The Outline of History by H. G. Wells (good books to read TXT) 📕

need to be written, as long and as full of conflict as our account of the growth and rivalries of the Great Powers. There may be tragic economic struggles, grim grapplings, of race with race and class with class. It may be that private enterprise will refuse to learn the lesson of service without some quite catastrophic revolution, and that a phase of confiscation and amateurish socialistic government lies before us. We do not know; we cannot tell. These are unnecessary disasters, but they may be unavoidable disasters. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. Against the unifying effort of Christendom and against the unifying influence of the mechanical revolution, catastrophe wonat least to the extent of achieving the Great War. We cannot tell yet how much of the winnings of catastrophe still remain to be gathered in. New falsities may arise and hold men in some unrighteous and fated scheme of order for a time, before they collapse amidst the miser and slaughter of generations.

 

Yet, clumsily or smoothly, the world, it seems, progresses and will progress. In this Outline in our account of palaeolithic men, we have borrowed a description from Mr. Worthington Smith of the very highest life in the world some fifty thousand years ago. It was a bestial life. We have sketched, too, the gathering for a human sacrifice, some fifteen thousand years ago. That scene again is almost incredibly cruel to a modern civilized reader.

 

Yet it is not more than five hundred years since the great empire of the Aztecs still believed that it could live only by the shedding of blood. Every year in Mexico hundreds of human victims died in this fashion: The body was bent like a bow over the curved stone of sacrifice, the breast was slashed open with a knife of obsidian, and the priest tore out the beating heart of the still living victim. The day may be close at hand when we shall no longer tear out the hearts of men, even for the sake of our national gods. Let the reader but refer to the earlier time charts we have given in this history, and he will see the true measure and transitoriness of all the conflicts, deprivations, and miseries of this present period of painful and yet hopeful change.

 

41.0 Chronological Table

 

To conclude this Outline, we give here a Table of Leading Events from the year 800 B.C. to 1920 A.D. Following that we give five time diagrams covering the period from 1000 B.C. onward, which present the trend of events in a graphic form.

 

It is well that the reader should keep in mind an idea of the true proportions of historical to geological time. The scale of the five diagrams at the end is such that by it the time diagram on page 142 would be about 8 1/2 times as long, that is to say about 4 feet; that on page 47 showing the interval since the Eoliths, 555 feet, and that on page 11 representing the whole of geological time would be somewhere between 12 and, at the longest and most probable estimate, 260 miles! Let the reader therefore take one of these chronological tables we give, and imagine it extended upon a long strip of paper to a distance of 55 feet. He would have to get up and walk about that distance to note the date of the painting of the Altamira caves, and he would have to go ten times that distance by the side of the same narrow strip to reach the earlier Neanderthalers. A mile or so from home, but probably much further away, the strip might be recording the last of the dinosaurs. And this on a scale which represents the time from Columbus to ourselves by three inches of space!

 

Chronology only begins to be precise enough to specify the exact year of any event after the establishment of the eras of the First Olympiad and the building of Rome.

 

About the year 1000 B.C. the Aryan peoples were establishing themselves in the peninsulas of Spain, Italy, and the Balkans, and they were established in North India. Cnossos was already destroyed, and the spacious times of Egypt, of Thotmes III, Amenophis III, and Rameses II were three or four centuries away. Weak monarchs of the, XXIst Dynasty were ruling in the Nile Valley. Israel was united under her early kings; Saul or David or possibly even Solomon may have been reigning. Sargon I (2750 B.C. of the Akkadian Sumerian Empire was a remote memory in Babylonian history, more remote than is Constantine the Great from the world of the present day. Hammurabi had been dead, a thousand years. The Assyrians were already dominating the less military Babylonians. In 1100 B.C. Tiglath Pileser I had taken Babylon. But there was no permanent conquest; Assyria and Babylonia were still separate empires. In China the new Chow dynasty was flourishing. Stonehenge in England was already a thousand years old.

