possession of all the land of France, and how
the French, having the greater army, won. Now, in these next seven
chapters we shall learn how they fought another Hundred Years War to
decide the command of the sea, and how the English, grown into a
British Empire and having the greater navy, won in their turn. Both
victories proved to be for the best. France and England both gained by
the first war; because the natural way for France to grow was all over
the land that is France now, while the natural way for England to grow
was not on the continent of Europe but in the British Isles. The
British Empire gained more than the French by the second war; but as
France could never have held an oversea Empire without a supreme navy,
and as she could never have a supreme navy while she had two land
frontiers to defend with great armies, she really lost nothing she then
could have kept. Besides, in the nineteenth century she won a great
empire in northern Africa, where her Mediterranean sea-power keeps it
safe. The British Empire, on the other hand, being based on world-wide
sea-power, is rightly placed as it is. So neither French nor British
are tempted to envy each other now; while their Hundred Years Peace,
followed by their glorious Alliance in the Great War, should make them
friends for ever.

The Franco-British wars which began in 1689 and ended on the field of
Waterloo in 1815 are not called the Second Hundred Years War in books.
But that is what they were in fact. The British Navy was the chief
cause of British victory all through, and, as French and British always
took opposite sides, we may also call the whole of these seven wars by
the one name of "The French War," just as we have called the other wars
against our chief opponents "The Spanish War" and "Dutch War"; and just
as we might call "The Great War" by the name of "The German War."

Two more points must be well understood, or else we shall miss the real
meaning of our imperial history and the supreme importance of the Royal
Navy.

First, there have been four attempts made in modern times by Great
Powers on the continent of Europe to seize the overlordship of the
World; and each time the Royal Navy has been the central force that
foiled the attack upon the freedom of mankind. These four attempts
have been made about a century apart from one another. The Spanish
attempt was made at the end of the sixteenth century. The first French
attempt was made by L