The Story of Mankind | Page 6

THE MYSTERIOUS
MUSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY BURST UPON THE
GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE 48. RUSSIA AND
SWEDEN FOUGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO SHALL BE
THE LEADING POWER OF NORTHEASTERN EUROPE 49. THE
EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY
PART OF NORTHERN GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA 50. HOW
THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF
EUROPE TRIED TO MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT
WAS MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM 51. AT THE END
OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD STRANGE
REPORTS OF SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN THE
WILDERNESS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. THE
DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING
CHARLES FOR HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS DIVINE RIGHTS
ADDED A NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD STORY OF THE
STRUGGLE FOR SELF- GOVERNMENT 62. THE GREAT
FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES OF
LIBERTY, FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO All THE
PEOPLE OF THE EARTH 53. NAPOLEON 54. AS SOON AS
NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA, THE RULERS

WHO SO OFTEN HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED
CORSICAN MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED TO UNDO THE
MANY CHANCES WHICH HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 55. THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE
WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED PEACE BY SUPPRESSING
ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE POLICE-SPY THE
HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY IN THE STATE AND SOON THE
PRISONS OF AIL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH THOSE
WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO GOVERN
THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT 56. THE LOVE OF NATIONAL
INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER, WAS TOO STRONG TO BE
DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS WERE
THE FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE REACTIONARY
MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. GREECE AND
BELGIUM AND SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER
COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT FOLLOWED
SUIT AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH
THE RUMOR OF MANY WARS OF INDEPENDENCE 57. BUT
WHITE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR
NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY
LIVED HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED BY A SERIES OF
INVENTIONS, WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD
STEAM-ENGINE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE MOST
FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT STAVE OF MAN 58. THE NEW
ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE OF
WEALTH COULD AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR
SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER IN HIS
LITTLE WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT
TO THE OWNERS OF THE BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND
WHITE HE MADE MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST HIS
FORMER INDEPENDENCE AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT 59.
THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT
BRING ABOUT THE ERA OF HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY
WHICH HAD BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION WHICH
SAW THE STAGE COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD.
SEVERAL REMEDIES WERE SUGGESTED, BUT NONE OF
THESE QUITE SOLVED THE PROBLEM 60. BUT THE WORLD

HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS OF
GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. AFTER GENERATIONS OF
OPPRESSION AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT
LAST GAINED LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW
TRYING TO DISCOVER THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH
GOVERN THE UNIVERSE 61. A CHAPTER OF ART 62. THE
LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS
AND A FEW APOLOGIES 63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS
REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A NEW AND BETTER WORLD
64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY 65.CONCERNING THE
PICTURES
66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN
67.INDEX

THE STORY OF MANKIND
HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock.
It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every
thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak.
When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity
will have gone by.

THE SETTING OF THE STAGE
WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark.
Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Whither are we bound?

Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this
question mark further and further towards that distant line, beyond the
horizon, where we hope to find our answer.
We have not gone very far.
We still know very little but we have reached the point where (with a
fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many things.
In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best belief) the
stage was set for the first appearance of man.
If we represent the time during which it has been possible for animal
life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, then the tiny line
just below indicates the age during which man (or a creature more or
less resembling man) has lived upon this earth.
Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for the purpose of
conquering the forces of nature.