Page:The voice of an oppressed people.pdf/57

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IN THE EUROPEAN CRISIS
45

a practical modus vivendi was introduced, the achievement of our political rights being hoped for by the new method of compromises.

7. The establishment of the Hohenzollern Empire and the growth of national chauvinism in Germany led the Germans of Austria to make common cause with their kinsmen in Germany, and Francis Joseph yielded to their pressure. Pangermanism became a popular programme among the union of Austria and even Hungary with Germany. The "Lon von Rom" movement of the new century was nothing else than "Los Von Oesterreich" or "Los Von Habsburg,.' Bismarck, strong in his authority as the founder of united Germany, resisted the Pangerman extremists. His plan was to leave Austria-Hungary independent, but to use her for Germany and her programme. In reality, he heartily despised Austria, for he saw through her.

But Bismarck’s plans were not original. They were merely the continuation of older ideas and aims; it is only half true to say that he pushed Austria-Hungary towards the Balkans and the East. Austria was from the first the eastern Ostreich, Oesterreich) and has fostered plans of conquest ever since the days of Prince Eugene. The weakening of Turkey suggested this to the neighbouring victorious Empire. It was not only Bismarck who induced Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina; Radetzky and Cardinal Rauscher of Vienna formulated this programme long before Bismark. In the same way, when in 1848, at Frankfurt, the German nationalists were offering the German crown to the Hohenzollerns, Austria answered by the imperialistic programme of Prince Schwarzenberg and of Baron Bruck, who, following Friedrich List, devised the programme of Central Europe as it is now preached in Germany and Austria.

Bismack, it is true, gained Andrassy and the Magyars for his plans; but it was Dualism which unchained Magyar imperialism. Bismark was clever enough to use it as a