The Story of Mankind
THE STORY OF MANKIND
By HENDRIK VAN LOON, AB. Ph.D.
Author of The Fall of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom. The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators, A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man.
This book is fully illustrated with eight three-color pages, over one hundred black and white pictures and numerous animated maps and half-tones drawn by the author.
THE SCENE OF OUR HISTORY IS LAID UPON A LITTLE PLANET, LOST IN THE VASTNESS OF THE UNIVERSE.
THE STORY OF
MANKIND
BY
HENDRICK VAN LOON
BONI and LIVERIGHT
1921
To JIMMIE
"What is the use of a book without pictures?" said Alice.
FOREWORD
For Hansje and Willem:
When I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle of mine who gave me my love for books and pictures promised to take me upon a memorable expedition. I was to go with him to the top of the tower of Old Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam.
And so, one fine day, a sexton with a key as large as that of Saint Peter opened a mysterious door. "Ring the bell," he said, "when you come back and want to get out," and with a great grinding of rusty old hinges he separated us from the noise of the busy street and locked us into a world of new and strange experiences.
For the first time in my life I was confronted by the phenomenon of audible silence. When we had climbed the first flight of stairs, I added another discovery to my limited knowledge of natural phenomena—that of tangible darkness. A match showed us where the upward road continued. We went to the next floor and then to the next and the next until I had lost count and then there came still another floor, and suddenly we had plenty of light. This floor was on an even height with the roof of the church, and it was used as a storeroom. Covered with many inches of dust, there lay the abandoned symbols of a venerable faith which had been discarded by the good people of the city many years ago. That which had meant life and death to our ancestors was here reduced to junk and rubbish. The industrious rat had built his nest among the carved images and the ever watchful spider had opened up shop between the outspread arms of a kindly saint.
The next floor showed us from where we had derived our light. Enormous open windows with heavy iron bars made the high and barren room the roosting place of hundreds of pigeons. The wind blew through the iron bars and the air was filled with a weird and pleasing music. It was the noise of the town below us, but a noise which had been purified and cleansed by the distance. The rumbling of heavy carts and the clinking of horses’ hoofs, the winding of cranes and pulleys, the hissing sound of the patient steam which had been set to do the work of man in a thousand different ways—they had all been blended into a softly rustling whisper which provided a beautiful background for the trembling cooing of the pigeons.
Here the stairs came to an end and the ladders began. And after the first ladder (a slippery old thing which made one feel his way with a cautious foot) there was a new and even greater wonder, the town-clock. I saw the heart of time. I could hear the heavy pulsebeats of the rapid seconds—one—two—three—up to sixty. Then a sudden quivering noise when all the wheels seemed to stop and another minute had been chopped off eternity. Without pause it began again—one—two—three—until at last after a warning rumble and the scraping of many wheels a thunderous voice, high above us, told the world that it was the hour of noon.
On the next floor were the bells. The nice little bells and their terrible sisters. In the centre the big bell, which made me turn stiff with fright when I heard it in the middle of the night telling a story of fire or flood. In solitary grandeur it seemed to reflect upon those six hundred years during which it had shared the joys and the sorrows of the good people of Rotterdam. Around it, neatly arranged like the blue jars in an old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows, who twice each week played a merry tune for the benefit of the country-folk who had come to market to buy and sell and hear what the big world had been doing. But in a corner—all alone and shunned by the others—a big black bell, silent and stern, the bell of death.
Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and even more dangerous than those we had climbed before, and suddenly the fresh air of the wide heavens. We had reached the highest gallery. Above us the sky. Below us the city—a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily crawling hither and thither, each one intent upon his or her particular business, and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the open country.
It was my first glimpse of the big world.
Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have gone to the top of the tower and enjoyed myself. It was hard work, but it repaid in full the mere physical exertion of climbing a few stairs.
