The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 17

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17, by Charles Francis Horne

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Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17
Author: Charles Francis Horne
Release Date: November 19, 2003 [EBook #10128]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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VOL. XVII

THE GREAT EVENTS BY FAMOUS HISTORIANS

A comprehensive and readable account of the world's history,
emphasizing the more important events, and presenting these as
complete narratives in the master-words of the most eminent
historians.

Non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-sectional.

On the plan evolved from a consensus of opinions gathered from the
most distinguished scholars of America and Europe, including brief
introductions by specialists to connect and explain the celebrated
narratives, arranged chronologically, with thorough indices,
bibliographies, chronologies, and courses of reading.

Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson, LL.D.
Associate Editors: Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. and John Rudd, LL.D.
With a staff of specialists

CONTENTS of VOLUME XVII

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF THE GREAT EVENTS, Charles F. Horne
(1844) THE INVENTION OF THE TELEGRAPH, Alonzo B. Cornell
(1846) REPEAL OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS, Justin McCarthy
(1846) THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE, Sir Oliver Lodge
(1846) THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA, Henry B. Dawson
(1847) THE FALL OF ABD-EL-KADER, Edgar Sanderson
(1847) THE MEXICAN WAR, John Bonner
(1847) FAMINE IN IRELAND, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy
(1848) MIGRATIONS OF THE MORMONS, Thomas L. Kane
(1848) THE REFORMS OF PIUS IX; HIS FLIGHT FROM ROME, Francis Bowen
(1848) THE REVOLUTION OF FEBRUARY IN FRANCE, Fran ois P.G. Guizot and

�

Mme. Guizot de Witt
(1848) REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN GERMAN, C. Edmund Maurice
(1848) THE REVOLT IN HUNGARY, Arminius Vembery
(1848) THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, John S. Hittell
(1849) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, Jessie White Mario
(1849) LIVINGSTONE'S AFRICAN DISCOVERIES, David Livingstone and Thomas

Hughes
(1851) THE COUP D'ETAT OF LOUIS NAPOLEON, Alexis de Tocqueville
(1851) THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA, Edward Jenks
(1854) THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, Abraham Lincoln
(1854) THE OPENING OF JAPAN, Matthew C. Perry
(1855) THE CAPTURE OF SEBASTOPOL, Sir Edward B. Hamley and Sir Evelyn

Wood
(1857) THE INDIAN MUTINY, J. Talboys Wheeler
(1859) THE BATTLES OF MAGENTA and SOLFERINO, Pietro Orsi
(1859) DARWIN PUBLISHES HIS ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Robert Darwin
(1860) THE KINGDOM OF ITALY ESTABLISHED, Giuseppe Garibaldi and John

Webb Probyn

(1861) THE EMANCIPATION OF RUSSIAN SERFS, Andrew D. White and Nikolai

Turgenieff

(1844-1861) UNIVERSAL CHRONOLOGY, Daniel Edwin Wheeler

ILLUSTRATIONS:

The mutinous Sepoys blown from the mouths of cannon by the English at

Cawnpore, Painting by Basil Verestchagin.

Charge of the Six Hundred at Balaklava, Painting by Stanley Berkeley.

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE (Tracing briefly the causes, connections, and

consequences of the great events.)

THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY, Charles F. Horne

In the year 1844 electricity, last and mightiest of the servants of man,
was seized and harnessed and made to do practical work. A telegraph line
was erected between Washington and Baltimore. [Footnote: See _Invention
of the Telegraph_.] In 1846 mathematics achieved perhaps the greatest
triumph of abstract science. It pointed out where in the heavens there
should be a planet, never before known by man. Strong telescopes were
directed to the spot and the planet was discovered. [Footnote: See _The
Discovery of Neptune_.] Man had found guides more subtle and more
accurate than his own five ancient senses. The age of figures, the age
of electricity, began.

The changes were symbolic, perhaps, of the more rapid rate at which the
forces of society were soon to move. Over all Europe and America great
events were shaping themselves with lightning speed. Tremendous changes
political and economic, social and scientific, were hurrying to an
issue.

THE MEXICAN WAR

In America the Mexican War, vast in its territorial results, still more
so in its effect upon society, broke out in 1846 over the admission of
Texas to the United States. The superior fighting strength of the more
northern race was at once made evident. Small bodies of United States
troops repeatedly defeated far larger numbers of the Mexican militia.
The entire northern half of Mexico was soon occupied by the enemy.
Expeditions, half of conquest, half of exploration, seized New Mexico,
California, and all the vast region which now composes the southwestern
quarter of the United States. [Footnote: See _The Acquisition of
California_.]

Farther south, however, the more populous region wherein lay the chief
Mexican cities remained resolute in its defiance; and the Washington
Government despatched against it that truly marvellous expedition under
General Scott. The heroisms and the triumphs of Scott's spectacular