Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/237

THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 225 subsequent developments, that the Christianity of Poland was that of Rome, not of the Greek Church j whereas it was with the Greek Church that the Russians associated them- selves. The long subjection of the Russians to the Mongols gave them that half Asiatic character, of which they never divested themselves. It was a very long time before Russia entered the circle of the civilised states of Europe. But almost at the moment of the development of the Polish power by the union with Lithuania, Russia struck her first blow for freedom. The supremacy of the Mongol Khan continued to be recognised for half a century ; but the revival of a Russian kingdom, with its capital at Moscow, may be dated from the accession to the throne of Ivan in. in 1462. We have not spoken of the Scandinavian kingdoms, whose external history is chiefly connected with the struggle for the position of dominant power in the Baltic, for which the German free cities of Liibeck on the west, and Dantzig on the east were competitors, as well as the Teutonic Knights, the Danes, and the Swedes. Of primary importance, however, is the union of the Crowns of Denmark and Norway in 1380, supplemented in 1397 by the union of Kalmar, which brought Sweden also under the same sceptre; although in this latter union there was little reality, and Sweden was in constant revolt. It may be considered that the real domination of the Baltic lay with the German free cities, who were members of that great combination of trading towns, known as the Hansa or Hanseatic League. The wars and struggles of Western and Northern Europe, with the exception of Italy, all tended to a similar issue — the gradual evolution of large, fairly consolidated states. Thus National at the end of our period, Scotland, England, and Consoiida- France were each of them clearly defined, separate, tion# homogeneous kingdoms. In the Spanish peninsula, there were four considerable kingdoms besides the small one of Navarre, and of these four three were on the verge of being combined into the one kingdom of Spain. The three Scandinavian kingdoms were united under one Crown ; Poland had become p