EUBOPB 64 EUSTATIUS, ST. ana many islands in the ^gean Sea, she also assumed administration of the Smyrna district in Asia Minor, with a proviso that a plebiscite at the end of five years shall determine w^hether or not it shall remain permanently in the hands of Greece. Rumania profited greatly in terri- tory. She was awarded the province of Bessarabia, formerly a part of Russia, the former Austrian crownland of Buko- wina, together with Transylvania, a part of Banat, and other provinces from Hun- gary. By this acquisition Rumania be- came the largest country of the Balkan states, with an area equal to the com- bined areas of Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria, with a population, in 1919, of 12,500,000. Ukraine, formerly one of the richest provinces of Russia, declared itself an independent republiCo Its boundaries are vague. It is claimed to have an area of about 200,000 square miles, with a population of 30,000,000. Its independ- ence had not been acknowledged at the beginning of 1921. History.- — Europe was probably first peopled from Asia, but at what date we know not. The first authentic history begins in Greece at about 776 B. C. Greek civilization was at its most flour- ishing period about 430 B. C. After Greece came Rome, which, by the early part of the Christian era, had conquered Spain, Greece, Gaul, Helvetia, Germany between the Danube and the Alps, Illyria, Dacia, etc. With the decline of the Roman empire a great change in the political constitu- tion of Europe was produced by the universal migration of the northern na- tions. The Ostrogoths and Lombards settled in Italy, the Franks in France, the Visigoths in Spain, and the Anglo- Saxons in South Britain, reducing the inhabitants to subjection, or becoming incorporated with them. Under Char- lemagne (771-814) a great Germanic empire was established, so extensive that the kingdoms of France, Germany, Italy, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Navarre were afterward formed out of it. About this time the northern and eastern nations of Europe began to exert an influence in the affairs of Europe. The Slavs, or Slavonians, founded kingdoms in Bo- hemia, Poland, Russia, and the N. of Germany; the Magyars appeared in Hungary, and the Normans agitated all Europe, founding kingdoms and princi- palities in England, France, Sicily, and the East. The Crusades and the growth of the Ottoman power are among the principal events which influenced Eu- rope from the 12th to the 15th century. The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), by driving the learned Greeks from this city, gave a new im- pulse to letters in western Europe, which was carried onward by the invention of printing, and the Reformation. The dis- covery of America was followed by the temporary preponderance of Spain in Europe, and next of France. Subse- quently Prussia and Russia gradually increased in territory and strength. The French Revolution (1'789) and the Na- poleonic wars had a profound effect on Europe, the dissolution of the old Ger- man empire being one of the results. Since then the most important events in European history have been the estab- lishment of the independence of Greece; the disappearance of Poland as a sepa- rate state; the unification of Italy under Victor Emmanuel; the Franco-German war, resulting in the consolidation of Germany into an empire under the leadership of Prussia; the partial dis- memberment of the Turkish empire, in- cluding the loss of Crete; the loss by Spain of her colonies in 1898; the ab- sorption by England of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State in Africa in 1900. The political history of Europe from the beginning of the 20th century led directly to the World War. The seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1908, the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913, and the ever increasing militarism of Germany culminated in the great world struggle which began in August, 1914. EURYALE, a genus of plants of the water-lily order, growing in India and China, where the floury seeds of some species are used as food. EITRYDICE (u-rid'i-se) , in Greek mjrthology, the wife of Orpheus (q. v.). EUSEBIUS, a Greek writer, the father of ecclesiastical history; born in Palestine about A. D. 265. About 315 he was appointed Bishop of Csesarea. He became an advocate of the Arians and condemned the doctrines of Athanasius. His ecclesiastical history extends from the birth of Christ to 324. Among his other extant work is a life of Constan- tine the Great. He died about 340. EUSTACHIAN TUBE (iis-ta'shun), in anatomy, a canal leading from the pharynx to the tympanum of the ear. See Ear. EUSTATIUS, ST., a Dutch island in the West Indies, one of the Leeward Islands, 11 miles N. W. of St. Christo- pher's, pyramidal in form; area 8 square miles. Sugar, cotton, and maize are raised; but the principal production is tobacco. The climate is healthy, but
