Time of Change. The period from 1750 to 1914 was truly revolutionary for Europe. First, the economic base was transformed by industrialism, which caused state societies to become predominantly urban for the first time in world history. Second, state power was based on possession of coal and iron and its production rather than agricultural production; and, therefore, power passed from France to England to Germany sequentially as the strongest European state from the beginning to the end of the era. Third, many European states became so strong militarily relative to non-European peoples that European empires were greatly expanded and large neo-European societies were created abroad. Fourth, the political map of Europe itself was radically transformed in central and eastern Europe (including Russia) from the mid 1700s to 1920 as small states of the same nationality were coalesced, and large antinational empires were broken down into smaller nation-states.

Physical Geography. In order...