ABSTRACT
If the keynote of European diplomacy in the years 1850 to 1871 had been the confrontation of the Great Powers, leading to wars between them in 1853-56, 1859, 1866 and 1870 –71, circumstances would be quite different in the following two decades. Then, the diplomatic scene would be characterized by a freezing of Great Power confrontations in the European heartland, and a turning outwards of policy, ambitions and potential conflicts. This outward turn was focused on two quite different regions: one was in the Balkans, in south-eastern Europe, the latest version of the perennial Eastern Question, while the other was overseas, in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, in what has come to be known as the ‘new imperialism’. These three developments – the end to direct Great Power confrontations, the renewed saliency of the Eastern Question and the striking rise of overseas expansion – were the main features of international relations in Europe between the early 1870s and the mid-1890s.
