ABSTRACT
This chapter is a little out of step with the previous two. Their purpose was to lay the groundwork of modern history for the countries which feature in Part III, that is, countries where monarchy has survived into the present, or at least was extant until recent decades. The present chapter, by contrast, looks at a republic. In chronological terms it overlaps with the periods covered not only in Chapters 2 and 3 but also by the five chapters in Part III. The purpose of the exercise is connected with the salient methodological concern articulated in Chapter 1, section 1.3: the question of causation from the more remote past.
