The Winning of the West, Volume One | Page 9

one another were of far more ultimate consequence
than the wars they waged against the former mistress of the western
world. England in the end drove both France and Holland from the
field; but it was under the banner of the American Republic, not under
that of the British Monarchy, that the English-speaking people first
won vast stretches of land from the descendants of the Spanish
conquerors.
The three most powerful of Spain's rivals waged many a long war with
one another to decide which should grasp the sceptre that had slipped
from Spanish hands. The fleets of Holland fought with stubborn
obstinacy to wrest from England her naval supremacy; but they failed,
and in the end the greater portion of the Dutch domains fell to their foes.
The French likewise began a course of conquest and colonization at the
same time the English did, and after a couple of centuries of rivalry,
ending in prolonged warfare, they also succumbed. The close of the
most important colonial contest ever waged left the French without a
foot of soil on the North American mainland; while their victorious
foes had not only obtained the lead in the race for supremacy on that
continent, but had also won the command of the ocean. They
thenceforth found themselves free to work their will in all seagirt lands,
unchecked by hostile European influence.
Most fortunately, when England began her career as a colonizing power
in America, Spain had already taken possession of the populous
tropical and subtropical regions, and the northern power was thus
forced to form her settlements in the sparsely peopled temperate zone.
It is of vital importance to remember that the English and Spanish
conquests in America differed from each other very much as did the
original conquests which gave rise to the English and the Spanish
nations. The English had exterminated or assimilated the Celts of
Britain, and they substantially repeated the process with the Indians of
America; although of course in America there was very little, instead of
very much, assimilation. The Germanic strain is dominant in the blood
of the average Englishman, exactly as the English strain is dominant in
the blood of the average American. Twice a portion of the race has
shifted its home, in each case undergoing a marked change, due both to

outside influence and to internal development; but in the main retaining,
especially in the last instance, the general race characteristics.
It was quite otherwise in the countries conquered by Cortes, Pizarro,
and their successors. Instead of killing or driving off the natives as the
English did, the Spaniards simply sat down in the midst of a much
more numerous aboriginal population. The process by which Central
and South America became Spanish bore very close resemblance to the
process by which the lands of southeastern Europe were turned into
Romance-speaking countries. The bulk of the original inhabitants
remained unchanged in each case. There was little displacement of
population. Roman soldiers and magistrates, Roman merchants and
handicraftsmen were thrust in among the Celtic and Iberian peoples,
exactly as the Spanish military and civil rulers, priests, traders,
land-owners, and mine-owners settled down among the Indians of Peru
and Mexico. By degrees, in each case, the many learnt the language and
adopted the laws, religion, and governmental system of the few,
although keeping certain of their own customs and habits of thought.
Though the ordinary Spaniard of to-day speaks a Romance dialect, he
is mainly of Celto-Iberian blood; and though most Mexicans and
Peruvians speak Spanish, yet the great majority of them trace their
descent back to the subjects of Montezuma and the Incas. Moreover,
exactly as in Europe little ethnic islands of Breton and Basque stock
have remained unaffected by the Romance flood, so in America there
are large communities where the inhabitants keep unchanged the
speech and the customs of their Indian forefathers.
The English-speaking peoples now hold more and better land than any
other American nationality or set of nationalities. They have in their
veins less aboriginal American blood than any of their neighbors. Yet it
is noteworthy that the latter have tacitly allowed them to arrogate to
themselves the title of "Americans," whereby to designate their
distinctive and individual nationality.
So much for the difference between the way in which the English and
the way in which other European nations have conquered and colonized.
But there have been likewise very great differences in the methods and
courses of the English-speaking peoples themselves, at different times
and in different places.
The settlement of the United States and Canada, throughout most of

their extent, bears much resemblance to the later settlement of Australia
and New Zealand. The English conquest of India and even the English
conquest of South Africa come in an entirely different category. The
first