The Great Courses

Lecture 23: This lecture examines decisive changes in diplomatic patterns at the start of the 20th century, as new alignments emerged. We first consider how the colonial clash between France and Britain at Fashoda in Sudan was averted. Next, we trace how German naval expansion and colonial brinksmanship inadvertently produced ties between France, Russia, and Great Britain to resist German ambitions. We explore the reasons behind Germany’s zigzag diplomatic route into increasing isolation. Next, we examine telling trends of the period: the establishment of popular movements for peace at a time when Europe was arming on land and on the sea; Japan’s defeat of the Russian Empire in 1905, which stunned contemporaries and announced the advent of non-European powers; increased American presence in international venues; and a growing peril in the form of regional crises. Essential Reading: Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 168–95. Supplementary Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450–1919, pp. 103–48 and 236–79.

Lecture 24: This lecture, covering the years from 1900 to 1913—the very eve of the First World War—returns to the long-standing Eastern Question concerning the future of the Ottoman territories now that the Turkish realm was seen by contemporaries as being in terminal decline. The Eastern Question now reached a critical stage. We observe the growing tension in southeastern Europe, fueled by the flaring up of local Balkan nationalisms, the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 (which seemed to take Europe to the brink of war), Great Power rivalries and colonial disputes, and then the sudden outbreak of the two Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Essential Reading: Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 195–200. Supplementary Reading: Mark Mazower, The Balkans: A Short History.

Lecture 25: This lecture examines the causes of the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914. This classic case of escalation is the object of one of the biggest debates in modern history, responsible for a voluminous amount of scholarship. We examine how it was that European diplomats and statesmen brought the continent to the brink of and then plunged it into an ever-widening war. We analyze in turn the main competing explanations for this route into catastrophe, weighing long-term and short-term causes, the role of intention versus accident, and the crucial question of contemporary expectations. Finally, we trace how scholarly debate has evolved and explore the current state of that debate. Essential Reading: Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 200–17. Supplementary Reading: James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, 2nd ed.

Lecture 16: This lecture covers the period from 1848 to 1870 and examines two surprises in the realm of diplomacy: extensive revolutions in 1848 that did not produce war (as had been the case after the French Revolution), and a new Napoleon who rose to power. Initially, a profound challenge to the conservative order established at the Congress of Vienna came with the series of revolutions that broke out across the continent in 1848—the “Springtime of Nations.” A testament to the growing importance of Nationalism and liberal ideas, the revolutions were nonetheless put down and general war avoided. In the wake of the revolution, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France as the emperor Napoleon III. This enigmatic figure championed Nationalism and Liberalism and hatched diplomatic conspiracies to redraw the European map, yet those same intrigues led to his undoing in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Essential Reading: A. J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for the Mastery of Europe, 1848–1918, pp. 1–45. Supplementary Reading: Matthias Schulz, “A Balancing Act: Domestic Pressures and International Systemic Constraints in the Foreign Policies of the Great Powers, 1848–1851,” German History, 21.3 (2003), pp. 319–46.

Lecture 17: “Britannia rules the waves,” a patriotic song proclaimed. This lecture examines the trajectory of the British Empire over the course of the 19th century. During this period, Britain represented the largest empire the world has ever seen, extending to a quarter of the landmass of the globe. We examine the empire’s industrial and economic might as the “workshop of the world,” its liberal advocacy of international free trade and the abolition of slavery, and its fateful dominion over India. During the reign of Queen Victoria, noted statesmen including Palmerston, Gladstone, and Disraeli coped with imperial issues guided by distinctive visions of British identity and interests. Nonetheless, by the end of the century, Britain was challenged by relative decline. Essential Reading: Simon C. Smith, British Imperialism 1750–1970. Supplementary Reading: John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, “The Imperialism of Free Trade.” The Economic History Review, 6.1 (1953), pp. 1–15.