Besides, I knew what my reward would be. I would see the land and the sky, and I would listen to the stories of my kind friend the watchman, who lived in a small shack, built in a sheltered corner of the gallery. He looked after the clock and was a father to the bells, and he warned of fires, but he enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and thought his own peaceful thoughts. He had gone to school almost fifty years before and he had rarely read a book, but he had lived on the top of his tower for so many years that he had absorbed the wisdom of that wide world which surrounded him on all sides.
History he knew well, for it was a living thing with him. "There," he would say, pointing to a bend of the river, "there, my boy, do you see those trees? That is where the Prince of Orange cut the dikes to drown the land and save Leyden." Or he would tell me the tale of the old Meuse, until the broad river ceased to be a convenient harbour and became a wonderful highroad, carrying the ships of De Ruyter and Tromp upon that famous last voyage, when they gave their lives that the sea might be free to all.
Then there were the little villages, clustering around the protecting church which once, many years ago, had been the home of their Patron Saints. In the distance we could see the leaning tower of Delft. Within sight of its high arches William the Silent had been murdered and there Grotius had learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still further away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home of the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of many an emperor, the charity-boy whom the world came to know as Erasmus.
Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast, immediately below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys and houses and gardens and hospitals and schools and railways, which we called our home. But the tower showed us the old home in a new light. The confused commotion of the streets and the market-place, of the factories and the workshop, became the well-ordered expression of human energy and purpose. Best of all, the wide view of the glorious past which surrounded us on all sides, gave us new courage to face the problems of the future when we had gone back to our daily tasks.
History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done.
Here I give you the key that will open the door.
When you return, you too will understand the reason for my enthusiasm.
CONTENTS
page 1. 3 2. 9 3. 13 4. 17 5. 22 6. 27 7. 29 8. 32 9. 38 10. 42 11. 44 12. 48 13. 54 14. 59 15. 62 16. 66 17. 71 18. 74 19. 81 20. 83 21. 85 22. 88 23. 105 24. 109 25. 119 26. 124 27. 131 28. 138 29. 144 30. 150 31. 155 32. 159 33. 162 34. 168 35. 174 36. 184 37. 191 38. 198 39. 206 40. 219 41. 224 42. 241 43. 251 44. 262 45. 279 46. 296 47. 301 48. 308 49. 313 50. 317 51. 323 52. 334 53. 349 54. 361 55. 373 56. 381 57. 402 58. 413 59. 420 60. 427 61. 433 62. 446 63. 456 64. 467 65. 473 66. 475 67. 484 68. After Seven Years Not in original TOC
LIST OF COLORED PICTURES
- The Scene of Our History is Laid Upon a Little Planet, Lost in the Vastness of the Universe
Frontispiece facing
page- Greece
84 - Rome
126 - The Norsemen Are Coming
156 - The Castle
164 - The Mediæval World
194 - A New World
238 - Buddha Goes into the Mountains
246 - Moscow
306
LIST OF HALF TONE PICTURES
facing
page- The Temple
68 - The Mountain-pass
148 - The Mediæval Town
180 - The Cathedral
220 - The Blockhouse in the Wilderness
328 - Off for Trafalgar
362 - The Modern City
404 - The Dirigible
430
LIST OF PICTURES AND ANIMATED MAPS
