EUROPEAN IDEAS

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The methods of European trade were used in the New World, and the rival merchants of different countries fought with and plundered each other, much as they did at home.

We Americans ought to be especially thankful for certain European ideas about human freedom. Both Catholics and Protestants thought it wrong to hold Christians in slavery, and hence nearly all the Europeans who settled in America were treated as free persons. On the other hand, most Europeans thought it right to make slaves of pagans and therefore saw no objection to enslaving the Indians in America.

A privilege highly prized in Europe was a written document commonly called a "charter," by which a king granted lands or rights which later kings had not the power to take away. Some such charters were granted to the whole nation, particularly the famous "Magna Charta,” or “Great Charter," extorted from King John of England in 1215. In it he promised that "No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned unless

by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." The English colonists never forgot that they were "freemen," and could not be deprived of their liberty so long as they obeyed the laws.

Another form of charter was a grant from a king to an individual or an association or company," which gave the right to plant colonies and to govern the settlers. Such charters were the beginnings of the English colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts.

8. Summary. The foregoing chapter is a brief account of the people and the countries from which the people of the United States have sprung.

The words" United States " mean the land in which we live, and also the American people who live here. This history tells how they came to this continent, what they have done, and what sort of country they have built up.

The people of western and southern Europe, from which America was colonized, were strong, prosperous, and fond of trade. They received goods from Asia, though they never went there. About the year 1300 there arose among them

what we call the Renaissance, a period in which people began to write new books, make new inventions, think out new forms of religion and government, and explore new countries. The Renaissance was followed by the Protestant Reformation, which divided western Europe into two religious

groups.

One of the results of the Renaissance was a greater interest in strange countries, and many voyages were made in spite of the dangers of shipwreck and pirates. From these countries, after the discovery of America, came thousands of immigrants who looked upon themselves not as Americans but as Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Spaniards that had chosen to live across the ocean from their home country. They brought with them their home ideas about kings and nobles, about the church and education, about trade, freedom, and the privilege of doing business or founding colonies under a written charter which could not be taken away from them.

REFERENCES

Maps. Cheyney, European Background, 25, 35, 55. — Shepherd, Hist. Atlas, 81, 87, 99.

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Histories. Atkinson, Europ. Beginnings of Am. Hist., ch. xx. Becker, Beginnings, 1-17. - Brooks, Story of Marco Polo. - Fiske, Discovery of Am., I. ch. iii; New England, ch. i. Moore, Industrial Hist., ch. i.- Southworth, Builders of Our Country, I. ch. ii. Sparks, Expansion of Am. People, ch. i. - Zimmern, Hansa Towns.

Sources. Cheyney, Readings in Engl. Hist., ch. xii. - Ogg, Source Book of Medieval Hist., chs. xxvi, xxvii. - Old South Leaflets, nos. 30, 32. Robinson, Readings in Europ. Hist., I. §§ 161-168 (Medieval life, Hansa, etc.), 218-230 (Renaissance), II. §§ 231--249 (Reformation). Whitcomb, Source Books of Renaissance.

Side Lights and Stories. Charles, Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family (Reformation). - Irving, The Alhambra. - Pyle, Men of Iron (Chivalry in England). Scott, The Talisman (Crusades). - Yonge, The Armourer's Prentices (Henry VIII).

Pictures. Mentor, serial nos. 60, 83, 113, 116. — Traill and Mann, Social England (new illustr. ed., pt. ii). Wright, Hist. of All Nations, IX, X.

QUESTIONS

(§ 1) 1. What is meant by the words "United States"? 2 (For an essay). Describe one of the following: (a) Niagara Falls; (b) Grand

REFERENCES AND QUESTIONS

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Canyon of the Colorado; (c) Yosemite Valley; (d) Glacier National Park. 3. What is the "history" of a country?

(§ 2) 4. Who are "The Americans"? 5. Why is it hard to write the history of the United States? 6. What things should be treated in a history of the United States?

(§ 3) 7. Is the United States geographically separated from the rest of the world? 8. Are the people of the United States a separate race? 9. Who are the immigrants?

(84) 10. What were the principal European countries when colonization began? 11. How did the Europeans carry on trade? 12. What products came from 'Asia? 13 (For an essay). Account of Marco Polo's travels. 14. What did the Chinese do for civilization?

(§ 5) 15. What was the "Renaissance"? 16. What were some of the early inventions? 17. How did the early peoples navigate the seas? 18. What was the Reformation?

(§ 6) 19. How were goods distributed through Europe? 20. What were the richest parts of Europe? 21 (For an essay). Account of pirate life. 22. What were galley slaves?

(87) 23. Mention some European ideas brought by the early colonists. 24. What was a king? 25. What was slavery? 26. What was a charter? 27. What was a trading company? 28. What was a colony?

CHAPTER II

DISCOVERY AND DISCOVERERS (1000-1604)

9. Discoveries West and East (985-1487). When Europeans knew so little of neighbors who could be reached by a land journey eastward, it is not strange that they had no knowledge of wild people who were living in an unknown land at the distance of several weeks' journey to the westward across an untraveled sea.

Yet in one part of the known world there was a tradition of such a land and people. The Scandinavians, often called Norsemen, were the boldest people in Europe, splendid sailors and great fighters. Some of them occupied Iceland. In the year 985 a party of Icelanders reached Greenland and little colonies were planted there. In the year 1000 an Icelander named Leif Ericson, "the Lucky," sailed beyond Greenland to a coast farther south which is now supposed to have been Labrador or the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. According to certain "sagas," or traditions handed down by word of mouth, the Norsemen found "self-sown wheat," "vines," and "grapes," which perhaps were only wineberries. Some natives, whom they called "skraelings, swarthy men and illlooking," came in skin canoes to meet them; "even the hair of their heads was ugly." After a few voyages the Norsemen ceased going to America and the story of their voyages seems not to have been known outside of Iceland.

In fact, most Europeans were not interested in western voyages. They wanted to find a road eastward by sea. Their object was to avoid the Ottoman Turks, from central Asia, who about the year 1300 broke into the Greek Empire, occupied Asia Minor, finally captured Constantinople (1453), and pushed up through the Balkan region into Hungary.