FAR-REACHING EVENTS TOOK PLACE IN THE TWO CENTURIES
COVERED by this volume. The New World of the American continent was
discovered and settled by European adventure. In the realms of speculation
and belief, poetry and art, other new worlds were opened to the human
spirit. Between 1485 and 1688 the English peoples began to spread out all
over the globe. They confronted and defeated the might of Spain. Once the
freedom of the seas had been won the American colonies sprang into being.
Lively and assertive communities grew up on the western shores of the
Atlantic Ocean, which in the course of time were to become the United
States. England and Scotland adopted the Protestant faith. The two
kingdoms of the Island became united under a Scottish dynasty. A great
civil war was fought on abiding issues of principle. The country sustained a
Republican experiment under the massive personality of Oliver Cromwell.
But, at the nation’s demand, the royal tradition was revived. At the end of
this volume the Protestant faith has been secured under a Dutch monarch,
Parliament is far advanced on the road to supremacy in the affairs of State,
America is fast developing, and a prolonged and world-wide struggle with
France is close at hand.
