A Balance of military Power abroad and a preponderance of militarist policy at home were treacherous foundations for European peace. But they might have lasted long enough to dissociate European nationalism finally from war, but for two factors. The first and most important of the two was the failure of European democracy to assert its control over diplomacy with which, however, we have nothing directly to do here. The second was the failure of European diplomacy, largely owing to its undemocratic inspiration, so to further the growth Of nationalism in the Near East that it might expand and express itself otherwise than by war.