ABSTRACT
There were three more significant changes in international relations occurring in the age of revolution. One was the decline of maritime warfare and colonial competition among the Atlantic nations: still vigorous in the 1780s, it was won, decisively, by Great Britain in the following two decades. A second was the change in the nature of warfare brought about by the French Revolution and perfected by Napoleon: the mass conscript armies, whose common soldiers could fight on their own initiative; the order of battle in columns, instead of rows; and the emphasis on mobility. The third and most significant change in diplomacy was in its guiding principle. The post-1850 disturbances remained on the margins of Europe. For most of the continent in this age of progress, the constant impetus to social upheaval characteristic of the age of revolution would diminish and politics would lose something of its bitter and violent edge.
