Global Supremacy and Faith in Progress

The future seemed open and dynamic. The use of fossil fuels facilitated enormous gains in productivity. Industrial society reshaped the European centres; people and products were increasingly mobile, within Europe and globally. At the same time, Europe experienced the climax of its imperial power – never again would the continent reach the degree of global predominance that it held in the years before 1914. Yet the comprehensive changes also raised doubts. Progress itself, and a widespread faith in its value, went alongside criticism of materialism and environmental destruction, of inequality and oppression, of colonialism and violence. It its on this background that competition and intensifying nationalisms as well as diverse forms of cooperation across borders worked together to give shape to European relations before the First World War.