The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

(In Germany the imperial hierarchy included no less than twenty-two ruling dynasties, among them the royal houses of Bavaria and Saxony.)

(Edward indulged in various outdoor activities, such as racing, shooting, and romping with the wood nymphs—recruited for him by his faithful valet—in the bushes at Marienbad, where he took the waters every summer.

in August came the German baths season at Baden-Baden, Marienbad, Wiesbaden, and other fashionable resorts.

It was the decaying European dynastic system itself, and the whole philosophy and machinery of foreign relations linked to it, that made war inevitable, thereby dooming the social order based on the system.

Technological and sociological progress had rendered war too dangerous to be used as a means for achieving national objectives, but the rulers of nations had not yet realized it—half a century later, we are just beginning to grasp the idea—and their political imagination had not evolved techniques or concepts of diplomacy capable of settling major international problems without resort to war (neither has ours).

Revolution or the threat of revolution helped push the decaying European dynasties into war, and war, or the threat of war, touched off new revolutions in a deadly chain-reaction that is still continuing in our day.