Karl Polanyi begins his survey of Europe's nineteenth-century market system in The Great Transformation by highlighting what he believed was one of its most striking features “The nineteenth century produced a phenomenon unheard of in the annals of Western civilization,” he wrote, “namely, a hundred years' peace – 1815–1914.” Focusing on interstate conflict and, specifically, multilateral great power conflict, he noted that, apart from the Crimean War, England, France, Prussia, Austria, Italy, and Russia “were engaged in war among each other for altogether only eighteen months” (1944: 5).

Many scholars believe that nineteenth-century Europe was a relatively peaceful place. However, fourteen wars were fought in Europe during that time between and among Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Serbia. Twelve wars were fought by Britain, France, Russia, and Austria against foreign populations in Europe. During that period, European states also were involved in some fifty-eight wars outside Europe.

Nonetheless, some scholars characterize Europe at that time as “relatively peaceful” because no war was fought in Europe itself during the century comparable in size to the Napoleonic Wars or to World War I and World War II. But could not this be said of most centuries of European history? Others assume, erroneously, that European states were involved in fewer conflicts during that century than during the previous one. Quincey Wright, however, found that there were more conflicts involving European states (both domestic and international) in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth.