the individual, of the fighting itself, must
come long after the war is over. It will come piecemeal, from
diaries now stuck away in the soldiers' pockets, from memories that
will only begin to act when peace has given weary brains a chance to
work again, from men now tired and dirty and horror-stunned and
scarcely able to remember their own names.

PART I--INDIRECT CAUSES OF THE WAR

POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF EUROPE FROM 1866 TO 1914 WITH A
CHAPTER ON THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF JAPAN

In order to understand properly the underlying causes which were
responsible for the outbreak of the Great European War of 1914, it
is necessary to be acquainted with the recent historical development
of the various nations involved. In considering the various phases
of this development it becomes evident that in modern times the
history of any _one_ country exerts a powerful influence upon the
history of all the other countries. The vast development of means of
communication between the various countries of the earth--railways,
steamships, telegraphs, telephones--resulted in an equally vast
increase of their commercial and social intercourse until one might
almost claim that there is not a single event of any importance
whatsoever happening in _one_ country which does not make its
influence felt throughout the entire world. It is not always easy or
even possible to determine the exact degree to which the various
nations of the world are affected by this mutual interdependency,
and frequently many years elapse before it becomes evident at all
that what one nation has done or neglected to do has an important
relation to the fate of another nation, even though the two nations
may have few points of contact and be separated by great distances.

To describe historical events as they happen day by day or even year
by year throughout the modern world is an almost hopeless task,
because a description of this nature would result in a confusion
which would be even worse than an entire lack of knowledge
concerning these matters. We will, therefore, consider separately
the historical development of each nation and thereby try to arrive
finally at a clear understanding of the historical causes of the
Great War of 1914.

Some of these causes, of course, may be claimed to go back to the
beginnings of the history of the various nations; but a majority of
them had their origin in comparatively recent times. It is also true
tha