page 1. High Up in the North1 2. It Rained Incessantly4 3. The Ascent of Man5 4. The Plants Leave the Sea6 5. The Growth of the Human Skull9 6. Pre-history and History11 7. Prehistoric Europe15 8. The Valley of Egypt23 9. The Building of the Pyramids25 10. Mesopotamia, the Melting-pot of the Ancient World30 11. A Tower of Babel34 12. Nineveh35 13. The Holy City of Babylon36 14. The Wanderings of the Jews39 15. Moses Sees the Holy Land41 16. The Phœnician Trader42 17. The Story of a Word45 18. The Indo-Europeans and Their Neighbours46 19. The Trojan Horse48 20. Schliemann Digs for Troy49 21. Mycenæ in Argolis50 22. The Ægean Sea51 23. The Island-Bridges Between Asia and Europe52 24. An Ægean City on the Greek Mainland54 25. The Achæans Take an Ægean City55 26. The Fall of Cnossus56 27. Mount Olympus, Where the Gods Lived59 28. A Greek City-State63 29. Greek Society67 30. The Persian Fleet is Destroyed Near Mount Athos75 31. The Battle of Marathon76 32. Thermopylæ78 33. The Battle of Thermopylæ78 34. The Persians Burn Athens79 35. Carthage89 36. Spheres of Influence90 37. How the City of Rome Happened92 38. A Fast Roman Warship97 39. Hannibal Crosses the Alps99 40. Hannibal and the CEF101 41. The Death of Hannibal103 42. How Rome Happened105 43. Civilisation Goes Westward107 44. Cæsar Goes West114 45. The Great Roman Empire116 46. The Holy Land121 47. When the Barbarians Got Through With a Roman City126 48. The Invasions of the Barbarians128 49. A Cloister133 50. The Goths Are Coming!134 51. The Flight of Mohammed139 52. The Struggle Between the Cross and the Crescent143 53. The Holy Roman Empire of German Nationality147 54. The Home of the Norsemen151 55. The Norsemen Go to Russia152 56. The Normans Look Across the Channel152 57. The World of the Norsemen153 58. Henry IV at Canossa165 59. The First Crusade170 60. The World of the Crusaders171 61. The Crusaders Take Jerusalem172 62. The Crusader's Grave173 63. The Castle and the City179 64. The Belfry182 65. Gunpowder183 66. The Spreading of the Idea of Popular Sovereignty185 67. The Home of Swiss Liberty188 68. The Abjuration of Philip II189 69. Mediæval Trade199 70. Great Nowgorod202 71. The Hansa Ship204 72. The Mediæval Laboratory209 73. The Renaissance210 74. Dante212 75. John Huss220 76. The Manuscript and the Printed Book222 77. Marco Polo225 78. How the World Grew Larger227 79. The World of Columbus230 80. The Great Discoveries. Western Hemisphere233 81. The Great Discoveries. Eastern Hemisphere234 82. Magellan237 83. The Three Great Religions243 84. The Great Moral Leaders249 85. Luther Translates the Bible257 86. The Inquisition263 87. The Night of St. Bartholomew268 88. Leyden Delivered by the Cutting of the Dikes269 89. The Murder of William the Silent270 90. The Armada is Coming!271 91. The Death of Hudson273 92. The Thirty Years War275 93. Amsterdam in 1648277 94. The English Nation280 95. The Hundred Years War281 96. John and Sebastian Cabot See the Coast of Newfoundland284 97. The Elizabethan Stage285 98. The Balance of Power299 99. The Origin of Russia303 100. Peter the Great in the Dutch Shipyard308 101. Peter the Great Builds His New Capital310 102. The Voyage of the Pilgrims318 103. How Europe Conquered the World321 104. Sea Power322 105. The Fight for Liberty323 106. The Pilgrims324 107. How the White Man Settled in North America325 108. In the Cabin of the Mayflower327 109. The French Explore the West328 110. The First Winter in New England329 111. George Washington331 112. The Great American Revolution332 113. The Guillotine337 114. Louis XVI339 115. The Bastille342 116. The French Revolution Invades Holland347 117. The Retreat from Moscow355 118. The Battle of Waterloo358 119. Napoleon Goes Into Exile359 120. The Spectre Which Frightened the Holy Alliance364 121. The Real Congress of Vienna367 122. The Monroe Doctrine385 123. Giuseppe Mazzini395 124. The First Steamboat407 125. The Origin of the Steamboat408 126. The Origin of the Automobile409 127. Man-power and Machine-power414 128. The Factory416 129. The Philosopher427 130. Galileo429 131. Gothic Architecture437 132. The Troubadour442 133. The Pioneer447 134. The Conquest of the West451 135. War457 137. Animated Chronology467 142. The End472