With the decline of the Roman empire a great change in the tion of Europe was produced by the universal migration of the northern na tions. The Ostrogoths and Lombards settled in Italy, the Franks in France, the Visigoths in Spain, and the Anglo Saxons in South Britain, reducing the inhabitants to subjection, or becoming incorporated with them. Under Char lemagne (771-814) a great Germanic empire was established, so extensive that the kingdoms of France, Germany, Italy, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Navarre were afterward formed out of it. About this time the northern and eastern nations of Europe began to exert an influence in the affairs of Europe. The Slays, or Slavonians, founded kingdoms in Bo hemia, Poland, Russia, and the N. of Germany; the Magyars appeared in Hungary, and the Normans agitated all Europe, founding kingdoms and princi palities in England, France, Sicily, and the East. The Crusades and the growth of the Ottoman power are among the principal events which influenced Eu rope from the 12th to the 15th century.
The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), by driving the learned Greeks from this city, gave a new im pulse to letters in western Europe, which was carried onward by the invention of printing, and the Reformation. The dis
covery of America was followed by the temporary preponderance of Spain in Europe, and next of France. Subse quently Prussia and Russia gradually increased in territory and strength. The French Revolution (1789) and the Na poleonic wars had a profound effect on Europe, the dissolution of the old Ger man empire being one of the results. Since then the most important events in European history have been the estab lishment of the independence of Greece; the disappearance of Poland as a sepa rate state; the unification of Italy under Victor Emmanuel; the Franco-German war, resulting in the consolidation of Germany into an empire under the leadership of Prussia; the partial dis memberment of the Turkish empire, in cluding the loss of Crete; the loss by Spain of her colonies in 1898; the ab sorption by England of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State in Africa in 1900. The history of Europe from the beginning of the 20th century led directly to the World War. The seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1908, the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, and the ever increasing militarism of Germany culminated in the great world struggle which began in August, 1914.