Lecture 18: The Crimean War of 1853–1856 has been called an unnecessary war, but it reflected deeper tensions and diplomatic problems in the European order. Arising out of the long-standing Eastern Question of the future of the Ottoman lands, this crisis pitted the Russian Empire against two other Great Powers in the West—Great Britain and France—which invaded Russia through the Black Sea. A crucial outcome of the war, which ended in a Russian defeat, was the battering of the Concert of Europe and its vision of conservative solidarity now that Great Powers had come to blows. While Russia withdrew to reform and reorganize, the earlier structures were weakened, setting the stage for dramatic changes. Essential Reading: A. J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for the Mastery of Europe, 1848–1918, pp. 46–98. Supplementary Reading: J. C. Hurewitz, “Ottoman Diplomacy and the European State System.” Middle East Journal 15 (1961), pp. 141–52. Alexis Troubetzkoy, A Brief History of the Crimean War.

Lecture 11: We turn next to examine a crucial period of upheaval: the era of the American and French Revolutions. Historians describe this period as pivotal in the transformation of European politics. New ideological energies of nationalism and mass politics were unleashed on Europe. The French Revolution of 1789, announcing liberty, fraternity, and equality, also touched off a quarter-century of war in Europe, which redrew the diplomatic map and reordered politics. We observe the dramatic collision of traditional regimes with dynamic revolutionary forces and see how the ultimate diplomatic survivor, French Foreign Minister Talleyrand, managed to profit by the chaos as an insincere servant of successive regimes. Essential Reading: Paul Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848, pp. 1–230. Supplementary Reading: Michael Hochedlinger, “Who’s Afraid of the French Revolution?: Austrian Foreign Policy and the European Crisis 1787–1797,” German History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2003), pp. 293–318.

Lecture 12: Napoleon Bonaparte made himself the master of revolutionary France, and his military genius allowed him to reorder the European map and to abolish the ancient Holy Roman Empire. A series of coalitions of other European powers sought to contain his bid for hegemony in the form of a Grand Empire. This lecture follows the emperor Napoleon’s remarkable career to his ultimate defeat in 1815. Bestriding the European mainland, Napoleon established both his Grand Empire and a system of allied states linked in the Continental System. At the same time, guerrilla war in Spain portended trouble for Napoleon’s new order. His invasion of Russia in 1812 turned to disaster, and in the wake of his retreat from the snowy wastes, a new coalition, the Grand Alliance, finally coalesced to defeat him and force him into exile. In a brief but dramatic return, Napoleon rallied French forces for a last stand at Waterloo. Essential Reading: Ludwig Dehio, The Precarious Balance: Four Centuries of European Power Struggle, pp. 132–80. Supplementary Reading: Paul Johnson, Napoleon.

Lecture 13: As our course turns to examine the period of Europe’s classical balance of power (1815–1914), we begin by exploring the drama and significance of the pivotal international Congress of Vienna in 1815, presided over by the brilliant Prince von Metternich of Austria (called “The Coachman of Europe” for his diplomatic ability). Amid balls and festivities, the Congress gathered the powers that had triumphed over Napoleon (joined by the restored French kingdom) to construct an order founded on conservative solidarity and the values of legitimacy and opposition to revolution; this so-called Concert of Europe would enjoy remarkable success over the next decades. In fact, general war in Europe was avoided for nearly a century after its establishment. At the same time, subtle diplomacy by the French diplomat Talleyrand achieved unexpected gains for defeated France. Essential Reading: Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 78–102. Supplementary Reading: Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity, 1812–1822.

Lecture 14: This lecture focuses on the operation of the Concert of Europe system constructed at the Congress of Vienna. It covers the years from 1815 to 1848 and details the mystical, religious notion of a Holy Alliance as a conservative bloc within the Concert of Europe, which occasioned anxieties for Great Britain. We devote special attention to the periodic international congresses that convened under the auspices of the Concert of Europe system and their determined efforts to stamp out what they considered the dark and dangerous forces of nationalism and liberalism, practicing intervention wherever these were to be found. The repressive system was strained in the revolts of 1830—a prelude to greater revolutions to come. Essential Reading: René Albrecht-Carrié, A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna, pp. 1–29. Supplementary Reading: F. H. Hinsley, “The Concert of Europe,” in Diplomacy in Modern European History, Laurence W. Martin, ed., pp. 43–57. Paul Schroeder, “Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?” in American Historical Review, 97 (June 1992), pp. 683–706.

