ABSTRACT
The political history of Eastern Europe between 1870 and 1918 falls neatly into two parts. For about a generation the system arising from the collapse of revolutionary hopes in the 1860s was consolidated and strengthened. Then, from the 1890s, as new social forces appeared, increasing signs of tension accompanied them until the whole region was thrust into a great war which shattered its political structure for ever, replacing the great empires by a pattern of small and mediumsized nation states, approximately as they are today. The events of this period, therefore, still retain their resonance. Why did such diverse social tensions resolve themselves in the issue of national selfdetermination, and was this outcome an adequate response to the problems they raised? These questions are perhaps almost too loaded for academic discussion, but they must be faced because so much historiographical discussion implicitly revolves around them.
