Excerpt from A History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe, Vol. 1 Although special questions and particular periods of diplomatic history have been carefully studied and ably discussed by historical writers, it is a noteworthy fact that no general history of European diplomacy exists in any language. A history of diplomacy properly includes not only an account of the progress of international intercourse, but an exposition of the motives by which it has been inspired and the results which it has accomplished. But even this state ment does not fully express the scope of such a history; for an intelligent discussion of the subject must include also a consideration of the genesis of the entire international sys tem and of its progress through the successive stages of its development. Thus regarded, it becomes apparent that the whole fabric of present international relations is the result of past diplomatic activity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.