Prussia, and Austria), the Czechs (checks), or Bohemians (in northern
Austria), the Finns (in the northwestern part of the Russian Empire),
and the Slavic people in the southern part of Austria-Hungary.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.--The nineteenth century was not only a period
of political change in Europe. It was also a time of great changes in
the general welfare of the people. It witnessed a remarkable alteration
in everyday employments and habits. In 1800 a great part of the
population was engaged in agriculture. Manufacturing and commerce were
looked upon as of minor importance. The goods that were produced were
made by hand labor in the workman's own home. Beginning first in England
about 1750 and extending to the Continent between 1820 and 1860, there
came a great industrial change. The steam engine was applied to
spinning, weaving, and countless other operations which previously had
been performed by hand. Steam engines could not of course be installed
in every small cottage; hence a number of machines were put in one
factory to be run by one steam engine. The workers left their small huts
and gardens in the country and came to live in towns and cities. After
the steam engine came steam transportation on land and water. Then
followed an enormous demand for coal, iron, steel, and other metals.
More goods could be produced in the factories than were needed for the
people at home. Hence arose more extended commerce and the search for
foreign markets.

COLONIAL EXPANSION.--In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
Spain, Portugal, France, and England settled the American continents and
parts of Asia. By a series of wars in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries the Dutch secured part of the possessions of Spain and
Portugal; and England obtained almost all of the French colonial
territories. In the eighteenth century the thirteen English colonies on