> Germany was a semiperiphery in the 19th
> century -- lightly industrialized, but with a massive, efficient army.
A somewhat pedantic point, maybe, but surely one can't call the post-1879 German Empire "lightly industrialized?" Germany has massive deposits of iron and coal, and from 1860 to 1913 production of pig iron grew from 529,000 metric tons to over 19 million, placing Germany in second place behind the US and ahead of Britain. Germany was also second in steel production by the latter date, having surpassed France and Britain. Its merchant marine was third in size behind Britain and the US. Germany's total foreign trade was a close second to Britain's by 1913, and in some important categories, such as manufacturing exports to the industrialized world, she had long surpassed the British. (Stats drawn from William L. Langer (ed.), _An Encyclopedia of World History_. See also Hobsbawm, _Age of Empire_, 47)
btw, the date 1879 is important because that year marked the beginning of Germany's recovery from the depression of the 1870s, and the introduction of steep protective tariffs.
Jacob Conrad