Asia, North Africa, and eastern Europe in their grasp,
that Western civilization was hard put to it to hold its own. Western
civilization was, in fact, fighting with its back to the wall--the wall
of a boundless ocean. We can hardly conceive how our mediaeval
forefathers viewed the ocean. To them it was a numbing, constricting
presence; the abode of darkness and horror. No wonder mediaeval Europe
was static, since it faced on ruthless, aggressive Asia, and backed on
nowhere. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, the sea-wall became a
highway, and dead-end Europe became mistress of the ocean--and thereby
mistress of the world.

The greatest strategic shift of fortune in all human history had taken
place. Instead of fronting hopelessly on the fiercest of Asiatics,
against whom victory by direct attack seemed impossible, the Europeans
could now flank them at will. Furthermore, the balance of resources
shifted in Europe's favour. Whole new worlds were unmasked whence Europe
could draw limitless wealth to quicken its home life and initiate a
progress that would soon place it immeasurably above its once-dreaded
Asiatic assailants. What were the resources of the stagnant Moslem East
compared with those of the Americas and the Indies? So Western
civilization, quickened, energized, progressed with giant strides, shook
off its mediaeval fetters, grasped the talisman of science, and strode
into the light of modern times.

Yet all this left Islam unmoved. Wrapping itself in the tatters of
Saracenic civilization, the Moslem East continued to fall behind. Even
its military power presently vanished, for the Turk sank into lethargy
and ceased to cultivate the art of war. For a time the West, busied with
internal conflicts, hesitated to attack the East, so great was the
prestige of the Ottoman name. But the crushing defeat of the Turks in
their rash attack upon Vienna in 1683 showed the West that the Ottoman
Empire was far gone in decrepitude. Thenceforth, the empire was harried
mercilessly by Western assaults and was saved from collapse only by the
mutual jealousies of Western Powers, quarrelling over the Turkish
spoils.

However, not until the nineteenth century did the Moslem world, as a
whole, feel the weight of Western attack. Throughout the eighteenth
century the West assailed the ends of the Moslem battle-line in eastern
Europe and the Indies, but the bulk of Islam, from Morocco to Central
Asia, remained almost immune. The Moslem