racen to conquer the world for the Crescent. Constantinople,
betrayed by Christian nations, fell, Christian peoples of the Levant
were made subject to the Turk, and thereafter till our day the
AEgean was a Turkish lake. About the same time a new Mohammedan sea
power arose in the Moors of the African coast, and for a century
and more the Mediterranean was a no-man's land between the rival
peoples and the rival religions.

Meanwhile the trade with the East by caravan routes to the Arabian
Gulf had been stopped by the presence of the Turk. To reach the
old markets, therefore, new routes had to be found and there came
the great era of discovery. The new world was only an accidental
discovery in a search for the westward route to Asia. The claims of
Spain to this new region called forth her fleets of trading ships.
But the lure of the West attracted the energies of the English
also, and England and Spain clashed. As Spain became more and more
dependent on her western colonies for income, and yet failed to
establish her ascendancy over the Atlantic routes, she declined
in favor of her enemies, England and Holland. The latter country,
being dependent on the sea for sustenance, early captured a large
part of the world's carrying trade, especially in the Mediterranean
and the East. Her rich profits excited the envy and rivalry of the
English, and in consequence, after three hard-fought naval wars,
the scepter of the sea passed to England. The subsequent wars between
England and France served only to strengthen England's control of
trade routes and extend her colonial possessions; with one notable
exception, when France, denying to her rival the control of the sea
at a critical juncture in the American Revolution, deprived her
of her richest and most extensive colony. It was primarily England
with her navy that broke the power of Napoleon in the subsequent
conflict, and throughout a century of peace the spread of English
speech and institutions has extended to the uttermost parts of
the world. One power in our day challenged Britain's control of
the sea--now even more essential to her security than it was in
the 17th century to that of Holland--and the World War was the
consequence.

In all this story it is interesting to note that insularity in
position is the reverse of insularity in fact. Crete touched the
far shores of the Mediterranean because she was an island and her
people were forced upon the sea. Similarly, Phoenicia