The sudden eruption of an eight-nation conflict across Europe caught the world by surprise.

Perhaps it shouldn't have, but over the past 50 years, Europe had seen increasing movement of people, goods, and capital across international borders to the benefit of all.

Now suddenly, the gates were closed. No one was more surprised than the

100,000 Americans caught in Europe during the crisis. They at once packed their bags and made

arrangements to go home, only to find that in Europe the U.S. dollar was suddenly worthless.

The American government had to ship gold bullion to Britain aboard the armored cruiser, Tennessee,

to provide emergency financial aid to help its citizens return.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Welcome to the history of the Concert of Europe

Last week on the history of the 20th century, the Great War began.

Before I get into the narrative of the opening moves in the war, I want to do some overview.

In the next two episodes after this one, I want to review the war plans of the major powers.

We've talked about these war plans to some degree already, but I want to review the war plans of the major powers. We've talked about these war plans

to some degree already, but I want to review them nation by nation because this will give us a yard

stick which we can use to measure how the actual war works out. Spoiler alert, not at all

the way it was supposed to. But first, this week, we will say farewell to the Concert of Europe

and ponder what brought it down and led to the Great War.

Again, in the form of a listicle, as we did back in episode 36,

the top ten reasons why the the concert of Europe fell.

Number 10.

This is a society that glorifies violence.

Western civilization in the early 20th century resembles our own in so many ways. I sometimes

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