Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/175

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THE RIVALRY OF EMPIRES
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crats before the War, though we commonly think of the Junker as Prussian only. The peasantry of both countries was in a state of serfdom until a comparatively short time ago.

Fig. 29.—The surviving islands of Wendish (Slavonic) speech at Kottbus, encircled by the flowing tide of German speech.
Fig. 29.—The surviving islands of Wendish (Slavonic) speech at Kottbus, encircled by the flowing tide of German speech.

The two long limbs of territory thrust out by Prussia in north-easterly and south-easterly directions have a deep historical meaning for those who read history on the map, and it is history on the map which constitutes one of the great realities with which