
Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire

By 1400 a new Europe had been made: a loose confederacy of Christian states, with a common high culture, broadly similar social and political institutions, and a developed inter-regional economy.
John Darwin • After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000
the rise of Germany must be a principal explanation for the war. The modern country that the great Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck created in the second half of the nineteenth century out of what had been literally hundreds of states and principalities became strong and ambitious, inclined to risk and aggression in the less judicious hands of
... See moreRichard Haass • The World
After the First World War, the newly established Weimar Republic was impoverished by inflation and economic crises and considered itself abused by the punitive provisions included in the postwar Treaty of Versailles. Under Hitler after 1933, Germany sought to impose its totalitarianism on all of Europe. In short, throughout the first half of the tw
... See moreHenry Kissinger • Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy
By then, Germany was in control of most of continental Europe. It would take more than three years, but ultimately the full participation of the United States, by then a great economic and military power—alongside Britain, Russia, and others in…
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