“The Cause of All Nations” adds more dimension to the fight against slavery. Aristocratic systems were threatened by democracy, and slavery was often touted as evidence of one class’ divine authority over another (Might makes Right). Democratic forces stand against slavery because you can’t have democracy and slavery at the same time after you declare “All men are created equal”. The 19th century was full of uprisings against aristocracy, rather than slavery per se. Many are unheard of because that’s the prerogative of the winners: writing history. Many of the suppressed came to fight for the North in the American Civil War just for the practice. Barbara Tuchman points out in “The Proud Tower” how the European countries in the later 19th century actually had the power to outlaw wars (which were then fought for profit/ransom), but decided to vote against peace as it would ruin their fledgling industrial economies. Perhaps the simpler answer is that Britain’s wealth and Imperial success allowed her popular voting bloc the luxury of time and education to stop and think about the things they were doing to other people.