ABSTRACT
In terms of the European states system, the long nineteenth century, between the end of the Napoleonic era and the outbreak of the First World War may conveniently be divided into three periods. The forty years between the Congress of Vienna and the outbreak of the Crimean War constituted the longest period of peace between the great powers since the states system emerged. The creation of the German Empire in 1871 had repercussions throughout the whole European states system. The old German Confederation, for all its faults and its proven inability to satisfy or contain the demands of German nationalism, had been a stabilizing element in international terms. In the 1870s almost all of the other powers were prepared to accept the new order of things, or at least to reserve judgement on the new Empire. Only France was irreconcilable and vengeful: no French politician could accept the Treaty of Frankfort as the last word.
