Sadowa - The Treaty of Prague - Germany after 1866

Chapter XI The Franco-Prussian War Birth of the German Empire and the French Republic Causes of Hostile Relations - Discontent in France - War with Prussia Declared - Self deception of the French - First Meeting of the Armies - The Stronghold of Metz - Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte - Napoleon III at Sedan - The Emperor a Captive; France a Republic - Bismarck Refuses Intervention - Fall of the Fortresses - Paris is Besieged - Defiant Spirit of the French - The Struggle Continued - Operations Before Paris - Fighting in the South - The War at an End

Chapter XII Bismarck and the German Empire Building the Bulwarks of the Twentieth Century Nation Bismarck as a Statesman - Uniting the German States - William I Crowned at Versailles - A Significant Decade - The Problem of Church Power - Progress of Socialism - William II and the Resignation of Bismarck - Old Age Insurance - Political and Industrial Conditions in Germany

Chapter XIII Gladstone as an Apostle of Reform Great Britain Becomes a World Power Gladstone and Disraeli - Gladstone's Famous Budget - A Suffrage Reform Bill - Disraeli's Reform Measure - Irish Church Disestablishment - An Irish Land Bill - Desperate State of Ireland - The Coercion Bill - War in Africa - Home Rule for Ireland

Chapter XIV The French Republic Struggles of a New Nation The Republic Organized - The Commune of Paris - Instability of the Government - Thiers Proclaimed President - Punishment of the Unsuccessful Generals - MacMahon a Royalist President - Bazaine's Sentence and Escape - Grevy, Gambetta and Boulanger - The Panama Canal Scandal - Despotism of the Army Leaders - The Dreyfus Case - Church and State - The Moroccan Controversy

Chapter XV Russia in the Field of War The Outcome of Slavic Ambition Siege of Sebastopol - Russia in Asia - The Russo-Japanese War -Port Arthur Taken - The Russian Fleet Defeated

Chapter XVI Great Britain and Her Colonies How England Became Mistress of the Seas Great Britain as a Colonizing Power - Colonies in the Pacific Region - Colonization in Africa - British Colonies in Africa - The Mahdi Rebellion in Egypt - Gordon at Khartoum - Suppression of the Mahdi Revolt - Colonization in Asia - The British in India - Colonies in America - Development of Canada - Progress in Canada

Chapter XVII

The Open Door in China and Japan
Development of World Power in the East
Warlike Invasions of China - Commodore Perry and His Treaty -
Japan's Rapid Progress - Origin of the China-Japan War - The
Position of Korea - Li Hung Chang and the Empress - How Japan
Began War - The Chinese and Japanese Fleets - The Battle of the
Yalu - Capture of Wei Hai Wei - Europe Invades China - The Boxer
Outbreak - Russian Designs on Manchuria - Japan Begins War on
Russia - The Armies Meet - China Becomes a Republic

Chapter XVIII Turkey and the Balkan States Checking the Dominion of the Turk in Europe The Story of Servia - Turkey in Europe - The Bulgarian Horrors - The Defense of Plevna - The Congress of Berlin - Hostile Sentiments in the Balkans - Incitement to War - Fighting Begins - The Advance on Adrianople - Servian and Greek victories - The Bulgarian Successes - Steps toward Peace - The War Resumed - Siege of Scutari - Treaty of Peace - War Between the Allies - The Final Settlement

Chapter XIX Methods in Modern Warfare Ancient and Modern Weapons - New Types of Weapons - The Iron-clad Warship - The Balloon in War - Tennyson's Foresight - Gunning for Airships - The Submarine - Under-water Warfare - The New Type of Battleship - Mobilization - The Waste of War

Chapter XX Canada's Part in the World War New Relations Toward the Empire - Military Preparations - The Great Camp at Valcartier - The Canadian Expeditionary Force - Political Effect of Canada's Action on Future of the Dominion

Chapter I. ALL EUROPE PLUNGED INTO WAR Dramatic Suddenness of the Outbreak - Trade and Commerce Paralyzed - Widespread Influences - Terrible Effects of War - The Tide of Destruction - Who Caused the Conflict? - Half Century to Pay Debts

At the opening of the final week of July, 1914, the whole world - with the exception of Mexico, in which the smouldering embers of the revolution still burned - was in a state of profound peace. The clattering hammers and whirling wheels of industry were everywhere to be heard; great ships furrowed the ocean waves, deep-laden with the world's products and carrying thousands of travelers bent on business or enjoyment. Countless trains of cars, drawn by smoke-belching locomotives, traversed the long leagues of iron rails, similarly laden with passengers engaged in peaceful errands and freight intended for peaceful purposes. All seemed at rest so far as national hostile sentiments were concerned. All was in motion so far as useful industries demanded service. Europe, America, Asia, and Africa alike had settled down as if to a long holiday from war, and the advocates of universal peace were jubilant over the progress of their cause, holding peace congresses and conferences at The Hague and elsewhere, fully satisfied that the last war had been fought and that arbitration boards would settle all future disputes among nations, however serious.

Such occasions occur at frequent intervals in nature, in which a deep calm, a profound peace, rests over land and sea. The winds are hushed, the waves at rest; only the needful processes of the universe are in action, while for the time the world forgets the chained demons of unrest and destruction. But too quickly the chains are loosened, the winds and waves set free; and the hostile forces of nature rush over earth and sea, spreading terror and devastation in their path. Such energies of hostility are not confined to the elements. They exist in human communities. They underlie the political conditions of the nations, and their outbreak is at times as sudden and unlooked-for as that of the winds and waves. Such was the state of political affairs in Europe at the date mentioned, apparently calm and restful, while below the surface hostile forces which had long been fomenting unseen were ready to burst forth and whelm the world.

DRAMATIC SUDDENNESS OF THE OUTBREAK

On the night of July 25th the people of the civilized world settled down to restful slumbers, with no dreams of the turmoil that was ready to burst forth. On the morning of the 26th they rose to learn that a great war had begun, a conflict the possible width and depth of which no man was yet able to foresee; and as day after day passed on, each day some new nation springing into the terrible arena until practically the whole of Europe was in arms and the Armageddon seemed at hand, the world stood amazed and astounded, wondering what hand had loosed so vast a catastrophe, what deep and secret causes lay below the ostensible causes of the war. The causes of this were largely unknown. As a panic at times affects a vast assemblage, with no one aware of its origin, so a wave of hostile sentiment may sweep over vast communities until the air is full of urgent demands for war with scarce a man knowing why.

What is already said only feebly outlines the state of consternation into which the world was cast in that fateful week in which the doors of the Temple of Janus, long closed, were suddenly thrown wide open and the terrible God of War marched forth, the whole earth trembling beneath his feet. It was the breaking of a mighty storm in a placid sky, the fall of a meteor which spreads terror and destruction on all sides, the explosion of a vast bomb in a great assemblage; it was everything that can be imagined of the sudden and overwhelming, of the amazing and incredible.

TRADE AND COMMERCE PARALYZED

For