The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

by Kennedy, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780679720195
• ISBN10: 0679720197
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-01-15
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.

Author Biography

Paul Kennedy is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Preparing for the Twenty-first Century and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. He serves on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals and has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and several other publications. Educated at Newcastle University and Oxford University, he is a former fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Maps	xi
Tables and Charts	xiii
Introduction	xv
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE PREINDUSTRIAL WORLD
The Rise of the Western World	3	(28)
Ming China	4	(5)
The Muslim World	9	(5)
Two Outsiders---Japan and Russia	14	(2)
The ``European Miracle''	16	(15)
The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519--1659	31	(42)
The Meaning and Chronology of the Struggle	32	(9)
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Habsburg Bloc	41	(14)
International Comparisons	55	(15)
War, Money, and the Nation-State	70	(3)
Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660--1815	73	(70)
The ``Financial Revolution''	76	(10)
Geopolitics	86	(14)
The Winning of Wars, 1660--1763	100	(15)
The Winning of Wars, 1763--1815	115	(28)
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE INDUSTRIAL ERA
Industrialization and the Shifting Global Balances, 1815--1885	143	(51)
The Eclipse of the Non-European World	147	(4)
Britain as Hegemon?	151	(7)
The ``Middle Powers''	158	(12)
The Crimean War and the Erosion of Russian Power	170	(8)
The United States and the Civil War	178	(4)
The Wars of German Unification	182	(9)
Conclusions	191	(3)
The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the ``Middle Powers'': Part One, 1885--1918	194	(81)
The Shifting Balance of World Forces	198	(4)
The Position of the Powers, 1885--1914	202	(47)
Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890--1914	249	(7)
Total War and the Power Balances, 1914--1918	256	(19)
The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the ``Middle Power'': Part Two, 1919--1942	275	(72)
The Postwar International Order	275	(16)
The Challengers	291	(29)
The Offstage Superpowers	320	(13)
The Unfolding Crisis, 1931--1942	333	(14)
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS TODAY AND TOMORROW
Stability and Change in a Bipolar World, 1943--1980	347	(91)
``The Proper Application of Overwhelming Force''	347	(10)
The New Strategic Landscape	357	(16)
The Cold War and the Third World	373	(22)
The Fissuring of the Bipolar World	395	(18)
The Changing Economic Balances, 1950 to 1980	413	(25)
To the Twenty-first Century	438	(98)
History and Speculation	438	(9)
China's Balancing Act	447	(11)
The Japanese Dilemma	458	(13)
The EEC---Potential and Problems	471	(17)
The Soviet Union and Its ``Contradictions''	488	(26)
The United States: The Problem of Number One in Relative Decline	514	(22)
Epilogue	536	(5)
Notes	541	(84)
Bibliography	625	(38)
Index	663