The Political and Strategic History of the World - Volume III - Louis XIV to the Brink of World War I

Jul 30, 2026

Narrative history of global politics and state strategy from the consolidation of government authority through the late 19th century, culminating on the brink of World War I. Volume III follows the transformation of major powers and empires, contrasting constitutional Britain with the near-absolute authority of royal France. It highlights industrialization and technological change alongside shifting military and diplomatic sophistication, ending amid the shadow of total war.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages1179

Reading Time49 h 31 min

Introduction

Part I Europe

Chapter One France and Britain 1661 to 1702

Louis XIV and Colbert, 1661-1683

The Political and Strategic History of the World: From the Origins of Government to the Present V Volume III Louis XIV to the Brink of World War I A.D. 1661-1914 Conrad Black [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Copyright © Conrad M. Black, 2026 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the publisher except by reviewers who may quote brief passages in their reviews. Maps and illustrations are sourced from Wikipedia Commons unless otherwise indicated. Published by New English Review Press a subsidiary of World Encounter Institute PO Box 158397 Nashville, Tennessee 37215 & 27 Old Gloucester Street London, England, WC1N 3AX Cover Art and Design by Kendra Mallock ISBN: 978-1-966833-21-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2025949606 E-Book edition NEW ENGLISH REVIEW PRESS [newenglishreview.org](newenglishreview.org) [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) For my three non-family friends of longest standing, Brian Stewart, Peter White, and Dan Colson, dear companions in the best and worst of times for a total of more than 180 years. [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Introduction Volume II of this narrative ended at critical moments in French and British history. Chapter 23 closed with the death of Jules Cardinal Mazarin and the inheritance by the young (twenty-three years) Louis XIV of the position of great strength and influence that Richelieu and Mazarin had created for France and its king, whom Mazarin had personally tutored for nearly fifteen years. Chapter 25 and the volume closed with the return of Charles II, after the severe interlude of Cromwell’s Commonwealth. The two most advanced nations had bifurcated sharply between parliamentary government with a powerful but not absolute monarch (Great Britain) and the almost complete authority of the royalist state (France) . Continent by continent and region by region, this volume will bring the whole world up to the brink of World War I in 1914, and see the British Empire achieve immense power throughout the world. France had come through a prolonged and bloodied revolution and several less violent successive changes of government, and it will take its place at the forefront of the world’s democracies. Germans and the Italians will be united amongst themselves and great powers will arise in Russia and in North America. Industrialization will be the greatest revolution of all, and technological advances will astound the world: seventy-mile-per-hour railways, thirty-thousand-ton iron warships armed with immense guns and fifty-thousand-ton luxury liners proceeding across the Atlantic carrying thousands of passengers at twenty-seven knots; manned flight, the automobile, the telegraph, mass circulation newspapers, twenty-story buildings, and the assumption of some states of the obligation not only to educate all of the population to a point of literacy, but also to provide medical care and pensions for them. There would be astonishing advances in almost every field, and yet, this volume will end in the somber shadows of approaching total world war. The technological advances will outstrip political sophistication in this volume, despite many outstanding statesmen, including the Walpoles, Maria Theresa, Frederick and Catherine the Great, the William Pitts, Peel, Russell, Palmerston, Disraeli, Gladstone, Salisbury, Napoleon, the founders of the United States and the Latin American countries, Lincoln, Bismarck, Cavour, Theodore Roosevelt, and many others. And military sophistication, in the final Volume, will almost strangle mankind, but largely deliver it from the most horrible of governments, their barbarism, made more sinister by the what one of the greatest figures of both World Wars would describe as “the lights of perverted science”(Winston Churchill) . In this volume there emerges for a time a more sober and mature attitude toward the

FAQs

What time span does Volume III cover?

Volume III covers Louis XIV’s era up to the brink of World War I, spanning the period from 1661 through 1914.

How does the volume frame the difference between Britain and France?

It contrasts Britain’s parliamentary government with a powerful but not absolute monarch against France’s royalist state with almost complete authority of the crown.

What major theme is emphasized alongside political change?

Industrialization and technological advances are highlighted as major revolutions that outpace political sophistication, reshaping society and warfare.

Jul 30, 2026

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