  In this paper, we study the topological structure of a universal construction
related to quasitopological groups: the free quasitopological group $F_q(X)$ on
a space $X$. We show that free quasitopological groups may be constructed
directly as quotient spaces of free semitopological monoids, which are
themselves constructed by iterating product spaces equipped with the "cross
topology." Using this explicit description of $F_q(X)$, we show that for any
$T_1$ space $X$, $F_q(X)$ is the direct limit of closed subspaces $F_q(X)_n$ of
words of length at most $n$. We also prove that the natural map ${\bf
i_n}:\coprod_{i=0}^{n}(X\sqcup X^{-1})^{\otimes i}\to F_q(X)_n$ is quotient for
all $n\geq 0$. Equipped with this convenient characterization of the topology
of free quasitopological groups, we show, among other things, that a subspace
$Y\subseteq X$ is closed if and only if the inclusion $Y\to X$ induces a closed
embedding $F_q(Y)\to F_q(X)$ of free quasitopological groups.
