A School History of the Great War | Page 3

the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries the Dutch secured part of the possessions of Spain and
Portugal; and England obtained almost all of the French colonial
territories. In the eighteenth century the thirteen English colonies on the
Atlantic seaboard made good their independence; and in the nineteenth,
Spain lost all of her vast possessions in America. During the early
nineteenth century, Great Britain, in spite of the loss of the thirteen
colonies, was by far the most successful colonizing country, and her
possessions were to be found in Canada, India, the East and West
Indies, Australia, and Africa.
Leaders of other nations in Europe thought these colonies of Great
Britain were the cause of her wealth and prosperity. Naturally they too
tried to found colonies in those parts of the world not occupied by
Europeans. They hoped by this means to extend their power, to find
homes for their surplus population, and to obtain markets for their new
manufactured goods. Thus Africa was parceled out among France,
Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. The
islands of the Pacific were seized in the same manner. Proposals for a
partition of China were made by Germany, Russia, Japan, France, and
Great Britain; and if it had not been for the American demands for the
"open door of trade" and for the "territorial integrity" of China, that
nation probably would have shared the fate of Africa. The noteworthy
fact about this rivalry for colonies is that almost the entire world,

except China and Japan, came under the domination of Europeans and
their descendants.
Having noted a few general features of European history during the
nineteenth century, we shall now take up in turn each of the more
important countries.
GERMANY.--After the overthrow of Napoleon, a German
Confederation was formed. This comprised thirty-nine states which
were bound to each other by a very weak tie. The union was not so
strong even as that in our own country under the Articles of
Confederation. But there were two states in the German Confederation
which were far stronger than any of the others; these were Austria and
Prussia. Austria had been a great power in German and European
affairs for centuries; but her rulers were now incompetent and corrupt.
Prussia, on the other hand, was an upstart, whose strength lay in
universal military service. As the century progressed, the influence of
Prussia became greater; and the jealousy of Austria grew
proportionately. Bismarck, the Prussian prime minister, adopted a
policy of "blood and iron." By this he meant that Prussia would attain
the objects of her ambition by means of war. Under his guidance she
would intimidate or conquer the other German states and force them
into trade and commercial agreements, or annex their territory to that of
Prussia.
Bismarck looked for success only to the army. With the king back of
him, he defied the people's representatives, ignored the Prussian
constitution, and purposely picked quarrels with his neighbors. In 1866,
in a brief war of seven weeks, Austria was hopelessly defeated and
forced to retire from the German Confederation. In 1870, when he felt
sure of his military preparations, Bismarck altered a telegram and thus
brought on a war with France. The Franco-Prussian War lasted only a
few months; but in that time the French were thoroughly defeated.
Many important results followed the war: (1) The German states,
influenced by the patriotic excitement of a successful war, founded the
German Empire, with Prussia in the leading position, and the Prussian
king as German emperor or "Kaiser." (2) A huge indemnity of one

billion dollars was exacted by Prussia from France, and this money,
deposited in the German banks and loaned to individuals, played a
large part in expanding the manufactures and commerce of Germany.
(3) Prussia took away from France, against the wishes of the
inhabitants, the provinces called Alsace-Lorraine. This "wrong done to
France," as President Wilson has said, "unsettled the peace of the world
for nearly fifty years." (4) The French people carried through a
revolution and established a republic--for the third time in their
history--which has continued down to the present.
After 1870 Germany made remarkable material progress. By 1911 her
population had grown from 41,000,000 to 65,000,000. Her coal and
iron production in 1911 was eight times as much as in 1871. In wealth,
commerce, coal production, and textile industries, among European
countries, Germany was second only to Great Britain; while in the
production of iron and steel Germany had passed Great Britain and was
second only to the United States.
But this great industrial and commercial advance was not accompanied
with a corresponding liberality in government. The constitution of the
German Empire gave very large powers to the emperor, and very little
power to the representatives of the people. Prussia, the dominant