The Hammer or the Anvil The 19th Century in Europe was a time of power-balancing, revolution, industrialization, and imperialism. The turn of the century marked the end of French continental domination and the beginning of longest period of European peace in history following the Congress of Vienna. Up until 1848, the delicate balance of European power was maintained from an international perspective, but in that year, domestic uprisings plagued much of continental Europe. Given Britain’s geographical isolation and the success of its early colonies (like Australia), it experienced general domestic and foreign tranquility, as well as economic success and worldwide naval supremacy. However, as the British Empire continued to expand, its domestic industrial infrastructure was almost altogether abandoned, causing its inevitable technological obsolescence by the last quarter of the century. The relative decline of British industry and global dominance began in the 1870s along with a shift in gross national investment from domestic markets to overseas, requiring British foreign policy to ensure the naval, military, and financial security of its empire through defensive build-up and diplomacy at the turn of the 20th Century; in response to Britain’s relatively weaker position, German policy became more aggressive in an effort to assert Germany’s new global power status and attract Great Britain to an Anglo-German alliance. Britain’s escape from the revolutionary fervor engulfing continental Europe in 1848 allowed them to focus their interest on economic expansion by colonizing unclaimed lands across the globe. During the economic hardship that precipitated the 1848 uprisings, British tranquility was achieved “at the expense of its colonies,” whose resources (like Australia’s gold) were used to help maintain the empires economic, and therefore domestic, stability.