從1789年到1914年的“漫長的十九世紀”經歷了激烈的社會、政治和經濟變革，首先拉開序幕的是工業革命、法國大革命和拿破侖戰爭，隨後是歐洲政治版圖在1815年的維也納會議上的重新劃分，民族主義的興起、俄羅斯帝國和大英帝國鼎盛時期的到來，同時伴隨着奧斯曼帝國的衰落。最後，德意志帝國和奧匈帝國的崛起引發了一係列事件並在1914年第一次世界大戰爆發之時到達最高潮。
The "long nineteenth century", from 1789 to 1914 sees the drastic social, political and economic changes initiated by the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and following the re-organization of the political map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the rise of Nationalism, the rise of the Russian Empire and the peak of the British Empire, paralleled by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the rise of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire initiated the course of events that culminated in the outbreak of World War I in 1914.