Eustatius
ST.
Turks (1453), by driving the learned Greeks from this city, gave a new impulse to letters in western Europe, which was carried onward by the invention of printing, and the Reformation. The discovery of America was followed by the temporary preponderance of Spain in Europe, and next of France. Subsequently Prussia and Russia gradually increased in territory and strength. The French Revolution (1789) and the Napoleonic wars had a profound effect on Europe, the dissolution of the old German empire being one of the results. Since then the most important events in European history have been the establishment of the independence of Greece; the disappearance of Poland as a separate state; the unification of Italy under Victor Emmanuel; the Franco-German war, resulting in the consolidation of Germany into an empire under the leadership of Prussia; the partial dismemberment of the Turkish empire, including the loss of Crete; the loss by Spain of her colonies in 1898; the absorption by England of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State in Africa in 1900. The political history of Europe from the beginning of the 20th century led directly to the World War.
The seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1908, the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, and the ever increasing militarism of Germany culminated in the great world struggle which began in August, 1914.