As you probably know, Barbara Tuchman was awarded a Pulitzer prize for The Guns of August (1962). In a later work, The Proud Tower (1966), focused on European history in the two decades preceding WW1, she writes the following in chapter 5 (emphasis mine);
JOY, HOPE, SUSPICION—above all, astonishment—were the world’s prevailing emotions when it learned on August 29, 1898, that the young Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, had issued a call to the nations to join in a conference for the limitation of armaments. All the capitals were taken by surprise by what Le Temps called “this flash of lightning out of the North.” That the call should come from the mighty and *ever expanding power* whom the other nations feared and who was still regarded, despite its two hundred years of European veneer, as semi-barbaric, was cause for dazed wonderment liberally laced with distrust. *The pressure of Russian expansion had been felt from Alaska to India, from Turkey to Poland.* “The Czar with an olive branch,” it was said in Vienna, “that’s something new in history.” But his invitation touched a chord aching to respond. What expansion is she referring to? TIA, AG -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/635fa35e-02be-46ad-a0cd-95df4ede2f0a%40googlegroups.com.
