The World War and What was Behind It | Page 6

everyone
today to help to bring about lasting peace among all the nations.
[Illustration: A Drill Ground in Modern Europe.]
In order to know how to do this, we must study the causes of the wars
of the past. We shall find, as we do so, that almost all wars can be
traced to one of four causes: (1) the instinct among barbarous tribes to
fight with and plunder their neighbors; (2) the ambition of kings to
enlarge their kingdoms; (3) the desire of the traders of one nation to

increase their commerce at the expense of some other nation; (4) a
people's wish to be free from the control of some other country and to
become a nation by itself. Of the four reasons, only the last furnishes a
just cause for war, and this cause has been brought about only when
kings have sent their armies out, and forced into their kingdoms other
peoples who wished to govern themselves.
Questions for Review
1. Why must foreigners in the United States return to their native lands
when summoned by their governments? 2. How is it that war helps to
breed diseases? 3. Is race hatred a cause of war or a result of it? 4.
Whom do we mean by the government in the United States? 5. Who
controls the government in Russia? 6. Who in England? 7. Who in
Germany? 8. Who in France? 9. In Southey's poem, how does the
children's idea of the battle differ from that of their grandfather? Why?
10. Are people less likely to protest against war if their forefathers have
fought many wars? 11. What have been the four main causes of war?
CHAPTER II
Rome and the Barbarian Tribes
New governments in Europe.--Earliest times.--How civilization
began.--The rise of Rome.--Roman civilization.--Roman cruelty.--The
German tribes.--The Slavic tribes.--The Celtic tribes.--The Huns and
Moors.--The great Germanic invasions of the Roman world.
To search for the causes of the great war which began in Europe in
1914, we must go far back into history. It should be remembered that
many of the governments of today have not lived as long as that of our
own country. This is, perhaps, a new thought to some of us, who rather
think that, as America is a new country, it is the baby among the great
nations. But, one hundred and thirty years ago, when the United States
was being formed, there was no nation called Italy; the peninsula which
we now know by that name was cut up among nine or ten little
governments. There was no nation known as Germany; the land which
is in the present German empire was then divided among some thirty or

thirty-five different rulers. There was no Republic of France; instead,
France had a king whose will was law, and the French people were
cruelly oppressed. There was no kingdom of Belgium, no kingdom of
Serbia, of Bulgaria, of Roumania. The kingdom of Norway was part of
Denmark. The Republic of France, as we now know it, dates back only
to 1871; the Empire of Germany and the United Kingdom of Italy to
about the same time. The kingdoms of Roumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria
have been independent of Turkey only since 1878. The kingdom of
Albania did not exist before 1913. Most of the present nations of
modern Europe, then, are very new. The troubles which led to the great
war, however, originated in the dim twilight of history.
In the earliest days, there were no separate countries or kingdoms. Men
gathered together in little bands, each of which had its leader. This
leader was generally chosen because of his bodily strength and courage.
He was the best fighter of the tribe. The people did not have any lasting
homes. They moved around from place to place, wherever they could
find the best hunting and fishing. When two tribes wanted the same
hunting grounds, they fought, and the weaker party had to give way.
Selfishness was supreme. If a man wanted anything which belonged to
his weaker neighbor, he simply beat this neighbor over the head with
his club, and took it. The stronger tribe attacked the weaker, without
any thought of whether or not its quarrel was just.
Gradually, in the southern and warmer parts of Europe, the tribes began
to be more civilized. Towns sprang up. Ships were built. Trade came to
be one of the occupations. The fighting men needed weapons and
armor; so there grew up artisans who were skilled in working metals. In
Egypt and Syria there were people who had reached quite a high degree
of civilization, and gradually the Europeans learned from them better
ways of living. First the Greeks, then the Etruscans (E-trus'cans), a
people who lived in Italy just north of where Rome now is,