The key expansionary players up to 1815 had been Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Holland, Russia, and the Ottomans. Only two of all these “great powers” - the Russians and the Ottomans - survived this revolutionary moment relatively unscathed. Spain France and Portugal lost most of their Colonies Only Britain survived with its Colonial power intact and its world role huge extended. 1750 to 1815, can usefully be understood as the first global struggle for Colonial dominance.  The second 1914 to 1945 was to come.

The transformation from an ancient society towards an industrial urban capitalist world has nearly always been a revolutionary process which has torn society apart. The almost complete breakdown of societies in the multi-layered wars between the 1780s and 1815, and then from 1914 to 1945, reflect these long-term processes at work. At the end of both periods, not only was the world a very different place with many millions of people dead, but many of the necessary conditions towards the industrial urban capitalist world had also been established.

The twin historical forces of colonialism and capitalism ‘destroyed’ much of the ancient social, economic, ideological and political systems of the world and transformed it. Today we call this ‘progress’. Progress did not happen all at once, of course. People, states, and governments resisted over long periods, but in the end, most peoples were overwhelmed…