Lecture 15: This lecture examines the fascinating problems posed by events and dynamics seemingly at the margins of the European arena from 1815 to 1848. As a result, we observe the expansion of the European state system. The famous Eastern Question (a precursor to the recent turmoil in the Middle East and the Balkans) concerned the ultimate fate of a once-mighty Ottoman Empire now apparently in decline and disintegration, receding slowly in the Balkans and provoking a crisis year in 1840. To the west, across the Atlantic, the United States opposed an extension of the balance of power system to the western hemisphere through the Monroe Doctrine. Our lecture concludes by examining the beginnings of a growing wave of European Imperialism overseas. Essential Reading: René Albrecht-Carrié, A Diplomatic History of Europe Since the Congress of Vienna, pp. 29–64. Supplementary Reading: A. L. Macfie, The Eastern Question 1774–1923, 2nd ed.

Lecture 9: In the period from 1648 to the 1770s, tremendous seismic political convulsions took place in northern and eastern Europe, bringing new dynamic players into the European state system as new factors in diplomatic calculation. We examine the “Baltic Question”: Which power or powers would dominate the commercially important Baltic Sea? Our lecture then surveys the rise and fall of Sweden as a great empire, led by the “Lion of the North,” Gustavus Adolphus, and then Charles XII. We trace the decline of the once mighty Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania and the linked phenomenon of the rise of Russia with an expansive imperial identity from the Great Northern War (1700–1721) under Tsar Peter “the Great” and later the formidable Empress Catherine “the Great”. Essential Reading: Ludwig Dehio, The Precarious Balance: Four Centuries of the European Power Struggle, pp. 93–131. Supplementary Reading: H. M. Scott, The Emergence of the Eastern Powers, 1756–1775.

Lecture 10: This lecture, which covers the period 1740–1795, explores how the paradoxes of the Age of Enlightenment affected international relations. Did new ideas produce a more rational and harmonious diplomatic order, as well as increased respect for human rights? On the one hand, thinkers of the Enlightenment crafted plans for a permanent international peace based on reason, tolerance, and international law, while at the same time, military and diplomatic competition achieved a new level of cut-throat intensity and cynicism. This was most evident in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), with Frederick “the Great” of Prussia attacking the Austria of Maria Theresa without provocation. This conflict was followed by a diplomatic revolution engineered by Maria Theresa and her ministers, the global Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), and the brutal carving up of an independent country, the partitions of Poland-Lithuania by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Ironically, precisely this period of rivalry also enshrined new patterns of diplomatic practice. Essential Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450–1919, pp. 41–102 and 163–74. Supplementary Reading: Gerhard Ritter, Frederick the Great.

Lecture 8: In this lecture, spanning 1648 to 1740, we survey the development and diplomatic interaction of the other Great Powers of the day, having examined French superpower in the previous lecture. First we focus on the evolving profession of the diplomat. Next we consider in turn the Dutch Republic and its Golden Age of commerce; Great Britain and its rise to naval supremacy; Austria and the new power base the resilient Habsburgs constructed for themselves in Europe’s southeast (in battle against the Ottoman Empire); the spirited smaller German kingdom of Prussia, a military prodigy; and finally the decline of once-mighty Spain. In the process, we also trace the distinctive styles and approaches of each of these states to the dangerous international scene of the time. Essential Reading: Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, pp. 73–139. Supplementary Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450-1919, pp. 41–102 and 163–174.

Lecture 7: Displacing earlier Spanish primacy, the kingdom of France now took on the role of the strongest European power, in turn worrying neighboring kingdoms, who seized on coalition diplomacy to contain French power. This lecture covers the period from 1648 to the death of the preeminent figure of the age, “the Sun King,” Louis XIV, in 1715. We examine the vast claims of absolutism as an ideology of royal power in the Baroque age. We consider the skilled diplomatic maneuverings of the successor to Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin and survey the endless wars of Louis XIV in search of glory for himself and his realms. Finally, we study how coalitions of powers, led by Britain, sought to hem in France in order to assert a European balance of power, ratified in the important 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, the second of the great peace conferences of the age. Essential Reading: Ludwig Dehio, The Precarious Balance: Four Centuries of the European Power Struggle, pp. 65–90. Supplementary Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450–1919, pp. 154–63.

