ABSTRACT
In the great and tragic history of Europe there is a turning-point that marks the defeat of the ideal of a world-order and the definite acceptance of international anarchy. That turning-point is the emergence of the sovereign state at the end of the fifteenth century. In the past empire over Europe sought by Spain, by Austria, and by France, where soldiers, politicians, and professors in Germany have sought and seeks to secure it for the Germany. Thus, not only in Europe but on the larger stage of the world the international rivalry pursues. But it is the same rivalry and it proceeds from the same cause: the mutual aggression and defence of beings living in a "state of nature". Without this historical background no special study of the events that led up to the present war is either just or intelligible. The history determines the feeling of every nation about itself and its neighbours about the past.
