Excerpt from The Campaign of in France and Belgium IT needs but little research to lead the fair-minded student to the conclusion that, behind the immediate causes Of the great war, there were others Of Old standing and wider pur port, combinations and divisions Of interest which, for many years, had brought upon the European family penalties only less heavy than those Of open conflict. Several times Of late, the same States had narrowly escaped this calamity; and, in the teeth Of a growing desire for settled peace, the preparations for war on land and sea were everywhere stead ily increased. These increases Of armament (as in the Anglo German naval rivalry, and the German and French return to three-years army service) were always dangerous, not only as direct threats, but, indirectly, as alterations Of the balance Of means to ends other than national defense, the most important Of which ends were the acquirement Of (1) foreign possessions, (2) Spheres Of special or exclusive eco nomic interest, (3) political predominance, either in Europe generally, or in particular areas. Every one of the Great, and several of the small, Powers had fished in these troubled waters; and there was not one Of them that could Show perfectly clean hands. Even Belgium, not so long since, was being held accountable for the heritage Of misrule in the Congo. There were no angelic States; all had dabbled in the imperial vices, from land-grabbing to diplomatic intrigue. Nevertheless, it may be said that there were many and not inconsiderable differences in the bias Of their policy, due, for the most part, neither to original sin, nor to abnormal virtue, but to historical and geographical circumstances for. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.