Examines the relationship of economic to military power as it affects the rise and fall of empires.

Includes index.

The rise of the western world -- The Habsburg bid for mastery, 1519-1659 -- Finance, geography, and the winning of wars, 1660-1815 -- Industrialization and the shifting global balances, 1815-1885 -- The coming of a bipolar world and the crisis of the "middle powers" : part one, 1885-1918 -- The coming of a bipolar world and the crisis of the "middle powers" : part two, 1919-1942 -- Stability and change in a bipolar world, 1943-1980 -- To the twenty-first century.