The forty years of Europe's world supremacy preceding World War I.
The territorial and political domination entailed by the new imperialism.
The economic and non-economic motives of imperialism, as well as the socialist critiques of those motives.
The decline of the Ottoman Empire and European concerns over both its decline and potential reform.
The division of Africa among the European countries, and the failure of international regulation in preventing conflicts among competing European powers.
European colonial rule in Asia, nationalist challenges to that rule, and finally, tensions between British and Russian interests in the region.
The imposition of the treaty system in China and Chinese resistance to imperialism from both west and Japan.
Japan's expansionist ambitions, which brought it into direct conflict with Russia.
The concerns raised by the Russians' defeat by the Japanese, and the implications of that experience for both colonizers and colonized peoples.
