Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/807

Origin of the War oj 1914 603 1095. Arbitration Treaties between Nations. Within a dec- ade after the first Hague Conference more than one hundred and thirty treaties were, however, made between nations, tending toward maintaining peace by arbitration. International societies THE PEACE PALACE AT THE HAGUE, HOLLAND This magnificent building was inaugurated as a center for the peaceful settle- ment of international disputes, in August, 1913 just a year before the war broke out. Mr. Carnegie contributed $1,500,000 to pay for it and congresses were, moreover, steadily increasing in number, and there was a general recognition that peoples of different nations had innumerable common interests which they should help one another to promote. III. MATTERS OF DISPUTE; NATIONAL RIVALRIES 1096. Rivalries in Northern Africa. We have seen how the nations of Europe began in the latter part of the nineteenth cen- tury, as rivals for the world's trade, to seize colonies and trading posts in Africa and Asia, and, moreover, how they stood eying each other suspiciously as to which was to profit most from the