The Great Illusion A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage

[2] The _Matin_ newspaper recently made a series of revelations, in which it was shown that the master of a French cod-fishing vessel had, for some trivial insubordinations, dis...

Relative failure of Hague Conferences and the cause--Public opinion the necessary motive force of national action--That opinion only stable if informed--"Friendship" between nat...

Diminishing factor of physical force--Though diminishing, physical force has always had an important rôle in human affairs--What is underlying principle, determining advantageou...

The shifting ground of pro-war arguments--The narrowing gulf between the material and moral ideals--The non-rational causes of war--False biological analogies--The real law of m...

Why aggression upon a State does not correspond to aggression upon an individual--Our changing conception of collective responsibility--Psychological progress in this connection...

Why twentieth-century methods must differ from eighteenth--The vagueness of our conceptions of statecraft--How Colonies are "owned"--Some little recognized facts--Why foreigners...

The confident dogmatism of militarist writers on this subject--The facts--The lessons of Spanish America--How conquest makes for the survival of the unfit--Spanish method and En...

These views founded on a gross and dangerous misconception--What a German victory could and could not accomplish--What an English victory could and could not accomplish--The opt...

The progress from cannibalism to Herbert Spencer--The disappearance of religious oppression by government--Disappearance of the duel--The Crusaders and the Holy Sepulchre--The w...

How Germany really expands--Where her real Colonies are--How she exploits without conquest--What is the difference between an army and a police force?--The policing of the world...

Why trade cannot be destroyed or captured by a military Power--What the processes of trade really are, and how a navy affects them--_Dreadnoughts_ and business--While _Dreadnoug...

The real balance-sheet of the Franco-German War--Disregard of Sir Robert Giffen's warning in interpreting the figures--What really happened in France and Germany during the deca...

Our present terminology of international politics an historical survival--Wherein modern conditions differ from ancient--The profound change effected by Division of Labor--The d...

brought more and more into the economic movement of the world; and with the establishment of factories, in which large capital has been sunk, banks, businesses, etc., the whole...

3. That, since as between the advanced peoples we are dealing with in this matter, one party is as able in the long run to pile up armaments as the other, we cannot get nearer t...

The fact that all these questions have to be answered in the negative, and that a negative answer seems to outrage common sense, shows how much our political axioms are in need...

Perhaps the commonest plea urged in objection to the case presented in the first part of this book is that the real motives of nations in going to war are not economic at all; t...

The general proposition embodied in this book--that the world has passed out of that stage of development in which it is possible for one civilized group to advance its well-bei...

Where can the Anglo-German rivalry of armaments end?--Why peace advocacy fails--Why it deserves to fail--The attitude of the peace advocate--The presumption that the prosperity...

Not the facts, but men's belief about facts, shapes their conduct--Solving a problem of two factors by ignoring one--The fatal outcome of such a method--The German Navy as a "lu...

The practical outcome--what should be our policy with reference to defence, why progress depends upon the improvement of public opinion and the best general methods of securing...

Diminishing factor of physical force--Though diminishing, physical force has always had an important rôle in human affairs--What is underlying principle, determining advantageou...

Why twentieth-century methods must differ from eighteenth--The vagueness of our conceptions of statecraft--How Colonies are "owned"--Some little-recognized facts--Why foreigners...

These views founded on a gross and dangerous misconception--What a German victory could and could not accomplish--What an English victory could and could not accomplish--The opt...

Why trade cannot be destroyed or captured by a military Power--What the processes of trade really are, and how a navy affects them--_Dreadnoughts_ and business--While _Dreadnoug...

The shifting ground of pro-war arguments--The narrowing gulf between the material and moral ideals--The non-rational causes of war--False biological analogies--The real law of m...

Where can the Anglo-German rivalry of armaments end?--Why peace advocacy fails--Why it deserves to fail--The attitude of the peace advocate--The presumption that the prosperity...

Our present terminology of international politics an historical survival--Wherein modern conditions differ from ancient--The profound change effected by Division of Labor--The d...

CHAPTER PAGE I. STATEMENT OF THE ECONOMIC CASE FOR WAR 3 II. THE AXIOMS OF MODERN STATECRAFT 14 III. THE GREAT ILLUSION 28 IV. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONFISCATION 50 V. FOREIGN TR...

I. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CASE FOR WAR 155 II. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CASE FOR PEACE 168 III. UNCHANGING HUMAN NATURE 198 IV. DO THE WARLIKE NATIONS INHERIT THE EARTH? 222 V. THE DIMINISH...

The confident dogmatism of militarist writers on this subject--The facts--The lessons of Spanish America--How conquest makes for the survival of the unfit--Spanish method and En...

The real balance-sheet of the Franco-German War--Disregard of Sir Robert Giffen's warning in interpreting the figures--What really happened in France and Germany during the deca...

Why aggression upon a State does not correspond to aggression upon an individual--Our changing conception of collective responsibility--Psychological progress in this connection...

Relative failure of Hague Conferences and the cause--Public opinion the necessary motive force of national action--That opinion only stable if informed--"Friendship" between nat...

How Germany really expands--Where her real Colonies are--How she exploits without conquest--What is the difference between an army and a police force?--The policing of the world...

Not the facts, but men's belief about facts, shapes their conduct--Solving a problem of two factors by ignoring one--The fatal outcome of such a method--The German Navy as a "lu...

The progress from cannibalism to Herbert Spencer--The disappearance of religious oppression by Government--Disappearance of the duel--The Crusaders and the Holy Sepulchre--The w...