ABSTRACT
Both the domestic politics of most European countries and their relations to each other during the quarter-century preceding the First World War can be grouped into two periods, with a dividing line running roughly from 1900 to 1906. The first period largely continued the trends of the 1880s. Domestic policy was generally in the hands of individuals or political parties to the right of centre, although the development of mass political parties, special-interest groups and the nationalist leagues made governing in conservative fashion more difficult than it had been in previous decades. In foreign policy as well, overseas expansion remained a primary concern of the Great Powers, with the 1890s seeing the culmination of the scramble for Africa. Admittedly, the estrangement between Germany and Russia, and the signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, brought a new degree of movement to the relations of the Great Powers within Europe, but even there the ultimate consequences of this development remained unclear and the policy options emerging from these alliances were still flexible.
