which gains such economic, military, and naval strength that
its political influence must be reckoned with by all the other Powers.
At the time of the outbreak of the World War eight States had to be
considered as Great Powers, namely Great Britain, Austria-Hungary,
France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States of America, and Japan.
But it is very probable that the end of the World War will see the
number of Great Powers reduced to six. The collapse and break up of
Russia has surely for the present eliminated her from the number of
Great Powers. And it is quite certain that Austria-Hungary will not
emerge from the struggle as a Great Power, if she emerges from it as a
whole at all. History teaches that the number of the Great Powers is by
no means stable, and changes occasionally take place. Look at the
condition of affairs during the nineteenth century. Whereas at the time
of the Vienna Congress in 1815 eight States, namely Great Britain,
Austria, France, Portugal, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and Russia were still
considered Great Powers, their number soon decreased to five, because
Portugal, Spain, and Sweden ceased to be Great Powers. On the other
hand, Italy joined the number of the Great Powers after her unification
in 1860; the United States of America joined the Great Powers after the
American Civil War in 1865; and Japan emerged as a Great Power from her
war with China in 1895.

Be that as it may, so much is certain, a State is a Great Power not by
law but only by its political influence. The Great Powers are the
leaders of the Family of Nations because their political influence is
so great. Their political and economic influence is in the long run
irresistible; therefore all arrangements made by the Great Powers
naturally in most cases gain, either at once or in time, the consent of
the minor States. It may be said that the Great Powers exercise a kind
of political hegemony within the Family of Nations. Yet this hegemony is
not based on law, it is simply a political fact, and it is certainly not
a consequence of an organisation of the Family of Nations.

III. The demand for a proper organisation of the Community of States
had, up to the outbreak of the World War, been raised exclusively on the
part of the so-called Pacifists in order to make the abolition of war a
possibility. It is a common assertion on the part of the Pacifists that
War cannot die out so long as there is no Central Political Authority in
e