The Coming Storm summary

In 1871, the geopolitical landscape of Europe was shattered as a new Great Power entered the scene: Germany.  

Prussia, led by king Wilhelm I and chancellor Otto von Bismarck, had just bulldozed Napoleon III’s French forces in the Franco-Prussian war, and forced a surrender in a matter of weeks. The victors marched on Paris, seized the Palace of Versailles, and used the famous location to pronounce Wilhelm I emperor of the newly unified nation of Germany. 

Within just a few decades, Germany rose to become one of the world’s leading powers. There, it would join the ranks of existing Great Powers, each of which were on their own independent trajectories. 

Austria-Hungary, which had existed in some form or another for roughly 1200 years, was on the decline. It was ruled by deeply traditional elites who were slow to adapt, and it relied heavily on outdated methods of production. The empire also had major tensions with its neighbour Serbia, and with emergent nationalities within its borders. A Great Power in decay, Austria-Hungary increasingly relied on Germany, once a foe but now an ally, especially when it came to defending itself against Russia. 

Russia had expanded from northeast Europe into a formidable empire that stretched from Sweden to Korea, the Arctic to the borders of Afghanistan and Iran. They had suffered a shock defeat to Japan in their war of 1904-5, but none of the other Great Powers underestimated their importance. 

Russia’s ally in Europe was France, and they were both allied against a common foe – Germany. The French had lost a chunk of territory, Alsace-Lorraine, to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War and they were intent on having their revanche – revenge. From the 1890s onward, France and Russia had formed a defensive alliance, whereby an attack by Germany on one meant an attack on the other, and any mobilization of German forces meant an immediate mobilization of French and Russian troops in response.

That left one Great Power: Great Britain. Since defeating Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, Britain had risen to become the leading Great Power; the British Empire had expanded across the world, and the Royal Navy was by far the world’s strongest.

But Britain was facing increasing problems at home. The political discourse was increasingly focused around the notion that the golden age of the British Empire was over and that the nation was in decline. Inflammatory rhetoric pointed to British jobs being lost to immigrants, and to leaders having sold out their people by investing more abroad than at home.

Britain, like the rest of the European powers, was increasingly being governed by fear.