Great events do not proceed from small causes 69 German hatred of England 70 This is the German people's war 71 Their illusion that England brought it about 73 Difficulties in the way of international understandings 73 British and German diplomacy compared 74 German distrust and British indifference 78 British policy as it appears to German eyes 79 Vacillation mistaken for duplicity 80 German policy as it appears to British eyes 81 PART II THE SPIRIT OF GERMAN POLICY CHAPTER I THE BISMARCKIAN EPOCH National dreams 87 1789 and after 87 The first German dream--Union 88 How it was realised 89 What the world thought of it 90 Material development in Germany 91 The peace policy of Bismarck 92 CHAPTER II AFTER BISMARCK Nightmares and illusions 94 Grievances against England, France, and Russia 96 The second German dream--Mastery of the World 97 Absorption of Belgium, Holland, and Denmark 98 The Austro-Hungarian inheritance 98 The Balkan peninsula 99 Turkey in Asia 100 German diplomacy at Constantinople 101 The Baghdad Railway 102 The hoped-for fruits of 'inevitable' wars 103 The possession of Africa 103 The Chinese Empire 104 CHAPTER III THE GERMAN PROJECT OF EMPIRE Qualities of the German vision 106 Symmetry and vastness are dangerous ideals 107 Frederick the Great and Bismarck 108 German predisposition to follow dreamers 108 Grotesque proportions of the Second German dream 109 The two Americas 110 Pacifism and Militarism meet at infinity 111 CHAPTER IV THE NEW MORALISTS