 

The next two centuries saw a renascence of Egypt under the XXII Dynasty, the splitting up of the brief little Hebrew kindgom of Solomon, the spreading of the Greeks in the Balkans, South Italy and Asia Minor, and the days of Etruscan predominance in Central Italy. We may begin our list of ascertainable dates with

 

    B.C.

 

    800. The building of Carthage.

 

    790. The Ethiopian conquest of Egypt (founding the XXVth Dynasty).

 

    776. First Olympiad.

 

    753. Rome built.

 

    745. Tiglath Pileser III conquered Babylonia and founded the New Assyrian Empire.

 

    738. Menahem, king of Israel, bought off Tiglath Pileser III.

 

    735. Greeks settling in Sicily.

 

    722. Sargon II armed the Assyrians with iron weapons.

 

    721. He deported the Israelites.

 

    704. Sennacherib.

 

    701. His army destroyed by a pestilence on its way to Egypt.

 

    680. Esarhaddon took Thebes in Egypt (overthrowing the Ethiopian XXVth Dynasty).

 

    667. Sardanapalus.

 

    664. Psammetiehus I restored the freedom of Egypt and founded the XXVIth Dynasty (to 610). He was assisted against Assyria by Lydian troops sent by Gyges.

 

    608. Necho of Egypt defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at the Battle of Megiddo.

 

    606. Capture of Nineveh by the Chaldeans And Medes. Foundation of the Chaldean Empire.

 

    604. Necho pushed to the Euphrates and was overthrown by Nebuchadnezzar II. Josiah fell with him.

 

    586. Nebuchadnezzar carried off the Jews to Babylon. Many fled to Egypt and settled there.

 

    550. Cyrus the Persian succeeded Cyaxares the Mede. Cyrus conquered Croesus. Buddha lived about this time. So also did Confucius and Lao Tse.

 

    539. Cyrus took Babylon and founded the Persian Empire.

 

    527. Peisistratus died.

 

    525. Cambyses conquered Egypt.

 

    521. Darius I, the son of Hystaspes, ruled from the Hellespont to the Indus.

 

    His expedition to Scythia.

 

    490. Battle of Marathon.

 

    484. Herodotus born. Aeschylus won his first prize for tragedy.

 

    480. Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis.

 

    479. The Battles of Plataea and Mycale completed the repulse of Persia.

 

    474. Etruscan fleet destroyed by the Sicilian Greeks.

 

    470. Voyage of Hanno.

 

    466. Pericles.

 

    465. Xerxes murdered.

 

    438. Herodotus recited his History in Athens.

 

    431. Peloponnesian War began (to 404).

 

    428. Pericles died. Herodotus died.

 

    427. Aristophanes began his career. Plato born. He lived to 347.

 

    401. Retreat of the Ten Thousand.

 

    390. Brennus sacked Rome.

 

    366. Camillus built the Temple of Concord.

 

    359. Philip became king of Macedonia.

 

    338. Battle of Chaeronia.

 

    336. Macedonian troops crossed into Asia, Philip murdered.

 

    334. Battle of the Granicus.

 

    333. Battle of Issus.

 

    332. Alexander in Egypt.

 

    331. Battle of Arbela.

 

    330. Darius III killed.

 

    323. Death of Alexander the Great.

 

    321. Rise of Chandragupta in the Punjab.� The Romans completely beaten by the Samnites at the battle of the Caudine Forks.

 

    303. Chandragupta repulsed Seleucus.

 

    285. Ptolemy Soter died.

 

    281. Pyrrhus invaded Italy.

 

    280. Battle of Heraclea.

 

    279. Battle of Ausculum.

 

    278. Gauls' raid into Asia Minor and settlement in Galatia.

 

    275. Pyrrhus left Italy.

 

    264. First Punic War. (Asoka began to reign in Beharto 227.) First gladiatorial games in Rome.

 

    260. Battle of Mylae

 

    256. Battle of Ecnomus.

 

    246. Shi Hwang-ti became king of Ch'in.

 

    242. Battle of Aegatian Isles.

 

    241. End of First Punic War.

 

    225. Battle of Telamon. Roman armies in Illyria.

 

    220. Shi Hwang-ti became emperor of China.

 

    [Note that the date given to Shi Hwang-ti in the diagram on p. 142 is incorrect.]

