Keynes dedicates the beginning of the book, especially Chapters 2 and 3, to the important developments in Europe before World War I. Following the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), the remainder of the 19th century until 1914 was, relatively speaking, a peaceful time for the continent. Armed conflicts, such as the Crimean War (1853-1856)—in which Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire invaded Russia—were limited in scope compared to extensive conflicts like the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), which was one of the longest and most destructive in European history.

In 1871, Italy and Germany both completed their respective unifications. The establishment of the German state in Central Europe affected the balance of power in the region. On the one hand, Germany was late to jump on board of the European colonialist project abroad, for instance in Africa, where it controlled several colonies. On the other hand, Germany became an industrial powerhouse and challenged Britain’s imperial dominance. In this book, Keynes pays attention to the way Germany, surpassed other European countries like France. He examines economic data and population size in Germany as compared to other countries to do so.

World War I brought an end to the old-world order, in which the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires dominated global politics.