INTRODUCTION. UNIVERSAL HISTORY is commonly divided into three portions:I. ANCIENT HISTORY, which, beginning with the creation of the world, 4004 B. C., terminates A. D. 476, in the destruction of the Roman empire. II. THE MIDDLE AGES, which extend from the fall of Rome, a. D. 476, to the discovery of America, a. d. 1492. III. MODERN HISTORY, which commences at the latter epoch, and, if we do not distinguish it from Contemporaneous History, is continued to the present time. : The events which mark the separation between the First and Second periods, are the Irruption of the Barbarians, the consequent fall of the Western Empire, and the foundation of the modern European states; between the Second and the Third are the extension of learning by the invention of printing, the taking of Constantinople, the maritime discoveries of Spain and Portugal, with the more extensive use of fire-arms. I. ANCIENT HISTORY may be subdivided into four periods: 1. The Antediluvian, comprising the creation, the fall of man with its immediate train of consequences, and ending with the general deluge, 2348 b. c. 2. The Heroic, commencing with the establishment of the ear liest empires and most ancient cities, and including the fabulous ages of Greece. 3. The Historic, which begins with the first Olympiad, 776 B. C., nearly synchronous with the foundation of Rome, 753 в. C., and comprises the legislative eras of Lycurgus and Solon, the rise and fall of the Persian monarchy, and the earlier part of Roman history to the end of the Punic wars. 4. The Roman, from the fall of Carthage, 146 в. c., to that of Rome, A. D. 476. II. THE MIDDLE AGES may be conveniently arranged in the following six periods: 1. The foundation of the modern states of Western Europe, a. D. 476-622, when the Saxons invaded Britain, 449; the Visigoths settled in Spain, 507; the Ostrogoths in Italy, 489; and the Franks began the formation of the French monarchy, a. d. 481. 2. The second comprehends the age of Mohammed, with the propagation of his creed and the establishment of the states which embraced his religion, a. D. 622-800. d. 3. The third embraces the period when the empire of the West was partially restored in the Franko-Germanic dominions of Charlemagne, 800-936. 4. The fourth is the interesting period of the dark ages, 9361100, during which the monarchy of Charlemagne fell to ruin, the Capetian dynasty began to reign in France, Italy was parcelled out among a number of petty princes; while in Germany Otho commenced the long-continued struggle against feudalism. 5. The fifth is the romantic or heroic period of the Crusades, 1096-1273, in which the Roman legal code, the foundation of great part of modern jurisprudence, began to be studied. 6. The sixth beheld the revival of the Fine Arts in Italy, the taking of Constantinople and consequent diffusion of its learned men, the revival of letters, the discovery of America, 1492, and the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, 1497. III. MODERN HISTORY may be conveniently divided into six portions: 1. The period of the Reformation, from its commencement by Luther in 1517, till the termination of the long series of Italian wars in 1559. 2. The period of the religious wars, particularly in France, from 1559 to the peace of Westphalia in 1648, which produced many important changes in Europe. 3. The period from 1648 to the death of Louis XIV. in 1715, during which Russia entered into the European commonwealth, and Great Britain began to assume preponderating influence on the Continent. 4. The fourth period terminates with the peace of Versailles, 1783, which established the independence of the United States, and during which Prussia became a first-rate power. 5. The French Revolution, from the meeting of the Statesgeneral in 1789, to the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. 6. The period from the battle of Waterloo, 1815, to the present day. |