Using style sheets, the same effect could be accomplished as follows:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A study of population dynamics</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY { background: white; color: black}
A:link { color: red }
A:visited { color: maroon }
A:active { color: fuchsia }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
... document body...
</BODY>
</HTML>