 

    219. Second Punic War.

 

    216. Battle of Cannae.

 

    214. Great Wall of China begun.

 

    210. Death of Shi Hwang-ti.

 

    202. Battle of Zama.

 

    201. End of Second Punic War.

 

    200-197. Rome at war with Macedonia.

 

    192. War with the Seleucids.

 

    190. Battle of Magnesia.

 

    149. Third Punic War. (The Yueh-Chi came into Western Turkestan.)

 

    146. Carthage destroyed. Corinth destroyed.

 

    133. Attalus bequeathed Pergamum to Rome. Tiberius Gracchus killed.

 

    121. Caius, Gracchus, killed.

 

    118. War with Jugurtha.

 

    106. War with Jugurtha ended.

 

    102. Marius drove back Germans.

 

    100. Triumph of Marius. (Wu-ti conquering the Tarim valley.)

 

    91. Social war.

 

    89. All Italians became Roman citizens.

 

    86. Death of Marius.

 

    78. Death of Sulla.

 

    73. The revolt of the slaves under Spartacus.

 

    71. Defeat and end of Spartacus.

 

    66. Pompey led Roman troops to the Caspian and Euphrates. He encountered the Alani.

 

    64. Mithridates of Pontus died.

 

    53. Crassus killed at Carrhae. Mongolian elements with Parthians.

 

    48. Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalos.

 

    44. Julius Caesar assassinated.

 

    31. Battle of Actium.

 

    27. Augustus Caesar princeps (until 14 A.D.).

 

    4. True date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

 

    A.D. Christian Era began.

 

    6. Province of Moesia established.

 

    9. Province of Pannonia established. Imperial boundary carried to the Danube.

 

    14. Augustus died. Tiberius emperor.

 

    30. Jesus of Nazareth crucified.

 

    37. Caligula succeeded Tiberius.

 

    41. Claudius (the first emperor of the legions) made emperor by pretorian guard after murder of Caligula.

 

    54. Nero succeeded Claudius.

 

    61. Boadicea massacred Roman garrison in Britain.

 

    68. Suicide of Nero. (Galba, Otho, Vitellus, emperors in succession.)

 

    69. Vespasian began the so-called Flavian dynasty.

 

    79. Titus succeeded Vespasian.

 

    81. Domitian.

 

    84. North Britain annexed.

 

    96. Nerva began the so-called dynasty of the Antonines.

 

    98. Trajan succeeded Nerva.

 

    102. Pan Chau on the Caspian Sea. (Indo-Scythians invading North India.)

 

    117. Hadrian succeeded Trajan. Roman Empire at its greatest extent.

 

    138. Antoninus Pius succeeded Hadrian. (The Indo-Scythians at this time were destroying the last traces of Hellenic rule in India.)

 

    150. [About this time Kanishka reigned in India, Kashgar, Yarkand, and Kotan.]

 

    161. Marcus Aurelius succeeded Antoninus Pius.

 

    164. Great plague began, and lasted to the death of M. Aurelius (180). This also devastated all Asia.

 

    180. Death of Marcus Aurelius. (Nearly a century of war and disorder began in the Roman Empire.)

 

    220. End of the Han dynasty. Beginning of four hundred years of division in China.

 

    227. Ardashir I (first Sassanid shah) put an end to Arsacid line in Persia.

 

    242. Mani began his teaching.

 

    247. Goths crossed Danube in a great raid.

 

    251. Great victory of Goths. Decius killed.

 

    260. Sapor I, the second Sassanid shah, took Antioch, captured the Emperor Valerian, and was cut up on his return from Asia Minor by Odenathus of Palmyra.

 

    269. The Emperor Claudius defeated the Goths at Nish.

 

    210. Aurelian became emperor.