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