t, as the plan of this
work is to some extent chronological, it seems better to deal first with
events which had their beginning further back than those which relate to
the partition of Africa.

The two great colonising and conquering movements of recent times are
those which have proceeded from London and Moscow as starting-points. In
comparison with them the story of the enterprise of the Portuguese and
Dutch has little more than the interest that clings around an almost
vanished past. The halo of romance that hovers over the exploits of
Spaniards in the New World has all but faded away. Even the more solid
achievements of the gallant sons of France in a later age are of small
account when compared with the five mighty commonwealths that bear
witness to the strength of the English stock and the adaptability of its
institutions, or with the portentous growth of the Russian Empire
in Asia.

The methods of expansion of these two great colonial Empires are
curiously different; and students of Ancient History will recall a
similar contrast in the story of the expansion of the Greek and Latin
races. The colonial Empire of England has been sown broadcast over the
seas by adventurous sailors, the freshness and spontaneity of whose
actions recall corresponding traits in the maritime life of Athens.
Nursed by the sea, and filled with the love of enterprise and freedom
which that element inspires, both peoples sought wider spheres for their
commerce, and homes more spacious and wealthy than their narrow cradles
offered; but, above all, they longed to found a microcosm of Athens or
England, with as little control from the mother-land as might be.

The Russian Empire, on the other hand, somewhat resembles that of Rome
in its steady, persistent extension of land boundaries by military and
governmental methods. The Czars, like the Consuls and Emperors of Rome,
set to work with a definite purpose, and brought to bear on the
shifting, restless tribes beyond their borders the pressure of an
unchanging policy and of a well-organised administration. Both States
relied on discipline and civilisation to overcome animal strength and
barbarism; and what they won by the sword, they kept by means of a good
system of roads and by military colonies. In brief, while Ancient Greece
and Modern England worked through sailors and traders, Rome and Russia
worked through soldiers, road-makers, and proconsuls. The Sea Powers
trusted mainly to individ