The Navy as a Fighting Machine | Page 3

fifty
years: falling at last before the superior military force of Macedon, after
neglecting the practice of the military arts, and devoting themselves to
art, learning, and philosophy. Rome as a great nation lasted about five
hundred years; and the last three centuries of her life after the death of
Commodus, about 192 A. D., illustrate curiously the fact that, even if a
people be immoral, cruel, and base in many ways, their existence as an
independent state may be continued long, if military requirements be
understood, and if the military forces be preserved from the influence
of the effeminacy of the nation as a whole. In Rome, the army was able
to maintain a condition of considerable manliness, relatively to the
people at large, and thus preserve internal order and keep the barbarians
at bay for nearly three hundred years; and at the same time exert a
powerful and frequently deciding influence in the government. But the
effeminacy of the people, especially of those in the higher ranks, made
them the creatures of the army that protected them. In some cases, the
Emperor himself was selected by the army, or by the Pretorian Guard in
Rome; and sometimes the guard removed an Emperor of whom it
disapproved by the simple expedient of killing him.

After the fall of the Western Empire in 476, when Rome was taken by
Odoacer, a condition of confusion, approaching anarchy, prevailed
throughout Europe, until Charlemagne founded his empire, about 800
A. D., except that Constantinople was able to stand up against all
outside assaults and hold the Eastern Empire together. Charlemagne's
empire united under one government nearly all of what is now France,
Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Holland. The means employed
by Charlemagne to found his empire were wholly military, though
means other than military were instituted to preserve it. He endeavored
by just government, wise laws, and the encouragement of religion and
of education of all kinds to form a united people. The time was not ripe,
however; and Charlemagne's empire fell apart soon after Charlemagne
expired.
The rapid rise and spread of the Mohammedan religion was made
possible by the enthusiasm with which Mahomet imbued his followers,
but the actual founding of the Arabian Empire was due wholly to
military conquest, achieved by the fanatic Mussulmans who lived after
him. After a little more than a hundred years, the empire was divided
into two caliphates. Brilliant and luxurious courts were thereafter held
by caliphs at Bagdad and Cordova, with results similar to those in
Egypt, Persia, Assyria, and Rome; the people becoming effeminate,
employed warriors to protect them, and the warriors became their
masters. Then, effeminacy spreading even to the warriors, strength to
resist internal disorders as well as external assaults gradually faded, and
both caliphates fell.
From the death of Charlemagne until the fall of Constantinople, in 1453,
the three principal nations of Europe were those of France, Germany,
and England. Until that time, and dating from a time shortly before the
fall of Rome, Europe was in perpetual turmoil--owing not only to
conflicts between nations, but to conflicts between the Church of Rome
and the civil power of the Kings and Emperors, to conflicts among the
feudal lords, and to conflicts between the sovereigns and the feudal
lords. The power of the Roman Church was beneficent in checking a
too arrogant and military tendency, and was the main factor in
preventing an utter lapse back to barbarism.

The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of what are usually
called "Modern Times" found only four great countries in the
world--France, Germany, Spain, and England. Of these Spain dropped
out in the latter part of the sixteenth century. The other three countries
still stand, though none of them lies within exactly the same boundaries
as when modern times began; and Austria, which was a part of
Germany then, is now--with Hungary--a separate state and nation.
This very brief survey of history shows that every great nation has
started from a small beginning and risen sometimes gradually,
sometimes rapidly to greatness; and then fallen, sometimes gradually,
sometimes rapidly, to mediocrity, dependence, or extinction; that the
instrument which has effected the rise has always been military power,
usually exerted by armies on the land, sometimes by navies on the sea;
and that the instrument which has effected the actual fall has always
been the military power of an adversary. In other words, _the
immediate instrument that has decided the rise and the fall of nations
has been military power_.
That this should have been so need not surprise us, since nations have
always been composed of human beings, influenced by the same hopes
and fears and governed by the same laws of human nature. And as the
most potent influence that could be