Words like "cipher," "algebra," "alcohol," and "alkali" came from the Arabic. The Arabs gave the Christians the Arabic numerals that we use to-day. Until then, Roman numerals had served for figures, and pupils might have to multiply XCV by LXIV. The Crusaders learned much from their travels. They saw many better things than they had at home, such as oriental rugs, fine cloth, silks, windmills, and wonderful swords. When they returned, they made some of these at home. The Crusaders learned to like pepper and other spices. The greater desire for travel and the increased knowledge of mathematics and science were steps toward the discovery of America. The Arabs loved to fill their gardens with new varieties of plants and fruit trees which they found in other countries. They brought these to Sicily and Spain when they settled there. The morning glory, cotton plant, sugar cane, orange, watermelon, and many other plants which later were taken to America, were probably brought to Europe by the Arabs. The stage setting and actors for a new period. We may think of human progress as a stage on which actors play their parts. Actors from Phoenicia, the Holy Land, Arabia, ancient Greece and Rome, have already appeared and made their exit. The new stage setting for the drama of human progress during the thousand years following the overthrow of the Western Roman Empire shows only central and western Europe. The scenery of this stage pictures a stone fort or castle with moat and drawbridge (p. 13). The lord of the castle is one of the great actors in the play. He enters in armor, followed by all whom he protects in return for service: knights, archers, and peasants who till his soil. The scene shifts and we see a Gothic cathedral (picture, p. 9), a poem in stone, a structure as beautiful as man ever built. Not far from it are monasteries, the only schools and colleges of the age. The great church actors come slowly on the stage, the Pope with his miter and robes embroidered in gold, followed by his cardinals in red robes. Kings, lords of castles, knights, archers, and peasants enter and kneel before them. A slight shifting of the scenery shows the monk teaching in the monastery and the parish priest visiting the poor and sick. The curtain rises on a new act, and one of the old stage sign boards, marked "Renaissance" (ren-e-säns') or "Revival of Learning "is hung out by way of explaining what is to follow. The actors are now seen at their work. Two poets, the Italian Dante and the English Chaucer, are writing in Italian and in English, instead of in Latin, which until now has been the language of literature. One actor is experimenting with the mariner's compass, another is trying to improve gunpowder, a third is making movable type from which he prints a book, while one who has been laboriously copying manuscripts by hand leaves the stage. Artists are painting pictures. A man hurries on the stage with an armful of Greek manuscripts, exclaiming: "The Turks have captured Constantinople [1453] and driven out the scholars, who are coming to Italy with the writings of the Greeks." A few students of science are trying to find out for themselves whether certain things are true, whether the sun does revolve around the earth, whether the world is flat, instead of following blindly the assertions of older writers. One man with a globe in his hand stands in the wing of the theater, impatiently waiting his turn to come on the stage. A scarlet cloak drapes his erect and commanding figure. He has the expression of one who has dreamed a great dream which he believes will come true and make his name immortal. The curtain falls to prepare the stage for the act in which he will appear. Summary of Points of Emphasis for Review.—(1) Why America cannot be called a "self-made " nation, (2) America's debt to the Hebrews, Phonicians, and Egyptians, (3) what we owe to the Greeks, (4) our inheritance from the Romans, (5) how Rome helped save civilization, (6) the conquest of the Roman Empire by the northern races and the result, (7) what the northern races gave us, (8) why Europe remained Christian, (9) the Angles and Saxons, (10) influence of the Norman conquest upon England, (11) the Crusades, (12) new actors, (13) the Renaissance. Notice the gate, and behind it the partly lowered drawbridge for crossing the moat. The chief buildings in Europe in the Middle Ages (about 800 to 1500) were cathedrals and castles (p. 11). Activities. Explain how the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Egyptians helped us. From Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales or Wonder Book, Kingsley's Greek Heroes, or Church's Stories from Homer read a story that illustrates Greek mythology or life and retell it to the class. Notice public buildings or pictures of such buildings, to see if any show Greek influence. Write a one-hundred-word essay on America's debt to the Romans. Find in the dictionary the meanings of the names of the days of the week. What do they tell about the Anglo-Saxons? (The teacher might read to the class Henry Van Dyke's The First Christmas Tree, a story of the conversion of one of the northern tribes to Christianity. The class might then dramatize it or retell it to another class or to the people at home.) Explain in one sentence each, the origin of these modern languages: English, French, Spanish, and Italian. Ask your teacher or some older person to tell you more about the Crusades and the Revival of Learning; or read about them in Nida's Dawn of American History in Europe, 201–231, 318–324, or in other reference books. Show how the Crusades helped to bring about the discovery of America. Make a map of Europe, including Asia Minor, and show by different colors: (a) lands from which the Crusaders came, (b) where the Arabs lived, (c) the Holy Land. Dramatize the last section of the chapter or make a moving picture by pasting on a strip of paper pictures of the scenes mentioned. References for Teachers.-Seignobos, Ancient Civilization; Morey, Outlines of Greek History, IV., XXVI.-XXIX.; Elson, Modern Times and the Living Past; Harding, New Medieval and Modern History, 7–97, 132–185; Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages; Emerton, Medieval Europe, I., XI., XIII-XV.; Robinson, History of Western Europe, I.-VI., IX., XV., XVIII., XIX., XXII.; Seignobos, Medieval and Modern Civilization; BulwerLytton, Last Days of Pompeii and Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (fiction); Kingsley, Hereward the Wake (fiction). For Pupils.-Nida, Dawn of American Hist. in Europe, I.-XXVII.; Harding, Story of England, IV., VIII., XI.; Harding, Story of the Middle Ages; Tappan, Our European Ancestors, 1–142. Fiction: Pyle, Men of Iron; Pyle, Otto of the Silver Hand; Stein, Gabriel and the Hour Book. CHAPTER II DISCOVERY, EXPLORATION, AND EARLY Christopher Columbus.-The man whom we saw waiting to play his part on the stage of the world's history (p. 12) was Christopher Columbus (1451?-1506), of Genoa (jěn'ô-ȧ), Italy. If we were asked to make a list of names known to almost every person in civilized lands, we should be surprised at the small number. Columbus is one of the few known to nearly all. He was the son of a weaver and dealer in wool, who sent the boy to a school which the weavers maintained for their children. Tradition says that one great book had a powerful effect on his dreams. This was the Book of Marco Polo, the story of one of the world's great travelers (about 1254 to 1324). Polo was a Venetian (ve-ne'shan), or citizen of Ven'ice, who journeyed east until he reached China, where he spent many years. He traveled through China to the Yellow Sea and learned of the existence of Japan. He visited the East Indies and India. Columbus read in Polo's book of quantities of spices sufficient to whet the appetites of all Europe, of precious stones that dazzled the eye, of cloths of silk and gold, of the ruler of China clothed in robes of gold, of roofs of houses shingled with gold. Polo's mention of a great ocean beyond China set Columbus to studying maps and charts. He concluded that this ocean must be the same as the Atlantic, and he dreamed that he would be the first to cross it from Europe to Asia. Trade with the East.-Steamships now bring things easily from China and India to Europe and America. Most of them come by way of the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope. Goods may now be carried through the interior of Asia by railroad. We can get fresh meat from Aus |