ABSTRACT
An extremely important period in contemporary international history is the time span leading to the onset of World War I. In many respects, this interval is puzzling. The nineteenth century was, for the most part, a time of relatively peaceful relations among the European powers. The European family of nations was seen as having reached a zenith of culture and scientific achievement; indeed the concept of a European civilization was widespread (Pradt 1800, de Vattel 1870). Nevertheless, a war of catastrophic dimension erupted, the consequences of which, of course, we are still experiencing at the present time. Thus, we have numerous studies of the nineteenth century itself as a time of relative tranquility (Gulick 1955, for example) and then, in stark contrast, studies of that time span in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the escalation leading to the violence took place. this contrast can be seen in one author alone, Langer (1929, 1966), in which the post-1871 period is treated in virtually complete isolation from the period beginning with the later Franco-Russian alliance.
