What we have just said accords with the events of history. Asia has been subjugated thirteen times : eleven times by peoples of the north, twice by peoples of the south. In remote times the Scythians conquered it thrice ; then the Medes and the Persians, once each ; the Greeks, the Arabs, the Moguls, the Turks, the Tartars, the Persians and the Afghans. I am speaking only of upper Asia, and say nothing of the invasions made in the rest of the south of that part of the world, which has continually suffered very great transformations.

In Europe, on the contrary, we know of only four great changes since the founding of the Greek and Phoenician colonies, the first caused by the Roman conquests, the second by the inundations of barbarians who destroyed those same Romans, the third by the victories of Charlemagne, and the last by the Norman invasions. And if we examine this well, we shall find in these very changes an overall strength spread through every part of Europe. We know the difficulty the Romans had conquering in Europe, and the ease with which they invaded Asia. We know the struggles which the peoples of the north had overturning the Roman empire, the wars and labors of Charlemagne, and the various enterprises of the Normans. The destroyers were constantly destroyed.