3Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
3Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815 The signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees did not, of course, bring to an end the rivalries of the European Great Powers, or their habit of settling these rivalries through war. But the century and a half of international struggle which occurred after 1660 was different, in some very important respects, from that which had taken place in the preceding hundred years; and, as such, these changes reflected a further stage in the evolution of international politics. The most significant feature of the Great Power scene after 1660 was the maturing of a genuinely multipolar system of European states, each one of which increasingly tended to make decisions about war and peace on the basis of “national interests” rather than for transnational, religious causes.
chapter: Chapter 3 . Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815