Thus as briefly as possible have been sketched the conditions, degree
of power, and aims which shaped and controlled the policy of the four
principal seaboard States of the day,--Spain, France, England, and
Holland. From the point of view of this history, these will come most
prominently and most often into notice; but as other States exercised
a powerful influence upon the course of events, and our aim is not
merely naval history but an appreciation of the effect of naval and
commercial power upon the course of general history, it is necessary
to state shortly the condition of the rest of Europe. America had not
yet begun to play a prominent part in the pages of history or in the
policies of cabinets.

Germany was then divided into many small governments, with the one
great empire of Austria. The policy of the smaller States shifted, and
it was the aim of France to combine as many of them as possible under
her influence, in pursuance of her traditional opposition to Austria.
With France thus working against her on the one side, Austria was in
imminent peril on the other from the constant assaults of the Turkish
Empire, still vigorous though decaying. The policy of France had long
inclined to friendly relations with Turkey, not only as a check upon
Austria, but also from her wish to engross the trade with the Levant.
Colbert, in his extreme eagerness for the sea power of France, favored
this alliance. It will be remembered that Greece and Egypt were then
parts of the Turkish Empire.

Prussia as now known did not exist. The foundations of the future
kingdom were then being prepared by the Elector of Brandenburg, a
powerful minor State, which was not yet able to stand quite alone, but
carefully avoided a formally dependent position. The kingdom of Poland