CHAPTER VII THE EASTERN QUESTION CHAPTER VIII THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR CHAPTER IX THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT CHAPTER X THE MAKING OF BULGARIA CHAPTER XI NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA CHAPTER XII THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES CHAPTER XIII THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION CHAPTER XIV THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS CHAPTER XV BRITAIN IN EGYPT CHAPTER XVI GORDON AND THE SUDAN CHAPTER XVII THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN CHAPTER XVIII THE PARTITION OF AFRICA CHAPTER XIX THE CONGO FREE STATE CHAPTER XX RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST CHAPTER XXI THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS (1900-1907) CHAPTER XXII TEUTON _versus_ SLAV (1908-13) CHAPTER XXIII THE CRISIS OF 1914 INDEX MAPS AND PLANS Campaigns of 1859-71 Sketch Map of the District between Metz and the Rhine Plan of the Battle of Wörth Plan of the Battles of Rezonville and Gravelotte Plan of the Battle of Sedan Map of Bulgaria Plan of Plevna Map of the Treaties of Berlin and San Stefano Map of Thessaly Map of Afghanistan Battle of Maiwand Battle of Alexandria (Bombardment of, 1882) Map of the Nile The Battle of Omdurman Plan of Khartum Map of Africa (1902) INTRODUCTION "The movements in the masses of European peoples are divided and slow, and their progress interrupted and impeded, because they are such great and unequally formed masses; but the preparation for the future is widely diffused, and . . . the promises of the age are so great that even the most faint-hearted rouse themselves to the belief that a time has arrived in which it is a privilege to live."--GERVINUS, 1853. The Roman poet Lucretius in an oft-quoted passage describes the satisfaction that naturally fills the mind when from some safe vantage-ground one looks forth on travellers tossed about on the stormy deep. We may perhaps use the poet's not very altruistic words as symbolising many of the feelings with which, at the dawn of the twentieth century, we look back over the stormy waters of the century that has passed away. Some congratulation on this score is justifiable, especially as those wars and revolutions have served to build up States that are far stronger than their predecessors, in proportion as they correspond more nearly with the desires of the nations that compose them. As we gaze at the revolutions and wars that form the storm-centres of the past century, we can now see some of the causes that brought about those storms. If we survey them with discerning eye, we soon begin to see that, in the main, the cyclonic disturbances had their origins in two great natural impulses of the civilised races of mankind. The first of these forces is that great impulse towards individual liberty, which we name Democracy; the second is that impulse, scarcely less mighty and elemental, that prompts men to effect a close union with their kith and kin: this we may term Nationality.