This book advances a new theory of why nationalism emerged in the modern world. In particular it explains why nationalism and economic development are closely linked, and why warfare plays a crucial role in the spread of the nation-state system. It is based on qualitative and quantitative...

Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Changing strategies and global power in the long eighteenth century -- Eighteenth-century realities and historiographical approaches -- Administering the fiscal-military state : ordinary revenues : trusting in a consumers world -- Increasing...

Though written at different times, and in response to different occasions, the essays in this book aim to offer a convincing and coherent approach to the interpretation of the topic referred to in the title. The initial impetus for this long course of historical research came in 1976, with a...