Great Power

   States whose economic resources, military power, and diplomatic prestige make their policies and actions an inescapable concern of all states in an international system. The term was first adopted as an orthodox diplomatic concept in 1817, with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont and was elevated to common usage by the Prussian historian Leopold von Ranke in 1833. In the period between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, the Great Power club included Austria, Britain, France, Italy after 1861, the Ottoman Empire, Prussia - succeeded by the German Empire after 1871 - Russia, Japan after 1895, and the United States after 1865.

   See also <>; <>; <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Random House, 1987;

    Taylor, A.J.P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954.

   CARL CAVANAGH HODGE