>On a tangent. I just finished "To Rule The Waves" (a book about the history of the British Navy) and they touch on the "Pax Britannica" and "Pax Americana". The author claims that WW1 and WW2 were caused by the weaking of the British might and British Empire, ending the "Pax Britanica". German and Japan saw England was weaking and felt they could challenge them.

Fits with the explanation we were taught. Germany was late in the game of creating a nation state and then building a colonial empire. Even relatively small countries, like Belgium, Netherlands and Portugal have had great success in that. So when it (and the K&K empire) felt like it's time they took their share, they found an excuse. For WWII, Italy joined the club - it felt like an industrial power, and what they had in Africa (Ethiopia, AFAIR) didn't look like sufficient.

>Fortunately (used with some irony) the twilight of one pax was the dawn of another.

Fainting with bliss.