ABSTRACT
In structural terms, the European balance of power system was composed of autonomous
units, competitive imperial states, co-existing in competition with one another on a global
scale. With the exception of the Ottoman Empire and Japan, they were Eurocentric units, rela-
tively homogenous, and with comparable political-economic structures, degrees of industrial-
ization, and a sense of differentiation from others (especially the Ottomans), constituting
what English school theorists described as European international society (Bull, 1977). Great
powers were considered and treated as relatively unitary actors, reciprocally recognizing, inter-
acting with, and differentiating themselves from each other.
