nd malignant influences of the tropics. Nor was the
advance of knowledge and invention sufficient by itself to equip man for
successful war against the ocean, the desert, the forest, and the swamp.
The political and social development of the older countries was equally
necessary. In order that thousands of settlers should be able and ready
to press in where the one great leader had shown the way, Europe had to
gain something like peace and stability. Only thus, when the natural
surplus of the white races could devote itself to the task of peacefully
subduing the earth rather than to the hideous work of mutual slaughter,
could the life-blood of Europe be poured forth in fertilising streams
into the waste places of the other continents.

The latter half of the eighteenth century promised for a brief space to
inaugurate such a period of expansive life. The close of the Seven
Years' War seemed to be the starting point for a peaceful campaign
against the unknown; but the efforts of Cook, d'Entrecasteaux, and
others then had little practical result, owing to the American War of
Independence, and the great cycle of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars. These in their turn left Europe too exhausted to accomplish much
in the way of colonial expansion until the middle of the nineteenth
century. Even then, when the steamship and the locomotive were at hand
to multiply man's powers, there was, as yet, no general wish, except on
the part of the more fortunate English-speaking peoples, to enter into
man's new heritage. The problems of Europe had to be settled before the
age of expansive activity could dawn in its full radiance. As has been
previously shown, Europe was in an introspective mood up to the years
1870-1878.

Our foregoing studies have shown that the years following the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, brought about a state of political
equilibrium which made for peace and stagnation in Europe; and the
natural forces of the Continent, cramped by the opposition of equal and
powerful forces, took the line of least resistance--away from Europe.
For Russia, the line of least resistance was in Central Asia. For all
other European States it was the sea, and the new lands beyond.

Furthermore, in that momentous decade the steamship and locomotive were
constantly gaining in efficiency; electricity was entering the arena as
a new and mighty force; by this time medical science had so far advanced
as to screen man from many of the ill