Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE CHESSBOARD OF KINGS The First Great War which broke the Peace of Westphalia is the War of the Spanish Succession. Like the Second and the Third, which is devastating Europe today, it was waged by a coalition of Allies against a would-be Absolutist. It lasted from 1702-1713. The Allies were England, Holland, the Empire,, Prussia, and Hesse. Their common enemy was France, and the pacts which closed the war are known as the Peace of Utrecht. As in 1914, so in 1702 it is incorrect to say that war broke out. War had never been shut in. There was almost continuous fighting from 1648 to 1702. The War of the Spanish Succession was an end not a beginning to warfare. Similarly, some years hence, when the history of the Third Great War is written, it will be shown that the period of peace, 1871 to 1914, was full of miscellaneous fighting, especially in South-Eastern Europe, in which, though German arms were not engaged,German policy and German aims were very active. The Third Great War, like the First, was planned through a series of years in the mind of the responsible war-lord. And the analogy may be pressed more closely. The situation in Germany after 1871 and in France after 1648, when each had concluded an advantageous peace, had definite points of resemblance, which lie partly in the character of their rulers, and still more in the nature of their rule. In Germany Bismarck was supreme from 1862 to 1891, when he was replaced by Kaiser Wilhelm at the age of thirty-two. In France Mazarin was supreme from 1643 to 1661, when he was replaced by King Louis at the age of twenty-two. In forty years King Louis was confronted with a European coalition; it has taken the Kaiser little more than half that time. Louis XIV. was a greater man than Wilhelm II.; more competent, m... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.