ABSTRACT
World politics is the science of government as practised in international relations, the influence of real or fancied interests in other than neighboring countries or those with which relations of reciprocal advantage are naturally maintained. When Europeans began to trade overseas, and established colonies and companies for exploiting newly discovered regions of the world, competition gave rise to friction that would not have existed in the European nations continuing to find sources of prosperity within the borders of their own political jurisdictions. European nations came more and more to vie with one another for exclusive political control of colonizing areas where white men could live. During the Napoleonic wars the British began to think of the advantages of a victorious peace in consolidating and adding to the empire that was being built up throughout the world. Thus, world politics influenced British naval and military activities, while continental European nations were devoting their undivided energies to keeping Napoleon in check.
