may be ascribed
to various causes. The Franco-German and Russo-Turkish Wars left behind
rankling hatreds which rendered it very difficult for nations to disarm;
and, after the decline of those resentments, there arose others as the
outcome of the Greco-Turkish War and the Boer War. Further, the conflict
between Japan and Russia so far weakened the latter as to leave Germany
and Austria almost supreme in Europe; and, while in France and the
United Kingdom the social movement has made considerable progress,
Germany and Austria have remained in what may be termed the national
stage of development, which offers many advantages over the
international for purposes of war. Then again in the Central Empires
parliamentary institutions have not been successful, tending on the
whole to accentuate the disputes between the dominant and the subject
races. The same is partially true of Russia, and far more so of the
Balkan States. Consequently, in Central and Eastern Europe the national
idea has become militant and aggressive; while Great Britain, the
Netherlands, and to some extent France, have sought as far as possible
to concentrate their efforts upon social legislation, arming only in
self-defence. In this contrast lay one of the dangers of the situation.

Nationality caused the movements and wars of 1848-77. Thereafter, that
principle seemed to wane. But it revived in redoubled force among the
Balkan peoples owing partly to the brutal oppressions of the Sublime
Porte; and the cognate idea, aiming, however, not at liberty but
conquest, became increasingly popular with the German people after the
accession of Kaiser William II. The sequel is only too well known.
Civilisation has been overwhelmed by a recrudescence of nationalism, and
the wealthiest age which the world has seen is a victim to the
perfection and potency of its machinery. A recovery of the old belief in
the solidarity of mankind and a conviction of the futility of all
efforts for domination by any one people, are the first requisites
towards the recovery of conditions that make for peace and good-will.

Meanwhile, recent history has had to concern itself largely with
groupings or alliances, which have in the main resulted from ambition,
distrust, or fear. As has already been shown, the Partition of Africa
was arranged without a resort to arms; but after that appropriation of
the lands of the dark races, the white peoples in the south came into
collision late in 1899.