THE AIM Of this paper is to set forth a number of well-known facts concerning the expansion of western European civilization since the end of the fifteenth century, and to interpret them along lines suggested by Arnold J. Toynbee in his Study of History. The expansion into new lands across the sea has sometimes taken the form of conquering peoples already civilized and living in densely populated territories, as was the case of the Spanish in Mexico and Peru, and the British in India. The situation resulting has led to social adjustments between the two civilizations which form a fascinating study. But it is not our purpose to consider these composite cultures here, or the other class of settlements in the tropics where the climate and other natural conditions have necessitated the employment of servile labor in numbers far in excess of the European settlers. We shall confine ourselves to the study of those European colonies in the temperate zone inhabited by a sparse aboriginal population in a low state of culture, a population which has sometimes formed a considerable obstacle, particularly in the early stages of settlement, but which has required no fundamental racial amalgamation or culture compromise. Such conditions are found in the early colonies of Spain in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay; the Portuguese in southern Brazil; the French in Quebec, Canada; the Dutch in South Africa; and the British in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.