The Great Nations of To-day
CHAPTER VII. THE MODERN NATIONS OF WESTERN EUROPE
THERE were no fewer than eighteen distinct tribes of the barbarians who, by their active presence, were instrumental in the ruin of Western Rome. 1 Of these, some, after their work of destruction was done, left the territories of the West, and established themselves elsewhere, or were lost among the other wild peoples of northern and eastern Europe or Asia. Others coalesced and the names of lesser tribes were lost under that of the predominating one. And so, when the last vestige of the Western Empire of Rome had vanished, the territory was found partitioned into exactly ten parts, occupied by exactly ten independent nations; no more, no less. GNT 56.1
Named in order from the northern to the southern limits of the Western Empire, these ten, as they stood in 476 at the extinction of the Empire, were as follows:— GNT 56.2
1. The Angles and Saxons in Britain. GNT 56.3
2. The Franks in all Gaul north and west of the River Moselle. GNT 56.4
3. The Alemanni in North Switzerland, Swabia, Alsace, and Lorraine. GNT 57.1
4. The Burgundians in west Switzerland and the valleys of the Rhone and Saone in southeast Gaul. GNT 57.2
5. The Visigoths in southwest Gaul and Spain. GNT 57.3
6. The Suevi in that part of Spain which is now Portugal. GNT 57.4
7. The Ostrogoths in Pannonia—what is now Austria. GNT 57.5
8. The Lombards in Noricum, between the Ostrogoths and the Alemanni. GNT 57.6
9. The Heruli in Italy. GNT 57.7
10. The Vandals in North Africa, with capital at Carthage. GNT 57.8
The details of this anyone can trace out, any day, on any map that he will but hold before him, and mark as he reads the history of the fall of the Roman Empire. GNT 57.9
These ten kingdoms were first mentioned in the prophecy of Daniel, especially in that “the fourth beast, which represented Rome, was seen to have ten horns:” and these ten horns, “out of this [fourth] kingdom,” are distinctly said by the angel to be “ten kings [kingdoms] that shall arise.” Daniel 7:7, 24. They are referred to later, in the book of Revelation, in the description of the dragon, and also of the Beast having “seven heads and ten horns.” GNT 57.10
Also, in the prophecy of Daniel, it is related that there would come up among these ten another one; and that by it three of the ten would be “plucked up by the roots.” Daniel 7:8, 20, 24. The three which were plucked up, were the Heruli, who occupied Italy, in 493; the Vandals, who occupied North Africa, in 534; and the Ostrogoths, who had been instrumental in rooting up the Heruli, and who occupied Italy in their place, in 538. That “other one,” before whom these three were rooted up, is described as having “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things;” and it was, and is, the papacy. GNT 57.11
Three taken from ten leaves seven. And these seven of the original ten kingdoms that divided Western Rome are in that territory to-day, and are the Powers of Western Europe to-day. The Saxons, the Franks, the Alemanni, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Suevi, and the Lombards are the powers respectively of the Britain, France, Germany (in the French language, and with the French people of to-day, the Germans are only Allemands, and Germany is only Allemagne), Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy of to-day. For after the plucking up of the third of the three kingdoms, the Lombards removed from their place on the Danube, and established their kingdom in Italy; and to a considerable portion of that country “communicated the perpetual appellation of Lombardy.” In the middle ages, Lombardy “was, indeed, for a time, the name for Italy itself.’ Thus the Powers of Western Europe to-day are as definitely pointed out by the prophecy as they could be without specifically naming them. GNT 58.1
Of these seven, some are very powerful, such as Britain, France, and Germany; while others are weak, such as Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal; while Italy stands, as it were, between strong and weak. So these seven of the original ten stand just where Daniel, from the dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, said they would stand. Daniel 2:40-43. They stand there in precisely the condition in which that prophecy said they would stand—“partly strong, and partly broken,” or weak. Britain, France, and Germany have spread their power over the whole world; and have so intertwined themselves in the affairs of the whole world that what touches the world touches them, and what touches them touches the world. GNT 59.1
Thus the first effect of the first four of the Seven Trumpets was the blotting out of the Western Empire of Rome; and the second effect was the planting of the modern nations of Western Europe, and among them the great nations of to-day. GNT 59.2
Next we must study the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets: and at the end of the Sixth, we shall again come face to face with these and others of the great nations of to-day. GNT 59.3