Since 1500, Europe had assumed an increasingly prominent position on the global stage, driven by its growing military capacity and the marvels of its Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. By 1900, Europeans, or people with European ancestry, largely controlled the world’s other peoples through their formal empires, their informal influence, or the weight of their numbers (see Map 20.1). That unique situation provided the foundation for Europeans’ pride, self-confidence, and sense of superiority. Few could have imagined that this “proud tower” of European dominance would lie shattered less than a half century later. The starting point in that unraveling was the First World War.