Lecture 6: The pivotal 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, closing the ordeal of the Thirty Years’ War, is the first of the great diplomatic peace conferences of modern times, negotiated in two cities in western Germany. One of its results was the creation of the European system of sovereign states asserting their independent status, overthrowing earlier ideals and claims of universal authority. A practical outcome of the new realities was also the rise of France as a superpower, displacing Spain’s preeminent status in Europe by the 1659 Peace of the Pyrenees. In the realm of ideas, important new concepts of international law set out to codify the new power politics, establishing a legacy that lasts down to our own times. Essential Reading: Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History, pp. 502–19. Supplementary Reading: Treaty of Westphalia online at www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm.

Lecture 5: The trauma of the Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648 was profound. Intertwining explosive elements of religion and politics, the conflict (touched off by a diplomatic incident in Bohemia) raged for a generation across the center of Europe, devastating and depopulating many German lands. When it seemed that the Holy Roman Emperor might establish durable power, the war was internationalized and drew in even more major European powers, with intervention by Denmark, Sweden, and France. Even as the war raged, ongoing diplomatic negotiations changed its character, and political imperatives soon displaced original religious loyalties. The result of this devastation was ultimately exhaustion, which would produce an epochal change in how international politics was understood and practiced. Essential Reading: Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, pp. 31–72 Supplementary Reading: Stephen J. Lee, The Thirty Years War.

Lecture 4: This lecture examines the period of 1500–1618, and the battle to rule the European continent that started to shape the modern European state system and its diplomacy. Key features of this contest were the intense rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty of Austria and Spain and the Valois royal family of France, as well as the challenge of the Protestant Reformation. We examine the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his bid for universal empire under the Habsburgs, which was ultimately frustrated by converging factors, internal and external. King Philip II of Spain renewed the bid for supremacy, but likewise failed. The French kingdom itself also underwent a crisis and then a remarkable renewal, setting itself on a new path, with the talented Cardinal Richelieu as chief minister and diplomatic architect of shocking alliances. Essential Reading: Ludwig Dehio, The Precarious Balance: Four Centuries of the European Power Struggle, pp. 19–42. Supplementary Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450–1919, pp. 149–54.

Lecture 3: The sparkling city-states of Renaissance Italy saw not only a rebirth of culture and the arts but also pioneered patterns of modern diplomacy that were of lasting significance down to our times, including representation by resident ambassadors. The complicated rivalries between Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States, and Naples produced a key example of the balance of power until the disaster of 1494, when invasions by other outside powers battered the Italian system. The controversial political teachings of diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli sought to restore what had been lost, and in the process paradoxically broke with earlier doctrines of international politics and morality. Essential Reading: Machiavelli, The Prince. Supplementary Reading: Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy. Maurizio Viroli, Niccolò’s Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli.

Lecture 2: With this lecture, we set the historical stage of early modern Europe in 1500. Europeans were on the move, encountering a wider world. These encounters took the form of trade and diplomacy, clashes with the brilliant and expanding Ottoman Empire in the south and east, and voyages of exploration to the distant Americas. In the political realm, change came in the form of “New Monarchies” establishing more efficient centralized kingdoms in France, Spain, and England and challenging older authority, especially in the form of the venerable, centuries-old Holy Roman Empire, with its claims to universal rule. We also chart the changing fortunes of important states in the east: Hungary, Poland-Lithuania, and far-off Muscovy. We outline the embryonic state of diplomacy evolving between these competing states, blending older traditions with innovations. Essential Reading: M. S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy, pp. 1–40. Supplementary Reading: Jonathan Wright, The Ambassadors: From Ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe, The Men Who Introduced the World to Itself.

War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500–2000 36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture Taught by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius University of Tennessee Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania For much of the past five centuries, the history of the European continent has been a history of chaos, its civilization thrown into turmoil by ferocious wars or bitter religious conflicts—sometimes in combination—that have made and remade borders, created and eliminated entire nations, and left a legacy that is still influencing our world. Is there an explanation for this chaos that goes beyond the obvious: political ambition, religious intolerance, the pursuit of state power, or the fear of another state's aspirations? Can we discover a hidden logic that could possibly explain the Thirty Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, two World Wars, and other examples of national bloodletting? Is it possible to formulate a meaningful rationale against which to order a history as tumultuous as Europe's, gaining insights that enrich our understanding of Europe's past and future, and perhaps even of ours as well? In War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500–2000, Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius answers these questions and more as he offers everyone interested in the "why" of history a remarkable look into the evolution of the European continent and the modern state system. In 36 provocative lectures, he allows us to peer through the revealing lens of statecraft to show us its impact on war, peace, and power and how that impact may well be felt in the future—an approach that historians have been using for thousands of years. Lecture 1: This first lecture lays the essential groundwork for our exploration of European diplomatic history by introducing key concepts and debates in international history. We seek first of all definitions for important terms of the debate, such as “power,” “reason of state,” and the “balance of power.” Next, important debates are presented that will later recur in historically specific situations: primacy of foreign policy versus primacy of domestic policy, Realism versus Idealism as competing schools of thinking about diplomacy, and the question of who or what (leaders, elites, public opinion, ideologies, or other imperatives) steers states in the foreign policy choices they inevitably must make.

