Author: A J P Taylor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 638
ISBN/UPC (if available): 019565 6180
Description
This most enduring work shows how the changing balance of power determined the course of European history during the last age when Europe was the center of world history. The narrative is so vivid that the book is as much a work of literature as a contribution to historical scholarship.
The fall of Metternich in the revolutions which swept Europe in 1848 heralded an era of unprecedented nationalism, which culminated in the collapse of the Habsburg, Romanov, and Hohenzollern dynasties at the end of the First World War. In the intervening seventy years which are the subject of this book, the boundaries of Europe changed dramatically from those established at Vienna in 1815; Cavour championed the cause of the Risorgimento in Italy; Bismarck brought about the unification of Germany; while the great powers scrambled for a place in the sun in Africa.
In this, one of his most enduring works, A.J.P. Taylor shows how the changing balance of power determined the course of European history, during this, the last age when Europe was the center of world history. Throughout, Taylor's narrative is so vivid that the book is as much a work of literature as a contribution to historical scholarship.
Contents
LIST OF MAPS
INTRODUCTION : THE GREAT POWERS OF EUROPE
The Balance of Power
CHAPTER I : THE DIPLOMACY OF REVOLUTION, 1848
The System of Metternich
CHAPTER II : THE DIPLOMACY OF REACTION, 1849-50
The New realists
CHAPTER III : THE END OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE, 1952-3
1851 : Year of peace
CHAPTER IV : THE CRIMEAN WAR, 1854-6
Buol's Policy
CHAPTER V : THE CONGRESS OF PARIS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, 1856-8
The Congress of Paris
CHAPTER VI : THE ITALIAN WAR AND THE DISRUPTION OF THE SETTLEMENT OF VIENNA, 1858-61
Napoleon III and Italy
CHAPTER VII : THE POLISH CRISIS, AND THE END OF THE FRANCO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE, 1861-3
Illusory Calm of 1861
CHAPTER VIII : BISMARCK'S WARS : THE DEFEAT OF AUSTRIA, 1864-6
European disunion
CHAPTER IX : THE ISOLATION OF FRANCE, 1866-70
Prussian annexations in Germany
CHAPTER X : THE END OF FRENCH PRIMACY, 1870-5
Lack of intent in war of 1870
CHAPTER XI : THE GREAT EASTERN CRISIS, 1875-8
The Powers and the Eastern question
CHAPTER XII : BISMARCK'S ALLIANCES, 1879-82
The generation of peace
CHAPTER XIII : THE BREAKDOWN OF 'THE LIBERAL ALLIANCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, 1882-5
French quiescence after 1877
CHAPTER XIV : THE TRIUMPH OF DIPLOMACY : THE BULGARIAN CRISIS, 1885-7
Union of Bulgaria and eastern Romania
CHAPTER XV : THE MAKING OF THE FRANCO-RUSSIAN ALLIANCE, 1888-94
Bismarck and William II
CHAPTER XVI : THE ABORTIVE CONTINENTAL LEAGUE, 1894-7
British isolation
CHAPTER XVII : THE ERA OF 'WORLD POLICY', 1897-1902
Bnlow and German policy
CHAPTER XVIII : THE LAST YEARS OF BRITISH ISOLATION : THE MAKING OF THE ANGLO-FRENCH ENTENTE, 1902-5
The Franco-Russian declaration on china (20 Mar, 1902)
CHAPTER XIX : THE FORMATION OF THE TRIPLE ENTENTE, 1905-9
German power in 1905
CHAPTER XX : THE YEARS OF ANGLO-GERMAN HOSTILITY, 1909-12
Shadow of general war
CHAPTER XXI : THE BALKAN WARS AND AFTER, 1912-14
Russia and the decline of Turkey
CHAPTER XXII : THE OUTBREAK OF WAR IN EUROPE, 1914
Grey and the Triple Entente
CHAPTER XXIII : THE DIPLOMACY OF WAR, 1914-18
The search for allies
Bibliography
Index