The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-09-15
Tragedy OF Spain's Rule.
Her Rise to Power Only Exceeded Il,
Her Fall.


Her Fall.
Emile Olivier, formerly Prime Minister
of France, contributes an article to the
September Century on ''Ameriea, Spain,
and France" M. Ollivie says:
Few histories are at one and the same
time more tragic and more instructive
than that of the Spanish people. No rule
has been wider and more brilliant. Hav-
Ing prevented Islamism from Overlooking
Europe, the Spaniards themselves spread
through the countries which they had
preserved from the Mohammedan inva-
sion. Before long they were everywhere
in Italy and the Low Countries by right
of conquest, in Germany through election.
The domination of their arms, customs,
and literature was widely extended. They
We're on the point of giving a king to
France, aud they were represented in the
| government of Louis XIV. People dress
ed as they did, thought and felt as they
did, and it was quite as much from Spain
as from Rome that our great Corneille
drew the inspiration of his sublime works.
Everything came to their aid. An Italian
turned Spaniard discovered a new world
for them The virgin soil received first
the print of their feet, and they gave
their name to the region. The sun never
SETON their empire.
There is nothing comparable to this
( magnificent development of power, unless
! it be the magnitude and rapidity of the
decay which followed. Little by little
the spaniards We're everywhere driven out
! of Europe. They lost Italy the Empire
the Low Countries. But for all these
successive losses and European checks
/ they found compensation in the New
| World, with It's treasures, its fer lie soil.
its fruitful rivers, and its two oceans
which commanded the commerce of the
| globe. But here too, though more slow
| ly. a decline set in.
The history of Spanish colonization in
America presents three phases. The
first is wholly warlike in its nature We
see in it Adventures and conquerors who
land on the unexplored shores, seize them
and eXterminate the native population.
! The second phase is sacertlotal. The
! priest comes along with the captain, to
convert, and also to mitigate the cruelties
of the soldier. And then-the third
| phase-after the missionaries arrive the
/ court favorites, sent out from the mother
| country, to enrich themselves, well typiti-
| ed by the Marquis of Branciforte, who
/ sold decorations sometimes at even so
/ lI4ll IL JllGG as Ten Thousand uOlldiS, ana
| by lturrigaral. who trafficked in DEGREES
and offices The colonies. first tortured
and then converted, become prebends for
all the dissolute and begging good-for-
nolhings whom pain wishes to get rid of.
| 50 it was not long before America be
| gan to slip away from Spain. as Europe
| had done. IN 1870 the colonies rebelled.
one after the other, and at the end Of a
| heroic struggle reuelled the Spanish
troops and proclaimed indepeudence.
| First the United States. and then ENGLAND
recognized the new nations. The import
ance of the event was seen bva all the clear
sighted public men of the Old World.
| Nergennes the French minister who
helped to free North America. said On the
proclamation of the lndependence of the
English colonies: .'The Spanish colonies
will some day become tie prev of the
Anglo Saxons; and as sure as they have
pushed back the Indians, they will sooner
! or later drive the Latin peoples from every
| part of America
To save what remained to her of her
American colonies. to keep Cuba and the
Philippines. Spain should have studied
the best interests of the inhabitants with
redoubled zeal. She should have ruled
with a velvet hand. whereas she vas
harder than ever. More than ever she
turned those wonderful lands into batten-