORNE
The awful, soul-searing tragedy of Europe's great war of 1914 came to most men unexpectedly. The real progress of the world during the five years preceding the war had been remarkable. All thinkers saw that the course of human civilization was being changed deeply, radically; but the changes were being accomplished so successfully that men hoped that the old brutal ages of military destruction were at an end, and that we were to progress henceforth by the peaceful methods of evolution rather than the hysterical excitements and volcanic upheavals of revolution.
Yet even in the peaceful progress of the half-decade just before 1914 there were signs of approaching disaster, symptoms of hysteria. This period displayed the astonishing spectacle of an English parliament, once the high example for dignity and the model for self-control among governing bodies, turned suddenly into a howling, shrieking mob. It beheld the Japanese, supposedly the most extravagantly loyal among devotees of monarchy, unearthing among themselves a conspiracy of anarchists so wide-spread, so dangerous, that the government held their trials in secret and has never dared reveal all that was discovered. It beheld the women of Persia bursting from the secrecy of their harems and with modern revolvers forcing their own democratic leaders to stand firm in patriotic resistance to Russian tyranny. It beheld the English suffragettes.
Yet the movement toward universal Democracy which lay behind all these extravagances was upon the whole a movement borne along by calm conviction, not by burning hatreds or ecstatic devotions. A profound sense of the inevitable trend of the world's evolution seemed to have taken possession of the minds of the masses of men. They felt the uselessness of opposition to this universal progress, and they showed themselves ready, sometimes eager, to aid and direct its trend as best they might.
If, then, we seek to give a name to this particular five years, let us call it the period of humanitarianism, of man's really awakened kindliness toward his brothers of other nationalities. The universal peace movement, which was a child in 1910, had by 1914 become a far-reaching force