Introductory American History

ENGLISH INTEREST IN AMERICA AWAKENED. Voyages like those made by Sir Francis Drake awakened a desire throughout England to learn more about the New World. Until this time even t...

WHAT THE ENGLISH OWED TO THEIR EUROPEAN NEIGHBORS. If the English succeeded better than other Europeans in learning how to govern themselves, one reason was that the Channel pro...

PONCE DE LEON. While men like Cortes were exploring and conquering the countries on the west shore of the Gulf of Mexico, others began to search the vast regions to the north. O...

CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE NETHERLANDERS. Two years after the cruel massacre of the Huguenot colony in Florida, Philip II, the King of Spain, decided to put an end to the obstinacy...

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MEXICAN INDIANS. Early Spanish explorers on the coast of Mexico found the Indians of the mainland more highly civilized than the natives of the West Indi...

THE PERILS OF TRADERS. There was a time in the Middle Ages when merchants scarcely dared to travel from one town to another for fear of being plundered by some robber lord or co...

THE MIDDLE AGES. It was more than a thousand years from the time of Constantine to the time of Columbus. This period is called "Mediaeval," or the "Middle Ages." During these lo...

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Six years before Vasco da Gama made his famous voyage to India around Africa and opened a new trade route for the Portuguese merchants, another seaman had...

THE RIVALS OF SPAIN. When the early voyages to America and Asia were ended, the French, the English, and the other northern peoples of Europe seemed to be beaten in the race for...

THE GREEK CITIES. The Greeks lived in cities so much of the time that we do not often think of them as ever living in the country. The reason for this was that their government...

ANCIENT CITIES THAT STILL EXIST. In Ancient Times the most important peoples lived on the shores of the Mediterranean. The northern shore turns and twists around four peninsulas...

THE RACE TO THE INDIES. The discovery of all the lands which make what we call the New World came very slowly. It was the work of many different explorers. Most of the expeditio...

HEROES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The Middle Ages, like Ancient Times, are recalled by many interesting tales. Some of them, such as the stories of King Arthur and his Knights, the sto...

NEW CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS. The Romans had as yet conquered only civilized peoples like themselves, with the exception of the tribes in Spain and southern Gaul. Now the Roman a...

ROME IN PERIL. The conquest of Italy by the Romans took about two hundred and fifty years. The conquest of the peoples living in the other lands on the shores of the Mediterrane...

STRIFE AT ROME. While the Romans were conquering the ancient world they had begun to quarrel among themselves. Certain men resolved that Rome should not be managed any longer by...

THE GREEK COLONIES AND THE CARTHAGINIANS. The Greek colonies were sometimes in danger of being attacked by the native tribes whose lands they had seized or by the wilder tribes...

WHEN THE ATLANTIC WAS UNKNOWN. One of the most important things done by the men of Ancient Times was to explore the coasts and lands of Europe and to make settlements wherever t...

CARTIER. During the reign of Francis I, the French made the first serious attempts to find a westward route to the Far East and to settle the new lands that seemed to lie direct...

THE EMIGRANT AND WHAT HE BRINGS TO AMERICA. The emigrant who lands at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, or any other seaport, brings with him something which we do not see. He may...

THE RELIGION OF THE JEWS. Among the cities captured by the Romans was Jerusalem, about which cluster so many stories from the Old Testament. There, hundreds of years before, liv...