ABSTRACT
The Marxian Socialism 1871-1918 period saw a vast expansion of Western particularly European influence, together with the first stirrings of a counter-movement which was to gather strength from 1918 onward. It also witnessed a rapid, though uneven, economic expansion, with the industrialised countries in the van of reaping the corresponding benefits, but the remainder toiling not too far behind. Britain's economic difficulties began in the 1870s, when progress slackened in comparison with the preceding period of extremely rapid growth. Socialist and Anarchist doctrines of revolution were extrapolations from a state of affairs which a few decades later came to be thought of as characteristic of 'backward' countries. In Germany the transition from the agrarian-cum-industrial protectionism of the 1880's to the rampant colonialism, navalism and imperialism of the Wilhelminian era encountered little opposition, and none at all from the dominant National-Liberal wing of middle-class liberalism.
