Note (14) — Chapter II

The thirteenth century was the time when most of the existing states and nations of Europe took something like their present form and constitution. The great powers which had hitherto, in name at least, divided the Christian and Mahometan world, the Eastern and Western Empires and the Eastern and Western Caliphates, may now be looked on as practically coming to an end. England, France, and Spain began to take something like their present shape, and to show the beginnings of the characteristic position and policy of each. The chief languages of Western Europe grew into something like their modern form. In short, the character of this age as a time of beginnings and endings might be traced out in detail through the most part of Europe and Asia.