Lecture 21: Philip II’s son Alexander III (better known as Alexander the Great) would prove to be instrumental in ending the Greek and Persian wars. With a volcanic temper and an unquenchable yearning for what lay beyond his reach (pothos), Alexander was such a precocious warrior and commander that Philip II assigned him the command of troops in the Macedonian battle line. At age 20, Alexander was appointed regent of the kingdom during Philip II’s absence in Asia. After his father’s assassination, it took Alexander almost two years to secure his rule at home. Once home rule had been achieved, Alexander ferried his army across the Hellespont into Asia in the spring of 334 B.C. As the young warrior leapt ashore, he threw a spear into Asian soil—inaugurating the final great campaign against the Persians. After more than two centuries of confrontations between Persians and Greeks, the final contest between the East and West was at hand. Recommended Reading: Green, Alexander of Macedon. Renault, The Nature of Alexander.

Lecture 22: With the defeat of the Persians at the Granicus River, the way into Asia now lay open for Alexander and his forces. As Alexander moved south, most cities, including Sardis and Ephesus, opened their gates to him. At Miletus, quickly overrun by Alexander’s army, the priest at the oracular shrine of Apollo at Didyma sent word to Alexander that the sacred spring there, which had ceased to flow when the Persians destroyed the temple 150 years earlier, had bubbled up again at Alexander’s coming, predicting success for his mission. Continuing through Caria and Halicarnassus, Alexander eventually barred the Persians from every harbor on the western coast of Asia Minor. He then turned east and proceeded to Gordion, where he untied the legendary Gordian knot by slicing through it with his sword. Having fulfilled yet another local prophecy, it seemed apparent that Alexander would soon rule Asia. Recommended Reading: Andronikos, The Search for Alexander: An Exhibition. Wood, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: A Journey from Greece to Asia.

Lecture 23: As Alexander and his army marched through the highlands of central Asia Minor, Darius III began to realize that the Macedonian king represented what the Persians had always dreaded: an invader who could strike all the way into the heart of the Persian Empire. Passing through the Cilician Gates, Alexander tarried at Tarsus, then moved on to Issos, where he finally confronted the Persian king and emerged victorious. Instead of pursing the retreating Darius, Alexander consolidated his rule in the Levant and began a campaign in Egypt. Inspired by the biblical story of Daniel, he proceeded toward the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and clashed with Darius at Gaugamela. It was on this plain that the Greek and Persian wars truly ended; Alexander’s victory won for him not just the territory around these two rivers but lands of the traditional Persian homeland to the south and east. Recommended Reading: Harper, The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. Heckel and Jones, Macedonian Warrior: Alexander’s Elite Infantryman.

Lecture 24: After the submission of Babylon and Susa, Alexander rode into the Persian heartland, then campaigned in the territories of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Iran. On returning to Babylon, he conducted two ceremonies that symbolized, after decades of conflict, the union of Greece and Persia: a massive intercultural wedding and a harmonious intercultural feast. Alexander, in the Persian manner, was now a Great King. He continued to depart from his role as conqueror on behalf of Greece—for example, he trained 30,000 Persian youths in the Macedonian way and called them his “Successors”—and his army mutinied. Shortly afterward, Alexander died, either from natural causes or from poisoning, and with him perished the short-lived political union of Persia and Greece. Cultural interactions between East and West, however, would endure for centuries and become a major force in shaping our modern, multicultural world. Recommended Reading: Bengtson, The Greeks and the Persians: From the Sixth to the Fourth Centuries. Farrokh, Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War.