

The Britannica Year-Book 



PART I. GENERAL 



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SECTION I. POLITICS AND ECONOMICS: 



The political history of the world since 1909-10 is dealt with, so far as individual 

 countries are concerned, in Part II of the YEAR-BOOK. From what may be described 

 as the international point of view that of an observer of the world's general progress 

 rather than of the recorder of purely national domestic "events the salient aspects of 

 national history and Welt-politik ultimately form a single unit ; but for practical purposes 

 it is convenient in such a volume as this to deal under each country with its own political 

 history, and to isolate certain special aspects of events of international importance, 

 in which more than one nation is primarily involved or interested, for treatment apart. 

 This is therefore done in the present section of Part I of the YEAR-BOOK, the other 

 sections of which are devoted to the progress made in those general subjects which have 

 a life and interest of their own, irrespective of the nationality of those who are agents 

 in their continuous development for the benefit of humanity at large. 



More and more, as the world in all its parts is brought into closer touch, is an ade- 

 quate knowledge of international relations vital to the nations by themselves and their 

 individual citizens. The individual exertions of nations and their citizens are dominated 

 by international conditions in the world's organisation, : not only for war and peace as 

 positive ends, but also for purposes of political, social, financial, and commercial prog- 

 ress, which are directly affected by events, movements, and influences, originating 

 beyond the control of any one of them. 



During the period from 1910 to the end of 1912, it so happens, there have been, 

 in all the continents of the world, Europe,~Asia, America, and Africa, exceptionally 

 momentous political and territorial developments, . and even outside these continents 

 the boundaries of the sphere of knowledge have been enlarged in the untracked spaces 

 of the Antarctic by Amundsen's and Scott's achievements in reaching the South Pole. 

 Since 1911 China has started on a new career as a Republic, and there is no telling 

 what germinating consequences may follow from the change. In the middle East 

 the state of Persia has developed to a point at which the interests of the rest of the 

 world peremptorily demand some better system of orderly government. The Turkish 

 Empire, as the result of the Balkan War, is in convulsions; and in the Balkan Peninsula 

 itself new Powers have arisen, whose future relations with the international grouping 

 in Europe have still to be settled. That grouping with the Triple Alliance on one 

 side and the Triple Entente on the other has become more firmly: established as the 

 result of prolonged tension, mainly due to a continued assertion by Germany of her 

 military strength, and her naval ambitions. While the domestic politics of the United 

 Kingdom are passing through a stage of perplexing uncertainty and bitter conflict, 

 great advances have been made towards the organisation of the British Empire as a 



