The world's leading conquerors

The purpose of this volume is to present, in harmony with the popular character of the series of which it is a part, brief sketches of some of the most familiarly named men and...

Alexander’s difficulties were being quickly dissolved by crime and bloodshed. The Macedonians had none of the political experiences common to the free Greek communities, and ass...

The problem before him was anything but easy, for Halicarnassus, besides being strongly fortified, had through the presence of the Persian fleet free communication with the outs...

The next stage of the conquest of the interior of Asia was the occupation of the country called Persis, the homeland of the Persians. To reach it a difficult country held by Uxi...

The actual crossing of the division under his command was done under his own eyes. Regiments of heavy-armed men were left on the right bank in anticipation of a possible rear at...

In administering his domains, Alexander showed great conservatism; he made few changes, he allowed each of the countries which acknowledged the Great King as its overlord to ret...

The rise of the small town community on the Tiber, about whose name there centered for nearly two thousand years the dread and the reverence of the progressive nations of the wo...

But the chief cause which delayed his journey west was the violation, in the House of the Pontifex Maximus, of the sacred mysteries of the Bona Dea by a young Quæstor-elect, Clo...

Not far away from Æduan territory were the Helvetii, who were independent of the rule of Ariovistus, and with them the autonomous party among the Ædui entered into friendly rela...

In the winter preparations were made on a large scale for a second crossing, a large body of transports being prepared and collected at Portus Itius (perhaps Wissant, near Cape...

For some time the Cæsarian army under Fabius remained inactive before Ilerda. Two bridges had been built across the stream, but one of these the current had carried away, and at...

His position was not so novel as the way he used it. Sulla also had established personal autocratic rule, and Pompeius, who was looked to by the conservatives to preserve republ...

Of course, the time was short between his murder and the close of the last campaign in the civil war, but the government he established was a kind of sham republicanism after th...

Charles was received with the honors ordinarily given to the Exarch of Ravenna. As he entered St. Peter’s, the choir sang the anthem, “Blessed is He that Cometh in the Name of t...

This defeat had been inflicted on the conquerors of Spain at a time when the Ommayad Caliphate ruled over a united Moslem world. But the great internal revolution had broken thi...

With the Eastern Empire, which might have been stirred to active hostility by the introduction of a rival claimant to the imperial throne, relations continued to be good. Embass...

The “missi,” as we have seen, were selected from the higher clergy and from the great landlords. Their persons were held to be inviolate and sacred; all the lower officials of t...

Turning now to questions of economic development, one is impressed by the small part played by city life in the Empire, and by the industrial importance of the manor. The landed...

In considering the Frankish ruler’s attitude towards the Papacy, it is well to remember that the later administrative system of the Curia, which made so clear-cut the antagonism...

It may be that a larger measure of interference from him would have prevented the growth of feudal privileges which the land system of Western Europe was already producing. This...

As a military power the revived Greek Empire was pathetically feeble. Its last great leader in war was Michael VIII, who had retaken Constantinople from the Latins, a conquest o...

The battle of Kossovo, in which both opposing armies lost their leaders, became in Servian folklore and poetry a source of inspiration of the kind that among Romance peoples gat...

They showed much improvement in the siege-methods employed, for they used wooden towers, and tried to get into the city through the aqueduct. The Greek armies were beaten in fro...

At the place where Giustiniano had been shot some ladders were set up, and at the same time a small gate, used by the Genoese soldiers to pass out of the city to protect the out...

Vlad’s career was cut short by the enmity of his neighbor the Moldavian King, Stephen, who, afraid of his influence, drove him from his throne, although he had relied on Vlad to...

As head of the Empire, the Sultan’s various titles are significant of the progressive stages of Ottoman development from a tribe to a great world power. The sovereign was still...

As has been seen, the Ottoman Empire began to decay from the top. The Sultan finally became the mere figurehead of palace intrigues, and the effect of the rottenness in the supr...

It was soon found that these taxes could not be collected. Accordingly, in 1496, a change was made; instead of gold and cotton, labor was substituted. The Indians near the plant...

The spread of the Nahuatlaca race by their various emigrating swarms brought them over all parts of the Mexican plateau, and also to the coast both of the Atlantic and Pacific,...

After the disembarkation at San Juan de Ulua the adventurers did not pass their time in idle dreams; they found abundance of occupation in collecting gold and precious stones, g...

With the advent of this new army of marauders in the country there appeared a plague of smallpox, a disease hitherto unknown. It made frightful ravages, and its effects were com...

The siege had now lasted forty-five days; it was time, therefore, to make a radical change in the primitive methods of attack hitherto followed by Cortez, methods that recall th...

Before giving a concrete shape to his scheme of conquest, he formed a commercial arrangement with Almagro an adventurer, and Luque a priest and schoolmaster of Panama, for the p...

When the governor from Spain, Vaca de Castro, reached the country, he proceeded to inflict strict justice on the conspirators. After an armed conflict near Cuzco, between the pa...

The last mentioned condition was fully vindicated, for before the end of April the French had beaten in a succession of quickly delivered attacks and effective battles, the Aust...

As soon as this was done, there was a great display of military activity. The city was placed in a state of siege, and care was taken that the minority of the Directors should b...

Upon this Bonaparte wrote to the Senate that he preferred to appeal to the people to know if he should impose upon himself the sacrifice of prolonging his magistracy. Using the...

As the Austrians had been equally unlucky in defending their Italian territories, the Treaty of Pressburg, December 20, 1805, showed how greatly the traditional balance of power...

Napoleon thoroughly appreciated the dangers of his position, as his correspondence with his agent at the Russian court shows. He was most urgent in inviting Alexander to play th...

In the military operations of 1813, while the French were opposed only by the allied forces of Prussia and Russia, the advantage continued on the side of the French Emperor; by...

A second act of abdication was now imposed upon Napoleon, who accepted it, resigning in favor of his son. He even offered to serve as a simple general to prevent the allies from...

One of the first steps taken by Napoleon on his attainment of the supreme executive power was to make peace with the Church. Under the anti-religious legislation of the Revoluti...

Cortez, his birth and education, 322; his expeditions and conquests, 323-326; founds Vera Cruz, 325; yearns for Montezuma’s capital, 326; punishes disloyalty, 327; starts for Az...

Compiled by BURTON E. STEVENSON. Collects the best short poetry of the English language--not only the poetry everybody says is good, but also the verses that everybody reads. (3...