WHO WILL RULE THE WORLD? British strategists of the Victorian era believed the "Eastern Question" would one day determine who ruled the world. In their quest for global dominion, they saw Russia as their chief rival. As David Fromkin put his aforementioned book A Peace to End All Peace: "Defeating Russian designs in Asia emerged as the obsessive goal of generations of British civilian and military officials. Their attempt to do so was, for them, 'the Great Game,' in which the stakes ran high. George Curzon, the future Viceroy of India, defined the stakes clearly: "Turkestan, Afghanistan, Transcaspia, Persia... they are the pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for the dominion of the world. Queen Victoria put it even more clearly: it was, she said, 'a question of Russian or British supremacy in the world.
