Nineteenth Century Wars and Civilization's Hollow Boasts
There has not been a single year of peace since this century began. In the first fifteen years there was war all over Europe, extending to this continent. In the next ten years, Mexico, Central and South America were involved. In the next twenty-five years the great European powers carried on war in Africa and Asia, followed by the Crimean war and other wars in various countries in Europe. Since 1800, England has waged forty-nine wars, France thirty-six, Russia twenty-one, Austria twelve, and Prussia seven. All this does not include the numerous revolutionary movements and intestine struggles in both hemispheres or our own India wars and civil war, all of which caused great misery and loss of life. We may boast of our civilization and brag loudly of the moral progress of the nineteenth century; but the facts stated show all such boasts and brags to be—brags and boasts only.