Page:Democratic Ideals and Reality (1919).djvu/182

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DEMOCRATIC IDEALS AND REALITY

the Turks, owing to the losses which she had experienced in the Crimean War, and therefore no irremediable breach ensued between her and Austria. But the Three-Kaiser Alliance could not last long after Austria had given notice of her Balkan ambitions by occupying the Slav Provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. Some uncomfortable years followed, during which German strength was mounting up, before Russia was convinced that the alternative before her was either an alliance with the French Republicans or the acceptance of a position of subordination to Germany like that to which Austria had been reduced.

So much in regard to the history of West and East Europe during the Victorian Age. There was, however, a contemporary history of the Not-Europe which we must now bring into our reckoning. The Naval warfare which culminated in the battle of Trafalgar had the effect of dividing the stream of the world's history into two separate currents for nearly a century. Britain enveloped Europe with her sea-power, but save in so far as it was necessary at times for her to intervene around the Eastern Mediterranean because of her